a this this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. conservative mps urge the prime minister to reset his government after the departure of his top adviser dominic cummings. several states in the us bring in new restrictions to try to curb the surge in covid—19. the us president—elect, joe biden, strongly criticises donald trump's handling of the crisis. president trump has insisted he won't put the us into lockdown, and comes close to admitting he could leave the white house next year. i will not go...this administration will not be going to a lockdown. hopefully the... whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be, i guess time will tell. ethiopia's government warns that

fighting with local forces in the tigray region appears to be spreading into neighbouring areas. a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the uk is expected to be brought foward to 2030, a decade earlier than originally planned. and diwali with a difference — the festival of lights is celebrated in a socially—distanced way by hundreds of millions of people around the world. everybody, in their mind, they are scared about coronavirus, but at the same time, they are kind of adjusting to the new normal. hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world — and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe.

here in the uk, downing street sources suggest yesterday's sudden departure of the prime minister's chief adviser, dominic cummings, came about after relations between the two men "went off a cliff edge". borisjohnson is now said to want to "move on", following a week of turmoil in the prime minister's top team. it comes as trade talks with the eu near their conclusion. here's our political correspondent nick eardley. leaving by the front door for the last time — dominic cummings, who had been boris johnson's most senior and influential aide, but whose time at the heart of government is over. when boris johnson became prime minister, he turned to his allies from the brexit referendum. mr cummings and his vote leave colleagues were brought in to make sure brexit was delivered and to shake up the way the government worked. but mr cummings was deeply controversial, often finding himself in the limelight, in particular after he refused to apologise after driving

to barnard castle from london during lockdown. sorry i'm late. we agreed that we should go for a short drive to see if i could drive safely. but it's tensions in here which have proved his downfall, with faction fights in number ten bursting into the open in recent days as different groups fought for influence over the prime minister. boris johnson's fiancee, carrie symonds, was one of those who'd raised concerns, but for months, many of borisjohnson‘s mps and even some ministers had been unhappy at the style of government with mr cummings in number ten and that very few people seemed to have the prime minister's ear. i think that, with hindsight, mrjohnson might feel that he has squandered quite a lot of political capital unnecessarily in seeking to defend the indefensible, but the fact of the matter is we are now where we are and we can move forward and i would like the prime minister to see this as an opportunity to muck out the stables and get

in a team of people that he really needs and deserves behind him. now the vote leave era in number ten looks to be drawing to a close. it'll be up to the prime minister and those left in downing street to decide what happens next. our political correspondent, jonathan blake, explained a little earlier how yesterday's events unfolded. well, this torrid week of tension at number ten did come to a head yesterday afternoon. we know the prime minister had a meeting yesterday afternoon with lee cain, former director of communications, and dominic cummings, and it was said the prime minister wanted to, at that meeting, clear the air and move on. there are conflicting and colourful accounts about what was said and what happened in the hours after that. it is being claimed the prime minister accused the two men of briefing against his fiancee carrie symonds and that version of events is hotly disputed by others.

one source in the room at the time described it as a lovely conversation between the three men at which they reminisced about their various achievements together. and then yesterday evening, as we saw, dominic cummings left number ten by the front door carrying that cardboard box, a very deliberate move that he would be going for good and as we know this morning, that is the case, bar a spot of home working and gardening leave between now and christmas. what that shows you, regardless of the detail of what happened, is that this a feud went right down to the last hours and minutes of these two men and their time in downing street. and there was a bit of bad blood still to the end and they left under something of a cloud and the terms of their departure might be disputed, but there is no doubt this has been a watershed week for downing street. bronwen maddox is the director

of the institute for government. a think tank and a research organisation trying to improve the quality of the way we are governed. she says mr cumming's trip to barnard castle during the lockdown had weakened the government and the adviser‘s own credibility. i think this does go back to barnard castle, actually, and the huge damage. i can't think of many political stories that cut through in that way, when everyone you met that week, whatever walk of life, was making a dominic cummingsjoke or was angry about it. whether or not it broke the letter of the rules, it broke the spirit, the government's trust, and it showed up in the polls, they took a battering at that point. if borisjohnson realised how much he would lose from that, i wonder if he would have kept him at that time — maybe. personal loyalty is a rare and likeable quality. the prime minister would say, look, this person is essential to my government in terms

of the clarity and the energy he brings to the whole strategy. but as you say, for the prime minister to have squandered that much capital for just another six months of his key aide, it doesn't look like a great judgment at the time. i am sure it's one he has thought back to a lot, but in any case now he has taken the decision. this could be part two of a johnson government for this reason, and because we are coming out of the transition period with the eu. from january we really will be separate from the eu, de facto. does this present an opportunity for borisjohnson to perhaps talk about some of the other things that he talked about in the election campaigna yearago? he won a big majority but thus far, partly because of covid—19, he has not been able to do much about them. yes, you get the sense the prime minister and his team

are desperate to talk about levelling up, what they can do for parts of the country that voted for them, and others which didn't, in terms of bringing more prosperity to britain. there are things which make this potentially a very solid turning point, brexit, the american president... the good news on the vaccines, the sense we might be seeing the end, the beginning of the end of the coronavirus pandemic. things that allow the government to change the nature of the conversation, which i am sure it badly wants to do. talks on a post—brexit trade agreement have made less progress in the past week than the eu had hoped for. an eu source said one of the meetings was "short and brutal". one of the uk contingent said "big gaps" still remained between the two sides, with sticking points around fishing quotas and trading standards on goods.

that is lord frostfrost, the british negotiator. there are just seven weeks for any deal to be agreed and ratified, before the end of the transition period on january the first. the us president—elect, joe biden, has strongly criticised donald trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, warning urgent action is needed before he takes office injanuary. some states are now banding together in an effort to curb the spread of covid—i9. in total, america has had over 10.7 million cases and 244,000 deaths, and more than 900 people a day are dying with the disease on average. 0regon, new mexico, and california — where people face long queues at test centres — want an end to non—essential travel. the governor of oregon has taken the additional step of ordering social gatherings to be limited to six people. the new york governor, andrew cuomo, says the governors of six states in the northeast are to hold an emergency meeting

to coordinate responses. meanwhile, donald trump has made his first public comments since mr biden was declared the winner of the election. for the first time, he admitted he might not be in the white house come the 20th of january. i will not go...this administration will not be going to a lockdown. hopefully the... whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be, i guess time will tell, but i can tell you this administration will not go to a lockdown. president trump still refuses to concede the presidency, even with projections showing that joe biden has won the state of georgia. this brings his total number of electoral college votes to 306. president donald trump is projected to win north carolina, reaching 232 votes. for more on the significance of the situation, here's our north america correspondent, peter bowes. that is exactly the number that president trump won four years ago against hillary clinton,

and he said it was a landslide in terms of a victory. well, the situation is exactly reversed now and he is on the losing side. and again, president trump is hugely aware of how things look — the optics, as they're sometimes described — and that is an optic that he won't be enjoying seeing on american tv screens, in particular at the bottom of the screen. that is the kind of detail that the president doesn't like and perhaps might go some way towards explaining his behaviour right now. the bakery chain greggs has announced plans to cut more than 800 jobs because of a fall in sales due to the ongoing coronavirus restrictions. managers have warned employees the firm may cease to be profitable if sales continue at lockdown levels. in ethiopia, the government says that local forces in the mountaineous border state of tigray have fired rockets at two airports to the south.

tigray officials say the missile attacks were in retaliation for government airstrikes in the region. the claims are the latest escalation in a growing conflict between the ethiopian military and local forces there. addis ababa says the rockets targeted the cities of gondar and bahir dar. human rights groups have sounded the alarm over reports of mass civilian killings. the un said if they were verified, they could amount to war crimes. fighting in the region erupted last week, killing hundreds of people and displacing tens of thousands across the border into neighbouring sudan. both sides accuse each other of targeting civilians. ethiopia's human rights commission says it will investigate abuses in the conflict and warns of the risk of ethnic profiling in response to the fighting. the government accuses tigray fighters of attacking a military base, instigating the conflict and of wanting to destablise the country. it's a claim the tigray people's liberation front denies. prime minister abiy, who won the nobel peace prize last year, has promised a swift end of the conflict. well, the stream of refugees

from the conflict continues to grow, amid reports of shells being fired across the eritrean border. a communication blackout has been imposed on the tigray region and survivors in sudan have begun giving their accounts of the fighting. translation: we were bombarded from two directions. we ran forfour hours and then fled on foot. translation: i went out with my father, my mother, my child with only what we wore and now we have no money. we fled from death. translation: forces entered and burned our homes and killed people. they left nothing. we fled to sudan. our correspondent kalkidan yibetal is in the ethiopian capital of addis ababba with this update on the latest rocket attacks. we know that two rocket attacks

happened in the state near the northernmost state of tigray. they say rockets were fired by the dominant political power in tigray. the people's liberation army front have taken responsibility for the attacks, and they happen in retaliation for air strikes by the federal government and the federal army in the region. so we know this conflict is escalating and things are going worse, but we don't know whether there were casualties in the latest rocket attacks. what about the reports from the un human rights organisations, saying that these reports could amount to war crimes? what are you hearing? yes, that is a report that shocked the country as it emerged a few days ago, a report

by amnesty international, calling it a massacre, a killing of scores and possibly hundreds in a small town. they haven't confirmed the perpetrators, but they say that eyewitnesses told them the killers we re eyewitnesses told them the killers were retreating forces loyal to the tplf, who have denied this claim. but we are seeing more and more in this conflict, and the un are saying that if this report is true, it could amount to war crimes and the human rights commission going to investigate the killings. so we are seeing the human cost of this conflict. not only the killings of civilians, the possible killings of civilians, the possible killings of civilians, but we are seeing an influx of refugees and internally displaced people, with humanitarian agencies unable to provide aid in the area because of the conflict and communication breakdown. our

correspondent in addis ababa. the headlines on bbc news: conservative mps urge the prime minister to reset his government after the departure of his top adviser dominic cummings. several states in the us bring in new restrictions to try to curb the surge in covid—i9. the us president—elect, joe biden, strongly criticises donald trump's handling of the crisis. president trump has insisted he won't put the us into lockdown, and comes close to admitting he could leave the white house next year. and it might not be his decision. typhoon vamco has caused extensive damage in the philippines, flooding many parts of luzon — the largest and most populated island. the storm, known locally as ulysses, made landfall in the bicol region. the same area was battered by the super typhoon goni just over a week ago. howard johnson reports from manila. the governor of cagayan province today declared a state of calamity.

what that means is he can now access greater funds to distribute to his population, aid money as well as gain extra search and rescue support from the government. what we've seen already is nearly 4,000 search and rescue personnel, according to the authorities, searching the area. the philippine coast guard, very active in helping people off their family homes, off the rooves of their family homes, trying to escape the rising water levels. this area is an agricultural area in the north of the philippines, and it was hit by this storm on wednesday. but can you imagine for the people who have been suffering this storm, they have been there night after night, waiting for support. at the moment, many people are still hoping that support will come before the night sets in again. the philippine president rodrigo duterte will visit the area tomorrow. no doubt he will inspect the nearby magat dam, that was simply overwhelmed by the huge amounts of rain that were dumped

on the area by this storm. the 21st cyclone to hit the philippines this year. what happened was the dam had to release water otherwise it would have simply been overwhelmed. that water has flooded this area, affecting not only cagayan province but also isabela province to the south of cagayan. our philippines correspondent howard johnson with that report. a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in britain is expected to be brought foward to 2030, a decade earlier than originally planned. the changes will accelerate the shift towards electric vehicles as the uk aims to reach net—zero carbon emissions by 2050. this report — by our chief environment correspondent, justin rowlatt — contains footage filmed before england's second lockdown was imposed. the uk has been at the forefront of the car industry since the very beginning. designing, making and of course, driving cars.

i can't believe it, racing at brooklyn's! the car has literally reshaped our world. we wouldn't have the road structure that we've got now, the motorways, the towns built around the roads. so the internal combustion engine really has changed everyone's lives. engine revs. listen to that! she sounds and she looks magnificent, but remember, the basic principle of the internal combustion engine hasn't changed since this car was built 110 years ago. and remember, it relies on blowing up explosive gases. and we know that produces carbon dioxide and other pollutants. which is why the government isn't saying get rid of cars, just the engines. this is the race version ofjaguar‘s latest electric offering, proving the performance of electric

vehicles even at the top end is at least the equal of petrol. most of the big car companies have at least one electric vehicle in their range. but they say the 2030 target is very ambitious. the challenge to the industry is absolutely massive. we've been an industry built on petrol and diesel engines for over a century. shifting that, with all the embedded investment, to a brand—new technology in the space of a few years is an incredible challenge. there are still lots of questions that need to be answered. where will we charge these electric vehicles? will they be affordable? will they have the range for the journeys we need to make? we really do need more charge points on city streets and in towns to cater for the people who do not have off—street parking opportunities. they need to be around where people can see them to give people

confidence they're going to be able to charge their vehicles, and they also need to work. if you've got any doubts about buying an electric car, you know what you should do? you should give one a go. you will find they're just as good as the fossil—fuel—powered versions. and we now know where our petrol and diesel vehicles are headed. that's right — from 2030, they will be museum pieces. british police are searching for a gang of masked men who stole more than £100,000 ofjewellery during an early morning raid in cambridgeshire. security footage captured the moment the intruders ransacked a shop in ely yesterday. officers said a ‘staggering' amount of watches and rings were taken in just a few minutes. nasa and spacex were due to send astronauts to the international space station tonight, but even a meticulously planned rocket launch can be delayed

by the one thing we can't control — the weather! the four astronauts are preparing to make the first operational crewed flight, using a privately owned spacecraft. simon king has been speaking to those who provide that crucial forecast. ignition, lift off! may 2020, and two nasa astronauts on their way to space in the new spacex crew demo programme. the day before, the launch had been aborted, with just 17 minutes to lift off. all because of the one thing we can't control. we continue to violate a couple different weather rules that we now do not expect to clear in time to allow for a launch today. but who are the weather forecasters that make the critical decisions for a space launch? our role, the 45th weather squadron, is pretty huge in what we do in the space industry. essentially, at the cape, nothing gets to space without our support.

and so we're talking launch vehicles, keeping those safe, protecting all of our assets and personnel as well. so safety is kind of the big thing here with us. the 45th weather squadron has a number of rules which have to be passed before a mission is go for launch. most of these involve the type of cloud, lightning, atmospheric electricity and rainfall. forecasters monitor the conditions around cape canaveral and abort sites in the build—up to lift off, but it's not always as straightforward as it might seem. people look at the conditions that are going on outside and they're kind of like, "i wonder why we're not launching today? it's great picnic weather." we have that upper—level cloud, but do potentially have electrification and have that mixed space, so punching a rocket through there could condense that electric field a little bit stronger and trigger its own lightning strike. radio: um, unless you can give us another ten minutes, i don't think we're going to get there with any of the rules today.

that was mike mcaleenan, the launch weather officer on that day in may. i asked him what it feels like to make those important weather decisions. you enter the countdown, kind of mentally no go for all the criteria, and prove that we are go. so on launch day you have a whole team there helping you evaluate. you're the voice, but you have the team on the radar, and flying the aircraft, and providing the data to you to feed to the launch director. so everybody is well understanding that launching through dangerous conditions is not something anybody is pushing for and we can always stand down and launch another day, and that's always the safest thing to do. the first nasa and spacex operational mission, known as crew one, will carry four astronauts to the international space station. with lives at stake in a multi—million pound mission, the go/no—go decisions of the 45th weather squadron will once again be critical.

the festival of lights or diwali is being celebrated today by hundreds of millions of hindus, sikhs and jains around the world — but of course it's a little bit different this year. i think everybody, in their mind, they are scared about coronavirus, but at the same time, they are kind of adjusting to the new normal — maintaining social distancing, sanitising their hands. and to be sane, you have to get...the life goes on, you can't stop your life. a critically endangered black rhino has been born at chester zoo. the arrival of the female calf brought an end to a is—month—long pregnancy for mum, ema elsa. there are fewer than a thousand eastern black rhinos left on the planet, so every new arrival is a boost to conservation efforts. a name will be chosen by a poll on the zoo's facebook page. as of last night, more than £37—million had been

raised for children in need on what was the 40th anniversary of the fundraiser. covid restrictions meant there was no live audience, and the broadcast on bbc one was a bit shorter than normal. but there was still plenty of fun to be had, as david sillito reports. please welcome your hosts, alex scott and chris ramsey, mel giedroyc and stephen mangan! it was a stripped—back, socially—distanced anniversary for children in need. the live audience was watching on zoom. in 1980, the total at the end of the night was just over £1 million. 40 years on, joe wicks alone got twice that for his 24—hour workout. three, two, one! whoo! # stop crying your heart out...# a charity single featuring cher, the rickshaw challenge — the familiar children in need ingredients. of course, this year, people were cycling indoors.

# call me bad cinderella...# and the live musical performance, no big west end choruses, instead, andrew lloyd webber on a keyboard, a safe two metres from a solo performance by carrie hope fletcher. # when you try your best but you don't succeed. ..# but some things were unchanged. the public‘s generosity, and in a year which has brought new challenges of loneliness, isolation... # we've had success...# ..and covid—related hardship, the need for children in need. now let's look at the weather. this weekend is dominated by an area of low pressure meaning it is going to be wet and windy at times. that has been the story today. because of these weather fronts sweeping in from the west, pushing steadily

north and east. the best of any dry and bright weather today will be in the north—east of scotland. through the north—east of scotland. through the afternoon, we see bands of showery rain spilling across the country. i'm heavier bursts moving through the south—east to be replaced by yet another. late afternoon brightness in the south—west and northern ireland, windy across the day, gusts in excess of 40 mph, perhaps close to 55 in the south and west. but it is mild, 11—15 widely across the country. it does look as though we will continue to see this unsettled story into sunday, which will be more of a case or scattered sharp showers, and still windy, particularly in the south.

hello, this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines:

conservative mps urge the prime minister to reset his government after the departure of his top adviser, dominic cummings. several states in the us bring in new restrictions to try to curb the surge in covid—19. the us president—elect, joe biden, strongly criticises donald trump's handling of the crisis. president trump has insisted he won't put the us into lockdown, and comes close to admitting he could leave the white house next year i will not go...this administration will not be going to a lockdown. hopefully the... whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be, i guess time will tell. ethiopia's government warns that fighting with local forces in the tigray region appears to be spreading into neighbouring areas. a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the uk is expected to be brought foward to 2030, a decade earlier than originally planned. and diwali with a difference — the festival of lights is celebrated