i'm not sure how in the netherlands. i'm not sure how you cope if you are in costume, like ba na na you cope if you are in costume, like banana man, or those you cope if you are in costume, like banana man, orthose in you cope if you are in costume, like banana man, or those in christmas jumpers. quite impressive. happy new year to all of them. and now we have the weather forecast. the rain is clearing the south east of england, but we have quite a few showers around elsewhere, notably across northern england and parts of wales and the midlands. those will push further south for a while and later in the night they will fade away and we will see the winds easing and skies clearing allowing temperatures to dip away. frost more widely across scotland, but frost elsewhere in some rural areas, but again, things change quickly on tuesday. we have got rain coming into western areas with stronger winds. the rain pushes eastwards through the morning. it doesn't last too long. some snow over the pennines and over the scottish hills. temperatures improving as things brighten up.

it will be windy ahead of this developing rain that's arriving in northern ireland later on in the day and that rain is going to sweep across all areas overnight. it comes with a deepening area of low pressure. it will be a windy week, an unsettled week and rain, when it comes, will be heavy at times. this is bbc news. our latest headlines. police appeal for information after four men are stabbed to death two of the british victims of a seaplane crash in australia are identified as emma bowden and her 11—year—old daughter heather. also among the dead — her fiance and the head of a british company compass, richard cousins, and his two sons william and edward — both in their 20s. the both in their 20s. pilot also died. a fire in a liverpool car park destroys around m00 vehicles, stranding hundreds of people in the city centre overnight. state media in iran says the death toll in anti—government

protests has risen to ten — the country's president warns that violence and disorder will not be tolerated. i will have more headlines for you at 5pm. now on bbc news, one of our programme highlights from the past 12 months. africa is in the midst of a baby boom — the median age across the continent is nowjust 19. in september alastair leithead investigated the potential positives of this "demographic dividend," and the possible pitfalls in africa's population explosion. the population of africa is set to double by the year 2050. to 2.5 billion people. the young are moving from the countryside to the towns. unfortunately for us, in the last two, three

years it's been a deluge. but many end up in slums and cities are struggling to cope. an industrial revolution could transform african countries and lift millions out of poverty. every year it grows, they will need to create 20 millionjobs per year over the coming decades. but idle youth could mean millions more migrants and drive many into the hands of islamist extremists. and that is everyone‘s problem. there's nowhere in the world where women have more children.

half the girls here are married by 15. so it isn't surprising that children have children. this is zinder, on the fringe of the sahara desert and not far from nigeria's northern border. niger is one of the world's poorest countries. it is mostly agricultural. the average number of children born per woman is 7.6. in zinder it is even higher than that, so the government and aid agencies are trying to do something about it. tucked away, out of earshot, girls as young as ten talk about topics many adults

here consider taboo. family planning, contraception, early marriage, and even forced marriage. three older girls take the lead. the aid workers who have trained them call this the safe space class. saratou is 27 and has four children. translation: one of the things we are teaching the girls here is about early marriage and the consequences of having children before they are 18. during the delivery, a girl can lose her life, or the child could die. before this programme, women had many, many kids, but with the coming of this programme the number of children is really reducing. who decides how many children you should have?

translation: my husband, he decides that. and that's the crux of it, the husbands decide. and so they started a husbands school. translation: if you give your daughter away at 12, it could be a disaster. the conversation is just as open on this side of the village. translation: having fewer children helps the woman to be able to breast—feed properly. programme, many of our kids translation: before we learned from this programme, many of our kids were not healthy, but now we don't have a problem. this is mudaha musa. he's 27 and he is one of the more enthusiastic converts to the fewer kids philosophy. he and his wife have three children. translation: i come from a big family.

my father has three wives. i have about 16 siblings. i'm not sure how many we are, but i think we are 16. the idea that more children means more hands to help on the farm doesn't ring true with him any more. translation: no, if someone has ten children, only three, truly, there is a problem here with having too many children. but now we have been to husband school we know more. we can have a child, and then wait for a while before having the next one. even if some people do change their minds and decide to have fewer babies, the dramatic growth in population will take a long time to slow down. by 2050 the number of people in niger will be way over triple from the 21 million here today.

the culture here is to have many, many children. traditions are hard to shift. but this is the way to do it. show them what the options are at a mobile clinic. another case of tackling taboos head on. and from the crowd, nana aisha decides to have a three—year contraception implant in front of everyone, saying she has had three kids and she's happy with that for now. translation: i decided to do it in front of everybody so that they can see how it's done. because before there were rumours that while doing it it hurts. and they see themselves today that it does not hurt at all. and it did persuade a few sceptics. this woman said her husband had given her permission, in fact it was his idea. he is educated, she told me,

and he heard the men talking about it at husband school. they are small steps towards bringing the birth rate down. this population explosion matters. across africa, but more so in niger, all of these young people are a bonus if a country is on the rise but can also be a burden. translation: the immediate consequences of having such a high birth rate is that it is impossible to feed, educate, and care for all of these children in the short—term. in the long—term the very survival of the country is threatened unless we take this window of opportunity to make the most of this youth dividend. it could threaten the survival of the country and encourage different things like terrorism and immigration. there are fewjobs in the countryside. on both sides of this border between nigeria and northern niger, boko haram recruit idle youth.

those who can head to the big urban areas. from here, we followed one man who has left to make it big in lagos. it's a well—trodden route from this quiet rural village to the city. his family are talking about the son and brother, the husband and father, who left his wife and one—year—old boy behind. translation: we don't have money to eat, so we had to send the boy to go and look for money. he sends around $100 every now and again which they use for the farm, food, and clothes. it's quite a contrast, moving from a village of 7,000 people to africa's largest city. this wasn't quite what muktar had in mind, but optimism is emblazoned across his chest. translation: i don't have it easy.

but then i realised how much hard it was to get work. but you can't just sit here without a job. i wanted to buy and sell, to have a shop, and to make enough money to go back to school to get the rest of my education. every day thousands of people arrive in lagos, africa's largest city, looking for the same thing, a new start in life. many end up in the slums, struggling to make a living. lagos has always had mixed blessings of having to deal with the influx of people. unfortunately for us, in the last two, three years, it has been a deluge. we want the people to be here to bring ideas, values and innovation. but we are just unable to deal with it. this is what an african mega city looks like.

it is crowded, chaotic, and crumbling. lagos is already struggling to house, to look after, and to educate the way over 21 million people already living here. let alone the millions more predicted to crush into the city. there is an incredible energy about the place. it is about tapping that and using creative thinking to turn it into an opportunity. the festival celebrates old lagos. masquerades represent the spirits of the dead, returned to cleanse the city of evil and pray for peace and prosperity. emerging from the rusted tin roofs is one answer to the prayers, building up. lagos has no choice but to go up. how are we going to accommodate all of the population? we have to go up. lateef sholebo has spent 25 years

as an urban planner in los angeles. now he has brought his skills home. so now that we are able to go vertically, we are able to reduce the overcrowding. it gives the advantage of the air space which has been lost. tower blocks are not a new idea and they are expensive, but lagos needs to renew without moving people out. one answer is creative financing, to lure private investment into affordable housing. currently we are looking at different areas we can come up with to introduce some of the ideas that i have brought from los angeles and see which ones are applicable and usable here. this is the other way to deal with slums. this community was cleared in march,

despite a court order protecting it. many people fear they will be next. a lot of communities will be under threat of eviction. about 1000 people will be rendered homeless if this action is carried out. if you demolish a slum, two or three will spring up because people need somewhere to sleep. there two main industries in the slums, fishing and dredging for building sand. but the beach is quiet. the people say the security forces came and smashed up the boats. translation: i am very angry. they destroyed my boat and my husband's boats. we have no money.

climate change, drought,

and a doubling population are already testing the continent's capacity to feed itself. and by 2050 a quarter of the world will be africans. farming needs to be much more productive. kenya is at the forefront of a big, international effort to create better plants that produce more crops in the harshest conditions. smallholder farmers here could easily produce four times as much food. sammy nduvi is one of the guinea pigs. he has replaced most of his maize

with a mixture of what are thought of as old—fashioned crops like millet and peas, which put nutrients back into the soil. translation: these days we are getting less rain. when i plant these crops i know i will have something. unlike with maize. the millet and peas normally resist the drought. he's also been given new and improved plants, hybrids he's very happy with. translation: these peas are bigger, they mature faster, and they can get two crops in a year, rather than one. that's where the science comes in, finding the best strains means cross—breeding hundreds of plants to isolate the traits they're looking for. what we are doing is trying to combine traits, characteristics from different plants into one plant, so we end up with a superior plant that is early maturing, high yielding, drought tolerant, and resistant to many

pests and diseases. but as well as being highly nutritious. and this new dna profiling lab in nairobi makes that process a lot quicker. this machine tries to understand the differences at the dna level in the populations of 101 crops. it is not genetically modifying, but by sequencing varieties of 101 carefully chosen traditional african food crops they can go straight in to find the best performing strains. we have a random selection. we go for selecting only those types which contain the signatures from high yield and for drought tolerance. but then nutritionist have to get people excited about these crops in a place where maize is everything. so, to cooking school in rural kenya. these smart foods used to be staples in kenya. before colonialism

brought maize along. they‘ re more drought resistant, more nutritious, and pretty easy to rustle up into all sorts of meals. a piece of chapati. this is pigeon pea stew. the little bit of everything. very good. chuckles. four young farmers have been chosen to put theirfarming skills to the ultimate test... and the other thing is to persuade young people to stay on the farm. this reality tv show is kenya's attempt to make farming cool. it's aimed particularly at millennials, otherwise leaving the village for the city. it shows that farming is a business, that money can be made.

it also helps older farmers up their output. making small holding more productive and profitable is one step towards growing enough food. but for the demographic dividend to be cashed in, people need jobs. and here in ethiopia there's a grand plan. the first industrial park was built in addis ababa. but the biggest has just opened south of the capital. ethiopia is flying high in africa. it has the fastest—growing economy, albeit from a low base, and it has become the darling of international investors. the industrial park is a phenomenal project... ethiopian workersalreadyhave

echoes of its own dramatic growth. translation: why did we choose ethiopia 7 it has a stable political situation and a peaceful society. and it is the second biggest country in africa. without a big population

there is no market. there's a huge amount of building going on across ethiopia. the scale and ambition is impressive. row after row of government built social housing. a new electric railway to whisk imports and exports between the capital and the coast. perhaps the most visible sign of ethiopia's economic growth is its airline. it has been dramatically expanding over the last ten years. it is government owned. ethiopian airlines now flies all over the world. what better advert for a country on the rise? we can learn from china that making investment in the long—term in infrastructure is quite important. the population is growing by about 5%. we need to create close to one million jobs every year. so this is a big challenge and manufacturing has a significant

impact in job creation. this now provides an opportunity for what we call the demographic dividend. but without having a policy that is very ambitious and aggressive, it will be difficult and it will be a source of crisis. aggressive policies in ethiopia mean a heavy hand. protests were crushed. a state of emergency has just ended. there were questions about lack of freedoms and authoritarianism. building democracies that are sustaining means a lot of effort. it needs many generations. we recognise that. we are going to put in a lot of effort despite the issues we have. ethiopia has also built a lot of universities, focusing now on engineering and technology rather than arts. but what about the dilemma? what is more important, is it economic growth or freedom of speech and democracy? it's not like one is more

important than the other, but definitely economic growth is a means towards democracy. it's a path for our democracy, it's a path for freedom of speech. if there is no education in a country, and people are still hungry, what are they going to speak about? industrialisation isn't the only answer to africa's population explosion, but is already creating dividends for ethiopia's economy. if it gets the balance right this could be a model to put a continent to work. in much of africa that's a big ask. in poor countries like niger it seems the economy won't come close to keeping up with population growth. in rich ones like nigeria, it comes down to good thoughts and good actions. even if the speed and scale of urban growth offers its own set of challenges. this african population explosion is coming and its impact will be felt across the globe for good orfor bad. hello there.

the first week of the new year looks like being very unsettled. it's going to be a windy week. there's likely to be some gales at times and spells of rain too and when the rain comes along, it may well be on the heavy side. we've had some rain today. it's been quite a grey looking picture at king's cross in london. we did see some improvement in the weather further west across hampshire and many of us will become dry overnight, but we've still got heavy showers at the moment driving southwards across england and wales. later on, the showers do tend to fade away. the winds will ease as well and skies will clear. so it's going to be a bit colder tonight. colder than it has been for a little while. a frost likely in scotland and perhaps some patchy frost elsewhere in rural areas.

but very quickly we will see the weather changing again tomorrow morning. we've got some rain that's arriving from the atlantic. so a wet start across northern ireland. perhaps coming into western fringes of scotland. still some frost early on at 8am in the north—east of scotland. that wetter weather driving over the irish sea, still dry across northern england, midlands and east anglia and the south east, but pretty quickly it's clouding over. it's going to be a cold start. wetter weather soon arriving in wales and the south—west of england. the rain here though not too heavy. this rain is going to work its way eastwards through the morning. it doesn't last too long. we will briefly get some snow over the pennines and over the hills in scotland. after a chilly morning it does tend to become a little milder through the afternoon as we get some brighter weather and still gusty winds ahead of some rain that's going to be arriving in northern ireland later in the day. seven celsius in glasgow and 11 celsius in london. that rain coming on, this deepening area of low pressure, it is one to watch tomorrow night. uncertainties about the exact track, but we have got gusts

of 60mph, 70mph likely across southern scotland, northern ireland and northern england. 0vernight that low then exits south into the north sea, out into the north sea, but we are left with some widespread gales across he england and wales on wednesday. a day of bright or sunny intervals and some showers, some heavy showers in the west. some more organised rain coming into northern ireland. temperatures still not bad for the time of year. seven celsius in the central belt and ten celsius across southern parts of england and wales. the unsettled theme does continue whilst we may see the winds easing down by thursday morning another area of low pressure, is set to arrive and that will bring more wind and rain in the south—west. this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines. police appeal for information after four young men are stabbed to death in london — in separate new year attacks. tragically draft for families awaiting this morning to the

heartbreaking news that they have lost loved ones to the callous use of knives as lethal weapon. a mother and daughter are identified as being among five british tourists killed in a seaplane crash near sydney. iranian state media says 10 people have been killed overnight in anti—regime protests. president trump uses twitter to say it's "time for change". also this hour — 11100 vehicles are destroyed in a new year eve's fire in a liverpool car park. 0ne eyewitness said she saw a ‘ball of fire' coming from a land rover — before the flames spread to other cars. and i will look