hello this is bbc news. a dramatic rescue in china as 11 gold miners trapped underground for two weeks are brought out alive. a warning from the deputy chief medical officer that you could still pass on the coronavirus even if you are fully vaccinated. anger in europe over vaccine delays. italy accuses pfizer and astrazeneca of serious contract violations. new zealand confirms its first coronavirus case in months, it appears to have slipped through the rigorous quarantine system. borisjohnson becomes the first european leader to

speak tojoe biden since he entered the white house. hello and welcome to bbc news. in the last few hours, there's been an extraordinary rescue of 11 gold miners trapped underground in china for two weeks. the first miner was brought to the surface to cheers from emergency workers. he was described as extremely weak and immediately carried to a waiting ambulance. over the following hours, the others were pulled out in small groups. a total of 22 workers were trapped 600 metres below ground at the mine in shandong province following an explosion. joining me now live from beijing is our correspondent, stephen mcdonell. how have they got them out?

remarkable story, events are moving very quickly in shandong province, ii very quickly in shandong province, ii miner ploo might have been brought to the surface alive. we had been told it would take two weeks for them to dig 600 metres through to where they were. —— ii miners. but somehow or other today a separate group of rescuers managed to clear a ventilation shaft which already went all the way down to where they were. once that was cleared, they could bring them up straight away. ten miners who had beenin straight away. ten miners who had been in a group together, who had been in a group together, who had been given food and medicine for days, were able to come to the surface. but the first miner to come up surface. but the first miner to come up was trapped by himself. somehow they found him today separately, surviving for two weeks on the food

or medicine. i guess he was able to drink the rising underground water which ironically was threatening his colleagues, because the rescuers were worried they would ground before they had time to drill through to get them. and yet because they were able to clear this ventilation shaft today, 11 miners were able to be brought to the surface. —— they were worried they would ground. d0 surface. -- they were worried they would ground-— would ground. do we know what condition they are _ would ground. do we know what condition they are in _ would ground. do we know what condition they are in in - would ground. do we know what condition they are in in terms i would ground. do we know what condition they are in in terms of| condition they are in in terms of their health?— condition they are in in terms of their health? ~ ., , ., , , ., their health? well obviously the one b himself their health? well obviously the one by himself was _ their health? well obviously the one by himself was in _ their health? well obviously the one by himself was in a _ their health? well obviously the one by himself was in a pretty _ their health? well obviously the one by himself was in a pretty bad - by himself was in a pretty bad condition when he was brought out on a stretcher, taken straight to an ambulance. and then off to the hospital. but as all of them have come up, they have had their eyes blindfolded against the light. they have been underground for two weeks now. some of them were walking, it was pretty tough, the rescuers were carrying them as they were walking out. they have all gone to hospital

to get the full treatment, as you would expect. varying degrees of injuries. sadly one among the group of ii has died from his head injuries. another who they had lost contact with 50 metres below them also has presumably died because they lost contact with him days ago. nine others, they still don't know the whereabouts. but given one miner was miraculously found alive today by himself caught in a separate part of the mine, i suppose they would be hoping they might be able to find others today. a pretty big ask, though, for people to still be alive after more than two weeks court underground. the fact one of them was alive, absolutely remarkable. figs was alive, absolutely remarkable. as you say, a good news story. but from the chinese authority's point of view, are there questions about how this happened and generally about

safety in mines like these? the initial response _ safety in mines like these? tue initial response was safety in mines like these? tte initial response was frankly terrible. the blast happened, and it was 30 hours before it was reported to rescue teams. obviously that is important time at the beginning of a rescue. they could have been trying to reach them. the local mayor has been sacked. once the rescuers got to the mine, they were using sledgehammers for days, smashing the drilling equipment from above to try and get some sort of response from below. then, a week later, tap, tap, tap, from below. they were able to find that there was a group of minor miners still alive. they were able to get through a local, narrow tunnel, the size of a drainpipe, and with hard cables they were able to push food rations through. and the ability to communicate with them on

ability to communicate with them on a telephone. that way they could work out the rescue. at one point you heard the miners from below saying thanks very much for the rations, we are feeling better, next time could you send sausages, which they were able to do. they also sent through a special porridge on a festival day to lift their spirits, doing everything they could to keep these men feeling good. they thought they were going to be stuck down there for two more weeks, so to suddenly find out they were coming to the surface must have been completely brilliant for them. indeed, stephen, thank you very much indeed from beijing. one of the british government's top scientists has said people must continue abiding by coronavirus restrictions — even if they've been fully vaccinated. england's deputy chief medical officer, professorjonathan van tam, said it was possible they could still pass the virus on even if they were protected

against falling ill themselves. 5.8 million people across the uk have received their first dose of the vaccine. danjohnson has this report. here's a historical setting for the most modern medicine. at the birthplace of the industrial revolution, the black country living museum is joining the roll—out of mass vaccination against covid—i9. but people won't be visiting the traditional victorian pharmacy. the vaccines will be given in more up—to—date facilities specially fitted out. this is about protecting everybody, and not everybody will have that coverage in terms of vaccine. we're rolling it out in age—related cohorts, but actually, still use the face protection, still keep your distance and still wash your hands. that has been echoed by deputy chief medical officerjonathan van tam, who was himself giving vaccinations last week. in a statement, he warned that any change in behaviour, even after both doses, could risk passing on the virus. he said...

he also defended the decision to delay second doses so that more people can get the first. with over 4,000 patients now on ventilators, more than at any time in the pandemic, the pressure on hospitals keeps building. last week, nhs england managed an average of 140 jabs every minute. all kinds of buildings are being used, so whether it's the cinema aisles or cathedral pews, the idea is to reach as many people as possible across different communities. geography is also important. this pilot project in rural wales is for those who cannot travel to larger vaccination centres. i admire the logistics of today, to see 1,200 people come here in this location, several practices, really shows a great commitment, i think. it is very important because going a long way when you're

80, you can't do it. transmission rates remain high, though. 33,552 new cases were recorded in the last 24—hour period, and another 1,348 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus. more sites like this will be needed as the vaccination roll—out keeps growing. 5.8 million first doses have been given out across the uk, but still a long way to go before we can focus back on the future. dan johnson, bbc news. italy has accused pfizer, biontech and astrazeneca of serious contract violations — after the companies announced they would not be able to deliver their coronavirus vaccines as agreed. prime minister giuseppe conte said the delays were unacceptable. the two companies have said production problems have forced them to cut the amount of vaccine doses they can deliver. the bbc�*s tim allman reports.

salvation in a syringe. the covid vaccination programme is being rolled out across the world, millions of people have already had theirfirstjab. billions more awaiting their turn. but are enough doses being provided? in italy, the answer to that question is apparently no. the country's prime minister insists that is unacceptable. giuseppe conte said: and it's notjust italy. belgium's vaccine task force says it will receive fewer than half the number of covid—19 vaccines it had expected in the first three months of the year.

pfizer and astrazeneca have warned they won't be able to deliver the amounts promised due to production problems. and in a new twist, the new york times is reporting that pfizer plans to provide fewer vials because they discovered they could extract an extra dose from each vial which was only supposed to contain five. at the end of the day it's important to recognise that pfizer and other large pharmaceutical companies are for—profit companies, and they have a responsibility to their shareholders to try to extract as much profit as they can. the company insists it is fair as the contract is based on doses, not vials, and the lucky discovery means it can stretch the doses even further, meaning more doses reach more people. but until the majority are vaccinated, the fight against the virus will have to take other forms. in the netherlands, a night—time curfew has been introduced. it is the first curfew since the second world war.

the wait may mean more lives are being lost. four coronavirus vaccination centres in south wales have been shut as the country braces for more snowy weather. anyone due to get theirjab at one of the sites today, will have their appointment rescheduled. a yellow weather warning is in place for the whole of wales — apart from anglesey. police are urging people to take care, as snow and ice is expected to cause disruption on the roads. borisjohnson has become the first european leader to speak to the new us president, joe biden, since he came into the white house. the prime minister said he looked forward to deepening the "long—standing alliance" between the two countries. here's our political correspondent chris mason. our political correspondent helen catt is here. helen, it is always invested with mystical significance, who gets the first phone call from the new us president. does it actually matter? it does sound a bit playground but this stuff does matter in terms of

symbolism and diplomacy. from the uk perspective it was more important than ever that borisjohnson got the first phone call of any european leader because we are in the situation of having left the eu, trying to re—establish what is britain's force and position going to be on the world stage. it was quite important for downing street to get that first call. and also considering downing street has been seen as being quite close to the trump administration, joe biden at one point even called borisjohnson a trump clone. the fact he got the first call and they found much to agree on, for example borisjohnson welcoming the president's decision to rejoin the paris agreement on climate change, and joe biden saying he would support borisjohnson as the uk hosts the climate change conference later this year. that will be positively received in westminster.— will be positively received in westminster. . ., ., westminster. what about a trade deal? there _ westminster. what about a trade deal? there was _ westminster. what about a trade deal? there was talk _ westminster. what about a trade deal? there was talk when - westminster. what about a trade deal? there was talk when borisl deal? there was talk when boris johnson and donald trump were

talking that that might be able to happen. isjoe biden in any rust to give the uk a great deal? the happen. is joe biden in any rust to give the uk a great deal?- give the uk a great deal? the one noticeable thing, _ give the uk a great deal? the one noticeable thing, when _ give the uk a great deal? the one noticeable thing, when you - give the uk a great deal? the one noticeable thing, when you read l give the uk a great deal? the one l noticeable thing, when you read the two readouts, the summaries each government puts out on the call, the difference is in the uk version they say they discussed the benefits of a potential three trade agreement, and the intention to resolve existing trade issues, the dispute around boeing and the us tariffs on scotch whisky. —— free trade. nothing at all in the white house summary on three tage —— on free trade. we know the comp administration were quite keen to help the uk, which was very keen to help the uk, which was very keen to help the uk, which was very keen to get this done fast, things were progressing, so there will be questions about whether that speed

may fall away. questions about whether that speed may fall away-— the scottish national party will today present its national assembly with what it's calling a road map to a new referendum on scottish independence. the 11—point plan sets up the possibility of a showdown in the courts with the westminster government over the legality of any attempts to seek a fresh poll. borisjohnson has repeatedly said he opposes another referendum, even if the snp wins a majority in this year's scottish parliament elections. the us state department has condemned what it said were the "harsh tactics" used by russian police against protesters supporting the jailed opposition leader, alexei navalny. tens of thousands of people rallied across russia on saturday in some of the largest demonstrations held against president vladimir putin in years. riot police were pictured dragging away and beating some protesters — its estimated around 3,000 people have been arrested. mr navalny was detained last weekend after returning to the country, after a near—fatal nerve agent attack last year. a warning from england's deputy

chief medical officer that you could still pass on the virus — even if you're fully vaccinated. anger in europe over vaccine delays — italy accuses pfizer and astrazeneca of serious contract violations. borisjohnson becomes the first european leader to speak to the new us president, joe biden, since he entered the white house. the authorities in new zealand have confirmed the first case of community transmission of the coronavirus in months. a woman who had returned from europe and completed a compulsory two—week period of managed isolation tested positive ten days later. contact—tracing is under way after she and her husband travelled around the north of the country. the health minister said it was too soon to speculate on the origin or strain of the infection. the case is a 56—year—old woman who has recently been through isolation at the pullman hotel in auckland, after returning from europe.

she tested negative twice during her stay, and was released following that. we don't yet know the origin or the strain of the infection. it's important not to speculate on that until we have that information. it's also too early to speculate on what our possible response options may be, including things like alert levels. we are working on the assumption that this is a positive case and that it is a more transmissible variant — either the one identified first in south africa, or the uk, or potentially brazil, or another more transmissible variant. given where we are in this global pandemic, the variants that are becoming more common are the ones that are more transmissible. president biden says he wants to restore the nuclear deal with iran — making it a top foreign policy priority. donald trump pulled out of the agreement in 2018.

but distrust between washington and tehran mean it's not clear whether president biden will be able to revive the deal. our middle east correspondent, martin patience, reports. donald trump wasn't popular in iran. donald trump is a liar, is an unpredictable person. he is not representative of satan — he is satan himself. he is a satan. and here's the main reason why. in a few moments, i will sign a presidential memorandum to begin reinstating us nuclear sanctions on the iranian regime. in 2018, president trump pulled out of the nuclear agreement. his policy — maximum pressure on iran. sanctions designed to force tehran back to the negotiating table — something that never happened. but now donald trump is gone, and joe biden�*s in, and he wants to revive the deal. but is any agreement still possible? i was in iran a year and a half ago

as tensions were soaring. tankers exploding in the gulf, the iranian shooting—down of an american drone. and then, a year ago, the us assassination of iran's top general. tehran retaliated by firing missiles into american bases in neighboring iraq. and what all of this means is that president biden can't simply hit the rewind button. iran's ramping up its nuclear activities, and it's now in breach of the agreement. so if there was a deal, how would it work? would america, for example, lift some sanctions and then iran would respond by rolling back elements of its nuclear programme? or would washington want to renegotiate the deal to include, for example, iran's missiles — a move that tehran has ruled out? and then there's america's allies —

saudi arabia and israel, who were always opposed to the nuclear deal because they believed that it allowed iran to run amok in the region. raise your right hand and repeat after me... reviving this agreement may be one of president biden�*s foreign policy priorities. but in the end, donald trump may have laid enough obstacles to scupper any chance of that. let's speak now to sir richard dalton, former british ambassador to iran and libya. thank you very much indeed will be with us. we heard there about the obstacles in the path of reviving this agreement. do you think they are insurmountable? ibm;a this agreement. do you think they are insurmountable?— this agreement. do you think they are insurmountable? by no means. the team around president _ are insurmountable? by no means. the team around president biden _ are insurmountable? by no means. the team around president biden and - team around president biden and president biden himself are highly experienced, they know their

iranians counterparts. the us and iranians counterparts. the us and iran have suggested how a new deal could be put in place. reviving it, together with a commitment to negotiate on each other�*s concerns in a second stage. contact between the us and iran may already have begun behind—the—scenes. but that's not as important as the fact that neither side has a better way of achieving its fundamental objectives in their internal affairs and in the region as a whole than by resuming negotiations in a constructive spirit. figs negotiations in a constructive sirit. �* , ., negotiations in a constructive sirit. a ., negotiations in a constructive sirit. �* , ., ., spirit. as we saw in that report, a lot of rhetoric _ spirit. as we saw in that report, a lot of rhetoric on _ spirit. as we saw in that report, a lot of rhetoric on both _ spirit. as we saw in that report, a lot of rhetoric on both sides, - spirit. as we saw in that report, a. lot of rhetoric on both sides, some military action including the us assassination of an iranian general. are you saying the two sides will be able to put all that behind them and go for a revival of the deal? tt

go for a revival of the deal? tit never goes away entirely. but president biden, and iran has responded to this, has suggested how it might be done. namely, for each side to come into compliance once more, and then for there to be a clear path laid out for discussion of major concern is that each side has. iran wants compensation for the economic damage done to their people. the united states wants to response to the concerns of its allies in the region that iran's missiles... inaudible. to make sure that is addressed. so the clear preference for both sides is to make their way through the maze of difficulties. the harm that each has done to the other, particularly what the united states has done to iran, will not be

forgotten. but there may be ways of accommodating it in the negotiations.— accommodating it in the ne . otiations. ., ., negotiations. you mentioned the american allies _ negotiations. you mentioned the american allies in _ negotiations. you mentioned the american allies in the _ negotiations. you mentioned the american allies in the region - negotiations. you mentioned the american allies in the region and their concerns, israel has always seen the iran nuclear deal as a mistake, asjust seen the iran nuclear deal as a mistake, as just playing with fire, really, and allowing iran secretly to build up its capabilities. you thinkjoe biden is going to override those concerns?— those concerns? iran's intentions are laid down. — those concerns? iran's intentions are laid down, namely _ those concerns? iran's intentions are laid down, namely that - those concerns? iran's intentions are laid down, namely that it - those concerns? iran's intentions are laid down, namely that it willj are laid down, namely that it will never have nuclear weapons, and that has been endorsed in the un security council resolution. the most intrusive inspection ever imposed on any state for iran. and the united states will continue, as it did in the rounds of negotiations from 2012 onwards to point out to israel to what degree the regime that was

negotiating in the programme of action, the nuclear deal, is in israel's fundamental interest. saudi arabia and israel are really looking at another target, namely weakening iran to the maximum by continuing this windfall which trump gave them of totally illegal and unjust unilateral us sanctions. if the americans, they argue, i believe, is going to remove those additional sanctions, then iran has to pay a price which serves saudi and uae and israeli interests. so it is only in the second stage of the negotiations i believe that those concerns are going to be addressed. the priority now is to stabilise the persian gulf region by resuming full

implementation, first by the united states and in parallel with and by iran. , ., ., ~ states and in parallel with and by iran. , ., . ~' ., states and in parallel with and by iran. , ., ., ~ ., thousands of people have joined demonstrations across brazil to demand the resignation of presidentjair bolsonaro. protesters say he hasn't done enough to tackle the pandemic and blame him for the slow rate of vaccinations, which only started last week. more than 215,000 people have died of covid—19 in brazil — the second highest death—rate in the world. rallies were held in cities across the country, including rio de janeiro and sao paulo. figures obtained by the bbc have demonstrated the huge impact the pandemic has been having on the british labour market. they show employers made plans to cut 795,000 jobs over the course of 2020 — a record number. planned redundancies surged to their highest levels in june and july,

but the pace slowed considerably by the end of the year. it's been one of the big unanswered questions about covid — why do some people get really sick and others show no symptoms at all? a team at cambridge university in the uk has been trying to answer it by looking for clues in the blood. our science correspondent richard westcott went to see what they've discovered so far. why do some people get really sick with covid whilst others are fine? and could the answer lie in our blood? for months, researchers at cambridge university have been comparing the blood of hundreds of covid patients. some of those patients were hospitalised — others had no symptoms at all. and the researchers could see significant differences. we found that the patients who did

well had evidence of an early robust immune response to sars—cov—2, and no evidence of inflammation associated with that — at least in the blood. in contrast, in people who went on to do badly, and who were admitted to hospital, they had a slower response to the virus itself, but enhanced evidence of inflammation, and we saw that, importantly, at the very first blood test we took, often within a couple of days of symptom onset. inflammation happens when your body sends in the troops to attack invaders, like a virus. but if the immune system overreacts, sending in too many troops, the excess inflammation can make you very ill. so the people who get very sick, am i right in thinking it's not actually, weirdly, the virus that's making them very sick, it's their body's response to the virus? so effectively their body is attacking itself? so that's effectively true. clearly the viral infection kicks the whole thing off, but what causes the damage that results, for example, in admission to intensive care is an uncontrolled

and excessive inflammatory response initiated by the virus but that seems to be sustained in people who do badly. so the virus might have gone, and your immune system's still attacking your body? certainly, and it appears that the virus is cleared from most patients by the time they're doing badly, if they're on intensive care, for example. so i guess a key question is, how can you use this information? can you, say, develop a test that people could take so they would know if they're going to get very sick or not? probably not, based on the evidence we've got, and that's because by the time we see people after they've developed symptoms who are going to get very sick, they're already on their way to getting very sick. but what i think this tells us is that if we are going to try and prevent the development of inflammation early, we have to be treating patients much, much earlier than we thought. it's still early days, but these findings could help us improve treatments and understand the long—term effects of this disease. so i think the key thing for us now is to keep following this group

of patients who we recruited back a year ago, to study the recovery of their immune responses and their immune systems. and we certainly know that by three to four months there are still profound abnormalities in the immune systems, even of patient who have ostensibly got well and gone home. the question is, do those abnormalities recover or are they persistent? and what does that mean in the context of so—called long covid? now it's time for a look at the weather with chris. hello, there. heavy snow is moving its way across northern ireland, england and wales, bringing with it some transport disruption. that was how things looked as we started the day in lampeter in ceredigion in wales. but this band of snow is pretty widespread and i have to say there have been times earlier this morning that sections of the m5 and the m4 have been completely covered in snow. there's plenty of grit down, but for grit to be really effective you actually need traffic to run over it and mix it into the falling snow — and we're only meant to be doing essentialjourneys at the moment,

so traffic volumes are very light, and that's allowing snow to settle even on gritted roads. so transport disruption likely. there will be some areas that pick up five to ten centimetres of snow, particularly where this band of snow becomes slow—moving across parts of the midlands, maybe central and southern england and across parts of wales, as well, with temperatures struggling to get much above freezing. further northwards, brighter, some sunshine for scotland and northern england, but still some snow showers around. risk of disruption, though, to take us through the rest of today.