the uk's parliament has given its final approval to a crucial law that allow the government to trigger brexit. but the process will be complicated by the announcement from the scottish government that it wants to hold a second referendum on independence. the turkish cabinet has confirmed its taking sanctions against the netherlands — as diplomatic relations between the two nations deteriorate further. the dutch ambassador will not be allowed to return to ankara — a protest by the turks over the dutch refusal to allow two ministers to address rallies in rotterdam. aid agencies are warning the current humanitarian crisis in nigeria, south sudan, yemen and somalia threatens to be the worst in 60 years. in somalia conflict has intensified the effects of a two—year drought, leaving nearly three million without enough water or food now on bbc news: reporters. welcome to reporters.

i'm philippa thomas. from here in the world's news room, we send our correspondents to bring you the best stories from across the globe. in this week's programme. inside north waziristan. owen bennett—jones finds the pakistan army back in control of the tribal area on the afghan border, after a huge military operation to clear out al-qaeda and the taliban. around one million people from north waziristan fled when the conflict was at its height, and the question now is will they come back? saved from slavery and worse. naomi grimley meets the young yazidis who escaped the so—called islamic state to find refuge in germany. a genocide in the making. alastair leithead reports from south sudan on claims of new atrocities by government forces and local militia. making china's skies blue again.

carrie gracie investigates beijing's new measures against old polluting vehicles. the chinese economy is still fuelled by coal. and in the one party state there is little the public can do, to force the politicians here to deliver air fit to breathe. and the beauty of the brain. fergus walsh meets the researchers unlocking the science of thought. the tribal areas on the afg han—pakistan border have long been associated with militancy and lawlessness. the ancient tribal customs, with their emphasis on both revenge and hospitality, have been challenged in recent years by violentjihadis, imposing sharia, not tribal law. north waziristan became home to al-qaeda, the taliban, and jihadists from all over the world, but as owen bennett—jones reports, after a long and bloody military campaign,

the pakistani army is now firmly in control. for years now, these remote areas on the afghan—pakistan border have been a haven for violentjihadists. in 2014, the pakistan army launched a campaign to win back this land, and today virtually all of it is under army control. the militants left behind this roadside bomb factory. capturing facilities like this has made a difference. there used to be thousands of bomb attacks in pakistan each year, that is now down to hundreds. the army reckons its operations here are the most successful anti—jihadist campaign the world has yet seen. this is sub conventional warfare. it is not conventional warfare. so somewhere it was the ied that was a threat to you,

somewhere it was small ambush or different, so different incidents happening in different areas when we were trying to get them. just like aleppo and mosul, the army caused massive destruction fighting the jihadis. when the battle was raging, the entire population left. the effort is now on to get them back. around a million people from north waziristan fled when the conflict was at its height and the question now is will they come back? so the army has built facilities like this school, that can take 1,000 children — not open yet — but it is hoped this will attract people to come back thinking there are ways they can live here, and get their children educated. there are few public schools in pakistan as well—equipped as this. local markets are also starting up again. but everyone knows the future holds

great uncertainties. a few hours‘ drive away in the city of peshawar, traders say the number of bombs has gone down, but they still have problems. for example, with militants extorting money from them. this gentleman by himself has received extortion letter. if you want to see it i can show it to you. three months ago. asking for ten million. from this shopkeeper, can he afford that? no. this is the aps school, where 130 children were murdered by the pakistan taliban just over two years ago. the survivors say they are determined to resist the militants, by leading useful lives. if you don't get over it, you don't get to live, because you see, if people become stuck in that psychological depression and that kind of thing, you cope with your studies,

you can't cope with the world, you can't see the beauty of life, so you have to cope up, and all we did, we all did bravely and we all did, we coped very brilliantly and now we are facing the world bravely. there is a growing nationalism in pakistan. some militant groups remain strong and haven't been challenged by the state, but there is also a rejection of those jihadis who attack targets on pakistani soil. 0wen bennett—jones, bbc news, north waziristan. as fighters from the self—styled islamic state are gradually being driven out of their stronghold in iraq, the scale of the atrocities is being revealed against one ethnic group in particular. the yazidi people are ethnic kurds, and the un says they are the victims of a genocidal campaign. thousands have been killed, thousands more women and children are being held captive, many traded as sex slaves. some have managed to escape and seek

sanctuary in germany. naomi grimley has been to one refuge deep in a forest in the south—west of the country. a secret location in south—west germany. it is a place of exile. 80 yazidi women and children now live here. they were violently persecuted by so—called islamic state and chased out of northern iraq. these two boys were captured by the extremists and sent to a military training camp aged just 1a and 16. this is their story. translation: the training was about weapons. we learned how to load and fire a weapon. we were training to be soldiers. we would do exercises, crawling under barbed wire, things like that. to learn how to fire a gun on human beings they took us to graves where they had the dead bodies of muslim traitors or

those who took drugs. they said we had to fire on them to get used to it. if we didn't do what we were told, or broke the rules, they would beat us with a stick. everything had to be like they wanted. i had to pretend to be a muslim to survive. their books were like magic, they change your mind and made you into one of them. i bet notjust me, even a man's mind would have changed. after a year, a smuggler helped them escape the camp. it was dangerous. but there was nothing left to be afraid of. we had seen death with our own eyes, we saw how they killed. when you lose everything, you have nothing left. we had nothing to lose. this is mainly a community of women and children.

most of the men are missing, presumed dead. the women were originally brought to germany for trauma counselling after the mass rapes under islamic state. south—west germany has welcomed more than 1,000 yazidis in two years, and the man who runs the project says several towns volunteered to give them shelter. of course it is hard, of course they have bad dreams, of course they are struggling, but they can start, like, you know, just start a new future, get into school, get an education, dream about falling in love and all the things that are normal. all that may take time, but at least for now this refuge is far away from those religious zealots who are trying to wipe them out. naomi grimley, bbc news.

to south sudan, which, according to the un, is edging closer to genocide. it accuses government forces and militia of carrying out ethnically motivated attacks on civilians, while using the current civil war as a smoke screen, but the government denies that the country is experiencing ethnic cleansing. alastair leithead reports. the grief of a mother. the death of a son. she travelled through the night when she heard what happened. isaac's body was found dumped in the river, his ankles tied. a metal wire tight round his neck. translation: my son was fishing and saw the body. i don't know who did

it or why they did it. does this happen a lot? translation: it happens. government forces are in charge of the town. the civil war recently spread to this part of the country, where different ethnic groups peacefully lived side by side. we are a short drive from the centre of the town, but this is pretty much the limit of where the army forces are prepared to go on foot. because the rebels control areas just up the road. houses and buildings in this deserted neighbourhood have been burned. the soldiers blame wild fires or accidents. it is our mandate to make sure civilians are safe. it might be the rule, but it is not the reality — or at least not the reality we heard from those who would talk. we are protecting their identities. this man's sister was assaulted by three soldiers. who raped her? the soldiers.

government soldiers, yes. she is sure they are government soldiers? yes. is this happening a lot here? it is a lot. another witness described ten young men being dragged out of their family homes, chained together, and then shot, one by one. this woman was attacked in her house by soldiers in uniform. they started to beat me. he beat me here. it was painful. it was going to beat me on my head. i put my hands like that. even though both sides in this war have been implicated in atrocities, these allegations were all against government forces. "there is no killing or raping" said the senior commander. "anybody who does is arrested." "the only people we fight are the rebels", he said.

"this is when the killing occurs." "the survivors claim civilians were killed by the army, but we don't kill our own in our own country. " so there are no renegade troops, no troops, not a single case? no. but still people are leaving. in eight months 500,000 people have fled the country, rather than live here under the army. everywhere you go in this area it is the same. villages that have been abandoned. people have closed up and taken what they can with them. hundreds of thousands of people have crossed into uganda, or in the bush because of the fighting, everywhere, village after village. and there is a deeply disturbing ethnic element underlying the deaths, that people are being killed because of their ethnicity. that is why the un has warned this could end in genocide. alastair leithead, bbc news, south sudan. the netherlands is often described as the most

liberal country in europe. but many are wondering if that reputation is changing. the polls suggest in the general election on wednesday many people will vote for geert wilders, who wants to pull the country out of the eu and ban immigration from muslim countries, may even win the largest number of seats. so what happened to the supposedly tolerant easy going dutch? gabriel gatehouse has gone back. the netherlands is having an identity crisis. what does it mean to be dutch? i don't remember people agonising over this question in the past. they are now. what are dutch values? we are all equal. we are all the same. we are very tolerant, and we drink and eat

and play and dance together. so that is the good thing about carnival. what about the rest of the time? well, it's a bit different. we're not so tolerant any more. why not? some people are not so the same as other people. i think the whole islam thing makes it we are more aware of our values. geert wilders, the netherlands‘s answer to donald trump, wants to ban the koran, close the mosques and the borders. in defence of their tolerant way of life, many dutch people are apparently willing to vote for some pretty intolerant policies. growing up, we were taught that tolerance was as much a part of dutch culture as eating mayonnaise with your chips. i used to live over there, number ten, just the other side of the canal. before i lived there,

some other people did, whose names are commemorated here in these plaques. seven of them who were murdered by the nazis during the second world war because they were jewish. there are similar plaques along the canal side. during the war, one tenth of the population of this city were deported to concentration camps. the german occupation had a huge impact on how the dutch see themselves. discriminating against people because of their religion, their cultural or ethnic background, that was something that other people did. not the dutch. i grew up in a time when all of us in this country were still very much under the impression that we live in the most liberal progressive country in the world. i used to say this to people. i'm from amsterdam. i live in the best country in the world, best city in the world. anything goes and you're free

to be whoever you are. however, when i look back i think there was a lot going on under the surface that just wasn't discussed. beneath the surface, many people felt uncomfortable with the effect of immigration. to speak of that was once taboo. not any more. fuelled by geery wilders, the debate has focussed on islam. sylvana has set up a political party, trying to highlight what she says is a hidden current of racism in dutch society. the reaction has not been good. death threats is what i have received for simply voicing my opinion on this topic. that doesn't sound like the most tolerant, the most progressive country on earth. we used to take pride in saying we are so tolerant, that's our biggest problem. we've been tolerating, and tolerating means accepting something that you really don't actually agree with, but you are just, you know, accepting. perhaps the idea of the netherlands as free space was never anything

more than an illusion. now in an age of identity politics, the dutch are asking themselves some fundamental questions. what does liberalism mean? what are the limits of tolerance? and does the netherlands still want to be a place that's open and inclusive? gabriel gatehouse, bbc news. to china, where the government has declared its aim of making the skies blue again by tackling the country's air pollution crisis. the authorities want to reduce reliance on coal, and invest billions in renewable energy, and they are targeting emissions from cars which add to the smog hanging over major city, by encouraging the use of greener vehicles. carrie gracie has taken to the streets of beijing to find out more. everything in china is on a massive scale.

the problems and the solutions. cars are to blame for about a third of china's air pollution. so it's scrapping the worst offenders. but this ritual in the wrecker‘s yard is a losing battle against 30 million new cars taking to the roads this year. if these people want clean air, then from transport to heating and lifestyle, they have to change their behaviour. china has to kick its addiction to fossil fuels. for this beijing couple, the morning commute is a his and hers divide. he is part of the problem. and she's part of the solution. meet little blue. harmful emissions, zero.

to beat the petrolheads, china subsidises electric vehicles and makes them much easier to license. on smoggy days little blue doesn't face restrictions like other cars, and kim is proud to do her her bit for clean air. translation: we all have to live in the city, and the pollution is terrible for health and beijing's image. driving little blue i don't have to feel guilty, even on smoggy days. i tell my friends they should get one too. gathering winter fuel. to beat the smog, all the villages surrounding beijing have banned the burning of coal. and this 70—year—old farmer is forced back to the old ways. the fire heats their brick bed. the government did give

them an electric heater, but on their pensions they can't afford to switch it on much. winters are sub—zero here. but he tells me he is more worried about his electricity bill, than about the cold or the smog. he's wearing thick layers of longjohns. beijing can clean the air when it wants to, like now, for the annual session of its rubber—stamp parliament, but it can't do it for long, because despite the push for cleaner vehicles and cleaner heating, the chinese economy is still fuelled by coal. and in the one—party state there is little the public can do to force the politicians here to deliver air fit to breathe. carrie gracie, bbc news, beijing. it's one of the most prestigious awards in the world of science, a prize of almost £1 million for cutting—edge research aimed at understanding the brain.

this year it's been won by three british based neuroscientists for their work on how the brain uses a system of chemical rewards to help us make choices. they've been speaking to fergus walsh. how do we motivate ourselves in life? whether it's the choices we make about the food we eat, cream cake, or fruit? to the friends we make. thanks, fergus. the pleasure of a hug or the goals we set ourselves at work, to succeed or buy a better car. what underpins our decision making is a chemical in the brain called dopamine, which is released when there is a reward. this sense of reward which can sometimes be equated with happiness, pleasure, or simply a desire to do something has been crucial in human evolution. the three neuroscientists who shared the prize given by a foundation

in denmark have spent 30 years studying the dopamine reward pathway, and say it underpins all our choices. you look at a menu, in a new restaurant, so you have an interesting thing, should you explore a new type of cuisine? so you make a prediction of what it might be like, you say maybe i will try it. if it is better that than you expect, you get a positive signal. next time, you have a higher chance of choosing that food. if it is worse, you won't choose it. there is a dark side to the dopamine reward pathway. it can reinforce poor decision making, such as with drug addiction and lead to compulsive behaviour. parkinson's disease leads to the loss of dopamine producing nerve cells. drugs that boost the levels can sometimes trigger addiction behaviour. it can have negative effects, leading to excess gambling. numerous patients, when treated with drugs, have resorted to gambling, often secretive.

this has resulted in the tragedy of them losing their life savings. the three prize winners are based in the uk, which has a track record of world—leading brain research. their work will help in the development of treatments for patients with psychiatric illnesses like schizophrenia, where the brain reward system goes wrong. fergus walsh bbc news. fergus walsh, bbc news. that's all from reporters for this week. from me, philippa thomas, goodbye. hello there. the relatively settled theme to the weather continues for at least a couple of days.

relatively mild during the day on tuesday but breezy for many of us, particularly windy across northern parts of scotland where the met office have issued a yellow warning for the strength of the winds, causing some disruption for the northern isles of scotland with some heavy showers on the cards as well. further south, most places looking dry first thing tuesday morning. pretty mild too. around the country at 8am, heavy showers for the northern and western isles with the odd rumble of thunder combined with those strong winds and some big waves. much of scotland and northern ireland, a bright start for most. some isolated showers. cloudy at times for northern england down to wales and the south—west. a bit of hill fog. perhaps the odd spot of drizzle. for much of england and central eastern parts, relatively bright. some sunny spells breaking through. a cloudier day than we saw during monday. most places, dry.

strong winds, gusts up to 70mph developing across the northern isles of scotland. heavy showers too. less breezy elsewhere, still mild for this time of year. in the sunnier spells, we're likely to see 15 or 16 degrees. a degree or so higher in one or two spots. the first day of the cheltenham festival, a decent day. cloud but quite bright. mild, 13 or 1a degrees with a gentle south—westerly breeze. heading through the latter part of tuesday evening and overnight, a few spots of light patchy rain moving south across england and wales. quite cloudy with some mist and hill fog in the west. further north, clearer skies moving in, particularly in northern england and scotland and northern ireland. temperatures fresher first thing. wednesday is looking like a decent day for many of us. high pressure in charge. variable cloud. cloudy towards the south and south—west for a time. the best of the sunshine towards north—eastern parts of the country. some rain in the far north—west but elsewhere dry and temperatures still in the mid—teens.

a pleasant enough day on wednesday. thursday, a bit of a change. the next atlantic low pressure system brings this fairly weak weather front. another breezy day on thursday especially in the north—west. it is here we will see a few outbreaks of light patchy rain. further south and east across much of england and wales, still mild and dry. 1a degrees or so. slightly fresher towards the north—west. that fresher theme continues into friday and saturday and things will feel a bit more unsettled into the weekend. bye for now. a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: brexit comes a step closer for the uk — but scotland's leader drops a political bombshell and demands a second independence referendum. i believe that it would be wrong for scotland to be taken down a path that it has no control over, regardless of the consequences for our economy, for our society,

for our place in the world, for our very sense of who we are as a country. turkey announces a series of sanctions against the netherlands as the diplomatic row between the two nations appears to reach breaking point. the largest humanitarian crisis in more than half a century — we report from somalia as 20 million face a deadly famine. thousands of flights are cancelled as americans on the eastern seaboard face the worst snowstorms of the season.