this is bbc news. the headlines at seven... the number of covid—19 cases in the united states passes 25 million, with the number of dead nearly 418,000. more than 70 cases of the south african variant of covid are identified in the uk amid concerns the vaccine may be less effective against it. ministers say numbers are being closely monitored. we have an enhanced contact tracing to do everything we possibly can to stop them from spreading. celebrations in china as 11 gold miners who'd been trapped underground for two weeks are rescued.

hello, welcome to the programme. we begin in the us, which has onw recorded more than 25 million cases of coronavirus. that's according to thejohns hopkins university that's tracking the virus. it's the hardest hit country in the world, with neary a18,000 people dying with the disease so far. new presidentjoe biden has signed executive orders to expand testing and vaccine distribution, increase the production of essential equipment and guarantee unemployment benefits as part of his covid action plan to try get on top of the virus. i'm joined now by our correspondent nomia iqbal in washington. the new president was really clear this would be his top priority and clearly these numbers bear out why. that's right, and he's also said it's going to get worse before it gets better. these figures that

we're seeing, i think what is more staggering is health experts think they might be understatements. joe biden has already taken action, about ten executive orders signed the deal with the pandemic, but there is way more to go with this and he is trying to push through congress a package worth more than $1 trillion which, amongst many things, accelerates the rate at which people will be vaccinated. it is a bit of a race against time around the world. he wants to get as many people vaccinated as possible, 100 million people in his first 100 days, because there are fears that the virus could mutate into a strain. that means all these newly approved vaccinations might not work, that people might become resistant to them.—

resistant to them. nomia, stay there. senate majority leader chuck schumer has just finished a news conference in new york. he says there are three priorities in the next three weeks — approving president biden�*s cabinet picks, getting covid relief funds approved and the impeachment trial of donald trump. on that, he says the house managers will read the articles of impeachment on monday. everyone wants to put this awful chapter in american history behind us, but sweeping it under the rug will not bring healing. the only way to bring healing is to actually have real accountability, which this trial affords. and so we will move forward with the trial. it will be fair, but it will move at a relatively fast pace. let's go back to nomia. the democrats don't want this to distract too much from their own

agenda. distract too much from their own a . enda. , distract too much from their own aaenda. , ., �* but it will. this trial won't happen for another couple of weeks though, and it does give former president trump the time for prepare for his defence. the thing is, in orderfor donald trump to be convicted in the senate, democrats need 17 republicans on their side. they might get that given that ten republicans did vote to impeach, but it's going to be a tricky battle to get those people on—site. there were lots of republicans that still do back donald trump and reject chuck schumer�*s message that the only way to get unity is by accountability. many believe that trying to impeach trump, who is still hugely would be disastrous for unity in this country. so, it'll be interesting to see what happens next, but the trial isn't expected for another couple of weeks, but tomorrow we will see the article of impeachment handed to the senate in the evening.—

senate in the evening. thanks, nomia. the uk health secretary says 77 cases of the south african variant of coronavirus have been found here in the uk, but they can all be linked to international travel and there's no evidence it's spreading in the community. matt hancock also said we are a "long way" from covid restrictions being eased, as scientists warn vaccinated people may still be able to pass on the virus. 0ur science editor david shukman reports. all kinds of surprising locations are now mobilised in the push for vaccination, even the black country living museum near birmingham. used as a set in the drama peaky blinders, this celebration of an earlier age is ready to offer the most modern of medicines, everything prepared for coronavirus vaccines. please, please come and get your vaccine. we are here and we are ready and we are waiting for you. it is vitally important that people protect themselves, protect their families and protect one another. we do know that the injections offer good protection. they boost antibodies

in the bloodstream and keep people from getting ill. but it's not clear if that stops the virus causing infections that can then spread to others. there is some evidence from the astrazeneca vaccine trial, and that did show that a small number were indeed positive for sars—cov—z, despite having no symptoms whatsoever and having had the vaccine. now, it was very small numbers and really hard to see a statistically meaningful result. and another concern is how the virus is changing. a variant in south africa is one of several being checked to see how effective the vaccines are against it. there are 77 known cases of the south african - variant here in the uk. they are under very close - observation, and we have enhanced contact tracing to do everything we possibly can to stop - them from spreading. the majority of those i have had contact with, or come from, south africa, .

and that is why we've got such stringent border measures in place. so, a big question is how to manage the uk's borders. many countries require travellers to quarantine in hotels. there's pressure on the government for stricter controls. on monday, we got this delayed announcement, yet again delayed. we would fully expect the government to bring in tougher quarantine measures, we would expect them to roll out a proper testing strategy and we would expect them as well to start checking up on the people who are quarantining. only three out of every hundred people who are asked to quarantine when they arrive in the uk actually faces any checks at all. that's just simply not sufficient. meanwhile, not everyone is getting the message. the police broke up an illegal rave in east london in the early hours and they issued fines totalling £15,000. david shukman, bbc news. israel has announced a week—long ban on most incoming and outgoing flights

to try to slow the spread of new coronavirus variants. the measure will come into force at 22:00 gmt on monday. exceptions will be made for cargo and firefighting flights, as well as trips for medical treatments, funerals and legal procedures. the german government is reported to have bought a supply of regeneron, the experimental antibodies treatment credited with helping donald trump recoverfrom covid—19. the country's health minister said germany would start deploying the drug next week, the first european union country to do so. it's hoped it will work like a passive vaccination, helping to protect high—risk patients in the early stage against a serious deterioration. 0ur correspondent damien mcguinness in berlin has more. according to german media, the german government has now bought 200,000 doses of regeneron at a cost of around 2000 euros per dose, so it's not a cheap drug. and the way it works is really, it's described as

almost like a passive vaccination. so, usually, the vaccines we've been talking about so far always spark the body to actively generate antibodies, which then fight or prevent infection. the way this drug works, antibodies are made in a lab. they're then administered to people and people then have the antibodies, which, if they have the beginnings of an infection, it would then prevent them from having severe complications from that infection. as you said quite correctly, donald trump received the drug. he described it as having done a fantasticjob and, judging from his recovery, that does seem to be the case. so, it's being seen as another way to really get those quite high fatality numbers being seen in germany right now down a little bit more, because over the summer, the total death toll from the pandemic stayed at about 10,000 right through the summer, and that's a very low number considering the size of germany. now, the last few months,

it suddenly rocketed to 50,000 and the death toll is still really high. so, drugs like this are really needed and i think that's going to be some welcome news for some of those hospital workers and people in hospital right now at the beginnings of what could be a severe infection. people in amsterdam have been protesting against new coronavirus restrictions introduced by the dutch government. police used water cannon to disperse the demonstrators. the netherlands imposed its first night—time curfew since world war ii in a bid to stop the spread of new coronavirus variants. egypt, the arab world's most populous country, has begun the process of vaccinating its more than 100 million citizens. the first recipients were a doctor and a nurse, who were given the chinese—made sinopharm injection. vaccines from britain and russia will be included in the programme as it unfolds. in china, 11 gold miners saw daylight today for the first time in two weeks after an incredible rescue.

they were part of a group of 22 people trapped underground after an explosion. last week, rescuers at the mine in shandoong warned the men might have wait another two weeks before they could be reached. but on sunday, a major obstacle fell out of the way and they were bought to the surface. it's not clear if others are still alive underground. 0ur correspondent steve mcdonell has more. after two weeks trapped underground, he took his first breath of air above the mine. his eyes masked against the glaring light, his gratitude to be alive overwhelming. one of 11 miners rescued today after a dramatic change in fortune. the first miner out prompted cheers. he was barely conscious after being found still alive but separated from the main group, which had been receiving food and medicine. soon, others were emerging. there were injuries, but many could walk with the assistance of those who had been battling through freezing conditions night after night to reach them.

translation: the rescuers checked the miners to see l if they had any injuries and covered their eyes for protection. after lifting up all the trapped miners, we will go on with the search for the missing ones. an initial delay of 30 hours in reporting the accident led to the sacking of local officials. then a week later, miners were discovered alive and a long, thin communication tunnel meant emergency deliveries. one of the main group died from his head injuries and they lost contact with their colleague trapped below. with underground water rising, it was looking grim when officials said it would take 1a more days to dig a rescue tunnel through 600 metres of granite. but somehow, a large ventilation shaft was cleared which led all the way to them, and within hours they were being rescued and on their way to hospital. stephen mcdonell, bbc news, beijing.

the us company, spacex, has set a new record for the number of satellites launched on a single rocket. 143 were on board the falcon craft that lifted off from florida. we are saying goodbye to her viewers watching around the world. the scottish national party has laid out what it calls a "roadmap" to a new independence referendum. the plan has been shared with the party's national assembly and could lead to a legal showdown with boris johnson's westminster government, which opposes another referendum. scotland's first minister nicola sturgeon spoke to the bbc�*s andrew marr this morning. he is frightened of democracy. the polls now show a majority of people in scotland want independence. if the snp win the scottish election in a few months' time on a proposition of giving the people that choice, then what democrat could rightly stand in the way of that? boris johnson clearly just fears the verdict and the will of the scottish people. 0ur scotland political editor, glenn campbell, has this update from glasgow.

well, it's long been the snp's plan a to win the next holyrood election in may. if there's a majority for independence in the scottish parliament to watch uk opposition crumble, the trouble with that is the current uk government shows no sign of agreeing and as borisjohnson's resistance has appeared to harden, critics of nicola sturgeon's leadership demanded she set out a plan b. we have the idea if the snp continues in government, it will press ahead with legislation foran independence referendum, even without uk consent and be prepared to defend that in court in the unlikely event of a legal challenge. the snp said they would only hold the referendum if it was certified

as legal and after the pandemic, but the conservatives say this is just the wrong priority. the entire focus should be on recovery for coronavirus. with opinion polls suggesting independence is strong, expect a lot more political tension to come over this. the headlines on bbc news... the number of covid—19 cases in the united states passes 25 million, with the death toll soaring to nearly 418,000. more than 70 cases of the south african variant of covid are identified in the uk amid concerns the vaccine may be less effective against it. 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.

0ur 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? richard wescott, bbc news, cambridge. as the covid vaccination

programme continues, there are growing concerns that people with learning disabilities are being overlooked. a recent public health england study found a mortality rate up to six times higherfor those in this group than the general population, but many are not being prioritised for a vaccine. nikki fox has the story. you know, you can't smell it, you can't see it. you can't hear it. it's like a silent killer. everyone here has a learning disability. they meet up regularly to talk about and understand death and bereavement. it is scary at times. these chats have never been more important. all i keep thinking is, am i going to be next? you know, am i going to be the next one to die? i would hate to be in hospital and end up dying on my own. people with learning disabilities are up to six times more likely to die from coronavirus. that's according to analysis by public health england, which looked at the number of deaths during the first wave of the pandemic. however, only those with down�*s syndrome and severe learning

disabilities are being prioritised for the vaccine. people adore her. tilly is one of those being prioritised, and it can't come soon enough. i get so fearful for her. historic inequalities in health care and the knowledge that even before covid, people with learning disabilities had such a low life expectancy means, for many families, any visit to hospital is a worry. we have had too many incidences where she's been refused treatment, because they can't work out how to treat somebody with a learning disability. for me to think about that happening, if she had the virus and she had to go into hospital, it's terrifying, absolutely terrifying. deciding who is eligible for priority access is not an easy task. the initial priority programme was based on the risk of hospitalisation and death. the committee which advises government examined a different set of data to public health england. it believes those with milder learning disabilities are not at such an increased risk. individuals with learning

disabilities we recognise is a very disadvantaged group, so that's why we decided to make a clinical decision to prioritise those with profound and severe learning disabilities within our first six categories. with such conflicting figures, experts fear that by not immunising everyone with a learning disability as a priority... we need to protect this population. ..there will be many who will not get the vaccine in time. lots of people with learning disabilities have things like diabetes or heart problems, or lung problems. even before covid, more than four in ten people with a learning disability died of a lung condition like pneumonia. it's clear that, as a group of people, they really are at risk, and they should be prioritised. we're just as important as everybody else that should have a chance of having the vaccine. but we need it now, rather than later. death after death and crisis i

after crisis, ijust can't cope... legal action on the grounds of discrimination is being taken against the government. however, the department of health and social care says it is working hard to vaccinate all those at risk. they should be on top of the list. but with learning disabilities being such a complex, often misunderstood condition, campaigners believe that, once again, this group of people are being forgotten. nikki fox, bbc news. today's snowfall here in the uk affected four vaccination centres in wales which had to close. travel has been disrupted in many parts of the country, but some have been out enjoying the snow. simonjones spent the afternoon in surrey. we spoke to him a little earlier. this has been the first significant snowfall we've seen and southern england so far this winter, but it's affected a large amount of the uk. so, we've seen large snow showers and northern ireland, we've seen problems in wales where some

vaccination centres had to construct. the midlands has also been particularly hard—hit in some areas —— how to shut. there have been up to 12 cm in snow and some of this is falling onto land which has already been saturated after torrential rain and flooding. potentially, some more problems ahead. in terms of the weather, it's not snowing here at the moment, but the warning is for certain areas, could see further snow this evening until around midnight. when we get into tomorrow, we're not out of the woods because there are further warnings from the met office in place for icy conditions because you've got this snow, freezing conditions overnight, it's not going to melt so it could be pretty tricky getting around when it comes to conditions tomorrow. on your marks, get set, go! a race to get out into the open air after weeks cooped up inside during lockdown. ijust think it's so important for the soul to get out, enjoy the outdoors when you can.

it means literally the world to me because coronavirus has been really hard for people now. these hills in surrey resembled a ski resort as families came out for their permitted daily exercise. that's despite the met office issuing a severe warning of dangerous conditions underfoot and on the roads. in many places, there have been treacherous driving conditions. the snow has fallen on ground that was already freezing, and in many cases, saturated after days of rainfall. it's meant that many people have come up here by foot. a gritting lorry overturned in devon as drivers were warned only to travel if absolutely necessary. the flakes came down thick and fast across large swathes of the uk. this was a snowy scene in newport. four coronavirus vaccination centres in south wales were forced to shut. the met office says by the middle of the week, the cold and wintry conditions will give way to wet and windy ones, leading to fears of flooding.

simon jones, bbc news. we've seen people here coming out and enjoying the snow. to be fair, it's largely been family groups and we have seen social distancing. there are signs up warning people that they must maintain their distance. there was also a snowman outside scotland yard in central london, where quite warily, some snowfall actually collected and the police there warned people enjoying the snow to make sure they were sensible and make sure they did observe social distancing —— quite rarely. and didn't start mixing from people not from their family or social bubble. in terms of what we've got here, a few people still out and about enjoying it. the big challenge for some people here is going to be getting out of the car park, because we seen quite a lot of people, wheels spinning, trying to get out of here in the icy conditions. i'mjust get out of here in the icy conditions. i'm just hoping that i'll be able to find my way home

too. simonjones, maybe still there, who knows? now to the decline of the honey bee. as we've reported in the past, experts around the world are alarmed at the reduction in their numbers. but in bolivia, a vet and his wife are doing their best to save several colonies threatened by deforestation in the andes. gail maclellan reports. it's humid, it's subtropical, and high on the eastern andean slopes of the cordillera real, it's also vulnerable. as in many areas in bolivia, deforestation has become an issue. in this case, the trees are cut down to grow coca — in its most innocent form used to alleviate the symptoms of high altitude, but also used to produce cocaine. this deforestation is a huge blow, particularly for one of the littlest creatures dependent on the vegetation. vet eric paredes says the number of bees in the area has been halved, and this endangers food production. translation: bees are incredibly

important for our planet. - it's been shown that bees are responsible for 70% of food production around the world, so, from that point of view, we give greater importance to the work we do. and that work is looking for beehives to save, and creating safe habitats for the bees. wooden beehives keep the bees safe, and the vet and his wife have saved ten native species. you'll be relieved to know the species doesn't sting as well. convincing local farmers to assist with the conservation has been difficult. if their crops are not fruits, farmers see bees as a nuisance, not an aid to agricultural production. eric paredes is not going to give up. translation: the ob'ective of this place is for it h to become a bee research institution for all native, stingless bees, and we want to be able to transmit this knowledge to different regions so they're valued more. our mission is simply

to save the bees. and at the same time, to support a delicate ecosystem. gail maclellan, bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with nick miller. hello, still some very difficult conditions on the road this evening. if you have to be travelling. particularly into the midlands, the snow will clear away southwards tonight. the last of it clearing in the early hours, turning very icy behind that. and with these wintry showers that pep up across northern scotland. —7, —8, we start off on monday morning with a widespread frost. still treacherous on roads. if you have to be on in the morning. many of us tomorrow will have a dry and brighter day. there will still be the showers and scotland. some snow into the hills, maybe one or two for northern ireland and far north of england but many will stay

dry. it'll be a little less cold. it does get milder for a dry. it'll be a little less cold. it does get milderfor a time dry. it'll be a little less cold. it does get milder for a time for many of us. as we go through the week ahead, with that, it'll be turning later with more rain before it turns colder next weekend. —— turning what are.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: more than 70 cases of the south african variant of covid are identified in the uk — amid concerns the vaccine may be less effective against it. ministers say numbers are being closely monitored. we have an enhanced contact tracing to do everything we possibly can to stop them from spreading. the number of covid—19 cases in the united states passes 25 million — with the death toll soaring to nearly 418,000. israel has announced it will ban incoming flights from monday evening until the end ofjanuary —

in an attempt to slow the spread of coronavirus variants.