this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the oxford—astrazeneca vaccine is approved for use in the uk. 100 million doses are on order. it will be rolled out from next week. on the plus side, we have got two valid vaccines and we are racing, as i say, to get them out. on the downside, there is a new strain of the virus which is spreading much faster and searching across the country. but the news on the vaccine comes as the number of deaths reported in last 2a hours in the ukjumps to 981, and with covid infections surging — three quarters of england's population now face the toughest level of restrictions.

the ayes have it! as uk mps vote overwhelmingly for borisjohnson‘s brexit trade deal, the prime minister says britain will now have its cake and eat it. in yemen, a rocket attack kills at least 20 people at an airport, shortly after a plane carrying government officials touches down. and 15 people are missing after a landslide sweeps through a village in norway. welcome to bbc news with the latest from here in the uk and around the world. the uk has become the first country in europe to approve the use of two covid—19 vaccines. today, the uk medicines regulator gave the go—ahead for the oxford—astrazeneca vaccine, signaling a landmark moment in the fight against coronavirus.

but, as the news of the vaccine was received, it was also announced that roughly 20 million more people across england are set to join the toughest tier 4 covid restrictions from tomorrow morning. the midlands, north east, parts of the north west and parts of the south west are among those escalated to tier 4, with people asked to stay at home and in another of today's announcements, it was confirmed that the reopening of secondary schools in england will be delayed untiljanuary 18th for most pupils. however, most primary schools will go back as planned. meanwhile, in the republic of ireland, what's been described as "full scale" level 5 restrictions will be reimposed untiljanuary 31st in a bid to contain the spread of covid—19. first, more on the approval of the oxford astrazeneca vaccine and what it

means for the uk and the rest of the world here is our medical editor, fergus walsh. a fantastic achievement for british science. we are very proud. a significant moment. this is the vaccine more than any other that will eventually bring coronavirus under control in the uk. transportable under control in the uk. tra nsportable at room under control in the uk. transportable at room temperature, it means every care home in the uk should now be in reach. the medicines regulator said no corners had been cut in delivering a vaccine in record time. with this approval of the second vaccine, we are another step closer in helping to defeat this virus. our clear message is you can have every confidence in the safety, the effectiveness and the safety, the effectiveness and the quality of covid—19 vaccine astrazeneca. the vaccine uses a gene from the spike shaped protein on the

surface of coronavirus. this is put inside a modified this virus. the vaccine instructs human cells to make the spike protein, which prompts the immune system to create antibodies, which can recognise and destroy coronavirus. and it stimulates t—cells, which should destroy cells that have become infected. so just how effective is the vaccine? the latest estimate is it gives 70% protection against covid three weeks after the first dose. the nhs will now hold back giving the second dose of all covid vaccines until 12 weeks, so more people can get protected. the most pragmatic thing to do is to give us money at risk people as possible the first dose of the vaccine, because we know from three weeks after the first dose there is a very good level of protection, and nobody in the clinical trials at that point after their first dose was in

hospital with covid or experiencing the disease. it's a race between the vaccine and the virus, which means getting millions of doses approved quickly. we will shift a bit more than 500,000 doses this week, to start being used on monday, and from there we will rapidly escalate deliveries. i think, there we will rapidly escalate deliveries. ithink, by there we will rapidly escalate deliveries. i think, by the end of march, we will be in a very different place. what many want to know is, when will they get immunised? how many people will be nhs immunised every week, because surely it needs to be in the millions? the best answerl can give at the moment is that we will have millions of doses, tens of millions of doses, by the end of march. we are working to get the programme going as fast as we can. i don't wa nt to going as fast as we can. i don't want to give you specific numbers at the moment. much of the production

is done in the uk, like here in oxford. unlike the more expensive pfizer jab, oxford. unlike the more expensive pfizerjab, which oxford. unlike the more expensive pfizer jab, which is oxford. unlike the more expensive pfizerjab, which is produced in belgium. manufacturing facilities like this over the world are produced in bulk quantities of oxford—astrazeneca vaccine. the aim is to have 3 billion doses of the vaccine by the end of 2021. to deliver a safe and effective covid vaccine in less than a year is a stunning achievement. the challenge now, to ensure rapid roll—out to those who need it most. our medical editor, fergus walsh, with that report. inafew in a few moments, we will speak with somebody from the oxford team and putting your questions to them. stay with us for that. millions more people in england will be placed under tier 4 restrictions in the next few hours and asked to stay at home. the health secretary, matt hancock, said the change was due to the rapid increase in cases in england,

fuelled by the new variant. three quarters of the english population will be under the toughest measures from tomorrow. our health correspondent, dominic hughes, reports. in birmingham, just time for a last trip before tier 4 restrictions at midnight. after a tough year, another bitter setback. absolutely devastated again that we have just got going after reopening on the 2nd of december. we are just getting back on our feet again. how many more times can we be locked down? the bills keep rolling in. it is really difficult to keep coming back. in england more than three quarters of the population will be in the highest level of restrictions. matt hancock told mps the new more contagious covid variant was driving infections up. unfortunately this new variant is spreading across most of england and cases are spreading fast. it is necessary to apply tier 4 to many other areas.

that includes remaining parts of the south—east as well as large parts of the midlands, north—west, north—east and south—west. this is a global crisis but a national emergency. our national health service is becoming overwhelmed. i hope the tier 4 restrictions are enough but many believe even tougher restrictions are inevitable. some believe lockdowns can only do so much. it lasts for three or four weeks and then it wears off so it is important that regardless of which tiers we are in we continue to take the test and maintain social distancing. rising case numbers are hurting the health service. already buckling under pressure in the south and east infections are growing in the north and west. burnley has already been hit hard by the pandemic this year but has again seen a rapid growth in cases

and it is notjust businesses that will be affected — the local hospice depends on the money raised each year by a charity shops. it has been a huge hit. we have been full throughout the pandemic. our services are also caring for more people in the community. to close our shops is a real kick to us. parts of england that have seen relatively low case numbers in recent months like taunton now find themselves in tier 4. it is clear we are heading into the new year in the middle of a second wave that is yet to show any signs of subsiding. it is a place no one wanted to be. the government has delayed the return to school for hundreds of thousands of pupils in england, because of rising coronavirus cases. secondary school pupils in exam years will return from january the 11th, a week later than planned. other secondary pupils will go back full—time from the 18th of january,

to allow headteachers to roll out mass testing. the education secretary, gavin williamson, said ministers had to make an "immediate adjustment" to plans to begin reopening schools next week. ireland's prime minister has announced that tough public—health restrictions will remain in place for the next four weeks to try and stop the spread of coronavirus. here's how micheal martin made the announcemnent, in a televised address to the nation. i've always been clear that we will do what we need to do to suppress the virus when it is growing. and it is now growing exponentially. the truth is that with the presence of the new strain and the pace of growth, this is not a time for nuance in our response. we must apply the brakes to movement and physical interaction across the country. we must return to full—scale, level 5 restrictions for a period of at least one month.

other news this hour, and the uk prime minister has told the bbc his new trade deal with the european union means the country will have its cake and eat it. but, as mps voted overwhelmingly for the deal, more than four years after the referendum, he refused to acknowledge that new barriers to doing business with the eu will come into force in less than 48 hours, only admitting that there will be "changes". he was speaking to our political editor, laura kuenssberg. signing on the dotted line over there, then a short hop for the 1246 page document. the cargo of an raf plane to get back here. ready for boris johnson's signature. here it is. the man who campaigned for brexit, became prime minister because of it, and now his deal, this day scrolled into history. what this deal does is it satisfies the request of the british people to take back control,

and what that meant was that we now have the freedom to do things differently and do things better if we choose. in the knowledge that there are no barriers to... but, prime minister, that's factually not the case. it's not true that there will not be more barriers. you have got more political control, but you can't sit there and say that there won't be extra friction. there will be changes, and we've been very clear with people that they'll have to get ready forjanuary the 1st, that things will work differently, and at the same time we cannot only exploit the advantages of a zero tariff, zero quota deal with the eu. people said that that was impossible. and they said that that was having your cake and eating it. so i want you to see this as a cake—ist treaty. so you are having your cake and eating it? you've said it. but there will be new barriers because, if you don't admit that, honestly now, aren't people going to be really peeved

when they find out? all we are doing is, i think, solving what everybody said was a kind of impossible, you know, contradiction in terms. the political screaming and shouting of the last few years only echoes in parliament's polls of the last few years only echoes in pa rliament‘s polls now. of the last few years only echoes in parliament's polls now. the prime minister had his day. perhaps brexit‘s opponents have only relu cta nce brexit‘s opponents have only reluctance left. it is the only deal we have. it is a basis to build on for years to come. it is the only way to ensure we avoid no deal. an awkward moment for labour but only one mp voted against and a sprinkling of labour mps quit the front bench to join others who are abstaining. i have the greatest respect for the result of the 2016 referendum, but this shoddy dealfalls short.

only smaller parties raging and officially voting against. we now finally know what brexit means, we have it in black and white. it means a disaster of a deal. it means broken promises, it means economic vandalism. but not a single tory mp voted against the deal. europe ended the careers of several of the prime ministers whose portraits line this famous staircase. do you believe you have ended the conservative party's agony over europe? i am very hopeful that is the case. this is not the end of britain as a european country. many people will be worried that it is, that emphatically is not the case. with the overwhelming backing of the commons, after years it is the end of one profound relationship and outwardly,

at least, the calm start of another. but in the time to come, our relationship with the rest of europe may be no less complicated underneath. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. let's speak to mary honeyball, former labour mep for london from 2000 to 2019. we heard the prime minister telling laura that he is having his cake and eating it, whereas serco starmer said it's a thin deal but it is the only deal you have, and it's a possibility now to build on it. we are where we are. how possibility now to build on it. we are where we are. how do you build on it? you can build on it, of course, and nobody disagrees with that. the problem is, by voting for the deal, labour has actually said they are complicit in it, and it will be very difficult in future labour to make any comment and constructive critical comment if this deal goes through, and now this deal has gone through and labour have voted for it. labour is now complicit in it. my view was that it would have been much betterfor the party to abstain. this is not a good

deal, and i think we need to understand this. it's an eu deal. unit benefits from it in terms of the trade than britain does. —— the eu benefits more. financial services, 80% of british gdp, is not included at all. it's not a good dealfor britain included at all. it's not a good deal for britain and included at all. it's not a good dealfor britain and labour included at all. it's not a good deal for britain and labour has included at all. it's not a good dealfor britain and labour has now said that they agree with what is not a good deal, and i don't think that's the place to be. yes, we might be able to build on it, yes, we should respect it, but i don't think voting for it was the answer. labour should have abstained. that should have been what the labour party decided to do, and sadly they didn't. given how long it's taken to get to where we are, are you seriously suggesting it would have been beneficial to jeopardise this deal, however keir starmer described it, rather than taking it forward and building on it? abstaining would not have jeopardised it. and building on it? abstaining would not havejeopardised it. i and building on it? abstaining would not have jeopardised it. i think we had to make sure it went through,

because it is the only deal, and it's obviously much better than no deal. no deal would have been a com plete deal. no deal would have been a complete disaster for the country. abstaining would have led labour to the position where they said, yes, we are not going to obstruct it, but we are not going to obstruct it, but we don't think it is that good a deal. in future, we don't think it is that good a deal. infuture, it we don't think it is that good a deal. in future, it might be possible to build back on it, and that's what i hope happens, for now, labour shouldn't have jeopardised it at all, and didn'tjeopardise it, but also they should not have wholeheartedly supported it. there was one labour mp voted against it, 36 others defying serco starmer‘s order and not voting at all or actively abstaining, so there is an element of lack of support for it. that's true, and we know that, but that obviously wasn't enough, and the labour position is now that they voted for it. it's a bad deal. not only is it bad in terms of trade,

kpmg have forecast that, because of this brexit deal, the british economy will shrink by nearly 3% next year, and that will involve the loss of jobs next year, and that will involve the loss ofjobs and opportunities, particularly in manufacturing. we will be poorer. we will also be less safe, because britain is not now going to be part of the pan—european information system, which helps catch terrorists. neither will britain be in the european arrest warrant, which allows criminals to be brought back to their member state for trial, so we will be poorer and less safe. this is not a good deal. thank you so much for your time. an attack on the airport in the southern yemeni city of aden has left at least 20 dead and more than 50 wounded. the casualties include members of the new yemeni government as well as local and expatriate aid workers. the yemeni government has

blamed its houthi rivals, aligned to iran, who control most of northern yemen. ten people have been injured, one critically, in a landslide that buried houses in the norwegian village of gjerdrum, north—east of the capital, oslo. you can see the enormous crater that appeared in the early hours of wednesday. thousands have been evacuated, and a number of people who live in the area are still unaccounted for. now on bbc news, back to the latest developments in tackling coronavirus and today's news of a second vaccine approval in the uk — it's time for your questions answered the coronavirus vaccine developed by oxford university and astrazeneca have been approved for use in the uk. around 530,000 doses will be avialable from monday. the uk government has ordered

100 million doses of the vaccine, enough to vaccinate 50 million people. you've been sending in your questions all day, and with me to answer some of them is dr maheshi ramasamy, an investigator for the oxford vaccine group. i think first of all we have to start by thanking you for your tremendous hard work and saying congratulations. how do you feel? thank you. they're excited. we are thrilled and delighted today, but it's a huge team effort. lots of people have been working hard on delivering this project. we have been working through the year. it's a massive team effort. on behalf of everybody watching, and all of us in the newsroom, thank you, it's tremendous news. lots of questions, so tremendous news. lots of questions, so let's get started. peter asks, who will get the oxford—astrazeneca

vaccine? so, the committee that decides the prioritisation on vaccine roll—out is called thejcvi, thejoint committee vaccine roll—out is called thejcvi, the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation, and they have rolled out a hierarchy of people across the uk and the order in which they need to be vaccinated. for example, these include people who live in care homes and staff who work in those care homes, the elderly and front line health care workers, and there are a variety of other groups as well, people with communities which put at risk of developing covid infection and older age groups. this comes to about 25 million people. these are the first sets of people who will be offered the covid—19 vaccines going forward. the jcvi has the covid—19 vaccines going forward. thejcvi has said that either vaccine that is now approved, either the pfizer one or the oxford one, can be used across those groups, and

i think what is really going to determine which vaccine you are offered is the logistics of vaccine roll—out. it might be that some people are offered the pfizer vaccine, easy for them to have it because they are close to a hospital, whereas others will be offered the oxford vaccine because they will receive it through, example, theirgp they will receive it through, example, their gp surgery. what is important is you take the vaccine you are offered, because what's really critical in preventing transmission is that we have good coverage of vaccines, so good uptake across the population. cole what about allergies? linda is asking, she has various allergies, how do i know if it will be safe for me to have? the guidance released by the mhra today is that you should avoid the vaccine if you have had a previous allergic reaction to the

components of the vaccine, and the components of the vaccine, and the components of the pfizer and oxford vaccines are listed and freely available on the uk government website. for your listener, i available on the uk government website. foryour listener, iwould say the thing to do is to go through those with her health practitioner and decide whether, which of those two vaccines she will be able to have, depending on her individual health care needs. a question from canada has come from edward, who asks, and you are the perfect person to answer, where is the oxford—astrazeneca vaccine manufactured? oxford—astrazeneca vaccine manufactured ? the oxford—astrazeneca vaccine manufactured? the concern is the supply chain could take longer to reach some parts of the world. that's something that is not controlled by the university of oxford but is determined by astrazeneca. one of the reasons the university partnered with astrazeneca is because it has an extensive network of manufacturing capabilities and supply and logistics around the world, which

means that it's going to be very rapidly upscaling production and delivering the vaccine across the world. for the uk vaccine, and this will be manufactured both in the uk and the netherlands, the real advantage of the oxford vaccine is it can be stored between two and 8 degrees, so in a normalfridge, and thatis degrees, so in a normalfridge, and that is how most vaccines are normally rolled out across the country and the world. childhood immunisations or travel vaccines are usually stored at that temperature. we can tap into the existing logistics networks used by health ca re logistics networks used by health care professionals. a quick answer on the different types of vaccines, and we know two have been approved. if you are given the pfizer—biontech jab is the first dose, can you have the option astrazeneca won a second, 01’ the option astrazeneca won a second, or to both have come from the same manufacturer? the mhra approvals are based on having two doses of the same vaccine, so two doses of the

pfizer or the oxford vaccine. of course, it's a really interesting question as to whether or not you could have a combined schedule, where you would have one dose of an mrna followed by second dose of the oxford vaccine. that's an interesting question which we hope to look at in a trial we are going to look at in a trial we are going to start in the early part of next year. but we don't have the data to support that yet. quickly, if you have the first dose and then there is the 12 week delay in receiving the second dose, is that the because of logistics or shortage? the oxford vaccine is licensed, their approval is based on having a second vaccine between four and 12 weeks, any time within that period. what we need is to be able to provide protection very rapidly to as many people as possible, given the perilous state

of the pandemic. crucialto possible, given the perilous state of the pandemic. crucial to get many people don't quickly put up congratulations. thank you for your time and we are also very grateful to you. hello there. hasn't been too bad a day for many of us after a very cold start. we've seen quite a bit of sunshine around. northern scotland has seen a lot of very heavy snowfall. we're likely to see more rain, sleet and snow over the next few days. that combined with overnight ice likely to cause some disruption. so, stay tuned to the forecast for all the details. but in the short term, we've still got this cold pool of air across the country. these weather fronts enhancing shower activity. now, this front is passing to the south of england and should take any rain, sleet, snow showers with it. and then we focus in on this new front pushing in to northern scotland, bringing another round of rain, sleet and snow. mainly rain to the coast but some heavy snow inland. certainly over the high ground with some significant accumulations. there will be further wintry showers dotted around western coast, central and eastern parts of england

will see the best of the drier weather with the clear skies. so here, it will be really cold overnight with a risk of frost and ice. so into tomorrow for new year's eve, it's going to be a dry, very cold, frosty start for central and eastern areas. plenty of sunshine around, heavy snow continues across much of scotland, certainly over the higher ground. this will be pushing southward through the day into northern england. i think mainly rain to the coasts, snow inland. there will be further wintry showers across some western areas. the best of the dry and brighter weather, central and eastern england — but here, we could see a little bit of mist and fog around. it's going to be a very cold day. now, through thursday night, it stays very wintry across the north. further showers here, and the mix of rain, sleet and snow pushes southwards into england and wales first thing on new year's day whereas further north, we start to see some clear spells developing. a very cold night to come. again, risk of ice and some frost. so, we've got low pressure to the east of the country, higher pressure to the west for new year's day. and this weather front straddling parts of england and wales and it will bring quite a lot of cloud

around, i think, for new year's day. with spits and spots of light rain on it. could see some light snow over the higher grounds. it still will be cold. scotland, northern ireland, and then later northern england should see the best of any brightness through new year's day but further wintry showers will be pushing to northern coasts. and those temperatures, maybe not quite as cold as it has been — 4—7 celsius. still, that is cold. and then for the first weekend of january 2021, it remains cold, some sunshine around, some wintry showers affecting north sea coasts.

this is bbc world news. the headlines.

the oxford/astrazeneca vaccine has been approved for use in the uk — 100 million doses are on order and it will be rolled out from next week. the news on the vaccine comes as the number of deaths reported in last 2a hours in the ukjumps to 981 and with covid infections surging, three quarters of england's population now face the toughest level of restrictions. in yeman, a rocket attack kills at least 20 people at an airport shortly after a plane carrying government officials touches down. the yemeni government has blamed its houthi rivals aligned to iran who control most of northern yemen. and, 15 people are missing after a landslide sweeps through a village in norway. thousands have been evacuated, and a number of people who live in the area are still unaccounted for. now on bbc news, 2020 was supposed to celebrate 50 years of the iconic