this is bbc news. i'm james reynolds. our top stories. iran promises revenge for the assassination of its top nuclear scientist — and blames israel for his murder. new figures reveal a million more americans caught covid in less than a week — 1500 are now dying every day — as emergency teams struggle to cope. shameful for france — president macron condemns the beating of a black man by police officers. and after the anger in argentina at funeral staff taking selfies next to diego maradona's open coffin — we speak to those who knew him best.

iran has promised severe revenge for the assassination of its top nuclear scientist — blaming israel for his murder. mohsen fakhrizadeh died in hospital after gunmen attacked his car outside tehran. israel has previously accused him of masterminding a covert nuclear weapons programme, though it hasn't commented on his assassination. our security correspondent gordon corera has more. the scene of an ambush. the highway where gunmen targeted a vehicle carrying one of the most important figures in iran's nuclear programme. mohsen fakhrizadeh was a scientist and senior defence official. but western intelligence services have long believed he was the driving force in iran's quest for a nuclear bomb. iran has always said its nuclear programme was peaceful — but it's been claimed fakhrizadeh was leading work on project amad to develop a weapon. in 2018, he was singled out by israel's prime minister.

this is how dr mohsen fakhrizadeh, head of project amad, put it — remember that name, mohsen fakhrizadeh. so here he is, right here. and he says, "the general aim is to announce the closure of project amad." but then, he adds, "special activities" — you know what that is. iran's foreign minister quickly responded to his death with this tweet... israel is widely assumed to have been responsible. but why now? iran's nuclear programme was constrained under an international deal signed in 2015. but in 2018, donald trump pulled the us out of the deal —

and iran has been growing its stockpile of nuclear material. president trump is reported to have looked at — and then decided against — a military strike just two weeks ago. but israel may now be seeking to take advantage of the window whilst he's still in office. this is very clearly timed in order to impede restoration of the iran nuclear deal. trump has made it very clear he's wanted to kill the deal, he hasn't succeeded in four years, he has two months left. and this is an effort to do so in order to provoke iran's own hardliners into resisting diplomacy. the killing is already causing anger in iran, but it's not yet clear how it might retaliate — and what that would mean for attempts to resurrect the international deal. iran has been under economic blockades for the last few years. it is a country of 80 million people facing the most severe covid pandemic in the region

under sanctions in which it cannot access basic medicines and health care, and medical equipment for its people. it is important to bear that in mind, and the iranian government surely is aware of the extreme pressures it's facing at home. emergency vehicles were still at the scene hours after fakhrizadeh‘s death. the struggle over iran's nuclear programme has been going on for close to two decades. but, in the midst of an american presidential transition, this looks set to be a moment of tension and uncertainty. gordon corera, bbc news. the united states has now recorded more than 13 million cases of coronavirus — just six days after the country reached 12 million infections. more than 264,000 americans have now died after contracting covid—19, and experts are warning that thanksgiving weekend could lead to a steep rise in cases over the coming days. and los angeles hasjust announced new stricter measures — as our north america

correspondent david willis told me. they have issued what is called a safer at home order. this prohibits public and private gatherings with anybody outside of your immediate household, and it's in response to an alarming growth in the number of coronavirus cases in la county. as well as the city of los angeles, which is the second largest city in the united states, la county also includes a population in total of around ten million people, it's the most populous county in the united states. it has seen an alarming rise in the number of coronavirus cases and people here are very concerned. this new safer at home order comes into place on monday, and was announced todayjust a couple of days after officials here announced a ban on outdoor dining. so, restaurants will only be able to offer takeout or delivery. let us look at the approval

of potential vaccines. how is that getting on in terms of approval and distribution? it is interesting because we have to wait until the 10th of december, a couple of weeks from now, before the advisory committee of the food and drug administration, the federal body which regulates such things, meets in order to consider whether to license and allow any of these vaccines. assuming that they do, and there are three that are in contention for distribution here, then, it is likely the first doses could be administered in the month of december if not within a couple of weeks. so, the hope of medical experts here is that about 70% of the american population will be vaccinated by the springtime, by the end of may. but that is a long way away, and of course, a lot can go

wrong in the meantime. that is the hope, any way. let us turn to politics, donald trump lost the election, we all know that. but from what we can understand, his legal campaign to challenge or even overturn the result goes on. he has racked up another legal loss in pennsylvania, is that right? a federal appeals judge roundly rejecting the contention by mr trump's legal team that he was unfairly treated in pennsylvania. that swing state which joe biden won by more than 80,000 votes. the judge rulling today that calling an election unfair does not make it so, charges require specific allegations and proof and we have neither here. that follows a lower court's rejection of the trump administration's earlier lawsuit in pennsylvania in which the lawsuit was famously called "a frankenstein's monster

of a case" that had been haphazardly stitched together. the trump campaign is saying it will take this even further to the united states supreme court, all the way to the top. so, it is not over yet. a number of french police officers are being held for questioning after a video showed them beating up a black music producer in paris. the footage has sparked outrage — president macron says france has been shamed by the incident. the three officers identified in the video have been suspended. mark lobel reports. pursued by the police for not wearing a face mask, then, set upon in the reception room of his music studio by those he thought were meant to protect him. caught on this cctv footage that has struck a nerve in france, the black french music producer michel zeckler is brutally punched, kicked, hit and allegedly racially abused.

the three officers seen here, two in uniform and one plainclothed, have been suspended and questioned in police custody. the violent scenes continued for around five minutes until michel's colleagues emerge and push the police out. france's president emmanuel macron said, "the images shame us, france must never allow racism to prosper. those who apply the law must respect the law. i ask the government to quickly make proposals to reaffirm the bond of trust between the french people and those who protect them, and to fight against discrimination more effectively." anger at the treatment of the a1—year—old, who was released without charge after being held for 48 hours, was felt by several members of france's world cup squad. kylian mbappe wrote this. "unbearable video, unacceptable violence, say no to racism." antoine griezmann said this. "my france hurts. " and benjamin mendy asked, "without the videos, what would have happened to

michel? we would have preferred to believe the version of the police under oath?" ever since the death in us police custody of george floyd in may, and as the black lives matter movement has grown, tackling police conduct has been under the spotlight. i certainly think accountability would be a great first step to rebuilding trust in the community. when you first admit and acknowledge there is a problem, then, we need to next fix it, accountability. there should be a disciplinary process that is commensurate with the crime or misconduct conducted by police officers. emmanuel macron‘s condemnation is also intended to quell ongoing protests across france. demonstrators are critical of a police crackdown on migrants and proposed reforms to restrict publishing images of the police they say jeopardises freedom of expression. after this latest incident, there will be even less appetite among protesters for more anonymity for the police. mark lobel, bbc news.

a funeral worker has apologised after taking a selfie by the open coffin of the argentine football legend diego maradona who died on wednesday. claudio fernandez was standing alongside his son in the photo next to maradona's body. 0ur south america correspondent katy watson has been to meet some of his team—mates — who knew a young amateur foootballer destined for superstardom. in death as in life, maradona was feted by millions of argentinians. they've marked his passing these past few days, and the country is still officially in mourning. so this news that funeral workers posed for pictures next to his body has angered many here. in the poor neighbourhood where diego maradona was born, people are still paying homage to the football player at his old childhood home. people here feel particularly protective over him. norberto has lived next door for most of his life.

hugely proud of his former neighbour, but he pitied him too. translation: he said to me one day, "i'll swap a week of my life with a week of yours. let's see how long you last being diego maradona. i have lots of money, i can buy what i want. but i'm not in charge. i can't even control buying t—shirts. i go in, and outside is a sea of people." down the road, i meetjuan. he played on these dusty pitches with maradona as a teenager. this was the ground that the world's best footballer learned to play on before moving on to the professional pitches. "yes, he was talented, but the team we played in was also pretty skilful," he tells me. "he was just one more. we never imagined he would be number one, or even the best football player on the planet." diego maradona's humble beginnings inspired millions here in argentina. "he was one of us," the people

say, "he understood us." that level of recognition, though, even he struggled to cope with at times. he was loved to the point of obsession here — an obsession that will only continue to intensify with his passing. katy watson, bbc news, in buenos aires. you are watching bbc news, our top story. one of iran's top nuclear scientists, mohsen fakhrizadeh, has been assassinated by gunmen who opened fire on his car. let's get more on that now. 0ur chief international correspondent lyse doucet is in the region — following developments in the saudi capital, riyadh. a very significant strike, and it comes nearly a year after iran's leading commander of the islamic revolutionary guard corps qasem soleimani was killed. this time, as with the earlier killing, the question is how will iran respond. it comes at a very significant, delicate moment with only weeks left in the administration

of president donald trump. we already know president—elect joe biden has talked about rejoining the iran nuclear deal that president trump pulled out of in 2018. this move is being seen not just as an effort to strike a blow against iran's nuclear programme. iran emphasises it does not have a nuclear weapons programme. but mohsen fakhrizadeh for years now, particularly by israeli and american intelligence, was regarded as associated with the covert programme. and this kind of assassination, and we don't know yet who carried it out, but this kind of move could possibly complicate the efforts of the new us administration to try to open a new chapter with iran, as difficult as that was going to be without this assassination. henry rome is a senior

analyst focusing on iran at the eurasia group. i asked him how the assassination compared with that of general qasem soleimani. in terms of comparing the two men, they lived in different worlds. mr fakhrizadeh was the leader before 2004 of iran's nuclear weapons programme and qasem soleimani was responsible for iranian operations overseas, special operations. mr soleimani had a higher profile than mr fakhrizadeh. but they both contributed significantly to their parallel fields. i think their absence as iran heads into 2021 will be quite missed. if this was israel, what is its long—term strategy here? the israeli goal is twofold. i would say it is much more short—term frankly than it is long—term. there are two time periods.

the next two months while president trump is still in office. the goal there is when you have a us administration that is as strongly by your side as president trump is, from the israeli point of view, you want to get as many things, as many operations going as possible, and try to degrade as significantly as possible the iranian nuclear programme. you saw that over the summer with the attack, with the bombing at the nuclearfacility, and today with the assassination of mr fakhrizadeh. i think, over the medium—term, shall we say, when preparing for president—electjoe biden to take office, i think the israelis are quite concerned that biden will move to re—enter the nuclear agreement, the jcpoa, and are trying to do their best now to kind of poison the well, to make it more difficult should he decide to take that route.

the members ofjoe biden‘s security team, the senior members, have largely been appointed, how would they react to this? i think right now they are in wait—and—see mode. 0ne president at a time. they have another two months before they are in control. i would imagine there is a rising amount of concern about what might happen over the next two months and this potentially could be the beginning or the start of additional such operations. i imagine they are paying quite close attention to what they will have to be dealing with on january the 20th. as a number of vaccines designed to combat coronavirus near approval — airport staff are gearing up to handle the unprecedented logistical challenge of transporting millions of life—saving doses worldwide. here at frankfurt's cargo terminal, they've been working round the clock to get ready. it is europe's largest hub for transporting pharmaceutical goods.

one study estimates that 15,000 flights would be necessary to transport the ten billion doses needed to create global herd immunity. many shops selling nonessential goods are re—opening in france today. it's the first step in a three—stage process to ease lockdown conditions. to help small retailers recoup some of their losses, the government has deferred the black friday sales bonanza to give them a breathing space against the online discounters in the run—up to christmas. people will be allowed to spend up to three hours out of their homes, and to travel 20 kilometres from them. after trying to prevent protesters from entering delhi for two days, the indian authorities have now allowed thousands of farmers to march against new agricultural laws. the government says the reforms will boost the income of the farmers and rid india of antiquated laws — but farmers are worried this will leave them vulnerable to competition from big companies. sergi forcada reports.

coming from neighbouring states and braving tear gas and batons, thousands of farmers have been trying to reach delhi to protest against reforms which they say will leave them worse off. 0n the second day of clashes, officers used water cannon to try and hold them back, but eventually allowed the farmers, some of whom threw stones and broke barricades, to enter the capital to stage a demonstration. translation: the farmers were in large numbers and many of them were young. we had limited options and we did whatever we could to stop them. but some of the protesters forcibly removed the barricades and clashed with the police injuring some officers. farmers in northern india are protesting against three new agricultural laws passed by the government. the reforms seek to loosen regulations that have protected indian farmers from the free market for decades.

but protesters argue bigger rivals will force down prices and put their livelihoods at risk. translation: we have come here to make the government reverse its three laws. 0ur protest has been going on in haryana and punjab for the last three months. but the government wasn't paying any attention. we decided to come to delhi to pressurise the national government to take these laws back. this translation: we farmers of punjab will not step back. like oursikh guru, we are always ready to die. dying for what we believe in is what we have always learned. we don't care if we die. protests have led to massive trafficjams on some of the busiest roads in the country, and farmers' unions say they are prepared to hold a sit—in for weeks or even months. sergi forcada, bbc news. for thousands of years the inuit people of alaska have lived off the land.

nomadic hunters, chasing targets depending on the seasons. but changing arctic weather patterns are putting that way of life at risk. i've always loved being outside with my dad, and just hunting and trapping, and fishing. you know, once you're out there, you kind of feel super insignificant — which maybe a lot of people wouldn't like to feel. you're kind of at the lands mercy and the weather's mercy, and the animals' mercy, even.

my dad — he was blessed with three girls at first. and typically it's the guys who go out hunting. you know, he had to work with what he had. i'm so proud to be inupiaq. my ancestors have been living off this land for a long time — hunting and fishing, and living a subsistence lifestyle. i feel like that's a huge part of my identity, a part of who i am. over the past few years, we've seen all these changes. you know, there'll be a little less of an animal, maybe they won't come at all. caribou is one of our main food sources. this year, we didn't get any caribou. usually they come pretty close in the fall, we're able to just go up the river by boat

and shoot some caribou, and stock our freezers full. but we weren't able to do that this year. due to the ice melting, there are a lot of new waterways opening up. this will be used for a lot of shipping vessels to make their routes easier. but the problem with this is that there's a lot of noise that the ships make. and this can have a big effect on our animals, our marine wildlife. it's just like if we were trying to have a conversation, and there's this construction happening outside. we'll want to move to a different room to have our conversation. so that's what the animals are doing. a lot of them are relocating. in a few years, i'm afraid that we won't have this subsistence lifestyle, we won't have that connection to the land like we used to.

and my children in the future won't be able to feel this connection. almost any object can be recreated using 3d printing, and size isn't necessarily an obstacle. in germany — they are thinking big — using a 3d printer to build a block of flats. building sites just aren't what they used to be. here, in the appropriately named town of wallenhausen, a potential revolution in construction is taking place. a ginormous 3d printer which uses concrete rather than ink. translation: this machine automatically applies layer upon layer of concrete, it is like using a piping bag to ice a cake. building up the layers step—by—step. at 380 square metres, this will be the biggest residential building constructed in europe using this technology. once the walls are up, the cavities will also be

filled in with concrete. gaps will be left for wires and pipes. the printer cannot be used when temperatures fall below freezing, but the team behind it says it is faster and more efficient. translation: for a building like this, we would normally have five people on site. but for this building, we only need two or three. it took two people 25 hours to print the ground floor. in comparison, it normally takes five people five days. this is what it may end up looking like, a similar building made using the same process in belgium. with a rapidly growing population, the demand for housing is insatiable. perhaps these 3d printers can make a crucial difference, and you never need to worry about a replacement cartridge. tim allman, bbc news.

hello there. friday was a decidedly chilly day, particularly in those places where fog lingered. the weekend promises something just a little bit milder, but it will often be quite cloudy, that cloud at times will produce the odd spot of rain and some quite murky conditions as well. low pressure to the southwest, high pressure to the east of us, that is driving a fairly gentle southerly flow across the british isles. you can see a few different weather fronts moving through bringing some patchy rain, but with that southerly flow we are importing some slightly milder air. we've still got some pretty chilly conditions, though, across the northern half of the uk, and a frost to start off across the far north of england. parts of northern ireland and scotland, a bit of fog through the central belt. any rain in scotland becoming increasingly confined to the far north, but at the same time this big

lump of cloud pushing up from the south across much of england and wales producing the odd spot of rain through the day. and some quite misty, murky conditions in places as well. perhaps something brighter into the far southeast, certainly some sunshine for the channel islands. highest temperatures in the south at 13—14 celsius. now, as we head through saturday night, this big lump of cloud with some mist and murk, and some spots of rain will all continue to drift its way slowly northwards. clear skies in northeast scotland, we could see a touch of frost here, but elsewhere temperatures on sunday morning will be above freezing. sunday, though, does look like a pretty cloudy affair. there will be the odd spot of rain or drizzle here and there. best chance of any sunshine through the channel islands, far southwest of england, maybe west wales, and also northeast scotland. the cloud breaking up here as the winds begin to pick up a little bit. top temperatures 8—10 celsius. maybe 12 in the far southwest of england. a bit of a change into the start of the new working week, because we will see a frontal system pushing in from the north. that will bring outbreaks

of rain quite erratically southwards across the british isles through the day on monday. that rain likely to be quite light and patchy, certainly as it gets down towards the south. some brighter skies following on from the north, but with the winds coming down from the north, it'll start to feel quite chilly once again. temperatures in most places 8—10 celsius. tuesday should be a dry day for most, and then later in the week, temperatures will take a tumble. we'll see some rain at times and perhaps something wintry over high ground.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: the united nations has urged restraint after the assassination of a top iranian nuclear scientist. he died after gunmen fired on his car. western intelligence agencies accused him of being one of the founders of the country's nuclear weapons programme. iran has accused israel of being behind the killing. the united states has now recorded more than thirteen—million covid cases — just six days after the country reached 12 million infections. more than 264 thousand americans have been killed by covid—19 and experts are warning that the long thanksgiving weekend is likely to lead to a further rise in cases. 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.