welcome to bbc news — i'm rich preston. our top stories: police in the bahamas arrest the former head of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange, ftx, at the request of the united states. more than 30 years after the lockerbie disaster, the accused bomb—maker is charged at a court in washington. the european parliament's president says the institution and european democracy is under attack, following a corruption scandal. and could we be one step closer to abundant clean energy? reports of a major breakthrough in nuclearfusion.

police in the bahamas have arrested the former ceo of the cryptocurrency exchange ftx, sam bankman—fried. he's also known as �*sbf�*. that's after the bahamas received formal notification from the united states of criminal charges against him in connection with the collapse of ftx in november. it's now likely the united states will request his extradition. our correspondent david willis has been following these developments from los angeles. the attorney general in the bahamas, a man called ryan pinder, has issued a statement a short while ago in which he talks about the arrest of sam bankman—fried, and he says it follows receipt of formal notification as he puts it from the united states, that it, the us, has filed criminal charges against sbf and is likely to request his

extradition, and that statement goes on to say "as a result of the notification received on the us and the material provided therewith, it was deemed appropriate for the attorney general to seek sbf�*s arrest." now this is a sealed indictment from prosecutors in new york, the details of which have not been made publicly available, it was expected that would happen when mr bankman—fried appears before a magistrate�*s court in the bahamas and the capital nassau there on tuesday. i can tell you the new york times is reporting the charges against him include, wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering, those are some very serious charges. meanwhile, mr sam bankman—fried is in custody as i said in the bahamas, and officials there say they are pursuing their own investigation into his activities,

in cooperation with us officials. for more on this, we can speak now to nick de, he's a reporter for coindesk, a news site that covers digital currencies. talk us through what took us to this point? it talk us through what took us to this point?— this point? it has been a re this point? it has been a pretty wild _ this point? it has been a pretty wild ride, - this point? it has been a pretty wild ride, a - this point? it has been a| pretty wild ride, a month this point? it has been a - pretty wild ride, a month ago coin desk reported there were some questions about the balance sheet belonging to elevator research another company founded by the ceo sam bankman—fried. and what transpired is that they had borrowed a large amount of funds from ftx and was entirely possible ftx been loaning customer funds rather than its own corporate funds to its sister company. ftx filed for

bankruptcy early last month, and sam bankman—fried resigned as ceo, the new ceo who took over came in and said ftx had no corporate governance, no real documentation as to what exactly it had in terms of assets, the estimate is over a million customers owed money now, and we are going through a bankruptcy process. it is bankruptcy process. it is important _ bankruptcy process. it is important you _ bankruptcy process. it is important you mentioned the corporate governance, sam bankman—fried denies forward he says but he is not guilty of any fraud, but the charges against him are pretty weighty what his he accused of? this against him are pretty weighty what his he accused of? as you correspondence _ what his he accused of? as you correspondence in _ what his he accused of? as you correspondence in wire - what his he accused of? as you correspondence in wire fraud i correspondence in wire fraud and security fraud are the big one and the american commission says it will file its own security —related charges tomorrow morning as well, and a lot of these come down to questions about how exactly ftx

handled its customer funds, some of the claims sam bankman—fried has made over the past month to various reporters and other public fenders included a pledge that was just poor management also that a lot of these companies that are within the ftx umbrella, 100 companies, some are solvent, and the current ceo has said thatis and the current ceo has said that is inaccurate, these companies did not have a viable, us companies for example were sending funds to its corporate parent in the bahamas, there was no real clarity as to who was able to access these funds, insiders were able to take his funds and by houses and real estate in the bahamas, basically the sheer number of corporate governance failures that have been alleged are severe and thatis been alleged are severe and that is a huge part of where some of these charges come from. , , ., .,~ , ., from. this is a wake-up or maker community -

from. this is a wake-up or maker community in - from. this is a wake-up or maker community in the i from. this is a wake-up or l maker community in the us, from. this is a wake-up or - maker community in the us, what are they looking at when it comes to digital currencies now? . .,~ , comes to digital currencies now? . w , ,, comes to digital currencies now? . n , ,, ., now? lawmakers in the us have been talking _ now? lawmakers in the us have been talking about _ now? lawmakers in the us have been talking about digital - been talking about digital currencies for white whale but there hasn't been a lot of action, we haven't seen much in the way of legislation or concrete acts from leaders either, as a result of the ftx collapse we are seeing multiple congressional hearings, there was one tomorrow mr sam bankman—fried was meant to speak at i expect that will not be happening anymore, there will be hearing tomorrow with the us house of representatives financial service committee discussed its collapse specifically there will be another meeting talking about crypto more broadly the speaker suggesting they would look at consumer protection rules and questions of whether or not it's possible to prevent another ftx like from happening again, the big question is whether or not any legislation will result after these

hearings, . the libyan man accused of making the bomb that destroyed a us passenger plane over lockerbie in southern scotland in 1988 has appeared in court. the explosion killed 270 people. abi agila masud is alleged to have been a member of libya's intelligence service. us prosecutors say he won't face the death penalty. our north america editor sarah smith has this report. abi agila masud was told in court what the charges against him are and that he could face life in prison if convicted. he's accused of making the bomb that killed 270 people when it blew up pan am flight 103, over lockerbie in 1988. two years ago, that then us attorney general, william barr, announced formal criminal charges against masud. why is it important that masud is brought to the us and tried in american court? from a policy standpoint, i think it's important to let it be known that if you attack americans, you are going to be

brought to justice, even if it takes 30 years. when we learned in november of 1991, when we came to the determination that this was the libyans that carried out the attacks, my own personal view was that it was not enough just to go and seek to try the individual agents who were acting on behalf of libya. obviously the intelligence service doesn't go off on its own and do these things. so i felt we had to take direct action against libya and i felt that we should establish the precedent at that point that if you attack, if you engage in this kind of mass atrocity, terroristic attack on the united states that you will be signing your own death warrant. while masud was in custody in libya on separate charges, he confessed to his part in the lockerbie attack. are you convinced there is enough evidence to guarantee a conviction? that is the standard we use in the department ofjustice which is we don't bring charges unless we feel we have admissible evidence sufficient to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt

that the individual is guilty. we know there was an interview he gave that to libyan law enforcement in which he described his involvement in the lockerbie bombing. do you have evidence beyond that? have you seen evidence beyond that? i can't get into talking about the evidence i saw while i was attorney general, and i certainly don't know what evidence has been developed in the subsequent time. but there is additional evidence? we did spend time developing additional evidence beyond his interview with libyan law enforcement. abi agila masud will appear in court again on the 27th of december. a full criminal trial will not begin until next year. sarah smith, bbc news, washington. let's get some of the day's other news. in south america: police in peru have once again clashed with protesters as anti—government demonstrators blocked the airport in peru's second largest city, arequipa.

demonstrators are calling for the reinstatement of the former president pedro castillo after he was ousted last week. five people have now died in clashes with security forces since the protests began. chile is battling to control the spread of several wildfires that are impacting its central region. more than 4,000 hectares have been destroyed and local communities put at risk. authorities have asked residents to evacuate. the federal government and emergency agencies have met to discuss firefighters' progress and the threat of new outbreaks. china says it'll deactivate a phone app that tracked people's movements during the pandemic. it's the latest step in beijing abandoning its zero—covid strategy. the app used a person's phone signal to determine whether they'd travelled to an area with infections. in south—east asia, authorities in indonesia say foreigners visiting the country will not be charged under its new law which criminalises sex outside marriage. the legislation, which is due

to take effect in three years, carries a penalty of up to a year injailfor sex outside marriage. businesses are worried that the strict law will negatively impact indonesia's tourism industry. the european parliament has been engulfed in a corruption scandal, with allegations that qatar has bribed eu officials to try to win influence. president roberta metsola said the assembly would be launching an internal investigation over the allegations. here, she is addressing the european parliament. the enemies of democracy for whom the very existence of this parliament is a threat will stop at nothing. these malign actors linked to autocratic third countries have allegedly weaponised and ngos, unions, individuals,

assistants and members of the european parliament in an effort to subdue our processes. to discuss this we can speak to kim scheppele, who's an expert on the european union and professor at the princeton school of public and international affairs. thank you for being with us, what do you make of this? this came as quite _ what do you make of this? this came as quite a _ what do you make of this? this came as quite a shock- what do you make of this? ti 3 came as quite a shock to everyone because a scandal like this hasn't happened and anyone's living memory in the european parliament, also it has a lot of goals that are supposed to prevent this kind of thing from happening, so when the story broke the first reaction from brussels was shot in the second reaction was you heard from president roberta metsola a strong response this was something the european parliament wouldn't tolerate. you mentioned structures in place within the european system, the european commissioner when she came into power promised to do more to

bolster those but there have been accusations they don't go far enough, tell us how they work and what more could be in there? ., , there? right now, every eumpean _ there? right now, every european institution - there? right now, every european institution hasj there? right now, every i european institution has its own ethics rules, and its own internal procedures for monitoring whether ethics rules are being followed. the president when she first became president when she first became president of the european commission, promised that during her time she would establish an institution wide you ethics party, that has been so far mostly talk and no action, and may be a little bit ironic because the only institution in the eu that has tried to push this proposal forward was the european parliament, they passed a resolution last september and 2021, outlining whatjust such an ethics body should be, but so far as we can tell nothing has happened since that time. it's important to say qatar denies any accusation of corruption, a statement

released yesterday saying we are not aware of any details of the investigation in the country complies with international laws and regulations. nevertheless, roberta metsola says democracy is under attack, is it? certainly democracy is under attack when what was happening attack when what was happening at behind—the—scenes bits not something that involves actual representations of the citizens supposed to be acting on their behalf so when you have a foreign government that is alleged to have done this kind and, of course it will generate and, of course it will generate a great deal of concern, there were a couple of files before the parliament that directly affected qatar, i know they havejust affected qatar, i know they have just denied this, but certainly this would have been an opportunity at least you can see exactly why it would be country would be very interested exactly how the parliament decided. democratic institutions rely on being

transparent to the citizens and when things like this happen behind—the—scenes it is a assault on democracy. kim scheppele. assault on democracy. kim scheppele— assault on democracy. kim scheppele. very good to get our scheppele. very good to get your insights. _ stay with us on bbc news. still to come: following the arrest of a group of alleged coup—plotters in germany, the country's parliament considers tightening its gun laws. cheering and singing saddam hussein is finished, because he killed our people, our women, our children. the signatures took only a few minutes but they brought a formal end to 3.5 years of conflict — conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives. before an audience of world leaders, the presidents of bosnia, serbia and croatia put their names to the peace agreement.

the romanian border was sealed and silent today. romania has cut itself off from the outside world in order to prevent the details of the presumed massacre in timisoara from leaking out. from sex at the white house to a trial for his political life, the lewinsky affair tonight guaranteeing bill clinton his place in history as only the second president ever to be impeached. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: police in the bahamas arrest the former head of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange, ftx, at the request of the united states. more than 30 years after the lockerbie air crash, the accused bomb—maker is charged at a court in washington. in germany, parliamentarians have been holding private sessions to discuss whether gun

laws need tightening to bolster national security. it follows the arrest of a group of far—right figures last week, accused of plotting to replace the german government. ministers said the group posed a very real danger and that their plans were far—reaching. our europe editor, katya adler, reports from eastern germany, where the plot was hatched. hidden in germany's rural east, this aristocratic hunting lodge was at the heart of a plot to storm the german parliament and take over the country. all before christmas. there it is, in the trees. ghostly silence now. this was the scene here on wednesday. one of the biggest security operations in german history, with arrests across the country. the plotters included top military brass, trained to kill. neighbours have told us that you had police here searching the property and one of the

policemen commented that they were looking for possible weapons and explosives. hordes of weapons were seized in numerous locations. in the sleepy village, locals are still rubbing their eyes in disbelief. "it's crazy," christina told me, "like a play, "not real life." presentation back i have friends and family who agree with the plotters. that scares me. the alleged mastermind, dubbed the putsch prince, is hereditary loyalty. the head of his family, who lives in austria, told me he fears for their reputation. translation: we'd already distanced ourselves - from him as a family because of his racist conspiracy theories. he was a bitter man who got in with a dangerous crowd. dangerous because they had weapons and were ready to use them, but the police never believe

that their coup would succeed. what really worries the security forces here is that this is a moment of social instability in germany, as in many other european countries. on the back of the pandemic, the war in ukraine and the rising cost of living. more germans say they are fed up with their government and they seem more open to conspiracy theories and extremist groups say they are finding more willing listeners. lockdown protests at the height of the covid pandemic were big recruiting grounds for the far—left and especially the hard right in germany. we are not any longer talking about those outsiders that you can identify very easily from the way they are living. we have nazis in pinstriped suits. extremism has grown like a cancer more in the middle of our society. death threats and attacks against those seen as the enemy, like this intelligence chief, have risen sharply.

security is being stepped up here but the biggest worry for the german authorities is the new threat from within. patti adler, bbc news, berlin. the last public confederate statue on display in richmond, virginia, was removed on monday. ambrose powell hill was a confederate general killed in battle days before the american civil war ended in april 1865. this memorial to him was taken down by crane. richmond is among many cities which have removed symbols of the south's legacy of slavery in recent years. the campaign gained momentum after protests against police brutality and racism that followed the murder of george floyd in 2020. netflix has released clips from the second half of the series on harry and meghan. in these newly released episodes, meghan says she was fed to the wolves after she joined the royal family, and harry suggests the british media was happy to lie to protect his brother,

but never willing to tell the truth to protect him and his wife. to see this institutional gaslighting. i wasn't being thrown to the wolves, i was being fed to the wolves. they were actively. recruiting people to disseminate information. they were happy to lie to protect my brother. they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us. our royal correspondent, nicholas witchell, says the trailer leaves many questions unanswered. these are trailers. the purpose of the trailer is to attract attention and hype the contents. the programmes last week did not live up to the hype of last week's trailers. but in this instance, the presentation of these two sentences, "they were happy to lie to protect my "brother, they were never willing to tell the truth "to protect us," it's ambiguous. who is the �*they�* that harry is referring to there? is it the palace or the british media? either way, what is the evidence? this requires more than vague generalisations.

to the us now, where reports suggest there's been a major breakthrough in the field of nuclearfusion. scientists at this federal lab in california say they may have found a way to generate more energy than the amount they put in. nuclearfusion works by combining, rather than splitting, atomic nuclei. hurdles do still remain, but this net energy gain could bring the world one step closer to an abundant source of clean energy. i've been speaking to anna erickson, professor of nuclear and radiological engineering at georgia tech, for more on this breakthrough. this was very exciting news for the community and i'm so happy to share this, looking forward to the announcement tomorrow. it turns out that we may have achieved a break even even point where we get as much energy as we put in and that would be for the first time,

it's happening at the national ignition facility, you notice the word ignition and it means exactly that, getting that reaction to be productive, getting more energy than you put in, so looking forward to the wonderful news tomorrow. in layman �*s terms, how have they achieved this? what have they actually done in the lab? fusion fascinates everybody because it is so mysterious but it is all over the place, the sun works with fusion, so it's the most naturalthing, but it's difficult because in fusion you put two nuclei together and they are positively charged so if you try to put two magnets together, they tend to repel each other, it can be difficult. same with nuclei, you have to put a lot of work into make them come together so the nuclear forces take over. once you achieve that, once the two nuclei are close enough, they fuse, hence the word fusion, and that energy is released.

and more amounts than traditional fission energy. so why is it so difficult? fission and fusion were discovered at almost the same time in the 1930s. ten years later we had the atomic bomb and nuclear power plants operating on this basis. breaking things is easier than putting them together. fusion still remains ahead of us, so this is a great breakthrough but it's a step forward. i can't imagine we are all going to be switching on our nuclear fusion reactors in our kitchen cupboards tomorrow morning. what hurdles still remain? if you look at the largest laser facility in the world, which means it pumps a lot of energy into something very tiny, the target they are working with is the size of an eraser for a pencil, and inside of that eraser—sized

target there is something smaller, the secretary target contains those elements that fused together, including hydrogen, they are both elements of hydrogen. so they are so small, the engineering has to be incredibly precise. we are talking about precision that is far beyond what can even be imagined on a mass scale, however, if tomorrow's announcement is about the breakthrough, then i guess the engineering is working. the oldest member of the south korean boy band, bts, is starting his mandatory military duty on tuesday. jin is the first member to enlist since the group went on haters this year and on sunday posted this photo of himself with his new military buzz cut. hugely popular group say they will regroup in several years' time after all seven men have completed a national service

you can reach me on twitter. i'm @richpreston. from everyone on the team here in london, thank you and goodbye. hello there, for many of us, the cold weather will last for the of this week and we had some sunshine on monday, but it was a really cold start to the day, temperatures in royal deeside, braemar got down to minus 15.7, the lowest temperature recorded in the uk for over a year and after such a cold start to the day temperatures only got on to minus 9.3, that made it the coldest day for over a decade according to provisional data from the met office. the cold weather has been brought in by an area of high pressure over greenland, losing its grip. heading into the weekend there are signs of something of a change across south—western areas with some of us seeing a return to milder weather.

before we get there, over the next few hours we could have a few issues around with ice patches around particularly for northern ireland, down the eastern side of england, mist and fog also causing problems in north—east england, the midlands, wales, lincolnshire, visibility down to 100 metres in some places. we sometimes see the lowest temperature at about nine o'clock this time of year, the temperature overnight low, record is under threat, it has certainly been very cold over recent hours. throughout the day there will be a fair bit of sunshine, generally through east anglia and south—east england but still some further showers falling as snow across northern england. cold to watch out for, cold for just about everyone but we are watching the weather system just move into the english channel, we might even see a bit of menace from this, something we are keeping close eye on. looking at the weather picture into the middle part of the week, we will continue with this cold northerly winds, bringing lots of snow showers to northern areas of scotland

and as the winds pick up here we are looking at some blizzards and drifting up over the high ground, and elsewhere wednesday will bring a largely fine and sunny day, a few showers coming down our coastal areas, and it could be wintry, but the most it's a sunny but really cold kind of day with temperatures not changing a great deal through the rest of this week. we are looking ahead later in the week and moving on into the weekend for that change to milder weather conditions. the transition might bring some rain and some snow for one or two of you for a time and eventually south—westerly winds will bring milder air. it looks like the change will head in its over the weekend. you can find out more on that by looking at the bbc weather app on android or apple.

this is bbc news. the headlines: police in the bahamas have arrested the former head of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange — ftx . they said sam bankman—fried had been detained as a result of criminal charges being filed in america. a police statement said washington was likely to seek his extradition. ftx filed for bankruptcy last month. a former libyan intelligence officer has appeared in court in washington to face charges of making the bomb that destroyed a passenger plane over lockerbie in scotland more than three decades ago. relatives of some of the victims were in court to see abu agila masud in person. the president of the european parliament says any members found guilty of corruption will face the full extent of the law.

on sunday, a vice—president of the parliament was one of four people arrested and charged with corruption