this is bbc news, the headlines: the us senate has over—ridden donald trump's presidential veto for the first time, just weeks before he leaves office. the republican—controlled senate voted overwhelmingly to approve a defence bill mr trump had blocked. the legislation restricts his powers as commander—in—chief, and is seen as a rebuke to the president. the united states has now recorded more than 20 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 affects more of the under—20s.

now on bbc news, robert chelsea was hit by a drunk driver, sustaining third—degree burns on over half of his body. in 2019, he became the first african american recipient of a full—face transplant. just an average person in just an average person in the just an average person in the world is rear—ended by a drunk driver. we get to leave now or we both drive. they described exactly what happened with the accident and then i wasjust in shock. he was burned to over 7596 shock. he was burned to over 75% of his body. shock. he was burned to over 7596 of his body. he was almost unrecognisable. when they 68—year—old robert chelsea is the first african—american and the first african—american and the oldest person to receive a full face transplant surgery.

feeling all right? s what we didn't really realise what is what we were up against. facial transplantation has a lot of risks. squeeze, relax. he is not just risks. squeeze, relax. he is notjust going to have this procedure and everything is going to be smooth sailing. african—american patients that suffer from major deformities realise there is an option for them.

got a phone call and it says oh, we have your dad. wejust got into the car and rushed over there. they described exactly what happened with the accident and then i was just in shock. yeah.

0ne one thing 0ne thingi one thing i like about my dad is his love for the lord. i can really lea n is his love for the lord. i can really lean on that. the role of faith needs everything '5 to my godfather. we were thrilled and our prayers had been answered when he woke up, but what we didn't really realise is what we were up against. he was burned over 75% of his body, mostly upper body. he had lost his lips, a part of his nose, a part of his era. he was almost unrecognisable. my godfather has since been through upwards to 40 surgeries. if it were me or somebody else, we would dwell

oi'i somebody else, we would dwell on whether or not we were going to survive or dwell on how we would look. you know, he's the type of person who is always going to ask you how you're doing, even when he's sitting in pain.

we then had to wait almost two years before we received a donor. he said we're not going to accept the donor and i said what? let's talk about this. it was quite significant when you think about how he was

going to look afterwards. there is a serious lack of donors in the black community and minority communities as it relates to the need. my godfather had to be prepared, packed and ready to fly to boston from los angeles

the next morning. you had this whole accident and then now all of a sudden you have a whole facial transplant and go through a whole another situation. why are you doing it? good to see you, too, you look good. feeling all right?

i realise he's doing it for help purposes and now i'm like, 0k, help purposes and now i'm like, ok, i kind of see the benefits of it. so happy for you. the fundamental principle of facial transplant is we recovered organ and in our case it is face. then we package it and cool it down so that it doesn't require as much energy when it doesn't have blood flow and bring it to robert old scarred face is partially removed. some of the things are left behind, remaining structure of the nose, for example, remnants of lips that he had, and in the new base is essentially brought and gradually connected, the nurse “— and gradually connected, the nurse —— vessels, the nurse, the arteries, everything was up how you doing? good, i'll be

better at about 15 hours. could better at about 15 hours. could be 24, i don't know. so many logistical things that we have to figure out. thank you. laughs not going anywhere. will probably get the scalp all the way up here at mick, maybe a little bit back. in this case, the donor was in another state so it required a flying to recover him back. the deciding factor, how far we can travel and where the donor can be from is the time that we have between when the blood flows through the tissue to the time when it is re—established. facial transplantation has a lot of risks. the idea that make the ideal scenario is we come with the donor face and

robert would be on the table with everything ready to go so the vessels would be prepared, all the nerves would be prepared. all the structures are essentially ready to be connect it. welcome. we all know about disparities in health and health delivery and it's good that african—american patients that suffer from major racial deformities are aware that there is an option for them. he came out and believe it or not he was already moving. they we re he was already moving. they were already facial expressions. i really do see the same person. what looks really different is he has hair. it is funny because the

next day you see the hair growing. it was probably one of the most amazing experiences i've ever seen. a saw the picture, but to see for the first time it's like, shocking, overwhelmed, and i'd just started crying. and then i had to ease myself into it.

it's like you can close your eyes and say, oh, my dad looks like this that's great and has accident was like this and it made it look like this and as soon as made it look like this and as soon as you open made it look like this and as soon as you open your eyes you are like, where is your dad? he are like, where is your dad? he a different man. and that man, i don't know, i'd be like hey, how are you, make a regular conversation with him. morning, robert! .

your temperatures a little bit high, isn't it? it's not too high, isn't it? it's not too high but it is a low—grade temperature, 99.0. that's a lot for one day, too, right? 0ne day at a time.

all types of things are going on with this, he is a science experiment, and then all of a sudden you are wondering what is really wrong with him. is his face really worth it? ebony has just been amazing. both of her parents are ill, both are elderly, and she moves from one house to the other, splitting her week. having parents that are illand her week. having parents that are ill and being the only child is hard. but you have to know inside your heart, you are willing to sacrifice some of your life. they sacrificed for you, are you willing to sacrifice for them?

i met robert through his tragic car accident where i pulled him from the car. ironically, that particular night, i was finishing a job and i left particularly early that day. i took a different rout than are usually took and as i was coming over the offramp, either

literally thought a missal came across, i saw the explosion and the fire, pulled up to it and ran to the first vehicle. i noticed that it was fully engulfed in flames and i couldn't see anything inside so a rent of the other vehicle that was in front of it. saw the driver, passed out drunk. windows broken but i could smell the alcohol and he was snoring so he's 0k, smell the alcohol and he was snoring so he's ok, so went back to the other vehicle. that's when i saw robert chelsea, on fire, flailing around, screaming. i did pull him out, he fell on top of me stopping his it, what happened? i see you, a vehicle hit you. robert's first words to me were, how is the other driver? is he 0k? and i said, yes sir, he's fine. and i try to get them to move and he screamed because his skin was completely melted and i've said, we need

to leave now or we are both going to die. then as soon as they got to my truck, his fuel tank exploded stopping the vehicle popped up in the air, about six feet in the air. there were actually marks from his tires. pretty traumatic for robert. robert, you want to say grace? i have been blessed to have been introduced to robert. robert and i have become very, very close friends. i've explained this to you before, but your faith gives me tremendous strength.

the driver, he had three duis from what they understand and he was given four years in jail.

yeah, it was receding but you had here. it wasjoyful, i it was joyful, i was very happy, saw the people around and just finally, a accomplished getting my, even though i got late, i'd still succeeded stopping you can never be too old to finish getting your diploma. never be too old to finish getting your diplomalj never be too old to finish getting your diploma. i thought it

even today, a year later, easing and is still a process for me but i'm getting much better than i was before. robert's transplant surgery was over a year ago and due to the coronavirus restrictions on travel, we postponed his in—person visits for a number of months. a year out, i think robert is doing great. he is progressing well from the transplant standpoint. i think the biggest thing for him as adjusting his daily life to the new routine. the overarching problem that we are trying to avoid as rejection. every patient develops the rejection, the body is essentially trying to get rid of tissues that it

recognises as foreign. we need to open up the eyes a bit, that would be better, wouldn't it? there are things we could do, surgically, to make things better, but we don't have to stop everything kind of sagged down by gravity and the fact that the new face is not as strongly connected to the bone and they would have to open up the entire incision all around, so the entire incision all around, so all the way around your head, all the way down to the neck, and then we would have to lift things up, and suspend them. this is completely elective, so it doesn't have to happen next month or tomorrow. the nerves are reconnected but your brain is learning which

ones are supposed to be controlled by what, and trying to differentiate movements speech therapy would help stop you will still be getting better, in a matter of years you will be getting dramatically better. robert is a unique man. he is very spiritual, thoughtful, he really believes in god's plan for him. will keep chatting, all right?

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.

welcome to bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: the us senate over—rides donald trump's presidential veto for the first time, just weeks before he leaves office. more than 20 million coronavirus cases now recorded in the us. with over 350,000 deaths, the country has the highest numbers 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'. rescue teams in norway recover a body after wednesday's landslide — nine other people are missing. the rush to buy goods in cuba — price hikes