a bbc investigation has revealed the details of a series of brutal mass killings of civilians by the myanmar military. four villages in kani township in central myanmar were targeted over a period of weeks injuly. the united nations says the military�*s oppression points to crimes against humanity. this report by rebecca henschke contains some distressing images from the start. this girl is grieving over her grandfather's body. it's distressing to see. there are clear signs of torture. when the myanmar military entered their village in the kani township, she fled. her grandfather stayed, believing his age would protect him. more bodies were uncovered close to where her grandfather was found , 12 in total. some were buried in shallow mass graves. the military carried out the mass killings in four villages in kani township, a region that's been a stronghold of opposition to the military regime. in the village,14 people were killed. we have blurred their bodies, as they're too gruesome to show. the man filming finds people he knows. at great risk, our team interviewed a number of eyewitnesses. for their safety, we're hiding their identity. their stories are all similar. translation: they split us - into groups of men and women. men were tied up with ropes and beaten up. we couldn't stand to watch it, so we kept our heads down, crying. we begged them not to, they didn't care. they took away everything from us. they asked the women, "is your husband among them? "if he is, do your last rites." this man managed to escape. translation: 11 others were arrested with me. | they were tied up, beaten with stones and rifle butts and tortured all day. i put out evidence to the military spokesperson. translation: i'm not denying that _ incidents such as this in kani could happen. it can happen, it can happen. when they treat us as enemies and open fire on us, we have the right to defend ourselves. the united nations is investigating the mass killings in kani, in the hope that future generations, those left behind, will get some kind ofjustice. rebecca henschke, bbc news. let's turn to chile now — where gabriel boric, the leftist candidate in the chilean election, has won the presidency, after his far—right rival, jose antonio kast, conceded defeat. it was labelled the most polarised election in the country's history, with voters choosing between a left—wing former student activist and a lawyer who admired the dictatorship of augusto pinochet. chile has seen widespread protests in the past two years, amidst economic instability and growing inequality. our south america correspondent katy watson — is in the capital santiago. people here are coming in droves to celebrate the victory of gabriel boric. this is a new era for chile, a new kind of president, a 35—year—old former student leader who is now the leader of his own country and many people feel this is a natural conclusion of the past two years. first protests, huge demands for change in this country that has traditionally been very economically stable yet hugely unequal. and then a push for a new constitution. chileans voted last year overwhelmingly to rip up the old dictatorship era constitution and instead drafted a more modern, more representative one. and of course now a new leader. a man who has risen from those demands for change. but his big challenge will be to unite those millions of chileans who voted for the other side. these elections have been deeply polarised. a far—right candidate, jose antonio kast, a man who was likened to brazil's jair bolsonaro, to donald trump, a man who praised the country's dictatorship, that huge divisions in this country. he has of course congratulated gabriel boric, saying that he demands respect and collaboration, and the most important thing is, of course, chile. the people here you can see our hugely happy and are heading to the event to be able to hear their leader talk. let's get some of the day's other news. at least 208 people have reportedly died after a powerful storm struck the philippines on thursday — that's what the national police there says. super typhoon rai saw some 300,000 people displaced when it hit the country's south—eastern islands. rescue teams have described �*some areas looked like they were bombed worse than world war two'. more than 100 people have reportedly been injured in protests in sudan, that's according the country's health ministry. authorities fired teargas at protesters outside the presidential palace in the capital khartoum, as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across the nation to denounce the military. 0fficialfigures from hong kong show turnout in elections on sunday hit a record low. just over 30% of voters cast their ballots. every candidate had been vetted for their loyalty to beijing before being allowed to take part, leading some activists to call for a boycott. this is the time is. get boosted now is the message they're from the national health service but it does not matter if it is the times or any of the other papers. there is an advert, a cover to each and every national newspaper reminding people of the importance of dealing, in particular, with the 0micron variant. the netherlands has taken the strongest measures yet to limit the surge in 0micron cases. it's the first country in europe to embark on a month—long lockdown. non—essentialshops, bars, gyms, hairdressers and other public venues will be closed. all schools will be shut until at least the ninth of january. while other lockdown measures will remain in place for longer as our correspondent anna holligan reports from the hague. virtually silent high streets. it's online and window shopping only this year. last christmas, the dutch thought the pandemic would be over by now. instead, the netherlands has become the first country in europe to shut down in response to the rapidly spreading 0micron variant. now, it feels like it's starting all over again, to be isolated and, yeah it feels really bad. because we're used to going to the cafe, to a bar, and with this lockdown, it's impacted me a bit. so, yeah, it's going to be difficult. george is a chef. so, tomorrow, i'm working just to throw away a lot of fresh food, lots of basically, everything that we can't sell any more. so, that's...uh. the dutch prime minister described this lockdown as an unavoidable response to 0micron. across the border in germany, most travellers from britain are now banned from entering the country to try to halt the transmission of 0micron. german nationals and residents will still be allowed to arrive from the uk, but must have a negative test and quarantine for two weeks, regardless of their vaccination status. france has already introduced similar restrictions to try to cut covid cases crossing the channel. in denmark, which has registered more 0micron cases than any other european country, apart from britain, theatres, cinemas and amusement parks will be closed for the next month. and in belgium, thousands paraded through the capital, brussels, to demonstrate their discontent with the compulsory covid access passes that must be shown in bars and restaurants. for now, the uk is holding back on tightening the measures, but in the face of record—breaking infection rates, the health secretary has refused to rule anything out. anna holligan, bbc news, in the hague. and that of course leads to anxious times about further restrictions before christmas, in particular. the leading infectious disease expert in the united states, dr anthony fauci has warned that christmas travel will increase the spread of the 0micron covid—19 variant, even among the fully vaccinated. dr fauci said that on current trends the spread of 0micron could put serious stresses on us hospitals. he urged more americans to get the vaccine and booster shots. let's talk to eric feigl—ding, he's an epidemiologist, health economist and senior fellow at the federation for american scientists. he joins me from washington. thank you for your time. do you share anthony felt she's anxieties here? i share anthony felt she's anxieties here?- share anthony felt she's anxieties here? ~ ., , anxieties here? i think anxiety is an understatement. - anxieties here? i think anxiety is an understatement. many . is an understatement. many epidemiologists have a sense of dread because 0micron is, by all accounts and models, more contagious or equally contagious or equally contagious to measles and 0micron spread is evasive against previous immunity, whether vaccines or previous survivors of natural infection. sorry to interrupt, we hear time and again that it is highly contagious but it is not as severe. so should we be as worried? maybe it is better that we get it?— that we get it? no. firstly that we get it? no. firstly that is a — that we get it? no. firstly that is a gross _ that we get it? no. firstly that is a gross and - that we get it? no. firstly - that is a gross and misleading statement to say. some people claiming natures vaccine. no. evenif claiming natures vaccine. no. even if it is milder and we don't think it is a much milder at all, the latest empirical studies is that it is no more milder than delta, even if it is slightly milder it has no real effect on the total population because what will really drive hospitalisation is the exponential increase. even if it is one tenth, 90% less lethal, one tenth as lethal but just two times more transmissible than delta, over time the hospitals will fill up and there will be more deaths than a less contagious more severe virus. it will drive hospitalisation case overload due to exponential rise and this virus is 5— times more contagious than delta. find this virus is 5- times more contagious than delta. and that is sim - le contagious than delta. and that is simple arithmetic _ contagious than delta. and that is simple arithmetic formula - is simple arithmetic formula which i can understand. so what do we do short of a full lockdown again? what should i be doing, what should everybody be doing, what should everybody be thinking about doing?- be thinking about doing? doctor fel and be thinking about doing? doctor felty and many _ be thinking about doing? doctor felty and many others - be thinking about doing? doctor felty and many others are - be thinking about doing? doctor felty and many others are right| felty and many others are right about boosters but i want to point out that boosters can only be scaled up linearly while the virus will keep increasing exponentially. so short of a lockdown which everybody wants to avoid we still need to do some sort of blanket social measure whether it is a vaccine passport and, by the way, redefining free different fully vaccinated as three shots, whether it is more mass testing and testing requirements and quarantine requirements and quarantine requirements and quarantine requirements and ventilation and opening windows, all of these link measures are needed because only those blanket measures can catch up with it exponentially virus and without those, just relying on booster rollout alone, booster rollout is too slow, far too slow to ever catch up with the virus alone. we have to be multilayered otherwise it is lockdown and nobody wants that. one must question about masks. i have one here, the familiar light lou paper light mask really. i went to germany recently where they insist on your arrival that you have a more robust mask. what makes sense? masks are really important and i want to point out that we must premium masks. no more flimsy surgical masks, no more flimsy cloth masks. what we need is right 95, kf 94 and some people in europe have other masks at minimum and we should honestly go with n 95. those masks will truly give you the full protection but no more surgical masks whatsoever because it is an airborne virus and there is concern that it could be even more airborne than before. so this virus, you have to take as extreme precautions. especially since we know that two shots of the vaccine is just not enough and previous convalescent people just don't have enough immunity detection against 0micron. just don't have enough immunity detection against omicron. some ve clear detection against omicron. some very clear directions _ detection against omicron. some very clear directions there. - very clear directions there. thank you, eric. stay with us on bbc nws,. —— stay with us on bbc news. still to come: we'll tell you why people in more than 100 polish towns and cities have taken to the streets in protest. 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 says 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. in 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, i 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, i 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 shkoder, where there were anti—communist riots ten days ago. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: a bbc investigation has revealed the details of a series of brutal mass killings of civilians by the myanmar military. voters in chile have elected the country's youngest ever president. gabriel boric, a left wing former student activist. is 35. president biden�*s flagship piece of legislation, known as build back better, looks in deep trouble after a key senatorfrom his own democratic party said he wouldn't support it. senatorjoe manchin, who represents the conservative state of west virginia, told fox news he'd tried to reach a compromise on the bill, priced at $1.7 trillion. if i can't go home and explain it to the people of west virginia, i can't vote for it. and i cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. i just can't. i've tried everything humanly possible. i can't get there. yes, one man can make a big difference. there is a very finely balanced composition of the senate at the moment, meaning president biden cannot afford to lose a single democratic vote. the white house fired back, saying the bill is too important to fail and they'll find a way to move forward next year. eric ham is a political analyst in washington. what we're seeing now is that he's senator who appears to not be trusted by his own party. we know thatjoe biden has been negotiating in good faith, presumably with joe manchin, presumbly to strike a deal, and what we are learning is manchin actually provided details of what he could actually live with just a few days ago and so, the white house actually believed that they were getting where they wanted to go because they were essentially allowing joe manchin to craft the legislation in a way that benefited him, that he could live with. and now, at the 11th hour, right before christmas, he drops a bombshell, letting them knowjust 20 minutes before he goes on fox news, that he cannot support the legislation and will not simply return the calls. —— return their calls. and now, what we see as a white house that trusted that they could get there withjoe manchin — becausejoe biden ran on the fact that as someone who had served in the senate for nearly four decades, he knew these people and these were his people, he said, and he could get a deal and now we see that he cannot. and that is pretty embarrassing, apart from anything else, i mean, let alone getting this through. but where does it leave this bill? which, of course, is seen as one of, hopefully, one of the big steps of his presidency? well, the bill right now is on life support. we do know that the administration is placing a positive spin on things, saying they will try to gope to get something next year and what they could possibly hope to do is actually break this bill up and try to move it in pieces to try to get something through. but now what this does is this places even more pressure not only onjoe manchin but on president biden to move on voting rights legislation. we heard just before joe manchin actually said that he would not support this legislation, earlier in the week that the senate was actually moving to table build back better to try to deliver on voting rights. and now, they need to try to get something done because their most ardent base, african—american voters, have been clamouring for voting rights legislation. if they cannot get this, this will certainly be a demoralised party heading into the all—important 2022 mid—term elections. there have been protests in more than 100 polish towns and cities against a controversial bill that both the us and the european union say would restrict media freedom. many fear that the government will use the legislation, which was unexpectedly passed by parliament on friday to silence critics. mark lobel reports. protesting outside the presidential palace to protect press freedom. a message echoed across dozens of polish cities after rules were surprisingly rushed through parliament on friday to restrict foreign ownership of media channels. these pictures were broadcast on tvn24 — a polish tv channel not run by the state, but owned by the us media company discovery, which is at the centre of the controversy. a news channel critical of the government, it's feared could be silenced under the proposals. translation: it is not only about tvn, it's - about the future of free speech in poland, and that means it's about the future of our democracy. demonstrators are calling for this man, polish president andrzej duda, to veto the law — something he has hinted he would do in the past. 0therwise, protesters fear it will lead to poland's free media being bought off or destroyed, and worse. translation: next will come internet censorship _ and attempts to extinguish all independent sources of information. but we will not allow that to happen and return to those times when we had to listen to a broken signal of radio free europe. but the nato member state's government, run by the right—wing populist law and justice party, insist the new laws are needed to protect against russian and chinese influence over polish media. others say it's part of the eu member's authoritarian agenda, with washington saying the bill would undermine freedom of expression, weaken media freedom and erode foreign investors' confidence — concerns shared by the european commission. according to tvn24, over 1.5 million poles have signed a petition against the changes that could cost the channel its very existence. the decision of what happens next now rests with the president. mark lobel, bbc news. the tennis player emma raducanu has been voted bbc sports personality of the year. the 19—year—old who, at her first attempt, won the us open in september, is the first female tennis player to win the trophy since virginia wade in 1977. though she couldn't attend in person as she's isolating in abu dhabi after testing positive for covid—19, raducanu said winning the public vote capped a remarkable year. this is always a very big moment. laura, can you please tell us who the winner is? the 2021 bbc sports personality of the year is emma raducanu. music. thank you. i mean, it is such an honour just to be amongst - these nominees and congrats . to you for such an amazing year and all your achievements. i am really happy with this, | of course — and i've watched sports personality of the year growing up so i'm really- humbled to join the amazing past winners — and yeah, - i'm also very _ happy for british tennis that we managed to get this award again, and also thankj you so much to all the voters and all of the fans and - support for all the support i i've received this past year. i mean, it's been absolutely insane and especially- the energy that _ i felt at wimbledon this year and playing in front of my home crowd, that was something thatj you know, i've never felt- before, so thank you very much. she is on cloud nine. and someone who was, or is on their way home from now, is on the iss. here you can see the japanese billionaire yusaku maezawa — he's the one in the light blue uniform. if you get a chance to see him close up. mr maezawa is returning to earth aboard a russian soyuz space capsule that's about to land in kazakhstan. he is the first tourist russia has taken into space for more than a decade. in fact, for more than a decade now. he is quite a character, too. yes, he is a billionaire. he was once a drummer in a punk rock band and last year launched a show in search of a new girlfriend tojoin him in space, but later cancelled it. this was a useful test run for the russians to take tourists into space in 2023, he was sleeping on inclined and being spun around in a chair and having to play badminton for hours on end apparently to prepare. he is now on his way back down to perth -- birth. —— earth. hello there. there are some significant changes on the way over the week ahead. as we get closer to christmas, it's going to be low pressure that's going to be shaping our weather, bringing with it some cloud and rain from the atlantic and lifting the temperatures as well. now, there's still the chance of some snow, and this looks more likely to be in scotland for a while. we start monday, though, with the coldest weather in scotland with the clearer skies and a frost. there's more cloud pushing into other areas, and the mist and fog will continue to lift. and as the cloud base lifts, the cloud thins and the skies should be a bit brighter. best of the sunshine probably northern and western areas of scotland. and there'll be more cloud in north west england and wales than we had on sunday, so we're not going to reach the 15 degrees that we had in pembrokeshire — i think 6—8 degrees is going to be nearer the mark. high pressure is still close to the uk, hence the quietness of the weather. it is starting to recede but underneath the high pressure, we'll probably have clearer skies as we move into tuesday morning. so, probably a bit more blue on the chart — a greater chance of having some frost across england and wales, for example. that's where we should see, hopefully, a bit more sunshine, perhaps, on tuesday during the day. more cloud, though, continues to affect northern ireland, and in scotland, it's probably going to turn more cloudy more widely. in the north of the country, there could be a bit of light rain or drizzle as well. now, the winds are still light but it's quite a cold day, i think on tuesday — probably only 4 degrees through the central belt of scotland as that cloud increases, and seven in the south east of england. now, we really set things up for the middle part of the week as that big area of low pressure is filling the atlantic. pressure is falling, these bands of rain are spiralling around that area of low pressure. we start cold and frosty on wednesday. southern and eastern areas likely to stay dry and bright but in the west, it's clouding over more quickly. it's getting wetter as well. that wetter weather is pushing into that colder air and we're likely to find some snow for a while, particularly in scotland — especially over the hills. there's still a lot to play for from wednesday onwards with that low in the atlantic trying to push in this milder air in from the south—west but there's still that block of colder air in the north. that colder air looks further north now, so most of the country should be turning milder later in the week with the chance of some rain at times. this is bbc news. the headlines: the united nations is investigating the mass killings of civilians by the myanmar military, ten months after they took power in a coup. mass graves have been uncovered after four villages in central myanmar were targeted over a period of weeks injuly. the leftist candidate in the chilean election, gabriel boric, has won the presidency after his far—right rival, jose antonio kast, conceded defeat in the country's most polarising election ever. chile has seen widespread protests in the past two years, with economic instability and growing inequality. a tough new month—long lockdown has begun in the netherlands, as the new coronavirus variant spreads rapidly across europe. non—essential shops, bars, gyms, hairdressers, and other public venues will be closed. all schools will be shut until at least 9 january, while other measures will remain in place for longer. now on bbc news, it's time for dateline.