this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. hello welcome you're watching bbc news the main headlines. i'm kasia madera. senior senior democrats in the united states have recused the democrats a dress republicans to a cce pt democrats a dress republicans to accept reality over the republicans of poisoning presidential election as president trump continues to democracy by refusing to elect refuse to concede. china joe biden as the winner. condemns the mass resignation present trumpeters yet to of opposition politicians in concede and many republicans hong kong. britain has new continue to back in. hong rules to follow lying lawmakers kong's walk out of legislature violate the treaty between the two countries. borisjohnson‘s after four of his colleagues have were expelled. witnesses say china has clearly breached senior adviser leaves downing street by the end of the year. the declaration beijing has labelled the mass resignation asa labelled the mass resignation as a challenge to its amnesty international says authority. british prime probably hundreds of civilians are being massacred in the minister borisjohnson authority. british prime minister boris johnson senior adviser dominic cummings is set to leave downing street at the growing conflict in tigray in end of the year. it follows the departure of the director of northern ethiopia. communications earlier this

week. amnesty international says it has evidence that scores possibly hundreds of civilians have been killed. that's it hello and welcome. the us president electjoe biden is pressing ahead with transition plans in spite of donald trump refusal to concede that he's lost the election. democratic leaders in congress at the election was settled and was now distracting from major issues like coronavirus, which the country urgently needs to address. we just had a divisive and hard —fought address. we just had a divisive and hard—fought presidential election, but instead of working to pull the country back together so that we can fight our common enemy, covid—i9, republicans in congress are spreading conspiracy theories, denying reality and poisoning the well of our democracy. the republicans it should stop their shenanigans about an election that president trump

has already lost and focus their attention on the immediate issue at hand, providing relief to a country living through the covid health and economic crises. within the past few moments, we had an update from the trump administration. my colleague is monitoring all of it from washington. what did they say? it's really interesting. they spoke about a number of states but we're really —— what really stood out was pennsylvania. they said essentially, what they're trying to do is rather than when the battle in one bite, nibble away at the number votes between donald trump and joe biden. currentlyjoe biden is ahead by .8%. it an automatic recount that triggered and that's what trump's team wants. we don't know whether that would change things. he'd need to really

sway the result by more than 20,000 votes, so that's quite a lot. but interestingly, our us partner cbs i've been speaking to donald trump's team —— have been speaking to. to get these pennsylvania cases in front of the supreme court and the strategy really is to win in a public opinion. they're not so much interested in whether a change the overall outcome. if they can win public opinion, donald trump can continue to say that he's cheated of this presidency. do we know anything more about whether. .. presidency. do we know anything more about whether... about presidency. do we know anything more about whether. .. about the year 2024 campaign more about whether. .. about the year2024 campaign and more about whether. .. about the year 2024 campaign and alsojoe biden is continuing with his transition campaign, but he needs security briefings and those details. what's going on with that? well, so far, the trump campaign has refused to

givejoe biden those security and intelligence briefings that he needs. today we heard some republicans coming forward and saying they think you should have those, but among them was lindsey graham, who is a very close ally of donald trump. he hasn't gone as far as saying that donald trump should concede the election, just that he should get those briefings. and i think that when you look at why they are hitching their wagons and so much that donald trump what you mention they are about the next election, also we've got georgia's senate runoff coming up injanuary and also the midterms for the republicans to think about as well. that is really why they are reluctant to cut their losses. donald trump did get a huge number of votes, the second most of a presidential candidate ever. he has a huge amount of support from his base, so i guess the fear is if they anger them, they risk

losing that support. with regards to whether donald trump is going to run, we don't know for sure but he has a set up a leadership packed, basically already fundraising in a way that could influence leadership of the republican party, whatever he chooses to do next. fascinating insight. thank you so fascinating insight. thank you so much. china has condemned the mass resignation of pro—democracy lawmakers in hong kong is a blatant challenge to its authority. resignations we re its authority. resignations were triggered by the expulsion of four other lawmakers and a new rules imposed by beijing. for the first time since the handover, the legislative council is now without any effective opposition. the us has warned it will impose further sanctions against china with national security adviser robert o'brien accusing them of violating. steven mcdonnell reports from beijing. there we re reports from beijing. there

were final acts of defiance inside hong kong's many parliament. the entire pro—democracy block tendered the resignations in protest of the resignations in protest of the dismissal of four of their colleagues. the communist party leadership has now empowered the city government to dismiss any opposition politician at will if they're deemed to show insufficient loyalty. for many, the autonomy hong kong has promised for decades to come has now all but disappeared. the power is in hong kong, is all rested in the head and we all rested in the head and we all know that because of the arrangement, coming from the central government. today and today there after it is the end. internationally the move

has been condemned as a clear sign that freedoms in hong kong have been eroded at an alarming rate. britain's foreign secretary dominic raab said the new rules allowing the chief executive to sachar opponent —— sachar opponents it was a breach. beijing has warned other countries not to interview and —— intervene in china's affairs of. in any way interfering in china's affairs, any attempt to pressure china orundermine their any attempt to pressure china or undermine their sovereignty will not succeed. from tomorrow, for the first time since hong kong was returned to china, it's legislate of counsel will be without any effective opposition. it's unclear whether they will ever have one again. for most

crucial thing hasn't been the dismissal of the legislators accused of sowing insufficient loyalty to the motherland or even the mass walk—out by the entire pro—democracy block. but rather a permanent change to the rules which from now on means the party —— the communist pa rty‘s surrogates can remove any politician even though they, unlike the city's leader, have been directly elected by the people. steven mcdonnell, bbc news, beijing. emily is a former chair of the democratic party and former member of the hong kong legislative council, and earlier she told me the probe democracy lawmakers had no other choice but to resign. in my whole political life, i advocated engagement but u nfortu nately, advocated engagement but unfortunately, she jim advocated engagement but unfortunately, shejim payne and carrie lam refused to have any dialogue —— xijinping. so

what can they do. so what can they do? the hong kong people have been disenfranchised. but life will go on, the struggle will go on and of course, the uk government, the former colonial power must do more to help hong kong and call on its allies to help hong kong we are not fighting for independence. we arejust asking not fighting for independence. we are just asking xi jinping and the chinese communist party to honour the promises of the britishjoint to honour the promises of the british joint declaration under basic law. it's very reasonable. but we are losing oui’ reasonable. but we are losing our free lifestyle very rapidly and may be more and more people

will be arrested, put into jail oi’ will be arrested, put into jail or even sent to mainland china under the national security law. how awful, how terrible, but the fight must go on. when you talk about the fight, you heard the british government talk about this being of breach of thejoint declaration talk about this being of breach of the joint declaration as you say, but it falls on deaf ears when it comes to beijing, so does the fight need to go onto the streets once again and at this point, that's illegal, and you are endangering the people of hong kong? yes, of course, because of the virus pandemic and social distancing rules, we cannot go out. people are of course concerned about their own health, but once this is lifted, when the pandemic is over, i can lifted, when the pandemic is over, i can assure you lifted, when the pandemic is over, i can assure you we're going to have more than a million people demonstrating. but i'm sure they will demonstrate in a peaceful and nonviolent way, and like we've

seen nonviolent way, and like we've seen them demonstrating many times. the world health organisation has warned that we may be tired of covid, but it is not tired of us. europe has seen an is not tired of us. europe has seen an explosion of cases according to the who. the us has added i million new cases injust ten days has added i million new cases in just ten days for a second day ina in just ten days for a second day in a row. there's been a record number of new cases in the united states, more than 142,000. the uk has also had a record rise with 33,470 new infections and a second day where deaths exceeded 500 people. daily numbers are surging in france. the french prime minister says that even if the r rate is below one, the number of covid patients in hospital is higher than in april, putting a lot of pressure on the hospitals. translation: last week, between 400 and 500

people died every day of covid. this means that today in france, one death of four is because of covid. we've also seen because of covid. we've also seen the last few days one hospitalization every 30 seconds and one admission into it intensive care every three minutes. as we've just seen it, the us is of course seeing its own surge in the virus with a record number of americans in hospital. doctor spencer is the director of global health at columbia university. we've already seen the number of deaths increase dramatically over the past few weeks and we're likely to see 2000 2500 deaths a day in this country in the coming weeks, and then you out on the holidays and top of that, where families will be getting together. more likely to have the virus spread. there is unfortunately no reason to be optimistic that we're going to get this virus under control, especially it doesn't

seem control, especially it doesn't seem the outgoing leadership seemed concerned about getting this virus under control. the situation in the united states. it's understood that the uk prime minister's senior aide dominic cummings is expected to leave the government by the end of the year. he told the bbc tonight that his position hasn't changed since the start of the year when he wrote that he wanted to make himself largely redundant by the end of 2020. our political correspondentjessica parker joined me with more. there seems to be something about a power struggle going on behind the door of number ten. tensions are surfacing and then you have the announcement that lee came, the director of communications, will be leaving downing street at the end of the air —— lee cana. a close ally of dominic cummings. while the tigray is an important figure in downing street,

dominic cummings is central —— while lee cain. there was a huge controversy earlier in the year when mr huge controversy earlier in the yearwhen mrcummings huge controversy earlier in the year when mr cummings travelled from london to county durham during the height of lockdown. borisjohnson during the height of lockdown. boris johnson refused during the height of lockdown. borisjohnson refused pressure for calls to sacked the dominic cummings, displaying his importance to the prime minister. after the departure of lee cain, there's been a lot of lee cain, there's been a lot of speculation over the future of speculation over the future of dominic cummings and as you say, he's been speaking to our political editor laura kuenssberg tonight and he was asked about these rumours that he would be leaving number ten by christmas. saying his position has not changed. he has a blog in which he said he planned to make himself redundant by the end of 2020. a senior downing street source says he will be out of government by christmas. why this is important, a couple of big picture things here. there has clearly been quite a lot of

turbulence in downing street over the past couple of days about who gets whatjob and who has the ear of the prime minister. this is a government thatis minister. this is a government that is trying to tackle a pandemic and the other thing as well as lee cain and dominic cummings both worked on the brexit campaign. seen as two people that are quite calm but if, really influencing the way that downing street is run. —— come back to if both mentally and, it will meana if both mentally and, it will mean a possible significant change of approach. jessica parker there. much more on our website. stay with us here on bbc news. thousands of ethnic armenians flee areas of nagorno—karabakh. we will have a special report. the bombastic establishment outside of donald trump has

defied the posters to take the keys to the oval office.|j defied the posters to take the keys to the oval office. i feel really good about the results. i voted for him because i believe he cares about the country. it's keeping the candidates always in the public eye that counts. success or failure depends not only on public display, but on the local campaign headquarters and the heavy routine work of their women volunteers. the heavy routine work of their women volunteers. berliners from both east and west linked hands and danced around the liberator rated territory. with nobody to stop them, it wasn't long before the first attempt we re long before the first attempt were made to destroy the 's structure itself. palestinian authority has declared the state of morning. after 17 yea rs of state of morning. after 17 years of discussion, the result was greeted with an outburst of jov- was greeted with an outburst of joy. ministers who long felt only grudgingly accepted among the ranks of clergy suddenly felt welcome.

you are watching bbc news. senior democrats are urging republicans to accept reality over the us presidential election as president trump continues to refuse to concede. china condemns the mass resignation of all politicians in hong kong. —— opposition politicians. thousands of ethnic armenians are fleeing areas of nagorno—karabakh to be handed over to azerbaijan. it's pa rt handed over to azerbaijan. it's part of the recent peace deal there. there have been six weeks of violent clashes in the region, which is internationally recognised as azerbaijan. it has been run by ethnic armenians. some armenians have resorted to burning down their own property on the hands of their enemies. steve rosenberg reports.

in nagorno—karabakh, the exodus has begun. ethnic armenians are rushing to leave before much of this area is handed to azerbaijan. for the armenian soldiers, defeat is hard to swallow, everyone here has lost comrades. but for these young men there is relief, too, that the war is over. translation: if this war had continued we would have all been killed. azerbaijan has more money, weapons, and military equipment than us. armenia was given less than a week to vacate this land. this man is packing up and taking absolutely everything with him. he is stripping the house bare. he's even removed all the windows. translation:

i feel so much pain you can imagine. i don't know where to go, i have seven children but no home. nearby, silent prayers in an armenian monastery, but within days, azerbaijan will control the town. the ancient monastery in dadivank is proof, say people here, that this land was and is armenian. but history is complex in the caucasus. only 30 years ago dadivank was part of azerbaijan, until armenian forces captured it. and if they must leave now, some armenians are leaving nothing behind. this family are destroying their home, so that no azerbaijani can move into it. translation: i built this house from scratch. i can't leave it to anyone. we've taken whatever we can and now i'm just going to burn it.

if my children can't use this house, then no one can. there is nothing these people can do about this peace agreement. there is nothing they can do about losing this land. the only thing they can do is make sure they leave nothing behind for azerbaijan. a peace agreement may have ended war but the hatred keeps burning. steve rosenberg, dadivank, bbc news. let's bring you up—to—date with some other stories. the former president of ghana has died at the age of 73. twice seize power and executed three of his pre—disasters, but he went on to win two elections as he oversaw gha na's to win two elections as he oversaw ghana's transition to a party democracy. the us government will not ban chinese owned video tearing up tiktok.

—— sharing app. based on claims that the app pose a security threat due to the company's links to beijing. prosecutors in peru have requested that the former president be banned from leaving the country for the next 18 months, following his appeasement over corruption allegations. it has led to protests outside the congress building. —— his impeachment. these are live pictures right now from the capital. barcelona is planning a major expansion of low traffic zones, giving priority to present strands and cyclists to reduce pollution —— to pedestrians. it is part of a ten year plan. no resident will be more than 200 metres from the green space. at least three people have been killed

following floods at a camp ground, according to alexander cou nty ground, according to alexander county officials. amnesty international says as evidence that possibly hundreds of civilians have been killed in a massacre in ethiopia's tigray region. this comes as a conflict between the army and tigray forces. the eight agency says the victims were stabbed 01’ says the victims were stabbed or hacked to death —— aid agencies. is this ethiopia on the cusp of civil war? these are federal forces in the northern region of tigray. a bitter fallout between the national government and leaders of this region descended into confrontation. this is this is humera airport. federal forces say they've cut it from the regional tigray people's liberation front, which led ethiopia for nearly three decades.

talks have been called for, but the national government says it's past that point. translation: we have come here with high morale since we heard about this. we are determined that this force has to either surrender or be destroyed, whatever it is. italy's known about the welfare of civilians in tigray. phone lines, internet and bunking have been cut off. aid agencies say the situation is dire. we definitely need to have food, fuel and other basic commodities brought into the region because they're running low already of sugar, oil and all the basic needs, including banking services. there's no cash. the northern region of tigray is home to over 5 million people. the region's leaders have ordered them to mobilise to defend themselves in a report on tigray state media.

thousands of civilians are fleeing across the border into sudan. many are yet to receive any help. we are very concerned that with the continuing attacks, military attacks and the fighting, no persons may flee, including refugees who are in the camps, and other members of the population. in the capital of addis ababa, hundreds turn up to donate blood for the army, a stark reminder of how bad things could be on the war front. but even here, opinion about the fighting is mixed. translation: our defence force is the flame bearer and guardian of our nation. i'm so proud that our people come here en masse to donate their blood for our military. i believe this shows our unity. translation: waging war at this time is not proper. war has no benefit for us. it hurts our economy, our country. we need to work together

to develop our country rather than going to war. when there is a war, industries will be damaged and the people who will die would have contributed a lot to the country. pro—government militia are seen here travelling to fight alongside nationalforces. there are fears this could morph into foreign civil war. a standoff between ethiopia's former and current rulers threatens to push the country to the brink. anne soy, bbc news. more on our website which is before i go, our mind our main story. senior democrats in the united states are accusing republicans of opposing democracy by refusing to recognise joe biden as democracy by refusing to recognisejoe biden as the winner of last week's presidential election. he has yet to concede. many

republicans continue to back him. lots more developing stories on our website. thanks so stories on our website. thanks so much. bye—bye. hello. today isn't shaping up to be too bad. we should see quite a bit of sunshine. that band of rain has been spreading its way eastward and has been followed by blustery showers, running into scotland and northern ireland. this is the rain i'm talking about lying on this cold front and slightly fresher air behind it will be working its way is words ahead of it sunshine behind this rain band which will continue to journey eastward through this morning, eventually clearing to the southeast by lunch time. at the bright afternoon for most but the showers will continue in the showers will continue in

the north. the blustery day to come for all. when here touching 50 miles an hour. for the temperatures, it's going to feel a little cooler, particularly in the north. 12 to 14 degrees in the south. as we had through the overnight period, it looks like we'll stay dry for a while. but the next area pressure brings cloud and when and rain, but will start to get heavier across southern and western areas. signs of some milder air getting into the south of the country by the end of the night, but for most, in the single digits. as we head into the weekend, it's going to state unsettled because we will have low pressure nearby. windy with gales and heavy rain in places. low pressure will be moving in across the country for saturday, a lot of isobars on the chart and plenty of weather fronts. a largely cloudy day for most, outbreaks of fairly heavy rain at times. it's not going to be raining all the time, and it's going to be windy with gales across the

south coast. a mild day to come, 14 to may be 16 degrees in england and wales, ten to 12 for the north. it stays cloudy, breezy into the saturday night into sunday. low pressure still with us and squeezing the isobars, you'll notice across southern britain and lots of weather fronts. southern britons will see the gales, 50-60 britons will see the gales, 50—60 mph. showers are longer spells of rain in places heavy, but there will be some sunshine around as well. it's not going to bea around as well. it's not going to be a complete wash—out. i 00:28:35,924 --> 2147483051:51:03,762 slowly cooler day to come on 2147483051:51:03,762 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 sunday.