welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: court documents reveal how donald trump's former personal lawyer has helped the investigation into alleged russian collusion with the trump campaign. a top executive from the chinese telecoms giant, huawei, appears in court in canada facing fraud charges for allegedly breaching sanctions against iran. french students clash with police as the country prepares for a fourth round of yellow vest protests. and a cargo ship plucks a british sailorfrom her badly damaged yacht cast adrift in the southern pacific ocean. prosecutors have called for president trump's former

personal lawyer to be given "a substantial jail sentence". mr cohen admits tax evasion, breaking election campaign spending rules and lying to congress but details have also emerged about the help michael cohen has given to a separate investigation into possible collusion between mr trump's election campaign staff and russia — being conducted by robert mueller. let's get more now from washington and our correspondent dan johnson. what are these new elements we are learning about the insistence that michael cohen has given to robert mueller‘s investigation? michael cohen has given to robert mueller's investigation? damning detail about michael micohen‘s rimmel past. he admitted to that already, that is not new, but what we've learned is that during the months has been cooperating with

robert mueller's investigation, he has been able to talk special counsel more about top—level russian connections with the trump campaign during the presidential election backin during the presidential election back in 2016 and the key piece of evidence is about a project to build a trump tower in moscow, something being looked at and discussed with the russian government, a multibillion pound project that would require the assistance and approval of the government. michael cohen has admitted to robert mueller's investigation that the discussions about that building project, even though it never went ahead, to continue during the presidential election so that means there was connections they were discussions between the trump campaign in the russian government. 0fficials there, about that multibillion dollar project during the presidential campaign, something that michael cohen has admitted he lied to congress about initially. the taxis —— the tax evasion he was

previously involved in, that is all building up into the picture by prosecutors think he deserves for— five years in prison despite the fa ct five years in prison despite the fact that he is now cooperating and has pleaded for leniency. prosecutors think he deserves a substantial prison sentence. we are also learning there is some sort of emergence of communication with other russian figures. does any of this now touch donald trump himself? it all points more clearly to further deepen negotiations, discussions between people involved in the trump presidential campaign and senior russian officials. they had a long discussion with the decision for vladimir putin's press secretary. the role also other

issues with the campaign offering advice and assistance. —— there were also other issues. it paints a picture of how there were interactions, there were lines of communication and offers being made. this doesn't directly lead to the president at this stage but it certainly means the questions are getting close and closer to him in the president himself has responded in some form on social media, tweeting rather cryptically, totally clears the president. not sure exactly what he is referring to but he feels none of the evidence and information that has emerged in the last few hours points closer to him and that's something his spokeswoman sarah sanders is stating. what we've learned today, could this suggests that the robert mueller investigation is coming to a close 01’ investigation is coming to a close or climax? it looks like we are getting nearer to the point of robert mueller releasing his final report on telling us what he thinks, the extent of this interaction between the trump presidential

campaign and russian officials. we have had more and more information, more and more of the people involved, it points to greater links and there will be heightened interests in seeing what robert mueller's final conclusions are. in movements at the white house — president trump has announced that william barr is his nominee to become the next attorney general — following the departure ofjeff sessions. mr barr will inherit oversight of the investigation into those claims of russian collusion during the twenty—sixteen election. it's a position mr barr knows well — having served in the job under president george hw bush. and the president has made it official that heather nauert is his pick for un ambassador. the current state department spokeswoman previously worked at fox news and if confirmed will be replacing nickey haley in the post. a bail hearing for a top executive from the chinese telecoms

giant huawei has just adjourned in canada. mung wan—jo was 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 was to decide whether ms meng should be granted bail, by those extradition proceedings get under way. those proceedings could take an awful long time, years even, and if the us does get to have her extradited, ms meng will face multiple charges of bank fraud. prosecutors believe they have found evidence that huawei was using an unofficial subsidiary, named skycom, in order to carry out trade in iran, in violation of sanctions. they said that huawei needed to deceive financial institutions in order to achieve that.

politically this comes at a tought time for both the us and china, who have an already rocky relationship, particularly on trade. it is fair to say that beijing is incensed at this arrest. it's called it a breach of ms meng's human rights and they have demanded that she is released immediately. dave lee reporting from vancouver. for more on this i'm joined live from vancouver byjoanna chiu deputy bureau chief of the vancouver star newspaper. she was previously a reporter in china for several news agencies and has been covering the huawei story. ijust wonder, what i just wonder, what was the most interesting thing that came out of a court appearance? it was quite explosive because there were very few details released until the hearing began and like your correspondence said, we learnt the

allegations that warranted the extradition to the us from canada is to do at least with one charge of fraud and the crown did say that each charge be subject to jail terms of up to 30 years so this is a huge case and one of the biggest telephone —— telecom companies in the world, their ceo getting arrested in vancouver. a lot of details about how this played out to be expected to last a few more days. there's a lot being said that was made public for the first time. how big is huawei as a company in canada? big is huawei as a company in canada ? what big is huawei as a company in canada? what is their involvement in the country? meng wanzhou was arrested in vancouver airport. she has two homes here worth many million dollars and had children who went to school here so she has a personal connection to canada but

company has sweeping partnerships with canadian and universities. mostly it's to do with telecom networks. five g into connected networks. five g into connected networks. canada among western countries is one that has continued to work with huawei despite many security experts warning against it in the uk, the us, new zealand... 0h, in the uk, the us, new zealand... oh, it looks like we might have lost but that the oh... that looks like we are having a little bit of trouble with the lion in vancouver. joanna, can you hear me? ijust want to continue the discussion around china's point of view in this. yes, i... it looks like we've lost her. a bit more about that huawei case in canada later on in the programme. 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 convictjames fields on all ten charges he faced, including killing heather heyer in august, 2017. before the attack, james fields had taken part in a so—called unite the right 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. the father of the young british backpacker in new zealand is appealing for knowledge of her whereabouts. she was backpacking after graduating from university in september. 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 the country in protest against education reforms. large scale security measures are also being put into place 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. 0ur 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. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: grammys respond to criticsm about inclusivity. john lennon was shot at the entrance to the dakota building, in the centre of new york.

there's been a crowd here, standing in more or less silent vigil, and the flowers have been piling up. the 14th ceasefire of this war ended at the walls of the old city of dubrovnik. this morning, witnesses said shells were landing every 20 seconds. people are celebrating the passing of a man they hold responsible for hundreds of deaths and oppression. elsewhere, people have been gathering to mourn his passing. imelda marcos, the widow of the former president of the philippines, has gone on trial in manila. she's facing seven charges of tax evasion. she pleaded not guilty. the prince and princess of wales are to separate. a statement from buckingham palace said the decision had been reached amicably. this is bbc news, the latest 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. the nominees for the 2019 grammy music awards have been unveiled and, as usual, there have been a few surprises and snubs. the awards show was criticised this year for its lack of diversity in gender and ethnicity so, in response, the number of nominees in each of the four main categories has been increased. leading the nominations this year is rapper kendrick lamar, who has secured eight nominations — closely followed by the artist drake. among the other main nominees are female rapper cardi b, lady gaga and folk—rock singer brandi carlile. callie ahlgrim is an entertainment

reporterfor olnie new site insider. any surprises in the nominations? yes, i was surprised to see cardi b get nominations, she was someone who the academy would reject —— reject even five years ago. the biggest surprise was taylor swift only getting one nomination for best vocal album, that was a big surprise especially since she did not create a p0p especially since she did not create a pop centric album this year, as she did a couple of years ago. some other snubs may have been mitski, whose fifth studio album was excellent and groundbreaking,

although some great nominations as well that i did not expect, i was excited to see janelle monae's album "dirty computer" nominated album of the year. they have obviously increased diversity, women to men and people from different backgrounds, how they managed to do that? it is interesting, in 2018 1900 new members who were either female, people of colour or under 39 yea rs old were female, people of colour or under 39 years old were invited to be voting members of the academy. it has made a huge difference, they have increased the number of black artists, and otherwise rap, hip—hop and r&b centric artists within the genre and have also expanded the three biggest awards, album of the year, record of the year and some of the year, to include eight nominees, although i am not convinced necessarily that that was stiffly to increase diversity, i think maybe it was a move to minimise the chance of

an artist sweeping all three categories. which can get a little boring to viewers. you mentioned there have been some snubs, do you think some people will be critical and say there are just too many now? too many snubs... too many nominees. i think it is an interesting question, it is it happening little bit, people are critical of that, it makes it difficult for a dominant artist like drake, one of the biggest artists of the year, one of the most streamed artist is of the year, it will be very difficult for him to win all three categories in which he is nominated for album, song and record. and i think some fa ns song and record. and i think some fans may find that irritating, that there is so much variety and these artist data against many more people, —— artists are up against many more people. but seeing someone

sweep, especially someone you won't rooting for, can get boring for viewers and these awards shows are getting less and less interesting for younger viewers, so that will help to mitigate this. thank you for yourtime, andi help to mitigate this. thank you for your time, and i am sure the fans will be waiting for their favourites to pick up some gongs. 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 wants to remain 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 also 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, more approachable, rather 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 to answer to wings of the party which are concerned by the rise of the success of the german greens party and the rise of the populist afd. and she will have to deal with those who think angela merkel‘s migration politics were too much. she will also have to deal with those who want to take this party back to its

conservative roots. she has a lot of work 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, especiallyjens spahn 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 too,

and believe it is likely she will not survive as german chancellor until the end of her term. a british yachtswoman has been rescued in the southern pacific, two days after her boat capsized, two—thousand 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 lift—off. so, the adrenaline will have been running and she'll be elated now. 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. she must be very relieved. before we go lets have a look at 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. very cute and very unconcerned. 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 quieten 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 chillier. now, look at this, this beautiful swirl of cloud on the satellite picture, this is the deep low that passed the north of scotland on friday. you can see some showers circulating around the low. we've still got some pretty 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. for eastern areas it might be a quiet start with some sunshine but these heavy downpours pushing in are becoming quite widespread by the afternoon, some of them contain the odd flash of lightning and the odd rumble of thunder. temperature—wise, nine in aberdeen, 13 in london. 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. now, 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. that 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, and as the showers clear, we are going to be left with some chilly air working its way from the north, the winds 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 spots exposed to the 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, particularly for eastern and northern parts where the winds fall light

and we keep clear skies, we could well see 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, for example, as we start monday morning, but one in glasgow and freezing newcastle. but we start monday with high pressure trying to take charge. you can see this little bump in the isobars. the winds will be lighter and we will get some spells of sunshine. frontal systems lying in wait out west, though. so after a pretty quiet start to the week, things are likely to turn a bit more unsettled from midweek onwards. 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. 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. now on bbc news, the week in parliament.