this is bbc news. i'm maryam moshiri with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. more than 20 million coronavirus cases now recorded in the us. with over 350,000 thousand deaths, the country has the highest figures in the world. scientists confirm the new variant of the coronavirus first identified in the uk is the "most serious change in the virus since the epidemic began". all primary schools in london are to remain closed for the start of term after a u—turn by the british government. the uk goes its own way as the brexit transition period ends and formal separation from the european union begins. and not so flash — the adobe internet plug—in for playing games is being discontinued after 2a years.

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 3900 people died of covid—19 in the us, a new daily record. in california, san diego public health officials confirmed three more cases of the new, more infectious strain of coronavirus discovered in the uk, bringing the total to four. they say this means

the new variant could be widespread there. dr craig spencer is a doctor at columbia university medical center in new york. he told me what he is seeing on the front—line. this is indeed a really grim milestone and it is reflective of how bad this pandemic has been in 2020, especially in the us. but i think it also portends how bad at least the first part of 2021 is going to be. i know we all want to usher in the new year with new hope, but at least here in the us, the next few months and really the next few weeks are going to be some of the darkest and most difficult of the pandemic. you work on the coronavirus front lines, don't you? you are there at the coal face. what is your experience? all throughout the us, has had these very experiences. new york city in march and april, we were just really hit over the head. we had so many cases, pouring in with sick patients every few minutes.

record numbers of people dying it seemed like every single day. then that spread all throughout the country but the problem is that now we have 125,000 people hospitalised around the us, which is again a record, and that number has been growing nearly daily since october. we also just don't have a lot of flexibility in our system. we have providers who are exhausted and a system trying to grapple with record numbers of cases and try to roll out a vaccine to health care workers at the same time. a lot is going on and it is hard for everyone to keep up, especially as the pandemic worsens. how worried are you about this new variant that has now come out in the us and obviously is causing a lot of issues here in the uk and in other countries as well? we have heard it's bad in multiple other countries and now we are hearing about it more here in the us and will likely hear about many more cases in the coming days. i'm concerned obviously

for all the reasons about tra nsmissibility and all the other reasons others have expressed that this new variant is concerning. from the us, i'm especially concerned because so much of the way we have responded has been set in partisan tones and we politicised much of the things that will protect us against the original as well the new variant. things like wearing masks and distancing, so much of that has become politcised that i'm worried that if we have a more transmissible strain circulating and we will still have some of the same difficulties getting people to really follow the simple public health measures we've been asking for for some time. but we have had some challenge getting acceptance on because they have been so politcised. do you think that the change in the presidency will make a difference or not then later in january? i think eventually it will for sure. but we are going to be having more days of record deaths and more days of record hospitalisations until then and even after then, and nothing can change in one minute so much of how we have responded over the past year. it's going to take time to turn

this ship around and it will certainly get better, but a new administration is going to need time and resources and will need all of those of things that have not been really in place over the past few months and the past year to respond and that will take time. every day and every delay unfortunately means more infections and more lives. of course, as we speak, the vaccine is being rolled out across the us. how much hope does that give you or do you think that is going to take time to have a proper impact? the vaccine is the way this pandemic ends for sure. unfortunately what we've seen here in the us is that despite record speed in development and the research behind this, the roll—out has been especially slow. we were told we would have 20 million people vaccinated by yesterday, and then it was 20 million doses delivered and now the reality is probably somewhere around 3 million doses actually given. around one ninth of what we were hoping for. this is unfortunate because we need this quickly. we have more doses that need

to get out and we need the logistics and the problem has been the last mile of this has not been funded. we have not focused on this as well as we focused on the science, and the next few weeks is really going to show because we are going to need to increase the scale and speed of this roll—out and all indications are that we are still going to face some significant bottlenecks. well, as we've heard, 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. it's now putting enormous stress on british hospitals. 0ur health correspondent dominic hughes reports. it might be a new year, but there's no let—up 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's spare capacity. that in itself is not

unheard of, but doctors say it shows the pressures they're 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 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 you want to, and you feel helpless when you know there's a sick patient in an ambulance that you just can't get into your 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've 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're in a very, very challenging place. 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 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've 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 a 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 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 that 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. covid—i9 vaccines are being rolled out around the world. almost 10 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 4.5 million people. meanwhile, many vaccination programmes in africa 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 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 disorgansied". drew armstrong of bloomberg news is compiling a vaccine tracker for the whole of the united states, and he explained what has gone wrong with the roll—out. 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 200,000-300,000 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 up closer to a usable temperature. that shelf life is not necessarily endangered while they're in deep freeze, at least not on the timelines 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. and 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? 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 health secretary, matt hancock, has said... 0ur education correspondent danjohnson has been giving us the details behind the move. well, this announcement dates back all the way to last year, but actually only two days, when the government said that from monday, primary schools in most of london and some of the surrounding areas — essex, kent — needed to close for two weeks, that primary school children wouldn't 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 ones. it was a bit of a patchwork that the government painted across the capital. and there wasn't even any sense between which areas had high virus rates and which weren't, so very quickly people were questioning how these decisions had been reached, why isn't there consistency across london. and the government has been challenged by council leaders, by london's mayor and this

evening it's announced a reversal, another u—turn. and from monday, all the primary schools across london will be closed for at least two weeks, and that is, as you said, to try and get the virus numbers down because the rates are high in these areas. so, for at least two weeks, that's more time that children are going to be spending learning at home, it means more parents are going to have to find childcare, potentially from monday morning, for a fortnight. and the opposition party, some of the teaching unions are saying this is another chaotic example of decision—making from the government, from the education secretary. 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. seeing none on this vote, the yeas are 81, the nays are 13. two thirds of the senators voting, a quorum being present, having voted in the affirmative, the bill on reconsideration is passed, the objections of the president of the united states 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. stay with us on bbc news. still to come, goodbye to the flash — after 24 years, no longer at the cutting edge. adobe discontinues the software. music. the most ambitious financial and political change ever attempted has got under way with the introduction of the euro. tomorrow in holland, we're going to use money we picked up in belgium today, and then we'll be in france, and again, it'll be the same money. it's just got to be the way to go. george harrison, the former beatle, is recovering in hospital after being stabbed at his oxfordshire home. a 33—year—old man from

liverpool is being interviewed by police on suspicion of attempted murder. i think it was good. just good? no, fantastic! that's better! bells toll. this is bbc news. the latest headlines — with more than 20 million cases recorded, the united states is the country hardest hit by the coronavirus. there have also been over 350,000 deaths. scientists have confirmed that the new variant of the coronavirus first identified in the uk is the "most serious change in the virus since the epidemic began".

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. 0n the first day of the seperation, there's been no reported disruption to freight across the channel between england and france. 0ur 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‘s in order. european truck drivers heading to the continent seemed sanguine about all

the extra hassle. i have the permission to go in england, yes. was that difficult or was that an extra...? no, no. has it been difficult for you today? no. it's ok. ilike england! good for you! traffic's 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 supplies. 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 of last year, but, of course, we've just gone through the transitional period. and now that's 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 customs facilities, but the largest is still not fully ready to open. fingers are being firmly crossed. what the government is trying to do is essentially buy itself more time in quite a few areas. we know they'll 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. rescuers in norway have found a body in the debris of homes swallowed up by a landslip near 0slo on wednesday. it's the first confirmed fatality. emergency workers managed to get into the crater on foot for the first time but nine people, including children, are still unaccounted for. vince soodin reports. it's a race against time. rescuers are accelerating the search for children, women and men hidden in a huge, dark crater filled with clay. but it's a high—risk operation, as the ground is still not safe and workers are surrounded by precarious clay walls. emergency workers have managed to get into the crater on foot for the first time. they have to carry styrofoam boards to spread their weight in areas where ground remains unstable. today, the first body was recovered. translation: we found one person.

unfortunately, they've been confirmed dead. we're working intensively to search the area, and it's a risky search. many are affected by this tragedy. there are people who have lost their houses, everything they own, and now, also family members. this father is one of those waiting for news. his girlfriend and 13—year—old daughter are missing. translation: i wish i could switch places with my daughter. she could be here, and i could be missing. it is unreal. i never thought this could happen. a giant army vehicle, called a paver, has been sent. it's equipped with a steel bridge on which rescuers can move along, but the ground is still too shaky for the 50—tonne machine to be deployed. a vigil was held for those missing on new year's eve. police have said the search will continue during the night. heavy rainfall is believed to have made the soil under the homes unstable.

there will now be questions as to why the construction was permitted in the first place. vince soodin, bbc news. police forces across england issued hundreds of fines last night on new year's eve for breaching coronavirus rules. several forces handed out the maximum penalty of £10,000 to organisers of large unauthorised events. breaches were also reported in wales, scotland and northern ireland. sarah campbell's report contains flashing images. the message to stay at home had been clear and unambiguous and some chose to ignore it as they welcomed in 2021. in edinburgh, a lone piper replaced the traditional street party and the fireworks were cancelled. but that didn't deter revellers who wanted to celebrate hogmanay together. in london, a midnight firework display was kept secret in the hope that people would stay away from the capital.

numbers were down, but flare—ups in tourist areas like piccadilly circus kept the police busy throughout the night. we've had sporadic gatherings of people who just won't take note of what's being said, and my colleagues have dealt with that very quickly last night. we didn't have large music events that we thought we would. the smaller gatherings were put out very quickly. elsewhere across the country, lancashire police described a party near blackburn attended by 80 youngsters as a "shocker" and fined the organiser £10,000. leicestershire police said 75 fixed penalty notices had been handed out, totalling almost £74,000. and in essex, three people were arrested at an unlicensed music event. dj equipment was seized and damage caused to the venue, a 500—year—old church. by morning, the parties were over and the streets were quiet once again — the hope that any flouting of covid regulations won't lead to any further increase in infections.

sarah campbell, bbc news. the once popular computer software adobe flash player, that was used to stream videos and play games online, has officially been discontinued by its maker after 24 years of service. at its height, the technology was installed on almost all computers, but it failed to transition to the smartphone era. our technology reporter chris fox says flash was very popular during the early days of the internet. it was certainly something i used to look at when i was at school. there were these... a website called new grounds, which is actually still going. but it was like the youtube of flash, and there were all these surreal strange cartoons. there was one called saladfingers, which was a gangly green man with long creaking fingers. kind of the weird kind of comedy that was all around at the beginning of the internet. but the transition to mobile was something it really struggled with. at the time, they were focusing on something called flashlight, which was a lighter version of it that could be used on feature phones back when we were all using

things like nokias. but it was very intensive on the battery, and obviously when you are using a mobile device, battery life is important. the full version of flash wasn't very good for the battery. and stevejobs in 2010 wrote an open letter called thoughts on flash, which was absolutely blistering on flash. he said he didn't want it on the iphone or the ipad because it was too intensive on the battery, it was a security risk and he also accused adobe of trying to make it a closed internet. a lot of people would say how it's turned out is that apple has done that, it's got its own closed ecosystem. but that letter was scathing on adobe flash, and it never made it onto the iphone. there's work to make an open source flash player called ruffle, which can do most of the things that flash used to do for animations. it can play the sounds and the cartoons and things like that. and the internet archive, which is known for that wayback machine, if you look up an old website and you want to find what it used to look like, they're trying to preserve some

flash animation. so they've got a collection of about 2000 flash animations, famous ones that went viral back in the early days of the internet. so there is a project to kind of still be able to play these animations, but a lot of things will be lost in this, which a lot of people think is a shame. now, 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, i gave you my heart. ..# 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. bye— bye. hello there. this cold weather isn't giving up anytime soon. it will stay for the weekend and most of next week. at least for the weekend there'll be quite a lot of sunshine around. mainly across western areas. it'll be cold and some further wintry showers, most of them across the eastern side of the country. the blue air mass indicates that cold air very much with us saturday. northerly winds pushing these showers into scotland, northern ireland and wales. plenty of them starting to go to the east coast of england. a few of them also pushing into the midlands. and there will be a covering of snow in places. but many places staying dry with the sunshine, though it will be cold. those showers start to spread a little bit further inland as we move through saturday night.

further sleet and snow in places. probably the clearest of the skies in western scotland and northern ireland, so here the coldest to start sunday. elsewhere, cold again but with a risk of ice from all the showers. as we head on into sunday, we see high—pressure in the north of the uk, lower pressure to the south and that'll start to drive in eastern and north easterly winds. some subtle changes for part two of the weekend. that will push most of the showers into eastern scotland and in eastern england and they will drive their way a little bit further west through the day and there will be some sleet and snow there, not just at higher ground. probably the best of the sun will be across sheltered western areas and it will be a cold day when you factor in the breeze. head on into monday, a similar set up, the breeze feeding in more clouds and showers to much of england and wales and could see rain and sleet across the south—east. further north, lighter winds for scotland and ireland, and quite a bit of sunshine around. we have the stronger winds for england and wales

particularly along the sea coast and it will feel pretty raw as these temperatures will struggle to get much above three to six degrees. it will feel colder than it suggests. and the blue colours are still with us as we head into next week and you guessed it, yes it is going to stay cold. it will be rather cloudy in places too. quite windy for a time and i think the winds could ease towards the end of the week, but by the end of the week, we could see rain, sleet and snow for some of us.

this is bbc news. the headlines:

the united states has now recorded more than twenty—million cases of covid—19, doubling the number in less than two months. johns hopkins university says nearly 350,000 americans have died with the virus. vaccination is continuing, with more than three million people said to have received jabs research confirms the new coronavirus variant discovered in the uk has a much quicker rate of transmission. scientists say the variant, now identified in 18 countries around the world, is the ‘most serious change in the virus since the epidemic began‘ — and appears to be affecting more of the under twenties. in a policy u—turn, the british government has announced that all primary schools in london will remain closed at the start of term. the city's mayor said the government had ‘finally seen sense'. schools in ten areas were due to open on monday after the christmas break. the uk's chief medical officers have defended the covid vaccination plan, after criticism from