britain, the eu, the united states, and japan have all announced travel restrictions on several southern african countries, to try to slow the spread of the variant named omicron. here s our medical editor fergus walsh. after months of opening up, the newly named omicron variant means travel restrictions are back. at heathrow, the last flights from south africa arrived this morning. i feel extremely relieved, because who knows how long this is going to last? we ve been told we have to isolate at home, so that shouldn t be too bad. from sunday, only uk and irish residents will be allowed in from six southern african countries, and they will have to pay to quarantine in a hotel. the travel restrictions mean catherine will miss her niece s wedding in south africa. it is devastating. they have held back this wedding for two years for us, so we were all going to be together, which was really important. and literally we were off on the 9th, and now we re not. the health secretary
to the bbc s steve rosenberg, he is our moscow correspondent, and he s just recorded a remarkable interview with the president of belarus, alexander lukashenko. we re also going to consider the new editor the daily mail, how much control will he have over which political stories in the uk last, notjust for a day or 2, but for much longer. and of course, we ve got to talk about pep peppa pig. i m sure lots of people saw the prime minister s speech at the cbi this week which featured pet the pig. let s begin the program by talking to the deputy political editor at itv news. i wonder how itb covered that story. we certainly did cover peppa pig, and i can imagine that my colleague in northumberland, who was there, was watching as we all wear, slightly through our hands at that speech, not at that speech, not onjust peppa pig, but at a few things, and of course, he had the opportunity straight after that interview to ask the prime minister some questions, so it all blew past us, b
like this before. many of them we ve seen in various variants of concern so far, but it s the complexity of the mutations that we re seeing today and the effects that it may have on both the immune response and transmissibility that are a huge concern. with belgium recording europe s first case of the omicron variant, the european commission in brussels called for a suspension of air travel to affected african countries. we do know that mutations could lead to the emergence and spread of even more concerning variants of the virus that could spread worldwide within a few months. it is now important that all of us in europe act very swiftly, decisively and united. vaccine companies say they can prepare updated versions of theirjabs, perhaps within 100 days, if the omicron variant is found to evade immunity. fergus walsh, bbc news. health authorities in the netherlands say based on initial test results, there were likely dozens of people infected with covid 19 among some 600 pas
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in the eyes of the west, there is one man who is responsible for the migrant crisis on the borders of belarus and the eu, and that is alexander lukashenko, the controversial ruler of belarus who has been accused of stealing an election, of launching a brutal crackdown on his own people, and now, of weaponising migration. so, how does he respond to these accusations? well, mr lukashenko has agreed to answer my questions in what is a rare interview to western media. storm arwen has been buffeting the uk over recent hours. so far, the strongest wind gusts i ve seen have been across coastal regions of aberdeenshire. inverbervie picking up a top gust of 78mph. not too far behind, northumberland 74mph gust of wind here. those wind gusts strong enough to bring down some trees, no doubt some transport disruption out and about as we head into saturday. the peak red weather warning lapses, though, during the early hours of saturday and, as our low pressure move