welcome to bbc news — i'm mike embley. our top stories: us president—electjoe biden complains his transition team are not getting co—operation from the trump administration on crucial matters like national security. a prominent saudi human rights activist who campaigned for women to be allowed to drive is jailed for six years. her family deny the charges. we are going to be appealing the verdict even though we don't have any hope. the number of patients being treated for coronavirus in england's hospitals is at its highest level since the pandemic began. and a major five—year study of the atlantic ocean discovers animal species previously

unknown to science. hello and welcome. just over three weeks before he takes over the white house, joe biden has complained that his team is still not getting the co—operation it needs from the outgoing trump administration. the president—elect says many national security agencies have been damaged, "hollowed out" during donald trump's time in office. it's an allegation rejected by the trump administration. more from the bbc‘s lebo diseko. he joe biden acknowledge that some agencies and officials had had his teams exemplary cooperation, many singled out two departments for two departments. we encountered roadblocks. the department of defence and the office of management and budget

has put up roadblocks. right now, wejust are not getting all the information that we need from the outgoing administration in key national security areas. it's nothing short in my view of irresponsibility. these are hard issues, and the current administration has made them much harder by working to erode our capacity. it's going to take time to rebuild the capacity. we will work purposefully, diligently, and responsibly to rollback trump's restrictions, starting on day one, but it is not as simple as flicking a switch to turn everything back on, especially in a pandemic. mr biden noted that security agencies had suffered enormous damage to their capacity under donald trump's presidency at a time when they are facing challenges posed by both china and russia. the president said it was important for his administration to get a clear

picture of budgets and planning in order to avoid confusion that america's enemies could exploit, and he stressed the importance of making sure information was not lost on a handover between administrations. president trump's acting secretary of defence christopher miller has suggested security transition meetings were postponed due to a ‘mutually agreed holiday pause' — the biden team deny any agreement. i put all that to a former defence secretary, william cohen. in a very different, less divisive, age, he, a republican, was appointed by a democratic president, bill clinton. my answer is there are no holidays from history, there are no holidays from national security. it's not as if you can take off and fly to maralago to go play golf and leave the world to turn on its own, sojoe biden needs to have his team briefed in great detail on issues affecting our national security and to the extent he's not getting that, our nation is put at risk.

there is no more, well i won't say no more but one of the most dangerous periods of time is between an election and the new administration. joe biden, by virtue of his many years in the senate, dealing with intelligence, and certainly his two years as the vice president, he is up on intelligence, he is up—to—date, but it's the details that really matter and he needs more information, and this is like a relay race. you want the person who is handing off the baton, you want to be running when you catch it so you can be a full speed when you take the baton and continue on, and what president trump is doing and we're seeing that, by vetoing the defence authorisation bill, putting at risk where we are going to be in terms of budget planning for the defence department for the coming years, so i would say that the president has walked away from his responsibilities on many occasions, but right now this is one of the most critical, given the activities of president putin, whom he continues to defer to on each and every occasion,

so it doesn't surprise me, it should in fact alienate his greatest supporters who believe that they are patriots and that he's a patriot. patriots don't put the country at risk, so i am disappointed. we have had four secretaries of defence in four years so whenjoe biden says it has been hollowed out in the defence department, he has much to point to. what major security threats or challenges would you say the biden administration should be focused on, and what difficulties might be caused by the roadblocks, that mr biden alleges are being thrown up by the outgoing administration? the most recent attack by president putin has been on the cyber security, attacking our infrastructure, putting at risk our ability to function as a civil society, in the event they have implanted types of monitors and bots and other types of malware inside our critical infrastructure, that would be one. certainly on the budget side, that is trying to manage the transition in a way to understand where the money

is and supposed to go, where he will inherit a budget that's only been prepared for him, so that is critical, but it's two things. externally we have to be concerned about russia, potentially china, but mostly russia, and secondly, we have to be concerned about what the president himself is doing. when he has a meeting in the oval office and the subject of martial law is raised, and you have people in the pentagon saying "what is he going to do in the next three weeks, that may put us in a position of having to respond militarily to a domestic crisis?" that's something that's been talked about, written about, the president has denied it, but his former national security adviser general flynn talked about it openly, and more and more people are concerned he is still looking for an excuse to try and have a coup over the united states and reverse the election,

so they worry inside the pentagon and they have to be concerned on the exterior, for external threats as well. the house of representatives in the us, controlled by the democrats, has voted to increase the aid to individuals under the latest coronavirus stimulus package, from $600 to $2,000. this was actually suggested by president trump, but opposed by his own party. it's unlikely to be approved by the senate, which is controlled by his party. house speaker nancy pelosi, a democrat, expressed her hope for bipartisan support. i hope it will enjoy a strong bipartisan support. the president of the united states has put this fourth is something that he wants to see and part of his assigning the legislation yesterday, i hope that view will be shared by the republicans in the senate. meanwhile, all three major us share indices closed at record highs following the passage of the law,

which, coming hard on the heels of an agreement between the european union and britain on a post—brexit trading relationship, has raised optimism about a global economic recovery. our new york business correspondent, michelle fleury explains more. many of us can't wait to see the back of 2020. us stock started the last week of the year on a started the last week of the yearona high started the last week of the year on a high note. investors are betting that fresh stimulus spending will give the wild boars spending will give the wild boa rs largest spending will give the wild boars largest economy a much—needed boost. the dow jumped more than 200 points or seven tenths of a percent. disney and apple were among the stocks that saw big gains. after days of drama, president trump backed down from his threat to block a $900 billion coronavirus aid package and signed into law on sunday night. the move paves the way for $600 checks to be paid directly to people hit hardest by the pandemic because of it also extends unemployment benefits, releases billions of dollars of help for small

businesses, includes emergency aid for airlines businesses, includes emergency aid forairlines and businesses, includes emergency aid for airlines and much more. the decision also means that a government shutdown that would have been starting this tuesday has been averted. now, taken together, with the rollout of the vaccine and a supportive central bank, investors are finding plenty of reasons to feel festive heading into this new year. a prominent saudi human rights activist who campaigned for women to be allowed to drive cars, has been sentenced to almost six years injail on charges of spying and conspiracy. loujain al—hathloul was arrested in 2018 with dozens of other female activists. she's already spent spent two and a half years in a high—security prison and as part of her sentence is suspended, she may be released in march. mark lobel reports. it was loujain al—hathloul‘s public campaigning to get saudi women in the driving seat four years before the ban was lifted that first saw her spend weeks behind bars. she was asked by the bbc after her release in 2015 when equal rights

would be achieved. equal rights? the entire one, the entire package? oh, my god, it will take forever. i won't be alive to witness it. but the activist was detained three years later for seeking to change the saudi political system, by calling for an end to male guardianship and speaking to foreign diplomats and the media about women's rights. following an international outcry, human rights groups demanded her release. but while behind bars, her family says she was subjected to electric shocks, waterboarding and sexual assault. at the time, saudi authorities denied the allegations which a saudi court has now dismissed. her brother says this latest conviction, including a five year travel ban, now adds salt into those wounds. a sham trial, we could put it that way. it can clearly show that the court and the trial from day one has been

politically motivated. she started crying because of the fact that she has been labelled as a terrorist, basically. the un human rights office has said the sentence was deeply troubling. president—electjoe biden's national security adviser, jake sullivan, agrees it is unjust, adding pointedly, the biden—harris administration will stand up against human rights violations wherever they occur. but the kingdom's leadership has returned some basic human rights to help diversify its all—dependent economy, and after the saudi authority's controversial role in the murder ofjournalist jamal khashoggi. but for many others, as loujain al—hathloul‘s brother put it:. it's like going one step further but also going 10 steps backwards. kingdom continues. ——as the search for equal rights in the kingdom continues.

the number of patients being treated for covid—i9 in england's hospitals is now higher than it was at the previous peak in april this year. it's the latest evidence of the intense pressure on nhs services throughout the united kingdom. more than 40,000 new infections were reported in the uk in the past 2a hours —that‘s a record — as the new variant of coronavirus spreads rapidly.. our health editor hugh pym has the latest. there was a stark message today from homerton university hospital in east london. nurses and doctors are incredibly stretched caring for very sick patients. no one should underestimate the impact the infection can have. one hospital in south—east london has declared an internal incident because of the high number of covid patients. the queen elizabeth hospital in greenwich said it was working with health partners and patients were getting the care they needed. elsewhere in the capital, patient numbers continue to rise, with the variant of the virus found initially in the south east of england spreading more rapidly. accident and emergency departments reported intense pressure.

i was on on christmas day, and it was wall—to—wall covid. so we see patients who are coming in who have covid symptoms, but we also see other patients coming in with other problems who turn out to be covid—positive. and between that, there is a great deal of difficulty getting those patients through into the wards. an unprecedented amount of work... the medical director at one big hospital trust spelled out what they were facing. things have been really challenging over the last few days. i suppose the best illustration for that is on christmas eve we had about 170 patients with covid across our hospital sites, and today, we have around 242, so a very large increase has occurred over the last few days. the number of covid patients in hospitals in england reached a peak in the first wave of nearly 19,000 in april. then it fell away during the summer

before picking up again from september, and it's now above the level of that previous peak. so, what does that mean in practice? hospitals need more beds for covid patients and in some cases are moving staff from other areas to care for them. already some less urgent work is being cancelled. health leaders say the postponement of more routine operations and procedures will become more widespread. sadly, it's inevitable that as the infections rise and the admissions rise, that actually we see disruption to other services. we're desperate, our members are desperate to keep that disruption as low as possible, but unfortunately some of our elective and planned services will be disrupted, both in hospitals and in other settings as well. doctors in scotland have warned that their health system is severely stretched and are concerned that the limited household mixing on christmas day will have spread infections. inevitably, there will be a cost for this. one of the things that we're particularly concerned about here in scotland is that the new year

festivities will shortly be upon us. of course, there's no relaxation for those festivities, and it is extremely important that households don't mix. an official at public health wales has said that health services are under enormous pressure in an incredibly challenging situation. a significant proportion of the nhs workforce in wales is said to be off sick, a familiar story in other parts of the uk. hugh pym, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: how online games proved a lifeline to many looking for a relief from lockdown but can the industry continue its success post pandemic? music. the most ambitious financial and political change ever attempted has got under way with the introduction of the euro. tomorrow in holland, we're going to use money we picked up in belgium today, and then we'll be in france, and again, it'll be the same money. it's just got to be

the way to go. george harrison, the former beatle, is recovering in hospital after being stabbed at his oxfordshire home. a 33—year—old man from liverpool is being interviewed by police on suspicion of attempted murder. i think it was good. just good? no, fantastic! that's better! bells toll. this is bbc news, the latest headlines. us president—electjoe biden complains his transition team are not getting co—operation from the trump administation on crucial matters

like national security. a prominent saudi human rights activist who campaigned for women to be allowed to drive is jailed for six years. her family deny the charges. more now on that sentencing. it has been widely condemned by rights organisations around the world. karin karlekar is director of free expression at pen america. for loujain al—hathloul she has been convicted and sentenced and she has a ready been in jail and because of the time served, it could be possible she is released in a few months and will be pushing the saudis to hold to that. it will be a conditional release and subject to conditions after she left ofjail. she will not be to do anything without being rested again and banned from travel for five years. it will not be a situation

of freedom for her. i would say for free expression in saudi arabia in general, this is a signal that it is basically impossible to speak out in saudi arabia, to engage in basic activism, defence of human rights, critical journalism or basically saying anything that the regime does not want you to say without being subject to very, very severe repercussions. there are thousands of saudis facing constraints and dozens of political business in jails, some who have been in there for two or three years without any charge at all or legal process, basically forfree expression. it is a chilling development and america have condemned the verdict you will be fighting for the release of loujain al—hathloul and fighting for overturning this sentence altogether. despite that and the murder of jamal khashoggi, they are still the darlings of the west? is the more the west

can do or it will do? i would say that many governments have been speaking out so there has been some pressure on me saudi regime and we think comments from the french and german government, the government and us congress, the us relations committee smoke up today, and senator chris murphy and a number of senators and within congress there has been a concerted effort to speak out about the murder ofjamal khashoggi and the jailing of loujain al—hathloul. the problem is the trump administration has done nothing to hold them accountable and the crown prince for all their human rights violations and until that changes, it has been a problem. we are hopeful with any biden administration coming in in a few weeks and a few positive statements from his advisor today, that situation may change and we were the concerted efforts but without a change in the us administration, it has been a very very difficult process so far and we are hoping for some more push on human rights issues

from the saudis and making more political, economic cooperation and engagement on greater respect for human rights and releasing people unjustly held in saudi jails. thank you very much. a major study of the atlantic ocean, which has taken five years to complete, has discovered species previously unknown to science. using remote—controlled deep—sea robots, the project looked at the ocean and its hidden ecosystems in unprecedented detail. it also revealed how life in the deep ocean is being threatened by climate change , as our science correspondent victoria gill reports.(tx an ocean that covers one—fifth of the earth's surface, and from populous industrial coastlines to pristine ice—filled waters, one [ls—year study of the atlantic, exploring and taking samples from 12 regions of this vast ocean, has discovered a dozen species new to science.

this creature is a zoantharian. it uses its tentacles to trap food from the water. the researchers also found shellfish and five new species of coral. these static sea bed—dwellers provide the food and shelter that's the foundation of hotspots of life in the deep ocean. you can think of them as underwater cities. the scientists say their atlantic—wide study is just starting to map out where the most important places for life are. we can still say that we know less about the sea floor of the oceans than we do about the surface of the moon or mars. a very small percentage of the sea floor is actually being sampled. that means that pretty much anywhere you go that's new, you're going to find new species, and they might be tiny little worms, nematodes or things like that, but certainly the diversity‘s huge. and just like our natural environment on the land, life in the the oceans is being

affected by human activity. as the climate changes, so do our oceans, and the oceans are changing in ways that scientists are still learning about and trying to understand. so some of these whole ecosystems and newly discovered species could already be under threat. our oceans have absorbed nearly a third of the carbon dioxide that's been released into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution, and this has shifted the chemistry of the sea water that these animals have evolved in. this research is unravelling how diverse and interconnected life in the deep ocean is. and as our world changes quickly, these insights could be key to making sure that species don't disappear before they're even discovered. victoria gill, bbc news. the gaming industry has proved to be a coronavirus winner and a lifeline for tens of millions of consumers looking for relief from lockdown boredom. the number of people playing video games during 2020 was up 40% compared to before the pandemic. but will this success continue? and how does the industry plan on keeping the new gamers happy?. earlier i asked russ frushtick, co—founder of the games website polygon in new york, whether this success

would carry on in 2021. yeah, i don't know we will maintain the 40% outrageous number it is going this year but i do think we will see many people that for the first time picked up gaming during the pandemic and won't necessarily put it down in the coming years. the percentage, whatever that will work out to be, will be higher than pre— pandemic and that is where the growth has happened. who have been the biggest winners and losers in the business? yeah, i think in terms of winners, nintendo is one of the biggest ones. it had a huge hit with animal crossing and came at a time when people wanted to connect with others in the timing was perfect. even smaller games, a game called among us, it's multiplayer, free to play on your phone, easy to jump in with friends, smaller games have really done well as well. it does seem like maybe with this broadening of the audience reaching new, more casual players, maybe we will see less of the super, super hard—core very difficult tough

to get into games. then again, the demand is still there as well. you want to talk about losers? the only one jumps to mind is cyberpunk which, over the last couple of weeks, has stolen a lot of headlines by being profoundly anticipated and also broken, but i don't know if that had anything to do with the pandemic necessarily! laughter just briefly, where does it go from here, virtual or augmented reality? i think that is a few years off and virtual reality is still there but, again, the technology needs to get smaller. for the time being, i think it will be accessibility, people picking up games like animal crossing and among us, that are easy to jump into and have fun with others and, you know, just hunker down as best we can.

if there's one thing we're all looking forward to, it's welcoming a new year. new yorkers getting vocal, saying ‘good riddance' to 2020 with the help of a giant paper shedder. the cathartic event calling on people to bring forward their bad memories from the year that's been and toss them in. in keeping with coronavirus restrictions, only a small group gathered for the annual tradition in times square — the rest filling out their responses online. no prizes for guessing what the most popular response may have been. i just want to get rid of covid—19. goodbye covid—19. hopefully we all get vaccinated and we do not miss the final touch and goodbye to all of the people who are dying. i love that! you ready to shred that, willie? willie, drop it in, goodbye covid—19! amen to that. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter — i'm @bbc mike embley. thank you so much for watching.

a very frosty night out there in the glens of scotland. temperatures are not far off —10 degrees celsius, and over the next few days, it certainly is going to be cold enough for further wintry weather. not all of it pure snow, there will probably be some sleet around as well. now, the cold air has spread across many parts of the continent. the point is it's here to stay, so we're not going to see a wave of milder air coming off the atlantic any time soon. through the early hours, we're expecting snow showers across parts of scotland and also across the pennines. you can see sub—zero temperatures here, icy conditions in some areas as well. to the south of that, i think hit and miss showers. now, this is what happens through the morning. the wintry weather, for some of us, spreads from the north into the north west of england, through parts of the midlands,

parts of wales and quite possibly the south west. the snow showers continue across parts of scotland. elsewhere in the uk on tuesday, it's going to be a mixture of sunny spells and just the odd fleeting shower, perhaps wintry. and then through the course of tuesday evening, you can see snow and wintry showers continue there in scotland. elsewhere, it's going to be largely clear. here is the forecast for tuesday night into wednesday, and we expect the next spell of wintry weather coming in from the north—west, moving across ireland and then eventually into wales. now, again, there's a lot of cold air sitting across the uk. just hints of something a bit milder nibbling in the south west, but that's pretty much it. on wednesday, the next spell of wintry weather moves across ireland through the early hours, and then the thinking is it will move into wales. remember, there's a lot of cold air sitting on top of the uk, and then that wintry weather spreads quite possibly into the midlands, the south west and the south.

north of that, it's clearer, some snow across scotland, and temperatures around freezing. notice that over the next few days, heading towards the end of the week, we see certain areas of rain and snow mixed in, circling in areas, so there could be some substantial snow towards the end of the week. i say substantial, a covering. this is what it looks like, a sneak peek of new year's day, chilly and dry for now. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. the headlines: us president—electjoe biden has complained that his transition team are facing, what he called, irresponsible obstruction from the political leadership at the department of defense. joe biden said his staff were not getting adequate information and briefings on key national security matters. a prominent saudi human rights activist who campaigned for women to be allowed to drive has been sentenced to almost six years in jail on charges of spying and conspiracy. the un human rights office has called the sentencing of 31—year—old loujain al—hathloul ‘deeply troubling'. in the uk, the daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases has passed 40,000 for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic. there were 41,385 new cases, with 357 deaths in the last 24 hours, further increasing pressure on hospitals across the uk.