i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: china is at the start of a new era, but what does xi jinping's vision mean for the rest of the world? president trump denies a congresswoman‘s claims that he was insensitive during a phone call to the widow of a soldier killed in action. didn't say what that congresswoman said, didn't say it at all. she knows it, and she now is not saying it. i did not say what she said. i'm babita sharma in london. also in the programme: stranded and at risk of cholera. we have a special report on the rohingya muslims fleeing violence in myanmar. so many young children we are seeing here today. this has to be one of the biggest single day influxes of refugees, from across the border just over there, in the whole of this crisis. he is the author who created the world of his dark materials. philip pullman tells us why he is bringing the cult series back to life.

it is 7:00am in singapore, midnight in london, and 7:00am in the morning in beijing, where china is digesting the detail of president xi jinping's marathon speech to the communist party national congress. he spoke for 3.5 hours. among the highlights — his claim that, under his leadership, china's gdp had grown by nearly 50% in the last five years. he also said more than 1,500 reform measures had been introduced. that is nearly one for every day he has spent in office. and the president promised to build a prosperous society through socialism with chinese characteristics. 0ur china editor carrie gracie reports on what mr xi described as the start of a new era. like no other party conference —

nearly 90 million members, more than 2,000 of them here, and they are all tight—lipped on the way in. speaking mandarin. the first time i came to one of these was 25 years ago, and the striking thing is that the choreography just doesn't change. china has changed — it now has more billionaires than the united states. but the ruling party is making the point that, whatever else happens, its political rituals go on and on. china — a global power which affects us all, but with politics as secretive as north korea. there are rumours of a rift between the men at the top, but on stage, there is only one voice. translation: the banner of socialism

with chinese characteristics is now flying high for all to see. it will be an era that sees china moving closer to centre—stage. "socialism with chinese characteristics" means socialism that allows for private enterprise, and brings economic growth. he is determined he won't be swept away, like communists in the soviet bloc. translation: no stone's being left unturned, and no tolerance shown. applause. a firm message against corruption there. behind the rhetoric of this speech, there is a clear mission statement — that only a disciplined and united party, under his firm leadership, can survive. he has already disciplined nearly 1.5 million people. no wonder they follow his every word. xijinping has set out his goals — modernise the economy, clean up pollution, and build a mighty army.

and it is a strategic vision not just for five years. he is looking ahead 30 years. but it is the party's vision — insiders only. that speech lasted nearly 3.5 hours, which has made delegates late for lunch. hunger and political survival... two good reasons not to talk to the bbc. but some delegates were inspired. it sends the message that, for china, for the development of china, for the future of china, that the communist party and the people are full of confidence. it is nearly 30 years since a peaceful democracy protest right here in tiananmen square was crushed by the army. today, china is far richer and far stronger. but its all—powerful leader is more determined than ever not to give his people a say. carrie gracie, bbc news, beijing. so what can we expect on day two

of the national congress? the bbc‘s robin brant is in tiananmen square. we will be speaking to him in just a few minutes. stay with us for that. our other top story this hour: the bereaved mother of a us serviceman who was killed while on duty has accused donald trump of being disrespectful during a phone call which was meant to express condolences, but mr trump denies the claim. the white house says his own chief of staff was listening, and agrees it is not true. gary 0'donoghue has the story. an all—too—familiar picture, the return of a fallen hero, the grief ofafamily return of a fallen hero, the grief of a family that will never be the same again. sergeant david johnson was killed along with three other soldiers in an ambush in niger two weeks ago. but his family at his

local congresswoman say the president disrespected his memory in a phone calljust before the body arrived back home. i was in the car when president to hold. he never said the word hero. he said to the wife, well, i guess he knew what he was getting into. how insensitive can you be? what is more, according to the congresswoman, the call left a widow in tears, as the president didn't seem to know her husband's name. in characteristic style, donald trump responded on twitter. the white house later said there was no recording of the phone call. and, in the cabinet room, he was asked just what did you say to sergeant johnson's widow? i did not say what she said, and i'd like her to make the statement again, because i did not say what she said. i had a very

nice conversation with a woman, with the wife, who sounded like a lovely woman. did not say what the congresswoman said, and most people aren't too surprised to hear that. earlier in the week, the president had to respond to claims that he had been slow to call and write to the families of fallen service personnel, particularly as almost two weeks had passed since the niger incident. that led him to lash out at his professor, accusing president 0bama of neglecting to contact families. more than many other countries, america displays a difference and respect for its military, which makes this controversy the president could well do without. —— are —— a controversy. also this hour: the us attorney general, jeff sessions, has denied lying to congress about his contacts with russia during the 2016 election campaign, saying he had no improper discussions. appearing before the senate

judiciary committee, mr sessions also refused to answer questions about his discussions on russia with president trump. ican i can neither assert executive privilege, nor can i disclose today the content of my confidential conversations with the president. under the administration of both parties, it is well established that a president is entitled to have private, confidential communications with his cabinet officials. the president of the spanish region of catalonia is expected to announce whether or not he is declaring independence by 10:00am in the morning local time on thursday. the deadline was set by the spanish government after carles puigdemont said he was making a suspended declaration of independence. the spanish government has warned it will take direct control of the region unless mr puigdemont backs down. in a few hours, new zealand's political kingmaker winston peters says he will reveal which main party he will support to form a government. the country's general election on 23 september failed to deliver an overall majority to either major party, leaving mr peter's new zealand first party holding the balance.

google says it has developed an artificial intelligence programme that can learn without human interaction, and do it faster than earlier ones. the new alphago zero learned and mastered the chinese game go with no data other than a blank board and the rules of the game. the previous version has already beaten two of the world's best go players. take a look at these villagers in thailand, who came together to rescue an elephant which had been stuck in a canal after heavy floods struck the area. experts say the animal was close to exhaustion. vets treated it, and you will be glad to know the elephant recovered, and is back in the wild. the un's refugee agency has told the bbc there is a real risk of an outbreak of cholera among the rohingya refugees who have fled

violence in myanmar the crisis began earlier this year, when the burmese military launched an offensive after claims that rohingya militants had attacked police checkpoints. more than 500,000 rohingya muslims have now fled across the border into bangladesh. over the past three days, some 15,000 refugees have been stranded, with limited food and water. the bbc‘s clive myrie reports from the port of cox's bazar in bangladesh. in the distance in myanmar, where rohingya villages have burned in recent weeks, and the people have been driven out, there is another fire. it is ethnic cleansing, says the un, and the purged are fleeing for their lives into neighbouring bangladesh. translation: in my village, many were killed. but my son had just been born, so we have only now been

able to escape. we haven't had time to name him. what is going on in myanmar — why have you had to flee? another man we came across spoke of violence and murder. translation: on the way, we saw many dead people, their heads and limbs chopped off. the slaughter took place house by house. as we drew closer to the border, nothing had prepared us for the full extent of the day's exodus. almost as far as the eye could see, left and right, a tide of humanity. between 10,000 and 15,000 people had crossed the border in one night. young and old, hungry, exhausted, traumatised. and, for the weak, it is a painful

journey into exile, with the searing heat stinging the skin infection of this child, beneath an unrelenting sun. they had been hiding out for close to a week, to avoid detection along the border. this, a first meal without having to watch their backs. a man makes a call to tell relatives he has made it, while others, parched and desperate, take their chance with the filthy water all around. well, as you can see, they're carrying with them whatever they could salvage from their villages, their homes, that they say they were burnt out of by the myanmar military. look at that little baby there in a basket, and there is another one here, on the other side. so many young children we're seeing here today. this has to be one of the biggest single—day influxes of refugees from across the border,

just over there, in the whole of this crisis. manyjust don't have the strength to walk, including this woman. she gave birth to a healthy baby boy just hours before crossing into bangladesh. born on a river bank, he first opened his eyes to see a cruel world, in which it seems there is no place for him or the other rohingya muslims. "i begged god to save us", her husband, mohammed, tells me. "we hadn't eaten for two days, and she went into labour. i don't know what will happen to my baby now. he's so fragile." the new arrivals could end up in one of these — the giant, tented camps, built in a matter of days, on hillsides freshly stripped of trees. the largest will soon become the biggest refugee camp on earth. i've seen a lot of these crises around the world, and i really wasn't quite prepared for the degree

of suffering and despair. and yet these people are very resilient. they have not lost hope. they still think they can make a life again in their home country. and it simply doubles our resolve to go back and find more resources for them, until we can bring them home. but some have died seeking sanctuary. this week, a boat carrying 60 rohingya muslims escaping myanmar capsized. 1a perished, most of them children. for the bangladeshis, the mass influx of so many refugees is difficult to control. after a delay, these rohingya muslims should begin moving to an established refugee camp in the coming days. the border remains open, but for those still wanting to escape myanmar, the fear is that soon the gates could shut. tens of thousands are already massing on the frontier, ready to make their dash for survival. the chinese communist party congress

has entered its second day in beijing. the meeting is held once every five years, and dictates the direction the country will take for the next few years. bbc‘s robin brant has been following the event, and joins us now live from tiananmen square. it is not as rainy as it was yesterday. what did you make of the first day? it was hugely significant for the communist party, for the leader, president xijinping. he spoke for three bona fide hours, looking back at work and promises in the first term. —— three and a half hours. he also promised what was to come. this is a man who at the heart of his talk yesterday spoke of china becoming a great socialist nation and taking centre stage in the world

by the time you get to 2050. 2050 is key because it is just after china in its current incarnation with the government in charge passes 100 yea rs. government in charge passes 100 years. a big smile from xijinping. you don't see that much. he was confident. 0n the economy, interesting, a lot of talk about a more decisive role for market forces. radical reforms that will target big companies. is that part of his overhaul? when he talked about his pledge, more importantly, he made it clear that those big companies the government owns, the railway construction, telecom, he wa nted eve n railway construction, telecom, he wanted even bigger. there will be consolidation they need to change. those companies will not go bankrupt. they will get bigger and have an even bigger role in terms of

economic policy. what happens today with it? it is different. no big speech. it is about opportunities to hear from lower level officials. what is interesting is the 2500 most important people in the communist party are here for a few days. that does not happen very often. it is an opportunity to hear from them and sometimes get a chance to ask them a question. the key moment comes on wednesday when the formalities wrap up wednesday when the formalities wrap up and we hear briefly from the president. the next day we will see the new faces that will feel five of the new faces that will feel five of the seven top spots in the top standing committee. will president xijinping get his officials in there? that is the big moment. thank you very much. you are watching newsday on the bbc.

still to come on the programme: we will go back to the world of his dark materials, as we speak to award—winning author philip pullman. also on the programme: the crash before the bash. we reveal why two racing drivers came to blows in the middle of a race. parts of san francisco least affected by the earthquake are returning to life. the former dictator sat down. 0bedient enough. it is dawn. as the sun breaks through the chilling night, it lights up a biblical famine in the 20th century. the depressing conclusion. in argentina todayit depressing conclusion. in argentina today it is cheaper to paper your walls with money. we have a

controversy in the past with great britain. but has good friends, we have always found a good and lasting solution. -- as. concorde bows out after three decades. it taxis passengers home one last time. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. i'm babita sharma in london. our top stories: it's the second day of the chinese communist party congress after it was opened by president xijinping laying out a confident vision of china's role in the world. president trump is embroiled in new controversy after a congresswoman says he made insensitive comments during a phone call to the widow of a soldier killed in action. canadian prime minister,

justin trudeau, has led the tributes to gord downie, the frontman of the rock band, tragically hip, who has died of brain cancer. the gifted lyricist was dubbed ca nada's unofficial poet laureate. more on his life and music on bbc.com. 0ne story dominates the morning's editions of the papers, china's national congress. the china daily focuses on all the new things president xi jinping says he'll bring to the government during his marathon speed at the party congress in beijing. the papers quotes some of the points the president promoted including, new eras, new thoughts, new contradictions, and new goals. the south china morning post is filled with the congress too with this headline president xi has mapped out a "confident vision" of china's rise as a "global power" by 2050. the japan times is a little more restrained, calling the president's plan a "road map" for his country. the new york times isn't excited

about all the new things president xi is offering. the paper says he's still muscling for control, and describes a vision of party rule centred on restoring china to greatness. and now we shift our attention to what is trending. what stories are sparking discussions online? rico, a fight broke out between two drivers in indiana after car collided with another. the footage has gone viral. one of the drivers was a bit annoyed after the crash, to say the least, and rammed his car into the other, ending up on top of it. well, the other driver responded by getting getting out the car and punching the driver. the fight eventually came to an end when a police officer used a taser to break things up. more on that story at bbc.com. not a great end, right?

the writer, philip pullman, broke new ground when his books, which were written for children, started to win prestigious prizes for adult fiction. millions of people read the dark materials trilogy, and he's now gone back to that amazing world for his latest writing. will gompertz went to meet him. the inn was an old stone built, rambling, comfortable sort of place. there was a terrace above the river, where peacocks, one called norman and the other called barry, stalked... philip pullman, reading from his latest book la belle sauvage, in which he returns to the fantastical world of dust and demons he created in his dark materials. it sees the return of lyra, who is now sheltering in a priory from her own father, in a story that pits liberals against totalitarian oppressors. i think the greatest menace to the world is the point of view that says one size fits all.

there's one answer and we have it and if you don't believe it, we're going to kill you or torture you, or imprison you, or burn you you or whatever. the book is set in oxford — one of the world's great centres of education, a subject, as an ex—teacher, on which the author has some views. i think the way in which we educate children now discounts, greatly discounts the importance of the imagination, and overemphasises a culture of getting things right and getting the right answer and ticking the right box and rewarding it in a quantitative way. "yes, you got four out of five, you've got a bit of room for improvement there, do better next time..." that discounts about 90% of what the child is doing, or what anyone is doing. you can see when a child is actively and imaginatively engaged in the world, and you can see the sad results when they're not, when they haven't been. when all they've had to do is look at a screen,

that's all the entertainment, the only way into the world they've had because they can't play outside, the traffic‘s too dangerous, there's a paedophile hiding in every bush... there's a terrible imaginative poverty that, i'm afraid, dominates the lives of so many people. are you watching what's going on? oh, yes. and adjusting your writing and your story along with what's happening? well, i'm not describing our world, so there's no direct commentary on brexit, for example. no, but it's not a million miles away, the sort of themes and outcomes. the world is in the most extraordinary state. i've never known things so desperately confused, people so bitterly angry, solutions so far away. and naturally, if you're a thinking person at all, if you reflect on what you see in the news and read in the paper, that's going to colour your understanding of things. la belle sauvage might be set in an alternative reality,

but the themes and conflicts played out in its 500 plus pages reveal an author deeply concerned with and very connected to the here and now. will gompertz, bbc news. you have been watching newsday. stay with us. just the ticket. as much of the world celebrates diwali today, it's a good time to settle down with the family and catch up on some big—budget indian films. but we'll see how a hike on ticket prices has affected movie sales in the south of the country. i hope everyone has a good one. and before we go, this is what happened when my colleague, dan walker, on the bbc breakfast show here in the uk challenged strong man eddie hall to prove his might. as you can see, it was no trouble for eddie to pick him up and then put him safely back down.

hello. if you want to see what the weather has in store for the british isles in coming days, take a look towards the atlantic. low pressure is queueing up. this is one towards the west at the moment. it will come into play first evening and friday morning. this innocuous area of cloud will explosively deepen into an area of low pressure on the weekend. more on that in a moment. first thing, cloud in the british isles. murky conditions for thursday. grey skies. a mild start. rain to go with the cloud in central and southern england for a time on thursday morning. the east, brightness. a warm afternoon. highs of 18-19. brightness. a warm afternoon. highs of 18—19. the west, early sunshine. replaced by cloud and rain. northern ireland, a lot of rain through the

course of the day. thursday evening and friday, that area of low pressure starts to whip up the winds, especially for the cornish coast. the same for the channel coast. the same for the channel coast for the small hours friday. cloud and wind and rain in the night. not the best start to friday. most areas getting off to a grey and wet start. northern ireland seeing the best improvement through the morning. elsewhere, after a few hours, the rain will clear eye lunchtime. the wind will be light. 0vercast, but a great improvement. 15-16 in 0vercast, but a great improvement. 15—16 in the afternoon. temperatures correct for this time of year. the first signs of what awaits for the weekend. explosively deep low pressure. bringing rain and wind to almost all parts of the uk. look at all of those isobars. particularly

strong wind. the worst should stay in the atlantic and start to weaken on saturday. nonetheless, the risk of gales for exposed coasts. heavy rainfor of gales for exposed coasts. heavy rain for northern ireland. it could cause problems. rain in the south—west of england, wales, part of scotla nd south—west of england, wales, part of scotland as well. eastern areas not having too bad a day. most areas picking up showers at some stage. strong and gusty winds. i am sorry, temperatures of just 12 — strong and gusty winds. i am sorry, temperatures ofjust 12 — 15 degrees. i'm babita sharma with bbc world news. our top story: china declares a new era for the country, and president xi jinping is set to outline how that will become reality. day two of the five—year china communist national congress will discuss economic policy, a day after president xi promised greater prosperity through what he called socialism with chinese characteristics. president trump has denied

a democratic congresswoman's claims that he was insensitive during a phone call to the widow of a soldier killed in action and this story is trending on bbc.com. google says it has developed an artificial intelligence programme that can learn without human interaction. the new alphago zero learnt and mastered the chinese game go, with no data other than a blank board and the rules of the game. that is all from me now. stay with bbc world news. now on bbc news: a look back at a previous special edition