About the longer term effects on some supplies. Fears that the new fast spreading variant of the coronavirus will overwhelm the nhs this winter. The queue for food banks even in some of the wealthiest parts of america, as the economic crisis caused by the pandemic deepens. But nothing is having your children hug you. Heartbreak as millions try to come to terms with not being able to see their loved ones this christmas. And coming up in sport on bbc news. In a year he equalled Michael Schumachers record of winning seven world titles, Lewis Hamilton is named the bbc Sports Personality of the year. Good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. More countries have suspended travel links with the uk because of concern about the spread of a highly infectious variant of coronavirus. India, canada and germany are the latest countries to stop flights from britain. France has closed its border with the uk for 48 hours with no lorries or ferry passengers allowed in from dover. Its causing huge disruption to cross channel trade, though there are hopes this lunchtime that the french government may soon allow movement to resume. Supermarkets say their current stocks are high but there are concerns about the longer term effect on some supplies. Simonjones reports from dover. An unprecedented closure of the French Border felt in an unprecedented closure of the French Borderfelt in dover, banning lorry drivers and passengers from crossing to france from anywhere in the uk for 48 hours with fears about the uk for 48 hours with fears about the new strain of coronavirus. Some british hauliers abandoned their crossings. Im lucky enough, ive made it back to the yard and i only live 20 minutes away so i will be able to get home for christmas but a lot of these people sitting on the m20 will not get home for christmas. This is a hugely busy time for the port of dover in the run up to christmas, normally 10,000 lorries would pass through here each day. Some drivers are turning up trying to get in but are being sent away. Forforeign lorry to get in but are being sent away. For foreign lorry drivers and there was no immediate option to go home and this is set to be the reality of the next two days for them, stuck in 0peration stack were part of the m20 becomes a giant lorry park. That French National road Haulage Federation described the situation is catastrophic, echoed by its uk counterpart. Its critical to understand if this will go on beyond 48 hours, i had that conversation with grant shapps this morning and he is confident of their ability to find a way through this, whether thatis find a way through this, whether that is some sort of testing of drivers before they go back to europe, i think if it goes beyond 48 hours we will see some significant challenges. Although supermarkets stress all products for christmas are already in the country, there could be shortages of lettuce, cauliflower and some fruit if this goes on but the transport secretary hopes for a quick progress. goes on but the transport secretary hopes for a quick progress. I was on that phone to my 0ptus number in france last night, he is keen to see this result as quickly as possible, especially the hauliers aspect because it is primarily french european goods which are exported rather than British Goods leaving the country, so its in their interest to get it resolved as quickly as possible and i will be speaking to them again later. Quickly as possible and i will be speaking to them again latenm quickly as possible and i will be speaking to them again later. In a tweet that french transport minister said in the coming hours he planned to set up a european wide mechanism to set up a european wide mechanism to allow traffic with the uk to resume. That is what the boss of the port of dover is desperate to see. We dont know how long it will go on. We are hearing good indications from both sides, they are looking at what these new protocols will be so we hope it can be resolved swiftly. But for hauliers, the wait goes on. Simonjones, bbc but for hauliers, the wait goes on. Simon jones, bbc news, but for hauliers, the wait goes on. Simonjones, bbc news, dover. The Prime Minister is to chair a meeting of the Cobra Emergency Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis facing the uk. The labour leader, sir keir starmer, has called on borisjohnson to address the nation on coronavirus following his emergency meeting. 0ur Political Correspondent iain watson reports. The unfolding covid drama now feels a lot like a crisis. The Prime Minister will chair a meeting of the Emergency Committee cobra as the government tries to keep fright flowing to and from that continent. There was one piece of good news, escape routes from the virus will not be blocked. The vaccine wasnt coming in through the row on roll off, it comes from containers and container traffic isnt affected so this isnt an issue with the vaccine and will never be an issue for medicines regardless because we have freight contingencies in place. Labour accused the government of overpromising and under delivering but pledged to work with ministers to get the virus under control. This is now a real emergency. I renew my pledge to act in the National Interest to help us through these dark and difficult days, we will support further restrictions where necessary, we will work with the government to help mrs get through the winter and we will offer Constructive Solutions to keep our nhs open and the vaccine distributed. And reflecting concerns about the governments decisions, growing calls from members of Boris Johnsons own party as well as from lib dems and some labour mps for parliament to meet over christmas. Borisjohnson is parliament to meet over christmas. Boris johnson is facing parliament to meet over christmas. Borisjohnson is facing pressure on many fronts, from some of his own mps who are unhappy with restrictions, businesses concerned about border disruption and with just ten days until the uk leaves the eu single market, talks in brussels over oui the eu single market, talks in brussels over our future trading relationship have not been concluded. But the government rejected a call from scotlands first minister to extend the brexit transition period beyond the end of the year. In a tweet she said the new covid strain demanded 100 attention. The weather at westminster seems to match the mood among mps and many voters. It seems we are in a season among mps and many voters. It seems we are in a season of uncertainty, not festivity. Ian watson, bbc news. The value of shares has fallen dramatically in response to the escalation of problems caused by coronavirus and the possibility of a no deal brexit. More than 33 billion pounds was wiped off the value of the ft 100 index, as the index dropped more than 2 within minutes of the markets opening, before recovering slightly. Retailers have played down fears of immediate Food Shortages as a knock on effect of the ban on lorries leaving dover. Generally, supermarkets said their warehouses were well stocked although sainsburys has flagged up that they may start seeing gaps over the coming days, for certain salad and vegetable items, and citrus fruit, if nothing changes. Theo leggett reports. Empty shelves and chaos in the aisles. Earlier this year supermarkets found themselves under siege. Panic buyers fought to stock up on essentials as lockdown was looming. Now there are fears that travel restrictions and border closures could trigger a similar situation with imports of fresh food unable to get through. Supermarkets say they are reasonably well stocked at the moment as you would expect in the run up to christmas but if freight cannot get across the channel, there could be problems after christmas with supplies of some fruit and vegetables in particular becoming difficult to get hold of. Sainsburys has warned that if nothing changes we could see shortages of things like lettuce, salad leaves, cauliflowers, broccoli and citrus fruit, all of which come from abroad, but others within the Food Industry say there is no need to panicjust yet. Most of the fresh food we would want over the next week is already either in the country in the distribution centres or on the shelves or on its way and that is continuing to move. Its over time so we are thinking about this time next week and beyond, probably even later, ten or 15 days. Supermarkets and other food shops are at least able to open but nonessential retailers across london and much of the south east have been forced to close their doors after the introduction of new tier 4 restrictions on sunday. We estimate that the lost sales for those stores that have been forced to close could be anything from £1 billion to £2 billion a week across the country so a huge effect and really disappointing, not just for the businesses but also for those people who work in those businesses, some of whom will be back on furlough for the third time this year. 2020 has been a deeply painful year for the nations shopkeepers and the combination of new restrictions and possible disruption to supplies means its now likely to end on a thoroughly bleak note. Theo leggett, bbc news. Huge disruption to traveljust a few days before christmas. 0ur correspondent Charlotte Wright has been looking at the problems. Their message to is that if you were planning to head to an airport or Ferry Terminal to travel to any of the countries who have restricted uk travel, dont because you wont be able to. We saw the chaotic scenes are people scrambling to get out of london on saturday night and it was busy last night at heathrow, now the authorities hope to avoid that as flights and ferry trips will not be running to these countries, at least for the next couple of days and the countries affected include ireland, france, germany, italy, austria, the netherlands. This morning Gatwick Airport said they have had around 30 departures cancelled today, heathrow said the situation is so fluid that they cannot put a number on it. It does seem that flights from these countries are still coming into the uk so air france, klm, lufthansa have all said that inbound flights are going ahead but its the outbound flights that will only carry cargo rather than passengers. Its not limited to flights, we heard from a woman this morning we describe how she and her family got stuck on a ferry at portsmouth when trying to get to france so the advice is check before you travel and dont attempt to head to Ferry Terminals or airports if you are planning to travel to those affected countries. Thank you, charlotte. We will take a look at the picture around the uk. In a moment well hear about the situation from james shaw in glasgow and chris page at stormont but first tomos morgan has an update from cardiff for us. Mark drakeford mark dra keford has just Mark Drakeford has just given his press c0 nfe re nce Mark Drakeford has just given his press Conference Today which focused mainly on the new strain of the virus. The situation in wales is that the transmission rate has surged since the fabric that ended at the start of november, we are now at the start of november, we are now atan at the start of november, we are now at an average around 600 per 100,000 cases in wales and they decided on saturday to enforce a lockdown in wales which will last until, they will look at it every three weeks and that means all shops are closed, people cant mix butjust on Christmas Day, two households and one household of one. This afternoon the first minister and the deputy chief medical officer said they thought the new strain was behind the surge in cases in wales, they said the nhs is stretched to the limit with bigger numbers than ever with covid across beds across wales. And a picture in scotland, Nicola Sturgeon is still doing her Daily Briefing at the moment but the key message so far is that they think that case numbers have started to rise again in scotland. She quoted the latest daily figures, 1504 positive tests since yesterday, significantly higher than it has beenin significantly higher than it has been in recent days. There may be some processing delays accounting for some of that but it doesnt look like the virus is starting to spread again more widely in scotland. Nicola sturgeon said one lesson she had learnt from the pandemic was it was almost always a mistake not to act quickly and that was why they had announced the introduction of new measures at the weekend so that means there will only be social mixing indoors in scotland on the 25th. There will be very strict measures in place from boxing day and also strict controls on cross border travel so there will be a doubling of Police Numbers in those border areas between scotland and england, as of now Police Officers will stop people and ask what they are travelling and if they dont have a reasonable excuse to travel across the border, they will be warned and they could potentially be warned and they could potentially be fined. The chief constable, ian livingstone, said it would not be appropriate to put roadblocks in place, that would be disproportionate but nevertheless this is something we have not seen in scotland before, the idea there will be an active Police Presence and essentially discouraging people, even stopping people from crossing the border between england and scotland. The decisions facing ministers at stormont are among the most important they will ever have to take. Talks went late into the night, and at1 30am take. Talks went late into the night, and at 1 30am the executive issued a statement confirming it was cutting the number of days for the christmas bubbles from five to one. It doesnt have to be Christmas Day though, for example if you are working on the 25th you can choose another day between the 23rd and the 27th to bubble up with other households. An issue which i think its more difficult is travel. Northern ireland is the only part of the uk to have a land border. The republic of ireland has planned to travel between Great Britain and the republic, for example flights are not coming in and ferries are only able to carry freight. So the question is, should Northern Ireland follow suit . That has divided the power sharing executive. The biggest nationalist Party Sinn Fein have said there should be a travel ban from the rest of the uk. The democratic unionists have said is people into your four areas democratic unionists have said is people into yourfour areas in england cannot leave them anyway, why should there be specific arrangements for Northern Ireland . So that is still being worked out. Chris page at stormont, thank you. The nhs has been struggling with rising hospital admissions for weeks now and with a new variant of the virus thought to be up to 70 more transmissable than previous types there is real concern hospitals could be become overwhelmed, as our Health Correspondent laura foster reports. News that a new strain of coronavirus can spread up to 70 more easily could not have come at a worse time for the nhs. Its the start of winter, their toughest time. The cold weather means more people get sick and more staff are likely to be off ill, reducing the capacity of the health service. Covid 19 was always going to mean more people needing help, but the fear is this new variant is making a bad situation even worse. We are seeing the kind of, for example, ambulance handover delays, and then also waits to get accident and emergency treatment and crowding in accident and Emergency Departments that you would normally see in the very peak of winter, which normally comes in three to four weeks time. So there is, i think, a degree of nervousness. We have seen hospitals become overwhelmed in places such as the usa and italy this year. Its not happened in the uk, but the fear is that it could. Its why tougher rules have been brought in across all uk nations. We have a crisis on our hands. It is better to curtail all your travel plans, whichever tier you are in, and call it a day on 2020 and look forward to 2021 as a better year. So whatever combinations, permutations of plans you have, if you can possibly say, call it a day, it would be a better thing and a good thing to do. Figures show the new variant makes up around 60 of cases in london and the east of england, and more than 40 of those in the south east. But it has been found in other parts of the uk too, and it could spread further. Its thought it could increase the uks r number by between 0. 4 and 0. 9. Scientists are now trying to confirm what difference this makes, if any, to how ill people get and to covid 19 vaccines and treatments. Laura foster, bbc news. 0ur health and science correspondent James Gallagher can tell us more about this new mutation. Tell us more about this new variant of coronavirus. Theres three things which are causing scientists concerned. The first is it seems to be spreading more rapidly than other viruses. You look at areas like the south and east of england, and it went from very low levels to very high levels and seems to be displacing on the viruses. That is one warning sign. If you interrogate the genetic code of the virus, some of the mutations are in parts of the virus that would be red flags, causes for concern. 0n virus that would be red flags, causes for concern. On top of that some of the mutations have been studied in the lab and seem to make it easierfor the virus studied in the lab and seem to make it easier for the virus to infect cells. Add those things together and you get to the point where you go, maybe this is a virus that is spreading more easily, but there is still a nugget of doubt because it is still very early stage science. For example, could this be the right viral strain for example, could this be the right viralstrain in for example, could this be the right viral strain in the right place at the right time . Say, a place like london which was in tier 2 restrictions until recently. That is an environment where a virus would be easy to spread, so there is more work going on to understand it. We are pinning our hopes on the vaccine, how does this variant affect the vaccine . We dont think it will at all, but the danger is in the long run if the virus continues to mutate, then there will be problems for the vaccine. But the faster we vaccinate, the quicker our route to normality. James gallagher, thank you very much indeed. We are just hearing that the Prime Minister borisjohnson will hold a News Conference on the latest developments in the Coronavirus Crisis later this afternoon. You are watching the one oclock news. Our top story this lunchtime as more countries around the world ban travel from the uk to stop the spread of the new strain of coronavirus, there are hopes this lunchtime there may be some easing of the restrictions. We dont know how long it will go on, we are hearing some good indications from both sides. We see it announced now that they are looking at what these new protocols can be, so we are hoping it will be resolved very swiftly. Coming up in sport on bbc news. Under pressure at arsenal, Mikel Arterta calls on his players to be fighters not victims ahead of tomorrows efl cup quarter final against manchester city. Food banks across the us have been straining to meet a large spike in demand during the pandemic, even in some of the countrys wealthier regions. A recent survey showed nearly 26 million adults reported that theyd had Food Shortages that week, and the countrys largest Hunger Charity feeding america has had concerns that possibly as many as 50 Million People faced Food Insecurity this past year. Larry madowo reports. Its too cold and too miserable to be waiting in the rain this early in the morning, unless you have to. These are the people cast aside by coronavirus and capitalism in arlington, virginia, one of americas wealthiest counties. Juan lost his job as a waiter. He is now struggling to pay his bills. Did you ever imagine you would need this sort of help . Believe me, at the beginning it was kind of embarrassing, but you have to do what you have to do, you know . Why was it embarrassing . My situation was not really, you know, that bad, but you know i have a normal type of living. I cant afford my groceries and my payments and all that. This food pantry has seen a 45 increase in traffic since the pandemic. They give a weeks worth of food, and with more people either having lost jobs, furloughed, or having reduced hours, for many of them its the only way they can feed their families. Food lines are getting longer from coast to coast. An extra 17 Million People have been struggling to get food in 2020, according to feeding america the nations largest hunger relief organisation. A quarter of all children in the United States are facing hunger. How much food do you go through every week . We go through well over 100,000 pounds. Food banks and pantries were already dealing with a surge in demand before the rush of the holidays. Half of our families are the working poor, and what weve seen is more of those working poor are coming to us, and they are coming more often. Donations are barely satisfying americas huge hunger problem. The think tank Food Research and Action Center says only expanding federal food aid programmes can take care of everyone in need. We had a problem in this country before covid started. Covid has really shone a light very brightly on a lot of these problems in terms of income inequality, structural racism, inadequate wages, and unsteady employment. Americas income inequality and Unemployment Crisis is especially acute in southeast washington, dc. This is where the citys most disadvantaged live. Its truly heartbreaking, knowing that we are living in the political epicentre of the world, and that three miles away from the white house, on capitol hill, are people truly in pain. A volunteer with a local Community Group is dropping off some groceries. Wanda is looking after her 11 day old grandson because her daughter is in hospital with covid. That day that that one person walked by, didnt have nothing to eat, but you had a pocket full of money and you didnt help that person . Even if it was a dollar that you gave. The pandemic drags on, pushing more americans to the brink of hunger and homelessness. Very good, thank you larry madowo, bbc news, washington. In the last few minutes two men have been found guilty of the manslaughter of the deaths of 39 people found dead in a lorry in essex last october. Our Home Affairs Correspondent Daniel Sandford is at the old bailey in central london. This trial has been running since the 8th of october. Just in the last few minutes, the jury have started to deliver their verdicts. They have found george nika, who is accused of being one of the ringleaders of this operation, guilty of a conspiracy to assist illegally immigration. They found the lorry driver of the fatal run on the 22nd and 23rd of october last year guilty of conspiracy to exist illegal immigration. They found two other men, christopher kennedy, another lorry driver from Northern Ireland, and a man who picked up some of the migrants on the successful runs guilty of conspiracy to assist illegal immigration is. Now they are going through all 39 manslaughter charges. As the clerk to the judge has read out each of the charges in turn, the jury out each of the charges in turn, the jury have found george nika guilty of manslaughter and Eamon Harrison guilty of manslaughter but by a majority of ten to one. It means the jury majority of ten to one. It means the jury decided Eamon Harrison did know in all three occasions that he drove to blogger with a lorry full of migrants, that there were migrants on board, so he is culpable of their deaths and george nika, the man arranging the pick up in essex, also knew there were migrants in the lorry and is also coupled culpable for their deaths. Daniel, thank you. Millions of us found out this weekend that our plans for christmas will have to change. Household mixing has been scaled back to just Christmas Day across the uk and those in the newly created tier 4 will only be allowed to celebrate with members of their own household and support bubbles. Jayne mccubbin has been finding out how families have been reacting. This will be a christmas like no other. I live here alone and ive been looking forward to seeing my children for such a long time, and planning it for such a long time. Ive been buying their christmas presents since september and its heart wrenching. So many people like tricia had hoped christmas would be a tiny reprieve in what has been the hardest of years, but her children are in tier 4 london, so they have to stay home by law and they cannot meet indoors with anyone outside their household. You have been really lonely this year. Oh, yes. Were in contact a lot but theres nothing beats having your children hug you. Im and there are millions of people worse off than me, and ifeel bad. Sue has terminal cancer. Her daughter has already travelled from sussex to pembrokeshire to be with her. Her son in lanonathan was due to follow this week. Purely based on covid rules, the only day i can be in wales is on Christmas Day so its then a case of trying to find other ways of doing it, which you can on compassionate grounds but its not so much a legal dilemma as a moral dilemma. I wanted to do the right thing the whole time through lockdown. For sisters katie and samantha, Christmas Day would normally involve four generations from five households from across the ukjoining up and staying over in wales. This year, for the first year, they are going solo. Literally, it will be our normal christmas dinner but with a computer instead of a plate that i have to wash. Im singing this to say i wish i could see you on Christmas Day. This song was written and performed by children from the ls18 music school in leeds to raise money to tackle loneliness. We originally wrote the song before the start of the second lockdown, and thought it would be a cool idea to get grandparents involved in making the video. You guys made this decision before borisjohnson made it for you. We decided some while ago we wouldnt mingle at christmas, because we didnt think the risks really were worth taking. Obviously we would have wanted to spend it with our grandparents. Are you going to miss them . Yeah. Yeah, i already do. I will miss giving you a cuddle on christmas eve. Love you, kiddo
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