this is bbc news. the headlines... iran's defence ministry has confirmed that one of the country's top nuclear scientists has been assassinated. tehran is pointing the finger of blame at israel, saying it's trying to provoke a war. three french police officers have been suspended after an online video showed them beating up a black music producer in paris. the incident has sparked outrage across france. president macron described the images as "shame" for france. the eu's chief brexit negotiator, michel barnier, is due in london for brexit talks this weekend. there's a suggestion that eu fleets return some fish caught in british waters if a free trade deal is agreed. and the ethiopian prime minister has met three african union envoys who are seeking to bring an end to the conflict in tigray. the envoys will not be allowed

to travel to the embattled area. at 10pm, sophie raworth will be here with a full round up of the days news. first, finland has a coalition government led by five women. the bbc has had world—first exclusive access behind—the—scenes to explore how the coalition works in practice and its impact. when i was younger, my perception of politicians was also that they are men in suits who talk on the 8:30pm news. sanna marin is the world's youngest serving prime minister and head the coalition of five parties, all led by women. from being the first country in europe to give equal voting rights, finland has been praised for its historic approach to gender equality. but is all as good

as it seems to be? five, white educated females is not very representative in the end. and is this really a country for every woman? of course, our backgrounds still affects the possibilities that we have in life and this should not be the case but of course we have problems. for the first time, finland's all—female leaders open their doors exclusively for the bbc. to show the inner workings of this historic government. li andersson is one of the five female party leaders that make up the country's coalition government. this week, the cabinet are going to be meeting to launch

a signature government programmes, the equality plan, aimed to improve equality across society, including on race and gender issues. there is so much been made since december 2019 about this being such a young government, and such, and the gender of the government, as well. what are your thoughts when you read the headlines and see the kind of top line of what the international media has been saying? i have mixed emotions regarding it, because on the one hand, i understand the power of example and symbolic value of that, but i also think there is kind of this tendency of some people of some people to say that, because there is women, you will make a certain type of policy or it is easier for you to agree when you are all women and so on, and that is not, i think necessarily the case and that is why i also want there to be a focus around policy. of the government, not just the gender of the female party leaders.

i mean, in finnish media, i think there has been some kind of comments around whether we'll go to the sauna together, because there is this old cliche about finnish politics that the decisions are made in the sauna, something that had been heavily criticised feminist circles because, you know, the whole idea of male decision—makers sitting in a sauna is based on this concept of decision—makers being solely men. like a boys club? yes. and of course, i mean, what we want is not to reproduce the excluding structures that men have used as women, but really to change the whole structures. li andersson and sanna marin were both members of their respective youth parties, years before taking office. a tv debate featuring them both from 2011 was one of the first time wider finnish public was introduced to them.

when i was younger, my perception of politicians was also that they are men in suits who talk on the 8:30pm news. and they are at a huge difference from me or my family or everyday life. i mean, especially in the youth organisations, i think there is a huge amount of idealism, which you should have when you are working in the youth organisations which i kind of miss, in a way in myself. so i think both me and sanna were a lot more work focused and maybe also a bit more aware of kind of the political realities

of the field we are working in now, compared to what we did when we were in the youth organisations. prime minister sanna marin grew up in a modest sized town, two hours north—west of helsinki. she was raised in a low—income family of lesbian mothers and was the first person to go to university in herfamily. while she speaks honestly about her background, she remains fiercely guarded about her family and private life. she would have been in any one of these classrooms? she has been in all of these classrooms and i have taught in all of these classrooms, but... at the high school, her former head teacher recalls his memories. she was just an average girl, nothing extreme, nothing special. when you look at her and her first year of leadership, do you think any parts of her childhood or her upbringing would have informed how she is as a leader now

from what you can see? i think in common—sense, that she, her childhood has not been very easy. her strength and hard—working way to do things and leadership must have got something from her youth and childhood. education minister li andersson is attending a round circle chat with high schoolers. how did you guys feel when you saw this new government? i did not really mind that much. laughter. i am not saying it is bad, it is nice to see women, but i feel like as i have grown up, i have always felt that i could do whatever i wanted to do, so that is why seeing a woman didn't really mean as much because i knew that, it didn't really matter. li's government has an equality plan that is going to be, that is going to be addressing a lot of issues including education.

to make an experience of yours easier in school, what would you suggest would be a change? maybe in health education, we do sexuality and gender, it is more focused on cisgendered and heterosexual people. it is mostly students i think you talk about it more, bring it up in class. i agree. the education tells a lot about what is important, what is valuable, what is the thing you want to teach the young ones? and if you do not include the minorities, then you do not, people do not learn about them. in reality, it is a lot dependent on teachers. yeah. it's also dependent on the school. i think all teachers do not necessarily have the tools that they would need to educate you and maybe sometimes you need to educate the teachers. laughter. although finland is celebrated for its equality, recent reports from the council of europe have

detailed what they call concerning rise in racism the country. bella forsgren is the only black politician in finland's government and akunna onwen is the chair of the fenland antiracist form. for us on the outside when you look at finland, one of the first countries in the world to allow women to vote and run for government, you know, really good, laws when it comes to maternity leave and also potentially, real conversations that are being had about the pay gap. is that inclusive of all women? would you say it is inclusive of black women as well?

if we had exactly the same conditions, exactly the same timing and age and... family background, and yet sanna marin was black, would she be prime minister? now? not now. no. laughter. not now.

she was the first female minister of the interior in the 80s but you saw many from the previous decades and she was in office when it was the chernobyl accident. what happened in finland was a people did not know what's happening there and we got the information quite late and so on. so she didn't get re—elected any more afterwards but then we have had some females afterwards. not too many. actually, i'm the first green ever in this ministry. so that is something new. i think the representation with five white educated females is not very representative, in the end. and there were a lot of critical writings when this photo went viral, that if we really look at the equality here,

it does not show yet, and i agree on that. the idea of maintaining, taking care of the welfare state, as a system, led me to study social politics and i thought that 0k, i have got quite a lot of help from the welfare state. my dad, especially, was unemployed, had some substance abuse problems, they divorced when i was one—year—old. so i was also brought up with a single mother for a little while in my life. so maybe this background influenced something that, influenced something that, in many countries, that this would not be the beginning for political career. actually it was the first female president and the only female president, she says it's not the person who breaks the glass ceiling, but the people who follow. and i think that is to the point. you always, you need the person

who will break the ceiling but then you also need all the people who will follow. and you should never stop that. far up in the arctic circle, finland's northern territory is home to europe's only indigenous population. the sami people. sami's ancestral land spread from russia to sweden and the sami people still live off the land. in finland, they were only officially recognised by the government in the ‘90s and they still face a battle for the right to the land on their way of life. and their way of life. can you only get these in finland? i think all over the arctic. an arctic fruit? yes. it is our vitamin pill. it is a little vitamin pill? yes, it is very good for you.

sara wesslin is a journalist based in a sami town. she works for the finnish broadcaster where she is one of the two reporters to work in the skolt sami language. what are the major issues concerning sami people right now? we don't have a sami representative in finnish government. does that worry you? yes, of course, and there has been many years, there has been talk about and discussion about it, should samis and the only representatives in the eu? in your ideal future, what would you like this government to do? what would you like sanna marin to do? for sami women? you don't have to be ashamed that we are sami, living in finland, you can be proud at that we are part of finnish nation. even being in the table, being in the room with decision—making.

one old saying that, "nothing about us without us." one of the main issues addressed in the government equality plan is the rights of gender minorities in finland. trans rights activists have for years asked for reform of the trans act, a law that currently seeking legal gender recognition to undergo enforced sterilisation. finland is the only nordic country that still requires infertility in order to get your legal gender recognised. in order to get male to female or female to male you need to prove that you cannot have biological children. in some cases, the people can become infertile enough by taking hormones, but if you are unable to take hormones or do not want to take hormones, then you will not get your legal gender recognised until you are in some other way

found infertile, meaning that at the end if nothing else helps, then it is surgical removal removal of your organs. for me, the case was that i was already perceived as a male when i started the legal process. and it took me 2.5 years with a female passport, meaning i could not travel, outside of basically nordic countries, i could not apply for a job, could not apply for nothing without having issues, having to prove my identity. that made me be in a hurry with the medical part. we have had a female president, we have the youngest female leader of the country, but alone that does not, it is just a token alone, it has to have the support of the system behind it before it actually makes a difference in the law.

we have had a coalition with some sort of a very conservative party, saying that if this goes forward, we will resign from the coalition and all the other parties have caved in and said ok, fine, let's do it next time. so it's possible the trans act could be the sacrificial lamb once again? it looks that way. any coalition government is a mixed bag of politics and agendas that have come together in the hope of being more effective, but to implement any real change, all government plans, requires unanimous support across—the—boa rd. when you build a government in finland, you put a lot of thought on what we call the government programme and there is a negotiation we had for three weeks in 2019 and then when you have that programme, everyone knows that this is it. this is what we have

decided together. when you are five different parties, you have to all the time try to see how you find solutions when you have different opinions. i mean, no party can have it just their own way and sometimes there are these tensions that have to do with making compromises behind closed doors, and of course, we are all one so we all have to defend the compromises that we make in public. nice to meet you. shall we walk up together? great. finland's party leaders are meeting at helsinki's houses of the estates for the cabinet meeting to discuss the new equality programme. trans rights and racism are on the agenda. do you prep yourself up before... before doing these things? no, no. they ask and i will answer honestly, so you don't need preparation.

automated voice: please enter the conference password. finland has had coalition governments forever, so of course we are used to trying to make compromises and trying to find consensus between different parties and ideologies and i think it's also a big strength for us. of course it is not always the fastest way to get things done, but i think it's more... it goes further, this kind of decisions, than the ones that you only make yourself. there is always one or a few issues on the table that we all want

to discuss together. so that we will have different perspectives. for example, equality programme is something that not only one minister or ministry can do. it is something that every ministry has to focus on and make a decision in theirfield. gender minorities are also discussed in the equality programme. particular transgender people and finland has been in the spotlight, it has been three years since the european court of human rights has said that forced sterilisation should not be our catchment allowed in terms of recognising personal gender identity. but it is the case still in finland. what you think of that? everyone should have the right and to determine their own identities, so i think we need to do many

changes in our legislation and government programme actually supports this kind of idea. for you, are trans women women? it's not myjob to identify people. it is everyone's job to identify themselves. if someone feels that he or she is a woman, then it is not my place to say. one of the things with early covid—19 response was a lot was written about how well finland,

tehran, new zealand and germany did in terms of covid—19 response, quick and decisive action. the other thing those countries have in common are female leaders. of course there are countries led by men that have also done well, so i don't think it is a gender—based issue, i think we should more focus on how the countrys that have done well, what they have done and what they have learned, what we all can learn from each other and that we also have response together, because it is a global pandemic. at some point, something might change and that popularity might change when decision needs to be made, especially maybe during covid—19 times. does that worry you at all? i don't... look at polls. the most important thing is we try to make the decisions that we have to make based on the best knowledge

that we can use. and also that we are trying to make decisions in a way that helps ordinary people in their ordinary lives. in crises and also in normal times. of course, our backgrounds still affects the possibilities that we have in life and they should not be the case but of that we have in life and this should not be the case but of course we have problems. it is not the last time that we will discuss these issues and of course it is important that we are all focused on how we will make

the programme a reality. so this is my mission as prime minister. but there are challenges ahead. and no prime minister in finland has seen a full term for decades. but with 85% approval rating, sanna marin is enjoying a striking level of confidence in uneasy times. some changes on the way for the next

week. over the weekend we pick—up more breeze coming in from continental europe. these weather fronts focusing, a little bit of rain northwards in the cold air gets pushed north with milder conditions up pushed north with milder conditions up from the south. over the weekend could be a dull one, a lot of cloud around but at least it won't be as cold as it has been. a chilly start in scotland, this is where we see the best of the sunshine, more cloud across england and wales. rain and drizzle here and there, it will cloud over in northern ireland and southern areas of scotland. further north after a chilly start temperature still five or 6 degrees, milder further south even with cloud, temperatures could be ten or 12. maybe a few late breaks in the cloud, a bit of rain their imports of northern england. clear skies in scotla nd of northern england. clear skies in scotland a while. second half of the weekend we see high pressure build again and the breeze will lessen in

the air will stagnate. it will turn very grey and cloudy and there will be some quite low cloud as well so mistan be some quite low cloud as well so mist an fog in the hills. some sunshine for a while in north—eastern parts of scotland developing in west wales and the south coast of england through the channel islands. 12 degrees here. light wind elsewhere, 8—10, breeze picks up on the far north of scotland. we see some atlantic air around that area of high pressure and for the start of next week, that high pressurejust and for the start of next week, that high pressure just briefly recedes, gets pushed away by those with difference moving down from the north. on monday will start to see the breeze pick—up. westerly then north—westerly, for cloud, rain in scotla nd north—westerly, for cloud, rain in scotland and northern ireland heading further south into england and wales when it is cloudy and not as misty on monday. temperatures good for the time of year, nine or ten on monday. the last day of november, the last day of autumn. the weather fronts move down into

central europe, high—pressure building behind that, quite a chilly start for the eastern side of the uk, northerly breeze but it should bea uk, northerly breeze but it should be a different sort of air mass so should be brighter skies and should be some sunshine as well. to the west, more in the way of cloud, temperatures likely to make ten or 11, chilly as you head further east despite that sunshine. high—pressure close by as we head into tuesday. wednesday, the weather front pushes and from the atlantic, very, very weak, light and patchy rain heading into scotland and northern ireland. to find more cloud pushing into england and wales and a chilly start for eastern areas, may be some late sunshine after that light and patchy rain in scotland but slightly colder air. further ahead, jet stream position on wednesday, that will change, thejet position on wednesday, that will change, the jet dived to the south of uk and essentially we get drawn into the colder side of the jet so

the air gets colder. we end up with an area of low pressure across the uk from wednesday onwards. that is going to sit around for a while keeping it much more unsettled, stronger wind and showers, longer spells of rain and snow over some northern hills before it turns dry, probably during next weekend. a long way off, a lot to change before then. goodbye for now.

tonight at ten — sir philip green's retail empire, arcadia, is on the brink of collapse. 13,000 jobs are at risk. topshop, dorothy perkins, miss selfridge — some of retail‘s biggest names — now under threat, with more than 500 stores across britain. once known as the king of the high street, sir philip — one of britain's most controversial businessmen — has built the group over two decades. it would be britain's biggest corporate collapse of the pandemic so far. also tonight... the toughest restrictions but some of the lowest infection rates — anger in places like kent's tunbridge wells at england's new tier system. when you are at the school and you behave the whole lesson, and there is one kid at the back that hasn't behaved. the scientist regarded as the mastermind of iran's nuclear