Trade talks between the UK and the EU will resume on Monday after the sides agreed to "go the extra mile" to try to reach a deal. The sides had set Sunday as the moment to decide whether it was time to walk away, but following a phone call between Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a joint statement was released with a more positive tone than anything else of late. As one British source put it: "The process still has some legs."

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg says there's a sense the ground has shifted enough to make the chance of a deal worth pursuing. However, the prime minister told his cabinet colleagues no-deal was still the most likely option. Read more on what's being done to prepare for that eventuality. Britons are being urged not to stockpile food, but firms have told us the ongoing uncertainty is a nightmare.

The familiar sticking points remain - we explain them here - but the EU is reported to have dropped the idea of a formal mechanism to ensure both sides keep up with each other's standards and is now prepared to accept UK divergence, provided there are safeguards. On fishing, there are whispers of what our Europe editor Katya Adler calls "a kick-the-can, down-the-road fudged compromise, involving considerable European concessions". She says neither side will approve a deal it can't subsequently portray as a victory - for the EU that means protecting the single market; for the UK, it means being able to demonstrate a boost to sovereignty. 

The UK's coronavirus vaccination programme widens from Monday, with GP surgeries in England able to begin offering jabs. Practices in more than 100 locations will receive their first batches and will operate seven days a week, 12 hours a day.

They're the first in a network of 1,200 surgeries across the UK which will eventually deliver vaccinations. Our health correspondent Nick Triggle says the number operating will depend on supply, and what could really change the speed of roll-out is approval of a second vaccine made by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. Regulators are currently assessing its safety and effectiveness - see how that process works.

Care home residents are also expected to receive their first vaccines later this week once logistical hurdles around the need for cold storage are cleared. There are warnings it'll be a slow process, though.

Elsewhere, headteachers in England are calling for local authorities to have the freedom to close schools in areas with high levels of Covid-19. The London borough of Greenwich has become the first to ask its schools to move learning online this week. The Department for Education said it remained a national priority to keep all schools open.

British espionage writer John le Carré has died aged 89. A prolific and hugely successful author, he was best known for novels The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. His agent said he was an "undisputed giant of English literature" who "defined the Cold War era and fearlessly spoke truth to power". Many of his books were turned into films, while the Night Manager became a hit BBC series. 

Le Carré was born David Cornwell, but when he became a spy himself, he adopted a pen name to get around Foreign Office rules on employees publishing books. Read more about his extraordinary life. 

Brexit dominates, with most papers displaying a degree of optimism after Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen's latest update. The Financial Times calls it "the cross-Channel phone call that stopped the door from slamming shut". We're in "Extra extra time" says the i, while the Daily Telegraph thinks the talks could go on right up until New Year's Eve because neither side has set a new deadline. The Daily Express believes EU leaders are "buckling" under the prime minister's demands that they respect British sovereignty. Several papers have messages for the PM himself. The Daily Mail tells him the "time for glibness and grandstanding is over", while in the view of the Daily Mirror, he'll never be forgiven if he fails to secure a deal. Elsewhere, the obituary writers pay tribute to John le Carré. The Guardian says that like Dickens, he was a serious novelist, and a profoundly entertaining one. The Times feels he virtually created a new school of fiction - not so much spy stories as anti-spy stories, "convoluted tales of disillusionment and betrayal". 

Workplace air quality is a growing concern, especially in the time of coronavirus. What are employers and tech companies doing to improve it? Away from Covid completely, a new podcast is giving an "unsanitised" retelling of the lives of Helen Keller, Mabel Normand and Rosa May Billinghurst, revealing their impact on modern feminism. Find out more. And finally, the Electoral College votes today to pick the US president, bringing to an end - probably - a very rocky election road. We explain how the process works.

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