this is bbc news, i'm ben bland. our top stories: a report into possible war crimes by australia's special forces in afghanistan outlines unlawful killings. the australian military isssues an apology and admits discipline broke down. credible information regarding deeply disturbing allegations of unlawful killings by some. the race for a workable coronavirus vaccine moves a step closer. pfizer says its jab is almost 95% effective. officials in the us state of georgia say they'll complete their presidential vote recount just a few hours from now. president trump still shows no sign of conceding.

welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. there's credible evidence that australian special forces unlawfully killed at least 39 civilians, farmers and prisoners in afghanistan. that's the conclusion of a long—awaited investigation by the australian defence force into misconduct by its forces. the inquiry investigated 57 incidents and heard from hundreds of witnesses. it uncovered — quote — a "shameful record" of a "warrior culture" by some soldiers according to the chief general angus campbell. he apologised to the afghan people. to the people of afghanistan, on behalf of the australian defence force, i sincerely and unreservedly apologise for any wrongdoing by australian soldiers.

i've spoken directly with my afghan counterpart, general zia, to convey this message. general campbell said the investigation found serious misconduct and unprofessionalism. the report also outlines that none of the alleged unlawful killings were described as being in the heat of battle. these findings allege the most serious breaches of military conduct and professional values. the killing... the unlawful killing of civilians and prisoners is never acceptable. it's my duty and that of my fellow chiefs to set things right. it's alleged that some patrols took the law into their own hands. rules were broken, stories concocted, lies told and prisoners killed.

our sydney correspondent, shaimaa khalil, has followed the release of the report. earlier, i asked her if this investigation will lead to criminal prosecutions. i think we can. it is going to be a lengthy and complicated process, according to the prime minister, but he did say that a special investigator will be appointed within the framework of the home affairs department, and that they will be responsible for taking the findings of this report, finding evidence, collating evidence, and then referring it to the public prosecutor who then can take it to court, to the criminal court. it is a very long and complicated process, the prime minister said, because there are so many incidents to be investigated further but he said this will ensure justice. this is actually what he said to the afghan authorities, the afghan president, when he apologised himself. he said any further investigation will ensure justice to those who were the victims of those alleged

unlawful killings. it seems as though what emerged was a cultural problem within some parts of the military. what can be done to address that? because changing the culture is not something that is easily done or quickly done. it is really interesting, the chief of defence, general angus campbell, mentioned the word "culture" more than once in his address. he said that the perpetrators — it was not just the fact that these alleged unlawful killings happened, it was the fact that they happened in a manner of impunity, that these perpetrators allegedly acted in a way where they weren't confused about what they were doing, they were not caught in the heat of battle, it was quite deliberate but it was also done in an air of competitiveness and he said that was a result of notjust individual actions, it was a result of a culture that allowed that to happen and he said, in addressing the afghan people

and addressing the australian people, in his apology that the culture had to change. he said that there were mechanisms now under way within the military to ensure that was happening. interestingly enough, he said that there was some resistance about the change of culture and we know that there is an independent oversight panel that has also been set to ensure accountability but also, crucially, set outside the chain of command of the army. you know, it is quite interesting the details that have come out, quite disturbing, of course, some of the details that general campbell mentioned, including the coercion ofjunior soldiers in shooting prisoners, unarmed prisoner, as part of an initiation process. we have so many details that we don't know because a lot of the report has been redacted. we do not not specific incidents and specific individuals but i think, in general, the released part of the report has made for some very uncomfortable reading not just for the military, notjust for the government but for the australian

public in general. shaimaa khalil. to the latest on covid—19 now. new york city is temporarily closing its schools eight weeks after they reopened, fearing that a second wave of coronavirus has arrived. the number of deaths in the us has passed a quarter of a million. but there's some good news about the coronavirus vaccine being developed by pfizer and biontech. final trials show it is 95% effective in people over the age of 65. what's more, it has passed safety checks, making it ready for approval by authorities around the world. our medical editor fergus walsh reports. yet more good news on vaccines. last week, pfizer biontech were the first to show there vaccine protected against covid. now we have more detail. pfizer says the vaccine is more than 94% effective among the over—65s, and showed the same consistent protection among volunteers from different ethnicities.

there were 170 cases of covid—19 across more than 40,000 volunteers. 162 of those were among the volunteers who got dummy or placebo jabs, and only eight in the vaccinated group. there were no serious safety concerns, but a small minority of volunteers suffered significant headaches orfatigue. i think this is good news and also very encouraging that the vaccine seems to show equal protection in elderly people, because that was a question we couldn't answer after the first announcements last week. 0ur immune system usually declines as we age, so it's highly significant that the vaccine protects the elderly, who are most at risk from covid. the pfizer vaccine has to be stored at —70 degrees which creates some logistical problems, but it remains usable for a few days in a normalfridge. it is thought regulators could approve the vaccine by early december. nonetheless, it seemed increasingly likely that some covid immunisation will begin before christmas.

fergus walsh, bbc news. 0ther vaccines are in development, while a third major trial — from belgian companyjanssen — is going on in the uk. according to the who's vaccine trackerm there are 155 vaccines around the world in pre—clinical trials. some of the leading contenders in the race for a vaccine are pfizer and biontech in germany, the university of oxford and astrazeneca vaccine in the uk. and in the united states, moderna and novavax. the oxford university—astrazeneca vaccine had a successful phase 1 and 2 testing period. phase 3 testing is being carried out on participants in countries including the uk, braziland india. sinovac, the chinese pharmaceutical firm, says its vaccine is nearly ready and will be rolled—out early next year. sinovac is one of the four chinese vaccines in last—stage human trials.

in russia, vladimir putin announced that the country has approved the world's first coronavirus vaccine from the gamaleya research institute. the drug has not been tested in large numbers — and not by the most rigorous of methods. here's dr peter hotez, a vaccine specialist and dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine in texas, talking about the latest developments. clearly we are having a lot of trouble enforcing social distancing and masks in some countries, clearly in the united states we have not had that culture because of the absence of federal leadership. so that requires you to become more dependent on biotechnology solutions like vaccines. i think we're going to have a pretty robust ecosystem. all of these vaccines pretty much work by the same way, including ours. we are now scaling up production of our low—cost recombinant protein covid vaccine in india, with bioe. in hyderabad, they are preparing 1.2 billion doses and we are testing

across india. and the reason we can do all this is because, in some ways, it's kind of an old school problem in virology — it is all about inducing a strong immune response to the spiked protein of the virus, meaning that the virus binds to our tissues via the spiked protein. you induce what are called high levels of virus neutralising antibody and some t cell help and you will get a vaccine and there are multiple ways to do that so we are seeing the first two probably to coming out through pfizer and moderna — the mrna vaccine. as you point out, the oxford astrazeneca vaccine will follow but there is really a global ecosystem in place. i don't think we will see 155 but you might see a dozen making it all the way through licensure and you need that because ultimately we want to vaccinate the entire planet. dr peter hotez. all four nations in the united kingdom are trying to agree on a plan that would allow families across the uk to be able to celebrate christmas together.

but it all depends on the rates of infection in the coming weeks. 0ur health editor hugh pym reports. will it be a christmas nightmare or a dream come true? a question being widely asked as people look beyond the current lockdown in england, due to end in early december. those we spoke to in manchester were hoping the rules would allow some form of celebration. it would be nice if everyone could get together and get back to some sort of normality. i mean, it would be amazing, and i think, like many families, we've had a bereavement as well, so it would mean a huge amount to be able to spend the time together. senior officials stressed that ministers would decide but they were open to the idea of a christmas relaxation. we are very keen that we have a christmas as close to normal as possible. that requires all of us to make every effort over this national restriction period and even early december. so is some sort of christmas possible, do you think? so i think it is.

coming into christmas, we need to be very careful about the number of contacts that we have, to reduce transmission. once we have got past the christmas period, if there's been a release and some socialisation, we will all have to be very responsible and reduce those contacts again. scotland's first minister set out her position on the christmas issue. we are all desperate for some normality at christmas, and i absolutely include myself in that, and the scottish government right now is working very closely and well with the other uk nations to try to agree a way for that to happen. decisions in england have to be made on how the tier system might work in december. 0fficials think the highest tier restrictions in place in the north west before the full lockdown had an effect on curbing the virus. daily hospital admissions of covid patients in the region, which had gone up sharply, have begun to level off and fall a little. allowing a limited mixing of households is one thing, but deciding what will be permitted for pubs, bars and restaurants

is another matter. it's normally their busiest time of the year in the run—up to christmas, but health officials are concerned that a full reopening would see a further spread of the virus. this bar in manchester only opened in march, just before the first lockdown. they had to close, reopen, and then close again, and they are desperate to get customers back in. we really need a strong december to make as much money in as normal circumstances as possible in order to get through the first two, three months of 2021. trade—offs and difficult decisions will be needed on what exactly will open up over christmas and for how long, and what will have to stay closed. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: president trump still refuses to concede the election but the recount in georgia is unlikely to go in his favour.

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: a report into possible war crimes by australia's special forces in afghanistan outlines dozens of unlawful killings. the australian military issues an apology and admits discipline broke down. the race to start using a coronavirus vaccine moves a step closer. pfizer says its vaccine is almost 95% effective. it's now two weeks since the us presidential election and donald trump is still not conceding to joe biden. he's still making unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud. in one of his most recent tweets, the president claimed that in detroit there were more votes than people and that he won the state of michigan. twitter added a warning, pointing out that claims of election fraud are disputed. the trump campaign has also put up $3 million for a partial recount in two

heavily democratic areas of wisconsin. meanwhile, the time limit for georgia to carry out a manual recount of votes, which was triggered by the narrow margin of mr biden‘s victory, expires soon. in spite of the results, many of donald trump's supporters are convinced that the election has been stolen. 0ur correspondent aleem maqbool reports from donald trump's heartlands in the south. cheering. veterans for trump and america! it's not over! the whole world's watching us! right now, they're watching us to see if we have a democracy! in the trump—supporting heartlands, they're keeping the faith and almost daily taking their passion for their president to the streets in sheer disbelief he could possibly have lost. there's more people for donald trump, and you can see that through donald trump's rallies that he's had. the amount of people that showed to those versus joe biden rallies, it's a huge difference. thousands and thousands of people difference. in the rural south, it's sometimes hard even to imagine a world outside

where donald trump is loathed. what you hear is that he fought for real americans, the people just like them. well, there are parts of this country that felt forgotten before donald trump, feel that he represented them and fear that they'll be forgotten again once he's gone, which is part of the reason they're clinging on to the hope that somehow he'll stay in office. and so everywhere you go, they'll repeat the conspiracy theories about how the election was stolen. i think the majority of it's a lie, because ballots were brought in unnoticed in the back rooms, through the backdoors, people that have died years ago are still voting. # in america # in the divided states of... # ..america.# through his music, jim white has chronicled the culture

of the south and of his country, one he now says is riddled with the kind of division no president can cure. he says discussion about civil war is commonplace. it's not a possibility, it's happening. it's happening. it is a virtual civil war. people are turning against each other, you know, brother against brother. i talk to people that go to family reunions, they can't talk to half of their family. they can't talk to them. they stopped going to family reunions because they could not bear to be around such hateful rhetoric as what trump puts forward. horns honk. beyond the smiles, many told us they'd never accept this election was anything but rigged. the history of the south tells us when people feel, rightly or wrongly, they're being silenced, they will fight back.

aleem maqbool, bbc news, in the florida panhandle. well back to our top story, earlier i spoke to dr samantha crompvoets, the sociologist whose secret 2016 report into cultural issues in the australian special forces sparked the official investigation into war crimes committed in afghanistan. she says it was a bittersweet moment when the findings were released. i think ithinki i think i had mixed feelings. great sadness, but also vindication. based on what you discovered as part of your report, what do you think needs to be done to remedy that? general campbell outlined a number of things that have been happening over the last couple of years and that will continue to happen including some

organisational restructuring of the special operations unit, and the disbandment of one. in terms of things that can be done, immediately, to change some of the cultural problems that were identified within some parts of the military, what do you think is the most urgent step that needs to be taken? some of the findings really do go to some of the breakdown in oversight mechanisms, so the way that enquiries were carried out, or assessments were done, complaints raised at the time and also some of those influential, junior, non—commissioned soldiers who really were the perpetrators of some of the worst atrocities. it emerged from the enquiry that there was, examples of

junior rank officers, orjunior rank soldiers being pressured into carrying out some of these a cts into carrying out some of these acts by more senior ones, almost as part of an initiation. is very hard to tackle that in an organisation where hierarchy is at the very centre of how it operates. it is, andi centre of how it operates. it is, and i think some of the most alarming findings in the brereton enquiry were just how exceptional those soldiers were at concealing what was occurring in the small platoons. what has this done, do you think, to australia's standing, internationally?” think certainly, a tarnished reputation because of what has occurred, but i also think that they are making, i would hope, they are making, i would hope, the very swift actions that

defence has taken a general campbell is leading to rectify and address these at every level will hopefully stand us in good stead going forward. the bbc has announced that a former president of the court of appeal, lord dyson, will head an independent investigation into how the panorama programme secured an interview with princess diana in 1995. the inquiry will look at how reporter martin bashir obtained the interview with the princess, how much the bbc knew of his methods, and how effective the bbc‘s subsequent investigation was. prince william's office said they tentatively welcomed the investigation, and called it a step in the right direction. britain, the united states, canada, australia and new zealand have accused china of breaching its international obligations in hong kong with a concerted campaign to silence its critics. the countries' foreign ministers say beijing has undermined the rights of people in hong kong to elect their representatives. most opposition politicians resigned from the territory's legislative council last week.

beijing gave the city government the power to eject lawmakers deemed to be disloyal.(read 0n) ealier i spoke to australian senator eric abetz. he talked about china breaching its international obligations in hong kong. the five eye countries around the world have shown themselves around the world to be fighters forfreedom, democracy, for the rule of law and as a result, when the uk, departed from hong kong, guaranteed this and the sinai british grey agreement which was sanctioned by the united nations has been clearly breached by beijing and the disregard for democracy is something that the five eyes need to stand up for and i congratulate the five ministers involved for their exceptionally strong statement, not only to beijing but to the rest of the world that

five eyes means democracy and will call out the breaches. this clamp down on opposition within hong kong, opposition voices, it can hardly be said to have come out of the blue. i mean, the increasing tightness of control that beijing has been exerting over recent months and years on hong kong was clear. do you think the international community failed to act quickly enough? i was just speaking earlier today with hong kong watch, who are seeking the release of the 12 pro—democracy activists currently imprisoned and i would have to agree with the assertion that the freedom loving countries of the world have been too slow to react to the beijing regime, the dictatorship, which is clamping down, be it on pro—democracy in hong kong, uighurs, fallon gong, christians,

the list goes on and on, the human rights abuses are there to be seen and should have been called out earlier, and we can reflect on that. the good news is it is being called out, as it should be. now, a little bit of cheer for those of us in the uk, because christmas is on the way. or more specifically the nation's tree is. yes, this is the tree, a norwegian spruce to be precise, that will go up in london's trafalgar square, being chopped down in norway. it's an annual gift from the country given as a thank you for british allies' efforts in world war 2. it's the 74th year of the tradition. but in the us they're one step ahead. the tree outside new york's rockefeller center's been moved into place — it still needs its decorations, obviously, but some onlookers have commented on its still patchy appearance, some saying it sums up the year 2020.

that brings us to the end of this bulletin. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @ benmbland. hello there. much colder today than it has been of late thanks to an arctic blast, but this arctic blast is going to be quite brief because milder air looms in the atlantic and will arrive on friday for many areas. so today, cold. it will be windy as well to start with, and we'll have a mixture of sunshine and showers. the pressure chart shows why it's windy — northerly winds, lots of isobars across northern and eastern areas, hence the gales — but this ridge of high pressure will continue to nudge in through the course of the day, so the winds become lighter and will also kill off many of the showers, too. behind me there is that milder air with the frontal system that will start to make inroads on friday. so, today starts cold, windy, gales across northern and eastern areas, wintry showers continuing across scotland. these will tend to ease down. and we'll have some showers across england and wales,

these becoming confined towards the south east. many places seeing a lot of sunshine into the afternoon. the cloud will start to thicken up, though, across northern ireland ahead of this next frontal system. a chilly day to come, much colder than of late. temperatures are 4—10 degrees, but when you factor in the wind, certainly across northern and eastern areas, it's going to feel much colder than those values suggest, perhaps even subzero across central and eastern scotland. now, as we head on into tonight, it turns cold across central and eastern areas with a touch of frost. rain will start to push in to western areas. could see a few showers moving in ahead of it. and these will be wintry with some snow over the scottish hills as it bumps into the cold air. temperatures slowly recovering out west with the rain, but it stays quite chilly further east. but that cold air gets pushed out of the way as we head through friday, as the milder west to south—westerly winds move in off the atlantic. so it's a chilly start across northern and eastern areas, dry, too, but the rain out west will slowly spill its way eastwards. could see some transient snow over the scottish mountains as it moves its way eastwards. behind it, it turns a little bit drier for northern ireland, for wales and the south west

of england by the end of the day. and here, at the end of the day, it'll be much milder — 12—13 degrees. still fairly chilly across the east — 9—11 degrees. now, as we head on into the weekend, it stays pretty u nsettled. low pressure to the north of the uk, higher pressure to the south. across the north, it's going to be windy with gales on saturday across scotland with some showers, but lighter winds for england and wales, perhaps one or two showers on sunday. i think it's going to be mild for many of us on saturday. turns colder, though, across the north of the uk on sunday.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: a report into possible war crimes by australia's special forces in afghanistan outlines dozens of unlawful killings. the australian military issues an apology and admits discipline broke down. the inquiry, which heard from hundreds of witnesses, says there was a warrior culture amongst certain soldiers. new data from pfizer and biontech says their coronavirus vaccine is 95% effective in the over—65s and works well in people of all ethnicities. the pharmaceutical firms want to get approval to use the jab as early as mid—december. 0ther vaccines are also showing promise. the us death toll from covid—19 has passed 250,000. the are more than 11.5 million cases in the country. it comes as new york city closes public schools after fears of a second wave of the virus.

now on bbc news: hardtalk.