this is bbc news. i'm sally bundock with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. joe biden's staff say the us president—elect must be allowed to begin the transition process so he can focus on the coronavirus crisis. president trump is still refusing to concede. the former us president ba rack obama accuses donald trump of fanning resentment and division 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. spacex's first operational crewed flight is heading towards the international space station after launching successfully

from cape canaveral. and lewis hamilton becomes the most successful driver in the history of formula 1 as he secures his seventh world title. a very warm welcome to the programme. we begin in the united states. donald trump is resisting growing pressure to admit defeat in the us presidential election and begin the transition to the president—electjoe biden. mr trump tweeted: "we still have a long way to go. i concede nothing." and he again alleged fraud in the poll 12 days ago without providing evidence. joe biden‘s chief of staff has called for the transition process to begin this week

to allow the country to focus on tackling coronavirus cases — which have just exceeded 11 million. our north america correspondent david willis reports. winter has brought with it a new surge in coronavirus cases here. and one consequence of that grim milestone of 11 million cases is the record level of hospitalisations. the us is currently adding around 1 million new coronavirus cases a week. joe biden, seen here attending church on sunday, says tackling the virus will be his top priority. he is already appointed a task force and his advisors are preparing to meet drugmakers to discuss the eventual distribution of a vaccine. but management of the virus is being bogged down in the unconventional aftermath of this country's presidential election. president trump's

refusal to concede is blocking the biden team's access to vital information from the department of health and human services. joe biden is going to become president of the united states in the midst of an ongoing crisis. it has to be a sea mless ongoing crisis. it has to be a seamless transition. you now have the possibility, we need to see if it gets approved, of a vaccine starting perhaps in december— january and people are making plans to implement that vaccine and our experts need to talk to those people as soon need to talk to those people as soon as need to talk to those people as soon as possible so nothing drops in this change of power we're going to have january 20. thousands gathered in washington, dc at the weekend in support of donald trump's claim that the election was rigged. so far, no evidence to that effect has emerged. but the president is saying that what he calls" big court cases" will be filed soon. in a tweet at the weekend, he appeared to acknowledge for the first time thatis acknowledge for the first time that is democratic rival had actually won the election. only

to backtrack one hour later, and again val he is not conceding. some in the party believe that time has come and are calling on fellow republicans to convince the president result was fair.” think it is very important for leaders of the republican party to explain to our voters who are not as stupid as the democrats think that in fact, trump has lost the election and that his claims of election fraud are baseless. the fact is that we have seen litigation in all of the key battleground states and it has failed consistently. right now the trump campaign is doing the legal equivalent of pitching pennies. where there are silver dollars. where is the evidence? i think is every day goes by it is clearer and clearer there is not any evidence. america's top infectious disease expert anthony felt she says officials are eager to begin briefing the

biden team and it would be in the interest of public health if the transition began as soon as possible —— fauci. that does not seem likely, however, given the president's refusal to accept he lost this election. meanwhile the united states is entering a difficult and dangerous time at the hands of a virus that has already claimed nearly 250,000 american lives. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. we can now speak tojohn swartzberg, who is clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases and vaccinology in the the uc berkeleyjoint medical program. hejoins us from berkeley, california. thank you very much for being on the programme. i'm not sure if you could hear my colleague's report there but in your words, how critical is this moment in terms of a good handover between president trump and president of the? —— president—elect? trump and president of the? —— president-elect? with all of the deaths that the us has experienced to date the most

per capita in the world, excuse me, the most deaths that we could even have conceived of, to delay the ability of getting our top on this pandemic in the united states and worldwide by helping biden, the biden administration take control of what is going on isjust criminal not to do that. and it's, you know, it's everything petty and selfish that we have seen petty and selfish that we have seen from this president from the very beginning four years ago. and at the time that he was elected he did not have a pandemic going on so people put up pandemic going on so people put up with it. but in the last year, there is blood on his hands for what he has not done and how he has belittled people who wear masks and talk about social distancing. it is critical that the biden administration gets started as soon as administration gets started as soon as possible. this transition has to be as smooth as possible, it has to be a

perfect handoff. and do not allow that to happen, you know, i cannot conceive of this. there are human beings lives at sta ke there are human beings lives at stake here. what measures need to be taken, do you think, in terms of action to stop the spread in the united states? how radical will the president—elect need to be? how radical will the president-elect need to be? not radical at all. what he will need to do is to follow science, to follow public health. he needs to model what we know. that is, he needs to model social distancing. not having congregant settings like these rallies that trump does. he needs to model masking. he needs to appoint people to the key agencies like the fda and the centres for disease control, who are not politicians but are scientists, who know how to speak the truth. you know, the cdc, a wonderful institution for decades, has been muzzled and

the only thing we get out of the only thing we get out of the cdc has to be filtered through trump's politicians. well, that is not the way we can geta well, that is not the way we can get a hold of this pandemic so can get a hold of this pandemic so what biden needs to do is he needs to be a decent, good president who cares about the welfare of his people. he needs to follow science and he needs to follow science and he needs to model science and he needs not to politicise the fda and the cdc. if he does those simple things, certainly not radical, certainly reasonable, if he does those things, it will be a major turnaround. so it is not going to be that difficult. all right, well, let's hope you're right. thank you for your time today on this programme. so much detail on that story on our website but let's now bring to your attention what former us president barack obama has been saying. he told the bbc that america is more divided now than when he was in office. he said the divisions had been actively fanned by donald trump

for political gain and he warned that they'd outlast his presidency and take more than one election to fix. the 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. we area we are a very deep —— we are very divided right now, more than, certainly more than we we re than, certainly more than we were when i first ran for office in 2007, and won the presidency in 2008. some of thatis presidency in 2008. some of that is attributable to our current president. who usually fanned division. because he felt it was good to his politics. but it preceded him and it will outlast him. you know, i think the debate that has been taking place here about, you know, the kinds of crazy conspiracy theories and what some have called truth

decay, right, where the facts don't matter, you know, everything is fair game, everything is fair game, everything goes. that has contributed enormously to these divisions. and it's going to ta ke divisions. and it's going to take more than one election to reverse those trends. you have said in the past that americans at the moment cannot recognise each other. if you are somebody who exclusively watches you know, right—wing media, iam unrecognisable. as a figure because what is portrayed of me is just because what is portrayed of me isjust a because what is portrayed of me is just a caricature. because what is portrayed of me isjust a caricature. it because what is portrayed of me is just a caricature. it does not compute with what i believe, what i say, et cetera. but you know there are millions of people who subscribe to the notion thatjoe biden is a socialist. who subscribe to the notion that hillary clinton was

pa rt notion that hillary clinton was part of a evil cabal that was involved in paedophile rings. you know, that kind of stuff. co nsta ntly you know, that kind of stuff. constantly circulating. what has been interesting, obviously, and sad during this election, has been that that kind of lack of fidelity to the truth has consequences when it is being promoted by the most powerful elected official in the country. there are others who said the site of a black president, the site of an african—american first family, certainly an historic achievement for america, certainly an historic achievement foramerica, may also have been the event that revealed the depths of america's historic problem with race. what they say in short is that your president for not what you did but who you are and in the end made these situations of the race relations worse. how do you respond to that line of

argument? but does not make much sense. the idea that it made it worse. i do think that it exposed some fault lines in our culture. but we have to work through. but you saw all of those protests this summer indicate the degree to which we have the capacity to work them through. i was never of the view that somehow, i election signified a post— racial america. —— my election. signified a post— racial america. -- my election. barack obama. nasa and its private launch provider space x has sent four astronauts to the international space station. the falcon—9 rocket carrying a dragon capsule and its crew took off from the kennedy space center in florida. this is only the second time the launch system has been used to transport people. our science correspondent victoria gill has more. mission control: three, two, one, zero. ignition.

a spectacular show and a space exploration milestone. and resilience rises! not even gravity contains humanity when we explore as one for all. the launch of this spacex dragon capsule, with its four crew, marks a new era — one in which the us space agency buys seats for its astronauts on a privately owned spacecraft. the space shuttle, retired almost a decade ago, was the last craft that was certified to fly nasa astronauts from american soil. but now, the agency will work in partnership with spacex, taking crew to and from the international space station. that's inside crew dragon right now. our crew—i crew now coasting in low earth orbits. sunday's launch is the culmination of years of design and testing but the demonstration flight back in may was the test that the world was watching,

and spacex successfully transported two astronauts to the space station and brought them home safely. the four people onboard this first fully operational flight — nasa astronauts michael hopkins, victor glover and shannon walker, and the japanese space agency astronaut soichi noguchi — will bring the number of crew on the international space station to seven. nasa says this will triple the amount of microgravity research that can be done. there are over 250 experiments that take place on the international space station at any one time and they are in all sorts of different areas. a lot of the research that is done is involved in medicines and in helping to understand how the human body works. it's a truly international endeavour. and the countries coming together is what we need in human exploration. this group will spend about six months in space, looking back on earth as the crisis of the pandemic continues to unfold. and in a nod to a mission accomplished during this most turbulent of years, they've

called their ship resilience. victoria gill, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: a full sports round up, including lewis hamilton becoming the most successful driver in the history of formula i as wins 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 world news, the latest headlines: america's leading infectious diseases expert says joe biden's staff must be allowed to begin the transition process so he can focus on the coronavirus crisis. donald trump is still refusing to concede. spacex's first operational crewed flight is heading towards the international space station after launching sucessfully from cape

canaveral in florida. britain's prime minister borisjohnson has been told to self—isolate after coming into contact with someone who has tested positive for covid—i9. 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. with me is the bbc‘s paul hawkins. paul, paul hawkins. he said he got things. he got paul, he said he got things. he got pinged by the nhs test and trace up saying you have been in contact with somebody who has tested positive for covid. that person was one of his mps, lee anderson, who he met last thursday along with another group of mps. he hasn't shown any symptoms but under the nhs guidelines, he has to self—isolate for another 10 days, 14 days in total because it was thursday, another 10 days from today. he has sent a

what's up message to his conservative mps, saying that it doesn't matter if we followed the guidelines, we we re followed the guidelines, we were all socially distancing, doesn't matter that i feel fine on my body is bursting with antibodies, the rules are the rules et cetera, and has to follow the rules". he was referring to the fact that he had earlier in the you're in was in hospitalfor three days. nobody knows what the virus does your immunity, but he feels he is bursting with antibodies. the upshot of this is he is effectively shut up in his light in number 10 for the next 10 days. he will continue to communicate with the public and his team are looking at how he can participate in parliamentary meetings. and this couldn't have come at a worse time for the prime minister ina worse time for the prime minister in a way. he was hoping to launch a brand—new narrative about his government and what they are doing this week. last week, he was all about factional infighting a numberio, about factional infighting a number 10, who is going to get myjob. and it led to his director of the medications lidocaine leaving, and his top

advisor, dominic cummings also leaving. this was all meant to be about a big reset on monday. he was supposed to be meeting with his northern mps, talking about the levelling up agenda 20 north and south divide in england. he was going to talk about green issues, potentially scrapping diesel and petrol ca rs scrapping diesel and petrol cars within 10 years. also focusing on whether a trade deal with the eu can be done before a transition period ends in 45 days time. and there is the more pressing issue of whether to extend that lockdown in england beyond the second. as it stands, he is going to be trying to do all that from his flat. it will be a virtual couple of weeks for him. we shall keep a close eye and see ntl. thank you for now, paul. the head of the international olympic committee has said he's confident the postponed tokyo olympics will take place in front of spectators next year. thomas bach is in the capital hoping to convince athletes, japanese citizens and olympics sponsors that the games can be

held safely. here he is speaking in the last hour: we are doing so by working together with full speed to ensure safe olympic games that are fit for the post coronavirus world. when all 206 aocs and the ioc refugee olympic team come together next yearin olympic team come together next year in tokyo, it will not only bea year in tokyo, it will not only be a testament to your dedication to the olympic because, it will also send a message of hope and resilience to all humankind. time now for the latest sports news. hello i'm hugh ferris and this is your monday sports that dustin johnson has won the masters and in quite some style. the autumn setting might have made augusta a slightly different challenge than its traditaional time of april butjohnson stormed to the greenjacket with a score of 20 under par.

that's a masters record and matches the best of any major winner. and johnson ended five shots clear of the field. obviously, having tiger put it on was awesome and unbelievable stop you wouldn't want it any other way. but, any guy could put on me and i would bejust fine. johnson in his new green jacket. there was another champion on sunday — lewis hamilton won the formula one world title for the seventh time. it equals the record of the great michael schumacher. he only needed to finish ahead of valterri bottas at the turkish grand prix but even in the treacherous conditions hamilton did that and more, eventually lapping his mercedes teammate to claim a 94th win overall in a career that now nobody has bettered. dominic thiem has started the atp tour finals in london with a win, beating last yea r‘s champion stefano tsitsipas in three sets. in fact this was a repeat of the 2019 final and both men said they struggled without a crowd in london. it's the last time the event

will be held there before it moves to turin. rafa nadal beat andrey rublev in the same group later on sunday. novak djokovic says that sealing the year—end men's world number one tennis ranking has eased some of the pressure on him as he heads into the atp finals. he's aiming to equal roger federer‘s record of six titles, and starts on monday against diego schwartzmann in a group that also includes daniil medvedev and the 2018 winner alexander zverev. this is the crown of all achievements in the year and it is unreal that i managed to win its and finish as the number one six times. i am obviously super proud of it but at the same time, also mixed emotions a little bit because of what is

going on in the world. and sometimes in the nfl it's not just whether you're a good player but whether you do it in primetime and the reputations of some are plagued by their performances when the nation's watching. and later on monday night football, itself such a tradition that they have their own set of statistics, kirk cousins will try and win for the first time in 10 attempts. the minnesota vikings quarterback has lost all nine times when his team takes to the field on a monday night and he'll be desperate to shake that off when they meet division rivals the chicago bears. you might have been able to see how emotional dustinjohson was after winning the masters. at one point he couldn't even find any words. well he managed to string a couple together on social media. "a dream come true. i'll remember this day at the masters for the rest of my life." and from his predecessor and jacket outfitter, tiger woods has predicted that the traditional meal provided by the champion might be pretty simple in 2021. "looks like we're having sandwiches for next

year's champions dinner! congrats @djohnson pga and welcome to the club." more on all that at our website — that's bbc.com/sport. but from me hugh ferris, it's goodbye for now. a major trial of another coronavirus vaccine will get underway across the uk this week. as our medical editor fergus walsh reports thousands of volunteers are being recruied for the trial. we already have wondered potentially successful coronavirus vaccine, a jab developed by pfizer and biontech appears to be 90% effective at treating the disease. but it is not yet approved and several vaccines will need to be delivered if global demand is to be met. that is why vaccine trials are so that is why vaccine trials are so important. 25,000 people are already taking part in vaccine studies in the uk but many more are needed. we don't know which

vaccines are going to be right for what populations, which age groups, and which vaccines to give together. there are over 300,000 people signed up on the nhs registry who might want to ta ke nhs registry who might want to take part in vaccine trials. and the people in the areas and regions around the vaccine centres, people in these locations will receive e—mails this week inviting them to look at the information about the study, to feel in a prequalifying questionnaire if they wish to know more. then, 6000 people from those sites will be invited to take part. for the janssen study, volu nteers for the janssen study, volunteers will receive two doses to make months apart. half of them will receive a dummyjab. half of them will receive a dummy jab. the 6000 half of them will receive a dummyjab. the 6000 volunteers in the uk will be among 30,000 internationally. it could be six ducks nine months before we get results. the uk government has advance orders for six covid vaccines, including 30 million doses of the janssen

jab. the nhs has been told to be ready to start immunisation from next month should regulators approve any vaccines for general use. fergus walsh, bbc news. 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've had recently. and by lunchtime 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. and we'll get some rain moving in during the afternoon also reaching in towards the south—west 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'll reach on to those areas that have stayed dry during the day and gets stuck across north—west scotland for tuesday into wednesday, where it is looking very wet here. maybe up to 150mm in the hills, so there could be some flooding. mild overnight, and into tuesday so there's the weather system sticking around north—west scotland on tuesday. the rest of us are in this flow of very mild air coming in from the south—west. 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 north—west scotland. if you see some hazy sunshine, you may well. in north—east scotland, parts of north—east england with that wind direction, your temperature could be around 17 celsius. still raining on wednesday, north—west scotland and not just here. rain spreads east

right across the uk. cold airfollowing on behind, still very mild across the east and south—east of england. the rain still coming with gusty winds. the rain eventually ends in north—west scotland. very wet on thursday in shetland. and then as we go from thursday, then still into friday, and a brisk north—north—westerly wind and there 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.

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