this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. pressure grows to shut more schools. a teaching union demands a two week closures of all primaries and secondaries in england. a new warning over hospitals in parts of the uk. the president of the royal college of physicians says some are now facing a worse situation than at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic. india begins a nation—wide mock drill to test its preparedness for mass immunisation against covid—19. the us senate delivers a rebuke to donald trump in the final days of his presidency, over—riding his veto of a defence bill. and touching tributes on the 50th anniversary of the ibrox disaster, when 66 people were crushed to death leaving a football match between rangers and celtic in glasgow — one of scotland's worst peacetime tragedies.

hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world — and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. i'm shaun ley. the uk's largest teaching union is calling for all schools in england to close for two weeks, after the government ordered all primaries in london to remain shut when the new term begins. pupils in some boroughs in the capital were due to return on monday. the government says the city—wide closures were a "last resort" due to rising coronavirus infections. here's our education correspondent, dan johnson. keeping children in school has always been the priority, with closures and more home learning a last resort.

the government was forced to make that move, announcing on wednesday that primary schools in most parts of london and some other areas in the south—east couldn't have pupils back next week because of increasing case numbers. the london boroughs not included challenge that patchwork approach, questioning the criteria and pointing out that some children cross boroughs to go to school. last night the education secretary announced a change, which means all london's primary schools will now stay closed. the absolute right place for all children to be is in school, but we need to really focus on making schools safe and ensuring that we get a clear strategy in place to support our most disadvantaged children, whom we are extremely worried about that attainment gap which has grown massively for them, as this pandemic continues to rage. it's not the first decision the department for education has had to reverse, but ministers say they are responding to fast—moving situations and changing

local conditions. they stress the priority has always been to keep schools open where possible. but now more than a million primary school children face at least a fortnight learning from home. that means frustration for many parents and some teachers, too. it's completely unacceptable that we keep having these u—turns, these last—minute decisions, where parents don't know where they are, where teachers and school staff don't know where they are. the other thing i have to say is that we don't see this happening in northern ireland or wales or scotland, we don't see these u—turns, these furious reversals in policy. and that makes for a much calmer environment for both parents and educational professionals. the changes announced earlier this week in england mean secondary school pupils taking exams will go back on january 11th, all others will learn remotely until at least the 18th. most primary schools will still open as normal on monday, apart from those in the virus hotspots of london

and the south—east. they will stay closed to all but children of key workers and vulnerable families. in northern ireland, the return will be delayed by a week or more. online learning is planned for pupils in wales untiljanuary 11th, and in scotland classrooms will not fill up until at least the middle of the month. officials can't rule out more schools being disrupted, or these closures going beyond a fortnight. some are already calling for other schools to be included. the government says it will do all it can to keep children in the classroom. dan johnson, bbc news. tom prestwich is the headteacher of jubilee primary school in south london which had been due to open on monday and will now remain closed. he said although he welcomed the decision, the timing of it was frustrating. we appreciate it's a fast—moving situation. the government must be getting different health advice all the time, but schools do need to plan and, you know, we will be opening for quite a few pupils next week.

we'll need two rotas of staff — one to deliver to vulnerable pupils, pupils without decent internet access, pupils with sen needs, and another to deliver high quality online learning. well, all of that takes time and this decision could've been made two weeks ago. our political correspondent, helen catt, is with me now. welcome, good to see you. happy new year to you. not such a happy new year to you. not such a happy new yearfor year to you. not such a happy new year for all those involved in education and a real sense of frustration about the decision being reversed in such a short order. the actual decision to reverse it has been broadly welcomed by the mayor of london, various council leaders, but it is the timing. paul whiteman, saying the government is damaging public confidence with what it calls a confusing a last—minute approach. labour saying it was another government u—turn i was creating

chaos for parents. the government would say that they have always been clear that closing schools as a last resort, they will not do it until it is absolutely necessary because of the spread of the virus and the longer you want to keep things open, it becomes much more last—minute. it is the position, it is damaging for life chances in the education for children to be out of the classroom for long is a matter of time. the consequence of that you have short notice disruption for teachers and pa rents notice disruption for teachers and parents and everyone involved in schooling. is the explanation that government is offering, the evidence this change in particular, what we know about this new variant, the ease with which it appears to spread? our understanding is the situation has changed in london after the common has been talking to london authorities over the last 48 hours and that is different from where they were before christmas. the government was taking a hard line on

this. it was deploying legal action against greenwich. we talked about it here on the bbc news channel. forcing them to backtrack. this is a significant shift. they've been talking to london authorities to reach this decision in london. my understanding is the government is pretty keen to keep it to just london. it is unlikely or certainly does not want to follow the union pressure and extended across the country. i think it is likely to stick to its guns all that is the intention i think at this stage.|j guess we should not assume anything at this stage. helen, thank you very much. a number of hospitals are now facing a worse situation than at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic last year — that's according to the president of the royal college of physicians. professor andrew goddard says nhs staff are braced for a difficult few months as a result of the new variant of the virus. our health reporter jim reed has more. the pressure on hospitals in parts

of the country shows no sign of easing off. staff are tired, some wards are at the limit of their capacity. all hospitals that haven't had the big pressures that they've had in the south—east and london and south wales should expect that it's going to come their way. this new variant is definitely more infectious, and it's spreading across the whole of the country. it seems very likely that we're going to see more and more cases wherever people work in the uk, and we need to be prepared for that. another 53,285 virus cases were recorded across the uk yesterday. 616 people lost their lives to the virus. in london, the nightingale hospital is now being readied for action. it's thought it will soon start to take non—covid patients, or those recovering from the disease. vaccinations are seen as the way out of this crisis. a million doses of the pfizer—biontech jab have been delivered, but gps are being asked to postpone a second booster shot, giving it after three months rather

than three weeks, to roll it out more quickly. senior doctors say one dose is still effective, but for some, any delay to that booster is concerning. darren, a pharmacy technician, suffers from a serious breathing condition, and had his first vaccine dose on boxing day. it would be devastating, another three months, when you're so close, and you think, oh! you know, life... and if that's put off another three months, it's a huge impact. huge. the government says tens of millions of doses of at least two covid vaccines will be available by the spring. getting those to the people who need them most will be crucial as the nhs fights the winter wave of this pandemic. jim reed, bbc news. india has begun a nation—wide mock drill to test its preparedness for mass immunisation against covid—i9.

the drill is intended to plug any gaps in logistics, facilities and training. it also comes as the indian government says it has approved the oxford astrazeneca vaccine for emergency use. joining me now is our south asia editor, anbarasan ethirajan. thank you for coming on to talk to us thank you for coming on to talk to us again this saturday. how will this drill were? —— work. us again this saturday. how will this drill were? -- work. the government has employed tens of thousands of health care workers and front line staff to make sure that when the vaccine is rolled out, it is smoothly distributed cross the country and everyone gets the vaccine and there is no confusion. first and foremost, they have developed software so when they get the list of names that everyone is vaccinated and the data is uploaded so vaccinated and the data is uploaded so it does not crash, that is what

they want to check. they did a drill a couple of days ago but this is the first nationwide drill because they are planning to vaccinate around 300 million people. that is a massive exercise for a country like india, it involves hundreds of millions of dollars and they want to run the operation smoothly. the second thing is about misconceptions, the indian health minister said we also want to make sure there is no glitch, at the same time we want to remove any misconceptions about this vaccine because people might have some doubt. there is also a separate crew, the doctors will monitor those urban vacs and —— monitor those urban vacs and —— monitor those urban vaccinated for any side effects. it is a major challenge. that is a particularly crucial aspect of this, no point getting the vaccine to the place where it is going to be used if it cannot be stored for the length of time it is

needed until you can eject people. what about the question of supply? how well prepared is indian? how many doses does it have an order and this it is all concerned about the supply chain between the production facilities and india itself? india wants to use this 0xford astrazeneca vaccine because first of all it is cost—effective, it cost around $3, $4 a days. they can be keptin around $3, $4 a days. they can be kept ina around $3, $4 a days. they can be kept in a refrigerated condition, unlike the pfizer vaccine which needs a high amount of cold storage. india is one of the biggest vaccine producers, a partner of the oxford astrazeneca vaccine, the company says they have already produced around 50 million doses and they will increase the production 200 million by march. 0nce will increase the production 200 million by march. once the authority gives its final offer removal ——

final approval, that is expected in a couple of days. this factor is already in india, the transportation will not be a problem. this vaccine can be kept under refrigeration so that will make it easier for india to move them around. that is one of the reasons why they want to make sure that all the district headquarters, how to handle them, how to administer them. all these things will be addressed in the mock drill today. thank you very much. the us government's top infectious diseases expert, dr anthony fauci, has said he doesn't agree with british plans to delay giving second doses of the coronavirus vaccine from 21 days to 12 weeks. the uk has changed its strategy, to allow more people to get the first dose of coronavirus vaccine. it follows a rapid acceleration in the spread of the virus, caused by a much more infectious variant of the disease.

the us senate has over—ridden donald trump's presidential veto for the first time, just weeks before he leaves office. in a stinging rebuke, the republican—majority senate voted overwhelmingly to approve a defence bill that mr trump had blocked. senate republican leader mitch mcconnell said congress had passed the legislation 59 years in a row and one way or another, it would complete the 60th. paul hawkins reports. the famous pentagon, home to the us department of defense. its budget for the year, once passed by both houses of congress, is usually signed off by the president. at least that's what has happened for the past 59 years. but this year he vetoed it. so instead we had the rare sight of a new year's day session in congress, specifically the senate, controlled by president trump's republican party, voting to overturn his veto.

the bill on reconsideration is passed. the objections of the president of the united states to the contrary not withstanding. this was the first time congress had overturned a veto by president trump. it's a big deal. this is the first and probably last veto override that president trump will face. republicans have mostly avoided crossing trump for most of his term but this was a rare bipartisan rebuke, with republicans joining democrats. the president had refused to sign off the bill because of limits on troop withdrawals from abroad. and because it proposed to remove controversial confederate leaders' names from military bases. he also wanted the bill to repeal section 230 which protects social media companies from being legally responsible for what its users post. shortly after the vote, the president took to twitter, calling the republican senate

pathetic, saying... why is it important? because it pays the military‘s salaries, the salaries of our military personnel and civilians, included in here was a pay rise, it also covers the cost of running military installations and bases. practically every state has a base or a military installation, so you can see there's a lot of political support for this bill in the american society. for president trump this was an early test of redundancy. —— for president trump this was an early taste of redundancy. in november, he was defeated by his democratic opponent. on new year's day he was defeated by his own party. it's a stinging rebuke for a president who, by his own admission, hates being a loser. paul hawkins, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news: pressure grows to shut more schools. a teaching union demands a two—week closures of all primaries

and secondaries in england. a new warning over hospitals. the president of the royal college of physicians says some are now facing a worse situation than at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic last year. india begins a nation—wide mock drill to test its preparedness for mass immunisation against covid—i9. checks on people and goods travelling between the uk and the eu are now in force, following the end of the brexit transition period on thursday night. yesterday there was no obvious disruption to freight travelling between england and france, on the uk's first day fully outside of eu rules, though it was a bank holiday. elizabeth dejong is policy director at logistics uk. the business group has written to the government to request an urgent review of traffic management and welfare arrangements for hgv drivers, in the wake of chaos experienced when france closed its borders to traffic for two days before christmas. elizabeth, thank you for being with

us. elizabeth, thank you for being with us. the government clearly thinks that actually things went rather well, this unexpected closure took place and actually, in the end, people were fed, they were testing facility was introduced almost within an overnight situation, thousands of drivers, it says, were tested, fed and provided with toilet facilities. we plan to use the airfield for problems. they do not think there is a problem, you do, why? we had a full closure of the border with france and needing to bring in testing. looking ahead, we are hoping it will be very different. yesterday went very well with throughput at the border, and we are wanting to absolutely make sure that driver welfare is the

number one issue. we want people to wa nt to number one issue. we want people to want to come to this country, to deliver their goods and we want everything to go smoothly. last week, we wanted to say please make sure that driver welfare is the number—one priority going forward. we did see a situation some drivers we re we did see a situation some drivers were saying, we did see a situation some drivers were saying, some we did see a situation some drivers were saying, some haulage firms were saying we cannot get deliveries because the companies abroad are saying we do not want to send our drivers because we are worried they might not be able to get back in time for christmas, but more generally they might end up being stuck in kent. yes, we are all very focused. the focus, particularly in kent, giving what happened is enormous from the highest levels of government and there was a massive amount of work from the army, from volu nteers amount of work from the army, from volunteers all to make that work. we need to give that figure is going through. the great news that yesterday did go well, it went well at the bodice and the only reports

back that we've had that customs documentation, customs documentation was an order, the people who are being sent back with those travelling to france who did not have a covid test. it is very important that people do get that covid test. absolutely. and bring that with them. on the question, no problems on friday, we have had a lot about logistics have been planned, people bulk bought, they did it so they could have a buffer because we did not know whether if there was going to betray deal or not, whether there would be no deal exit from transition. all of that presumably has helped smooth this period. your concern is when things turn to business as usual from next week. yes, so this is our live trial. we've been able to read what we need to do, we have not been able to practice it in a live environment.

the next few weeks are really important and the companies yesterday were perhaps more confident companies, but i really hope the success they had will encourage more people to trial going through the border, making sure that all the systems are in good order say they have all the documents they need to get through the border as well. it may be that a number of people decided not to travel because they had used the checking software to make sure that they had everything in order, and they did not get agreed to proceed as well. we may not see keys of the bodice, they may be back at the depots. —— we may not see queues at the border. the next few weeks are to address anyissues the next few weeks are to address any issues we find because we want this to work well. industry, government, our nation needs this to work well. elizabeth, thank you very much. more now on the pressure being felt by hospitals in the uk,

as the second wave continues. dr ganesh suntharalingam is an intensive care consultant working in london, and outgoing president of the intensive care society. thank you for being with us today, dr ganesh suntharalingam. what is your assessment at the moment on intensive care is facilities around the uk good morning. intensive care is facilities around the uk good morninglj intensive care is facilities around the uk good morning. i would agree with our colleagues, some hospitals are undera with our colleagues, some hospitals are under a big strain and in some cases more than in march and april. we see the sicker patients, smaller numbers of intensive care beds, the apex of the pyramid, as it were, some hospitals up to a third of their beds hospital wide are filled with covid, intensive care bearing that in taking that further. up to two thirds of beds being up buy by covid patient. we are talking about intensive care units operating up to

twice a mother usual capacity, as they have been expanded. it is a stress on staff. we can buy more beds and equipment, we cannot double the number of staff because they ta ke yea rs the number of staff because they take years to train. they are reported in a rage above what they normally do, bringing their own implications. staff worked with out significant brea ks staff worked with out significant breaks for the best part of ten months now. in terms of the pressures , months now. in terms of the pressures, i was hearing one doctor talking about, you might have and are stealing with one patient, they might be dealing with four patients simultaneously —— dealing with one patient. as the numbers of infections rice, the number of people who need hospitalisation races, you must worry about where the peak point comes in this particular stage of the pandemic. absolutely. it is a big concern. we are seeing, to put into context, hospitals have been under pressure across all four nations in september, covid has never gone away

through the year but from autumn onwards, hospitals... we are now seeing this rise in london and south—east, in wales, it may be the new strain. it continues to be concerning. the message to the public is, first thing, say we want to people prefer their conditions and at least get an opinion. asked to wait perhaps, but maybe it will be something urgent. we do not want delayed care and peoples conditions getting worse. the other parties although we are talking about high technology areas, specialist nursing, it may sound rarefied, there is direct connection to what we do in our homes and public spaces. the way to get it under control is with public health measures. cani measures. can i ask you about another aspect, i was surprised when i had this yesterday, you will able to say if

it is significant or not. this was a nurse talking about for the first time seeing wards that had a number of child patients, it had not been a previous experience. is there any suggestion that this new variant is leading to more children being in hospital, even if their condition, thankfully, is not too serious? i can't say that, the picture in the spring with such because it coincided with the period were children illnesses are quite low, we had paediatric —— helping out on intensive care. we are now in winter wet paediatric units and wards are quite full anyway, i can't speak directly to the incidence of this in children. the patients we are seeing in the adult sector are mirroring what the pattern of agent illnesses that we saw earlier in the year, there is a relative proportion of everyone. dr ganesh suntharalingam,

thank you for being with us. you are watching bbc news. today marks the anniversary of the crash duggee today marks the 50th anniversary of the ibrox disaster, when 66 people were crushed to death leaving a football match between rangers and celtic in glasgow. it was one of scotland's worst peacetime tragedies as andrew picken reports. 1971 was only two days old when rangers met celtic at ibrox. the game was dull and many fans started leaving before late goals for either side during the last five minutes. commentator: that's as near as we'll get today! the day became infamous for the deadly crush which developed on a stairway at the rangers end of the stadium. among the victims were five teenagers from markinch in fife, who never came home. we were all together, just joking,

having a wee bit of banter. there was no animosity because they were rangers supporters and we were celtic supporters, there was nothing like that. we were pals. celtic fans peter leigh and shane fenton were among those who left early that day. it wasn't until we got back to kincardine, where the supporters used to stop on the way back and the older boys would go into the pub for a pint or whatever, they came back out of the pub and onto the bus, telling us what they'd seen on the television, there had been an incident at ibrox, there had been fatalities at the rangers end of the ground. that was the first of us knowing about anything happening at all. the boys were among the 66 dead and 145 injured. 50 years on, modern crowd science has given us a better understanding of what went wrong. in a crowd that's packed to the levels of density that eyewitnesses were commenting on at ibrox, and on a slope, then you get the gravitational force added to the fall, and as each person falls onto others

then you get a cascade dynamic. in the wake of the disaster, rangers rebuilt the stadium, making it one of the safest in europe. across scotland on january 2nd, people will mark the 50th anniversary of the ibrox disaster. andrew picken, bbc news. now, the weather with chris fawkes. hello there. we've got a cold weekend coming up. today, a day of sunshine and showers, but for some of us, we've already seen some snowfall. this was dunbar in east lothian, the eastern side of scotland seeing the snow this morning. those snow showers have been tracking across fife, also bringing a covering of snow before working across east lothian, the scottish borders and into north—east england. now, i wouldn't be too surprised if some areas got around two to perhaps as much as five centimetres of snow. certainly risk of icy stretches here. and through the rest of the day, we'll see those snow showers move southwards into parts of yorkshire,

perhaps lincolnshire too. although around the coastline, there's probably a tendency, really, to see them turn to rain and sleet around the east coast itself. showers across wales, moving into south—west england. many of these will be rain, but there could be a bit of sleet and snow mixed in the high levels. and we'll continue to see some snow showers across northern scotland. 0vernight tonight, showers will be widespread across east scotland, eastern areas of england. the clearest skies will be where we have the lowest temperatures, west scotland and northern ireland potentially seeing those down to about minus seven, minus eight degrees celsius. but a frost is going to be widespread. and, again, there's a risk of icy stretches to take us on into sunday. sunday, well, we've changed the wind direction, it's going to come in from the north—east, but we've not really changed how the weather feels. it's going to be another cold day. showers widespread, east scotland, eastern areas of england, pushing westwards across the midlands, into wales and south—west england with time. the best of the dry weather and sunshine for northern and western scotland and northern ireland. but even in the sunshine, it is still going to be cold.

temperatures four to six degrees celsius. now, on into next week, we've still got an area of high pressure sat across scandinavia steering in these cold north—easterly winds. again, we'll see further showers, widespread showers at that, across scotland, eastern areas of england, potentially merging together to give some longer spells of rain into kent. the best of the dry weather and sunshine, again, further north west for northern ireland and western areas of scotland. but it's going to stay cold. temperatures, again, four to six degrees celsius, feeling particularly chilly around those eastern coasts with the onshore winds. beyond that, well, it's going to stay on the cold side really throughout the week, but it's certainly not going to be a dry week. there will be some showers around and potential for some snow for some of us later on in the week. that's your latest weather.