welcome to bbc news, i'm lewis vaughn jones. our top stories: president trump attends his first campaign rally since losing the election, and he's still refusing to concede. britain's prime minister borisjohnson and the eu commission president talk at length and decide post—brexit trade negotiations are to resume on sunday. ajapanese space capsule lands back on earth carrying possible clues to the origins of the solar system. carbon rich molecules may hold some clues as to the building blocks of life on earth. and venice lights up for christmas, but you may have to be a local to see this year's spectacular sight.

hello, welcome to the programme. president trump has again insisted, without facts, that he won the us presidential election. he was speaking at a rally in georgia — his first campaign event since last month's election. he's in georgia to support the state's two republican senators, who need to win run—off elections injanuary if republicans are to hang on to control of the senate. he said the stakes at these run—off elections are high. because at stake in this election is control of the us senate, and that really means control of this country. the voters of georgia will determine which party runs every committee, writes every piece of legislation, controls every single taxpayer dollar. very simply, you will decide whether your children will grow up in a socialist country or whether they will grow up in a free country.

and i will tell you this — socialist is just the beginning for these people. these people want to go further than socialism. they want to go into a communistic form of government, and i have no doubt about it. crowd boos. our north america correspondent peter bowes says there's a chance the president might be shifting his position ever so slightly. his tone did change a little bit, and he was talking about the number of federal judges that he has succeeded in appointing during his term in office. and then he said, "if we do — if we do a second term, which i hope we do" he predicted that he would appoint hundreds more federaljudges. so that was not quite as certain as perhaps when he started off this speech — perhaps a glimmer of doubt in the president's mind — but i think the tenor of the message is that he is fighting on and he is going to continue with these baseless claims that there was fraud during this election,

and he says, referring to the election coming up — which is really what this rally is all about — the two senate seats in georgia, the election is injanuary — actually, early voting starts in less than two weeks — he says that the democrats are going to cheat again and i think that is the kind of allegation that a lot of people had been looking out for, and especially local republicans, perhaps nervous that it might actually put off some of their supporters from going to the polls injanuary. yeah, interesting. and let's just quickly focus on these elections because they might seem slightly marginal — just two senate seats in one state of the us — but they are actually absolutely crucial to the future of the country, aren't they? yes, they are. and donald trump reflected that during his speech. and he was absolutely right. the historic importance of these two senate seats really cannot be overstated because at the moment, the republicans have the lead,

they have the balance of power in the senate. these are two republican seats. and if they win them, they will secure that majority in the senate. but there is the possibility that it may lose them to the democrats, both parties will have an equal number of seats in the senate, and then who would essentially hold the balance of power, the casting vote in close situations, well, it would be the vice president kamala harris. that is the main constitutional role of the vice president — to oversee the senate and to have the casting vote if there is a need for a tiebreaker. and that is why it is so crucially important to both the republicans and the democrats and, yes, in big part important to president trump as well, because of the democrats have the balance of power, they will think about saying goodbye to a lot of the policies that the president managed to get through over the past two years and it will be a lot easier for democrats to change things. our thanks to peter bowes. we

can go live to georgia where president trump has just finished, you can see and listen to the music there as he walks offstage, his wife melania there, a very increased —— are very enthusing —— enthusiastic crowd. he spoke for a long time. the reason he was there was to lend his support to the two republicans in the run—off senate election coming up injanuary. voting in that race begins in the middle of december and donald trump himself has just finished his speech and is leaving the stage there in georgia. next, post—brexit trade deal negotiations between eu and british representatives will start up again on sunday, according to the president of the european commission ursula von der leyen. she was speaking after an hour—long phone call with prime minister borisjohnson. the two leaders failed to break the current deadlock but they'll both talk again on monday. the sense of urgency is clear — the uk will transition out of eu trade rules on the 31st december. chris mason reports.

the prime minister on the phone this afternoon, trying to see if the brexit trade deal is possible. —— if a brexit trade deal is possible. he was talking to ursula von der leyen, the president of the european commission. big differences remain between the two sides, and afterwards, she said: whilst recognising the seriousness of these differences, we agreed that a further effort should be undertaken by our negotiating teams to assess whether they can be — these issues can be resolved. we are therefore instructing our chief negotiators to reconvene tomorrow in brussels. the day began with the eu's chief brexit negotiator michel barnier checking out of his hotel in london with talks paused. reporter: any hope for a deal? in the 4.5 years since the eu referendum, we have all become

wearily familiar with loose talk of deadlines. but this time, it really is it. the uk left the eu at the end ofjanuary, and since then has been in a transition period where very little has changed. but that runs out at the end of this month, so if there is going to be a trade deal, it has to be sorted in the coming days. it will be decided politically, not in the negotiating chambers. there will be compromises, i suspect, on both sides. what the prime minister will have to protect — the key issues of control, not giving control away to the european union in pursuit of economic outcomes. but there will be, in my view — it is in everyone‘s interests to come to a deal. fish, how many are allowed to be caught by eu countries‘ boats in uk waters is one of the big remaining disagreements, along with competition rules and how any deal is enforced. if we have a deal, at least

there is some certainty. even if we have a deal, we have to adjust. the government has sent out a letter to every business in the country, saying "check, change, go". well, check what? change what? go where? big changes are coming to the uk's relationship with the eu, whether there is a deal or not, and a big few days lie ahead. chris mason, bbc news at westminster. here's our correspondent nick beake with the latest from brussels. well, i was talking to one eu diplomat this evening who was suggesting that this actually can be viewed as all part and parcel of the inevitable choreography you get just before a deal is sealed. in other words, you throw in a bit of drama, a dollop of intrigue and lo and behold, it all comes together nicely and a deal is done. however, the majority view here in brussels this evening as that they are concerned.

and you get very few people are willing to say "yes, i believe there is going to be a trade deal" and that is because it's not just haggling over the price of fish — that is, of course, a very important topic in these negotiations, fish is something we have heard a lot about — but for the eu, it goes to the heart of competition rules that underpins their single market. it is sacred in the eyes of people in this city and they don't want to give the uk an unfair advantage in the future. i think the key, really, is is the eu able to say if there is a deal that "yes, we have got what we wanted, we haven't given up our principles." and is boris johnson able to say "i have got what i have wanted and not sacrificed any sovereignty that the uk has won back". at this late stage, that is really tricky to do, i think. for a second weekend running, there've been violent demonstrations in paris. riot police used tear gas to disperse protesters who are opposed to a draft law protecting french officers from being filmed on duty. our reporterjohn johnson has more.

horns blare. this was the scene on the streets of paris on saturday as peaceful rallies over a controversial draft security law turned violent for a second consecutive weekend. officers fired tear gas and a pocket of demonstrators set cars and barricades on fire. shop windows were smashed by some hooded protesters and a bank was ransacked and torched. the protest started over a clause in a draft security law which aimed to restrict how people share images of on duty police, making it a criminal offence if there was an intent to harm their physical or psychological integrity. the government backed down in the face of pressure and said the controversial clause would be rewritten, but protesters want the law to be scrapped completely.

translation: france must distinguish itself being in the core of great democracies. it often has this habit of curbing freedoms while preaching their importance to others, in the name of democracy and france being the country of human rights. the weekly nationwide protests — which have been peaceful — in lyon, marseilles and rennes have become a problem —— the weekly nationwide protests — which have been peaceful in lyon, marseilles and rennes — have become a problem for president macron's government. in an interview on friday, he acknowledged that some police officers are violent and said race was a factor, but lashed out at an earlier violence in paris. translation: i can't let it be said that freedoms are being curtailed in our country and i can't say that there is no democratic debate, sometimes a little vibrant. at least i will always be

the guarantor of that, but today we are facing violence which is sometimes unprecedented. images of music producer michel zecler being kicked and punched by three white policemen last month shocked the nation. human rights activists say they might never have been made public if the new security law had already been in force. john johnson, bbc news. next, the world's first mass coronavirus vaccination programme is under way in russia. doctors are using the sputnik v jab, which was cleared for use by president putin — even though it hasn't yet completed its trials. our moscow correspondent sarah rainsford has more. this is one of the moscow clinics that is now rolling out russia's sputnik vaccine to the population. first of all, doctors, medics generally, health workers, teachers and social workers have been invited to receive the vaccine. now, sputnik v is still

in an experimentalform — mass trials for its safety and its efficacy are still under way — but the chief doctor at this clinic has said she is confident it is fine to roll it out now. translation: this vaccine has been officially registered. we have enough research to know that it is 92% effective. and if there is a choice to get sick or have the vaccine, then this is a dangerous disease, the answer is obvious. this is a leaflet that patients are given before they get the jab, and it talks about some of the possible side effects, although it sets out that they should be pretty minimal and last maybe one to three days — perhaps some weakness, perhaps some sickness or a fever — and it suggests just taking paracetamol. now, some 5,000 people have supposedly signed up already to get this vaccination in the mass roll—out, although we have only seen a handful or so he actually —— here actually getting the jab. translation: we see how sick

people get, so we have no doubts at all about getting vaccinated. we use protective clothing, of course, and now we are getting the vaccine as early as possible. from the very start, russia's treated this quest for a covid vaccine as something of a race. certainly, it declared itself the first country to register a vaccine, sputnik v, back in august, even before the mass trials had begun. now it is moving very quickly to roll the vaccine out for use by the population at large. there are still questions about how much it can actually produce of sputnik v, though, manufacturers unable to quickly scale up their production. president putin has said that 2 million doses should be available for people this year and then next year, russia plans to roll this out much faster, much wider as the number of covid cases in the country continues to grow. this is bbc news — the headlines: president trump attends his first campaign rally since losing the election — and he's still refusing to concede.

britain's prime minister borisjohnson and the eu commission president talk at length and decide post—brexit trade negotiations are to resume on sunday. let's get more on our top story. president trump has been holding a rally in georgia — but still no sign of a concession tojoe biden. lynn sweet is a columnist at the chicago sun—times and was listening to president's trump speech. he is now encouraging his followers to go out and vote early. the election is january five, the early vote begins on december 14. it is those early ballots that were counted after the day of voting ballots that trump believes were rigged against him. that is interesting. and how do you think his attacks on republicans in the state will be received? well, this, everyone who is listening to us, we are in new territory here,

where the president is attacking the republican governor and republican secretary of state. trump phoned the republican governor of georgia this morning to try to get him to have a special legislative session to somehow overturn the results of the state election. my guess is that trump republicans side with trump over the elected republican officials. very dangerous new territory we are in here, where the elected officials, republicans, people who voted for trump and supported him, are now having, they are being kneecapped by the president because they won't conjure up some scheme to try to reverse the election results. and as for the elections themselves, these senate elections, not the presidential election, of course, we have discussed the huge significance of them. any sign from what you are seeing of which way the two

seats could go? it is too early. president 0bama has been doing virtual rallies. the big dom is our going out virtual rallies. the big dom is ourgoing out —— virtual rallies. the big dom is our going out —— the big guns are going out. what we know though is that president trump has the ability to turn out the vote but his crowd does not believe he lost in georgia so he came in as a victor and as such he may have strong coattails but other republicans who are trying to help him have said do not vote because these election machines that were used are bad so multiple messages, some to suppress the vote, now donald trump is in georgia trying to get it out. it is a confusing situation and i cannot make a prediction. like many others, the poll has been overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic. it's the first election

in the country since the new emir, sheikh nawaf al—ahmad al—sabah, took office in september. infected voters were allowed to cast their ballot at five designated polling stations. hundreds of palestinians have attended the funeral of a 13—year—old child killed by the israeli army in the occupied west bank on friday. palestinian health officials say that ali ayman abu aliya died after being shot with live ammunition — which the israeli military denies using. it happened during a protest in a village near ramallah. luftha nsa lufthansa has warned that tens of thousands of additional jobs are under threat as it scales down its flying schedule and fleet numbers to numbers not seen since the 1970s. 30,000 jobs lost thejob seen since the 1970s. 30,000 jobs lost the job in 2020 despite a government bailout with $11 billion. in a letter to employees they said the ongoing pandemic made it harder than ever to predict how

quickly any recovery may come. are we one step closer to discovering how life began? ajapanese space capsule carrying the first samples of rock from an asteroid has landed in the australian desert. mark lobel reports. coming from right side and it is getting brighter and brighter. entering the earth's atmosphere. that fireball on your screen moving from right to left is a closely watched space capsule whose contents could help explain the creation of our solar system. applause there wasjoy and relief at the japanese aerospace exploration agency's mission control as the soil sample sent from the japanese space craft hayabusa 2 parachuted down safely

in the australian desert. scientists are expecting about 0.1 of a gram will be returned for examination at their laboratory near tokyo from the asteroid rugu which lies some 300 million kilometres away. they will measure the rock's age, what it is made of and how it is formed, potentially offering vital clues as to how the sun and planets came to be. this one is special because this one is going to an asteroid that we think is really rich in organic material and water so in the very earliest history of the earth we think it may have been pelted with asteroids like that and that is what gave us the water and the carbon to form our oceans and to enable life to flourish on earth. it is an exciting prospect after a successful landing following what one member of the space agency here described as a perfect mission with many more to come. translation: i had jotted down the dates when the probe

adjusted its orbit. if there is a hayabusa 3 or 4 or even 5, i would like to be involved in the mission. that next mission on this mothership, having launched its first capsule, will boldly go examining near earth asteroids where no—one has gone before. australia's official astronomer—at—large fred watson has been following all of this very closely. earlier he told me why these asteroid samples are relevant. thank you forjoining us. the potential is enormous because these are, for the first time, samples of the material of an asteroid which have been taken from below the surface. the problem with asteroids is that they float around in space, sometimes for 11.5 billion yea rs. the age of the solar system. but they are bombarded by sun radiation throughout that period, so the surface material can be different

from what is inside. so for the first time, the hayabusa 2 mission has extracted a soil sample from within the asteroid and that could contain all kinds of secrets including the mineral content, it may tell us about the early history of the solar system. and the carbon content, that is the extraordinary part. carbon rich molecules may hold some clues as to the building blocks of life on earth. so it is that digging down under the surface that is the crucial bit and the difference this time. just quickly, this is a japanese mission. why did it land back on earth in australia? well, it is the best place to land. it is all about, when you bring a spacecraft home, you are determined by the orbit of the spacecraft itself and the orientation of the earth at the instance that this thing is going to land. so it is all predetermined as to when you should choose to put

a spacecraft down, the target was chosen many years ago and so the whole orbit has basically been dictated by that. in fact this is the second time it has happened because the first hayabusa landed at woomera. we only have 20 seconds left but in a couple of sentences, what happens next now to the capsule? the capsule goes to tokyo where it will be very carefully checked over and the volatile material will be taken out and it will be opened up to see what is inside. venice is one of the world's year—round tourist hot—spots, but not this year. even the christmas lights have been switched on without the usual fanfare. sophia tran—thomson reports. cheering. not the grandest of celebrations, but in 2020, moments like this are worth celebrating.

translation: this christmas is different from the others. unfortunately, like everyone else around the world, we are experiencing the same challenges. but i strongly believe in positivity. italian artist fabrizio plessi was invited to decorate venice for christmas this year, and chose to illuminate the city's brightest attractions. translation: my purpose is to light up this town, which needs lights, which needs culture, which is new emotions. from the golden led tree to the doge palace and the rialto bridge, all of the city's most popular attractions are shining bright. for many christmas travellers, news that all foreign arrivals landing in italy after december 21 will need to quarantine for two weeks is disappointing. but for venetian locals, in a time of darkness for many, it is a unique opportunity to reclaim and enjoy the city for themselves.

let's take you now to bethlehem — where they've also switched on the christmas lights! the city is of course famous for being the biblical birthplace ofjesus — and is a destination for tourists and pilgrims alike. these pictures are from manger square outside the church of nativity — south ofjerusalem in the west bank. since at least the second century people have believed that the place where the church stands is wherejesus was born — specifically a grotto underneath where the church was first built which is marked by an inlaid silver star. a reminder of our top story now. president trump has been speaking at a rally in georgia it is his first campaign event since he lost the presidential election last month but as he made clear during the speech, he is still refusing to concede tojoe biden. he is still refusing to concede to joe biden. you he is still refusing to concede

tojoe biden. you can find me online out social media. —— online on social media. you are watching bbc news. well, the chilly weather is here to stay for the next few days. it's not desperately cold but certainly cold enough for some of that snow to still hang around in the hills and the mountains. for most of us, sunday is actually going to be quite a bright day and, yes, a few showers in the forecast. low pressure is close by so hence there will be a fair bit of cloud in places from the morning onwards. but more significantly we still have that current of cold air coming in and out of the arctic. it is actually fed all the way down towards the western mediterranean. so, this is what it looks like through the early hours of sunday morning, clouds and some showers there across northern parts of england. i think the coldest weather will be early in the morning across many western parts of the uk. temperatures in rural spots under the clear skies will have dipped down to around minus three degrees. but most towns and cities it will be around freezing or above.

so, here is the forecast for sunday. notice a few showers as they are filtering in through parts of the midlands, maybe one or two showers close to the south coast of england, but for places like belfast, glasgow, much of scotland, actually, lots of sunshine on the way and there will be some sunshine in the south as well, but chilly, temperatures fall to six degrees celsius. and sunday into monday is going to be every bit as nippy as well. here is thejet stream for monday. we still have that big dip in the jet stream across many parts of western and central europe, and this is the reason for the cold air leaking in from the northern climes. so, this pattern are certainly worse through the first half of the week. in fact, what we are going to see is low pressure forming in the north sea during monday afternoon. monday afternoon itself

is actually looking dry but then it does look as though monday night into tuesday, that weather front is going to roll in and it will produce rain, sleet and snow i think across the hills, probably yorkshire, the southern uplands, into the highlands as well. but in the south of the country, it should stay clear early on tuesday morning. so, let's have a look at the outlook, then, for the next few days. this is the summary. you can see those temperatures are into single figures. there isjust a gradual, gradual rise in those temperatures as we head towards the end of the week there, from four to eight in southampton. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. the headlines: president trump has been

speaking at a rally in georgia — his first campaign event since he lost the presidential election last month. but as he's made clear on twitter in just the last few hours, mr trump is still refusing to concede tojoe biden. negotiations between eu and british representatives will resume on sunday after an hour—long phone call between prime minister boris johnson and the president of the european commission ursula von der leyen. the sense of urgency is clear as the uk will transition out of eu trade rules on december 31. for a second weekend running, there've been violent demonstrations in paris. riot police used tear gas to disperse protestors who are opposed to a draft law protecting french officers from being filmed on duty. protesters attacked shops, ripped up pavements and burnt cars and barricades. now on bbc news, dateline london.