this is bbc news. i'm ben brown. our top stories. calls for the uk government to force social media companies to remove anti—vaccine content from their platforms. a tense stand—off in washington as thousands march through the streets to show their support for donald trump's unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. thousands of ethiopians flee their country amid fighting between their government and forces in the tigray region — with the conflict now spilling across the eritrean border. and the uk government pledges an extra £40 million for green spaces in england as part of plan to restore species and combat climate change.

hello and welcome to bbc news for viewers in the uk and around the world. in britain, the labour party is calling on the government to bring forward legislation that would impose financial and criminal penalties for social media companies that fail to remove anti—vaccination content — ahead of the expected roll—out of a jab against the coronavirus. under the plan, social media platforms would have to create filters to prevent such content from being published, and to remove anti—vaccine messages if they do appear. katherine da costa has more. with hopes rising of an effective coronavirus vaccine being rolled out by the end of the year, labour is calling for the government to fast—track emergency legislation to stamp out what it calls "dangerous anti—vax content online".

the party claims dedicated groups with hundreds of thousands of online followers are still spreading disinformation, which it says poses a real threat to the take—up of the vaccine. labour says it would back legislation which includes financial and criminal penalties for social media giants that failed to act. it's urgent because we have the vaccine on the horizon, thank goodness. and we cannot have anything that is going to prevent or undermine the roll—out of the vaccine programme and create dangers for public health which is what this anti—vaccination content does. the government insists it takes the issue extremely seriously. in a statement it said it had... but labour has warned the measures do not go far enough and has questioned why anti—vaccine groups are not being closed down. katherine da costa, bbc news.

our political correspondent jonathan blake is here. we have heard what the labour party want. what are the chances of the government listening to that and doing what they want?” government listening to that and doing what they want? i think the government thinks it has gone far enough with his agreement with the tech companies to make sure nobody profits from misinformation and work with public health authorities in the uk. there are some draft legislation in the works, the on line harms white paper which addresses some of the information about misinformation online. labour wa nt about misinformation online. labour want the government to go further now and say emergency legislation is needed before a vaccine is approved for use in the uk and if anyone stops themselves been vaccinated as a result of reading false claims online about the damage it might do to your health, that is one too many. the government is confident that even though this vaccine, if and when it is approved, and there are still hurdles to go through, the

take—up for the vast majority of people will choose to have the vaccine even though it will not be made compulsory. it has been a week of political turmoil in downing street with the departure of a couple of the key aides of the prime minister. what are the wider political implications of that in the week ahead in the crucial brexit trade talks still under way? it is certainly been a watershed week in downing street and if you have been gripped by the daily drama there is plenty more in the sunday papers to whet your appetite about the extraordinarily bitter row we have seen play out over the last few days in numberten seen play out over the last few days in number ten with the departure of the two closest advisers to the minister dominic cummings and lee cain. everyone asked what happens next. i don't get the sense that i sweeping changes in the offing in the coming days. i'm told the prime minister will meet with backbench

mps in the conservative party as he does every week but doubt may well be an effort to rebuild relations because it's clear that the links between the government and backbench conservative mps have broken down or stop —— that the links are broken down. i am sure there will be an effort to overcome that. in terms of brexit negotiations, it is com pletely brexit negotiations, it is completely false i'm told that any suggestion that the departure of dominic cummings will lead to any softening of position on the uk site. it's undoubtedly a crucial time for those negotiations. they've been going on in london for the past week and will continue this week but time is running short. we said that before many times in this process but the ultimate deadline of the sist but the ultimate deadline of the 31st of december, at which the transition period comes to an end and the uk needs to have a new relationship with the eu, whether a free trade agreement, whether world trade organisation rules, that will be decided in the next few days.

thousands of people have marched through the streets of washington dc to show their support for donald trump's unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the presidential election. protesters chanted "four more years" as they marched toward the supreme court. counter demonstrators heckled the trump supporters. david willis reports. a long and fractious election campaign has brought long simmering tensions to the surface. as thousands of donald trump supporters, among them members of the far—right militia group the proud boys, turned out in the nation's capital they were met by a smaller crowd of counter protesters and members of the black lives matter movement. chanting: usa, usa! and the police sometimes struggled to keep the two sides apart.

the president had said he may stop by and say hello and he was seen smiling and waving as his motorcade appeared on pennsylvania avenue. he continues to claim voter fraud and is refusing to concede. many in the crowd believe he is right to do so. we are not conceding because we have won the election. many may well end up in the supreme court. he is not president elect. the media does not get to call the election. but there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud and election officials have branded this the most secure election in america's history. never the less supporters called for four more years. his democratic rivaljoe biden took

to his bike in his home state of delaware during a break from deciding the shape of his new cabinet. the president—elect continues to display an air of business as usual. are you any closer to making a cabinet decision? of business as usual. are you any closer to making a cabinet decision? yes. even in the absence of federal funding needed for the transition. as night fell in the nation's capital, tensions between trump supporters and opponents started to grow. in the white house the president tweeted there is widespread evidence of voter fraud and said republican watchers had been barred from several key events. the scene here is of two versions of america, each refusing to accept what the other considers to be irrefutable fact, that their side won this election. it doesn't bode well for an easy transition or for a peaceful handover of power. earlier, we asked david how many people had turned out for the march. this has been heavily promoted in social media for several weeks and

there were undoubtedly thousands of people they are today, not perhaps enough to fully justify the title the million maga marched but are very, very large turnout. it was all peaceful enough to start with, the police managing two separate donald trump supporters from black lives matter and left—wing groups and then night fell and things change dramatically with clashes between the two groups, rocks, bottles and fireworks being thrown and there are reports at least one person is seriously ill tonight after being stabbed. you mentioned president trump instead of appealing for calm took to twitter to basically blame oi’ took to twitter to basically blame or castigate the local police for not containing the violence and blaming it on the left—wing group

antifa but this does not bode well for the peaceful transition of power which is stalled at the moment because president trump is of course refusing to concede. it does, i think, perhaps rather starkly illustrate the growing polarisation of politics here and the increased tribal isolation of the same. —— tribalisation. the leader of ethiopia's tigray region has confirmed his forces have bombed the airport in the eritrean capital, asmara. the attack widens the conflict ( which erupted between the ethiopian government and the governing party in tigray last week. leaders in tigray have accused eritrea of siding with ethiopia. tens of thousands of people have been displaced to sudan. our africa regional editor, will ross, has this report. escaping from war, these ethiopians are making the difficultjourney across the border into sudan after fleeing the fighting in the tigray region.

they were stuck between the opposing forces, and fearing for their lives abandoned their homes in a hurry. the un says thousands of refugees have made it to this very remote area of sudan where the conditions are tough. as the fighting intensifies, camps are springing up for displaced civilians. they spoke of the dangers that forced them to flee. in the chaos, many have been separated from their family members. translation: i went out with my father, my mother, and my child with only what we wore and now we have no money or anything. we fled from death. translation: forces entered and burned our homes and killed people. they left nothing. we fled to sudan. this is a conflict between ethiopia's army and fighters who are loyal to the politicians in charge of the country's tigray region. the government says the fighting was triggered by an attack on a federal military base last week. with telecommunications

switched off in tigray, it's hard to know what's happening on the ground but there have been reports of hundreds of soldiers being killed on both sides. and the conflict has heightened ethnic divisions. dozens of civilians were killed on monday night in what amnesty international describes as a massacre. ethiopia's been through big changes since its prime minister abiy ahmed came to power in 2018. he was awarded the nobel peace prize last year after reaching out to make peace with neighbouring eritrea. but the widespread reforms he pushed through sidelined the tigrayans of the tplf party who had long dominated the political scene. they accuse mr abiy of teaming up with his new friend the eritrean president to attack the tigrayan forces. earlier came the threat to target eritrea with air strikes. translation: whether they go from asmara or bahir dar to attack

tigray or other places, whether it is by plane or other attacks, as per our statement that we'll commit retaliatory measures, we will undertake missile attacks on selected targets in addition to gondar and bahir dar airports. ethiopia's prime minister had predicted a swift win, but he may have underestimated the enemy. the impact of a drawn—out regional conflict would be devastating for the horn of africa region. will ross, bbc news. i'm joined now by desta gebremedhin from bbc tigrinya who is in nairobi. what do we know so far about the missile attacks? fighting is continuing for almost two weeks now and much of the fighting was in the western part of tigray where over 17,000 people crossed the border to sedan and now we are hearing reports of fighting

in the southern part of the region as well. how dangerous this conflict for the horn of africa? it is escalating a lot with now the missile attacks and the tigray leaders have been accusing involvement in this conflict. this will really be dangerous. 15 asia—pacific countries have formed the world's largest free trade grouping in a deal which is seen as an extension of china's influence in the region. it includes ten south—east asian countries, along with china, japan, south korea, new zealand and australia. vietnam — which hosted the signing ceremony — said the group would account for 30% of the world economy, reaching more than two billion consumers.

the british government has announced £40 million of extra funding for green projects, which it says will enhance england's natural environment and create or support thousands of jobs. some of the money will be invested in the creation of new national parks. the funding is part of a plan for a green recovery from the pandemic. here's our environment analyst, roger harrabin. the lake district, one of britain's favourite landscapes. it looks wild but that is an illusion. the diversity of habitat and species on these naked hills has been depleted over centuries by overgrazing sheep. the government wants to bring back the wildlife here to its previous state. it also wants to restore peat bogs and woodlands which capture the carbon emissions that are overheating the planet. £40 million is being provided for charities to put thousands of boots on the ground to bring back the nature.

green campaigners welcomed the cash but they say that last chunk of 40 million was oversubscribed seven times. every little helps but, let's be clear, 40 million is a drop in the ocean compared to the £1 billion investment that's needed every year, year—on—year, to rebuild our natural infrastructure in this country. unless we do that, unless we turn around the declines of our species and habitats in this country, we are going to see the foundation for our food security, our water security, our health and our economy eroding away. meanwhile, next year the government will designate new national parks, like the yorkshire dales, and ten long—term landscape recovery projects will be initiated to restore wilder landscapes. the prime minister is said to be turning towards green initiatives like this to signal a move to kinder policies. roger harrabin, bbc news.

pressure on the uk government to force social media companies to remove anti—vaccine content from their platforms. a tense stand—off in washington as thousands march through the streets to show their support for donald trump's unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. thousands of ethiopians flee their country amid fighting between their government and forces in the tigray region — with the conflict now spilling across the eritrean border. armenia says it has uncovered a plot to stage a coup d'etat. the alleged plot involved several of the opposition leaders who were detained earlier this week after they organised demonstrations against the prime minister, following his decision to sign a controversial peace agreement with azerbaijan. as part of the peace deal agreed a week ago, several territories will be returned to azerbaijan. they were part of the country until the karabakh war

in the early 1990s. when they were taken by armenia's forces. this map shows how territory has once again changed control — following several weeks of fighting. jonah fisher reports. the war over, its dreadful human cost is becoming clear. this is a road near the largest town in nagorno—karabakh. it was the site of armenia's last stand a week ago. and there are scores of bodies and destroyed vehicles on the ground. armenia now says at least 2,300 of its soldiers died during the six weeks of fighting. azerbaijan has declined to publish its casualty figures. for armenia, this loss is notjust about lives, but territory. in kelbajar, just outside nagorno—karabakh, the villagers are packing up their things to leave before the land is handed to azerbaijan on sunday. some chose to burn and destroy their homes, rather than let them be

taken over by their enemy. 27 years ago, it was the other way around — armenians driving out azerbaijanis from kelbajar after they'd won the war. having negotiated this week's peace deal, russia already has troops on the ground, overseeing its implementation. several thousand have been deployed to keep the warring sides apart and to maintain a land corridor between armenia and what's left of its nagorno—karabakh enclave. this war has been a victory not just for azerbaijan, but for russia, too. jonah fisher, bbc news, yerevan. the prince of wales will say today in berlin that germany and the uk must work together to tackle issues such as the pandemic and climate change. prince charles and the duchess of cornwall will become the first members of the royal family

to attend germany's national day of mourning, when the country remembers victims of war and tyranny. in a speech in the lower house of the german parliament, the bundestag, prince charles, will say that the uk's and germany's national interests — whilst distinct — will always be entwined. lawyers acting for 200 women in england — who claim they have been severely harmed by a sterilisation device — have begun legal action against the manufacturer. the small coil, called essure, was implanted to prevent pregnancy. similar lawsuits are already under way in the united states. sophie hutchinson reports. i'd say it's destroyed my life and my children's lives. aches and pains all over the joints, your whole body feels like it's on fire sometimes. no—one will listen because it's just women's things. tracey, laura, di and kim are among tens of thousands of women across the world who say they've been severely harmed by the medical sterilisation device essure.

ijust started to heavy periods, migraines, which i'd only ever had when i was pregnant, so they were hormonal. my back was so painful. i'd wake up in the middle of night with pains in my hips and my back and it was just. ..i'd wake up crying. this is essure, a tiny metal coil. it's now been withdrawn from the market but in 2002, it was promoted as an easy, non—surgical procedure, a new era in sterilisation. it was inserted into the fallopian tube where it was meant to cause scarring, blocking the tube and preventing pregnancy. but far from the promise of no surgery, these women have now had, or are waiting to have, hysterectomies in order to remove the device. it's easy to get it done. it's easy to say, you know, "have this, it's wonderful". but then the fallout, there's nobody there. there's no support apart from, you know, people that we found ourselves.

there's. .. no—one will listen because it's just women's things. essure's manufacturer bayer has just set aside £1.2 billion to settle claims from 39,000 american women who say they've been harmed by the device. that's prompted a legal case here. this solicitor has started court action on behalf of 200 women in england who say essure has caused them severe suffering. the reports that have come out from the american proceedings are that conceptus and bayer were failing to report adverse events, so that's when they become aware that there's a problem with the device and that's something that we're going to look at very, very carefully indeed. bayer strongly refutes those allegations and stressed it has never violated regulations around complaints. it said, "we take all adverse events seriously and the company stands behind the safety and efficacy of essure following two

decades of research". but some doctors who fitted essure remain sceptical and say the monitoring of new medical devices is inadequate. we learned from the mesh problems, we have learned from the breast implants, we have learned from essure device that if if you put materials in the body for a long time, we need more information with long follow—ups on what it does to the body, and to be honest, we don't know. and for those who've suffered, more information could have changed everything. it's been really hard. notjust physically, but mentally. ifeel my children have missed out on a lot and it makes me feel guilty because if i hadn't had essure, then i wouldn't be where i am now. life would be very different for me and my children.

the british entertainer, tv personality and entertainer des o'connor has died at the age of 88. his agent said he had been admitted to hospital just over his agent said he had been admitted to hospitaljust over a week ago. he was well loved, says his agent, by absolutely everybody. a joy to work with, talented, fun, positive, enthusiastic and kind. des o'connor has died at the age of 88.

diwali — the festival of light — was celebrated yesterday by hundreds of millions of hindus, sikhs and jains around the world. festivities this year have been limited by the pandemic, but people have found new ways of coming together. here's a selection of some of the pictures and videos you've shared with us. new york city has received a much—need boost with the arrival of a giant christmas tree that marks the unofficial start of the 2020 holiday season. the lighting ceremony for the tree which stands at the rockefeller plaza

is due to take place at the beginning of december. but spectators won't be allowed at the event because of the pandemic although it's hoped people should be able to visit the tree closer to christmas itself. let's get more on the death of des o'connor, the british comedian, singer, entertainer and tv chat show host. he has died at the age of 88. i have kept a list of the insults against des o'connor. des o'connor was in the 1970s famous, a star, and on morecambe and wise the but of hundreds of gags. but he took it all with grace. eric, i have heard some good news. ernie, what good news? eric, des o'connor has a sore

throat. nothing seemed to dent his optimism. des o'connor is a self—made man. i think it is very nice of him to take the blame. his interest in show business had started in the raf and he had been abutments redcoat and learned his craft are struggling to get laughs in theatres such as the windmill with an audience that had come for the naked flesh more than the comedy. this fellow was always in everyday in the front row and about the third house of the fourth day i dried, just couldn't remember what was next. he said you tell the one about the parrot next. by the 1960s he had star billing and made more than 1000 appearances at the palladium and recorded 36 albums.

the son of adjustment from the east end of london he had gone to a childhood blighted by rickets to tv stardom but he would never be one of the cool gang. an old lady came up to me one day to the stage door and said mr o'connor, he is £5. could you send me your new lp? i said you can get it for £3 in the shop, you don't have to gimme five. she said no, the last time i went to the shop and asked for a o'connor lp the guy said you're kidding. -- des o'connor. as the decades rolled by he remained in almost ageless fixture in the schedules. he married four times, his fifth child arrived when he was 80. he was never really fashionable and so never fell out of fashion. it was a career of 60 years of professional unflappable good—natured of professional unflappable good—natu red charm. of professional unflappable good—natured charm. that's good enough for me. and when the joke was

on him he was always the first to laugh. now it's time for a look at the weather with sarah keith—lucas. are fairly stormy weekend weather continues and we have low pressure driving things. heavy rain and strong winds towards the south. we will see them combined with high spring tides so there could well be coastal flooding with gusts of wind through the english channel strong is about 70 mph and even more. inland gusts of about 45 mph so enough to bring small trees down and a lot of debris on the roads. surface water flooding as well and

colder than recent days at 8 degrees to 11 degrees. the sea minutes and out the strongest of the winds will ease and most of the showers petering out overnight but it stays quite breezy and damp first thing tomorrow morning and are free of frost. temperatures five to 8 degrees. tomorrow a bit of a quieter day compared to today. still breezy but a bit of sunshine towards east. more cloud and outbreaks of rain working into the west later in the day. and settled for the next few days. —— unsettled. this is bbc world news, the headlines pressure on the uk government to force social media companies to remove anti—vaccine content from their platforms. a tense stand off in washington as thousands march through the streets to show their support for donald trump's unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. thousands of ethiopians flee their country amid fighting between their government and forces in the tigray region —