borisjohnson defends the uk government's decision not to impose further covid restrictions in england before the new year — and says 90% of those in intensive care haven't had a booster. the majority of people ending up in intensive _ the majority of people ending up in intensive care people were not boosted — intensive care people were not boosted. u, a, intensive care people were not boosted. _, t, ,, t, , t, boosted. nicola sturgeon rules out introducin: boosted. nicola sturgeon rules out introducing further _ boosted. nicola sturgeon rules out introducing further restrictions - boosted. nicola sturgeon rules out introducing further restrictions in l introducing further restrictions in scotland but urges caution as infections continue to rise. record numbers of covid infections are recorded in both france and the united states as the omicron variant continues to spread. high demand for covid pcr tests has left people waiting for days and pharmacists are warning of patchy supplies of rapid testing kits after changes to self isolation rules. we testing kits after changes to self isolation rules.— testing kits after changes to self isolation rules. ~ ., �* ~ ., isolation rules. we don't know when these are going _ isolation rules. we don't know when these are going to _ isolation rules. we don't know when these are going to be _ isolation rules. we don't know when these are going to be available - isolation rules. we don't know when these are going to be available so i these are going to be available so it's very— these are going to be available so it's very difficult _ these are going to be available so it's very difficult to _ these are going to be available so it's very difficult to plan _ these are going to be available so it's very difficult to plan and - these are going to be available so it's very difficult to plan and let. it's very difficult to plan and let people — it's very difficult to plan and let pe0pie know _ it's very difficult to plan and let pe0pie know in _ it's very difficult to plan and let people know in terms -

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when i was born. coming to terms with my identity felt like trying to deny a part of myself that i thought would never be reality. i kind of felt like a someone put a cap on a volcano and i wasjust sitting on top of that volcano, not trying to let that cap go. but in the end the volcano exploded. i want to be referred to as andi from now on. i was just mostly scared of the people around me, what they would think. i'm so happy! after the volcano exploded, all these flowers and trees and life flourished because the ground was, like, re—nourished.

but, you know, it's not all peaches and cream, sunshine and lollipops. things didn't go as planned. i can't live like this any more. fear really does do something to a person. this is my story. ah! this is who i am. i actually was born in queens, new york. i was there for five years until we moved straight from there to texas, and we haven't moved anywhere ever since. as a kid, i definitely wore a lot of boyish clothes. i did not enjoy wearing skirts, dresses, all that. maybe that was early symptoms of my dysphoria. gender dysphoria is the discomfort

and distress in individuals whose gender identity is different from what they were assigned at birth. i didn't even find out what lgbtq even meant until my middle school years, when i had access to the internet through my phone. no adults ever taught me about it or told me anything about it. bisexual, transgender, queer... overlapping voices. repelled by the mere - notion of homosexuality... gay couples on the steps of city hall... and every day it gets better. being here in texas, it's part of, like, the bible belt so there's a lot of conservative people here that maybe don't agree with the lgbtq lifestyle.

in early school days, like, elementary to middle school, they don't really teach you a lot, you know, only about the reproductive system and safe sex between straight couples. and, literally, that's it. no gay stuff. nuh—uh. that's. .. you can't, you shouldn't, you can't do that. my dysphoria started to manifest around the start of freshman year, i'd say. it's just a really uncomfy feeling that, like... it feels like it's like clawing at the back of my neck and itjust won't go away. at the time, my hair was about, like, this to this long. it was, like, really long. it was really heavy and it was

actually causing me neck pain. so, i was like, "huh, i want to get my hair cut." i would use that reasoning almost as, like, a cover—up excuse for, deep down, why i actually really wanted my hair cut. over time, the feeling got stronger and stronger, then i started realising, "i think there's something different here at play." basically, i got it all chopped off. when we went inside the car, i immediately started, like, bawling. i'm so happy! i've wanted this for so long! this feels better than i ever expected. when i finally, like, realised why ifelt like that, it, like... it was, like, a light bulb explosion. it was like, "oh my god," it got me so excited. it was probably the big changing moment to make me realise, "yeah, no, i'm probably... "probably tra nsgender. "

i want to officially say — hey, i want to be referred to as andi from now on. if you guys have any questions at all, feel free to swipe up and ask me, i will be glad to answer. i was scared, obviously, that some people might not think that it's ok, especially the adults, but i felt like, happy. like, really happy. the night before my birthday, i kind of was awake the entire time. i remember walking in the school and thinking, "oh, my god, "i'm an adult now, i am a legal adult. "it is my birthday, i am 18." then i got a text from my friend,

bella, and she was like, "hey, can you come up to the choir room real quick?" she doesn't get upset much, so, like, ithought it was a serious problem. when everything was ready, i brought him upstairs, and someone was videoing... i was greeted with the entire room filled with a bunch of people, yelling... surprise! happy birthday to you! she spun me around after they stopped singing happy birthday, and then she said, "so, since you're, like, a legal adult now, we kind of raised enough money for you to change your name." in my head, i was like... a sensory overload.

and ijust, as you can see in the video, completely broke down. and started crying. looking back on it makes me so extremely happy, honestly. i didn't have to pay to be comfortable with my name on paper and my legal name, so why should andi have to? the video went viral. andi just has so many people who love him and support him, it wasn't a difficult task to get the money raised for him, rather than having him have that burden himself. i feel like two completely separate people in my existence — from years ago to now. that's the thing, i was always the same person, but to me,

mentally, it felt like two different people that i've lived through. my family, we have talked about my identity and all that, but they're generally, like, ok now. at first, they weren't. not everything's, you know, perfect in this world, but that's totally fine. they're, like, ok now. now, the story behind this — i actually had a different cardboard sign taped to my door with my dead name, but i was like, "you know what? "let's change that." so i did. welcome! these are my paintings that i have done.

this is my most recent painting, that i'm very proud of. now, pertaining to my whole trans journey, i've been trying to, like, take a selfie picture of myself with my polaroid on every single one of my birthdays. that's the shortest my hair's ever been before i actually cut it, and that's a year after. these plaques are probably the most important plaques that i will ever own. they're from my all—state days, my all—state choir days. it was just one huge choir of all the best singers in texas. and i've done that three times! the third time, i actually got to put my name, like, my name—name on my plaque. the infamous birth certificate that i got when my friends gave me $300 to change my name. this is my closet. a lot of colours. and, yeah, that that's

my room — it's pink. it's very pink. yeah, it sucks. but that's ok, because i'm going to be moving out, anyways. i'm going to miss high school, i'm going miss high school a lot. i think the thing i'm going to miss the most isjust, like, having so many friends and connections with everyone. but i am looking forward to the next stage of my life and everything that's going to be happening next. it's going to be really exciting, i'm really excited. i have less than two weeks now till moving day. all the stuff i'm going to need. ah! it's so cool, it's my own card. it's a debit card, wow. i'm excited to move out of my parents' house and into college, where i canjust be myself.

at home, my family still uses my deadname and misgenders me. being deadnamed and being mispronouned is a lot more serious, a lot more on a deeper level thanjust, you know, the obvious. so, when you do get misidentified like that, it's a slap in the face every single time it happens. i understand where they come from, when they've never had a really close interaction with a trans person, and now their kid is one, so i can take the liberty to be like, "0k, like, i get it." today's the day. ah! oh, my gosh. oh, my god, oh, my god, oh, my god! ok, so, i'm kind of teary—eyed because ijust said goodbye to my parents.

but this is it, i'm here. i'm fine. i'm just really excited, and this is all so new, so... this is really exciting. later on, i'm going to be watching a movie with friends, so that's nice. i'm going to freshen up first because i've been sweaty all day. yeah, this... this is it. first day of college classes. my first class is japanese, and i'm really excited — and that's an in—person class, so i get to go to the language building. yay! ijust got groceries

for the first time and i legit forgot my card, so that's fun. i tried to get up, and i hit my head. really hard. i love adulting — i'm waking up early, i'm being productive. this is weird, i don't know, new environment. ok, i don't even know where to begin. long story short — i wasn't getting messages because my student email changed from my deadname to my actual name. so i had to re—log in with my new email, and it finally got changed. now ijust have to get my id changed, which i... i don't know how. one step at a time.

my name is still not andi, legally. the only reason why is, i have such an innate fear of changing it because of, like, how my parents are going to react. there's only so much that i can do to socially transition. i can cut my hair as short as i want, i can wear as much masculine clothing as i want, but that's all that i could do by myself. ifeel more dysphoric now than i did before. the more that i know that i've been, physically, this way for as long as i have is breaking me down the more that time passes. sometimes you can't even get up in the day, because you just feel extremely dysphoric. despite all of the really bad stuff

that i've been experiencing, ever since coming to college, it's done so much good for me, because, obviously, people have been meeting me as andi. they have never known me before i came out, and this is literally theirfirst impression of me. for the past few months — four months, i believe — i've been dating someone. we met online, met over tinder, of course. he actually took the liberty to go and do research about being trans and, like, how it affects someone. it takes that one little storm cloud away from the rest of my giant thunderstorm.

it's just one little thing i don't have to worry about any more. christmas time in the bernabe household is... ..fun in every other sense, but it's outweighed by the fear of what i'm going to have to wear. hello, it is currently christmas morning! on this beautiful day, on this bike that i'm low—key too short for. merry christmas, happy new year. before, my family would

take christmas pictures every single year. we would dress up fancy in the theme of whatever the christmas decorations were. every year before this one, i would wear a dress. but this year, this year was so different because i wore a suit. in any other circumstance, i don't think i would be able to, but because our christmas decorations were pink for 2020, it gave me the perfect opportunity to be like, "hey, mum, can i wear my pink suit for these christmas pictures, "because it's perfect and it's perfect and everything?" she also agreed. she was like, "yeah, sure, you can wear that. "like, its notjust perfectly." and i'm like... i really felt, like, normal. like, it wasn't an argument, it wasn't like a thing i had to spend weeks convincing.

it just. .. itjust happened. these are like the special moments that people talk about when they think about theirfamily, and now i have one of those, so it's it's really cool. it's my 19th birthday today! it's been literally exactly a year since when my friends surprised me with the gift that they gave me. a year later, and my name is still not legally andi. fear really does do something to a person. i'm in college, i obviously cannot pay this myself at the moment. i don't have a job, i'm trying to look for one, and so i'm currently depending on my parents to pay my tuition and things like that. there's a possibility that they might not do that any more

if i get my name changed. or there's a possibility to where they're going to ask me to have it changed back. so, today is the day that i'm going home. it's currently like 6:00—something in the morning, and i am so exhausted. i think this weekend, i'm going to specifically bring up the topic of testosterone. because i am at the age where i can go do that by myself. i'm really nervous, honestly. it might get emotional, the conversation, but that's ok.

this is nothing that i haven't talked about before. so it's not like it's anything new. like, "hello, i'm trans," out of nowhere. but, yeah, we'll see how it goes. the main point within the conversation that we had that weekend was that she does not feel comfortable with me making big decisions, like getting my name change or starting testosterone or getting my surgery, until i am mature.

i one day hope that my mum realises, "oh, shoot, this is serious. "this is real. "this is a valid thing that my child is going through, "and i'm now realising that this is really important to them and that "i need to be a supportive parent and help my kid be happy." it's not the last time that we're going to have this conversation, that's just going to be a constant, constant thing that's going to be happening, that's probably never going to stop happening. it's taken me a while to accept the fact that things just don't go as planned, and you just got to keep going despite that. i'm finallyjust at the point where i can look back at myself and realised that i've become a lot more of myself.

i'm so glad that i didn't give up when i really, really, really wanted to — because now i'm here. this is my story and this is who i am, and i'm honestly so glad that you all have, you know, come along with this ride with me and watched myjourney this past year. and i just wanted to say thank you.

today we have seen a band of rain moving north—eastwards across the uk, and the next few days into the new year, still unsettled, some rain at times, accompanied by some stronger winds, the main feature of the weather is just how mild it is going to be throughout. over the next few days in england we could see temperatures reaching 17 celsius. bear in mind the average for this time in england is around 8 degrees, so we could be setting a few records in the days ahead. as we head into the early part of this evening, still 15 degrees in the south—east of england, in london, across the north—east of scotland, eight celsius, here we have had the rain a bit longer, bit heavy as well, clearing away from mainland scotland, heading up to the northern isles, may be a few breaks in the cloud for a while as we head further into the night, the cloud tends thicken, we get some rain coming into western parts of the uk in particular and with the winds from the south or south—west, it is going to be very mild tonight, much milder in the north—east of scotland that it was last night for sure. we start

tomorrow with a lot of cloud around, bits of rain as well, pushing its way eastwards, not much rain for the eastern side of england or scotland. we may well see some sunshine coming through in eastern england and scotland, but more rain coming into wales, and eventually the north west of england. these are the temperatures we have on thursday, could make 70 degrees by the stage in east anglia and the south—east, and much milder than today in the north—east of scotland. as we move into the new year, new year's eve, looking at some rain to start the day across scotland and northern england. that would tend to pull away, skies may brighten, there may be a little bit of brighton —— brightness coming through but it is telling dryer, and mild, not quite as mad across northern parts of scotland but still 16 or 17 toward south—eastern parts of england. it is so mild because the winds are coming all the way from the tropics, south to south—westerly winds ahead of these weather fronts, which are focusing the rain, which is mainly going to be across more north—western parts of the country as we head into the new year. we

start though with some exceptionally mild air across the uk, overnight into new year's day. still some rain around, mainly across western areas and the bulk of that across north—western parts of england, northern ireland and scotland. it all tends to push away. the skies should brighten with some sunshine and if you showers, still quite windy on saturday, there is very mild south to south—westerly winds with highs of 16 to 17 celsius.

this is bbc news broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world . our top stories: borisjohnson defends his government's decision not to impose further covid restrictions in england before the new year — and says as many as 90% of people who are seriously ill haven't had a third vaccine dose the overwhelming majority of people who are currently ending up in intensive care in our hospitals are people who are not boosted. nicola sturgeon rules out any further restrictions in scotland, but continues to urge caution as cases rise further. record numbers of covid infections are recorded in both france and the united states, as the omicron variant continues to spread.