this is bbc news. a very warm welcome to bbc news. my name's mike embley, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. one of president trump's closest allies, the us attorney general, william barr, says he's found no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the presidential election. three of hong kong's most high—profile pro—democracy activists face up to three years injailfor their involvement in the 2019 protest movement. a woman has been arrested in sweden, suspected of holding her son captive in herflat for up her son captive in herflat for up to 30 years. and china's lunar probe successfully lands on the moon in a historic mission to collect the first rock samples in more than a0 yea rs.

hello and welcome. let's start in the united states, where the us attorney general william barr, appointed by mrtrump, says no evidence has emerged of widespread fraud that would change the outcome of the presidential election. this comes despite repeated claims made by president trump that the election was stolen. last month, mr barr issued a directive to us attorneys across the country to pursue any "substa ntial allegations". he is one of the president's most ardent supporters, but his patience appears to be wearing thin. "there's a growing tendency he said, to use the criminal justice system as a sort of a default fix—all, and if people don't like something they want the department ofjustice to come in and investigate." 0ur north america editor jon sopel is at the white house.

what william barr has done is com pletely what william barr has done is completely undermined president's argument. he has looked at this and so there is no widespread evidence of widespread forward, there is no evidence that voting machines we re evidence that voting machines were interfered with, is no evidence that anything happened that would change the result of the election. now, bill barr has been controversial because he has been perceived to be far too close to the president of john donald trump's bidding far too often, and yet, here he is saying the fbi have looked at it, the justice saying the fbi have looked at it, thejustice department have looked at it, and we have seen nothing there. that has brought a furious reaction from donald trump's legal team, who started a statement with the immortal words "with all due respect to the attorney general", then with no respect whatsoever saying he appears to have no knowledge or substantial evidence whatsoever. so, we're in situation with the trump administration ending with donald trump's top was

seemingly at war does my top lawyers seemingly at war with his top —— top lawyers at war with his top law officer. we can now speak to peter wehner, who's an author and former speech writer for the administrations of three us presidents. he also a vice president and senior fellow at the ethics and public policy center. it's good to talk to you again. bill us ina it's good to talk to you again. bill us in a bit on william barr. he has been one of the most loyal of the loyal, this coming from him is really something? yeah, it is. look, barr misinterpreted the mueller report, he was a very close trump ally, there is even a line that bill barr won't cross, it's later than it should have been but late is better than never. and yet mr trump was made legal team are plainly not accepting what the country's attorney general is saying and intend to press on despite losing something like 38 core challenges so far? yeah, well, that's typicalfor

trump and his legal team. they are not just trump and his legal team. they are notjust at trump and his legal team. they are not just at war with the justice department, they are at war with reality and they have been at war with reality for weeks and actually years now. this is not a surprise, by the way, this is exactly what you would expect. trump is going out, just as you expected he would, just as he came in, on — it's built on lies. i must say, though, the conspiracy theories themselves are not even sophisticated. this is the kind of thing you would expect to see ina of thing you would expect to see in a monty python in series. this is a clown show, and everybody must know it. but it does show you the strength and the pull that donald trump still has within the republican party, that they would perpetuate this hallucination and people would still buy into it. and the country as a whole, you say he is going out but he is likely to go on, isn't he, whether he stands again, he is going to keep attacking from the sidelines and we know there

are millions of millions of people who buy into what seems to be his kind of alternative reality. yeah, that is right. that is a problem. i mean, look, the big thing to keep in mind as he is leaving the presidency, so we are getting that, but it's not going to go gently that, but it's not going to go ge ntly into that, but it's not going to go gently into the good night, he is going to continue to try to place himself at the centre of events, he is going to try and ensure that he is in the news and his followers continue to be fed these conspiracy theories and these sort of lunatic ideas. but he does have a whole, there is a kind of cult of personality in this country, much larger than i wish it was, and it's honestly a large part of the republican party. the poll shows between 70- 80% of party. the poll shows between 70— 80% of republicans are donald trump supporters, that believe fraud is the reason why joe biden one and it was not a

legitimate election. that's a huge problem that goes to a deeper problem, which we have in this country, an epistemological crisis, a crisis of truth and reality, and donald trump didn't invent that crisis but he has accelerated it. and it will be one of his lasting legacies and a damning indictment of him. peter berner, thank you very much. thank you for having me on. “— much. thank you for having me on. —— peter wehner. the us centers for disease control says health care workers and nursing home residents should get the first coronavirus vaccines in the us. an advisory panel voted 13—1 in favour of a non—binding recommendation, that will be made to states and other local jurisdictions if the food and drug administration grants emergency approval to vaccines, that is expected later this month. staying with the pandemic here in england, a new tiered system of restrictions have come into force after the nationwide lockdown ended a little over an hour ago. in a house of commons vote, dozens of governing—party

conservative mps had questioned the new measures — 55 voted against — arguing they should be targeted at smaller areas. but the plans were approved — meaning more than 23 million people have now been placed in the highest tier — tier 3. that means no socialising indoors or in private gardens. pubs and restaurants can only do takeaways. more than 32 million — are in tier two. again no mixing indoors — but up to six people can meet outdoors. and people can go to restaurants or pubs that serve substantial meals — with others in their household. tieri has the lightest restrictions — but fewer than 3 quarters of a million people are in this tier — where up to six people from different households can socialise indoors and outdoors. now to hong kong and in the past hour, three prominent pro—democracy activists have arrived at court for sentancing. joshua wong, agnes chow and ivan lam, have previously

pleaded guilty to organising and taking part in an unauthorised assembly in june last year. the activists are facing up to three years in jail. let's go to hong kong to speak to shun lee who is a district councillor and social worker. if they face up to three years, what you think they will get? it will be a very heavy criminal penalty, i think. sadly, i think it's a regression on the activism in hong kong. i'm not really optimistic about it. it is likely, isn't it, that within this system the court will impose the highest penalty? uh, it will be a hefty penalty, i believe, referring to the sentence imposed to the organisation organising occupying central. so, yeah, by referencing that case, it will bea referencing that case, it will be a heavy sentence. shun, they

we re be a heavy sentence. shun, they were convicted before the most repressive laws came in recently. it's likely activists appearing in court after this will be treated even more harshly? yes. yeah, because that law is — they are being charged with incitement to organise the unlawful assembly. and it would be a harsh punishment for the democratic activists when the government a lwa ys activists when the government always unjustly uses this kind of old—fashioned law enforcement in hong kong to threaten democratic participants. you call it old—fashioned, but participants. you call it old —fashioned, but it looks like the future, doesn't it? i know you were arrested twice, i think injune and october, but taking part in the street protest then released on bail. what you think is the future for democratic protest in hong kong, orfor democracy for democratic protest in hong kong, or for democracy itself, in hong kong? i believe the government is diminishing the momentum of the democratic

movement stop me as a social worker, arrested twice, and faced police brutality. it's just one of the cases in the whole movement. in the past one year, there are over the 50 activists arrested, and the police is using indiscriminate arrests to threaten all the movement participants. and a lwa ys movement participants. and always applying excessive and disproportionate force to deal with political dissidents. so i believe the movement in hong kong will be facing a more soft situation than before. shun lee, good to talk to you. thank you very much. thank you. police in sweden say they have arrested a seventy—year—old woman on suspicion of holding her son captive at home for up to 30 years. local media said the man —

now in his 40s — had been taken out of school when he was 12. his mother has denied charges of false imprisonment and grievous bodily harm. maddy savage has more from stockholm. details are still emerging, and police haven't officially released much information about the man's injuries. but they told me that he's so badly hurt that he remains in hospital some 48 hours after he was taken in on sunday here in sweden. they've confirmed that he is able to communicate, but there are reports in the swedish media here that he has almost no teeth and struggles to speak. other reports in the media speculate that this man may have been locked up for almost three decades but that has not been confirmed by police either. they are simply saying it was they believe a very long time and they hope to find out more as they continue their investigations. the swedish broadcaster svt, the public service television here, they say they had information which suggests that the mother of this man

pulled him out of school when he was 12 years old and we understand that he is 41 years old now. so, a lot of questions being asked about what happened in between those two points in time. what we know about where he was found and where his mother was living, it's a pretty regular apartment block, like thousands of others here in sweden, in a suburb about 25 kilometres, 15 miles outside the centre of stockholm, a grey and yellow building. and we understand he was found there on a blanket although that detail has not been confirmed by police. neighbours in the area say that they are incredibly shocked about what's happened and here is what one neighbour told the swedish media. translation: shock, first and foremost. one has read about these things happening in other countries with people who have locked up children and so on. shock is the first thing.

when you start to examine yourself like, should we have heard or seen something or thought something? swedish police say it is incredibly rare for this kind of suspected crime to take place in sweden. imprisonment potentially over a number of decades, so they say they are very keen to get to the bottom of what happened as soon as possible. the prosecution authority are understood to be meeting on wednesday. they, we understand, want to keep the mother in custody while investigations continue. she denies falsely imprisoning her son, but if she's found guilty, she could face a maximum sentence of ten years injail. mattie savage in stockholm for us. —— maddy. an extraordinary story from brazil now. an armed gang has stormed the southern city of criciuma in an elaborate bank robbery, escaping with an undisclosed amount of money. explosions were first reported at just after midnight local time. and the thieves fired weapons as they entered the city in a convoy of vehicles. banco do brasil was then raided, a tunnel leading into the city was set on fire, while the local police station

was attacked. this footage posted on social media shows the getaway in a fleet of cars. and we can assume the robbers didn't mean to leave this behind. this footage posted on twitter shows residents picking up money in the streets. police say they've detained four people, who picked up $150,000. none of them were linked to the robbery itself. we should stress. stay with us on bbc world news. still to come: the hungarian politician who resigned as a member of the european parliament after he was caught at sex party held despite a coronavirus lockdown. it's quite clear that the worst victims of this disaster are the poor people living in the slums which have sprung up around the factory. i am feeling so helpless that the children are dying in front of me and i can't do anything. charles manson is the mystical leader of the hippie cult suspected of killing sharon tate and at least

six other people in los angeles. at ”am this morning, just half a metre of rock separated britain from continental europe. it took the drills just a few moments to cut through the final obstacle. then philippe cozette, a minerfrom calais, was shaking hands and exchanging flags with robert fagg, his opposite number from dover. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: the us attorney general appointed by president trump says he's found no evidence of widespread fraud that would have changed the outcome of the presidential election. three of hong kong's most high profile pro—democracy activists will be sentenced later today for their involvement in the 2019 protest movement.

in germany, at least four people — including a young girl — have been killed and several others injured after a car drove through a pedestrian area in the city of trier. the driver, a 51—year—old man, has been arrested and police say the circumstances of the incident are still not clear. nick beake reports. the carnage inflicted at the heart of the city of trier. the driver had ploughed through shoppers in one of its busiest pedestrianised streets. a nine—month—old baby among the five who were killed. more than a dozen were injured, some critically. translation: we always see these images on tv in other countries and we always think this can't happen in trier, and now it has. and i am here as mayor and i have no words and i wonder how can such a man have this idea? 0n the right, the vehicle used as a weapon. police managed to ram and stop it as the attacker

tried to escape. some eye witnesses described screaming as the car sped along this pedestrianised area. they said some victims were hit with such force, they were thrown in the air. but the driver didn't stop, he continued his deadly journey. the suspect is a 51—year—old man. police said he had been drinking heavily and was thought to have mental health problems, but there was no evidence he had been motivated by extremist ideology. translation: our thoughts are with the victims' next of kin, who have to mourn the death of a loved one, people whose lives were extinguished from one second to the next by such a heinous crime. among them is a baby, a truly horrific thought that parents would have to mourn the death of their child. it's just terrible. at the roman gate, tributes for those killed. this city, claimed as germany's oldest, is tonight the latest in europe to be morning after a deadly vehicle attack. nick beake, bbc news, trier.

a leading hungarian politician has admitted that his resignation as a member of the european parliament came after he was caught by belgian police at what media have described as a gay sex party in brussels last friday. yoseff sayer has issued a statement admitting that he was at the party, which was held despite a coronavirus lockdown. our central europe correspondent nick thorpe told us what the belgian media are saying. this is obviously extremely embarrassing forjozsef szajer. he's a key figure in the party, one of the founder members, a close friend of the prime minister victor orban, and he has been a member of the european parliament for 16 years. he was caught, according to belgian media reports, at a party. the media say it was a gay sex party, the prosecution in brussels simply said they were raiding the party which appeared to be breaking coronavirus

lockdown restrictions. there are also reports in the bulgarian media that he was trying to run away from the party by climbing down a drain pipe, and he was caught by the police in the street, and the police also said that drugs were found. it is not just it is notjust deeply embarrassing for him himself but for his party. bec or business email compromise hacking is one of the most common types of cyber—attack, which the fbi says costs nearly $9 billion a year — and experts say nigeria is its epicentre. it involves tricking businesses into making payments into fraudulant accounts. our cyber reporterjoe tidy reports has been speaking with one bec hacker in nigeria to find out how they work, and how he feels about his victims. raymond abass was known by his 2.4 million followers as the ultrarich and extravagant hushpuppy. but injuly, they were shocked when the nigerian was arrested. dubai police posted this dramatic video to confirm it. they accuse him and his

associates of amassing their riches through a very specific type of hacking known as bec, or business e—mail compromise. hushpuppy claims he earned his money legitimately as an influencer. he is now in the us awaiting trial in the spring. last week, interpol arrested three more nigerians suspected of running another prolific bec operation. the cases have reignited a concern that nigeria is the epicentre of this form of cyber crime that cost businesses almost £7 billion a year. in fact, the latest research suggests that 50% of global bec attacks come from nigeria, with businesses in western countries often the target. at the crux of business e—mail compromise is a scammer impersonating either an executive or a business and then tricking a person into sending the money. for months, cybersecurity company agare he has tracked down bec criminals to find out how and why they do it.

they paid a small amount to each hacker to take part, only one agreed to a recorded interview and i was invited. ‘x' says he was lured into bec hacking at university. previously, nigerian hackers were associated with the infamous nigerian prince scam e—mails. it is thought the shift to the more lucrative bec scams happened in about the last five years or so. do you feel guilty about what you are doing? you're stealing money, aren't you? the people in your hacking group, do they feel guilty?

but police say they are working hard to clamp down on criminals. we carry out targeted raids at hotspots and after the raid, we have the court proceedings and send a lot of them to prison. police also hope that high—profile arrests like hushpuppy‘s are making a difference. but despite recent action, bec hacking remains one of the most costly cybersecurity problems in the world. a chinese spacecraft has landed on the moon — the change 5 touched down in a volcanic area. it'll spend three days scooping up samples to send back to earth. it's the first mission to take samples from the moon in over a0 years. china's had two successful landings but this will be the first to come back with moon rocks.

here's australia's official astronomer—at—large, fred watson explaining just how important this mission is for china. the complexity of the mission, when you look at it, as to what they're trying to achieve, it really speaks of a very high level of space technology. we have already seen that to some extent with the change 4 which was the first mission to land on the far side of the moon and that is still active. the rover is still sending back data. but what is planned for this mission, and so far it is going very well, it is staggering. they have landed their leading craft on the moon. it is a two pa rt craft on the moon. it is a two part space part. spacecraft, rather like the old lunar modules of the apollo era, the bottom half stays on the moon. the top half is where the samples of rock and soil from the moon surface will be located, they will be drilled

down from the lunar surface and put into a container that will go back up to lunar orbit and it will rendezvous automatically with an orbiter that is already circling around the moon. and then there will be another separation into two parts and the samples will come back in another spacecraft towards the earth about the middle of december, and to make what is really, the icing on the cake is there is a very spectacular technique for getting them back. they bounce off the earth's atmosphere once before plunging into the atmosphere with a heat shield stopping everything from burning up and hopefully landing in mongolia sometime in mid december. fred watson, australia's official astronomer at large. the oscar—nominated actor formerly known as ellen page has announced that he's transgender. in a statement on twitter, the canadian star said his name was now elliot. he described it as a ‘joyous' moment, but said he was scared of facing hatred, jokes and violence.

page received international acclaim for playing a pregnant teenager in the 2007 film, juno, and starred in the 2010 thriller inception. his announcement has been widely praised by lgbt charities, with one group saying page was ‘an inspiration to countless trans and non—binary people'. penguins at the london aquarium have been preparing for the return of visitors by watching christmas films. the london attraction has been closed since november the 5th, when a month—long lockdown in england was annonced to help curb the spread of covid—i9. staff say its been tough keeping them entertained so playing movies seems to have done the trick and has clearly been beneficial to their elf. yes, that is that will ferrell movie. a reminder of our top story: the us attorney general appointed by president trump has said that he has found no evidence of widespread fraud that would have changed the outcome of the presidential election. that is it for now,

much more at any time on the bbc news website and outwit feeds. thank you for watching. hello there. we are into the start of december and meteorological winter and it will feel very wintry for the rest of this week. we will see change behind this front, artic air will spread and some showers which will turn increasingly wintry over northern hills through the course of today. windy for much of scotland and northern ireland with gales in the far northwest and a lot of showers, western scotland particularly, where some will be heavy with hail and thunder mixed in and increasing snow to the hills. the cold front sinking to the southeast will confine to the southeast, cloudy with rain but the skies

will brighten up later on in the day and cold air and temperatures in the single digits. heading to wednesday night, showery for snow on the hills in the north and we start to see the weatherfront bringing more organised rain in the parts of england and wales in the night, so here because of the wind, cloud and rain, not as cold as it was further north and snow showers and clear spells. into thursday, this complex area of low pressure establishes up across the country, northern half of the country, will see sunshine and showers, snow in the hills down to lower levels at times. across southern england and wales, it will be really cloudy, wet and pretty heavy rain at times, gales through the channel and even a little bit of wintryness over the high ground across england and wales. it will feel cold wherever you are and temperatures of 3—7 degrees. heading into friday, area of low pressure sticks around and we will see two centers it, one could bring some rain and hill snow, significant accumulating snow across parts of scotland. and we will see this front

pushing into central and eastern england to bring some heavy rain and you could see snow on the hills here in the pennines and wet sleety snow down to lower levels. the best of any dry and bright weather will be across northern ireland, wales and the southwest of england but it will be another really cold day wherever you are. our area of low pressure sticks around heading into the weekend. notice as we move to saturday and sunday it starts to weaken a little bit. part two of the week looks a little bit quieter. you can see both saturday and sunday will remain cold and further wintry showers on saturday, and something a little bit drier and quieter on sunday.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: the us attorney general william barr, appointed by mrtrump, has said thejustice department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the presidential election. president trump's campaign says there hasn't been "any semblance of an investigation". three prominent pro—democracy activists have arrived for sentencing in hong kong. joshua wong, agnes chow and ivan lam have previously pleaded guilty to organising and taking part in an unauthorised assembly in june last year. they face up to three years injail. police in sweden say they have arrested a 70—year—old woman on suspicion of holding her son captive at home for up to 30 years. local media said the man now in his 40s had been taken out of school when he was 12. now on bbc news: