this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. pressure grows to shut more schools. the uk's largest 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. in defiance of coronavirus precautions. 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. 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 frustating. 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. let me bring you some breaking news. this is from the national, what used to be called the national association of schoolmasters. .. to be called the national association of schoolmasters... it's just now known by its acronym, nas you wt. they have written to gavin williamson, they have written that it is the only sensible and credible option to minimise the risk of those working in school and to safeguard

public health is an immediate, nationwide move to remote education for all pupils in primary, secondary, special schools and colleges. so that is a nasuwt teaching union urging the government to move immediately to remote learning for all schools, colleges and special schools from the start of term, in order to safeguard public health and the health of those working in schools. that is that breaking news from the nasuwt. i hope we will hear from them a little later in the course of bbc news this afternoon. in liverpool, a coronavirus testing centre is offering priority testing to teachers, who have been telling the bbc how important access to testing is to them. i'm really pleased to have a test and get back to work. i think the children benefit from routine and i don't want them missing any more education. i think it's great. don't want them missing any more education. ithink it's great. i think it's really important for the

safety of children and staff. going back to school on monday. dr mike tildesley from the university of warwick is a member of the sage subgroup, the scientific pandemic influenza group on modelling known as spi—m. the group provides advice on epidemiology and infectious disease modelling to the uk government. he told me that the picture regarding tra nsmissability and schools is still unclear. i will say that there is still an awful lot of uncertainty around this. we are seeing are concerning rise in cases in the south—east and in greater london, in particular among secondary school age children. where we need to be a little bit careful here is we are seeing a rise in those age groups, but we aren't seeing strong evidence of strong transmission within a school environment. but it is certainly very concerning, these parts of the country where the new variant was taken hold more, we as a much stronger spread, which is why this action of school closures is being targeted on those regions. interestingly, if we look at cases in primary schools, we are not finding similar evidence of a significant growth in cases amongst primary age children,

even in those parts of the country that are more affected by the new variant, so this is why i am still sort of passing back against the idea of closing schools across the country, because the evidence said in a primary school is that we aren't getting a significant increase in cases in primary school settings despite this new variant emerging. if people, a couple of weeks down the line in london see a fall in cases of a slowing in the rate of cases, perhaps as more realistic, they might reach the conclusion that, oh, well, shutting the schools reduce the transmissibility and therefore that's what we should do. that's the risk, isn't it? to be honest, this is what concerns me. i'm an epidemiologist and so i understand the situation. we have a new variant that is circulating readily, particularly in greater london and the south—east. we need to drive the r number below one and of course if we shut schools, that could drive a r number

below one and it may be the conclusion that we need to keep schools closed. but we know that long—term school closure is damaging for children, so we do need an alternative. this two—week closure, really the government need to use that time to get this mass testing process working, get it rolled out to secondary schools. it's a huge undertaking, but it does need to be done so that these schools can ultimately open safely, despite just want to bring you some breaking news. this is on a match that was due to take place afternoon, the premier league game between fulham and burnley which was due to be held at burnley, it has been postponed because of a fresh outbreak of covid—i9 cases at fulham. it doesn't say how many cases at the club, which is a west london based football team, it doesn't say how many cases are involved but it has

certainly been enough for them to make the decision to scrap their travel plans for burnley and, as a result, the match will be postponed. 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 has approved the oxford astrazeneca vaccine for emergency use. dr lipika nanda is the vice president of multi—sectoral planning in public health from the public health foundation of india. i asked herjust how useful this drill will be for the vaccination rollout. it is going to be extremely useful and important for a country as large as india and also as diverse as india, with very different levels of public health infrastructure. in the different states. so, i think the drills are going to be extremely useful and i think it is already started. last week, there were drills in four states and today,

i think there has been hundred and 60 districts have started the drills, different parts of the country. it's going to be extremely important. in the uk, we are anxious about the effectiveness and the ability to vaccinate 30 million people. india is talking about vaccinating 300 million people, in a country that is not only enormous but has some very isolated, rural communities. how is that challenge in particular going to be tackled? it is going to be very challenging and let me tell you, india is not planning to vaccinate 300 million people in one go. i think the plan is to prioritise and look at who comes in the first category, who comes in a second category and so on and so forth. the most important is to protect our health workers and front line workers and people that

are in the front line, people like the police personnel, people that are coming into close contact and interaction with people. personnel at the airports, railway stations, personnel that are very vulnerable. i think those are the people that the most, come on the priority list and should be vaccinated first. and i think gradually, gradually i think then it can be the elderly population, people with comorbidities and other people. i don't think... the government of india has written up this plan already, the states are there, and more than 96,000 health workers

have been trained in the vaccination process and you must be wondering what is happening in the mock drills. the mock drills are testing the storage of these vaccines, the transportations of these vaccines in the administration in terms of understanding the glitches and there is an app that the government of india has developed that sees the management and administration of this vaccination, it will be a digital platform, so entering into it, seeing if people can use it, where the glitches in it. after the vaccination, people have to be present so they can be monitored for a few minutes, to understand there are no adverse reactions all, plus, i think these states are also testing crowd management, capacities at each health centre

is and if there are any needs in training, any gaps in training that are necessary, and basically testing a number of hospitals across the uk 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. 0ur 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 have had in the south—east and london and south wales should expect that it is going to come their way. this this new variant is definitely more infectious and is spreading across the whole of the country. it seems very likely that we will see more and more cases,

whenever 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 is 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. i million doses of the pfizer biontech jab have been delivered. but gps are being asked to postpone a second booster shot, giving it up to 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, 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 are so close.

you think, oh, 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 the most will be crucial, as the nhs fights the winter wave of this pandemic. jim reed, bbc news. 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 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 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—i9. more than 2,500 people have attended an illegal rave in brittany, in defiance of french coronavirus restrictions. it started on new year's eve and went on for more than 30 hours. at least three police officers were injured in violent clashes with some party—goers. the prefect of brittany said officers were faced with a difficult choice between breaking the illegal gathering and keeping everyone safe.

clearly, the organisers were prepared to resort to violence when confronted by law enforcement. when we saw that, we decided to pull them backin we saw that, we decided to pull them back in control the area. from ten pmr new year's eve, no vehicles able to enter the rave site. i'm joined by our correspondent in paris, hugh schofield. they seem to have been a major event that was difficult to shut down the police. they are under a lot of pressure and criticism as to why the party was allowed to go on for so long when everyone else is in lockdown, when the police are out enforcing curfews lockdown, when the police are out enforcing cu rfews around lockdown, when the police are out enforcing curfews around the country, how come 2500 people from across france and indeed from abroad we re across france and indeed from abroad were able to dance and party away for 36 hours from thursday evening until saturday morning. the far right, in particular, are very critical of the government which is why their reaction now, saying it's

a very difficult decision, they were faced not just by a very difficult decision, they were faced notjust by ravers but for people who are acting violently. they try to stop it, they say, and after that, it became a matter of simply containing it and i thought it was the best decision simply to circumscribe the warehouses where the rave was going on and find people, check people as they left. and that's what happened. it is now more or less ground to a halt, with a large number of fines imposed on people as they left. but you can see why the government finds it all acutely embarrassing because this is like a sort of people thumbing their nose at the government when everybody else is knuckling down. nose at the government when everybody else is knuckling downm terms of the general obedience of the restrictions, have they been largely obeyed by french people?” think so. in general. i don't think

there is any particular different sort of strain of anarchism here in france that means that people are acting differently from their neighbours. i know that the french like to think of themselves as being lawbreakers but like to think of themselves as being lawbrea kers but in like to think of themselves as being lawbreakers but in fact they are law—abiding, by nature, i would say. there are exceptions of course, people grumble a lot, but i don't think the vast majority of people have done anything other than follow the guidelines. there is an awful lot of scepticism about what the government is saying. there is an awful lot of scepticism about vaccinations in france, as we know, these rave parties are very marginal phenomenon. it was organised along time ago, weeks ago, and very well organised. it wasn't on social media, it was done through private call numbers, paying numbers, and there were a number of points around there were a number of points around the town where it took place where people gathered, so they went gathering in one place, they were gathering in one place, they were gathering in one place, they were gathering in many places and arriving in cars at different times on thursday. so the police had a

really difficult time monitoring the build—up and that meant that by the time they could intervene, there we re time they could intervene, there were hundreds of people there. what about the curfew? because obviously this was something that france used very effectively early on in the pandemic. it has been very strict on these times that you have to be back home, hasn't it? yes, and it is now been extended to six o'clock in some parts of the country. it's an eight o'clock general curfew around the country, which is pretty generally respected. down the eastern part of the country now, where there is a big resurgence of covid, it has been brought forward to six o'clock. six o'clock in the evening. there is a general expectation that there is about to be a pick—up in covid numbers now. the government was not goal of having 5000 a day load at the moment isjust goal of having 5000 a day load at the moment is just not happening, it's about 20,000. after the holidays, when they will have been people getting together and family christmases and people travelling

and spreading the virus, quite apart from these rare raves, i think everybody expect a big pick—up. but the other big talking point here in france is about vaccinations and there is a lot of frustration being expressed that so few people have been vaccinated even a week after the campaign officially began here, with comparisons being drawn again with comparisons being drawn again with germany, where now we have got nearly a million people vaccinated. here we are talking a few hundred. the government says that is all part of the plan, it will pick up, but there is a lot of worry being expressed in some quarters about how slow the whole processes. you, thank you. the south korean government has extended social distancing measures imposed in the capital seoul to the whole country. the measures, which will remain in place forjust over two more weeks, are designed to tackle a recent rise in the number of infections. they include a ban on gatherings of five or more people. 0ur correspondent in seoul laura bicker has the details. across the country there will be a curfew

on restaurants at nine o'clock. also any gathering of five or more people will be banned, outside of the kind of work environment. that's probably the biggest change. these are the strictest measures that the authorities here have put in place since this pandemic began. it is clear that they are scrambling to curb rising rates of infections. now, infections started to rise end of november, but we have seen about 1,000 cases a day. that has to be put into a global perspective. remember, here in south korea, there has only been a maximum of 62,000 cases since the pandemic began, but still here, that is where the level of panic has set in. so they started to gradually introduce stricter social—distancing measures, encouraging people to work from home, but it has been proving very difficult to keep the numbers low, so now it will be nationwide until january the 17th. 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 lee 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. employers in all sectors have been cutting hundreds of thousands of jobs, as the economy struggles against covid—19, leaving an estimated 1.7 million people out of work. our business correspondent sarah corker caught up with some of them. three people who all lost theirjobs because of the pandemic. 0lympia, rebecca and heather were facing the toughestjobs market for a generation. we've got no money coming in, so we'll survive as long as we can. i first met 0lympia and herfamily back in may. she was touring as part of a circus troupe when the first lockdown restrictions came in and they were stranded on morecambe seafront for months. with no money coming in, it was a real struggle.

it's fear. fear that... that i might not ever be able to do what i love again, which is perform, in the circus, because we might not recover. since then, things have got better. 0lympia's moved in with her mum in rotherham to save money, and wait until they‘ re allowed to perform again. financially it's been a big strain. it's been massive. like i say, we normally work from february to november, so about 85—90% of our shows were just cancelled or stopped or postponed until next year. five months on morecambe prom, relying on the food bank to feed you guys — what was that experience like? it was really hard. coming to terms with the fact that i had to rely on other people to eat and to live. in west yorkshire, rebecca was finding competition forjobs fierce. how many roles have you applied for?

i don't think i could possibly tell you. she'd worked in communications at a high street bank for a decade when she was made redundant in the summer. with every application that goes out the door, it does kind of chip away at your confidence and how you feel. it's already dog eat dog. it's only going to get worse. three months on, she's now working for a shed company. and it's been really busy, hasn't it? it's completely booming at the minute, the shed industry, believe it or not. it's a new world for me, it's a million miles away from banking. what's it like after so many months not working, having a regular wage aagain? it was a massive confidence boost. there's no shame in saying that although, yes, you have your friends and family and things, when you have a job, you feel like you have purpose, so it felt like i had purpose again. financially, things are going to get better for me. some of those in their 50s and 60s, like heatherfrom prestwich near manchester, felt

they were being overlooked. the best one is "you're overqualified," which doesn't make any sense to me, because if you're qualified to this level then you can do anyjob up until that level. so being overqualified doesn't mean a thing, except it's another way of saying you're too old. heather is still on the job hunt but enjoying having more time exercising in the local park. did you think it would take this long and it would be this hard? um, yeah, basically. you know, i've been here before, in much better times. there are obviously a lot more people unemployed, and because there's more people unemployed, there are fewerjobs at the moment because a lot of people are on furlough still. but she is determined to get back into work. i don't relax. i'm not a relaxed sort of person, i can't do nothing. so for some, the search for work continues. but the arrival of an effective vaccine has brought renewed optimism for 2021. sarah corker, 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,