welcome to newsday. i'm sharanjit leyl, in singapore. the headlines: more violent protests across the middle east after donald trump recognises jerusalem as the capital of israel. israel's prime minister says it's time for everyone to accept the change. i think the sooner the palestinians come to grips with this reality, the sooner we'll move towards peace. venezuela's president maduro says he is banning the main opposition parties from next year's presidential election, after they boycotted the latest mayoral polls. i'm kasia madera, in london. also in the programme: a stark warning from the nobel peace prize winner — could mutually assured nuclear destruction be one impulsive tantrum away? a calculated military escalation could lead to the indiscriminate murder of civilians. and just why did this elephant get so angry when it came across this bus in china? live from our studios in singapore and london.

this is bbc world news — it's newsday. good morning. it's 9:00am in singapore, 1:00am in london, and 3:00 in the morning injerusalem where donald trump's decision to recognise the city as the capital of israel is continuing to cause unrest. there've been clashes in the west bank and gaza. elsewhere, tear gas was used against protestors outside the us embassy in beirut. but israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, made it clear he backed donald trump's decision, telling palestinians to "get to grips with reality". 0ur arab affairs editor sebastian usher reports. tear gas was fired into a crowd of around 1,000 protesters in beirut as they tried to reach the us embassy this morning.

effigies of president trump and us flags were burned by angry groups of palestinian refugees and lebanese activists. translation: we are here to tell the us embassy, the embassy of the aggressor, thatjerusalem is arab, it was arab and it will stay arab. large rallies have been held in the moroccan capital, rabat. and in cairo too. as protesters try to build momentum across the region against president trump's decision. in istanbul, thousands turned out to hear president erdogan launch a blistering attack on president trump and israel. translation: israel, it is a terrorist state, yes, terrorist. we will not abandonjerusalem to the mercy of a state that kills children. that earned him a fierce riposte from the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, who said he wasn't used to receiving lectures on morality from a leader

who bombs kurdish villages. he also had an uncompromising message onjerusalem. it has always been our capital. and jerusalem has never been the capital of any other people. i think, the sooner the palestinians come to grips with this reality, the sooner we'll move towards peace. but as clashes again broke out near the fence between gaza and israel, many fear that mr trump's move will reignite extremist violence. sebastian usher, bbc news. a spokesperson for the us vice—president, mike pence, said it was "unfortunate" that the palestinian president mahmoud abbas was declining to meet mr pence because the us has made that decision to recognised jerusalem as israel's capital. the us ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley, believes that this recognition will achieve peace. when you recognise the truth, when both parties recognise reality, peace comes and that's just, um, thatjust the true reality of the situation.

we are living in the reality that jerusalem is the capital of israel but if you notice when the president spoke, he made it very clear. he didn't talk about boundaries, he didn't talk about borders, he didn't get into any of that, because the final status of jerusalem is between the palestinians and the israelis — it's not for the americans to decide so we are doing what we do in every other country, israel should be no different, and thenb we are going to continue israel should be no different, and then we are going to continue to support the peace process. nikki haley there, stressing that the us is committed to supporting the peace process, but the decision over jerusalem should ultimately be left to the israelis and the palestinians. i put this point to our north america correspondent, david willis. yes, the united states is making clear that it remains committed to peace in the middle east but it's going to be an uphill battle, particularly given this snub of vice president mike pence. he was standing behind donald trump when he made that controversial announcement about jerusalem last week and mr trump indeed went on to say

that mike pence would be sent to the middle east to reaffirm america's ties to its partners there. now, mike pence was due to meet with with mahmoud abbas in bethlehem in just over a week's time — that will not now be happening. the palestinians are saying they have no interest indeed in talking with the united states until such time as donald trump reverses his controversial decision last week. now, mike pence's spokesman, in a statement, said that that was "unfortu nate", as he put it, unfortunate that the palestinians were walking away from an opportunity to discuss the future of the region. but given the global condemnation and the protests in the region and elsewhere, this clearly remains a very, very difficult decision, a difficult announcement

for the americans to get past at this time. absolutely, david, so where do they go from here then? well, that, ithink, is a bit unclear. we heard from nikki haley that this decision in her view will "move the ball forward", as she put it, towards the goal of peace in the middle east but the status ofjerusalem remains, of course, crucial to the conflict between the israelis and the palestinians. the palestinians continue to see occupied east jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and the very fact that they have now effectively walked away from the negotiating table makes, i think, the prospect of peace in the middle east all the more difficult for the trump administration to hope to attain. david willis there, speaking to me from washington. lots more analysis on our websight.

also making news today: the winner of this year's nobel peace prize has warned that the world could be just one impulsive tantrum away from nuclear destruction. beatrice fihn made the comments while accepting the award in oslo on behalf of her organisation, the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons. she was apparently referring to current tensions and the trading of insults between the united states and north korean presidents. a moment of panic or carelessness, a misconstrued comment or a boost ego could easily lead us to the destruction of entire cities. a calculated military escalation could lead to the indiscriminate murder of civilians. the gulf state of qatar has signed another major deal to buy hi—tech defence equipment.

it will spend $8 billion on 2a typhoon fighterjets, which will be built in the uk. it follows a deal struck last week with a french supplier for nearly 500 armoured vehicles. firefighters across southern california say they're getting the upper hand in containing some of the wildfires which have broken out across the state. however, several fires north of los angeles are still burning out of control. sent out by brad is now under threat. tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. —— santa barbara. this is zaira wasim, one of india's leading actresses, who says she was sexually harassed while on board a flight from delhi to mumbai. the 17—year—old star of the hit movie dangal said a male passenger who was sitting behind her started to rub her with his feet while she was trying to sleep. the claims caused an outcry in india,

and a 39—year—old man has now been arrested. the airline, air vistara, has promised to carry out a detailed investigation. and with christmas just a fortnight away, we thought we'd share these nativity scenes with you. what makes them a little bit different is that they're all sculpted from sand. they're on display in the italian town ofjesolo, not far from venice. it took a team of ten artists many hours to turn 1,000 cubic metres of sand into these masterpieces. but they won't be around forever, they'll be destroyed in february. the internet — whether it's social media or shopping online — is a presence in most of our lives, and its dominance among children is becoming more apparent.

but new research from unicef is warning that too little is being done to protect them from the dangers of the digital world. 176,000 children every day go online forfirst time. every day 176,000 children go online for the first time. 71% of young people globally are online. young people aged between 15 and 2a are the most connected age group. worldwide, 71% are online compared with 48% of the total population. african youth are the least connected, with around 3 out of 5 youth offline, compared tojust1 in 25 in europe. the online world is dominated by english language websites — approximately 56% are in english. sexual abuse is a big concern. more than 9 in 10 child sexual abuse urls identified globally are hosted in five countries — canada, france, the netherlands, the russian federation and the united states. i spoke to laurence chandy,

unicef‘s director of data, research and policy in our new york studio a short time ago. well, unfortunately, the internet has become a one—stop shop for the sexual abuse of children. it's a place where children and customers of sexually explicit material can be recruited. it is where businesses can be organised. it's whether material can be ultimately advertised and distributed, and all with a high degree of anonymity. and all that means that the whole business of sexual exploitation of children has become more profitable and children are therefore increasingly at risk. there are some aspects of the web that support this, including the anonymous payment platforms and encrypted platforms by which the material can be spread. i believe that some of your viewers may be seeing some footage right now which unicef has provided of a 12—year—old girl, from the philippines,

who was coerced into performing sexually explicit acts on line for extremely modest payments. one of the customers from the us ultimately travelled to the philippines to visit her and attempted to rape her before the authorities from the philippines, thankfully, were able to rescue the girl. this is very serious problem... we are hoping to show you that clip you talked about but for viewers, you can als owatch it on line on the unicef website. it is a deeply disturbing story indeed. also what's deeply disturbing as most of child sex abuse sites are actually hosted out of five countries that we mentioned earlier. the netherlands, the us, canada, france and the russian federation. so why is that specifically and should the governments of these countries shoulder most of the responsibilities to keep children safe?

or is it not quite that simple? so the truth is, we don't fully understand why there is this great concentration. the statistic you are talking about we actually have sourced from the internet watch foundation who speculate the reason is in those countries, one can distribute material on line at very low cost with high speed and a high degree of anonymity but we don't exactly know and that captures so much of the problem of protecting children on line because the risks are continuing to evolve and expand and regulators are unfortunately behind the curve. you ask a good question about whose fault is this and i think there is plenty of blame to go around. it starts with policymakers and regulators and also corporations. the companies whose platforms are often used to spread explicit material of children. and again, this is not a straightforward issue. there are some deep questions to ask

about what the responsibility of those funds are. i would go back to this key point that the internet was not built with children in mind but they are among the most frequent users today. laurence chandy from unicef on that report out today, venezuela's leader nicolas maduro has banned candidates from major opposition parties from taking part in next year's presidential election. he made the announcement after voting ended in polls to choose mayors in more than three—hundred towns and cities. these local elections were boycotted by the three principal parties in venezuela's opposition. and mr maduro said only the parties which had taken part in sunday's vote would be allowed to put forward presidential candidates.

despite venezuela's worsening economic crisis, mr maduro's socialist party is expected to win the most votes in the mayoral elections, as katy watson reports. this is one of the voting centres where people are choosing their local mayors. there are 335 measured up local mayors. there are 335 measured up grabs. the number is expected to rise during these elections. mayoral elections are not a priority for many people. add to the fact this has been ait malta was a difficult year. people are disillusioned. the major opposition parties have said they will not participate in these elections. they say the system is flawed. there are some smaller candidates that are being put forward. that is the problem. the opposition is divided and in tatters. it is expected to strengthen the government's hand and head of potential presidential elections next year. there may not be any protest, but life here is

still hard. hyperinflation, food, medicine shortages, and queues for things like bread rule people ‘s lives there. they are fed up. they might not want to govern, but they don't think the opposition can offer an alternative either. all they want to do is live their lives. that was katie watson outside one of those polling centres. you are watching newsday on the bbc. temperatures as —10 celsius. how is europe coping with the sudden onset of winter? john lennon was shot at the entrance to the dakota building, in the centre of new york. there's been a crowd here standing in more or less silent vigil. and the flowers have been piling up. the 14th ceasefire of this war ended at the walls of the old city of dubrovnik.

this morning, witnesses said shells were landing every 20 seconds. people are celebrating the passing of a man they hold responsible for hundreds of deaths and oppression. elsewhere, people have been gathering to mourn his passing. imelda marcos, the widow of the former president of the philippines, has gone on trial in manila. she's facing seven charges of tax evasion. she pleaded not guilty. the prince and princess of wales are to separate. a statement from buckingham palace said the decision had been reached amicably. welcome back. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. i'm kasia madera in london.

our top stories: there've been more violent protests across the middle east after donald trump recognised jerusalem as the capital of israel. israel's prime minister has said it's time for palestinians to "get to grips" with the change. venezuela's leader, nicolas maduro says, he is banning the main opposition parties from standing in next year's presidential election. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. the straits times picks on the continuing reaction to president trump's declaration on friday aboutjerusalem. it leads with the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's suggestion to the palestinians that they "come to grips with reality". the south china morning post covers the nobel peace prize awards in oslo and the warning about north korea from the winners — the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons. it quotes the campaign head, beatrice fihn, saying the world is in an extremely

dangerous situation. and the philippine star reveals that philippine president duterte is seeking to extend martial law in the southern island of mindanao for a further year. the paper quotes his spokesperson as saying that the safety of filipinos is of ‘paramount concern‘ for the president. that brings you up with some of the papers. now, what stories are sparking discussions online? and this video of an elephant attacking a bus in china is proving popular on our website. it is proving to be really popular. it's not clear why it took such a dislike to the vehicle, after wandering out of a forest in the south—western yunan province. but you'll be glad to know that neither the elephant,

nor anyone on board the bus, was hurt, although the windscreen did need replacing. and you can see more of that on bbc.com/news. much of northern europe is in the grip of blizzard—like conditions and widespread disruption. this was frankfurt airport in germany, where dozens of flights were delayed and cancelled. specialised snow—clearing equipment was used to make the aircraft and runways safe, but hundreds of passengers were still affected. problems also in switzerland, a country which is normally used to some heavy snowfall, actually struggled to keep the roads clear. there were also flight cancellations and delays in the netherlands with some rail services cancelled after problems on the lines. winds gusting at up to 140 kilometres an hour, and temperatures as low as minus ten degrees celsius have also caused disruption

in france, and across britain. richard lister reports on the impact here in the uk. much of britain looked like a christmas cloud today. scotland and northern england had been expecting snow. this was bucks. 0n the ground it was not pretty. —— notts. brea kd owns it was not pretty. —— notts. breakdowns and blizzards on the m25 kneejerk cross made false low blow —— growing in slippery conditions. 0n the eighth betty ford near newbury, two stuck lorries meant the southbound carriageway had to be closed. but in wales, some smaller communities were cut off entirely. thousands of people lost power. this is by far the worst i have ever

seen. probably the worst snow i have ever seen, to be honest. it is about a foot deep around. in the midlands, they thought grit would be enough to keep the road say. in redditch they needed snowploughs. —— safe. it has been a long day for breakdown services like the rac which has been getting five cold per minute. services like the rac which has been getting five cold per minutelj tried starting at last night. and tried starting at last night. and tried starting at last night. and tried starting it this morning. it won't have it. mark says everything he has dealt with today has been weather—related. he has dealt with today has been weather-related. only travel if you really have to. if you are going to travel, make sure you have good things on you like a fully charged phone, warm clothing in case you get stuck, you may be stuck in traffic for hours and hours. this is one of an estimated 25,000 breakdowns across the uk today. that is 15% more than usual. everything from flat batteries to people stuck in their drives because of the snow. it is not just motorists their drives because of the snow. it

is notjust motorists who have been having problems. hundreds of flights we re having problems. hundreds of flights were cancelled. heathrow, looting, and sta nsted were were cancelled. heathrow, looting, and stansted were among the airports affected. and there were unhappy passengers at east midlands airport as well. frustrated. a of wasted time this morning. they could have told us when we checked in that the flight told us when we checked in that the flight was cancelled. we have been cancelled so we have been waiting around for about six or seven hours. ap and a ferry with 300 passengers on board ran aboard in calais because of high winds. p&0. it was refloated. this was a day to stay at home. and do some of this, skiing in shropshire. snowman, sledging, and snowballs in nottingham. what looks like fun on sunday afternoon could look very different on monday morning at rush hour. dresses will be out in force through the night preparing for another difficult day to come —— gritters. this far south

most people had not expected this amount of snow. you look around and much of it is still here. the pavements are slippery, the rows are slippery, it will make for a treacherous commute tomorrow. the temperatures are falling. the met 0ffice temperatures are falling. the met office has said that ice will be a major hazard until about lunchtime tomorrow for much of the country. it hasissued tomorrow for much of the country. it has issued two yellow be aware morning is one in northern ireland and scotland, and the other for wales and central england. if you are in those areas you can expect a lengthy commute tomorrow. ice is not just a problem on the roads, deicing issues cause delays at many airports earlier today. if you have a flight tomorrow morning you might want to check that it is going before you leave for the airport. ice has other problems. it can mean that tree limbs for across powerlines and power cuts are a real likelihood for many people tomorrow. richard listed their reporting. sharanjit, the temperature in london is just above freezing.

the snow was so bad that some members of our production team were unable to get into work. i'm going to regret asking, but what's the weather like in singapore? you can kind of see it behind me. the singapore skyline, it is a sunny morning. a balmy 28 degrees. that report was actually filmed in beaconsfield, which is where my in—laws lived. i was sent a photo of their back garden, a winter wonderland. and i am really quite envious. we all have snow in the year. that is it for newsday. thank you all for watching. goodbye. it was a cold and a wintry weekend, some places seeing the most snowfall

we have had in four years. we've had lots of scenes coming in from our weather watchers. this one taken in leicestershire showing the depth of the snow there. scenes like that across many central parts the country — this one coming in from shropshire. in terms of snow depths, we have had 33 centimetres of snow, sennybridge in mid wales. widely over ten centimetres. it has caused significant disruption. and during monday morning, ice, i think, is going to be the main hazard. but during the day our attention also turns to this area of low pressure affecting portugal, spain and france, and the northern edge of that could well bring some heavy rain and strong winds into the south—east of england, perhaps a bit of snow and also sleet mixed in. but ice developing quite widely during monday morning, so for the rush hour do take care on the roads — there could well be some slippery surfaces around. let's take a look at monday morning in a bit more detail then. we are going to see that mix of rain, sleet and snow across the south—east. the winds picking up, too. but away from the south—east of england there is brighter

conditions, but a very cold start to the day, certainly, with temperatures well down in the minus double—digits in one or two parts of the countryside. sunshine across northern england. watch out for some icy stretches. and across northern ireland and scotland too, we'll see a northerly breeze bringing in some snow showers through the day. as we head through monday then, eventually that rain, sleet and snow will ease from the south—east. the winds will ease, too. away from the south—east, lots of dry weather, lots of wintry sunshine, though temperatures will struggle to get very much above freezing. we will continue to see some rain, sleet and snow showers across northern ireland and northern parts of scotland. 0vernight, one or two coastal showers in the far north, west and east. the bulk of the rain clears from the south—east and again, very cold into the early hours of tuesday morning. we could see those temperatures as low as —12, degrees, particularly where you have got the lying snow around and the clear skies too. some freezing fog patches likely on tuesday. they could be quite stubborn to clear through the day. but if you don't see the fog,

you will see the wintry sunshine from the word go. another cold day, particularly, for central and eastern parts of the country, just one or two degrees here. slightly milder weather moving in from the west with the arrival of some cloud and some rain. that is all courtesy of this weather front through tuesday night into wednesday. that shifts its way eastwards across the country, so it will bring a spell of rain and wind during wednesday, but things will turn a little bit milder through the middle part of the week with the return to some heavy showers and perhaps some hail around as well, but temperatures around 3—11 degrees. bye for now. i'm kasia madera, with bbc news. our top story: the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has said it's time for palestinians to accept the reality thatjerusalem is israel's capital. there were more violent protests across the middle east in response to president trump's decision. in beirut tear gas was used against protestors outside the us embassy. venezuela's leader nicolas maduro is banning the main opposition

parties from standing in next year's presidential election. he said only parties which took part in sunday's mayoral elections would be allowed to participate. and this video is trending on bbc.com... it's this elephant attacking a bus in south—west china. it's not clear why it took such a dislike to the vehicle, but you'll be glad to know that neither the elephant nor anyone on board the bus was hurt. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. heavy snow has led to power cuts and disrupted rail and road travel,