hello and welcome to bbc news. i'm ben bland. us prosecutors have called for president trump's former personal lawyer to be given "a substantial jail sentence". in papers filed with the courts, special counsel robert mueller said michael cohen lied about a potential property deal in moscow that could have brought the trump organisation millions of dollars from russian sources. i asked our washington correspondent rajini vaidya nathan for her assessment of this latest development. michael cohen worked for donald trump and was known as is mr fix—it and it was said he would take a bullet for donald trump. he pleaded guilty to lying to congress and s part of his plea deal has been cooperating with the ongoing special counsel investigation and we have had the sentencing document from robert mueller which reveals some very important developments and information about that investigation and just to remind viewers, the investigation is looking into whether the trump campaign colluded

with the russian government. one of the biggest takeaway series that these documents as, the defendant michael cohen, lied about a business project called the moscow project, a plan to build a trump tower in moscow and one of the biggest takeaway is in that is that it says here the defendant, michael cohen, admitted he lied to congress in order to minimise links between the trump tower project and individual one. individual one in these documents is donald trump. this document is implying that michael cohen lied to protect donald trump. it is hugely significant. i was talking to legal experts in washington dc and she said the revelations in this document could point to possible collusion. also, other things that stand out in this document. it says michael cohen continued to work on the trump tower project

and kept working with him well into the election campaign. this is material information, the ongoing investigations, because it occurred at a time of sustained efforts by the russian government to interfere with the us presidential election. this is really explosive developments here, especially because michael cullen was so incredibly close to donald trump. a bail hearing for a top executive from the chinese telecoms giant huawei has just adjourned in canada. meng wanzhou told she faces fraud charges in the united states. she is the daughter of the company's founder and also huawei's chief financial officer. she faces prosecution in the us, for allegedly trying to get round sanctions on iran. our business correspondent dave lee was at the bail hearing in vancouver. this hearing in the court today

was about whether ms meng should be granted bail, those proceedings could take an awful long time, years maybe, and if she is extradited to the us, she faces multiple charges of bank fraud, prosecutors in the us believing they have found evidence that huawei was using an unofficial subsidiary called skycom in order to do business with iran, in violation of those sanctions. and that they intended to deceive financial institutions in order to do it. politically this comes at a tought time when us—china relations are rocky, particularly on trade. beijing has made it clear that it is incensed about this arrest. it says it is a breach of ms meng's human rights and they have demanded she be released immediately. dave lee, bbc news, in vancouver. let's get some of the day's other news: a us court has found a white supremacist guilty of murdering a woman when he drove his car into a crowd of anti—fascist demonstrators in cha rlottesville, virginia last year.

a jury took less than a day to convict james fields on all ten charges he faced, including killing heather heyer in august, 2017. before the attack, james fields had taken part in a rally of white extremists, which police broke up after declaring it unlawful. the chief executive of the international fashion chain ted baker, ray kelvin, is to take a voluntary leave of absence, after the company was made aware of "further serious allegations" about his conduct. last week, an online petition launched by employees accused 62—year—old mr kelvin of inappropriate comments and behaviour. for the first time in history, the un says more than half the world's population is online. it estimates that by the end of this year, 3.9 billion people will have access to the internet. the biggest growth is in developing countries, including some in africa. ports in the english channel could face disruption for up to

six months if the uk leaves the eu without a deal — that's according to the british government. it's being described as a worst case scenario if there are delays to customs checks. meanwhile, ministers have travelled across the uk today to try to convince the public to get behind the prime minister's brexit deal. here's our deputy political editorjohn pienaar. not easy, this, apparently — though nothing like as tough as selling mrs may's brexit deal. for the chief secretary to the treasury, that meant doing time on the business end of the black pudding line. once you're in there... not sure if this is fully quality controlled! for once, mrs may was out of sight in her constituency, but her orders were to get out, promote, defend, try to save her plan, and maybe with it, ministers obeyed — dozens of them. among ministers, many privately believe the government should delay the big vote next tuesday, rather than face a crushing defeat. for now, they're making their case around the country and hoping

mps listen to worried people and companies. they will hear those voices saying "we want this sorted", "we want this deal accepted", because we need to move on as a country, both to negotiate a good trading dealfor the future with the eu, and to deal with the pressing domestic agenda of the nhs, schools, housing and all the other things people want their politicians to focus on. and now, tougher warnings from government of the danger of ending up with no brexit deal at all. up to six months of delays at dover for cross—channel traffic, emergency plans to fast—track and fly in medicines if supplies run short. but the brexiteers are coming — they're calling it all a scare story and they're convinced the rebellion won't melt under pressure. no chance whatsoever. and it seems to me they'd be better off knocking on doors and talking to people, finding out what people want, not preaching to them. are you worried, though, that theresa may's deal mayjust be the hardest brexit available? you can't be serious! it's not brexit, it's not even

brexit in name only. anything, any other brexit deal would be better than what she's putting on the table. labour's hoping it ends up the big winner, if the decision goes back to the people. we've put forward a new approach, which we're hoping that mps from all political parties will vote for, and if they do, that will enable us to go off with a strong mandate, to negotiate with our european partners. if that doesn't happen, we have to, in the interests of the country, be prepared with fall back positions and that is a general election. or, if we can't get that, yes, options on another people's vote. here, behind the posturing and the campaigning, the private talk is about power. the tea rooms and the corridors have been humming with the sound of plotting and scheming. for some, it's about how to take control of brexit. for others, it's about how to grab the keys to number ten. talk to anyone, parliamentary newbies or political veterans, and there's one thing on which everyone can agree — no—one has seen or lived through times quite like these. in france a massive security operation is underway in preparation for more anti—government

protests this weekend. fears of a repeat of last week's violence on the streets has led to shops and some major tourist attractions being closed. student protesters have already clashed with police. they have blocked access to high schools around france in protest against education reforms. large scale security measures are being put into place around france for the weekend. close to 90,000 police will be deployed across the country along with 75,000 emergency and security personnel. extra security and armoured vehicles will be in the capital as the demonstrations — dubbed the yellow—vest protests — have broadened beyond a fuel tax rises to general dissatisfaction with president macron. our paris correspondent lucy williamson is in the french capital as people brace themselves for the weekend. the champs—elysees is again preparing for battle — a consumer paradise twinkling behind bars. some shops still have reminders of last week's violence

scrawled on their walls. translation: it makes sense to close. we've lost a lot of money, me and my fellow shopkeepers. it's enough. almost 90,000 security forces are being deployed across the country, and tourist sites including the louvre and the eiffel tower will close. the government has released a video on social media. "protesting is a right", it says, "but attacking property or the state is not". translation: the gilets jaunes include pacifists with good intentions, but also people who have been radicalised, exploited by extremist groups and who want to topple the republic. faced with systematic organised violence, our forces will respond with firmness. this city is bracing itself. the heart of france's economic and political life has become a target for those who feel they've lost touch with both. the threat tomorrow

is from extremist groups and violent saboteurs, but the disillusion touches poorer working families across france. jacqueline is part of a new splinter group called the free yellow jackets, who met the prime minister tonight for talks. translation: if we don't structure ourselves, we will fail. it's urgent that we choose people to represent ourselves, or else we will have done this for nothing. it won't work if there are 10,000 people shouting at the same time, just making a racket. students across france have joined their own demands to the gilets jaunes campaign. the interior minister said they had been infiltrated by radical groups — the reason, he said, these pupils were made to kneel outside their school by police. last saturday saw the worst violence here in decades. what began as a protest over fuel tax rises has broadened into a leaderless movement that includes violent and extremist groups. to some, this protest is a cry of anger, to others the start

of a new populist opposition. the government says it's a monster that's escaped its creators‘ control. lucy williamson, bbc news, paris. the father of a young british backpacker missing in new zealand has made an emotional appeal for help to find her. david millane says his family is extremely concerned about his daughter grace, who was last seen in auckland on saturday, the day before her 22nd birthday. police say they hold grave fears for her safety. helena lee has more. where is grace millane? the 22—year—old recently graduated from university. she was in new zealand as part of a round—the—world trip. now missing for six days, she's at the centre of a huge police search. today, her father flew to the country to appeal for help finding his daughter. we last had contact with her

on saturday first december. and, as family, we've been extremely concerned for her welfare. grace is a lovely, outgoing, fun—loving, family—orientated daughter. grace has never been out of contact for this amount of time. she's usually in daily contact with either her mother or myself, her two brothers, members of the family on social media. the police know where grace was last saturday. she'd been staying at a popular backpacker hostel in the city of auckland. at 7:15 in the evening, she was seen at the sky city hotel. later that night, a short distance away, grace was spotted at the citylife hotel with a male companion. it has now been six days since grace was last seen. at this point, we hold grave fears for her safety. the police have also been searching an apartment at the hotel where grace was last seen,

and spoken to a man she was with. her family tonight says they're staying very positive as the search for grace continues. helena lee, bbc news. a teenager who sent 1700 hoax bomb threats to schools has been jailed for three years. george duke—cohen, who's 19, also sparked an airport security scare in the us claiming there was a bomb on a plane. arrested by officers from the national crime agency at his home in watford, he pleaded guilty to three counts of making hoax bomb threats. a bbc investigation has found that academics from black and arab backgrounds at britain's top universities are being paid a quarter less on average than their white colleagues. baroness amos, the first black woman to be in charge of a university in the uk, says more needs to be done to encourage more black men and women into academia. here's our education correspondent, elaine dunkley. professor kehinde andrews has

reached the top of higher education, but he's amongst a minority of black british academics teaching in universities across the uk. when it comes to promotion and pay, they are far behind their white colleagues. they need to open the door, unlock the door. so how did you get through... he, along with other academics, are keen to help these undergraduates and phd students overcome some of the challenges they have faced. we're talking about an institution which underpins slavery and colonialism, was almost entirely white 50 years ago, and has only opened up in the last 50 years. and actually if you look at a lot of the structures, a lot of the courses, a lot of the elitism, it's just an incredibly white institution. so we shouldn't really be surprised that there are so few black professors. we have to work ten times harder to be in contention, to progress within our careers because there are cliques within faculties, where opportunities aren't made openly available to everyone. it is too easy for colleagues in higher education to ignore a lot

of the things that we've been talking about to avoid these issues... today's phd students are the professors of the future. the way that they navigate themselves through the academic space as ethnic minorities has definitely provided a blueprint for me. but despite an increase of black and minority ethnic students in higher education, they are still underrepresented at the best universities, less likely to have funding for phds and research, or have the mentoring opportunities to progress to professorships. how important... is it to have... a black lecturer? discuss. seeing a black woman up there teaching me something that i aspire to carry on forward makes me optimistic that i too can open the door, just like she did. black children are not given the confidence from their teachers. they don't feel like they're able to give into academia. in 70 years, there's been 25 female black professors out of 19,000. the statistics don't lie.

so i think it's about having the uncomfortable conversation. baroness valerie amos is the first black woman to be in charge of a university in the uk, and says it's not good enough. there is something quite intractable and difficult going on that we have to address, and when you look at the universities that have really been able to make a difference in relation to this, they have put a lot of time, effort and resources working with their students union, working with their staff, and, crucially, working with their local communities to make a difference. going to university is about improving job prospects and opportunities. but for many black academics, it's far from the reality. elaine dunkley, bbc news. this is bbc news. the headlines: us prosecutors say donald trump's former personal lawyer has given them information on how russian nationals tried to affect the 2016

presidential election. a top executive from chinese telecoms giant huawei has been remanded in custody after facing a canadian court on fraud charges. angela merkel‘s protege annegret kramp—karrenbauer has been elected the new leader of germany's governing christian democrats. the 56—year—old, who's known as akk, won the most support in two rounds of voting by party delegates in hamburg. the closest other candidate was friedrich merz, a fierce critic of mrs merkel. mrs merkel had received a standing ovation earlier after delivering a farewell speech at her party conference. she'll remain as german chancellor until the end of her fourth term in 2021. jenny hill has more from hamburg. annegret kramp—karrenbauer isn't a name that exactly trips off the tongue, it is why germans

refer to her as akk, but it is a name to remember because you're going to hear a lot of it. she's notjust been elected here as the leader of the cdu, she's now widely considered to be in effect a chancellor in waiting. she was the preferred candidate of angela merkel, the preferred candidate of the wider cdu party. she's seen as a continuity candidate, someone who's likely to continue mrs merkel‘s brand of centrism. she shares a lot in terms of style and politics with mrs merkel, although commentators are at pains to point out she tends to be more decisive than approachable, rather than more direct. she has a lot of work on her hands as she needs to win back voters to the cdu and is going to have two entity wings of the party which are concerned i the rise of the success of the german greens party and the rise of the afd. and she will have two deal

with those who think angela merkel‘s migration politics were too much. she will also have two deal with those who want to take this she will also have to deal with those who want to take this party back to its conservative roots. she has a lot on her hands, she will be sharing power with angela merkel, the two women have worked together before, she has been the party's general secretary for some time. but today she struck a chord with most in this room when she said she wanted the party to come together. translation: i accept this vote and thank you for your confidence. i thank you from the bottom of my heart. especially yens farn and friedrich merz for this fair competition we have conducted. the big question today is what does this mean for angela merkel. the suggestion is perhaps at some point there could be a smooth transition of power between mrs merkel and the new chancellor candidate, mrs merkel herself she would like to stay in the post of chancellor until the end of her term in 2021. today she relinquished a huge amount of power to annegret kramp—karrenbauer, as people in this room still hold the chancellor in very high esteem

and very high in affection to, and believe it is likely she will not survive as german chancellor until the end of her time. jenny hill reporting from hamburg. england cricketer ben stokes has received a backdated eight—match ban and a £30,000 fine for his involvement in a fight outside a nightclub in bristol last year. the all—rounder, who was cleared of affray in august, is eligible for immediate selection, having already missed that number of games. in a statement, stokes apologised for bringing the game into disrepute. a british yachtswoman has been rescued in the southern pacific, two days after her boat capsized, 2,000 miles west of cape horn. susie goodall, who's 29, had been taking part in the golden globe race. andy moore has the story. safety at last. the cargo ship that rescued susie goodall used its crane to winch her on board. she's reported to be uninjured

and in good spirits. it was an ordeal that began 50 hours earlier, when this distress call, in the teeth of a ferocious storm. her yacht had lost its mast and water had to be pumped out. in one of the remotest remotest places on earth, she had a long wait for help to arrive. she was tossed about, seasick, in a disabled boat, in heavy seas. she's had her time filled getting prepared for this, for this lift—off. so, the adrenaline will have been running and she'll be elated now. it was a difficult rescue right to the end. it was a difficult rescue right to the end. the engine on susie's yacht kept cutting out as it manoeuvred alongside the rescue ship, the tian fu. and then the first news

of success in a brief tweet. "on the ship", she wrote, followed by three exclamation marks. in the time waiting to be rescued with a broken cooker, she said she'd been longing for a cup of tea. so it was no surprise that in the second message she said she had enjoyed a very good hot drink. her friends welcomed the good news after an agonising wait. it was an absolutely huge relief, a massive relief, and i think everybody in our sailing community was just absolutely overjoyed by the news. susie is now on her way to chile. her dream of sailing solo around the world is over, for now, but at least she's safe. andy moore, bbc news. we heard barry pickthall, the co—ordinator of the golden globe race, in andy's report there. i asked him how susie is doing now. we've had a text from her. she said she had a hot drink in her hands, and i think

she was going to bed. we arranged to speak to her tomorrow at some point. but i'm sure she's extremely happy and relieved. indeed, and perfectly understandable she would want a hot drink and a bit of a rest after that ordeal. what exactly happened because i read that the yacht pitch polled, to us non—sailors, what does that mean? that's where the boat is going along like this and it goes down a wave, and itjust carries on and goes right over like that. and that is the worst possible scenario. no rig will ever stand that sort of pressure, and that's what happened here, the rig was ripped away and so was just about everything else on deck. so she would normally have been able to build a jerry rig from spinnaker poles and they lashed out a bit and they went as well.

she had nothing left to sail with when she managed to recover herself. i also gather the distress signal was picked up by the coastguard in falmouth in the uk, thousands and thousands of miles away despite the fact that she was in the southern pacific ocean. how does that work? they're very good! they are one of the best, we should be really proud of them. it's a worldwide organisation that's linked, but falmouth is key, they pick up signals, notjust in the pacific, but the indian ocean as well, and they are often first to pick up a mayday or emergency signal like this. we said the rescue was tricky, why so tricky? the weather conditions were improving, but they were still very rough. they are long swells, about five metres, 11—5 metres high. but there were cross waves as well,

and that makes it really uncomfortable and difficult to steer the boat, especially one without a mast, because it'sjust jiggling around quite viciously at times. barry pickthall speaking to me earlier. before we go, i'd like to show you some pictures from chester zoo. a rare scottish wildcat kitten born there has been captured on camera for the first time. the zoo says the female kitten, born in august, could offer a lifeline for the species. wildcats, also known as highland tigers, are britain's rarest mammals and as few as 100 are estimated to remain in the uk. she doesn't seem to have been given a name yet. guess what i'm going to ask? send me your suggestions. you can reach me on twitter, i'm @benmbland. the weather now, with ben rich.

hello there. the last 2a hours have been quite turbulent weatherwise, we've had gales, heavy rain, and as we go through the weekend things only quietened down a little bit. it will stay windy, as showery day to come on saturday, sunday should be a little drier but equally it will start to turn a bit chilly. look at this, this beautiful swell of cloud on the satellite picture, this is the deep low that passed to the north of scotland on friday. you can see some showers circulating around the low. we've still got some strong winds out there. across northern areas of the country the winds will ease but further south it will stay quite windy and we'll see some showers pushing in from the west. in some eastern areas it will be a quiet start but these heavy downpours pushing them are becoming quite widespread by the afternoon, some of them contain the odd flash of lightning and the odd rumble of thunder.

as we go through saturday night we will continue to see some downpours coming and going at times. it will also stay windy, particularly in the south. for some southern and western coastal areas we could see gusts through the night of 50—60, possibly in the most exposed spots 70mph wind gusts, which could cause some disruption. and look at all the white lines, the isobars squeezing together on the charts, a sign ofjust how windy it will be. this frontal system on sunday morning likely to bring some showers but as it slides away southwards. as the showers clear we are going to be left with some chilly air working its way from the north, the winds of switching around to more north or north—westerly. early on sunday some showers in central and southern areas should clear away, most areas by the afternoon dry with some sunshine, a few showers and spot exposed to this north—westerly winds. temperatures a little lower ranging from 5—6 in the north to maybe just double digits across the south. those temperatures will drop away during sunday night, particular for eastern and northern

parts where the winds fall light and we keep clear skies, we could get a touch of frost as signified by this blue shading, creeping across the map. not quite as cold down towards the south—west, seven degrees in plymouth as we start monday morning, one in glasgow and freezing newcastle. but we start monday with high pressure trying to take charge, you can see this bump in the isobars. the winds will be lighter and we will get some spells of sunshine. frontal systems lying in wait out west, so after a quiet start to the week, things are likely to turn a bit more unsettled from midweek onwards. this is bbc news. i'm ben bland. the headlines: us prosecutors say donald trump's former personal lawyer has given them information on how russian nationals tried to affect the 2016 presidential election. it comes as a court in new york says michael cohen should serve a "substa ntial" jail term for crimes including tax evasion. a top executive from the chinese telecoms giant huawei,

will remain in custody over the weekend, after appearing in a court in canada on fraud charges. meng wanzhou, the daughter of the firm's founder, is accused of breaching sanctions against iran. and french students clash with police as the country prepares for more anti government protests this weekend. the capital is hunkering down, with much of paris in lockdown, as tens of thousands of police are deployed around the country. embattled president emmanual macron plans to address the nation on the yellow vest movement's grievances next week.