the latest headlines from bbc news. washington says that it is expelling 35 russian diplomats in response to accusations that russian hackers tried to subvert the american presidential elections. it also referenced alleged harassment of diplomats in moscow. have agreed on a ceasefire across syria at local time. they agreed readiness several of the main rebel fractions have agreed on the dilbertjihadists are excluded. tributes have been paid to actress debbie reynolds who has died just one day after her daughter carrie fisher. next up, a look at the brutal

crackdown on drug crime in the philippines. broadcast earlier this year, viewers should be aware that jonathan head's report contains disturbing images. the philippines is being shaken by a one man revolution. either you will kill me, or i'll kill you iditos. he's a tough talking former mayor, who's vowed to wipe out drug dealers. his war on drugs has unleashed assassins, like maria. when i got near this person, who owed a lot to my boss, i went up close and then shot him. every day, the bodies of suspected dealers are discovered. more than 3000 have been killed in three months. it's really tiring and scary, hiding all the time. you don't know if the person right

in front of you will inform on you, or if he might be your killer. the police are raiding prisons and being forced to purge their own ranks. the war on drugs is really bloody, and messy. everyone knows that. this war is being fought in some of the poorest communities in the country. over the past two decades, the philippines has been swamped by the cheap and highly addictive drug, crystal meth. known here as shabu. it destroys lives, breaks families and feeds a powerful criminal underworld. filipinos are among the world's highest users of the drug.

official statistics say 1.8 million people here are addicted, but recently elected president, rodrigo duterte, believes the true figure is more than double that. he's promised to stop it, by unleashing a violent campaign against the dealers. a late afternoon raid just outside manila, part of president duterte‘s anti—drug campaign. in a country awash with guns as well as narcotics, they've come well—prepared. but what's striking is their target today. it's a prison. shouting instructions in native language. this is one of the largest prisons

in manila, and we've just come in with a pretty large team of police, swat teams. from the look of them, they were obviously expecting the possibility of serious armed resistance. actually, it's really more like a drug search in a standard prison, looking under the mattresses, checking where people keeps their possessions. they've got one man under arrest here, but the fact is that the drug problem here is so serious, at least in the government's view, that they're having to send in teams like this into a prison, that's technically controlled by the authority. the inmates are all made to lie face down and searched for any sign they may still be

using or dealing drugs. the stench in these hot, overcrowded dormitories is overpowering. they think this man is an important dealer. but where's the other evidence they expected to find? undercover officers have bought drugs here several times in recent weeks, but it seems this time the prisoners have been tipped off. in vain they press a chinese prisoner for more information. many of the drug syndicates operating in the philippines are chinese run. but all they can find is an assortment of rusty, improvised weapons. these police officers, more than 200 of them, have been brought here from the other side of manila. the local forces

couldn't be trusted. that's how deeply the narcotics business has infiltrated this country. do you think the campaign that is going on now will succeed, that it will wipe out drugs? again, that's the challenge, and will do our best to comply with orders of the president, to get rid of drugs in 3—6 months. you do have problems inside the police as well, don't you? there are some police officers involved in the trade? yes, that's why it is part of the cleansing process, internal cleansing. we don't care if they are policeman, we have to get them, put them in jail and if they fight, we have to defend ourselves. so it doesn't matter if all are policeman involved, we have to get them. in many ways, what's happening today in the philippines

actually starts here, at the monument to the first ever people power revolution 30 years ago, when a popular uprising overthrew the dictator, ferdinand marcos, and ushered in a boisterous and freewheeling democracy. filipinos have kept faith with that democracy, voting in huge numbers every six years for a new president, and yet every one of those governments has failed to come even close to meeting the hopes that were raised here. that the old habits of corruption, abuses of power, lawlessness and grinding poverty would be curbed. and so the voters have now gone for something drastically different. they elected outspoken mayor rodrigo duterte by a landslide.

he's presented himself as an anti—establishment figure who can fix problems. he cares little for the polite conventions of politics, giving unscripted speeches, often laced with obscenities. and what he calls the "pandemic" of methamphetamine addiction is at the very top of his list of things to do. we've heard a lot of things about human rights in my campaign against drugs. let me be frank with you this afternoon. the fight against drugs will continue, and unrelenting. if the resistance is violent, thereby placing your life in jeopardy, shoot and shoot him dead. can i be more clear than that? the bodies of those suspected

of involvement in drugs started turning up right after he took office. the police admit killing hundreds, all resisting arrest, they say, but many more have died at the hands of mysterious hit squads. the reasons for each death often unclear. this is a security camera video from a neighbourhood in tondo in manila, on the evening of the 3rd of august. you can see local resident danilo mendoza, buying something from a food stall, his young children playing around him. a motorbike then pulls up. the passenger fires a single shot into his neck and he drives off. his wife is nearby, and she rushes to help him, getting

passers—by to lift him into a motor tricycle. but he died before they could get him to hospital. i went to talk to his wife, cristy, who runs her own small shop, and to his neighbours. was he killed because of drugs? she told me he had been a user, but he'd stopped right after duterte was elected. he was not a dealer, she said. when we got talking to other family members, they said danilo had been involved in illegal gambling, together with some corrupt police officers. they said he'd had a loud disagreement with one policeman in the street a month before he was killed. that, they believe, was why he died.

danilo's assassin will probably never be identified. the hit squads blamed for more than half the killings remain in the shadows. but we did manage to meet one of them, a young mother we called maria. for obvious reasons, her identity‘s been concealed. maria was brought into the contract killing business, she says, by her husband, but she'd only shot one man before president duterte‘s election victory. since then she's killed another five. she has no idea why they were targeted, but she says her boss is a police officer who's involved in drugs.

my husband was offered a job by a big—time policeman while he was injail. he immediately said yes. a lot of people owe this man money. he's also a big—time drug dealer. one time, when they needed a woman for someone a man could not get close to, my husband tapped me for the job. i felt really scared and nervous, because it was my first time. ijust kept thinking, i am doing this for my son. when i got near this person, who owed a lot to my boss, i went up close and then shot him. the next time i killed was after president duterte got elected. since august i've killed five

people, that's six in all. what do you feel about the people that you kill? because they have families, too. do you feel guilty? yes, i do feel guilty, because i have kids, too. i do what i do because we don't have money. i do it for my children. i tell my husband that we can't keep doing this forever. i would not want our children to open their eyes to what we do. i don't want them to come back to us and say that they got to live because we killed for money. maria's statement suggests that a lot of the killing is by people inside the drug trade, perhaps eliminating rivals or those who might incriminate more powerfulfigures. but the impact of the drug war

is being felt largely in poor communities, like this one near central manila. edgar tria showed me around his barangay, or district. he's the barangay chairman, and it's hisjob to keep an eye out for trouble. this is the president, a senior citizen actually. very nice to meet you, i'm jonathan. very nice to meet you, sir. crime is a big concern here, and talking to the residents it's clear that president duterte‘s way of dealing with it is popular. they like the fact that he's humble and down—to—earth, they say. but edgar knows of 16 crystal meth

addicts living in his area, most of them among the pedicab drivers. he's had the difficultjob of getting them to register with the police, just to keep them alive. they are afraid, because of the drive of the president. they are worried about their lives, theirfamilies, their mothers, their fathers. they're worried that once they're caught... of course, they know what will happen. they might be killed? yeah, that's it. so they are really afraid of this drive. a few of the former addicts have joined the local council as volunteers. but there are no rehabilitation

facilities here, or anywhere else in manila, for them. nor is there much sympathy from their neighbours, who applaud the president's tough stand. this lady is a widow who teaches in the local primary school. she told me that the parents of six children in her class are drug addicts, and she says it's worse in other schools. the bottom line is drugs. the poor people engage in drugs because in drugs they could make money. because drugs now can be bought in very cheap... very low price. i believe duterte has a chance of cleaning and healing the land, the ill in society.

i believe in him. so when i found out that he would run for president, i supported him. but can his anti—drug campaign succeed? four, three, two, one, zero... more than 700,000 addicts have already registered with the police. here they are adding their names, beforejoining a morning exercise routine in front of one of manila's main churches. trying to work the drug out of their system with some fast footwork. led by manila's finest. the police hope this will help to keep former addicts away from the drug, but, in truth, it exposes the lack of any alternative treatment for them.

and you have to wonder how long a police force busy cleansing its own ranks, can keep up this energetic community work. excuse me, sir. the police are also expected to make house calls, to check on registered addicts. this is one of the roughest of manila's neighbourhoods. the police major is doing his rounds, checking if one—time drug users are slipping back into their old habits. this man is recognised as the husband of a known crystal meth user. you'd better stay off it, the major warns him. they've already nabbed one couple

with a methamphetamine pipe. they are made to march handcuffed with the police, on a walk of shame through the community. this man was an addict for a year. now he must put up with having his home searched every week. but at least this way he can be reasonably sure of staying alive. how do you know if they're clean or not, if they are still using or not? we hear some reports. you talk to the neighbours? yes, yes. back at the police station, the handcuffed couple are booked. their two children look on tearfully. this isn't the first time their parents have been caught,

and they may now have to move to one of the overcrowded jails. they're just users, small—time players. none of this really solve the country's drug problem. bigger dealers, like roger — not his real name — have instead chosen to go into hiding. he says much of his business was with corrupt police officers, and he's convinced they'd kill him if he surrendered. it's much better to run. my colleagues who surrendered are now dead. if i surrender, they kill me, so why should i surrender? don't you ever feel guilty about the job you do? you're selling drugs which are very destructive to people. this is methamphetamine, it's a very destructive drug.

i do truly believe that i have committed sins, big—time. i have done many awful things. i have wronged a lot of people, because more people have become addicted to drugs, and because i'm one of the people who sells them drugs. what i can say is, it depends on the person. i can't say that everyone who takes drugs commits crimes, that they steal or that they kill. me, i'm also an addict, but i don't kill. i'm an addict, but i don't steal. roger plans to stay hidden for a few months, and then get back to business. he doesn't believe president duterte can keep this campaign going for much longer. maria would like to get out of the killing business, but she says she can't. do you ever wish that you hadn't

started this, that perhaps you hadn't started killing? or do you feel you had no choice? from now on i don't want to do it any more. i leave it to my husband. but my boss says that if one of us tries to leave, we'll be killed. millions of filipinos, though, still hold faith in their new president. that unlike his predecessors, he can shake this country out of it's bad habits. many believe the philippines needs another strongman, but transforming this disorderly island nation of 100 million people may yet to prove too much, even for a man who is as ruthless and determined as rodrigo duterte. it certainly was a cold start of the

day on thursday, minus five degrees, but it led to some picturesque scenery. but it led to some picturesque scenery. this was captured by one of oui’ scenery. this was captured by one of our poor weather watchers in 0xfordshire. a lovely winter scene with frost on the trees. —— one of our weather watchers. frost on the fences and the ground. sunshine in the daytime but in the evening, temperatures fell quickly and we saw fog reforming. this is the view for those in derbyshire. there are questions with cloud drifting in from the west, overnight i expect east anglia and the south—east sees the worst of it, it will be grey and cold here. is south—westerly breeze in northern ireland and scotland, keeping temperatures on the mild side at 11 degrees fall was go and belfast, but it will linger at several degrees.

brea ks it will linger at several degrees. breaks in the cloud for the eastern side of high ground but a weather front in northern scotland, bringing rain. a breeze associated and breezy in the evening. rain drifting further south, elsewhere it is dry with cloudy weather. patchy fog in the south—western quadrant of the uk. not much of an issue but on new year's eve itself, this weather front brings wet weather into scotland. a south—westerly breeze affects much of the uk, you could see double figures in the south temporarily. then, whether france clear from southern scotland and northern ireland. and by midnight, this continues its journey southwards —— then a weather front. cold and snow showers in scotland on new year's day. not only northern scotla nd new year's day. not only northern scotland but the southern uplands sees snow showers. some sunshine to be had but it will be grey in east

anglia, the midlands and south—east. cloud and rain which will eventually pull away. this northerly breeze keeps going. 0n pull away. this northerly breeze keeps going. on monday morning it will be cold and frosty as well. some icy patches around but on monday itself, a reasonable day. especially in inland areas. a lot of dry, bright and sunny weather to be had. some showers on that breeze, may lead to coastal areas in the north—east and the west. then, it will be a cold day, despite sunshine of several degrees if you are lucky. highs of seven. a cloudy day overall. there will be some sunshine in the southernmost counties, on the east of scotland and showers in west scotland. after a cold start, it will be five, six or 7 degrees. in the middle of next week, this strong jet stream leaves the us, but on our side of the al antic it splits and wea ke ns. side of the al antic it splits and weakens. 0ne side of the al antic it splits and weakens. one part of the north of

the uk, the other to the south. —— of the atlantic ocean. remember, winds turn clockwise round this high pressure, there will be milder air across pressure, there will be milder air a cross m ost pressure, there will be milder air across most of the uk but that will be temporary, and temperatures getting into ten or ii be temporary, and temperatures getting into ten or 11 degrees. later next week, it will be turning colder and a brisk wind coming down from the north or northwest, bringing rain at times but i expect it will be cold enough for wintry showers, mainly in the northern half of the uk. i'll be back tomorrow night with an update. this is bbc news. the headlines at ten: president 0bama expels 35 russian diplomats as punishment for alleged interference into last month's presidential elections. a ceasefire brokered by russia and turkey between the syrian government and main opposition comes into force at midnight. family doctors warn that patients in england could wait more than a month for an appointment because the system is overstretched. also in the next hour:

tributes to hollywood star debbie reynolds, who has died at the age of 8a. good morning, good morning! best known for her role in musical singin‘ in the rain, her death comes just a day after that of her daughter, carrie fisher. the mannequin challenge taken "to new heights". astronauts attempt the internet trend at zero gravity. and in half an hour, we'll have the first look at tomorrow's front pages.