good afternoon. there are warnings that tougher covid restrictions may need to be brought in "very soon" in england to avoid hospital admissions potentially peaking at a round 3,000 a day, as cases of the omicron variant surge. the comments appear in leaked minutes from a meeting of the government's scientific advisory group for emergencies. leading infectious diseases expert, professor neil ferguson, says the situation looks precarious. here's our health correspondent, katharine da costa. there's no time to lose. jabs are now available 2a hours a day at this vaccine centre in north london, as nhs staff and volunteers across the country strive to reach 1millionjabs a day. in london, where the 0micron variant is already driving a surge of infections, hospital admissions are on the rise and staff sickness is a growing concern. i'm incredibly worried about staff absences in the nhs, in the fire brigade, in the police service, in our councils, across london. that's why it's so, so important for everybody who is eligible to receive a booster. currently around 800 covid patients are being admitted each day in england but leaked minutes from government scientific advisers suggest that without further measures, we could see a surge of 1000 to 2000 admissions a day by the end of the year, and a possible peak of around 3000 a day. similar to levels in early january. to avoid significant pressure, sage advisers say... that is the major concern. and we will be able to be more certain about that scenario and exactly what we are heading into in the next few days, i think, with the increasing amount of data coming in. but it is a real concern we will be heading into something which has the risk of overrunning the health service. testing for the virus is also crucial. the vaccines minister was at a royal mail depot in derbyshire this morning. deliveries of pcr and lateral flow kits are being ramped up to 900,000 a day to make sure everyone who needs a test can get one. lateral flow devices are very effective at picking up the 0micron variant, as well as other variants. and it's the best way to make sure that they are free of the virus before they do visit friends and family this christmas or go to large events. the government at westminster has said current plan b measures in england are appropriate, but would go further if new data suggests that's needed. wales and scotland have already tightened some restrictions. representatives from all uk nations are expected to gather for an emergency cobra meeting this weekend. katharine da costa, bbc news. 0ur political correspondent jonathan blake is here. jonathan, as we have been hearing, scientists are saying there is any potentially for covid restrictions soon, is there any sign of a change in approach from the government? flat in approach from the government? iirrt imminently. cabinet ministers are i am told being briefed as we speak on the latest coronavirus data, a huge concern about the 0micron variant and particularly, as we have heard from the mayor of london sadiq khan today, and increase in hospital admissions and huge pressure on the health service and emergency services there as well. does that mean we are on the break of any new interventions or new restrictions? not necessarily, but it does mean that ministers are keeping a very close eye on the data. so there is huge pressure on the government over that, in terms of its response to the pandemic, and it comes at a time of acute political pressure on boris johnson as well so he will be weighing his move is perhaps more carefully than ever. development in the last 2a hours, the investigation into alleged christmas parties in downing street last christmas, the cabinet secretary simon case removed from his role, stepping aside, and silver service in —— another civil servant in his place, sue gray. but questions being raised about the independent credibility of that, labour saying she has a hugejob independent credibility of that, labour saying she has a huge job to do to restore public trust. labour saying she has a huge “ob to do to restore public trusth do to restore public trust. thank ou, do to restore public trust. thank you. jonathan- _ strict travel restrictions have come into force for people trying to reach france from the uk because of the spread of the 0micron variant. people now need compelling reasons to travel. 0ur correspondent mark lowen is in the french ski resort of chamonix. what has the impact been at this change? what has the impact been at this chance? . , what has the impact been at this chance? , ., change? the impact is huge, joanna. partl for change? the impact is huge, joanna. partly for the — change? the impact is huge, joanna. partly for the british _ change? the impact is huge, joanna. partly for the british tourists - change? the impact is huge, joanna. partly for the british tourists who - partly for the british tourists who were hoping for a pre—christmas getaway, a relief from covid, but also for the french businesses that depend on them. pre—covid, one in four visitors to chamonix were british. i have already spoken to one restaurant owner who says he has let go three members of staff anticipating the loss of business. france's prime minister has compared the 0micron variant to lightning, and france is trying to buy time for its booster campaign with its measure, but at a very high price. meanwhile, some brits have arrived in france before the gates shut. 0ne lady i spoke to on the slopes said she was meant to be joined lady i spoke to on the slopes said she was meant to bejoined by lady i spoke to on the slopes said she was meant to be joined by some friends in the coming days, adding that she was not sending over too many beautiful photos of the pristine pistes.— many beautiful photos of the pristine pistes. probably wise! thank you. — pristine pistes. probably wise! thank you, mark. _ it's the strictly come dancing final tonight but tv presenter aj 0dudu and her partner kai have had to pull out because she tore a ligament in her right ankle. it means only two couples will compete for the glitterball as david sillito reports. last week, it was a full house of tens for aj and kai's quickstep. the tv presenter aj 0dudu was on her way to the final. i'm really happy. thank you so much for all of your votes. i am buzzing! just days later, she posted this picture of herself sitting with crutches and a bandaged foot. an injury picked up during the hours of training. she has now had to admit defeat. she could barely stand, let alone dance. her ligament had been torn. my ankle has given away and my ligament has ruptured. and it is not going to happen. we were gutted because we were ready to smash it. this isn't the way that we wanted to go out, obviously, but even just looking back at all of those moments, it's just been an absolute pleasure dancing with you every single week. so thank you. it was clear on week one that she was going to be a contender for the glitterball trophy. by week 12, she was just one point short of a perfect score for her two dances. it means the final tonight will be between the two remaining couples. aj 0dudu offered her best wishes, saying... david sillito, bbc news. such a shame for aj, that must be so hard to deal with! with all the sport now, here's ben croucher at the bbc sport centre. australia are favourites to take a 2—0 lead in the ashes after moving into a commanding position at the end of day three of the second test. england stumbled to 236 all out in their first innings and trail by 282 runs at the close of play. patrick gearey reports. don't look down. the view ahead of day three was that england were on a precipice. the match, perhaps the series, on the edge. joe root came out dancing. these are conditions ideal for batting. out dancing. these are conditions idealfor batting. route out dancing. these are conditions ideal for batting. route and dawid malan seemed capable of doing lots of it. no wickets in the first session. the englishman in adelaide out of hiding. just as those at home woke up and checked their phone. edged and gone. jae woke up and checked their phone. edged and gone-— edged and gone. joe root left the conversation. _ edged and gone. joe root left the conversation. that _ edged and gone. joe root left the conversation. that touch - edged and gone. joe root left the conversation. that touch moved l edged and gone. joe root left the l conversation. that touch moved the match. australia had dismissed officially the best batter in the world. the rest wouldn't be a problem. that was gone. 480, and it was 0llie pope, prodding at nathan lane on five. whenjos buttler met his own stark end, england had lost four wickets for 19 runs, and we were watching another repeat. bald were watching another repeat. bold him! when it _ were watching another repeat. bold him! when it ended, _ were watching another repeat. bold him! when it ended, england - were watching another repeat. bold him! when it ended, england were | him! when it ended, england were still 237 runs _ him! when it ended, england were still 237 runs behind. _ him! when it ended, england were still 237 runs behind. australia's i still 237 runs behind. australia's attacks are supposed to be weakened. the aussies didn't have to bat again but chose to, sending it probably wasn't as difficult as it had just been made to look. they finished 45-1, a been made to look. they finished 45—1, a long way ahead. those who followed england sang on regardless but this might have been the day the music stopped. patrick gearey, bbc news. there's only one premier league game this afternoon after covid outbreaks caused five to be postponed. it leaves just leeds versus arsenal at 5:30. aston villa's game with burnley was due to kick off at 3pm but has been called off in the last hour because of positive cases in the villa camp. the sports minister nigel huddlestone has urged anyone, including footballers, to get vaccinated whilst the premier league is also asking clubs to "strongly encourage" players to get the jab. arsenal are visiting elland road today and their manager mikel arteta is calling for clarity around cancelling matches. we always want to play when we have the right conditions to do so, 100%. we have been here on the other side of the table, when we had all the arguments to play a football match and we ended up playing it. so that's what i'm saying, that we need clarity. because then the condition can be altered, and that wouldn't be fair. it's not just football that is struggling. seven european rugby matches between french and british teams this weekend have been postponed because of france's new travel rules in response to the 0micron variant. the match between ulster and northampton saints did get played last night, though. ulster came out on top 27—22 in belfast. there are three matches in the tournament today. michael van gerwen takes to the oche later as he bids for a fourth world darts championship and insists he's still the best player in the world, despite not being the top seed. scotland's willy borland will remember his debut at alexandra palace. the scot won his first round match with a perfect nine—darter, calling it the best night of his life. there's more on the bbc sport website including the latest on those games affected by the pandemic. bbc.co.uk/sport. joanna. there's plenty more on the news channel this afternoon. that's it for now from me. the next news on bbc one is at a 5.15. hello. you're watching the bbc news channel. now let's get more on the spread of 0micron. earlier i spoke to professor lawrence young, a virologist at the university of warwick. he said infections are more or less doubling every couple of days. there is always a lag between getting test results through, so we just expect it will be hundreds of thousands of cases of 0micron all over the country, and it's clearly able to outcompete the delta variant. what do you think is the approach to dealing with that? it is difficult, the key issue is 0micron will result in serious disease and there is a lag between getting infected, getting the test, getting results. this will become clear over the next week or so but we do not have the luxury of waiting and that's the problem. what we have to do now to be really sure we can protect ourselves in the nhs is plan for the worst whilst we are hoping for the best. what would the planning look like as far as you are concerned? it really is difficult, but a circuit break over christmas would be a really useful thing. i think if we wait too long it will be too late. we can't just wait for hospitalisations to inevitably increase. my view is, and i know this is something the government will have to seriously think about this weekend, is that short, sharp two week break now will be extremely useful, and what that means is making sure people are socially distancing, limiting contacts and going back to some of the restrictions we had earlier in the year. when you say now and over christmas, do you mean literally now as in before christmas? some of the speculation is around a two—week circuit break from the 27th of december. my view and i know the view of many of my colleagues is that that will be too late. if we leave it too long with a virus that is doubling every couple days, the problem is this... even if 0micron does, and it's a big if, cause less of a disease, if you have so many people infected a small proportion of those will get severe disease and be hospitalised and that small number is actually not that small because it's of a large caseload and that is the worry, that if this is doubling every couple days it is going to really test our ability to use pcr, it will limit some of that. there will be so many cases. we will start to see what we are already hints of in london, an uptake in hospitalisations. if we leave it too long there is too much inevitability built into this that we will end up with in excess of 3000 hospitalisations a day. what we got to do now is limit social contact as much as possible. some of that we can do for ourselves, but i do wonder about whether or not the government needs to think more seriously about imposing some of this, recognising if they do that they will need to think about economic support for businesses. the headlines on bbc news... the world health organization says the 0micron coronavirus variant has now been identified in 89 countries uk government scientific advisers warn that tougher covid restrictions are needed "very soon" to prevent a big rise in hospital admissions in england. shopping centres and football stadiums are among nearly 3000 venues in england offering booster jabs this weekend. some will open round—the—clock. the british socialite, ghislaine maxwell, who's facing sex trafficking charges in the united states — has told the court she won't be giving evidence. ms maxwell said there was no need to testify because the prosecution had failed to prove her guilt beyond reasonable doubt. she denies grooming girls for the late convicted paedophile, jeffrey epstein. 0ur correspondent nada tawfik is in new york. the defence has rested its case today, and it comes after ghislaine maxwell decided not to take the stand in her own defence, as she stood up and addressed thejudge, she said that there was no need to testify because the prosecution had not proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt. so a very defiant response there from ghislaine maxwell, who has been very involved throughout this whole trial, passing notes to her lawyers during cross—examination of the accusers and others who have testified, stating that she will not tell her side of the story on the stand. of course, that would have been a very risky strategy, opening her up to intense cross—examination by prosecutors, but really this trial is moving incredibly fast. we are now set to have closing statements from both sides on monday. the defence's case, after initially saying they might call 35 witnesses, they rested after calling nine witnesses and none really revealing too much more to help their case. it seems that the defence is really relying on their cross—examination that happened during the prosecution's case of the key four accusers, hoping that they have sewn enough doubt injurors minds to avoid a conviction for their client, ghislaine maxwell. the uk's top civil servant has stepped down from leading an inquiry into downing street lockdown parties, after it emerged an event was held in his own office last year. simon case's investigation was supposed to clear up whether rules had been broken — but instead it's another damaging step for the prime minister after a bruising couple of weeks. 0ur political correspondent nick eardley reports. westminster is packed up for christmas, but it is events from this time last year that are continuing to cause controversy. simon case is the man the prime minister asked to look at allegations of rule breaking at parties, but yesterday it emerged that there had been an event at his own private office. e—mails had invited people to a christmas party, which it emerged yesterday, was a quiz. the cabinet secretary did not attend, but he did speak to staff as he left. last night, it was announced that he would stand back from the enquiry and another top civil servant, sue gray, would complete the probe. it is incredibly hard to believe that no one in government knew that these parties were happening and there is a huge amount of evidence now and i do believe that the investigation that sue gray is going to be leading up, if the evidence is there, they need to carry that investigation out very swiftly to restore the public trust and then hand over that evidence to the police because no one is above the law. it is another damaging episode after a damaging few weeks for the government. from accusations of not taking sleaze seriously, to big rebellions in parliament, to this. cheering and applause. the remarkable result in north shropshire, with the liberal democrats overturning a 26,000 majority for the conservatives and they think they burst the prime minister's bubble in the process. that is always the signal sent by the public when they feel that things have gone wrong and the answer to that is very simple, it is not more of the same, it is the reality that if we want to get the vote back, then we have to be able to show that we deserve that support. the past few weeks have led to questions over borisjohnson�*s authority and his politicalfuture. many conservatives think things need to change in here if he is going to steady the ship. nick eardley, bbc news, westminster. i've been speaking to hannah white from the institute for government who's been giving her reaction to simon case's departure. i think it is the right thing to do at this stage. it is really important that the process commands public confidence and that the outcome of it, the outcome of the enquiry, is seen to be accurate and that it comes swiftly. the question is why he didn't recognise that it was not appropriate for him to conduct the enquiry in the first conduct the enquiry in the first place, and why it has had to come to those that the person running this has had to change midway through. ..to establish credibility and make clear every possible thing is looked at? currently things are only coming out through this drip of leaks and things get added piecemeal into the enquiry. i think it is important. it is the responsibility, she is used to. used to conducting this sort of enquiry not necessarily in these high—profile circumstances. as you say, the difficulty is the way this was approached from the start. what you would have expected is that the government would have done a quick analysis of what had gone on before the enquiry started to make sure whether there is any possibility it might be sides simon case might need to recuse himself, before anything began. that does not seem to have been done, the denials of converts, and that seems to have led to this drip, drip, drip of leaks with people trying to say that actually from what i know this complete denial that anything was done wrongly is not accurate. the family of an indian student who was jailed after sharing a whatsapp message celebrating pakistan's win in a cricket match, has appealed for his release. shauqat ahmed ghani — along with two other muslim students — has spent two months in prison, accused of "anti—national" behaviour. authorities say the arrest was in the interests of law and order, but critics argue that laws are being misused to silence free speech. rajini vaidya nathan reports. tea rs of tears of pain and disbelief. her brother injail for a crime she says makes no sense. 22—year—old engineering student shauqat ahmed ghani is accused of supporting pakistan instead of the national team india. translation: on 24th of october when there l was a cricket match between india and pakistan he and friends exchanged some messages, because of which they as india's arch—rival won, they shared these messages to celebrate. this one shows appreciation for pakistan batsmen. the family are pleading for his release. translation: my heart is burning for | my son. i want to see him. everydayl i am struggling as i wait. i am appealing to the government to free him. the men watched the match at i their college, and are now being l held here at this high securityjail not too far from the famous taj mahal. among the charges they face, sedition, a colonial era law that criminalises anything that could be considered antinational, but many say the law is being misused to stifle any criticism against the government. as they arrived for a court hearing, the muslim men were heckled by locals, including some from right—wing hindu groups. even the city's lawyers are refusing to represent them. translation: this is a matter of. national sentiment so we thought it best to refuse them legal help, they live in india yet support pakistan, so that hurt us. this man saying anyone who cheered the pakistan team should i face sedition charges. another saying these arrests were necessary to maintain law and order. others say it is leading to a climate of intolerance in the country. this muslim comedian spent 37 days in jail this year after supporters of the bjp complained to police about hisjokes. he recently cancelled a string of shows after getting threats from hindu nationalists. how free is speech in india today? if you are a politician, it is free, if you are a comedian it is not free, it is costly. if half of the people agree with myjoke and half of the people | don't agree with my 'oke, then it's a democracy, right? freedom of expression in today's india comes at a price. for those that feel they no longer have a voice, it is far from funny. going to a uk beach in your swimming costume — in the middle of december — may not fill everyone with excitement — but when it's for a good cause — it all seems worth it as edward sault explains. one, two, three... bananas! baring all, almost all for charity. one, two, three! cheering and applause. the idea came about after christine lost her husband to cancer during lockdown. he was taken to southampton where he would stay for five weeks. we were not allowed to visit him once. they told him that he was going to die and we could not even comfort him. towards the end of roy's life he was cared for by the hospice in sussex. they took his fear away from dying, we were all really frightened. christine wanted to raise money for the hospice and had a word with janet after they came out for a swim. i thought a calendar would be a great idea and it was very. impromptu and we only decided in october. - we had a few spectators who were a bit shockedl | when they came across half naked| women on the beach in november. and this is set. with all proceeds going to help cancer patients in west sussex. it cost about £600 a day to look after someone if they come into the hospice, but it could support our hospice at home care as well, our community work, 90% of our care at the moment is in homes, where we look after people and provide wraparound care. for kristen, it is helping keep the memory of roy alive. it has been the most incredible story. how much fun did you have? loads, it has been amazing. lots of screens! amazing. i think we have all lost someone to cancer, we all know what end—of—life care means and we are all passionate about supporting it. i cannot take my eyes off your baubles! i am glad you said baubles! you have had your photographs taken, time for a cup of tea? we are heading into the sea and you're going to come with us. cheering and applause. in for a penny... cheering and applause. the ladies have made half of their £6,000 target but it has also seen the start of an unbreakable bond between new friends. now it's time for a look at the weather with sarah keith—lucas. hello. for many of us it was a bit of a misty, murky start to the day and things are not changing in a hurry through the rest of the weekend really, because we have got high pressure draped right across the uk, keeping things largely and settles, but largely trapping and a lot of low cloud and moisture, so some mist and fog patches and for some of us as we head into this afternoon, those fog patches will linger and especially for parts of the east, perhaps central and southern scotland, we could see a few fog patches all day, but the best of the sunshine will be across the higher ground of central scotland, perhaps the north of england, the pennines for instance, into western parts of wales as well. central and eastern areas stay murky through the course of the day and into this evening and overnight, not changing in a hurry. there could be some more frost and fog as well, particularly across parts of scotland and the north of england, that is where temperatures will fall lowest, so a frosty start here, but milder under the blanket of the cloud in the south. a similar day to today, really, tomorrow, again mostly cloudy, dry, some sunshine for scotland, western parts of england and wales and northern ireland, and highs of five to ten. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: government scientific advisors warn tougher covid restrictions may be needed 'very soon�* in england — to avoid a steep rise in hospital admissions as cases of the omicron variant surge. shopping centres and football stadiums are among nearly 3000 venues in england offering booster jabs this weekend. some will open round—the—clock. the uk's top civil servant steps down from running an inquiry into downing street parties — because of an event in his own office. the british socialite, ghislaine maxwell — who denies sex trafficking charges in the united states — has told the court she won't be giving evidence. football — and aston villa's match against burnley is the latest premier league game to be postponed due to covid—i9. that leaves just one match due to take place in the premier league today, with leeds united taking on arsenal.