a very warm 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 a0 years. and south korea passes ‘bts' law allowing k—pop megastars to postpone military service until the age of 30.

hello to you. we start in the united states. 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. we do not allowjudgements to be reached... william barr has been a staunch ally of donald trump, which is why his views as the country's top law enforcement officer carry special weight. 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 trump legal team was quick to hit back at mr barr: with the president still apparently obsessing over and denying the election result, joe biden is getting on with building his team for government. well, good afternoon, everyone.

the president—elect says his top priority will be dealing with the coronavirus and jump—starting the economy, in nominating some veteran figures with experience in dealing with past financial crises, mr biden said his priority is getting the economy back on its feet. we're going to get this country going again. 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 middle—class. our message to everybody struggling right now is this, help is on the way. in washington, a bipartisan group of politicians has outlined plans for a new coronavirus relief package with more than $900 billion. if passed by congress, it will provide much—needed help for millions of americans as the pandemic rages on through the winter. right now, the us has soaring numbers of new cases. new yorkers returned home from thanksgiving holiday only to queue for hours as they waited to be tested for the virus.

everyone‘s 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 but a thaw is on the horizon and there is light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel. peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles. a little earlier i spoke to the republican strategist seth weathers and asked him surely he accepted that the 2020 us election was well and truly over. clearly the election‘s overbet i think there is a little misunderstanding there. in the last 30 minutes or so the department ofjustice has put out a statement to clarify that the way the ap presented that article, essentially about attorney general barr, that was inaccurate and he was not saying the investigation was

completed, that at this point they did not have enough findings to prove that the election was fraudulent but it was an ongoing investigation. so they did kind of walk it back or walk back what the assumption was from the ap a little bit double eight in effect over, isn't it? you know the figures, the sixth state the figures, the sixth state the republicans were contesting the republicans were contesting the result in they have certified the results. the trump team has lost 38 court challenges often in front of judges appointed by mr trump. 0bviously judges appointed by mr trump. obviously the only thing that is going to change the outcome of the election will be some hail mary and the supreme court may be picking up a decision that i don't know they want to touch anyway. and so at this point the kind of election brother takes place —— fraud is going to be difficult to prove at this point. yet it's seems clear from a statement from the trump legal team that mr trump is going to go on in some form oi’ is going to go on in some form or another. doesn't this damage to the democratic process warrior and the president encouraging millions of his voters to kind of live in an

alternative reality? think the reality is, the democrats tried to convince people that the russian stole the us election in 2016, there is prostitutes peeing on beds and all kinds of nonsense that has proved to be false at this point... crosstalk. several investigations by the us intelligence service so there was russian interference. there is $105,000 in facebook ads spent. i could get together ads spent. i could get together a group of guys that could spend that much money on the election here and it would hardly be interference. let's not relitigate all of that. hardly be interference. let's not relitigate all of thatlj not relitigate all of that.|j guess not relitigate all of that.” guess we should. the reality is there was no rust in collusion with the trump campaign which was the allegation, which is the non—stop stream is that this was. the president is following up with his legal options now after the election and now all of a sudden that is and now all of a sudden that is a breaking of the norm and destroying democracy? i don't think so. he has got his legal right to go through the process. think a lot will come

of it? probably not. but does he have full legal right to do so? yes. does that harm democracy? no. the democrats have been coming democracy ever since they made up stories about ross and collusion. think it isa about ross and collusion. think it is a loss of fake outrage from the democrats. what is the president doing about the pandemic? i'm looking at the figures, 96,000 americans in hospital with covid—19, 268,000 american deaths. what is the president doing about this while he is reading on twitter? i think the reality is we have policies in place that his administration has been pursuing since the beginning of the pandemic and has been aggressively pursuing even early on when the democrats we re early on when the democrats were saying there is nothing to worry about, don't stop outside travel, et cetera. he has been very proactive with on it, you would not know that from there with the media covers it. from the figures which are disastrous and getting worse. i'd... any loss of life is disastrous. however, at this

point, any notice as america, we still have more deaths per year due to obesity then we have corona at this point. it looks like those numbers may get close to about the same by the end of the year. as tragic as it might be, as awful as it might be, the reality is these things do happen, you cannot com pletely things do happen, you cannot completely stop and prevent a virus from spreading, especially one that is a worldwide pandemic. it is going to happen. you cannot blame a sitting president for a virus that came out of another country. the republican strategist seth weathers there. 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 sentencing for crimes relating to last yea r‘s protests stop the last four months the bbc spent time with joshua

the last four months the bbc spent time withjoshua in the run—up to his court case stop we documented how life for young activists has changed. he says he is the victim of intense surveillance, are nine private cars, unidentified individuals, it has coincided with political —— politically sensitive days. it all began after the national security law, imposed by beijing, which criminalises a version or colluding with foreign forces was introduced. this is the daily pressures facing young activists. after the law is implemented, being an activist in hong kong, which is a normal daily life of being traced by an unknown private car, day by day, to guarantee our personal safety, when will be the day we will be extradited or physically kidnapped from hong kong to mainland china? joshua wong, agnes chow and ivan lam

pleaded guilty. they face up to three years in prison. in 2019 thousands of protesters surrounded police headquarters during anti— element protest. the trio are accused of being at the helm. the three are amongst the most prominent young faces of youth descent in hong kong. joshua in 2014 became the face of youth is. he is also said to be one of the number—1 targets of a wide—ranging national security law. isac is a close friend and activist. he is just 15 law. isac is a close friend and activist. he isjust 15 when he began protesting against changes to hong kong's education. he visited joshua in detention. in a letterjoshua said he was forced into solitary confinement. he says 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 the government is using the different offences 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 mainland isolation. activists say that beijing is trying to bring hong kong completely under its control. they say it's trying to mute all opposition voices, from lawmakers to street protesters. they say it's hong kong's younger generation which is now under attack. the territory‘s chief executive, carrie lam, says hong kong has a building to safeguard the country's sovereignty. translation: article 23 of the basic law stipulates that hong kong shall enact laws on its own to prohibit specified and activities which endanger national security. after five terms of government this exercise is still not yet completed. hong kong has become

an obvious taping hole in national security and presented significant risks to the country. joshua continue to campaign up untilthe country. joshua continue to campaign up until the moment he pleaded guilty for unlawful assembly. because still face further charges while in prison. authorities say activists are not above the law. many young people feel that the nature of how the law itself 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 will i still stay at hong kong or be in china? it is hard for us to predict the future and to determine our own destiny. danny vincent with that report for us. let's get some of the day's other news. police in germany say four people were killed when a homeless man drove the borrowed car he'd been living in through a pedestrian zone in the south—western

city of trier. the victims were a nine—month—old baby, two women and a man. some of the dozen people injured are in critical condition. police say the 51—year—old suspect, who's a local man, faces murder charges. 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 75%. 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.

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. 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. 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 world 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. well who better to ask about the significance of this mission than someone who has been to space themselves? i spoke to former nasa astronaut steve swanson who's spent 195 days in space and asked him how important this mission is. it's not small potatoes, i think it matters quite a bit. only two other times have we gone to the moon or two other groups have gone to the moon and brought back samples, so this is a big deal. we haven't done it for 44 years so i think it's a great achievement they're doing.

what do you think the team are hoping to get from it? well, these samples are going to get about 2kg worth of soil or lunar regular and we can bring it back to earth and start studying it. i think is a great plan and the significance of that though is it is from a different part of the moon than the apollo missions went to. so we can study the differences between the two and it helps by actually determining the actual...| guess, age of the soil there which you might think isn't interesting but soil has different ages around the moon, and if we can figure that out, we can determine for other planets what the age of those planets are. and steve, is it tricky to get to this part of the moon and get back from it? well, it's trickyjust to get to the moon, it doesn't matter what part of the moon but it is tricky to get there, to land on it and then to actually take off from it again with some samples, meet up with your orbiting vehicle and then come on back. that is not easy at all.

it takes a lot of coordination and work to get there, and i hope it works for them. i think it's been 40 years or so you're saying since the americans and the soviets brought back lunar samples. why has it been so long? that's a good question. i think it really boils down to just what the government wants to do for each country and how much money they're willing to spend. going to the moon is not cheap and it wasn't a priority for a while. now it is a priority again and i think actually we are coming to having china looking into it, russia and the us all looking in to going back again. but possibly with human missions. i think it is almost like a new space race has started up. and the moon is also important for mars? yes it is. first we need to learn how to live on another orb in the universe. that will be a great practice ground. that is with the idea that if it is so close to earth, if anything goes wrong, you can easily come back. it's not the case with a mars mission. you will most likely be on mars for 15 months and you won't have the option of coming back early. so you have to make sure

everything is working really, really well before you go there. so this is a great proving ground for all of our equipment, all of our procedures and everything like that. the moon will be a great test place. that was the former commander of the international space station. 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. now how's this for the first day of summer in sydney? thousands of homes and businesses are without power after this dramatic storm. the state emergency service responded to hundreds of calls for flooding and other damage. the blue mountains, hawkesbury and central coast are also affected. forecasters say eastern australia is in the grip of a pretty remarkable weather event, with the possibility of yet more temperature records being broken. a dramatic blaze ignited when lightning hit the bell tower of

a period home in sydney. fire crews managed to extinguish the blaze and managed to save the historic residence except for the five—metre bell tower, which was engulfed in flames. that's it for now, 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.

the latest headlines for you from bbc news. 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 30 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.