this is bbc news this is bbc news. with the latest headlines the headlines: for viewers in the uk and around the world. joe biden's named a key appointee my name is mike embley. to his administration. ron klain, who first worked for the us president—elect in 1989, will serve as the white house chief of staff. us president—electjoe biden one of mr klain's more recent names a key appointee roles saw him oversee the obama to his administration — longtime aide ron klain administration's response will serve as white to the ebola outbreak. while president trump still holds back from conceding house chief of staff. defeat in last week's election, the state of georgia has announced its first ever vote recount. as president trump still holds joe biden leads there byjust back from conceding defeat, 14,000 out of the five officials in georgia confirm they'll recount the votes million votes cast. cast in the state. officials there will pro—democracy recount all of the paper lawmakers in hong kong resign ballots by hand. en masse, after four of their colleagues are expelled by china pro—democracy lawmakers in hong for backing independence. kong have resigned en masse as america's covid—19 cases from the legislative council, climb to a record high — there's a warning the country's after four of their hospitals could soon be overwhelmed. colleagues were expelled for backing independence. it comes after china granted the authorities new security powers, to quell dissent. beijing said only those it

regards as patriots can serve. president—electjoe biden‘s announced a key appointee to his administration. now on bbc news, his longtime aide ron klain will serve wednesday in parliament. as his chief of staff. he served in a similar role during mr biden‘s vice—presidency. earlier, president trump made his first official appearance since election night — to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier at arlington national ceremony, on armistice day. mr trump still refuses to concede that he lost the election. mr biden also attended a veterans day event in philadelphia, pennsylania. meanwhile, georgia's top election official says the state will conduct a recount of all paper ballots cast in the election — because the margin is so close. but he says there is no sign of widespread fraud. our correspondent, lebo diseko,

joins me from washington. this appointment byjoe biden. yes, very interesting disappointment of his long time trusted aide ron klain. he served as his chief of staff when he was vice president. also for al gore as well during the clinton administration so he comes with lots of experience in washington but also he was appointed to lead president obama's response to the ebola crisis a few years ago. and so that experience in terms of public health is something that will be very useful at the moment, certainly. interestingly, he went viral a couple times during the campaign, standing in front of a white body essentially lecturing donald trump on what you should be doing differently in terms of the coronavirus and saying what joe biden would do better. we a chance to see whether that plays out. president trump

still making all kinds of assertions about fraud and the recount without producing any meaningful evidence. particularly on the georgia recount. you have first—hand experience of the accounts. yes, there are a couple of things. donald trump has been quite quiet all day. we have not heard much from him apart from twitter and he tweeted not long ago complaining about the way the votes were conducted in michigan and pennsylvania, complaining that republicans had not been allowed access watch the vote. i was in detroit in michigan and i spoke with an election official told me that they have a set number of people from each party that are allowed in the room at any time to watch the vote and they realise that they had more than the set amount of people at a particular time. they asked people to leave and that is when it really descended into quite shocking scenes, really. people buying on the windows demanding to be let in. in pennsylvania there is a separate issue which is to do

with how far they were allowed to be from people counting on whether or not they were able to see. that is something that has gone to that state's supreme has gone to that state's supreme court. in georgia that is an automatic recount because of how close that margin is there. it has triggered an automatic recount but it has been counted by hand which is above and beyond what they have to do, really. and the secretary of state —— who is essentially a top official in charge of the election is a republican but he has coming for a lot of criticism from his own party, the two incumbent senators there are republicans and they have been calling for him to resign over the way the election has been handed and he has been say not only does he think the election was done fairly and that there was no foul play at hand but he also does not think this recount will amount to much. we know that we can stand only change things by about a hundred votes oi’ things by about a hundred votes or $0 things by about a hundred votes orso in things by about a hundred votes or so in either direction so, yeah, we will have to wait and

see how that turns out. thank you very much for that. thank you very much for that. there's been international criticism of china after pro—democracy lawmakers in hong kong resigned en masse from the legislative council. the mass resignations came after four of their colleagues were expelled for backing independence. earlier, beijing had granted the hong kong authorities new security powers, to quell dissent. it was a slow walk out of parliament and a sign ofjust how swiftly china has moved to quell hong kong's pro—democracy movement. four politicians, who had spoken in favour of us sanctions on hong kong, disqualified within minutes of the announcement from beijing. last year's mass protests, fuelled by fears that china was undermining hong kong's freedoms, have been stopped by a sweeping national security law, but few would have imagined that parliamentary opposition would be targeted too, by new powers handed to

the city's pro—beijing leader. translation: from now on, every lawmaker must support the basic law of hong kong and be loyal to the people's republic of china, in order to build a political system dominated by patriots. in protest, the remaining pro—democracy lawmakers announced that they were all resigning, leaving hong kong's leaders without any effective opposition at all. this act resignation is not just in protest against beijing's rule of...rule by decree — it's no longer rule of law. it's not even rule by law, it's rule by decree. hong kong's fractious parliament was not always a model of democracy but it was one of the few spaces left for dissent. now it's gone, too.

let's get some of the day's other news the former leader of bolivia, evo morales, has returned home from exile — a day after a member of his socialist party was sworn in as the new president. mr morales was bolivia's first indigenous president and left the country a year ago after losing support of the army following a disputed election. thirty—year—old british nurse lucy letby has been charged with murdering eight babies, and the attempted murder of another 10 at the countess of chester hospital. ms letby was previously arrested in 2018 and 2019 as part of a probe into deaths at the neo—natal unit. she's due to appear before warrington magistrates' court on thursday. tropical storm eta has spun towards the west coast of florida. the strong winds and flooding has prompted the state's governor to declare a state of emergency in 13 counties. around 200 people have died or are missing after eta hit central america. the us is seeing

a surge in coronavirus. currently an average of over 900 people a day are now dying with the disease. more than a million new cases in november pushed the total confirmed cases to over 10 million nationally withjust under 240,000 deaths so far. experts warn hospitals across the country could soon be overwhelmed. here's dr davis, she's an infectious disease physician at the washington university school of medicine. this is devastating at a really bad point and we have not seen the worst yet. we have reached over the 240,000 deaths. com pletely u na cce pta ble over the 240,000 deaths. completely unacceptable for a country with this much capacity. with the flu season here and the cold and people coming indoors this will only u nless we coming indoors this will only unless we put in some very dire measures soon.

unless we put in some very dire measures 500". do unless we put in some very dire measures soon. do you see the chance of those measures been put in place under this administration or soon enough under a new administration? the issue here is we are operating a power vacuum. we havejust finished a very contentious election. and the white house is yet to address is regard to the pandemic although president—elect biden and vice president—elect biden and vice president elect harris's coronavirus task force is refreshing for those of us in the medical and public health arena, they are limited in what they can do untiljanuary 20 so it is up to the country to band together and put in place preventative measures until we can get to why they received vaccine which we won't see into the middle of next year for most people. 0r the middle of next year for most people. or more therapeutic that can help. the bigger issue here, though, is

hospitals are already reaching capacity and with that issue and with limited resources by way of ppe in small rural hospitals and private hospitals we really are in for some trouble here. i know you do research into marginalised communities. i think you have concerns, too, but how they may respond to even hope of the vaccine. absolutely. what we saw is that black and brown and what i mean, black, latino, native american, they have been disproportionately affected here and they have mistrust that has been delayed by meant that has been delayed by meant that we cannot represent them adequately in vaccine trials but more troublesome to me from the beginning and especially now that is what is a plan looks like that includes them and makes them feel confident in taking a vaccine. the preliminary numbers are quite hopeful. i don't really want to

hang my hat on that until the data has been made available to external advisory boards to review. however. without a plan that again addresses this long—term mistrust that has already seen them underrepresented in trials i fear that we will have trouble in getting them this vaccine. in italy, almost 33,000 new cases have been reported on wednesday, which takes the total number of confirmed infections past one million. the government last week imposed nationwide curbs including a curfew. tuscany and four other regions have been designated as orange zones. that means bars and restaurants are closed, but shops remain open. people are free to move within their towns and cities but not leave them. a little later we'll be looking at one country which is fast becoming one of the world's most successful at handling the pandemic. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: thousands of armenians protest against the deal reached over the disputed region of nagorno—karabakh. we'll have the latest

from the capital yerevan.

this is bbc news. the latest headlines: us president—electjoe biden names a key appointee to his administration — longtime aide ron klain will serve as white house chief of staff. as president trump still holds back from conceding defeat — officials in georgia confirm they'll recount the votes cast in the state. the acting un envoy for libya has announced a breakthrough at talks on the country's political future between the warring factions. stephanie williams said there'd been a preliminary agreement on a roadmap to elections within the next 18 months. jonathan winer is the former us special envoy for libya. he joins us from washington.

what do you think about this news? williams is very experienced and tenacious and she has driven the process forward that gives libyans the chance of selecting their own government. after years of an appointed government, un brokered government. and after yea rs of brokered government. and after years of fighting civil conflict. it's really a very positive development and let's hope that it turns out to happen. are hopeful are you? i would be very cautious but libyans will would be very cautious but libya ns will fight would be very cautious but libyans will fight and dispute and avoid solutions until the moment they decide to pat the fighting in the disputing and avoiding solutions is over. and i've seen them come together sometimes very quickly as they did for the formation of the current government when they decided enough is enough and when there are opportunities for a wide range of people in

the country to get benefits from a deal. and certainly, getting elections, potentially, could benefit the entire nation of libya. the entire nation suffered horribly since the fall of colonel gaddafi. what would you pinpoint is the key problem? well, it is not helped libya to a foreign country supporting various clients and giving them weapons and fomenting civil warfor advantage, for regional advantage. and when the foreigners tell their clients, you need to deal, you need to reach an agreement, then deals become possible. libya ns reach an agreement, then deals become possible. libyans also need to put aside personal ambitions and their desire to bring home more for their little local group. to realise that libya has enough wealth from oil to share so that every libyan can be made better off by peace. elections are the way to go and provide tremendous opportunity for the company to move beyond the chaos.

stephanie williams is talking about agreement on a road map to elections within the next 18 months. that sounds pretty tentative and a lot can happen in18 tentative and a lot can happen in 18 months. that is right. the basic idea is that the reward is a new government gets form that has a temporary government and the process for elections moves at the same time. and the idea is that that government would provide the ability to unlock libyan resources to be distributed regionally and locally so that a wide range of interests benefit and libya ns a wide range of interests benefit and libyans are sick of civil war. they are sick of being attacked by drones. they are sick of the loss of stability and security that they had under gaddafi. they would like to have human rights and freedom as well as stability and security and economic opportunity. they have had enough, i think. and this provides the opportunity for them to say we have had enough, let's go. thank very much for

your insights. happy to be here. happy to be here. the regional government in ethiopia's northern tigray region has issued a decree ordering the total mobilisation of its people. state television said the authorities had ordered the population to defend itself against what it described as the flagrant aggression of the federal government. hundreds of fighters from both sides are reported to have been killed during a week of clashes between regional forces and federal troops. the bbc‘s kalkidan yibeltal has the latest from addis ababa. 550, that's a number provided by the federal authorities here in addis ababa, as the number of fighters they say they killed when they were fighting on the side of the tigran people's liberation front. this number, needless to say, was not independently verified. but it comes as various reports indicate there have been hundreds of casualties from both sides. yesterday, the federal police

here in the capital said that they have arrested 17 military personnel, including top officials, because they accused them of colluding with the tplf when the northern command located in tigray was allegedly attacked. but these are not the only arrests that we are hearing. there are at least six journalists currently in detention and who are being investigated for various crimes. different rights groups have expressed their concerns over their arrest. this conflict, that's showing no sign of waning, is already impacting neighbouring countries. there are reports indicating there is an influx of refugees that are crossing the border to the sudanese territory. more refugees are expected as the conflict continues. authorities at the central government here say that they are going to end the military operation only when perpetrators that they accuse of attempting to destabilize the country face justice.

but many are not sure how soon that's going to happen. kalkidan yibeltal, bbc news, addis ababa. thousands of people have taken to the streets of the armenian capital, yerevan, to protest against a deal to end the fighting in the disputed region of nagorno—karabakh. the deal, brokered by russia, has been celebrated by neighbouring azerbaijan as a victory. but the agreement is deeply unpopular in armenia. steve rosenberg has this report from yerevan. wailing. at a military cemetery in yerevan, there are so many families grieving. so many fresh graves. burning incense — the armenian way of sending prayers to heaven. the sense of loss here is made more acute by defeat. this family lost a son recently in kara bakh. they're angry with russia for not backing armenia against azerbaijan. "president putin,"

he says, "has betrayed all christian people." his wife blames defeat on armenia's own leaders. "for years," she says, "they've been selling us out, selling our land with the blood of our sons. they'll pay. the parents of the dead will gouge out their eyes." "go away," she shouts. "traitor," they say. they're talking about armenia's prime minister, nikol pashinyan. these protesters believe that by ceding territory to azerbaijan in and around karabakh, mr pashinyan has betrayed them. we are here to demand the prime minister, nikol pashinyan, to resign. only one person decided to give land. but this land is not his land. it is our nation's land.

in hiding since the peace deal, mr pashinyan used social media to argue he had no choice but to sue for peace. but few here are convinced. for weeks, the message from the government to the people was, "armenia can never be defeated." but with this peace deal, armenia has lost this war. and that has left the nation feeling shocked and angry. meanwhile, armenians continue to mourn. the human cost of this war has been huge. the sense of loss almost too much to bear. steve rosenberg, bbc news, yerevan. peru's new interim president manuel merino has announced his pick to lead a new cabinet. the former president was impeached over bribery allegations. but protestors furious at the impeachment are still marching on the streets of the capital lima, despite appeals for calm.

mark lobel‘s report does include some flashing images, from the start. further unrest on the streets of lima. hours after the swearing in of a new president these protesters think will damage their country. police have fired tear gas and arrested people. translation: they have damaged private property and continue to come. we have to disperse them. the politicians call for unity, currently up in flames. the row flared up after monday's impeachment of former president martin vizcarra on bribery allegations, prompting his removal from office. protesters are unhappy at this change, with elections months away, with the country in the midst of a coronavirus crisis, and with economic policies to usher in as the country battles a recession.

moments after the vote, and on live television, one protester had this message for a politician who backed vizcarro's removal. protesters sense a coup, as an interim government is swiftly ushered in. the interim president, this man, manuel merino, has been sworn in. the speaker of congress, this businessman, a member of the centre right action party, is peru's third president in four years. seeking stability, he's chosen an experienced former defence minister, who was sworn in on wednesday to lead his cabinet. translation: public security, peace, a health crisis, economic challenges, finding people work — those are the challenges. also, there were april's elections, when we need to hand over power to whoever is elected. the new prime minister also appealed for protesters to calm down, to help the government

get out of the crisis. but with a nationwide protest called for thursday evening, there may be a stormy few days ahead. mark lobel, bbc news. it's now seven months since there was a domestically transmitted case of covid—19 on the island of taiwan. that makes it arguably the most successful place at tackling the pandemic. so what can taiwan teach the us and the world? professor hsien—ho lin is an infectious disease epidemiologist from the national taiwan university — he explained why taiwan's approach has been so successful. i think there are some major appeals of the current success in taiwan. so we've had a strict border control since the very beginning, and we have targeted testing of the cases, coupled with a very

efficient contact—tracing programme. and, in terms of the population reactions, people are following the suggestions of social distancing and wearing masks. so i think we were able to do that without a major lockdown in the past seven months. you touched on masks, let's pick up on that. the taiwanese government banned the export of an extremely rare purple—pink russian diamond has sold at auction in switzerland for $26.6 million. the 14.8—carat diamond, called ‘the spirit of the rose', is the largest of its kind to be auctioned, as almost all pink diamonds are under 10 carats. it was sold to a telephone bidder who chose to remain anonymous. the diamond was named after a ballet performed by the legendary russian dancer vaslav nijinsky in 1911. a reminder of our top story: joe biden's named a key appointee to his administration. ron klain who first worked for the us president—elect in 1989 will serve as the white house chief of staff. one of mr klain's more recent roles saw him oversee the obama

administration's response to the ebola outbreak. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter — i'm @bbc mike embley. hello there. the weather will quieten down for a day or so before it turns more unsettled as we move towards the end of the week and the weekend. but today's dry and settled weather is thanks to a ridge of high pressure. but it won't last long as cloud and showers start to push into western areas. now that's the overnight wind and rain clearing away from the east coast. this ridge of high pressure settles things down briefly before the next low pressure moves into the west of the uk through the afternoon. so we could have a hang back of clouds and showers for a time across the east, hanging around shetland pretty much all day. and much of the country is dry with plenty of sunshine around, but you'll see the clouds thickening up out west. outbreaks of rain pushing in here, more prolonged rain pushing in for western scotland by the end

of the day, along with the strengthening winds. temperatures down on what we had yesterday, 10—13 celsius. now it's dry for much of central and eastern parts of the country as we head through the course of the night, but this band of rain, some of it heavy, and strong winds slowly pushing eastwards followed by some blustery showers. very windy conditions across the northwest of scotland, but a pretty blustery night for most areas. those temperatures generally in single figures — high single figures, mind you, we could see 9—10 celsius across the south of england. so this is the pressure chart for friday, low pressure to the north west of the uk, lots of isobars in the northwest, so very windy here. but it will still be quite gusty with this band of rain lying through central parts of the country for friday morning. that should eventually clear way to the north sea, and skies will brighten up for most of the afternoon. but there'll be lots of showers rattling into northern and western areas — some of these will be heavy and quite frequent with rumbles of thunder across the northwest of scotland. those temperatures 10—13 celsius, and with the wind it

will feel on the cool side, despite it being fairly mild. the low pressure really dominates the scene as we head to the weekend. you can see lots isobars on the chart, particularly across the south of the country, and plenty of weather fronts indicating some rain. after the last few cool days, it looks like it'll turn milder again into the weekend, particularly on saturday. something slightly cooler pushing in from west as we head through sunday, especially across the north of the uk. so a pretty wild weekend in store, some heavy rain around, strong winds, gales across the south coast. very mild for a time on saturday, feeling a little 00:28:35,616 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 bit fresher on sunday.