welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: president trump has suggested he knew that his former national security advisor, michael flynn, had lied to the fbi about his contacts with russia. in a tweet, the us president said general flynn had acted lawfully, but had to be sacked for dishonesty — a charge mr flynn admitted on friday. the controversy comes after mr trump secured what's being seen as the first big legislative achievement of his presidency, a wide—ranging tax reform bill. our washington correspondent laura bicker reports. donald trump's started the day on a bullish note. he's on course for a much—needed win on tax reform, he brushed aside questions about his former national security adviser lying to the fbi over his meetings with russians. what has been shown is no collusion, no collusion, there has been absolutely no collusion, so we are very happy. but then he issued another controversial tweet, one that could cause him a real headache. he said he had fired michael flynn because he lied to the vice

president and the fbi. it's a shame, he said, because his actions during the transition were lawful, there was nothing to hide. many people are asking why michael flynn, a former three star general, did not tell the truth to the fbi about his meetings with the russian ambassador, as the president said, his actions were not against the law, but mr trump's tweet leads to a bigger question, did you know michael flynn have lied to the fbi? this is a problem because the former head of the fbi james comey has testified under oath that the president asked him to drop an investigation into michael flynn. legal analysts are now wondering if the president was trying to stop an inquiry into his former adviser, knowing he was guilty, in other words, was he trying to obstruct justice? on this vote, the yays are 51,

and the nays are 49. it should have been a momentous day for donald trump, republicans had finally united behind tax bill, a welcome distraction and at last a legislative victory. but now, once again, because of a tweet, the us president is embroiled in a controversy over russian meddling in the us election, a controversy that continues to loom over the white house. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. fighting has continued for a fourth day in yemen between iranian—backed houthi rebels and their former allies who support

the ex—president, ali abdullah saleh. the two groups have been fighting a saudi—led alliance that backs the ousted yemeni government. mr saleh has now said that he would be ready to turn the page. saudi arabia has welcomed his suggestion for talks. there've been clashes between german police and demonstrators outside the far—right alternative for germany party conference in the city of hannover. the anti—immigrant party, which recently won seats in parliament for the first time, has elected two new leaders who've strongly criticised islam. both hardliners reject the idea that the afd should tone down its nationalist rhetoric. the argentine navy says an unmanned russian vessel searching in the south atlantic for the wreck of the sanjuan submarine has examined the first of four shapes detected by sonar on the sea bed. the unidentified object did not prove to the be the missing submarine. a spokesman said the search was now moving on to the three other shapes found in deeper waters. state media in syria say their air defence system intercepted israeli missiles which struck at a military installation overnight near the syrian capital of damascus. the media reports also said

the action led to "material losses" at the base. the israeli military has not confirmed it carried out the strike. the oscar—winning actor geoffrey rush has stepped down as president of the australian academy of cinema and television arts after a complaint about inappropriate behaviour. the star, who's 66, denies the accusation which is in connection with his time at the sydney theatre company. you can keep up to date all with the latest news, business and sport on the bbc website. for reaction and analysis from around the world, including updated live pages, reports from correspondents, go to bbc.com/news. all four members of the board of the uk government's social

mobility commission have resigned, in protest at what they say is a lack of progress towards a fairer britain. in a resignation letter seen by the observer newspaper, alan milburn, the former labour minister who led the commission, said he had little hope that theresa may's government was capable of making the changes necessary to deliver a more equal society. his three fellow commissioners, including the former conservative cabinet minister, baroness shephard, also walked out. earlier i spoke with our political correspondent alex forsyth, and asked her how damaging this is for the government. it is undoubtedly damaging because theresa may made it her persona mission. she stood on steps of downing street, she said she wanted to create a more equal society. she made it a priority for her as prime minister. so i think what really is damaging is when you read the resignation letter from alan milburn, in which he says he doesn't doubt the prime minister's person commitment to social justice, but he doesn't believe the government has the capacity to make it happen, to deliver any meaningful action in that area right now.

and he, in part, blames brexit, saying that the government is so focused, understandably, in his words, on that, that it doesn't have the capacity to look at anything else. and so, he feels he had no choice but to resign. does this say anything about the stability of the may government? well, there's been a lot of question over that for some time. really, since that general election when theresa may didn't get the result she wanted. her authority, the stability of her cabinet and her government has been in question ever since. this isn't the same as the resignation of cabinet ministers that we've had of late but undoubtedly, it all adds to that image that this is a government which is not fully on track where people have differing views, don't always agree with each other, but it does portray, paint a picture, if you like, of a prime minister who isn't in full control and of course that too is damaging for theresa may. now, alan milburn is an ex—labour minister. he was due to step down next year anyway. is this a bit of grandstanding from the labour side? well, he's gone suddenly.

he's tendered his resignation with immediate effect and says he won't be reapplying for the position. and this is a job he has had since 2012 when he was appointed by the coalition government. and of course, it isn't just him who's resigning, it's his three other commissioners as well. one of those is a former conservative cabinet minister, two others, one an academic, one a a charity for social mobility. so i think this is a bit of a bigger message than party politics, at least one that they're trying to send. alex forsyth there. well, the government has commented on the resignations in the few hours. their statement read: alex forsyth has also been covering another story. criticism is growing of two former police officers who leaked allegations that legal pornographic images had been found on a work computer of the cabinet

minister damian green. the former chief constable of greater manchester, sir peter fahy, strongly rejected suggestions it was in the public interest to disclose information allegedly found during the course of an unrelated investigation in 2008. sir peter said in his view the officers were entering dangerous territory. nine years ago, a police operation that had unforeseen consequences. this raid was part of an inquiry into government leaks. no—one was charged but computers were seized and examined. and on damian green's work computer there was allegedly legal pornography which he has repeatedly said wasn't down to him. the claims were first made public by former met assistant commissioner, bob quick, who feared they would be covered up. then yesterday, this is retired met detective also spoke out, saying he had no doubt that mr green viewed the material. it was ridiculous to suggest that

anyone else could have done it. he'd examined the computer and thought it was in the public interest to reveal what he'd found. the computer was in mr green's office, on his desk, logged in, it was his account, his name. but today, the former chief constable of greater manchester police condemned the pair's actions. most police officers would be very uncomfortable about the police getting involved in making judgements about whether a politician is lying or not. that is ultimately a matter for the courts and for public opinion. or breaching this duty of keeping matters confidential, which are gathered in an investigation unless they end up as evidence. i didn't download or look at pornography. damian green has always denied the claims. his conduct is currently subject to a cabinet office investigation. the outcome crucial. he's a close ally of theresa may. how she deals with this

will be closely watched. so questions now, not just over his political future, but the handling of this whole affair. barclays bank says it will no longer offer a russian anti virus software programme free to customers. it comes after officials recommended that government departments stop using kaspersky lab products because of fears it could be exploited by the kremlin. the national cyber security centre says the advice doesn't apply to domestic users. kaspersky lab denies any links to the russian government. jon donnison reports. cyber security software like that provided by kaspersky lab requires extensive access to the files on a computer phone or network to look for viruses. our mission has always been to protect... kaspersky is used by consumers and businesses as well as some parts of government to protect systems from criminals and hackers. but now a new warning about russian anti—virus software amid fears it could be used for spying. secrets of global significance... at britain's national cyber security centre, they say they've not seen actual proof of such espionage, but they've told government departments not to use kaspersky for systems containing sensitive data. this is specifically about entities that may be of interest to the russian government and so for us that's about national security systems in government,

of which there are a very small number. kaspersky lab has already denied allegations that it's been used for espionage in america. we don't do anything wrong. they are just speculating about some rumours, opinions and there is zero of the hard data. 400 million people use kaspersky products around the world, but officials say they're not telling the general public to stop using it. kaspersky lab denies any wrongdoing, but today's warning is another sign about growing fears over the risk posed by russia. jon donnison, bbc news. more now on yemen, and the fighting has led the country's former president, ali abdullah saleh, to make an offer to talk with the saudis. he says the talks depend on an end to the coaltion‘s attacks in yemen. translation: i call on our brothers in neighbouring states and the coalition to stop

the aggression and lift the blockade, open the airports and allow food aid, medical supplies, and those wounded to travel, as well as those stuck abroad to come back. we will turn a new page and start dealing with them in a positive way, because what happened to yemen and to them is more than enough. we promise our brothers and neighbours that after a ceasefire is implemented, the airports opened and the blockade stopped, we will start negotiating immediately. rhodri davies has more on how a split between allies has led to the former president offering to talk. there are only fighters on the streets of yemen's capital. and this time, it's allies fighting each other. gunmen loyal to the former president ali abdullah saleh are now trying to force houthi fighters

out of the city. the beauty of ancient sana'a is again scarred by explosions and bullets. what's already a complex struggle in yemen has become even more so. on one side is president hadi, whose forces control the land in red. he's backed by saudi arabia and eight other mostly sunni arab states. opposing them are shia houthi rebels. backed by iran, they built an alliance with former president saleh. though this alliance appears to be breaking down, with mr saleh‘s forces now fighting the houthis and hinting they could even do a deal with saudi arabia. the alliance between the houthis and saleh will not end. yes, it's very tense right in sana'a, but the alliance will continue but the only change that will happen is that saleh right now is more influential, more powerful and has the power to announce the initiative to end the yemeni war. a critical humanitarian situation remains. the conflict has killed more than 10,000 people,

displaced over two million and triggered a cholera epidemic. the latest violence adds only further pressure. we are currently receiving more requests for medical supplies from dual main hospitals. supported by the international red cross in yemen. my colleagues on the ground are doing their utmost best in order to meet the needs and to help the wounded because of the current clashes. yemenis want the country's almost three years of war to come to an end but that may revive the dominance of a man who, until the arab spring, spent 33 years as their president. rhodri davies, bbc news. this is bbc news.

the latest headlines: president trump admits he sacked his former advisor michael flynn for lying to the fbi. legal experts say the president could now be investigated for obstructing justice. the government's social mobility tsar, alan milburn, and his team resign, warning that the prime minister is failing to build a "fairer britain". it's been nearly a week since voters in honduras went to the polls for the presidential elections, but the results are yet to be declared. post—election violence has led to at least three deaths during days of protests which has led to a state of emergency being declared. the demonstrations began after claims of election fraud. a little earlier, i spoke with our central america correspondent will grant and asked if the violence had subsided on the streets of honduras. really, from the first protest, we now know at least three people have died. there have been scores arrested. it seems one girl who was still a teenager was shot dead by police in tegucigalpa. it is a very, very messy situation

and one fears it will get worse before it gets better. a lot of people are staying off the streets and there is a curfew between 6pm and 6am local time in honduras. a lot of people are very angry about what you mentioned in your introduction — this electoral result that still hasn't been produced, and what they understand and what they perceive as meddling by the authorities. so why does the opposition think there may have been electoral fraud? well, there was an initial delay in the vote count. bear in mind, we're only talking about 3.5—3.6 million votes in total and it shouldn't take a week for the result to be produced, and yet it has. there was a supposed technical hitch — that's how it was put by the electoral authorities — and in that time, the main challenger, salvador nasralla, moved from being around 5%

in the lead to now being around 1.2% behind. he has already claimed victory, so his supporters are not going to accept anything less than their man being put into power, it seems. of course, the sitting president, juan orlando hernandez has also claimed victory. it's a highly intangible situation. there's a lot of high feeling on both sides. what do you think the sitting president hernandez is going to do now in order to try and calm this situation? what can he do? it is a worrying turn of events, this declaration of a state of emergency, the new powers to the police and the military. from the president's point of view, he will want to see him declared the winner so he can begin to impose his rule again, if you like, his office can take more control, that his party can take more control. even if he is declared

the winner in the coming days, i think he's going to find that honduras is increasingly ungovernable, at least in the short term. i see it very unlikely that these protesters will leave the streets any time soon. the youngest patient on the uk transplant waiting list has received a new heart. 8—week—old charlie douthwaite is said to be making good progress following a 9—hour operation. a donor was found after a europe—wide appeal. duncan kennedy reports. a tender moment tracie wright thought she would never have with her baby charlie. charlie was born with only half a heart. hospitals across europe were contacted to find an organ donor. this week, a heart did become available. and now, atjust eight weeks old, charlie has had a transplant.

his skin colour was just amazing. i can't describe it. from going so blue, he was just blue all the time, to being so pink and peachy and perfect. charlie was the youngest patient on britain's transplant waiting list. his doctors say the operation went well. he was extremely lucky, considering his condition and his size, to get a heart, a suitable donor heart, on time. it's not known if the family who donated their baby's heart know about charlie, but charlie's mother says they've given her a precious gift. it's the bravest thing anyone could do. they've given my boy a second chance at life, and for that, i'll be forever thankful. i cried for them. charlie is expected to be strong

enough to go home in the new year. an unbearable loss in one family that became unrestrained joy in another. duncan kennedy, bbc news. and now here's a sports round up with jessica creighton. it's been a busy day of premier league action but the game of the day, maybe even the season, was manchester united's visit to arsenal. united won 3—1, which means they narrow the gap on leaders manchester city. tim hague reports. under the lights at the emirates. arsenal against manchester united — as iconic a fixture as it gets in the premier league. but this game was about more than history and renewed rivalries. united trying to stay in the title race, arsenal aiming to continue their recent run, but this seemed unlikely after three minutes. a misplaced pass found its way to antonio valencia, and then back to valencia

and into the net. a good start for united then became a great one. then another arsenal mistaken possession punished — jesse lingard with the goal and anthony martial with the most magnificent assist. it was befitting of the first half, really, which was open, exciting and end—to—end. the hosts somehow not getting back into things on more than one occasion. and there were the numerous david de gea saves for good measure, too. you have to feel sorry for the second 45 — it could surely never compete with the first. yet, it did. alexandre lacazette, onside, and the game on, too. there was one big problem for arsenal — de gea, pulling off something truly special here. a double save as good as any to keep his side ahead. and just as united were on the brink, they pulled away again. a classic counter attack, another lingard goal. all they had to do was hold on now. paul pogba did not help the cause, though — a straight red.

he misses the manchester derby. yet 3—1 was how it ended. 41 shots on goal in the 90 minutes. an iconic premier league fixture and this was an iconic premier league game. amazing attitude from every one of them. part of the quality from they showed, quality in many things, they showed also an amazing character in the difficult moments of the game, and the game gave us difficult moments, arsenal gave us difficult moments with their attacking quality, and then we had also the difficult moment of playing with ten men for quite a long time. so, amazing character by the players. i think they deserve your words, which are similar to my words when i met them in the dressing room. also in the premier league today, liverpool move into the top four after a 5—1 win at brighton. sam allardyce won his first game

in charge of everton with a 2—0 win over huddersfield. and swansea are bottom after their defeat against stoke. england's rugby league side suffered an agonising 6—0 defeat to australia in the final of the world cup. the hosts scored the only try of the game in the first half through boyd cordner, and despite a valiant effort, england couldn't find a reply. england players clearly devastated by the result as australia were crowned champions for the 11th time. it's advantage australia at the end of day one of the second ashes test in adelaide. joe root won the toss and surprisingly put australia in to bat, but england's bowlers failed to make the impact he hoped for in the first ever day—night ashes test. england were gifted with an early breakthrough after confusion between the australian openers saw cameron bancroft run out by chris woakes. england then got the wicket of dangerman david warner, three runs short of his half century. a 50 from usman khawaja settled down the hosts but under the floodlights, james anderson sent him back to the pavilion where he was joined

by captain steve smith — craig overton getting a huge wicket for england on his test debut. australia will start day two 209/4. to rugby union, and there was a nail—biter in wales‘ final test of the year. they almost threw it away against south africa in cardiff but ended their autumn series with a narrow win. two tries by hadleigh parkes on his debut helped wales lead 21—3 after 30 minutes. warrick gelant‘s try before half—time changed the momentum and handre pollard and jesse kriel‘s touchdowns after the break edged the springboks ahead by a point but leigh halfpenny's 66th—minute penalty clinched a nervy 2a—22 win for wales — just their fourth over south africa. there's been a major shock at the uk championship snooker in york, where world champion and top seed mark selby has been knocked out by world number 66 scott donaldson.

donaldson, who came into the tournament on a 10 match losing streak, made breaks of 90, 87 and 77 to go 5—3 up. the scot then kept his composure in the ninth frame with a break of 84 to advance to the third round. time for the weather now with helen willets. hello. it's been a bitter week for some parts of the uk but it is at least a little less cold this weekend. further afield, if you're keeping an eye on the second test in adelaide, it's warmer but we did have some interruptions because of showers on saturday. fewer showers sunday. still a brisk breeze, though. and actually here, temperatures are a little below par. they should recover as we head towards midweek. despite an increasing cloud on saturday, we did have a little late evening sunshine in kent. i'm hopeful that we will see a little bit more sunshine through the day ahead and slightly less cold conditions, particularly in the south. but at the moment, we've still got quite a bit of cloud. it's trickling its way southwards.

they're weak weather fronts, really, but they're bringing some patchy rain and drizzle with misty low cloud and hill fog. to the north, yes, the cloud does break and clear and it could turn a tad chilly to start the morning up in the north—east of scotland. perhaps a touch of frost, a little bit of fog here. but for many, it shouldn't be frosty first thing. but it will be rather grey and murky. hill fog around, patchy drizzle as well, and this weather front may well drag its heels across southern parts of england, across the west and into the west of wales. it'll be with us across northern ireland and we may see a little bit of early brightness across antrem and down. it should be a decent start to the day across scotland. more sunshine here. still a few showers and a brisk wind in the north—east. still the potential for some morning fog and frost in the glens but that should lift and we should see some good spells of sunshine. and gradually, that cloud will thin and break across the rest of southern britain but it may hang around in cornwall, in western parts of wales and it drifts eastwards across northern ireland to western scotland,

so the west of northern ireland may see some brighter spells later in the day. in contrast to yesterday, probably a little bit cooler in the north—east but actually feeling a bit milder further south as temperatures won't be quite so low to start the day. then, through the night ahead, we'll see the cloud gradually easing back eastwards, but where there are breaks in the cloud, yes, it will turn chilly, but also we could have some fog for the monday morning rush across east anglia, the south—east, the east midlands in particular. but otherwise it's here where, once the fog clears, we should see some brightness and some sunshine again to start our week. relatively mild compared with last week, nines and tens, but there will quite a bit of cloud, showery rain coming in, although it will be light and patchy because it is under the influence of high pressure for the next two or three days. this high pressure isjust keeping those weather fronts at bay but this does have our name on it. this is going to come in for wednesday. it looks particularly nasty, actually, some wet and windy weather to keep our eye on. but, between now and then, fairly quiet or benign conditions. as ever, there's plenty more more on the website. bye— bye.

this is bbc news, the headlines: president trump says his former top aide michael flynn's contacts with russia were lawful, but he had to sack him because he lied to the fbi. some legal experts say mr trump may have then obstructed justice when he urged the former fbi director to drop the inquiry into mr flynn. in yemen, fighting has continued between iranian—backed rebels and theirformer allies who support the ex—president, ali abdullah saleh. the two groups had been fighting a saudi—led alliance that backs the ousted yemeni government. saudi arabia has welcomed mr saleh‘s suggestion to start talks. voters in honduras are still waiting for the result of the presidential election nearly a week after going to the polls. the main opposition candidate, salvador nasralla, has accused his rival, presidentjuan orlando hernandez, of manipulating the vote count. now on bbc news, click.