welcome to bbc news, i'm mark lobel with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. president trump is recorded on tape asking an election official to ‘find' him extra votes in the state of georgia. well, it's off to be shocked anymore by what the president does but this was truly shocking. a retired republican senator calls the tape a new low by donald trump but others in the party stand ready to back the president over unproven claims of election fraud. borisjohnson warns that covid restrictions in england are "probably about to get tougher" — as the uk records another 50,000 new cases in a single day. could julian assange finally be heading to the us to face charges of espionage? a judge is set to rule

on his case later. # walk on, walk on. and tributes to gerry marsden, the singer of ‘you'll never walk alone‘ who's died at the age of 78. hello and welcome to our viewers in the uk and around the globe. a recording has been released which appears to show president trump trying to persuade a senior republican official to "find" enough votes to overturn joe biden‘s victory in georgia. the washington post says the audio is from an hour—long phone call with georgia's secretary of state.

according to the newspaper mr trump alternately flattered, berated and threatened brad raffensperger to get him to recalculate the vote in his favour. 0ur reporter paul hawkins has the details. impeachment, the russian scandal and catching covid in the middle of a pandemic. the trump presidency has been a rollercoaster ride so on one level we shouldn't be surprised. after all, donald trump himself said... losing is never easy, not for me, it's not. but on another level, no—one could have foreseen that the president of the united states would ask georgia's top election official to find enough votes to overturn november's results. you can't let it happen and you are letting it happen. you know, i mean, i'm notifying you that you're letting it happen was up so you're letting it happen was up so look, all i want to do is this. ijust so look, all i want to do is this. i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. the call lasted an hour. the lawyer for the state

refuting the president's unsubstantiated claim that ballots had been shredded and voting machinery had been removed. the secretary of state added... adding on twitter he has no clued. does luh. brad raffensperger replied... the truth will come out. condemnation of the call has been swift with the former republican leader of the house of representatives saying it was difficult to conceive of a more antidemocratic and anti— conservative act. well, it's tough to be shocked anymore by what the president does but this was truly shocking. extraordinary to put pressure ona extraordinary to put pressure on a republican secretary of state to find the votes are men, that's that's awful stuff. —— i mean. men, that's that's awful stuff. -- i mean. joe biden team said it was irrefutable proof...

i wouldn't say he has committed a criminal offence. i think he has done what he has done for so has done what he has done for so long which is attempted to bully the secretary of state and the secretary of state deserves a great deal of courage. he is a republican who was elected to office and he refused to be bullied. he is holding an election rally on —— in georgia. both races are tight with the outcome deciding who controls the senate and therefore how easy it is for incoming presidentjoe biden to do what he wants. but if republican voters in georgia to leave the president's claims of board, how likely are they to trust the process this time round? —— of fraud. and will even bother to vote? 0ur correspondent lebo diseko is in washington and told us more

about the phone call. within the past half hour, kamala harris gave her reaction to the tape. it was most certainly the voice of desperation, most certainly that. and it was bald face bold abuse of power by the president of the united states. 0ur correspondent lebo diseko is in washington and told us more about the phone call. this conversation, it is just jaw—dropping, i listened to it with my mouth open and i did not think i could be shocked any more in this call, you hear donald trump asking brad raffensperger to re—examine the election result in that state. just to put this in context, this is two days that this audience ——

two days that this audience —— two days that this audience —— two days before crucial senate run—offs in the state and the outcomes of those will be who controls the senate. republicans find themselves trying to get people going out to vote when their own president is doing this. let's speak to republican, peter wehner, who previously served in the bush and reagan administrations. he's vice president and senior fellow at the ethics and public policy center. thank you forjoining us on bbc news was up i understand you spent an hour listening to this call is not what is your reaction? shocked and not shocked. shocked because the president of the united states would pull something like this which is a flagrant abuse of power, may be a criminal act. not shocked because it is donald trump who did it. it is parfor donald trump who did it. it is par for the course, he donald trump who did it. it is parfor the course, he is, as i have said for a long time, a person with socio— patent tendencies —— sociopathic philipe as somebody who is fundamentally immoral,

nihilistic, a pathological liar and he will do anything to stay his own power and advance his own interest including this call. but this is not a surprise. this is what he has been doing for —— since virtually day one. we will see how republicans react. in the call, donald trump says it is risky, possible criminal activity for the sexual estate not to act to find these votes. —— secretary of state. not to act to find these votes. -- secretary of state. i am not a lawyer so i will defer to them. i imagine he is getting up them. i imagine he is getting up to the line if he is not actually crossed it. but this call actually, people should listen to it. i have listened to parts of it, but it really is an embodiment of chump to flatter, to intimidate and threaten with legal sanctions —— embodiment of trump. this is a desperate man trying to do

everything that he can to get his way so it is really a remarkable thing to see. whether he has crossed the line 01’ whether he has crossed the line or not, is one of the significant things about the call is that it comes days before the senate run—offs on tuesday in georgia. do you think with 3 million voters possibly more democrat and republican having voted already, this may backfire on the republica ns' already, this may backfire on the republicans' campaign there? is going to backfire because of the question is whether it backfired enough to cost the two republicans the seat. a very prominent republican who was quite pessimistic about both seats, the democrats would win both. trump has made thejob of republicans much harder than it needed to be because of the way he has acted, both in the call and also calling into question the voting process and basically saying the entire system is rigged which of

course raises in the mind of trump supporter ‘s why do we even vote if we are voting in rigged elections? you have written the book about how the party should heal. has what you have heard today made that task more difficult? yeah, sure, of course. in this last part of the trump presidency has been a nightmare for republicans. the republican party which became complicit in it very early on is now paying the price. i think a lot of republicans are wilfully blind in not knowing that ronald trump would lead them down these very dark alleyways —— donald trump is a bit was inevitable that he would do so because he is fundamentally somebody with sociopathic tendencies and they should have known, they should have been alert to the fact that he would go this direction, he would go down

this far. and if they stayed with him, they would go down with him, they would go down with him, they would go down with him put up many of them have. what is interesting is in the last 48—72 hours, a number of republicans are breaking with trump in his effort to try and distil the election for the people like mitch mcconnell and mitt romney. —— try and steal the election for top this is really i think the beginnings of it is notjust the end of the trump presidency, it is the beginning of the fight for the soul of the republican party was dubbed it is going to be fight but a lot is at stake. peter, thank you so much for joining us. thanks for your analysis. the british prime minister has warned that coronavirus restrictions in england are "probably about to get tougher" in order to bring the virus under control. there've been another 55,000 positive cases recorded in the uk in the latest 2a hour—period — and a further a54 people have died. it's one of the worst affected countries in the world. here's our political

correspondent, chris mason. arriving in a hurry to deliver a difficult message. the prime minister gave his first interview of the year, today. he warned that coronavirus restrictions in england are likely to get worse before they get better. it may be that we need to do things in the next few weeks that will be tougher in many parts of the country. i don't... you know... i'm fully, fully reconciled to that. and i bet... so... ..the people of this country are reconciled to that. the prime minister's analysis of this pandemic from the very start has often contained splashes of optimism, but today felt different. vaccines and testing offer hope, but borisjohnson struck a sombre tone, as he lent

on downbeat language about the need to be realistic about the very difficult period ahead. primary schools in england outside london and parts of the south east were expected to reopen this week, but some, at the last minute today, have decided to remain closed. in secondaries in england, there'll be a staggered start to the new term, with pupils expecting exams in the summer going back first. schools are safe. very, very important to stress that. the threat to... the risk to kids, to young people is really, very, very, very small indeed, as the scientists continually attest. the risk to staff is very small. and, of course, the benefits of education are so huge. but the signs of everyday life, like these in high wycombe in buckinghamshire, are here to stay. and labour have now gone a step further, calling for another england—wide lockdown. it is inevitable that more schools are going to close, many will be closed tomorrow morning. but the more important thing, in a way, is that national

restrictions need to come in, in the next 2a hours. let's not have the prime minister saying, "i'm going to do it, "but not yet", that's the problem he's made so many times. the prospect of further restrictions, shops closed, a slump in demand, staff home—schooling their children, is placing colossal pressures on businesses and a demand for more support. how do we get this bridge across from a really difficult christmas period for small business, through to the spring or through to the easter, which people are now thinking is the recovery and, actually, the government should be throwing everything it's got at helping small businesses to survive the next two to three months. and so, 2021 begins as 2020 ended, shrouded in worry and uncertainty. the vaccines will allow us to turn a corner in tackling this pandemic. but the rest of winter looks bleak. chris mason, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news, still to come:

# walk news, still to come: on, well:... tributes to gerry # walk on, well: . .. tributes to gerry marsden, the singer of you'll never walk alone who has died at the age of 78. the japanese people are in mourning. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it was announced he was dead. good grief! after half a century of lighting bands around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quick. the simon starts his tour to south africa tomorrow and spite of protest and violence from some black activist groups. they say international artist should continue to boycott south africa until majority rule is established copy around the world, people have been paying tribute to the iconic rock star

david bowie who sold 140 million albums and a career that spanned half a century. his family announced overnight that he had died of cancer at the age of 69. the world's tallest skyscraper, the bridge dubai, has easily overtaken its nearest rivals. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: the us president is recorded on a phone call demanding a georgia election official finds votes for him so that he can overturn joe biden‘s win. borisjohnson warns that coronavirus restrictions in england could probably become tougher, as the uk again records more than 50,000 new cases per day. the wikileaks website has called for charges against it's founderjulian assange to be dropped, ahead of a judge's

decision on monday on whether to extradite him from the uk to america. he's wanted in the united states in connection with the publication of classified documents ten years ago. he's currently being held at belmarsh prison near london, after breaching his bail conditions two years ago. our world affairs editor, john simpson has the story. julian assange set up wikileaks as a crusade to reveal corruption and abuses right around the world. light them all up. come on, fire! this, for instance, is a video of american soldiers firing from a helicopter at iraqi civilians in baghdad. the us military tried to keep it secret but assange broke their code and made it public. in 2010, he handed hundreds of thousands of us diplomatic cables and military logs to newspapers around the world, uncovering huge numbers of american intelligence secrets and agents.

soon after that, sweden issued an international arrest warrant for assange, alleging sexual assault. when the high court in london decided he should be extradited to sweden, assange broke bail and took refuge in the ecuadorian embassy. the united states must renounce its witch—hunt against wikileaks. in 2014, i went to see him in the embassy, which was only the size of a large flat. it's a difficult situation. other people are in more difficult situations. before the 2016 us election, wikileaks published secret democratic party e—mails which damaged hillary clinton and may have helped her opponent, donald trump, to become president. it alleged the hacking came from russian agents. sweden's case against assange for rape came to nothing.

but finally in 2019 ecuador allowed the british police to arrest him and he was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for breaking bail. the us government started proceedings to extradite him. there is, say newspaper editors, an attack on press freedom but one american expert says the true charge against assange is hacking government secrets. i think that the story should be a truthful one. there's a lot of stuff being peddled. the discussion about what wikilea ks is will change significantly and you won't see so many journalism outlets, so many organisations, ngos, to support journalism making what are really unsupportable claims about this being a political prosecution. it's simply not. assange's lawyer disagrees. this means any journalist reporting upon the crimes of a foreign nation, reporting truthful information about human rights abuses,

war crimes, can be extradited. the most dangerous aspect of this is that not only can you be extradited but when you return to the united states, as in this case, you will not benefit from constitutional protections which is a terrifying precedent. even if tomorrow's judgement goes against assange, the appeals process will last a long time. john simpson, bbc news. we can speak to chip gibbons, policy director at the us civil liberties organisation, defending rights and dissent. thanks forjoining us. thank you for having me, it's an honour to be on abc. what do you think thejudge honour to be on abc. what do you think the judge will decide? unfortunately a lot of observers of the trial have said that thejudge observers of the trial have said that the judge will most likely grant extradition to assange to the us and then there will be appeals. eisa u nfortu nately there will be appeals. eisa unfortunately because julian

assange's case is a case about a political event. the us government has pursued julian assange for over a decade because he released information about us crimes and us war crimes and as the judge heard during the trial, human rights experts testified how they used that information in their own work to get justice for victims of drone strikes in pakistan, to get justice of drone strikes in pakistan, to getjustice for of drone strikes in pakistan, to get justice for victims of drone strikes in pakistan, to getjustice for victims of torture in guantanamo. some of the information that was used in the guantanamo case has been taken up by the icc investigation into us war crimes in afghanistan. 0f course, the icc prosecutor has also been sanctioned by the us, and this case, as a us civil liberties activist is very important to me becausejulian assange is the first person charged under the espionage act for publishing the printing of truthful information and if you can charge assange, everyone has said, you can charge the new york times which has

published the same information which is why the new york times, the guardian and all these new papers and free—speech groups are against this. but from the perspective of the world, it is even more significant. assange is not a us citizen, he does not seek to operate in the us, he is an australian national, he operate abroad and the us is essentially saying, it has the right to apply it in our extraterritorial lead to any publisher, any journalist in the world who publishes information it doesn't like. in this case, information that was newsworthy, hence why the new york times, the guardian and all of these different outlets covered at, about us human rights abuses and us war crimes. the us public has a right to know in order to make an informed decision about its own foreign policy and to know what it is the government does and in information that people of the world had a right to

know because everyone has a right to know when a human right to know when a human right abuses committed. if i may, you are saying that you expect he might be a productive, but either way, think that there will be an appeal? my understanding is that either way there will be an appealand it that either way there will be an appeal and it will go on for an appeal and it will go on for a while. and if it comes to the us, there will be constitutional challenges to the charges against him. thank you so much forjoining us here on bbc news. gerry marsden, the leader of the british band, gerry and the pacemakers, has died at the age of 78. he was, perhaps, best known for his version of "you'll never walk alone", a hit adopted by fans of marsden‘s local football team, liverpool. daniela relph looks back at his life. # walk on, walk on...#. gerry marsden. # with hope in your heart...# with one unforgettable anthem.

# and you'll never walk...#. he was as much a part of liverpool's story as the mersey ferry and the anfield kop. # alone...# girls scream. born in toxteth, his career began at the legendary cavern club in the early ‘60s. gerry and his band, the pacemakers, were spotted by beatles manager, brian epstein. he gave them a song that had been turned down by the fab four and adam faith. # how do you do what you to me...#. how do you do it was a huge hit on both sides of the atlantic. we'd never heard ourselves on tape before and it got to number one and we were very pleased. the beatles were upset and so was adam, i think. he chuckles. newsreel archive: the girls are at the top of their screaming form, if the reception they give to gerry and the pacemakers is anything to go by. # i like it, i like it...#. more followed, as the mersey beat swept the world. # the funny feeling being here with you. # and i like it more with every day.

# and i like it always hearing you say you're liking it too...#. # so, ferry, cross the mersey...#. but it was as a singer of gentle ballads for which he'll be remembered. ferry across the mersey was a nostalgic expression of his love for liverpool. # walk on, walk on...#. and then, with a song from a rodgers and hammerstein musical, gerry marsden struck a chord with fans at his beloved anfield. the band may have split up in 1966, but as he proved nearly half a century later, at the 25th anniversary of the hillsborough disaster, musically and emotionally, he'll always be a part of the heart and soul of the club. gerry marsden, who's

died at the age of 78. china is celebrating a successful year of breeding pandas, and they've released some new footage of the animals at play. 44 giant pandas were bred in captivity in china in 2020, bringing the country's total panda population to 633. these ones were filmed playing in the snow at the wolong national nature reserve in sichuan province, in south—west china. having a very good time there. good thing they wrapped up warm. a reminder of our top story, the us media have attained a phone call recording where president trump puts pressure on georgia's top election official. and an hour—long conversation, mr trump said that he wanted to find one more vote thanjoe biden, one of the

president—elect‘s advisers say they now have irrefutable proof ofa they now have irrefutable proof of a president pressuring an official from his own of a president pressuring an officialfrom his own party of a president pressuring an official from his own party to get him to ascend a state certified vote count. thanks for watching, goodbye. hello. 2021 started on a cold and wintry note. through the weekend we have seen sleet and snow from many places, not everywhere, this was near sheffield on sunday afternoon. there's also been heavy rain showers around. over the coming few days the story stays the same, staying cold with a mix of rain, sleet and snow, mainly over hills, the snow. some sunshine but often windy conditions, particularly through monday and tuesday. we have high pressure sitting to the north of the uk, low pressure towards the south, south—west and in between your drawing in that cold wind coming in from the north—east of the north sea so that brings showers on monday, rain for east anglia and the south—east and

the channel isles and further north, one or two wintry showers over the pennines, southern uplands and one or two over the higher ground of wales. a good deal of sunshine developing for many areas, it is a windy day, though, with gusts over 40 mph along the coast of east anglia and through the english channel. temperatures up to around 4—6 degrees, below average for the time of year and feeling colder when you add that wind—chill. moving through monday evening, overnight into tuesday, more showers feeding in from the north sea on the north—easterly wind and it could be ice and snow around for parts of eastern scotland and north—east england as well with temperatures overnight not quite as cold as recent nights but still getting down to freezing or below, the coldest across the north—west. heading into tuesday, a similar day to monday, watch out for ice and snow once again, particularly for eastern scotland, northern england and further rain showers to come for east anglia and the south—east of england and the channel isles,

this stubborn area of cloud and rain persisting and another cold day with some sunshine and around 3—6 degrees and still are wind—chill on tuesday. moving through into wednesday, high pressure moves towards the west so we are in between weather systems heading into wednesday, a quieter day and the breeze turns to a northerly direction for the middle to the end of the week. probably quite a bit of sunshine and a few showers for eastern england, one or two for the south—east and channel isles as well. and it is staying cold for the time of year with temperatures only about 1—4 degrees on wednesday. bye for now.

this is bbc news, the headlines: donald trump is recorded on tape asking an election official in georgia to ‘find' extra votes for him, in an attempt to change the official result of the presidential election in the state that certified joe biden as the winner. one of president—elect joe biden‘s advisors said they now had irrefutable proof of a president pressuring an official from his own party to get him to rescind a state's lawful, certified vote count. the white house has not yet responded to the call being made public. borisjohnson has warned that coronavirus restrictions in england are ‘probably about to get tougher‘ to curb the rise in infections. the labour leader, sir keir starmer, has called for a new national lockdown to be announced within the next 24 hours. with some schools reopening tomorrow after

the christmas break, there are concerns there