welcome to bbc news, i'm mike embley. our top stories: one of donald trump's closest allies, the us attorney—general, 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 will be sentenced later for their involvement in the 2019 protest movement. a woman has been arrested in sweden, suspected of holding her son captive in her flat for up to 30 years. china's lunar probe successfully lands on moon in an historic mission to collect the first rock samples in more than forty years. and, south korea passes bts law allowing k—pop megasta rs to postpone military service until the age of 30.

hello to you. let's start in the united states, where the us attorney—general william barr, who was appointed by mr trump, has said no evidence has emerged of widespread fraud that would change the outcome of the presidential election. this, despite the repeated claims by president trump that the election was stolen. our north america correspondent, peter bowes has this report. a political friendship that could be wearing thin. william barr has been a staunch ally of donald trump which is why his views of the country's top law enforcement officer carry special weight copy now he says

working with fbi agents, they have uncovered no evidence that would change the outcome of the election, and he added: as news emerged of the attorney general‘s comments, it appeared president trump was engrossed in his twitter account, live tweeting a hearing in michigan in which his personal lawyer rudy giuliani was submitting further unsubstantiated claims about the election. the trumpet legal team was quick to hit back at mr barr: with the president still a p pa re ntly with the president still apparently obsessing over and denying the election result, joe biden is getting on with

building his team for government. president—elect says his top priority will be dealing with the coronavirus and jumpstarting the economy, in nominating some figures with experience dealing with past financial crises, mystified and said his priority is getting the economy back on its feet. we are going to create jobs, raise incomes, reduce drug prices, advance racial equity across the economy and restore the backbone of this country, the backbone of this country, the middle—class. our advice to every body struggling right now is this, help is on the way. in washington, a bipartisan group has outlined plans for a new coronavirus relief package with more than $100 billion. if passed by congress, it will provide much—needed help for americans as the pandemic rages on through the winter. right now, the us has soaring numbers of new cases stopping new

yorkers return home from thanksgiving holiday only to queue for hours as they waited to be tested for the virus. everyone is hoping the vaccine will be available soon. it could be available in the next two weeks at hospitals like this one in detroit. american politics may be frozen in deadlock during this lame duck season deadlock during this lame duck season but a thought is on the horizon and there is light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel. well, earlier i spoke to peter wehner, author and former speech writer in the administrations of three republican presidents. he's also vice—president and senior fellow at the ethics and public policy center. i said the fact such a former loyal allay of mr trump has publicly dismissed his claims is quite something. yeah, it is. look, barr misinterpreted the mueller report, he was a very close trump ally, but there is even a line that bill barr won't cross — its later than it should have been, but late is better than never.

and yet mr trump's legal team are plainly not accepting what the country's attorney general is saying and intend to press on, despite losing something like 38 court challenges so far? yeah, well, that's typical for trump and his legal team. they are not just at war with thejustice department, they are at war with reality and they have been at war with reality for weeks and actually years now. trump is going outjust 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 in a monty python 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 he'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 republicans that are donald trump supporters, that believe fraud is the reason whyjoe biden won, 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. now to hong kong where three prominent pro—democracy activists have arrived at court for sentencing. 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. danny vincent reports on the background to this case.

joshua wong is facing sentencing for crimes relating to last yea r‘s sentencing for crimes relating to last year's protests. the bbc spent time with joshua to last year's protests. the bbc spent time withjoshua in the run—up to his court case, and documented how life for young activists have changed. he says that is the victim of surveillance, unknown private calls, unidentified individuals. it has coincided with politically sensitive days. it all began after the national security board, imposed by beijing, which criminalises subversion and colluding with foreign forces was introduced to. after the national security law was implemented, being an activist in hong kong, which is a normal day in the life of being traced by unknown private cars, and is ha rd to by unknown private cars, and is hard to guarantee our personal safety. when will be the day

until we are extradited or kidnapped to mainland china. they pleaded guilty and inciting organising and taking pa rt inciting organising and taking part in unlawful assembly stopping face up to three years in prison. in 2019,000 of protesters surrounded police headquarters during anti—government protests. the trio are accused of being at the helm. three are amongst the most prominent young faces of youth dissent in hong kong. joshua in 2014 became the face of youth activism. he is also said to be one of the number one targets of wide—ranging national security law. isaac chung is a fellow activist and close friend. he was just 15 when he began protesting against changes to hong kong's laws. in a letter, joshua said he was forced into solitary confinement. he said the legal

system is being used against the young. translation: the hong kong government is targeting the young generation. the young generation led the protest movement last year, so you can see that the government is using the different fences to persecute the young. hong kong has seen more than 10,000 arrests, following a year—long anti—government protest movement. in recent weeks, pro—democracy lawmakers have resigned en masse. critics say the city is experiencing mainlandisation. they say it is trying to mute all opposition voices, from lawmakers to street protesters. they say it is hong kong's younger generation which is now under attack stopping the territory's chief executive carrie lam says that hong kong has a responsibility to safeguard the country's sovereign sie. translation: article 23 of the basic law said that hong kong

should enact laws on its own to prohibit specified acts and activities which endanger national security. after five terms of government, this exercise is still not yet completed. hong kong has become an obvious gaping hole and national security and presented significant risks to the country. joshua continued to campaign up until the moment he pleaded guilty for unlawful assembly. he could still face further charges while in prison. authorities say activists are not above the law stopping many young people feel that the nature of how the law is used in hong kong is changing. we can't see the future for ourselves if we can't see the future of hong kong. three months, six months, 01’ one year kong. three months, six months, or one year later, a still state and hong kong or get extradited to china, it is hard for us to predict the future and determine our own destiny. police in sweden say they have

arrested a seventy—year—old woman on suspicion of holding her son captive at home for up to thirty 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. now, other reports in the swedish media speculate that this man may have been locked up for almost three decades but that hasn't 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 investigation.

but swedish broadcaster svt, the public service television here, they say they have 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 of the centre of stockholm, a grey and yellow building. and we understand that 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. 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.

and 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's 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. an extraordinary story from brazil now. an armed gang has stormed the southern city of criciuma in an elaborate bank robbery, escaping with an amount of money, so far undisclosed. explosions were first reported at just after midnight local time. the thieves also 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, it's thought to prevent police sending reinforcements, and the local police station was attacked. this footage posted on social media shows the getaway in a fleet of cars. although we can probably assume the robbers didn't mean to leave this behind. this footage posted on twitter shows local residents picking up money in the streets. police say they've detained four people who picked up $150,000, none of them linked to the robbery itself. 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 11am 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. a leading hungarian politician who has resigned as a member of the european parliament has admitted that he quit because he'd been caught by belgian police at what media have described as a sex party in brussels last friday. jozsef szajer has issued a statement admitting he was at the party, 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 a 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 notjust deeply embarrassing for him himself but also for his party. it is a right wing, conservative party and this emphasis on the family, on the traditional family, has been very central to it. 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.

its the first mission to take samples from the moon in over 40 years. china's had two successful landings, but this will be the first to come back with moon rocks. i'm joined now by dr tanya harrison, a planetary scientist who has worked with nasa on their mars research missions. i know you have been working with nasa on these missions, and have been waiting to come in air. what makes these missions important? they have landed ina missions important? they have landed in a part of the moon when they will collect a sample and bring that sample back to the earth, and we have done that with previous soviet and us missions, but never in the type of terrain that this one has landed in, so the rocks they are collecting with the chang'e five mission are only about a billion years old, which is quite young, whereas the rocks we have collected with other missions and with the human apollo missions, those are more like 3— 4 billion years old. why has it

been something like 44 years since this was done? that's a great question. i think a lot of it is around politics and cost, these aren't cheap missions to do, to send samples back, and china is focused towards building towards their human missions to the moon, so more than this being a scientific interest in getting samples back, it appears to be a technology demonstration, showing they can land on the moon and then launch off the surface and return to earth because the architecture they usedis because the architecture they used is very similar to what was used in the apollo mission‘s missions for humans to land but on a much smaller scale. they have developed a lunar programme so quickly. is what they are doing really quite difficult? i know getting back involves quite a trek around the ea rth‘s back involves quite a trek around the earth's atmosphere? a lot of missions you might have seen on other planets are either even on the earth use parachutes or retro rockets to slow down and come back into earth's atmosphere, but with

this mission, it will be coming back from the moon so quickly they have to skip off the atmosphere and then come down to theirfinal landing atmosphere and then come down to their final landing spot in mongolia so that is another place where something could potentially go wrong, but they did test this with one of their earlier missions and it worked successfully. the moon of course is imported forgetting to mars, isn't it? yes a great stepping stone to test our technology in our own cosmic backyard before we go somewhere like mars where it is a bit harder to deal with anything if something goes wrong. thank you very much, very interesting to talk to you. let's get some of the day's other news. a deal has been announced to provide a low—cost, generic drug for children in parts of africa living with hiv. aid agencies say it will cut the annual cost of treatment by seventy—five percent. the dispersible drug is strawberry—flavoured to make it more appealing to children. the workplace messaging app slack is set to be bought

for more than $27 billion by the business software firm salesforce in what would be one of the biggest tech mergers in recent years. slack which was founded in 2009 has won a following with its group chats, which offer an alternative to email. 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. page received international acclaim for playing a pregnant teenager in the 2007 film, juno. his announcement has been widely praised by lgbt charities. good news for the fans of the south korean boyband bts. the country's changed the law so k—pop stars like them won't have to sign up for compulsory military conscription until they're 30 years old. paul hawkins has more. doing your duty — every able—bodied south korean man must do their bit to keep the country guarded

against north korea. military conscription lasts almost two years and until now, it's had to be done between ages 18—28. and now, a change to the law means people like this... we love you! ..can wait until they are 30. global korean superstar boy band bts by then will be more of a man band. the legal change only applies to anyone who improves the country's cultural status or boosts the economy. bts did just that. last year alone, they contributed a reported $4.65 billion to the south korean economy through things like merchandise, physical album sales and concert tickets. to put it another way, they are worth 0.3% of the country's gdp — that's gross domestic product, the country's entire economic output. by 2023, they are expected to contribute $48 billion the south korean economy.

recently, they also notched a first ever number one hit single in the us with the song dynamite and bagged an unprecedented grammy nomination. up until now, the only people given exemptions are musicians and athletes. spurs striker son heung—min, who plays in england's premier league, was also given a special pass. opting for shooting at goal instead of the border with north korea. but this change in the law means the oldest member of bts, 27—year—old jin, has another three years of singing before having to pick up a weapon. previously, both he and the rest of the band said that they would fulfil their duties as required. ironic, considering bts, or the bangtang boys literally means ‘bulletproof boy scouts'. one day, they will get the chance to prove it. paul hawkins, bbc news. 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 announced to help curb the spread of covid—19. staff say its been tough keeping the penguins entertained, but playing movies seems to have done the trick and will frerrell has clearly been beneficial to their elf. the us attorney general, a tribe of pointy and loyalist is saying no evidence has emerged of widespread ford that will have changed the outcome of the presidential election. three of hong kong's high—profile democracy activist will be sentenced later, but their involvement in the 2019 protest movement. much more for you at any time on the bbc website, also on our twitter 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 cold front, very cold 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 and even down to lower levels at times, particularly in western scotland. 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.

years injail. this is bbc news,

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