this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm nancy kacungira. in a giant leap for pandemic diplomacy — the world health organisation is given the green light to visit wuhan in china to investigate the orgins of the virus. despite pressure from doctors and scientists, the uk will allow the easing of coronavirus restrictions over christmas but with a warning. a smaller christmas will be a safer christmas and a shorter christmas is a safer christmas. the united states says that a recently discovered cyber attack on federal government systems is significant and continuing. and a chinese space capsule has successfully returned with the first samples

of moon rock in more than a0 years. hello and welcome. in a change of heart, china is allowing the world health organisation to investigate the origins of coronvirus in the city of wuhan. 10 international scientists will travel there next month to work out where the virus came from, and whether anything can be done to stop another outbreak. paul hawkins reports. did it come from bats? did it use a host tojump to human? were the wuhan wetmarkets where the outbreak started? just some of the key questions who scientist

will try to answer when they arrive in the city next month. their goal is to find the truth about where the virus came from and how it started. what we know so far is that on the third ofjanuary china investigated a virus infecting dozens of people in the city. a week later, chinese media reported the first known death. september saw worldwide deaths past1 million, half of which were in brazil, india, and the us, which in november became the first country to pass 250,000 deaths. finally this month, british woman margaret keenan became the first person in the world to be vaccinated outside trials. the truth about the virus‘ origins has been somewhat elusive. last december a chinese doctor warned his colleagues about the spread of a new mysterious disease but was told by police to stop

making false comments and was later investigated for spreading rumours. he died a few months later after contracting the virus. but china's initial attempts to downplay the virus, plus a reluctance to open up to independent investigators have led to accusations like that. china's secrecy, deceptions and cover—up allowed it to spread all over the world. there were also accusations that the virus was accidentally leaked from this laboratory in the city. no—one knows for sure. in the summer, a team that visited china had difficulty negotiating access to wuhan. i think it will be very important for the chinese government to have transparency so that the scientist can look at everything so i think it will be important for everybody to have open, transparent communication and having access to all the information so they can make an informed decision. scientist say finding out the truth about how the virus started will be key to stopping future outbreaks. just how helpful the secretive chinese authorities will be this time remains to be seen. paul hawkins, bbc news.

we can now speak to professor raina macintyre who's head of the biosecurity research program at the kirby institute, university of new south wales. thank you so much forjoining us. thank you so much forjoining us. tell us a little bit about what this team of expert will be looking for when they get to wuhan? presumably they are looking to understand the origins of sars covered two two a back virus perhaps through another animal into other humans. —— covid. whether they are going to investigate an accidental leakfrom are going to investigate an accidental leak from a lab are going to investigate an accidental leakfrom a lab i am not sure and i am also not sure what sort of useful information

they could get at this stage. we do know that the lab in wuhan was working in coronavirus is including that coronavirus is including that coronavirus is including that coronavirus is so i think at this point there is a little bit of uncertainty around which direction the investigation will go. —— bat. direction the investigation will go. -- bat. there are a lot of questions about whether this virus came from nature or was man—made. you this virus came from nature or was man—made. you seem this virus came from nature or was man—made. you seem to to be hesitant about whether this treatment will give any a nswers ? treatment will give any answers? well, i mean, the first assumption is about the lab itself. the seafood market where the first cluster occurred was close to the lab but i think at this late stage, it is hard to see there will be any useful information obtained from the lab. maybe they will

be sharing genetic sequences of bat coronavirus studied in the lab and that might be informative but there is more to the question than just wuhan. for example in spain, they detective the virus in march in 2019 and another study in italy detected at in december, in the us and other study detected it in december so study detected it in december so it was circulating earlier than we initially believed may be as early as march 2019. if that test was correct, but was that test was correct, but was that virus doing in spain in 2019, at the beginning of 2019. where did it come from? why wasn't big epidemic there? so the investigation should be more broad region. there was also the world military games

held in wuhan in october and reports of international teams getting a flu like illness including the us team who flew in from seattle, in october last year. if there are stored samples from the teams attending the games in wuhan from october— december last year, that could be tested as well to see if that outbreak was also covid—19. well to see if that outbreak was also covid-19. that is quite interesting, the need to widen the scope. thank you very much professor raina macintyre the four nations of the uk have agreed to go ahead with easing coronavirus restrictions between december the 23rd and 27th, despite warnings from many health experts and scientists that the rules should be tightened.

the prime minister has urged people to "think hard" before meeting family and friends but said it would be "frankly inhuman" to ban christmas at this point. keeping the laws the same but we all want to send the same message. a smaller christmas is going to be a safer christmas and a shorter christmas is a safer christmas. let's get some of the day's other news: a last—minute decision to lock down nine tower blocks in the australian city of melbourne to contain a second coronavirus outbreak, breached human rights laws, according to an ombudsman report. about 3,000 people were confined — under police guard and with no notice — for up to two weeks injuly. the victorian state government is being urged to apologise to the residents. the chairman of the federal reserve, the us central bank, has called for steps

to stimulate the american economy, which is struggling to cope with the effects of the coronavirus crisis. jerome powell said the case for deploying government finances was very, very strong. the united states says a cyber attack on federal government systems, discovered in recent days, was both significant and continuing. a joint statement by the fbi and security agencies said they were working to understand the full extent of the hacking campaign, which apparently began as long ago as march. officials believe the attack probably originated in russia. kevin mitnick is chief executive of mitnick security. he's an american cyber security specialist and was jailed as a hacker in the 90's before turning his hand at catching them. he's in brisbane australia. thank you very much for talking to us. in the mid— 90s you were

the worlds most wanted hacker 110w the worlds most wanted hacker now you are a security consultant. what is your assessment of this breach of us government agencies? quite serious. what we have here is a supply chain attack so very popular product that the fortune 500 us government agencies like the white house department ofjustice, the pentagon, i mean, it is widespread the number of customers that use the product. different in this case is that they were able to modify the update so a lot of the updates are applied automatically and they were able to get the signing keys to graphically signing keys to graphically sign the update so it would be accepted. once it was installed , accepted. once it was installed, it gave complete axis to the internal network and then they are able to install other actors, move

laterally, still information, get a ccess laterally, still information, get access to e—mail, pretty much anything they want in the network. this is super sophisticated because they had really good operation security. for example, if they were going to connect to a victims network, they would do it from ip addresses in the same cities that would look like a normal employee accessing the network. so very clever. it speaks to a nation state and i do not know what nation state it is. i still think they are investigating whether it is russia, it could be i ran, china. very sophisticated in we should all be concerned about this attack because imagine an attacker, an agency breaks into microsoft. they could do the same type of attack and actually backdoor microsoft products or any type of products or any type of products in the supply chain

site is extremely difficult for companies to detect. it really does put it into perspective, thank you. some us officials have said that this attack was probably from russia stop russia has denied it. just how possible is it to accurately pinpoint the origin of an attack like this? would it take attack like this? would it take a long time? attribution is very difficult. what security experts will do is analyse the act, any of the code they can gather in the forensic analysis and look for signs of similar to peak. of course, a nation state for example like china simulate the trademark of russia and they could make it look like it was russia so it is very difficult to achieve it these attacks to particular nation states. that is usually done by intelligence agencies that have other sources and

methods and other information they consider in the analysis. we will have to leave it there but thank you very much for your time today. thank you, nancy. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: smile and the world smiles at you — a study of facial expressions revealsjust how similar to one another humans really are. music and chanting. saddam hussein is finished because he killed our people, our women, our children. the signatures took only a few minutes, but they brought a formal end to 3.5 years of conflict, conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives. before an audience of world leaders, the presidents of bosnia, serbia and croatia put their names to the peace agreement.

the romanian border was sealed and silent today. romania has cut itself off from the outside world in order to prevent the details of the presumed massacre in timisoara from leaking out. from sex at the white house to a trial for his political life, the lewinsky affair tonight guaranteed bill clinton his place in history as only the second president ever to be impeached. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: the world health organisation is to send a team to wuhan next month to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, after an international row over china's co—operation. the american food and drug administration panel is due to meet to discuss whether they should aurthorise a second vaccine, from moderna. this week has seen the roll out of the pfizer vaccine,

but the record—breaking number of coronavirus cases and deaths across the us over the past two weeks has led to a renewed sense of urgency. the vaccination programme is facing strong opposition in the us, and, as aleem maqbool reports from washington, surveys show that mistrust appears highest among african americans. a black doctor inoculating a black nurse. the first us coronavirus vaccination in front of the cameras is also clearly a message to african—americans clearly a message to african—america ns that the vaccine is safe below the vaccine is safe below the vaccine that you are going to be taking was developed by an african—american woman. some feel this need to convince black people in the us to get immunised, and for good reason. surveys show nearly 60% of african—americans surveys show nearly 60% of african—america ns say they surveys show nearly 60% of african—americans say they are unlikely to get the vaccine, even though black people have died from the coronavirus at a rate nearly three times that of white people in india with. this man lost a cousin to covid

but still says he won't take the vaccine. i don't think it has reached the level of confidence for me to overlook the history and apprehensive nest of my community's concerns with vaccines. what does that mean? that means that america doesn't have a good track record in the black community and being concerned about our health and well—being. and being concerned about our health and well-being. the massive disparity in coronavirus deaths has exacerbated mistrust, but it is mistrust that is deep rooted. one of the most shameful cha pters one of the most shameful chapters in american medical history was a syphilis study, carried out over a0 years and hundreds of poor black men without their knowledge, in alabama. it came to an end in the 1970s but will has reverberations today and is the reason many give away they don't want the vaccine. we've got to think first, is the

citric. is this a trick or population control? do you think a lot of people feel that way? yellow yeah, man! population control, all those kinds of things. you don't have to go all the way back to alabama, so many years ago to understand why people are distrustful of the healthcare system. you can go sit in an emergency room or a doctor's office today and see how someone who is poor, someone who is black might be treated differently than someone who is not. consequences of not being able to turn around that mistrust now are grave. uptake ofa mistrust now are grave. uptake of a vaccine by african—americans will inevitably mean many more deaths and some of america's most vulnerable communities. a chinese space craft has returned to earth with the first samples from the moon in more than a0 years.

the change five spent three weeks in space, sampling rocks and soil and touched down in the northern region of inner mongolia on thursday. tanya dendrinos reports. a return from the moon carrying precious lunar cargo. chang'e—5‘s return to earth court on infrared cameras. the flag promptly planted as china submitted itself as a key player in the space race. this isa player in the space race. this is a pretty big deal, they have been catching up on space and this is the biggest mission they have done. they run a whole rehearsal so they have been preparing for this moment for a long time and the fact that it went off so successfully is going to give them confidence to do even more ambitious missions in future. the mission was launched at the end of november, a probe sent into orbit around the moon. pa rt into orbit around the moon. part of it landing to drill and dig up samples, with around two

kilograms expected to have been collected. you can do a tremendous amount with a very small amount of material, so they don't need tons of material to do a lot of science stopping these samples are also very interesting because they are from a different spot where apollo went and lunar probes from the soviet union went and it is also what we believe is a younger spot, maybe just 1 billion years old instead of three or a billion years old. and while the samples will offer scientists an opportunity to discover more about the evolution of earth and the solar system, it is also a significant marker for the new era of deep space missions. there is a maturity of those programmes, we are also seeing the return of the asteroid from a japanese probe. we are seeing a japanese probe. we are seeing a united arab emirates probe heading to mars so deep space is becoming much more international, as well. a global take on unlocking the secrets of the planets beyond.

let's have the latest sport from the bbc sports centre. hello, iam katie hello, i am katie shanahan and this is your thursday sport briefing. liveable are back at the top of the english premier league after beating tottenham on wednesday night. they beat has a marinos side 2—1. liveable now goes three points clear at the top of the table. we did incredibly well, i have to say. yes, they had scored a goal, which was again, a really tight decision against us, had probably two more chances also where we just could, but apart from that, we controlled the game and the ball which isjust incredibly good, so it is a massively deserved three points andi massively deserved three points and i am really happy.

in spain, barcelona came from behind to beat real sociedad. frenkie dejong got the winner with a 2—1 victory that takes barca up to 5th. real sociedad have lost top spot to atletico madrid in italy, the leaders ac milan remain unbeaten, but had to come from behind to draw 2—all at genoa. twice the home side took the lead, with mattea destro scoring both goals for genoa. but twice they were pegged back. pierre kalulu equalised 7 minutes from time, to make it 2—all. milan are a point ahead of inter who beat napoli 1—nil. in germany's bundesliga, bayer leverkusen remain a point ahead of bayern munich after there were wins for the top two on wednesday. bayer leverkusen won a—nil at cologne where the pick of the goals was this superb solo effort from moussa diaby. and robert levandowski scored both goals for bayern munich as the champions came from a goal down to beat wolfsburg 2—1 at the allianz arena. in the process, the polish striker became only the third

player to reach the landmark of 250 goals in the bundesliga. nba star yannis antetokumpo has become the highest paid player in nba history. his new five year deal with the millwaukee bucks sees him earn over $a5 million, the highest annual salary in american sports. here's what he had to say to fans. this is yunus, the greek freak. iam this is yunus, the greek freak. i am excited today, big day today. this is my home, this is my city. i'm excited to be a pa rt my city. i'm excited to be a part of this organisation, i'm excited to go to work with my teammates. i'm excited to work around the city and it has been amazing, man. it has been amazing, man. it has been amazing and the show goes on and let's get it. and world cup winner, kylian mbappe has decided

to dye his hair blue. take a look at this. the french superstar turned up with this new hair do at training for paris saint—germain. posting on social media "wednesday in paris". you can get all the latest sports news at our website, that's bbc.com/sport. but from me katie shanahan and the rest of the sport team, that's your thursday sport briefing. have you ever wondered how much you should read into a facial expression? well a new study suggests there's much more than meets the eye. our reporter tom brada investigates. feeling confused? feeling confused ? let feeling confused? let me explain. a new study has found that people across the world, no matter where they are from, use the same facial expressions to convey how they are feeling. the human face is amazingly complex. it has more than a0 different muscles, allowing it

to pull literally thousands of expressions. add to this, the geographical and cultural differences from country to country, person—to—person, and you might think that we would have little in common when it comes to how we use our faces. yet research carried out by the university of california berkeley as well as google found the very opposite to be true. alan cowin helped develop the technology and led the study. we looked at public videos that were posted on youtube, largely from people's mobile phones. we were interested in capturing everyday situations. we analysed million videos from 1aa countries, so to analyse all of those facial expressions we had to build a machine learning algorithm that could ta ke learning algorithm that could take an image and spit out some measurements of facial muscle movements. from smiling at a fireworks display, to following your brow and trying to console a sobbing child, the algorithm

found that people use relatively or remarkably similar methods to convey how they feel. in a hospital context, you might be interested in whether someone is feeling pain and be able to very quickly administer an anaesthetic. you might be interested in whether an infant is likely to develop autism. this study shows us that universal human emotional expressions are more complex than previously thought. they say that the eyes are the window to the soul, but this study shows that the whole human face is key to understanding how someone really feels. in a world that often seems so divided, it is nice to think that in some ways we are alljust the same. well, i hope you can tell from my facial expression that it is good to have you watching bbc news. you can reach me on twitter,

i'm @kacungira. stay with us. hello there. on wednesday, we saw a pretty deep area of low pressure sweep up from the south to bring rain and gales, particularly to western areas. today, though, it's looking a bit quieter. we're in between weather systems, so we should see a good deal of sunshine around. it'll stay quite breezy too, though, not quite as windy as it has been. so that's wednesday's low pushing away to the north of the uk. this feature will come in during thursday night. and in between, we've got a good slice of drier weather. there'll be a few showers around this morning, mind you, across southern and western areas. plenty of sunshine across eastern scotland, central and eastern england — areas here staying dry all day. out west, we'll see further showers and the clouds will tend to build up here through the afternoon, and the outbreaks of rain will start to arrive

across northern ireland, along with strengthening winds. it'll be quite fresh across northern and eastern areas — 9—10 celsius around average, but it will be turning quite milder further west, as this band of rain and stronger winds starts to spread across the country, as we head through thursday night. it will be followed by further areas of cloud and showers to the south and west, and it'll be turning very mild across the south — lows overnight 12—13 celsius. and after a chilly start in the north, it'll be turning milder there too. now, this is the pressure chart for friday — and you can see we're back to very unsettled weather. this very active weather front, with lots of isobars on the chart, means wet and windy weather moving our way. so we'll start off with a little brightness across the north—east england, north—east scotland, but generally a rather cloudy, misty, murky day. some patchy drizzle across the east. heavy rain across western areas. chances of flooding for south—west england and south wales — areas which have seen lots of rain already. and it'll be a windy day. those gusts showing 30—a0 mph for many, particularly across southern and western coasts. with our winds coming in from the south,

it's going to be a very mild day for the time of year. highs of 13 to maybe 15 celsius, for example, in parts of north—east wales. low pressure sticks around as we head on into the weekend. it'll send bands of showers into the northern and western areas. but there will be some sunshine around too. you will notice though the mild air starts to get replaced with those bluer tinges, so it will be cooling down through the weekend. so a sunshine and showers weekend. most showers across western areas. and then, it'll be cooling down, and that'll be particularly noticeable as we head through sunday.

this is bbc news with the latest business headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world: no regrets — president trump's trade chief tells the bbc he's helped make the system fairer for us workers. plus, edging closer — republicans and democrats near a deal on a new $900 billion aid package for the us economy. hello and welcome to the

programme.