hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. more areas of england have gone into tighter covid—19 restrictions. i know tier 3 measures are tough. but the best way to get out of them for everyone is to notjust follow the rules, but do everything they can to stop the spread of the virus. two thirds of the population will see pubs and restaurants closed in the areas they live in from saturday. the king of sweden has said the country has failed to protect its citizens from the pandemic.

also in the programme: we will hear about chinese pop music with a message. this is breaking a taboo by singing about domestic violence. let's start with the new covid restrictions announced in england. 38 million people will now be living under tier 3 — that's the tighest restrictions — by this weekend. later we will look at how europe is dealing with the pressure in the run—up to christmas. first of all, let's at england. here's hugh pym. this is what tier 3 looks like — bars, pubs, and some other venues closed. it's what many areas of england have

experienced for some time — and now, more parts of the south east are moving into, following others yesterday. the government said the tightening was required to bring cases down and help the nhs. yesterday, the welsh government made the decision to tighten restrictions across the whole of wales. no one wants tougher restrictions any longer than necessary. but where they are necessary, we must put them in place to prevent the nhs from being overwhelmed and protect life. labour offered support for the new moves, but called for tougher rules over christmas. portsmouth, gosport, and havant have moved up from tier 2 to tier 3. health officials say virus case rates in all age groups are increasing across most of the area. local people gave us their reaction to tighter restrictions. i think we should've been put into tier 3 a bit sooner, just to keep it lower again. portsmouth has got quite a rate of covid, and i think we're only half that rate. i know we're so close it must be

awkward, but i think it would'ave been better to stay in tier 2. in tier 3 areas like this, pubs, bars, and restaurants will be closed, apart from takeaways. and that will still be the case over the christmas period, even though up to three households are are able to mix at that time. pressure most hospitals is mounting, with more covid patients arriving each day, and there are fewer beds than normal because of social—distancing measures. here's what's been happening with daily covid hospital admissions in the south—east of england. the solid line there is the seven—day rolling average. you can see it's been rising pretty steeply in recent weeks, and is back where it was in late april, just after the peak of the first wave. and here's what has been happening in the north west of england. hospital admissions rose sharply throughout october, and then came down a bit, but they do appear to have levelled off. a hospital system leader told me that the christmas easing could create further problems. if people push those rules much

stronger than they should and they don't exercise proper restraint, then what you can see is very large numbers of people coming into hospital injanuary, and the nhs finding it very difficult to treat all of those patients. one area has moved down to tieri — herefordshire. that means up to six people can meet in households. it's just really exciting and good to see that coronavirus is not as bad here, so it means we can socialise more and be able to spend more time with our families, especially now it's near christmas. i think it's a nice idea that it's tier, 1 but i still think we need to be very, very aware of the situation. and, even here, health officials are worried. one said they were disappointed, and that relaxing the rules just ahead of mixing at christmas would inevitably result in more infections. hugh pym, bbc news. meanwhile, the french president, emmanuel macron, has become the latest world leader to test positive for covid—i9. the elysee palace said he was showing symptoms and would isolate for seven days

while continuing to work remotely. a series of high profile politicians and european leaders he's been in contact with over the last few days are now in isolation. they include the country's prime minister, jean castex, spanish prime minister, pedro sanchez — who met mr macron on monday — the head of the eu council, charles michel. the portuguese prime minister, antonio costa, met the french president on wednesday, and has now cancelled his upcoming overseas trips. he has tested negative but will still isolate. and the irish pm, micheal martin, will also restrict his movements and have a covid test as a result of contact with mr macron. this what they're saying privately from the press office is that he's well, he's fine, tres bien. which suggests that any symptoms

he has, they weren't serious ones. there doesn't seem to be any kind of alarm at the elysee, and certainly the intention that's been communicated to us is that he'll keep working but do it in isolation, obviously and will therefore cancel a trip to lebanon next week. his wife is also self isolating, and we've heard since that various other people in the political world, like the president of the national assembly who met him, they will go into self—isolation too. so i mean, there's nothing extraordinary about this. the head of state and government has caught covid, so he'll have to do with the rest of us have to do. but "don't panic" is the general message. yesterday, we reported that italy now has the highest covid death toll in europe. well, today some good news as government officials there say

they expect to begin vaccinations between christmas and new year's day, they're set to receive an initial 1.83 million shots from pfizer to begin its campaign. but, as with all eu countries, it's agreed it can only start the programme once the european medicines agency gives its green light to the pfizer—biontech vaccine. that's expected to happen at a meeting scheduled for 21 december. the king of sweden says his country has failed in its efforts to tackle coronavirus. since the start of the pandemic sweden has attracted international attention for not introducing a mandatory lockdown nor ordering the wearing of masks — instead it relied on people adhering voluntarily to social distancing rules. for a while, that seemed to be working, but in recent weeks, the numbers of cases and deaths has risen sharply, prompting a change in course by the government — and a lot of soul—searching over the country's approach. sweden's king rarely gives interviews, and it's even less common for him to say something controversial. but evidently, he clearly felt he needed to make his views known. here's some of what he's said. translation: i think we have failed. we have a large number

of people who have died. and it's awful. it's something we all suffer from, that we've not been able to help them. and it's sad. it's terribly sad. sweden's death rate is lower than some other countries in europe that insituted nationwide lockdowns earlier in the pandemic. this is deaths per million people — sweden on 772 is lower than italy or the uk. but those countries have much bigger populations. if you compare it with countries with similar size populations — around ten million people — sweden actually comes in the middle of the pack. belgium is the highest in europe on more than 1,500. the czech republic is on 922 and greece much lower, 371. it's when you compare sweden with its smaller immediate neighbours that you can see why the king may have felt he needed to say something. if we move the map to scandinavia — sweden's death rate is far higher than denmark on 168 — and roughly ten times that of finland and norway.

sweden changed its policy in november and banned gatherings of more than eight people. and throughout, its approach has been led by state epidmiologist anders tegnell. he spoke to the bbc soon after that decision to change course. i think what we're doing is a kind of virtual lockdown. we're really trying to do exactly what many other countries are doing, we're trying to minimise the contacts of people. we have learnt we can do that with a combination of legal measures and voluntary measures. and that, in the swedish context, is the context that we really believe is the best one. the competition. cecilia soderberg—nowclear is a virologist at the karolinska institute in sweden — she's on the line. anders tegnell has responded to the king's comments today? you think the can do this has been a lot of fuss in the news because the king should not make political

statements, but he expressing empathy for those who have died and theirfamilies. these empathy for those who have died and their families. these comments empathy for those who have died and theirfamilies. these comments in an interview he gives every year, and this will come up for discussion. i think he isjust this will come up for discussion. i think he is just expressing this will come up for discussion. i think he isjust expressing his thoughts for this family. but it's more than empathy, he says that sweden failed and that's a judgement of the strategy that the government and epidemiologists upon. i think that's a mistake with philip i think it is not my way to comment on his specific statement in terms of whether we have failed or not. as many have commented, this should be judged by others, but i think he is expressing his thoughts for these families, andi expressing his thoughts for these families, and i would say there nothing wrong with that.|j families, and i would say there nothing wrong with that. i wasn't so much with the to pass judgement on the cake as to pass judgement on the strategy that sweden has pursued. to think it has now proved to be a

failure? that i have my personal opinion on, and several scientists in sweden have been concerned since the beginning of the pandemic, and thatis the beginning of the pandemic, and that is because the swedish government said they are following scientific strategy, but be that is not the case. it has not been acknowledging that people are transmitting the disease before they are developing symptoms, so we have tested all of the spring and with people and we didn't put people in quarantine, we not recommended facemasks. and even though we have given recommendations, they have not been followed very well, and the government insists there's nothing wrong with the strategy but people are not following the strategy. that is unfairto are not following the strategy. that is unfair to most british people because they are following the recommendations, but if we keep school systems open, the public transport is full, that it is very

difficult to live and follow these recommendations. it is a strategy that doesn't come with the daily life and is not possible to follow his recommendations. as of this week, but had to close schools in stockholm, which was severely given. and i think that was absently necessary because there are too many contacts necessary because there are too many co nta cts in necessary because there are too many contacts in school and students are coming back and forth between home. they are hanging out with friends and playing sports with kids under 15. so that is a major problem in sweden because none of them are wearing facemasks. soi so i think we done much better and i've been concerned since the summer. i've been concerned since the summer. it has not worked out. four are you still critical of the approach now? because the approach changed in november. it changed, but

if you're not supposed to meet more than eight people and you still keep schools and restaurants open, it is giving an attitude that people are not realising how dangerous this can be for society, especially for the health care system that won't be able to take care of all these people they get sick at the same time. thank you very much indeed for speaking to us, we appreciate it. the united states has set shocking new records with the spread of coronavirus in the past 2a hours. new coronavirus cases were put at a quarter of a million and deaths at more than 3,600 — nearly 500 more than the previous highest total only a week ago. it brings the total number of deaths across the united states to 307,000. on monday, the first pfizer—biontech vaccine injections began to be administered, and later on thursday,

a panel is due to discuss the authorisation of a second vaccine from moderna. dr katherine baumgarten is medical director of infection control and prevention, at ochsner health. she was one of the first to get vaccinated on monday with the pfizer vaccine — she's in lousiana. thank you very much for your time. how soon do you think this exhibition programme for show any signs of influencing the overall national picture which i havejust been telling? thanks for having me. in terms of what it will affect the overall national picture it will really depend on how quickly and how many people take the vaccine, of course. that's really what will define how the vaccine can affect and curtail the epidemic, the pandemic that we have. but we have seen so pandemic that we have. but we have seen so far in our health

institutions is we have started with vaccinating health care workers in those that are in close contact with patients who have covered 19, and without a really good response. as you mentioned, about the vaccine on monday, and both vaccines, the adviser vaccines are 95% effective, which is really great news. we were so which is really great news. we were so thrilled to hear about how effective the vaccines were, and also that they have a low safety profile. the challenge will be to continue to have people get the vaccines and distribute the vaccines as we can, as quickly as we can. so we have a team approach, we are starting out with health care workers, but hopefully will have it to patients by spring or summer next year. —— approach. if people take it that we should see a curtailing of the pandemic from next year, and

hopefully less hospitalisations and deaths sooner than that as we develop the vaccine. how many vaccines to estimate america will need to use to vaccinate enough of the population to contain this virus? doctor anthony faucher has talked about meeting her community, and we certainly can't reach herd immunity through vaccinations alone. —— anthony faucher. we need 70% of people to take the vaccine to reach herd community. if that is the target, cannot be achieved with pfizer—biontech and whether or not alone, or will other vaccines be necessary because of supply challenges? we either be a number of other vaccines that need to be used because of those. these vaccines are not just for the uk and because of those. these vaccines are notjust for the uk and states, there worldwide, so there is a lot

of demand for the vaccine. fortu nately of demand for the vaccine. fortunately there are other products coming to market as well, not as quickly as pfizer and whether or not, but we have studies from johnson &johnson vaccine, so that is being studied and hopefully will be good. there's many other companies that are looking to make vaccinations. so we will need as much vaccine as we can get. that's not unprecedented coupled know vaccines can be made by multiple companies, and that's true with the flu vaccine with lots of vaccines. so that's typical when we talk about vaccine production. are well, thank you very much. —— very helpful. latest development on the missing schoolboys in nigeria. a video has emerged showing dozens of young boys in a forest,

begging for the nigerian military to stop looking for them. a website with links to the islamist group boko haram claims the boys are some of the pupils taken from a boarding school in north—western nigeria on friday. the bbc is not showing the video because of its distressing nature. but we can show you these pictures. this is a large demonstration in katsina state, with people chanting "bring back our boys" and waving anti—boko haram posters. let's go through what happened. the abduction happened in katsina state. around 800 students were at the secondary school when the attack happened. and at least 333 students are still missing. our correspondent mayeni jones is in the town of kano in katisna state, with the latest on that video. the authorities haven't yet responded to the video so far. it was published on the website of a journalist who has in the past released materialfrom boko haram.

as you said yourself, it's a very distressing watch — it shows a number of young boys, we haven't yet got confirmation from their parents if any of those boys are actually from the secondary school where the kidnapping took place last week. one of them is at the foreground, he appears disheveled, he says that they were captured by what he describes as the gang, or the leader of boko haram. he says some of his peers were killed by fighterjets, and finally, he pleads with the nigerian government to stop sending troops and vigilante groups to look for them. at one point, his voice breaks, and some of the children behind him who appear to be very young start crying. we spoke to the governor of katsina state in in northwest nigeria, next door to us, and he told us the government would not be negotiating with the criminals that kidnapped the children. they say they don't pay ransoms to kidnappers — in the video, the child does ask them to pay. so he puts the government in a rather difficult position,

but we have to remind our audience that this is something boko haram has done before. they released a similar video back in 2014 when they kidnapped the chibok girls — and at the time, it was meant to elicit an emotional response from the public and put pressure on the nigerian government. it'll be interesting to see how they respond to this. british prime minister borisjohnson and president of the european commission ursula von der leyen are having a conversation, as talks continue between both negotiating teams to try to secure a brexit trade deal. our correspondent chris mason is in westminster. this book spoken? they are on the phone pretty much right now, it was scheduled for 7pm uk time, so 20 minutes or so ago, and described by sources as a stock take, the goodwill of the victims to brexit negotiations is if at any moment to think this is the moment, it's safe

to assume it probably isn't. if there's room for more talking, there we re there's room for more talking, there were people talking. don't believe you will hear definitively if there is or isn't a deal. but who knows? will have to reach that point pretty soon — within a fortnight, because the transition period after brexit is due to expire at the end of this year. so that you are are going to doa year. so that you are are going to do a deal, they to do one soon. —— thank you kate at the. that brightens our brother and liberally interpreted this point topic they say there has to be a deal by then if they're going to buy a 5% of all before the end of the calendar year. the stumbling blocks to produce trade talks, we're still looking at the same investment — three issues?

yes, competition rules between the two sides in a deal, then how and he is governed in other words, what happens when either side breaks the rules. they remain the stumbling blocks. we hear from rules. they remain the stumbling blocks. we hearfrom both sides that there is there are still talking, but there are still elements of those sticking points to be worked through, and there is still at least a sliver of time. for all of it here in the uk has packed up for christmas, but employees knowing at any point they can be recalled, and that would be necessary if there was a deal that may even be necessary if there isn't a and the government must make provisions for a new dual brexit. christmas and already threadbare thanks to pandemic,

and... and politicaljournalist as well. it has crossed my mind. thank you very much, that's chris in westminster. a french court has sentenced a moroccan man to life in prison for attempting to kill passengers on a high—speed train. the attack five years ago was foiled by passengers including off—duty american soldiers. they overpowered ayoub el khazzani on the amsterdam to paris express. here's the lawyer for the american soldiers on why the sentence was so high. it was a very intense trial because the facts that was trialed in paris this autumn is linked, and that's what the court has said, is linked to the terror attack which occurred on 13 november, 2015, which killed 131 people in paris and injured hundreds.

and the terror cell that came in europe to kill europeans had, as a first step, to kill inside the telus train. that is why we are very glad the court took all this into consideration, and that the extreme violence of ayoub el khazzani was prosecuted to the high level that it deserved. i'm joined now by the bbc‘s hugh schofield in paris. i remember is talking about this five years ago when it happened, but what did we learn from this trial that we didn't know before? the most interesting fact about ayoub el khazzani is his links with a man whom people may remember it was a key figure in the bataclan attacks that came three months after the failed attack. for the outcome was much more deadly. the two men,

women, who failed to carry out his attack, came across europe in that wave of migrants in the middle of 2015. he was sent out as a leader to set up for 2015. he was sent out as a leader to set upforand 2015. he was sent out as a leader to set up for and policies which would attack france. and he did that was with ayoub el khazzani, and it failed. mount macro was in custody in august 2015, he could have told the police in france about what was being planned and, how he got to europe, the islamic state plot. but he didn't, and that's why it is an important trial and you got a sentence, because he made absolutely no attempt to draw any attention to what was to come. and what was to come was the bataclan and other attacks in paris which were so deadly. hugh, who have to leave it there. thank you very much in the,

i'll be a couple minutes' time. hello there. earlier on today, we had a respite from this wet and windy theme, but we have seen the cloud increasing, thickening up, moving and very rapidly from the atlantic, it brought rain in some places. these weather fronts will take the rain across northern ireland, scotland and push it further into england and wales. for a while, that rain will be heavy as well. it will eventually push down towards the southeast of england, other areas away from here becoming drier later on in the night. but there is a lot of cloud around, and it's quite blowy out there as well. so it's going to be very mild to start friday, with temperatures in double figures. but more rain to come on friday, and the focus of the heavier rain is now across south wales with this amber rain warning from the met office. flooding and travel disruption is likely — as much as 100 mm of rain, four inches of rain, in the hills.

not only wet here, but we will find the threat of flooding rains in the southwest of england — that heavier rain moves across wales, northern ireland, and it gets much wetter through the day in scotland. probably ot too much rain for east anglia and the southeast, but all areas will have a windier day. gales are likely in the southwest, but because it's southerly wind, it is unusually mild for this time of year. temperatures hitting 13—14 celsius. the rain and potential flooding is the story, and that rain continues in the same sort of areas during friday evening before pushing into eastern england during friday night, to be followed by this area of low pressure. now, the very mild air and the more persistent rain will move away by the weekend, but we draw in slightly cooler air coming in from the atlantic around that area of low pressure. so, temperatures are going to drop away through this weekend, and essentially, we're left with a mixture of sunshine and scattered showers. now, on saturday, the bulk of the showers will be across western parts of scotland, wales, and western england.

there will be a few showers around elsewhere, perhaps, but probably more in the way of sunshine. temperatures still in double figures on saturday — not quite as mild as friday, and the winds will still be strong, as well. it stays quite windy, actually, right the way through the weekend. there's more showers in the same sort of areas, perhaps some longer spells of rain in the northwest of scotland. again, more sheltered eastern areas missing the bulk of those showers with more in the way of sunshine. but on sunday, it will be a little bit cooler than on saturday.

hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. more this is outside source. areas of england are going tighter more areas of england are going into tighter covid controls. i know that tier 3 measures are tough, but the best way for everyone tough, but the best way for everyone to get out of them is to pull together, not just to follow the rules, but do everything they possibly can to stop the spread of the virus. two thirds of england's population will now live in areas where pubs and restaurants have to close from saturday. the king of sweden said his country failed in his efforts to stop coronavirus, bearin his efforts to stop coronavirus, bear in mind from a sweden didn't order people to wear masks or introduce lockdowns. 32 years after a bomb down to a passenger plane in lockerbie, 30s in the us understood to be preparing press charges. and we are going to talk about

chinese pop music with a message. she is breaking a taboo by singing about domestic violence. the us will soon announce charges against a libyan suspected of making the bomb that blew up pan am flight 103 over lockerbie in scotland in 1988. abu agila mohammad masud is alleged to have been a top bomb—maker for the then libyan dictator muammar gaddafi. the wall streetjournal says he's currently being held in libya, although this has not been confirmed by the libyan authorities. the lockerbie bombing was the worst terrorist attack in british history. these pictures are from december 1988, when 159 people were killed after the bomb exploded as the plane flew over lockerbie. most of the people aboard were americans returning home

for the christmas holidays. a further 11 people died when a large section of the fusellage crashed to the ground, destroying homes. the bombing was blamed on colonel ghaddafi's regime in libya — but only one man has ever been convicted. lybian abdelbaset al—megrahi was jailed in 2001, but released back to libya in 2009 when he had terminal cancer. he died three years later. the new charges are expected to be announced by outgoing us attorney—general, william barr. he held the same position when the us announced its first charges against megrahi and another libyan suspect, lateracquitted, — that was in 1991. at the time he said... well, the case against mr mas‘ud has in part relied on the work of a journalist named ken dornstein. his brother david was on board the pan am plane. he went to libya to track down mr masud as part of a 2015 tv documentary by us network pbs called my brother's bomber, and in 2012 he approached the fbi

with new information about mr mas‘ud. here he is speaking to the bbc about it. he was a mystery figure, he was a name that had come up in the original investigation that everyone denied he even existed, his name was... and there was very little known about them, but i believe figuring out to simply that he existed would solve many of the unanswered questions of the bombing because he was attached according to the best information there was, and several key moments including being at the airport in malta on the day about the bomb was said to have been infiltrated into the baggage system and ultimately onto flight 103. he was said to have been a technical experts, and nobody else on the list really had any kind of bomb making expertise of any sort. i had established that he was a real person by connecting him to another act of libyan terror which had been carried out a few years before lockerbie, the bombing

of a discotheque in berlin. there was a libyan who confessed in that case and confessed in a german court, and in that libyan's confession, he happened to mention the name, and he happened to mention a distinguishing feature of him, that he had very dark skin, and all of us matched up with the records i had from though lockerbie investigation. and i set about finding that person who had been the witness in that case, the person who confessed to turned out to still be in berlin. so i set about creating a relationship with him to see if he could lead me to mas‘ud himself. and over the course of a couple of years, that's ultimately what happened. let's speak to frank gardner, bbc security correspondent. there may some viewers that are incredulous that it took a journalist to get us to this point. welcome they are not the only ones. i'm pretty incredulous too, i was in tripoli at the time that the verdict was announced, and we all thought

that that was going to be the end of it, there was a very thorough extensive trial held at a dutch military camp. this was the scottish courts, very unusually holding a trial on neutral territory in the netherlands, and there were two suspects one who was acquitted and then the libyans suddenly expected both of them to be acquitted, we as journalists were summoned to tripoli to be ready for the plane that would bring him home, instead of which this was very bad news for libya. libby always insisted that they were innocent of this, but gadhafi's regime was certainly involved in terrorism. so, the big thing now was was anybody else involved? you know, how extraordinary is this? nearly 32 years on, as you say stick in the work of an investigative journalist who seems to have uncovered what the fbi didn't, which is quite extraordinary. now, this person does

exist, he is in a prison already in libya for different offences. he was convicted in 2011 for reportedly for bomb making and targeting opponents of gadhafi's regine, which was toppled that year. the us where told that they would very much like to extradite him come and get them out of libya, doesn't have an extra directly, but the uk does, so it may well be uk involvement there. frank, does this huge new developments change our bigger theory about what happened with ursula von de leyen —— lockerbie which was it was organised with the libyan state? well, certainly, some of the relatives and of course, this is a long time ago that it happens, but it was the worst terrorist attack in british history. some of the relatives are really, i think i'm a bit upset about this, because they deserve closure, and most of them probably

thought that they had it. jim, whose daughter, flora, was killed in the lockerbie bombing was on the radio today on television and he was saying this is a very unwelcome development, this, there are a numberof development, this, there are a number of people who think that libya wasn't even involved at all, that it was iran getting revenge for the shooting down a few months earlier of one of its airbus airliners by mistake by the americans in the gulf at a very tense time. and there are number of theories which have been circulating that this was somehow iran exacting its revenge and libya taking the rap for it. it's never been proven in any court, and suddenly, the libyans took the view that's, well, they denied it for a very long time, but that by 1999, they were under crippling sanctions, it was made very clear to them by the international community, those sanctions would only be lifted if they admitted responsibility, gave up they admitted responsibility, gave up the suspects for trial and paid compensation when they were found

guilty, which indeed, he was found guilty. frank, thank you very much indeed. that service bbc security correspondent. top—tier retweets ursula von de leyen, the president on the european commission on the phone call with boris johnson, on the european commission on the phone call with borisjohnson, she says that they took stock of the negotiations, their efforts to get a trade deal, she says we welcome substantial progress on many issues, get big differences remain to be bridged, in particular on fisheries, bridging them will be very challenging, she says, negotiations will continue tomorrow. vladimir putin's held his annual press conference — and has been questioned about the poisoning of his critic alexei navalny. here's what we heard. translation: that doesn't mean he needs to be poisoned. who needs him ? if someone had wanted to poison him, they would've finished him off. his wife addressed me and i gave the command and right away to let them go to germany for treatment

at that very moment. he was also asked about an investigation that the website bellingcat published earlier this week. it's a detailed account alleging that the russian state carried out the posioning. it found that a group of operatives from the russian state intelligence organisation tailed alexei navalny for three years. the kremlin had already dismissed the investigation as "entertaining". and here's more from mr putin today. it's a trick to attack the leaders of russia, and by doing so, those that do it reach a certain level and proclaim it, "pay attention." it means i am the person of the same calibre. here's a reminder of what happened to alexei navalny in august. you can see him on a stretcher — after he was poisoned with the nerve agent novichok whilst boarding a flight in siberia. before that he'd been repeatedly arrested and imprisoned for leading anti—government protests. these pictures are from a rally in moscow last year. max seddon, is the financial times moscow correspondent, he was watching todays press conference closely. max, your take on mr putin's response?

well, i think it was pretty remarkable that we have to wait three days after this investigation came out, the president's press secretary even cancelled his daily briefing with journalists after the reports which was supposedly to help them prepare for this press conference, but this was complete the unprecedented. no russian officials, not even the various russian propaganda networks on twitter and where writing anything about it, and i think it was one thing for putin to say, yes, this is a trick done by american security services to make us look bad. they've said that many times about this and many other things, but it was really remarkable that he confirmed that, yes, it was true. we really do have this team of agents, some of whom have background in chemical weaponry, following around everywhere he goes, more than 30 trips, this was a remarkable acknowledgement, and it shows you how much further they've come along

since the early days of this poisoning where they were saying, he wasn't poisoned, he had diabetes and eb pretended to be poisoned, or maybe he poisoned himself or maybe germany poison ten with america's health when he arrived there all to make russia look bad, and the evidence that was presented was just so evidence that was presented was just so strong that evidently, they've decided that there was enough to be ashamed of, the argument is that he isa ashamed of, the argument is that he is a cia agent, and that's why he has to be followed around. but could you argue that both that admission from about remarkable admission you've just described, and the fact that the kremlin is generally being dismissed as entertaining and not really engaging with the details, both statements in a way suggest that he and his colleagues feel they have a level of impunity here. sorry, i can't hear you. can you hear me ok? i can hear you now. what i was asking you was do you think

the fact that both them admitting this team exists but also dismissing the investigation generally suggests that he feels a level of impunity, level of you know, disinterest in the international consequences here? i think ever since 2014 when they brazenly lied for a few weeks about invading crimea who the little green men were in their balaclava is running around, and then they admitted what was obvious and were pretty chuffed about it to be honest, that there has been less and less of an interest in what you might call plausible deniability and instead, you have this form of implausible deniability where it's done partly to make sure they don't admit doing anything bad, but also so admit doing anything bad, but also so they can send this kind of double message. we saw this two years ago where they would vladimir putin personally would always deny that they had anything to do with it. they said it was a plot to make them

look bad, just so happens that our enemies are getting poisoned with russian needed nerve agents, but actually, if it did happen, they totally deserved that, because they we re totally deserved that, because they were traitors. it has this double effect of sending this message up that you're able to do whatever he wa nts, that you're able to do whatever he wants, and you don't really feel any shame about it if everyone finds out. max, thank you very much indeed. you can read max's reporting on the ft‘s website. stay with me here and outside source, because in a few minutes, we are going to look at the issue of sticking to the rules when it comes to the pandemic. we will discuss whether compliance or noncompliance is impacting the state of the pandemic. the true level of new coronavirus infections in wales could be twice the figure previously thought. an extra 11,000 positive cases have emerged because of data that was not originally counted due to computer maintenance. sian lloyd reports. christmas plans are changing. more restrictions are looming.

people in wales face another lockdown, as covid rates continue to climb. there's concern about the record number of covid patients in welsh hospitals and with 25% of her nursing team currently infected or self—isolating, this hospital consultant feels the pressure daily. you just feel like you're firefighting here, you're running from one sick patient to the next, to the next. you know, it's the staff that are dealing with these patients and have been doing this for nine or ten months now, but they're still there offering themselves on their day off. we may reach a tipping point where that goodwill runs out or where we just have so many people off sick that we just cannot get the staff. the actual number of covid infections in wales is higher than people here thought. a delay in reporting more than 11,000 positive test result means that the number of cases in the last week was twice as high. public health wales said planned it maintenance work was the reason

for the delay and the first minister said he was aware of the issue. this wasn't a computer problem, this was planned upgrading of the computer system. none of the data is missing. everybody who had a positive test was told that in wales last week. the situation is described as serious. today's figures show the covid case rate for wales has jumped to 530 cases per 100,000. the virus is now the biggest cause of deaths here, accounting for more than 21% of all registered deaths. over 27% of all patients in hospital are being treated for coronavirus. people are being placed under new restrictions to try to prevent further cases and deaths here, but families are facing difficult choices. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story is... the highest level of coronavirus contrrols are being extended across more parts of england,

covering two—thirds of the population, from saturday. every week on outside source we make a video for the bbc website looking at one of the big issues of the week. this time we're looking at the pandemic. this is not going to be christmas as we know it, and governments across europe are asking people to help contain the virus. it's about trying to reduce that's contact and make sure that everybody is as cautious and as personally responsible as possible. is there a risk that rule brea kers possible. is there a risk that rule breakers become a lightning rod for the upset this pandemic is understandably causing? i sought out for uk's perspectives from a behavioural scientist women epidemiologist, data analyst and a radio host. she presents a show and often radio host. she presents a show and ofte n 5 ha res radio host. she presents a show and often shares her frustration of people not wearing masks properly on

public transport. the reason i hold people like that in genuine bone deep contempt is i think we have a duty to one another as much as we have a duty to ourselves. she's widespread concern, but how can we assess rule breaking? robert as head of statistics for bbc news, his advice is to not see this in black—and—white. advice is to not see this in black-and-white. welcome if you are supposed to self— isolate black-and-white. welcome if you are supposed to self—isolate in your bedroom for 14 days, there is a variety of different ways you cannot comply with that. you might go for a walk on your own at night, you might go into starbucks, you might go in very different things. we also know circumstances drive different behaviour. uk survey looked at attitudes to quarantine after foreign holidays, 10% of people said they wouldn't do it at all. that rose to 20% if they needed to work and to 25% if they needed to work and to 25% if they needed to care for someone. there's also a broader belief that over time, people have struggled to stick to the guidance. this is soho

in london in september. in october, the who said it's easier ——... this is borisjohnson the who said it's easier ——... this is boris johnson around the who said it's easier ——... this is borisjohnson around the same time. everybody got up it's kind of, you know, complacent. but not eve ryo ne you know, complacent. but not everyone agrees with this analysis. this guardian article from the summer warned... he argues that government policy and inequality are biggerfactors he argues that government policy and inequality are bigger factors than selfishness or thoughtless behaviour. but if there is disagreement over the consequences, can we at least say that rule breaking is increasing? welcome a behavioural scientist professor susan mickey says no. it's kept really pretty steady since the summer. really pretty steady since the summer. so despite people saying that they are fed up, they are bored you know, this is really difficult, this is tough, what you see is that people are still wanting to adhere and buy in large adhering. people are still wanting to adhere and buy in large adheringm people are still wanting to adhere and buy in large adhering. if that's the case, why is there so much

attention on rule breakers? years the professor again. if you are looking out for something and you are likely to get irritated by its you know, you will think there is many more people who aren't adhering thenif many more people who aren't adhering then if you are not specially looking out for it. nonetheless, rule breaking is happening, and on this, epidemiologist helen is clear, rule breaking matters. so these things that might seem like minor transgressions at the individual level added together at the population level are the things that are population level are the things that a re really population level are the things that are really driving transmission and driving this pandemic. which is why the connection between each person's actions and the state of the pandemic remain central to many government's messages this christmas. let's keep talking about the pandemic. you may remember that backin the pandemic. you may remember that back injuly, the pandemic. you may remember that back in july, tower the pandemic. you may remember that back injuly, tower blocks in melbourne and australia were put under police guard due to a surge in coronavirus cases.

well now an australian ombudsman has found their enforced lockdown breached human rights. these are pictures from back then — around three thousand people were confined for up to two weeks. the residents were given no notice, which meant many were left without food or medicine. ombudsman deborah glass said the lockdown itself did not breach human rights — but the decision to rush it through was not based on public health advice. let's hear from her. among my recommendations are that the victorian government apologise to the people detained at the public housing estates for the harm and distress caused by the immediacy of the lockdown. this apology would mark an important step in restrain community trust and to affirm or commit to the protection of human rights that are for all of us, whatever our state of health or wealth, background or behaviour, wherever we live. abbey from the australian network has more from melbourne.

this situation at that stage was that victoria was really on the verge of the second wave. we had ten postcodes already in lockdown, and the senior health officials had a meeting at about 11 o'clock in the morning onjuly the 4th, i believe, and so they decided that there was a big cluster that was linked to residents in nine of the public housing towers, so they decided that's a hard lockdown would be initiated across the towers and at 4pm that day, the victorian premier announced that lockdown would be enacted immediately and the first residents of the public housing towers knew about it was literally looking outside and seeing the police surrounding their buildings. the first initial days were just absolutely chaotic, a lot of the people who were living in these public housing towers had refugee backgrounds, had traumatic experiences, and people were literally having panic attacks because they didn't know what was happening. we spoke to a gentleman this money from one of the public housing ——we spoke to a gentleman this morning from one

of the public housing towers saying that he was having to barter to get food and medicine for some of the people who live there and was going around trying to translate information and allay fears that everything was going to be ok. to china now, where one of the country's most popular singers, tan weiwei, has pushed the issue of domestic violence into the limelight with the release of her latest song. let's have a quick listen. she sings. the song — "xiaojuan" — is named after a generic pseudonym authorites give to victims of domestic violence, and references some of the most high profile cases of violence against women in china. take a look at these figures from a 2010 state—run survery. it found 24.7% of married women between the ages of 24—60 have experienced domestic violence. and that 61% of men and 54% of women still agreed that

with the traditional saying that "men should be socially "based, and women should be family oriented". meanwhile, in 2015, when a law against domestic violence was passed, 10% of china's homicide cases involved domestic violence. dr leta hong is the author of several books on gender inequality in china. here's what she makes of the song. it really blew me away. first of all, i think it's a very powerful song. i mean, it's really beautiful, haunting music, but, i mean, the lyrics are just, they are so startlingly just vivid about violence against women, and it's really striking, not only for china, but i mean, for any famous singer worldwide to produce a song like this, it's really remarkable. the thing about china is that it's the world's most powerful authoritarian regime. there is gross human rights abuses,

there is a lot of... there's a huge crackdown happening on feminist activism and on civil society in general, and there is no internet freedom, so there is widespread to censorship, there is also no press freedom. so state media do not to mention domestic violence very often, so it is incredibly courageous for a singer like her to come out with such a very bold, really startling song about domestic violence. anybody observing china will say that the official statistics really understate the severity of violence against women. but the thing is that we don't know... i don't think that the problem per se is getting worse, i mean, china did pass this anti—domestic violence law, but what is really striking is that there is much more

awareness about misogyny and sexism and violence against women in general. and there is this feminist movement that has really been growing in momentum particularly when you think about the hostile political environment in china and how incredible two incredibly difficult it is to propel any social movement forward. just before we wrap up the hour, british prime minister boris johnson and president of the european commission ursula von der leyen have finished the phone call they were having — about the brsexit trade talks. ursula von der leyen has tweeted.. we will continue to bring you coverage of those negotiations as we

get details. thanks for watching. hello there. earlier on today, we had a brief respite from this wet and windy theme, but we have seen the cloud increasing, thickening up, moving and very rapidly from the atlantic, it brought rain in some places. these weather fronts will take the rain across northern ireland, scotland and push it further into england and wales. for a while, that rain will be heavy as well. it will eventually push down towards the southeast of england, other areas away from here becoming drier later on in the night. but there is a lot of cloud around, and it's quite blowy out there as well. so it's going to be very mild to start friday, with temperatures in double figures. but more rain to come on friday, and the focus of the heavier rain is now across south wales with this amber rain warning

from the met office. flooding and travel disruption is likely — as much as 100 mm of rain, four inches of rain, in the hills. not only wet here, but we will find the threat of flooding rains in the southwest of england — that heavier rain moves across wales, northern ireland, and it gets much wetter through the day in scotland. probably ot too much rain for east anglia and the southeast, but all areas will have a windier day. gales are likely in the southwest, but because it's southerly wind, it is unusually mild for this time of year. temperatures hitting 13—14 celsius. the rain and potential flooding is the story, and that rain continues in the same sort of areas during friday evening before pushing into eastern england during friday night, to be followed by this area of low pressure. now, the very mild air and the more persistent rain will move away by the weekend, but we draw in slightly cooler air coming in from the atlantic around that area of low pressure. so, temperatures are going to drop away through this weekend, and essentially, we're left with a mixture of sunshine and scattered showers. now, on saturday, the bulk of the showers will be

across western parts of scotland, wales, and western england. there will be a few showers around elsewhere, perhaps, but probably more in the way of sunshine. temperatures still in double figures on saturday — not quite as mild as friday, and the winds will still be strong, as well. it stays quite windy, actually, right the way through the weekend. there's more showers in the same sort of areas, perhaps some longer spells of rain in the northwest of scotland. again, more sheltered eastern areas missing the bulk of those showers with more in the way of sunshine. but on sunday, it will be a little bit cooler than on saturday.

this is bbc news. the headlines. millions more people in england will be living under the toughest restrictions from saturday, in a bid to slow down the spread of coronavirus. i regret having to take the action that we have to take. i deem it necessary under the strong view right across government that these actions are necessary, but i also plead that personal responsibility is absolutely essential to how we as a society should respond to this pandemic. thousands of secondary school children across england will have their return to school staggered, after the christmas break due to coronavirus concerns. in northern ireland, a new six—week lockdown starting