welcome to bbc news — i'm david willis. our top stories: mission accomplished for lionel messi. he leads argentina to world cup glory. they beat france in the final. jubilation in buenos aires at a first world cup win in 36 years. people tell me these past few weeks have offered the opportunity to dream again, to smile and be united. yes, this is a footballing nation, but this win means so much more. we'll have reaction from both paris and buenos aires, and look back on a world cup like no other. also ahead:

as the uk's high court prepares to rule on whether it's legal to send asylum—seekers to rwanda, we report from kigali. a warning from the canadian arctic, where polar bears are increasingly threatened by a warming world. elon musk asks twitter—users whether he should stay in charge, and promises to abide by their decision. welcome to bbc news. after 29 days, 64 matches, 172 goals and countless broken dreams, the world cup in qatar has ended with argentina as champions. they beat france in a match which many have hailed as the best final ever, despite france's kylian mbappe scoring a hat—trick.

it means argentina's lionel messi, who scored twice himself, will end his international career as a world cup winner. we begin our coverage with this report from tim allman. don't cry for me, argentina, unless they are tears of joy. these were the scenes in doha after the south american team won the world cup for the third time. but despite the celebrations, they know it hadn't been easy. things started well enough for argentina after they won a penalty midway through the first half. up stepped that man, lionel messi, who did what he always does. and little bit more than ten minutes later, it was 2—0, angel di maria finishing off a well—worked team goal. and that seemed to be that

until ten minutes before the end, when france got a penalty of their own. kylian mbappe, competing with messi for the golden boot, converted from the spot. a moment later it was 2—2, kylian mbappe with his second of the match. argentina did pick themselves up off the floor, and in extra time they were ahead again — lionel messi again. but france are defending champions for a reason, and with a couple of minutes left, they got another penalty. kylian mbappe scoring a hat—trick for the first time in a world cup final since 1966. so to the dreaded penalty shoot—out, and the pendulum swung back in argentina's favour. it all came down to this, gonzalo montiel scoring the decisive spot kick. glory for argentina, glory for lionel messi. is he now the greatest player of all time? well, pele says he deserves to win the world cup, so he must be pretty good.

argentinians have been celebrating until late into the night, with one estimate putting as many as two million people at the gathering in the centre of buenos aires, around the famous obelisk landmark. things are slowing down a little now, but earlier i spoke to one of the people who had been at the party, the argentine journalist veronika smink. here's what she had to say. it's been hours since the game finished, and i don't know if you can hear behind me, but people are still partying on. it was such a relief after so much stress, and notjust the last game. the whole month has been stressful. remember, argentina started losing against saudi arabia, the game that everybody thought would be the easiest they would face, and ever since then it's been suffering throughout. and you mentioned there's been a lot of stress. this has been, what, 36 years in the making? a lot of anticipation there in argentina, i imagine. yes, and also you have to remember that in the last

year, beyond football, argentina has had such a hard time. you know, inflation here has been above 25% for the last ten years, up almost 50% in the last five years, and it's almost 100% this year. people are having a really hard time. they so much needed this happiness, and it's going to last. i am sure people are going to celebrate for days. so it's been 36 years waiting for glory, all these years waiting for lionel messi to finally get his world cup, and finally they have it. and mentioning lionel messi, where in the pantheon of football greats does he stand, do you think? well, everybody was saying, you know, he's not maradona because he doesn't have a world cup, and now he does. i mean, a lot of people are saying maradona is like the god in the sky, and messi — who by the way they call the messiah, on account of his name — he is likejesus on earth. so now i think they're both perhaps equal,

although different in their own way. i should point out, though, on behalf of the french fans watching this that in four years�* time, you won't have messi but france will have mbappe. well, i think one of the things that people are so happy about is that this world cup showed that, yes, of course we have what people here think is the best player in the world, but he had a whole team behind him, and a lot of these players are very young and will go on and be here in four years. so i think there's a lot of hope in the whole team, notjust messi. and what now? plans for a national holiday, perhaps, when the triumphant team gets back there to buenos aires? well, they'll be arriving on monday evening, so probably the celebrations, the official celebrations, are expected on tuesday. the president still hasn't announced a public holiday, but i wouldn't be surprised if he did announce it, and the celebrations are going to go on for a very long time. this is an early christmas present for many argentines.

shows initiative you can. yes, many people dressing here and wearing the number 10 as well. so a lot of celebration of the next few days and weeks, then the team comes back, what then? everybody... here, it is, everyone is going into summer holidays so this was the perfect gift before christmas, afterwards, we will relax., enjoy the fact that they finally did it, they got it, they have been expecting this for so long. forfour years argentina will be the world champion and people aren't going to forget that. of course, for every winner, there has to be a loser, and in france they are just coming to terms with the disappointment. our correspondent lucy williamson sent this update from paris.

as the sky over france darkened tonight, hopes began to dim. the winter chill spreading into homes, cafes and hearts. dismay at the french performance, grim silence at argentina's goals. it all changed at half—time with two rapid goals by 23—year—old kylian mbappe, and then a third. a penalty shoot—out took france within reach of the trophy, before argentina snatched it away. i'm so sad. i was sure we would win at the penalty, but at the end we lost, and i'm super sad. we had the opportunity to win, and unfortunately we wake up, but a little bit late. i'm very, very sad. but you have to remember that we won against england, which is, i think,

the main thing of them all. three goals and a penalty shoot—out, and it still wasn't enough to retain the trophy. france may no longer be champion of the world, but kylian mbappe is still the champion of france. already beneath the disbelief is fresh determination one person said, they won't have messi in four years, but we will have mbappe. the tournament may be over, but if you want to relive the best bits and put it all into context, then there's only one place to go — the special section on bbc.com/news, or via the bbc app. let's get some of the day's other news. officials in the ukrainian southern city of kherson, which was recapatured from russian forces

in november, say the area was shelled 12 times on sunday, resulting in the deaths of two people. meanwhile, several loud blasts have been heard in the capital kyiv early on monday. kyiv�*s administration said nine iranian—made shahed drones were shot down in the latest attack by russia. at least nine police officers have been killed in a bomb and gun attack in northern iraq. the bomb struck the police�*s convoy near the city of kirkuk on sunday. the group calling itself islamic state says it carried out the attack. north korea's state media service says the country carried out what it called an important final phase test on sunday, for the development of a spy satellite. pyongyang says it hopes to complete the development by next april. japan and south korea reported two missiles launches over the weekend, which they say would have breached a united nations ban.

a 19—year—old man has been charged after four people died in the english channel on wednesday, whilst trying to enter the uk illegally. ibrahima bah, of no fixed address, is accused of facilitating the attempted arrival in the uk of people he knew, or had reasonable cause to believe, were asylum seekers. like many european countries, the netherlands has a history which involved both colonialism and slavery. more than 600,000 people — mostly from africa and asia — were trafficked by dutch merchants between the 17th and 19th centuries. on monday the dutch prime minister will publicly apologize for what happened, but some campaigners say that merely confronting the events of the past is an insufficient gesture for the descendants of slaves living in the netherlands today. anna holligan reports.

generations have been waiting to hear this word, but the dutch government's approach to saying sorry for slavery has reignited a sense of exclusion and distrust. the question you have to talk about, slavery, with people from the destination and people here, and we don't accept 19 december. instead, many within the affected communities want an apology scheduled for i july next year, to tie in with what will be the i60th anniversary of the dutch emancipation act. within dutch society, support for a formal apology has been growing, with 38% of people now in favour. but almost half the population is still opposed. 0ne far—right leader told me his party doesn't believe in such gestures. quincy gario argues it's essential to come together to understand the realities

and impact of the past. even the cheesemonger on the street corner how do you heal and how do you repair the notjust the psychic terror of the past, but also the material inequalities that have come from that? words are fine, but what are actions? according to various leagues, the dutch government's apology will lead to reparations for the enslaved people, instead, 200 million euros will be invested in awareness raising projects and another 27 million dedicated to a new resume to highlight and explore this darker side of dutch history. it has been a busy time for linda, involved in the negotiations with the government.- negotiations with the government. negotiations with the covernment. ., :: , . , government. from 20 december ou can government. from 20 december you can work— government. from 20 december you can work together _ government. from 20 december you can work together to - government. from 20 december you can work together to fight i you can work together to fight

against everything that that is about racism, and it gives me hope that we can do this in this country.— hope that we can do this in this count . ., ., ., ., , this country. formal apologies don't always — this country. formal apologies don't always lead _ this country. formal apologies don't always lead to _ this country. formal apologies l don't always lead to acceptance or acknowledgement, and in this already polarised society there are fears of a backlash from those who wish to whitewash and glorify this history. with other countries currently considering the colonial past, an official apology from the dutch may encourage other nations to recognise and make efforts to remedy historic and contemporary inequalities in a meaningful way. anna holligan, bbc news, amsterdam. stay with us on bbc news — still to come: we report from the canadian arctic. where polar bears are increasingly threatened by a warming world. the world of music has been paying tribute to george michael, who's died from suspected heart failure at the age of 53. he sold well over

100 million albums in a career spanning more than three decades. the united states troops have been trying to overthrow the dictatorship of general manuel noriega. the pentagon said it's failed in its principle objective — to capture noriega and take him to the united states to face drugs charges. the hammer and sickle| was hastily taken away. m its place. — the russian flag was hoisted over what is now no - longer the soviet union, but the commonwealth of independent states. | day broke slowly over lockerbie, over the cockpit of pan am's maid of the seas, nosedown in the soft earth. you could see what happens when a plane eight storeys high, a football pitch wide, falls from 30,000 feet. christmas has returned to albania after a communist ban lasting more than 20 years. thousands went to midnight mass in the town of shkodra, where there were anti—communist riots ten days ago. welcome back to bbc news.

on monday, the high court in london is expected to rule on the legality of the uk government's plans to send some asylum seekers to rwanda to have their claims processed and possibly to be resettled there. ministers say it's a way of discouraging people from risking their lives with people smuggling gangs but opponents say rwanda's human rights record means it is not a safe destination, particularly for members of the lgbtq+ community. 0ur correspondent lebo diseko has been to the capital, kigali, and she sent us this report. a familiar sunday scene in a church that is unique in rwanda, welcoming worshippers from the lgbt community. hallelujah! unlike in neighbouring countries, homosexuality is not

illegal here, yet many people still face challenges. if you hide your identity, they can give you a job. but if they know your identity after, they say, "go. "we can't work with you". "this is not good." i think they don't know many things about us in this country. charities argue asylum seekers could be targeted because of their sexuality. the un says the system for assessing refugees here in rwanda is not fair or efficient. it told the high court people could be sent back to their countries, where they could face torture. and, injune, they said it can take years for people to get a decision on their case. this asylum seeker was too scared to show his face or share his name. a year after arriving from ethiopia, he says he still can't work legally because his claim has not been processed. translation: they say we're

poor and that rwanda cannot. keep poor people. i'm fighting to survive. i try to work. i don't want to stay in rwanda. i want to go to canada or australia. ina in a statement, rwanda's government said: it questioned why the government still sends asylum seekers to rwanda, adding that its his criticism seems inconsistent and many of the allegations are simply untrue. one refugee who has been successful here is teklay teame. he is originally from eritrea. he built a supermarket chain after arriving nearly 25 years ago. unlike many refugees, he had the money to start up his business. still, he says, rwanda offers opportunities as long as you play by the rules. coming here is not something difficult. coming here is a

blessing to me, honestly speaking. there is no restriction, there is no barrier. you can do whatever you want here. and to those people who may be a little bit afraid, what do you say? i don't know why they are afraid of rwanda, but i don't see anything to be afraid of here. this is a country that runs with enviable efficiency, but many say that just beneath the surface is a quiet sense of fear. the question for british judges is whether that fear is warranted. you can get the outcome of those high court deliberations on our website. will elon musk still be the head of twitter in the next seven hours? it's somewhat unclear, after the platform's owner tweeted a poll asking whether he should step down, and promising to abide by the results. this comes after a series of policy changes and account bans that have prompted a severe backlash from twitter�*s users. our news reporter azadeh moshiri has been following this story, and she gave

us this update. things have been changing so quickly on this platform. the last seven months — seven weeks, everything has changed, one hour to the next even. when i was about to sat down with you, david, i thought we'd be talking about a policy change but now, we're talking about whether elon musk will be ceo of twitter in the next eight hours. so, if we take it from the top, earlier on, there was a policy change — a sudden last—minute policy change — and this time, elon musk said that there would no longer be any free advertising of social media platforms, other than twitter, on his — on this platform, on twitter. and he gave some examples of what that would be — so did twitter themselves. they said that, essentially, if any user were to tweet their username for another social media platform, so if i were to say, "join me — follow me at azadeh? news "on instagram," then, i would be potentially banned or suspended because i'm telling people to leave

the platform and go somewhere else — something that has been happening as people have been reacting to the chaos of the last seven weeks. but the problem is there was very severe backlash to this. people were saying perhaps this even violated certain competition rules. and so, elon musk initially apologised, said he should've consulted users to begin with. twitter then — has now put on a poll, suggesting — asking users, "should we be keeping this policy "in the first place?" and then, really escalating this, elon musk said, "should i even stay head of twitter?" and what, if this poll decides otherwise? and is there any logical person in line to take over? so, that's a good question. you know, this poll was really quite simple — itjust said, "should i step down as the head of twitter? "i will abide by the result," and he usually does — he usually does abide by the result of this poll — and he would no longer be ceo, but he would still remain the owner. now, there has been a lot

of chatter about whether he has a successor lined up. he's insisted he does not and he has said that this is a poisoned chalice, essentially. in fact, one response — we can pull it up, it's a tweet, he responded to another user, who said that he'd be willing to take over the post and help him out. and elon musk tweeted: and so, essentially, it's a job that perhaps he doesn't want. he has indicated in the past that this wasn't a ceo role that he expected to hold forever, he wanted to pass on the reins, but this feels drastic and very sudden. and it almost seems suicidal, as well, doesn't it, some of the things that he's been doing to the platform since he acquired it two months ago? yes. there are two schools of thought here, because the fact is that, as elon musk said, twitter hasn't been making money. and so, some people could argue that this is a man

with a lot of talent — he has done groundbreaking things at tesla, he has done revolutionary things for spacex — and perhaps twitter needs to be shaken up. or you could argue that a social media company needs a slower—paced to leadership, a different kind of leadership, and that you can't shoot at the hip like this. with just a day to go at the cop 15 summit on biological diversity, officials have published their draft proposals, and among them is a call for countries to take measures to protect at least 30% of the planet's land and coastal waters. that includes the sea ice — which is a vital resource for polar bears. the loss of that ice in areas around hudson bay in the canadian arctic is threatening the bear�*s survival, as our science correspondent victoria gill reports. in the hudson bay, the polar bears are waiting for the sea to freeze. sea ice that disappeared over the summer is reforming. this bear is testing it to see if it'll take its weight.

along with uk—based arctic scientist professor gareth rees, i connected with the polar bear research team from their tundra buggy — an observation lab on tracks from which they can work and film. that is a live shot, yep. wow! so, that's happening just outside the window here. i'm absolutely fascinated to see where you are and what you're doing. so, they are slowly making their way to the coast - of hudson bay, and that allows us to come here as well in this| designated area outside . of churchill and just watch the bears until- the ice comes back. how do you see that responding to the impacts of climate change? looking over the last couple decades, we see it forms later and later. it breaks up earlier and earlier in spring. so, this season in between that is ice—free, where the bears are on land and can take advantage of the hunting opportunities, that season is getting longer and longer with warming. and just explain, why do the polar bears need the ice to hunt? they can either sneak up - on seals that have hauled out to rest or a polar bear might wait to dive into that seal.

hole and grab the seal, | so they really need that platform to give - them the advantage. and without that platform, as this footage the scientists recently captured shows, a bear very quickly gives up the chase. in open water, the seal has the advantage. by 2050, scientists say this vast bay is likely to have more than 200 ice—free days peryear, pushing bears to the brink of starvation. these sea ice projections are strongly dependent on the temperature, and the temperature is really dictated by how much greenhouse gases we emit and accumulate in the atmosphere. so, there's this relationship between how much we emit, how warm it's going to get, and what it means for sea ice. churchill, manitoba is often called the polar bear capital of the world, and nations are gathered now in canada to reach an agreement to protect habitats like this. but in just three decades, it could be too warm here for the polar bears to survive. victoria gill, bbc news.

you can get more on that and the other stories we featured on our website, or of course by downloading the bbc app. from all of us here, thanks for watching. hello. a completely different feel to the weather for the start of the new week. after our lengthy cold spell, things have been turning considerably milder. mild and windy through the day on monday with some outbreaks of rain — some of that rain will be on the heavy side at times. but starting temperatures for monday morning — 8 degrees in aberdeen, 14 degrees in plymouth — waking up to a completely different feel, but we will see a lot of cloud through the day and some outbreaks of rain moving sporadically eastwards. it may be that the skies clear in northern ireland just in time to bring some sunshine before the sun goes down. a few brighter spells elsewhere but it's going to be windy, particularly around western coasts — gusts of 40, 50, maybe 60 miles per hour

in the most exposed spots — and temperatures in double digits for just about all of us, and it's quite a while since we've been able to say that! now, as we go through monday night, we will see further outbreaks of rain, particularly down towards the south. as the rain piles up in some southern parts, there is the risk of some flooding. clearer spells further north and west, some showers pushing into northern ireland and western scotland. still mild — not quite as mild for tuesday morning but still, a lot milder than it has been. so, for tuesday, this frontal system may linger across the south east of england for a little while. still low pressure in charge up to the north—west, so that will bring further showers, but there'll also be some spells of sunshine. so, where that weather front lingers close to south east england, it could mean that cloud and rain clings on for a little while. and then, we will see sunny spells. showers most plentiful across northern ireland and the western side of scotland, where it will be really quite windy. temperatures north to south 8—12 degrees — that is a touch above what we'd expect at this time of year.

now, for the rest of the week, we see weather systems lining up in the atlantic and taking aim, bringing further rain at times. it is looking quite unsettled through the week ahead. now, for the most part, it is going to stay mild but we are going to see some colder air close to the north of scotland. and as we head through the weekend, the christmas weekend, it may be that that cold air sinks a little further southwards for a time — there's a lot of uncertainty about that — but, generally speaking, the week ahead will be mild, there'll be some rain at times, but it may turn just a little colder for some of us over the weekend.

this is bbc news. the headlines: argentina have won the world cup for a third time, after beating france in the final in qatar. the game ended 3—3 and had to be decided on penalties. it was a personal triumph for lionel messi who confirmed his position as one the game's greatest ever players. argentinians have been celebrating their team's victory in an outpouring of national pride. tens of thousands crammed into one of buenos aires's main squares to honour the players. it's the first time argentina have won the event since 1986, when diego maradona led the country to world cup glory. twitter�*s billionaire owner,

elon musk, has asked users of his social media platform to vote on his future