welcome to bbc news — i'm james reynolds. our top stories: space x's first operational crewed flight, is hurtling towards the international space station — after launching from cape canaveral. barack obama tells the bbc his successor, president trump, is partly responsible for polarisation in america today. some of that is attributable to our current president who actively fanned division because he felt it was good for his politics. us president—elect, joe biden‘s staff say, the white house must allow the transition process to begin soon — so they can focus on tackling coronavirus. president trump is still refusing to concede.

the british prime minister, borisjohnson, is self—isolating at ten downing street — after meeting an mp who later tested positive for coronavirus. and, it's a magnificent seventh world title for lewis hamilton as he wins the turkish grand prix to become the most successful driver in the history of formula 1. a spacex capsule carrying four astronauts is hurtling towards the international space station, after successfully launching from nasa's kennedy space center in florida. the dragon capsule was powered by a huge falcon rocket, part of which has now fallen back onto a waiting ship to be salvaged and reused. it is nasa's first fully—fledged mission using a privately owned spacecraft — that will act as a space taxi service in the coming years. our science correspondent jonathan amos explains what this new model

means for space travel. for the one thing, it makes it easier for nasa and its partners on the international space station which are the russians, obviously, but also europe, japan and canada. they have vehicles in reserve, they have two systems at the moment, the russian soyuz system and now this american system — there's another american system coming as well — so that allows them, it gives them room to move things around and makes it much easier to run the space station affairs on the space station. but in terms of what it does for opening up space, it's very interesting now because this vehicle is much cheaper to operate than the old space shuttles, for example. a space shuttle launch used to cost over $1 billion every single time it left the kennedy space center. this one, maybe 100 million, maybe less. nasa requires certain things

of spacex which can make it quite expensive. obviously there are people on board so they check and re—check and they check again, but it is substantially cheaper. and that will bring access into space down, notjust for the big agencies but also other players as well. spacex is selling this vehicle, its dragon capsule, to private users. we'll see one of those private users come up very shortly next year for private astronauts going into space. we're waiting for tom cruise, indeed, the hollywood actor, to talk about him making a movie in space, probably going up on the dragon capsule with spacex. but there'll be private space stations as well, so things are going to change in the next few years, and nasa believes because they're now using this new contracting out system, if you like, just like a company would contract out payroll, human resources, they‘ re contracting out transportation in low earth orbit.

they think that the money they will save doing that — and they have saved billions, let's be clear — they can then spend that on the more difficult, the more challenging task of getting astronauts back to the moon. and then who knows maybe one day to mars. former us president, barack obama, has told the bbc that america is more divided now, than when he was in office. british historian, david olusoga met him to discuss his long—awaited memoir, a promised land, a reflection on the volatile racial divide in the us. the bbc‘s james landale has more. so help me god. congratulations, mr president. the election of america's first black president was seen by many as a watershed moment, a step towards ending historic divisions that had scarred the united states. but barack obama now believes those divides are deepening. divisions notjust of race,

but also inequality. we are very divided right now, certainly more than we were when i first ran for office in 2007 and more divided than we were four years ago, when donald trump first won the presidency. some of that is attributable to our current president, who actively fanned division, because he felt it was good for his politics, but it preceded him and it will outlast him. in part, he says, that's because some americans feel they've lost their grip on the ladder of economic advancement and can be persuaded it's someone else's fault. resentments fanned, he says, by conspiracy—fuelled social media. crazy conspiracy theories, and what some have called truth decay, right,

where facts don't matter. that has contributed enormously to these divisions. and, oh, yes, he believes the current president has played his part. what's been interesting, obviously, and sad during this election, is that that kind of lack of fidelity to the truth has consequences when it's being promoted by the most powerful elected official in the country. fixing that truth decay, he suggests, will take time and potentially better regulation of the internet and the media. i think at some point it's going to require a combination of regulation and standards within industries to get us back to the point where we at least recognise a common set of facts before we start arguing about what we should do about those facts.

as a new president prepares for his first term, his predecessor is mulling the legacy he left his country. mr obama says the us was better off after his eight years in office, but he accepts deep fault lines in american culture remain. james landale, bbc news. there are warnings that president trump's refusal to concede in the us presidential elections could have grave consequences for the fight against the coronavirus in the us. joe biden‘s team still hasn't had authorisation to begin transition efforts between his pandemic advisers and the white house coronavirus task force. joe biden‘s top advisor says the transition needs to begin this week to allow the country to focus on tackling the pandemic. ron klain was speaking to nbc‘s meet the press. joe biden‘s going to become president of the united states in the midst of an ongoing crisis. that has to be a seamless transition.

we now have the possibility, we need to see if it gets approved, of a vaccine, starting perhaps in december, january. there are people just making plans to implement that vaccine. our experts need to talk to those people as soon as possible so nothing drops in this change of power we're going to have january 20th. there are also concerns that president trump's refusal to concede defeat have national security implications. experts warn the us is being left vulnerable especially since a string of sackings of top officials overseeing policy and intelligence. we can now speak tojohn b bellinger iii who is a lawyer at practice arnold & porter as well as being a former senior national security lawyer in the george w bush administration. he joins us from washington. great to see you. how vital is it to have this declaration that mr biden is the president—elect? that mr biden is the president-elect? a slight delay is not a huge problem, given that president biden and the

pseudo— —— soon to be president biden and vice president biden now, and the staff has had so much experience in government, they have been at it before, but the longer this delay goes on, if it goes on for weeks, it could be a really serious problem. when i came into the white house in 2001 after the delay because of the bush versus gork controversy, we had lost and we felt like we were behind and on the back foot. that same thing could happen here. the biden transition team are preparing, they're experienced, but they really do need to have access to the briefings and to the intelligence and to meet with people who are in the white house right now dealing with these same problems so it is going to become a problem if this delay goes on for much longer. that's look at the details will stop the 1963 law which governs this as is the

general services administration chief which is currently a bureaucrat called emily murphy, has the power to start this transition by identifying apparent winner. if she doesn't wa nt to apparent winner. if she doesn't want to do so, can she be bypassed? under the law, that would be hard to do. the biden administration's apparently considering suing the trump administration to force at this official to issue what's called an ascertainment order to conclude that vice resident biden won the election and that the transition may begin but it would probably take a lawsuit that to happen. if mr biden we re that to happen. if mr biden were to pick up the phone and call the national security official in the administration, and with the question," tell me what i need to know about threats facing america?", with that official legally be able to answer? certainly could. as you know, president trump is a

rather live person and he and his white house staff have a p pa re ntly his white house staff have apparently told members of his administration not to talk to the biden transition team, not to a cce pt the biden transition team, not to accept their calls. i suspect that there may be some informal contact is going on but right now, the formal transition process has not begun and one of the most serious problems of the delay is that the background investigations for national security officials to get their security officials to get their security clearances so that they can begin after the inauguration on january 20, that process hasn't begun either. you talked about the biden team having huge numbers of insiders, decades of experience and have already worked out the phone numberfor the chinese president and the popein the chinese president and the pope in the vatican, they must have informal ways, as you suggested, of working out the information that they need. that's right and that is why i am not unduly alarmed yet. vice

president biden is going to be the most experienced president from a national security perspective sense george hw bush moved up from being vice president to president in 1989 so president to president in 1989 so he has experienced —— he is experienced, kamala harris has been sitting on the committee, the officials around him are experienced, they know what is going on in the world. so they have some experience. i am not alarmed yet, but if this delay goes on into december or longer, such that the incoming biden officials can't get access to the briefing materials, can't meet with career officials, if the health agencies can't get access to intelligence about what other countries are doing and can't begin to get their officials of the security clearances that

they need, then it does become a serious problem. thank you so much. nice to be with you. here in the uk, prime minister borisjohnson has been told to self—isolate after coming into contact with someone who has tested positive for covid—19. mrjohnson spent about 35 minutes with a member of parliament who has since tested positive. downing street said the prime minister is not showing symptoms. 0ur uk political correspondent nick eardley has more. borisjohnson was contacted today by the test and trace programme in the uk and told that he'd come into contact with someone who's tested positive. my understanding is he's had a meeting with a group of conservative mps on thursday. since that meeting, one of those mps, a man called lee anderson, developed symptoms and has subsequently tested positive. borisjohnson was contacted as a result. it's a pretty big deal. he'll have to stay home for the next ten days, it means he won't be able to be in parliament. i'm told he will be working

from downing street. he does still intend on communicating with the country, it's supposed to be a pretty big week for boris johnson, he's trying to reset his government after some faction fighting in his office over the last few days. there are conversations taking part with the parliamentary authorities in the uk to see whether he can still contribute to the commons, but i think it's fair to say this couldn't have come at a worse time for borisjohnson. it's also worth bearing in mind he was extremely ill with coronavirus earlier in the year but we also don't know exactly what getting the virus means for your future immunity. borisjohnson doesn't have any symptoms just now. i'm told he's absolutely fine, he's feeling well, but under the test and trace system in the uk, he has to self isolate. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: lewis hamilton become the most successful driver in the history of formula 1 — as he secures his seventh world title.

benazir bhutto has claimed victory in pakistan's general election, and she's asked pakistan's president to name her as prime minister. jackson's been released on bail of $3 million after turning himself into police in santa barbara. it was the biggest demonstration so far of the fast—growing european anti—nuclear movement. the south african government has announced that it's opening the country's remaining whites—only beaches to people of all races. this will lead to a black majority government in this country and the destruction of the white civilisation. part of the centuries—old windsor castle, one of the queen's residences, has been consumed by fire for much of the day. 150 firemen have been battling the blaze, which has caused millions

of pounds worth of damage. this is bbc news, the latest headlines. space x's first operational crewed flight is hurtling towards the international space station, after launching from cape canaveral in florida. the former us president, barack obama tells the bbc of deepening divides in america, which he says have been encouraged by donald trump. the united states has denounced attacks by ethiopia's tigray region on neighbouring eritrea. in a statement, the us state department's top diplomat for africa, urged "immediate action to protect civilians and restore peace. " the attacks widen the conflict which erupted between the ethiopian government and the regional governing party in tigrye last week. leaders in tigray have accused eritrea of siding with ethiopia.

0ur africa regional editor, will ross, reports. 0n the 12th day of the conflict, refugees continue to pour over the sudanese border in their thousands. they've been forced to abandon their homes in ethiopia as the fighting intensifies. these are arduous journeys for young and old. many have witnessed appalling violence. translation: there is no food, there is looting. we lost our belongings, i lost my siblings. we came to sudan on foot and my children are not eating. translation: we have pregnant sisters on the streets. the militia chased us to the border. there's looting and stealing and killing, like in rwanda. on the streets, people haven't eaten for three or four days. i don't know where my kids are. it's hard for aid agencies to get help to this remote area of sudan, and if the number of refugees rises sharply,

they'll struggle to cope. we are starting to provide assistance services, we are working with various agencies and you can see some start of an assistance provision, but much more needs to be done. ethiopia's military has been fighting troops loyal to the politicians running the country's northern tigray region, the tplf party, which for years was the dominant political force in ethiopia. the tplf has admitted attacking a federal army base last week, an event which the government said forced it into this war. but now there's been a worrying escalation in the conflict. the leader of the tigray region has confirmed that tigrayan forces bombed the airport in the eritrean capital asmara on saturday. debretsion gebremichael accuses the eritrean president isaias afwerki of backing the ethiopian government and sending soldiers into the country to try

to topple their common enemy, the tplf leadership. it's true that the ethiopian prime minister abiy ahmed is close to the autocratic eritrean leader. after coming to power in 2018, he reached out to make a peace deal with ethiopia's long—time foe. but mr abiy denies the involvement of eritrean troops. in a tweet, he said: the stability of ethiopia is seen as vital for the whole region. ethnic conflicts have been a problem for some time, but this new crisis has taken the country to a precipice. with its key ally, america, distracted by its own political drama, there are worrying signs that this could be just the start of a devastating conflict. will ross, bbc news.

peru's interim president has resigned after less then a week in office. manuel merino lost the support of congress after the deaths of two young anti—government protesters in the capital, lima. widespread demonstrations were triggered by the impeachment on monday of mr merino's predecessor on corruption allegations. paul hawkins reports. yells in spanish celebrating the resignation of peru's latest presidentjust five days after he took office. translation: at this moment, when the country is going through one of its greatest political crises, i want to announce to all of the country that i present my irrevocable resignation of the post of the presidency of the republic. my commitment is to peru. that announcement sparked celebrations on the streets of the capital, lima. the president's departure triggered by the death of two anti—government protesters on saturday.

translation: merino has resigned because his hands are stained with blood, the blood of our children. they have to pay, the congress members complicit in the deaths of our children. candlelight vigils were held for the victims, killed as police responded with bullets and tear gas to a largely peaceful demonstration. their reaction has been criticised by the un and human rights groups. "we mothers and fathers in peru are in this situation, nobody wants what has happened but also no—one is free. there is a need to rise up," said the father of one of the victims. the impeachment of president vizcarra here triggered the demonstrations, removed from office for allegedly taking bribes. he was quick to respond to the resignation of his successor. translation: a dictator has left the palace. all peruvians are waiting to see what is decided today in congress. they will give us a solution which is selecting another person that they want.

president vizcarra continues to enjoy support for his attempts to reform a country hit hard by covid. 35,000 peruvians have died from the virus — the third highest rate of death per 100,000 people in the world. some have questioned the wisdom of his removal in the midst of a pandemic and the crippling recession. while his supporters call it a parliamentary coup. despite the demonstrations, congress is meeting to decide who will become peru's third president in a week. their choice unlikely to stop the protests. paul hawkins, bbc news. the british driver, lewis hamilton, has become the most successful in the history of formula 1 motor racing. victory at the turkish grand prix sealed his seventh world title, equalling the record of michael schumacher. hamilton had already won more individual races than schumacher. speaking shortly after his win in istanbul, hamilton said it was dream come true but he felt he was only just getting started.

sef harding is a motor sport journalist. he's in diamond bar, california. what did you think when he crossed the line? i think first off, good morning, and what we witnessed this weekend and in the last week, two historical events, we wrapped up the presidential campaign election, and the united states with the vice presidentjoe biden, becoming the 46th president of the united states, along with kamala harris, who is now the first asian—american and african—american elected vice president, and that speaks to what has been happening with lewis hamilton, now we have witnessed another historical event, with him now matching schumerjo michael schumacher for most championships, and when he crossed that line it was a very emotional moment because when you listen to what he said, that he was speaking to the future, the children who have gone through what he went

through when he was a child, let's not forget, he came from very humble beginnings, also very humble beginnings, also very challenging ones, he had to deal with racial inequality, discrimination and racism, and that develops a different kind of strength in you, that's what lewis hamilton races with many goes out there, he is notjust raising the accolades and championships, he is raising for so much more than that, for all those young people, every man woman and child who has experience when he has experienced growing up, so it was a very special moment and it really goes into what he is, more thanjust it really goes into what he is, more than just a guy who puts ona more than just a guy who puts on a helmet and gloves and gets behind the wheel, he is a human being who is very concerned with humanitarian issues. being who is very concerned with humanitarian issuesm you put all the greatest drivers of all time in the same car at the peak of their powers, would lewis hamilton when? great question... lewis hamilton takes a little bit from everybody so i think that would be a very big force to

reckon with, and like i said before, he races withjust reckon with, and like i said before, he races with just more than the thought of raising for himself and that gives them something extra, something to really think about when challenging and trying to get inside lewis hamilton's head, because he has exhibited that threat, he has the fight of michael schumacher, he has the talent of driving and wet weather conditions, all these legends, and when you are combining all those talents together, yes, that makes a force to be reckoned with so that i think would be a interesting win, but i will deflect the question. a huge pleasure to speak to you, as always. you guys take care, and be safe. a reminder of our top story: the dawning of a new era — space x's first operational crewed flight to the international space station launches from cape canaveral.

hello. that was quite the weekend of weather, and to start the new week we find ourselves in between weather systems. so, actually, for a time there will be something drier and brighter. only for a time, another the weather system is coming in with more rain. here it is, that's the one that brought us the wet and windy weather over the weekend, but here is the next one. and in fact we'll start the day with a few outbreaks of rain from monday morning, for, particularly, parts of scotland and northern england. and that's going to fade away. it's a cooler start to the day than we have had recently. and by lunch time much of the uk will be dry, there will be some breaks in the cloud allowing some sunny spells to come through,

but remember that next weather system gradually increasing the cloud through northern ireland, wales, and the western parts of england. we will get some rain moving in during the afternoon. also reaching in towards the southwest scotland. eastern areas will stay dry for daylight hours, anyway. it will begin to turn a bit milder again with the arrival of the rain, but through the evening and night we will reach under those areas that have stated try during the day and gets stuck across northwest scotland for tuesday into wednesday where it is looking very wet here. maybe up to 150 mm in the hills, so there could be some flooding. mild overnight, and into tuesday so there's the weather system sticking around northwest scotland on tuesday. the rest of us are in this flow of very mild air coming in from the southwest. but there will be a lot of cloud around. it will be quite windy. you may see a bit of patchy light rain and drizzle. particularly to western hills, but remember, the heavy and persistent rain coming in towards northwest scotland. if you see some hazy sunshine you may well. in northeast scotland, parts of northeast england with that wind direction, your temperature could be around 17 celsius. still raining on wednesday, northwest scotland and not just here. rain spreads east right across the uk. cold airfollowing on behind,

still very mild across the east and southeast of england. the rain still coming with gusty winds. the rain eventually ends in northwest scotland. very wet on thursday in shetland. and then as we go from thursday, then still into friday, and a brisk north northwesterly wind and will be colder air moving south across the uk. some sunshine on thursday, and bands of showers moving south as well. so some rain at times this week. so, it will be quite windy. very mild for a time, but colder briefly later.

this is bbc news, the headlines: a spacex capsule carrying four astronauts is on its way to the international space station after successfully launching from cape canaveral in florida. it's nasa's first fully—fledged mission using a privately owned spacecraft. the capule will act as a space taxi service in the coming years. ——capsule. the former us president, barack obama, has told the bbc that america is more divided today than it was when he was elected 12 years ago. he said his successor donald trump was partly responsible — because he had actively fanned division for his political purposes. us president—electjoe biden‘s chief of staff says the white house must allow the transition process to begin soon, so that they can focus on tackling coronavirus cases — which have just exceeded 11 million. president trump is still refusing to acknowledge he lost