they've seen so far. so what do we know about the new variant? well it is early days ? the new variant was discovered just 3 days ago genetic analysis shows it has twice the number of mutations as delta, the dominant variant worldwide, including around 30 changes to the spike protein which the virus uses to break into human cells. this makes it dramatically different from the original wuhan strain on which all current vaccines are based. crucially there is no evidence yet that the variant causes more severe disease or that it makes vaccines less effective. it will take two to three weeks before laboratory tests can show whether this is another defining moment in the pandemic or a false alarm. the uk government are taking no chances — it's announced that flights from six african nations are set to be suspended— and anyone arriving from these countries will need to go into quarantine from sunday. from what we do know there's a significant number of mutations, perhaps double the number of mutations that we have seen in the delta variant. and that would suggest that it may well be more transmissible and the current vaccines that we have may well be less effective. i've been speaking to our news reporter mark lobel about these changes to the red list. all the countries taking off but it was kept as a preventative measure and is being used in such against the six countries for this new travel ban. that has been triggered by these cases found in south africa of this variant that you have been outlining. for cases in botswana and one in hong kong. this is the most heavily mutated variant so find of course, as we have been saying, concerning how fast it can spread and whether vaccines can stand up to it, all of which are unknown is at the moment so the uk has taken the step to band travel from the six countries and let's take a look at which ones they are. south africa is one. botswana, namibia, listed two, s bertini and zimbabwe. we are waiting to find out if other countries are going to follow suit and ban flights from those countries too but in terms of uk travel rules on how they stand right now there will be a flight ban in place into the hotel quarantine has been set up under is up and running. for anyone already arrived in one of those countries recently they are being asked to do pcr test. very one who arrives between now and 4am on sunday the are being asked to quarantine for ten days at home and pcr test in the second and eighth day back from sunday with the six countries on the red this to anyone who arrives will to quarantine in a hotel for ten days but the only people allowed in from those countries will be either uk or irish nationals or customers, travellers with uk residency rights. no one else will be allowed to take this fight to the uk. we've seen these variations before. this seems quite sudden. what is the reaction been? people the booked flights and ones that travel list was clear, and we had reaction from british airways. they say that they will be contacting affected customers with information about flight and advising them to monitor the latest travel advice. the consumer group which has said that passengers will be entitled to a full refund from uk and eu carriers of their accommodation may be more difficult. it will depend on the local into the habit with but born in a statement this worrying uses a reminder that travel is not back to normal. the pandemic continues to disrupt passengers travel plans often with very little notice. it is vital travellers choose holiday providers with good flexible booking policies in case your trip cannot go ahead. it has been called prudent, this move, by professor niall ferguson is one of the uk's to government advisers and south african scientists have said it could take six or eight weeks to analyse the results properly. but there has been displeasure in south africa is putting up the borders and reacting in this way. they have done such a good job finding this they would rather help and support finding new variants and spotting them and point to the fact that two thirds of older people in south africa have vaccinated. but it throws up also the question of how did we get here? the campaign at global justice now has criticised the uk from, and his word, preventing lower middle income countries were having equitable access to covert vaccines. he says we have created the conditions for this variant to emerge. visit was entirely avoidable and he is basically saying world leaders have been constantly asked to waive intellectual property on vaccine tests and treatments. so that the super variants would not be able to take place. but what happened as the uk is part of the kovacs vaccine system so they've been sending millions of vaccines to poor countries and if you look at how this one is alleged to have begun, this variant, it is likely the variant was produced inside someone with a compromised immune system. someone with something like hiv, who got a persistent covert infection so the covert variant was multiplying, mutating dozens of times within this person's body. aside from that brain game, one british scientist has said this new variant is horrific and another told the bbc it is the worst variant they had ever seen. this is clearly concerning the british government even though no cases be detected in the uk, so what they are trying to do is protect the progress of that there moving out of the vaccines across the country by doing this very sudden move. the united nations says the shocking deaths of twenty—seven people who drowned in the english channel on wednesday could have been avoided. the un refugee agency warned that closing off legal routes to people applying for asylum would lead to more dangerous attempts to reach safe countries. earlier, britain and france called for stronger international coordination on human trafficking. our europe correspondent nick beake has been inside a makeshift camp near dunkirk — to hear about their journey. beside an abandoned train track in northern france, families desperate to resume their own journey to the uk, despite the horror of the past 2a hours. for now, more than 500 people call this camp home. among them, new arrivals, this family from iraq. their family has grown in the three years they've been on the road, trudging through more than half a dozen countries to get here. romania, after hungary, after france, after the uk. but tonight, all six will sleep in this tent, and every night, until they risk the english channel. would you still be prepared to try and get a boat to the united kingdom? "we cannot survive here," she tells us. "we will freeze. we have to go to the uk." and you say you have travelled through lots of countries, including germany. now you're in france. why do you want to try and reach the united kingdom? "it's much betterforfamilies in the uk," she says, "and for keeping families together." this corner of northern france has witnessed these scenes and heard these sort of stories for more than 20 years now. it feels like a conveyor belt of misery, and this is a new generation, willing to risk everything to try and make it to the united kingdom. we meet a group of afghan men who say they fled the taliban this summer. this man wants to get to britain so his wife can follow, along with his three daughters, who can then continue their studies. have you tried to cross already on a boat? yeah, two times. and what happened? the boat was broken - in the sea, so the police came and took us out. we were all in the water. yeah, we nearly died. he then reveals he had briefly met two of those who died yesterday. i said to him, "0k, - good luck to go, and i'm not going with you." they said bye— bye. did it look like they were hopeful? i'm very sorry. the deaths of so many of their fellow travellers has numbed many here, but it's not changed where they want to go. nick beake, bbc news, dunkirk. let s get some of the day s other news. the german chancellor, angela merkel, has said the european union needs to be united in dealing with what she called the weaponisation of migrants against poland. speaking alongside the polish prime minister she said germany fully supported poland's stance — adding that where possible the migrants should be repatriated. the european union accuses belarus of manufacturing the crisis on its borders with eu members. reports from russia say 52 people are now known to have died in a siberian coal mine where a fire broke out, trapping dozens underground. some of the victims were rescuers. about fifty people were injured, with some in critical condition. rescue efforts had to be suspended because of the risk of explosion from high levels of methane gas. police in turkey's largest city, istanbul, fired tear gas to break up a protest by thousands of women against gender— based violence. the demonstrators marched to taksim square, in the city centre, where clashes broke out with security forces. the protesters are angry about the government's decision to withdraw from the istanbul convention — an international accord to reduce violence against women. australian peacekeepers have arrived overnight in the solomon islands — after the country's prime minister appealed for help quelling violent unrest that threatened to topple his government. several buildings were burnt down in honi—ara, when over a thousand rioters stormed the chinatown district. unrest broke out on wednesday, when protesters besieged the parliament, calling for the pm's resignation. doctorjon fraenkel is a politics professor at victoria university in wellington, and a specialist on the solomon islands. earlier, he gave me an update on the situation. there have been two days of rioting. firstly in the central area of the capital of the solomon islands and yesterday, in the chinatown area towards the east. the police managed to quell some of the disturbances in the central area but all hell broke loose in chinatown. many buildings burnt down and there are sporadic things going on in the east as we speak. why are they calling for the prime minister to resign? part of a long—running dispute that has been going on since september 2019 when they switched diplomatic recognition from thailand to china and the provincial government strongly objected to that switch and has wanted to retain links with taiwan which is led to a long—running stand—off between the prime minister and premier. a lot of people from the island have rallied behind their premier, resisted efforts of the premise and national government to unseat that premier and now a pro and asking for the prime minister himself to be unseated. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: egypt puts on an elaborate ceremony to mark the reopening of the ancient path of god in luxor. president kennedy was shot down and died almost immediately. the murder ofjohn kennedy is a disaster for the whole free world. he caught the imagination of the world — the first of a new generation of leaders. margaret thatcher is resigning as leader of the conservative party and prime minister. before leaving number ten to see the queen, she told her cabinet, "it's a funny old world." angela merkel is germany's first woman chancellor, easily securing the majority she needed. attempts to fly a hot air - balloon had to be abandoned after a few minutes, but nobody seemed i to mind very much. as one local comic put it, "it's not hot air- we need, it's hard cash." cuba has declared nine days of mourning following the death of fidel castro at the age of 90. castro developed close ties with the soviet union in the 1960s — it was an alliance that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war with the cuban missile crisis. this is bbc news, the latest headlines. britain has banned arrivals from six african countries amid warnings over a rapidly—spreading new coronavirus variant. china has released its latest white paper on partnerships in africa detailing broad themes and guidelines forjoint cooperation in the future. titled "a partnership of equals", it stressed that china and africa will always be a community with a shared future. the focus this time is mainly on three areas — green investments, post—covid recovery and mutual support in internationalforums. high—level exchanges will also continue to play an important role. lina benabdallah is assistant professor of politics and international affairs at wake forest university in north carolina. she specialises in china—africa relations and is on the board of the china—africa network. she's been watching the event in china. thank you forjoining us. lots of rhetoric there. what we make of rhetoric there. what we make of this? . thank you for having me. indeed, this is the third white paper that the chinese government puts for its africa policy. the first one was in 2006 in the second one isn't in thousand 13 and today we saw a press conference announcing the third white paper so this paper is very important because it does an assessment of what has already been achieved in the china africa cooperation especially since the year 2000, which marked the launch of the forum of china africa cooperation. as we know, next week, there is the eighth forum of china africa cooperation so this white paper comes just ahead of that forum and it is a way to do broad assessments of what has been achieved and send a strong message that china africa relations are continuing to be as strong as they were when the summit was launched initially. when the summit was launched initiall . ~ . ., ., , initially. we have heard lots of thin . s initially. we have heard lots of things like _ initially. we have heard lots of things like a _ initially. we have heard lots of things like a partnership l initially. we have heard lots. of things like a partnership of equals and closing of ties? what have we learned that his knee because what seems to have happened over the past few years as investment has massively ramped up in the continent. what do we know now from this white paper that maybe we did not know before. there are a few things that seem to be relatively new although china africa relations and policies and strategies in africa have not usually been marked by continuity and continuing the same level of relations are not doing too many new things but since the pandemic indicated 19 situations in first year of course a lot of things have changed and this is opened up opportunities to expand cooperation is a new areas and so we keep the term new area, new area. and this has something to do with health cooperation. we are going to see a lot more cooperation on that front and digital infrastructure. these are things that have also been present since the pandemic. we are going to also see probably more cooperation on their green sector. the greenside of investments. so these are just a few partnerships and few areas of cooperation that have opened up since the last year and we are going to see of course, she mentioned earlier, continuing cooperation in terms of exchanges between government officials, local and regional state governments, cultural exchanges are going to continue to be important. students, scholarships and exchanges between media journalists and so on. these are going to continue in the china africa relations. continue in the china africa relations-— relations. we saw a lot of vaccines _ relations. we saw a lot of vaccines been _ relations. we saw a lot of vaccines been sent - relations. we saw a lot ofj vaccines been sent across relations. we saw a lot of i vaccines been sent across to africa from china as well. that is all we have got time for now. thank you very much down. thank you very much down. with just a few months to go to the winter olympics, china is holding test events for ski and snowboard cross. but despite repeated calls from the olympic committee not to politicise the event — some countries are considering boycotting the games in light of china's human rights violations and the recent concerns over the wellbeing of chinese tennis star, peng shuai. 0ur china correspondent, stephen mcdonnell, has been to the venue, to see how the country is getting ready for the olympics despite all the controversies. the way to see if you're ready to host the olympics is with test events. and beijing is holding them right now. beijing wants spectators at the games and has already tried this out at the sliding centre. but tennis star peng shuai sent shock waves through the preparation process when she accused a former government leader of sexual abuse. there's also the recent coronavirus outbreak, straining this country's zero—covid strategy. precautions are high at olympic venues. so, i'm getting off a dedicated media bus here, just to show you that we're part of a, kind of, media bubble, quite separate from the athletes' bubble. here you have to have your facemask on, and this is the media hotel. so i come up here, this is checking my temperature... that says i'm 0k. these are the various health checks and some hand sanitiser. and we're in. we can only talk to the athletes remotely. we're told there's been a lot of covid testing. just had to do pcr tests on arrival, then on arriving at the hotel — and every day from there onwards. but if that's what we have to do to not quarantine, then so be it. the games will be held in a freezing, mostly dry area. a mountain of snowmaking is required. but this can make for quick dynamic runs. speed, ithink, will be key, and that's the difficult bit. so yeah, it'll be challenging, for sure, to try and get the most out of the track, anyway _ the athletes we spoke to said these sites will make for high—quality competition. and the drive to win in february is already taking its toll. in the mountains outside beijing, the test events are infull swing. games organisers will be hoping — despite the coronavirus headaches, despite the alleged human rights abuses, despite the allegations from a former chinese 0lympian, a tennis star, at that, involving a senior government official — that they can still produce a memorable winter olympics. for everyone here, the clock is now ticking. stephen mcdonnell, bbc news. it is something we've all had to deal with over the years — having a good clearout before a big move. but not all of us find logbooks from the antarctic�*s most famous doomed explorer robert falcon scott — which is exactly what happened when staff at the met service new zealand were preparing to move to new digs. the logbooks are among a number extroadinary finds that have laid unforgotten for at least 50 years, so what can we learn from them? kevin alder, is new zeland's metservice s manger of meteorological data services who realised the significance of the documents. you are handed these documents and had no idea of their significance until you open them up? significance until you open them up?— them up? that is right. i thought— them up? that is right. i thought they _ them up? that is right. i thought they were - them up? that is right. i thought they were just l them up? that is right. i thought they were just a j them up? that is right. i- thought they were just a couple of records of ships logs. when even at the first page and a faint pencil i could see the words terranova. and i almost fell off my chair because i immediately recognised there is only one ship terranova in the history and that was captain scott's ship. history and that was captain scott's ship-— scott's ship. why is this so exciting? _ scott's ship. why is this so exciting? try _ scott's ship. why is this so exciting? try and - scott's ship. why is this so exciting? try and explain l scott's ship. why is this so j exciting? try and explain a little bit about why this is such a significant find? it details the meteorological observations made on board the ship at a time when there were very few observations around. in 1910 it was to the age of discovery and the fact that the key thing for me was that finding these and realising they had been lost within our archives for years and then suddenly to come to light is just absolutely incredible. the detail of which the recordings have been made, observations every four hours. as the ship journey towards australia because the log that we found is from south africa to melbourne. and he was on board. these sorts of things, as far as i know, they're so hard to find these days. it as i know, they're so hard to find these days.— find these days. it obviously adds a lot — find these days. it obviously adds a lot of _ find these days. it obviously adds a lot of depth - find these days. it obviously adds a lot of depth to - find these days. it obviously adds a lot of depth to the i adds a lot of depth to the knowledge of what happened then. what happens to these documents now? indie then. what happens to these documents now?— then. what happens to these documents now? we are in talks with the new — documents now? we are in talks with the new zealand _ documents now? we are in talks with the new zealand antarctic l with the new zealand antarctic heritage trust inch christchurch and i will talk with him next week about what happens with these. i suspect mobile they have value as a log i suspect those records are already available somewhere else but the physical documents themselves are probably end up in a museum, i would themselves are probably end up in a museum, iwould imagine. that is all got time for. congratulations and that wonderful find. just time to bring you some pictures now from egypt where a ceremony has been taking place — attended by the president abdel fattah al sisi — to mark the reopening of the 3000—year—old avenue of sphinxes in luxor to the public. it follows more than seventy years of stop—sta rt attempts to excavate the three kilometre ancient walkway. the route, which will be lined with hundreds of sphinxes, connects the city s two greatest temples of karnak and luxor. the opening ceremony incorporates elements of a three thousand—year—old ancient festival which travelled down the walkway each year. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @sipusey hello. the first named storm of the season is approaching, and it's set to bring us some fairly disruptive weather over the next couple of days. storm arwen, as named by the met office, will be developing particularly later friday into saturday, bringing not only widespread gales, some sleet and snow mainly over the high ground in the north — and it is likely to cause a bit of disruption because of that combination of the strong winds, the cold weather, and the sleet and snow we'll see over the higher ground. so for friday morning, then, we've got the cloud and patchy rain across much of england and wales, which pushes its way southeastwards. then we're left with sunshine and blustery showers in from the north — and across the north of scotland, those showers will merge into longer spells of fairly heavy snow over the higher ground, some sleet and snow, too, across parts of northern ireland. mainly rain showers further south — it will feel chilly, about 7—11 celsius — but when you add on the wind—chill, it will feel colder than that. the winds will be a real future of the weather. we've got an amber warning in force for eastern scotland and northeast england, could see gusts between about 65—70 mph here, particularly later on friday and overnight into saturday morning. so through the overnight period, then, this area of sleet and snow, and rain at low levels pushes its way southwards and eastwards, followed by more wintry showers packing in from the north. 0vernight temperatures for most of our cities above freezing, but colder than that in the countryside. so, as this storm arwen pushes just out towards the southeast, we'll start to draw in these strong, cold northerly winds as we head through into saturday morning — gusts, infact, quite widely 30—a0 mph, around the coast, 50—60, or even a little bit higher than that. so we've got this area of rain, perhaps some sleet and snow over the highest ground, pushing eastwards across parts of eastern england on saturday. more of those wintry showers coming in across scotland, too. something a little bit drier for central and western areas, and it is turning colder — so temperatures about 4—9 celsius, but when you add on the effect of that wind—chill, it will feel subzero for many of us through the day on saturday. so, cold and windy with wintry showers, too. heading into sunday, as storm arwen starts to clear to the east, things will settle down a little bit — so not quite as windy on sunday, but still more of those wintry showers packing in across the higher ground of the north of scotland, down the east coast of england, too. and quite a bit of dry weather elsewhere — but it certainly will feel cold throughout the weekend. really suffering. now on bbc news, it's time for panorama. tonight on panorama, the human cost of the electric vehicle revolution. the people are suffering,