this is bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. president trump says he will leave the white house if the electoral college certifiesjoe biden as the election winner, even as he continues to deny the reality of his defeat. fans line the streets of buenos aires to say goodbye to football hero maradona on the way to the cemetery where he has been buried next to his parents. drugs giant astrazeneca is to expand current trials of its coronavirus vaccine to clarify effective dosages. ethiopian refugees mass on the border with sudan as the government launches its final offensive against rebel forces in tigray.

president trump has made comments that seem to come the closest so far to conceding the election held three weeks ago. while insisting on his unsubstantiated claim that the poll was fraudulent, he said he would leave the white house if the electoral college certifies joe biden‘s victory. let's have a listen. it will be a hard thing to concede because we know there was massive fraud. time is not on our side. everything else is, facts are on our side. this was a massive fraud and it should never take place in this country. we are like a third world country. i think it is a

possibility between you people, don't talk to me that way. you arejust a don't talk to me that way. you are just a lightweight. don't talk to me that way. you arejust a lightweight. don't talk to me. that i am the president of the united states, don't ever talk to the president that way. i am going to go to another question. so, if the electoral college does elect president—elect joe biden, are you not going to leave this building? just so you — certainly i will. certainly i will, and you know that. but i think that there will be a lot of things happening between now and 20 january. a lot of things. daniel lippman is the white house reporter for politico. he joins us from massachusetts. there is a lot to one pic there but let's start with the claim that facts are on his side, he said. are they? they are not. and the courts have ruled against him almost 35—1 in terms of losing court cases.

most republicans electors say that the election was very secure, there was not a massive fraud and the trump campaign has been unable to show actual evidence of mail—in ballots being fraudulent on a massive scale that would lead to a result that would be in favour of donald trump. so that is a com plete of donald trump. so that is a complete falsity. given that falsity, he did say that he would leave, quickly, he said that he would leave if the electoral college votes forjoe biden and we expect that certainly. is that something that his supporters will reject, be angry at or is the political class welcoming those comments? i think it isjust acknowledging reality and his supporters will probably think to themselves that we can find

another day, running 2024 againstjoe biden or kemal harris and that is a way to revenge his loss. —— kemal harris. —— kamala harris. most of his supporters think that biden one, only 3% of people according to one poll thing that trump one. so his supporters, except for the most hard—core, they acknowledge that biden won by millions of votes. how much damage do you think this is doing, having someone think this is doing, having someone undermine the legitimacy of the votes? it is definitely damaging in terms of republicans on capitol hill being slow to acknowledge biden as the winner and so when he comes into office in two months time they will not be as inclined to work with him

because their supporters will think that he is illegitimate in some way, even if they acknowledge that he won, they will not want to help them in any part of his agenda, especially when the need to repair the economy and be back coronavirus is so important these days. but i think in a few years this may be washed over and america... remember after 2008, many people said that america would be permanently damaged by george w bush and barack 0bama was able to bring back the reputation. thank you very much for your thoughts. the argentine football legend diego maradona has been buried on the outskirts of buenos aires next to his parents. his cortege travelled through the streets of the city after the 60—year—old had been lying in state where thousands queued for hours to file past his coffin. katy watson reports

from buenos aires. the tears didn't stop. all day mourners filed through the doors of the presidential palace. vice president cristina fernandez de kirchner lingering at his coffin to pay her respects. it's been a hero's farewell for maradona. lying in state is an honour afforded to few in argentina. a mark ofjust how loved he was here. argentinians waited patiently for hours. breaking into song to keep the spirits up and to remember the good times. translation: football has died. so we have to remember him in the best way. he was one of the best. that goal with the english, we'll never forget that. this crowd here can't be explained just by argentinians' love of football. yes, it's important, but it's much more than that. the people who have come here today saw maradona as a national icon,

a man who represented them and did them proud, and it's a legacy that spans generations. as mourners left the palace, for some it was too much to process. it's the only one who actually made all the country proud, no matter what political orientation you have, religious... he came from nowhere and he put our country in the world. in a country hard hit by coronavirus, otherwise strict rules were being ignored for argentina's footballing superstar. but as the day went on and the summer temperatures rose, emotions also ran high. hundreds of fans broke down the barriers and riot police responded. authorities had to stop public viewing of the coffin to keep the peace. diego maradona was argentina's wild child, loved despite his flaws, celebrated beyond measure. as his family prepares to bury him, argentina doesn't want to forget. katy watson, bbc news,

in buenos aires. the drugs company astrazeneca says there will be further investigation of the coronavirus vaccine it's produced with 0xford university, after questions were raised about results released earlier this week. two separate parts of the clinical trials revealed different rates of efficacy. scientists are trying to figure out which dosage of the vaccine offers optimal protection. dr dean blumberg is chief of paediatric infectious diseases at the university of california. he's in sacramento. thank you for coming on the programme. iam hoping thank you for coming on the programme. i am hoping you can do some explaining for us here because it seems remarkable. astra the knicker and oxford university do these trials with two doses, that was always the plan and then some people, by accident, get a slightly different dosage one month apartand it different dosage one month apart and it so happens that those people with the incorrect dosage seem to have a better level of protection. just for

some starters, how can such a huge study, a huge company, with the world watching, make a mistake like that in the first place? i look forward to hearing the story coming out, it is quite interesting but think, it might be the most fortuitous mistake made in recent scientific discovery, to find that and it is interesting because the system, there is so much we don't know about the immune system and it is unpredictable so who could have predicted this? given that this isa predicted this? given that this is a smaller group of people given a slightly flawed dosage that turns out to be more effective, a smaller sample so they hope now to what? extend that out to more people? since it worked better, obviously it would have been nice to have more people in that group rather than then the other group so they had 2741 patients

in the half dose, initial half dose group and almost 9000 in the other group and wouldn't it have been nice for that to be reversed? it have been nice for that to be reversed ? it is have been nice for that to be reversed? it is interesting now to get more data from the people in the group that appeared to work better and so ifi appeared to work better and so if i were in charge of doing studies, that is what i would do next. does it seem like it will delay the vaccine? do next. does it seem like it will delay the vaccine ?|j do next. does it seem like it will delay the vaccine? i don't think so. it was effective for both groups so this would be considered a fine tuning of the dosage and you could go forward with either of those groups. you would probably want to go forward with the half dose group. there are two advantages. 0ne, itappears group. there are two advantages. 0ne, it appears to be more effective and the second is that it will stretch the vaccine dosage. brings up—to—date with comments from america today talking about the timescale here, rolling out

vaccines within a week. how do you feel about that? i think to gain the confidence of professionals and the public we really need to see the data. all the preliminary data looks very promising but that has been by press release so we really need to see the data presented more scientifically to the regulatory bodies and in the us that would be the fda, the us that would be the fda, the food and drug administration, as well as the cdc, the centres for disease control. and once that comes out transparently, we will see more public confidence. thank you so much for coming on. ethiopian government troops are carrying out what's being described as the final operation against the rebel leadership in the country's northern tigray province. the assault comes as a deadline set by ethiopia for its regional opponents to surrender has passed. the ethiopian government says it is also distributing aid to people displaced by the fighting. but reports say its troops have been seen stopping people

attempting to find refuge in sudan. from the ethiopian border, anne soy reports. a new day away from home, but for these refugees, it's a big relief to have made it to sudan. thousands crossed this river on the border, but things have now changed. ethiopian troops are discouraging people from fleeing the country, we were told. 0ur requests for comment from the authorities went unanswered. but at this camp, a farmer and his 11—year—old daughter are luckily reunited. translation: i was with my grandmother when i started hearing gunshots. when they intensified, i asked her to flee with me, but she said no, she was too old to run — so i fled alone. i had to spend a night in the bush. i was frightened. i had no extra clothes and no money, but i was able to cross the border, and then i asked someone

to call my father. for the older people here, this brings back bad memories of past conflicts. this man is 75. he wants a resolution to the current conflict, but thinks it won't be easy. translation: they will not agree on anything unless the world intervenes. now, there is war and death. things cannot be solved that easily. these people hope this situation is temporary. they want to go back home and continue with their lives. the federal government promised a short offensive, but there are fears the conflict could persist and potentially destabilise the whole of africa region. girl sings. this is a song for peace. it encapsulates the hopes of many here. they have lost touch with those they left behind. their lives are in limbo, as ethiopian‘s current

and former rulers fight. anne soy, bbc news. bikila hurisa is an official in the prime minister's office. he explained the latest developments from the govenment‘s perspective. it is not a war crime it is a law enforcement operation, taking care of civilians and institutions and military institutions and military institutions we will take the maximum care in such a way that life can be saved and institutions can be saved. this is not a war crime because this is not a war crime because this is targeting only criminals identified by name and whose places are also identified. therefore this is not a war crime, it is a law enforcement operation for getting city based criminals. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: go! meet the little boy

switching on his hometown‘s christmas lights after people there raised the funds for life—saving cancer treatment. president kennedy was shot down and died almost immediately. the murder ofjohn kennedy is a disaster for the whole free world. he caught the imagination of the world. the first of a new generation of leaders. margaret thatcher is resigning as leader of the conservative party and prime minister. before leaving number 10 to see the queen, she told her cabinet, "it's a funny old world." angela merkel is germany's first woman chancellor, easily securing the majority she needed. attempts to fly a hot air balloon had to be abandoned after a few minutes but nobody seemed to mind very much. as one local comic put it, "it's not hot air we need, it's hard cash." cuba has declared nine days

of mourning following the death of fidel castro at the age of 90. castro developed close ties with the soviet union in the 1960s. it was an alliance that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, with the cuban missile crisis. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: president trump says he will leave the white house if the electoral college certifiesjoe biden‘s victory — even as he continues to deny the reality of his defeat. diego maradona has been laid to rest on the outskirts of buenos aires after a day where thousands paid tribute to the football legend. let's stay with this story. we can now speak to daniel edwards. he's a journalist based in buenos aires. thank you so much for coming on the programme. hello, good evening. thanks for the invitation. pleasure. we saw

the crowds, huge crowds out on the crowds, huge crowds out on the streets, of course. there was that little bit of trouble and a clash with the police there. we better just and a clash with the police there. we betterjust start by telling us what you know what happened there. it's been an incredible couple of days. huge sadness and a lot ofjoy as well as people have come out to celebrate one of their icons. what i believe happened tonight is based on the wishes of maradona's family the wake was restricted from six o'clock in the morning until four o'clock in the afternoon and we had estimates 1 million in the afternoon and we had estimates1 million people were wanting to come down to pay their last respects. by the time 3pm had come around and the day had gone by in relative

peace, and in good order and suddenly when the police tried to move to try to restrict the number of people that would enter, obviously the mourners, some who had been queueing for hours, they were not very willing to move. the police used force and, as we saw in the pictures that have come out today, it led to some very unedifying scenes which were not, i don't think, what we wa nted not, i don't think, what we wanted to remember this day by. no, of course. there are three days of national mourning. we have seen what has happened today, an extraordinary outpouring of emotion, notjust in argentina, we have seen it in italy, but incredible scenes on the streets of argentina. what comes next now? what comes next is we see diego is now with his beloved father and his mother in the cemetery. we saw

once his casket left the casa rosada, all along the motorway the hearse was accompanied by hundreds of people waving him along, throwing tickertape and cheering. what's next is the legal will continue. it has been rebaptised legal will continue. it has been reba ptised the legal will continue. it has been rebaptised the kobach maradona. even though we won't have fa ns maradona. even though we won't have fans in the stadium because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we will see a lot of moving tributes to diego from every single team in the league. thank you for talking through that amazing day in argentina. daniel edwards, thank you. thank you. there's growing criticism from conservative mps after boris johnson signalled that 55 million people in england would be going into the two toughest levels of the new coronavirus tier system when the national lockdown ends next wednesday. the prime minister admits that the measures would bring "heartache and frustration". but he said they would cut the rate of infection

and the danger had "not gone away". if we ease off now we risk losing control of this virus all over again, casting aside our hard—won gains and forcing us our hard—won gains and forcing us back into a new year national lock down. let's get some of the day's other news. face—to—face brexit trade talks are to resume in london this weekend, eu sources have told the bbc. eu chief negotiator michel barnier and other members of his team have been self—isolating, as a precaution, after a colleague tested positive for covid last week. however, one senior eu figure suggested the negotiations could be brief. poland's prime minister has again warned of the possible disintegration of the european union if it attempts to make access to funds conditional on member states‘ upholding the rule of law. poland and hungary have vetoed the bloc‘s budget and covid recovery package over their objections to

the proposed clause. the french police authorities have suspended three officers who are now being investigated after they were seen in an online video beating up a black music producer in paris. police have also been accused of using unnecessary force at a demonstration on monday for migrants' rights. despite those incidents, the government is trying to bring in laws that would make it illegal to broadcast the faces of police officers. mark lobel‘s report includes graphic scenes from the start. beaten for not wearing a face mask. newly released speed up cctv footage shows three french police officers, two uniform and one plainclothes, confronting a black music producer in his own studio. 12 minutes go by as he is punched, kicked, hit with a trojan, and allegedly racially abuse, leaving him in a bloodied

state. now released without charge and filing a complaint against the officers involved, the music artist said that police should have been protecting him, not attacking him. translation: i have appointments with doctors so i'm going to see what they say. i don't know what to tell you. i'm really exhausted. they haven't slept much for days. what should have been a routine police stop and in disgrace with searing questions for the now suspended officers involved. translation: i would like to say to police officers that i support them unfailingly. but they must respect the law and ethical code, absolutely. and when people screw up they should leave the uniform of the republic behind them. they should be sanctioned. they should be sanctioned. they should stop this worker needs to be punished by the courts. it's been a bruising week for france's police were also being investigated after using tear—gas and allegedly brutal tactics dispersing this tented

camp. volunteers had set it up in paris for previously evacuated migrants. as many such people move on as they continue to face a crackdown in parts of france, some suspect a once centrist president macron is trying to appear tougher on law and order ahead of presidential elections in 2022. there are protests, to, at the attempt to ban the publication of photos or videos of police officers' faces currently progressing through parliament. which, some argue, would have censored scenes like these, for which the officers involved have now been reprimanded and, for many, was the only way that insured the correct culprits we re insured the correct culprits were caught. —— insured. what better way to say thank you to the community that helped save your life than to bring them a little cheer this christmas? that's exactly what six—year—old 0scar saxelby—lee has done, in the english town

of worcester, by turning on the city's christmas lights in his home town. the people of worcester raised close to a million dollars to send him abroad for cancer treatment. phil mackie reports. last christmas nobody could be confident that destro would a happy ending. he had a rare form of blood cancer and the prognosis was not good. that's when the people of worcester a nswer when the people of worcester answer the call for help. thousands gave swabs to see if they might be a stem cell match, but when the transplant failed the fundraising started. they don't want him to be poorly anymore. these give money to oscar. they raised three quarters of £1 million to pay for treatment in singapore. now 0scar is cancer free and home with his mind out. now 0scar is cancer free and home with his mind outlj now 0scar is cancer free and home with his mind out. i think the fact that we have such a strong, committed, loving community behind us, it means the world to us. without

everybody in worcester we wouldn't be where we are today. news of his recovery has lit up what would otherwise have been a really miserable year and is more importantly brought about some much—needed christmas cheer. this evening, 0scar was given the honour of virtually switching on was to's christmas lights after recording this earlier. at the same time, across the city, others joined in. merry christmas! the top of 0scar‘s christmas list is a chocolate coin making machine. it is such a special treat for my friends because they have done all this hard work for me. 0scar can look forward to many more christmases at home in the city which helped to save him. bill macatee, bbc news, wister. -- phil bill macatee, bbc news, wister. —— phil mackie. plenty more online. you can get me on social media and twitter.

i'm lewis vaughan jones me on social media and twitter. i'm lewis vaughanjones and this is bbc news. goodbye. hello there. if you need to head out on the roads on friday morning, fog could cause one or two problems, certainly some poor visibility in places particularly across parts of england and wales. the fog slow to clear through the day and it will feel cold out there. two weather fronts, one to the northwest, one to the south bringing some cloud and patchy rain. but in between, very light winds, temperatures have been dropping, it's going to be a very cold start to friday morning. widely around freezing, some spots below and we will also see some fog. indeed, some freezing fog across parts of england into east wales as well. these are the areas most likely to be affected. slightly different across the far southeast, here it's more likely cloud bringing the odd spot of rain.

some early sunshine through wales, parts of northern england, and then for northern ireland and scotland, it's a slightly different story again. this band of cloud and weather front bringing some outbreaks of very patchy rain, and that band of cloud with those bits and pieces of rain not moving far at all through the day. the fog struggling to shift as well across those parts of england and wales starting off so murky. i think in many places, it willjust linger as low cloud all day long. a bit of rain creeping in towards the english channel coasts. temperatures, if you stick with fog all day long, maybe just 3—4 degrees. even in some brightness, 8—9 the best we can expect. and then through friday night, the fog will once again reform with a lot of low cloud and some spots of rain and drizzle working northwards across england and wales. lowest temperatures likely to be across the far north of england, also southeast scotland — some spots here will see a frost because of clear skies overhead. and there will be a slice of sunshine for some on saturday. particularly across scotland, perhaps northern ireland as well. but for england and wales a lot of cloud, some misty, murky conditions. temperatures just a little bit higher, though, down towards the south, 11—12, possibly 13 degrees. the milder airjust trying to sneak its way in.

now for the second half of the weekend, high pressure remains in charge — this frontal system up to the far north—west might just bring a little bit of rain in northern and northwestern scotland. otherwise a lot of drier weather, but again a lot of cloudy weather and any fog for the morning will struggle to clear during the day, and those temperatures for most of us in single digits, at best around ten degrees.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

huge crowds lined the streets to say an emotional goodbye president trump says he will leave the white house if the electoral college certifies joe biden. it is the closest he has come to conceding that he continues to insist on his unsubstantiated claims of massive electoral fraud. argentine football hero diego maradona was buried next to his parents in a private ceremony at a cemetary on the outskirts of buenos aires. ethiopian refugees have massed on the border with sudan as the government launches its final offensive against rebel forces in tigray. ethiopia says it has established a humanitarian corridor, but the un says it has no information about such a route.