Rail, air and sea services between Britain and France are resuming this morning, after French officials lifted a blanket ban on people entering from the UK. French citizens, British nationals living in France and hauliers are among those now able to travel - if they have a recent negative coronavirus test. The military is being deployed alongside NHS staff to carry out rapid "lateral flow" tests on lorry drivers stranded in Kent.
Freight should now begin moving again across the Channel, but clearing the backlog will take time. The crisis has highlighted the importance of the Dover-Calais route for food supplies. Our business reporter looks closely.
France closed the border on Sunday because of concerns about the fast spreading variant of coronavirus taking hold in the south east of England. More than 50 other countries are continuing to block travellers from the UK, including almost all of the EU 27. That's despite a call from the European Commission for nations to drop blanket bans - read more.

Rapid testing will be rolled out to another 17 local council areas across England, from Lincolnshire to Bristol, to try to stem rising infection rates in virus hotspots. Here's how the system works. It's thought more areas could be moved up to tier four as early as Boxing Day after a meeting between ministers and public health officials on Tuesday. Sources say it's likely those would be places immediately adjacent to current tier four areas, largely in southern England.
Stricter rules are already due to come into force across the whole Scottish mainland on Boxing Day. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has apologised for breaching Covid rules by taking her face mask off at a wake. Wales, meanwhile, is already under another national lockdown, with those asked to shield during the pandemic's first wave advised to do so again.
In other, slightly brighter news, British employers planned the lowest number of redundancies in November since the start of the pandemic. The figure was still more than 36,000, but that compares with a peak of 156,000 in June. Experts say the decision to extend the furlough scheme until the spring helped to prevent a bigger wave of job cuts.
All in all, it's going to be a tough Christmas for many, but hopefully we can lift your spirits with some stories of kindness. And if you've found yourself unexpectedly cooking lunch for the first time, let us offer some tips.

Killers who refuse to disclose where they hid their victim's body could still be freed from jail, despite the introduction of a new law aimed at blocking their release. The warning has been made by the chief executive of the Parole Board, Martin Jones, ahead of what's known as Helen's Law coming into force in England and Wales next year. He said failure to co-operate may work against a prisoner, but ultimately, the board will still be obliged to free inmates who pose no risk to the public. The law is the result of years of campaigning by the family of insurance clerk Helen McCourt, who vanished in 1988.

A number of papers accuse French President Emmanuel Macron of playing politics over the border closure. The Sun believes it was "a pointless political gesture" designed to give Britain a taste of a no-deal Brexit. The Daily Express agrees, accusing Mr Macron of being "no friend to Britain" by imposing the ban. A French official, though, tells the Financial Times it was about Covid not Brexit, adding: "It's not about taking revenge, it's about taking responsibility." The Daily Mirror blames the "utter chaos" firmly on what it calls a "Tory shambles". Elsewhere, several papers take a dim view of Boris Johnson's decision to give a peerage to former Conservative Party treasurer Peter Cruddas, who resigned following a cash-for-access scandal in 2012. The Daily Mail says "swathes of the populace are utterly disillusioned with the culture of cronyism pervading modern politics". In the view of the Times, the appointment will only fuel the perception that "it's one rule for the Tories and another for everyone else". Finally, the Guardian says NHS leaders in England have raised concerns about the deployment of the coronavirus vaccine, with more than half of hospital trusts and two-thirds of GPs yet to receive supplies. The Department of Health tells the paper the vaccination programme is on track.

The Grenfell inquiry has heard 400 hours of evidence this year, and our podcast team has reported on it all. Here are 11 things they've learned. Elsewhere, more than 200 Rohingya refugees are believed to have died or gone missing at sea in 2020. These are the stories of some who survived. And finally, an amateur photographer shares her passion for creating tiny scenes with food and model figures - feast your eyes on walkers scaling a tea cake summit and workmen excavating an egg yolk pit.

From elsewhere

News Daily will be taking a festive break, but head to the BBC News website and app for all the latest developments. Thanks for sticking with us throughout the year and we'll be back in January.