friday. thursday, perhaps deceptively off to acquire stock but more wet and windy weather waiting in the wings. —— off to a quiet start. this is bbc news. i'm reeta chakrabarti. the headlines at 7pm. in iran, state media reports that a protester has shot dead a policeman, as anti—government protests continue for a fifth night. tributes are paid to a british family of five killed in a seaplane crash in sydney. the youngest victim was 11 years old. police are investigating the overnight deaths of four young men in unrelated knife attacks across london. also this hour — up to 1600 vehicles are destroyed in a fire in a liverpool car park on new year's eve. one eyewitness said she saw a ‘ball of fire‘ coming from a land rover — before the flames spread to other cars. in a new year's day speech, north korea's leader warns donald trump that he has a nuclear button on his desk — and is ready to use it. and stay with us for a virtual

reality trip to the bridge of the starship enterprise, and much more — as click takes a look back at the year in tech. that's in half an hour here on the bbc news channel. good evening and welcome to bbc news. in iran, another ten people have been killed overnight in anti—government protests — that's according to state tv. these are the latest deaths after days of country—wide unrest which began as a protest against the falling standard of living. rana rahimpour reports. the fifth day of protests in iran. once again, thousands of people have taken to the streets. they are angry at unemployment,

rising prices, and what many think is widespread corruption. it's the boldest challenge to the country's leadership in nearly a decade. the demonstrations began in the north—western city of mashhad, a key base for president rohani's most outspoken critics. and has quickly turned into a widespread antiestablishment movement. this is the biggest show of dissent in iran since the post—election rallies of 2009. they were large in size but limited to urban areas of the country like the capital. this time the protests are more widespread with towns and cities all over the country looking for social, political, and economic change. authorities are continuing to suspend social media platforms out of fear they will be used to organise more protests. the bbc has received reports of text messages, like this one, being sent to people urging them not to take part. a handful of pro—government marchers

are attempting to counter the wider demonstrations, but with limited information coming out of the country it's difficult to gauge how many people are involved. in the last 2a hours, president rouhani has spoken out twice against the protests. accusing iran's enemies of instigating the unrest. translation: our victory against the us and its regime is unbearable for our enemies. our success in the region is intolerable for them. they are after revenge and are trying to provoke people. but his words have failed to calm the situation. in certain areas of the country unemployment is as high as 60%, and reports of extreme corruption have iranians frustrated and hungry for change. at least 12 people have died since the protests began. and with no sign of stopping, that number looks set to rise.

rana rahimpour, bbc news. a p pa re ntly apparently a policeman has been shot. i'm joined now by rana rahimpour from the bbc persian service. what do we know? it is hard to get reliable news out of the country, but according to one of the intelligence officers there has been an attack, they say a riot has shot dead a police officer. it seems to be in dead a police officer. it seems to beina dead a police officer. it seems to be in a place in the centre of the country. if it is true, we have received videos, and if we can verify them, there is very violent protests going on. we can hear shots

being fired and a government building is set on fire. but we have to make sure that those are accurate stories that we are getting out of the country. with all of those caveats in place, you need to find out if this is true or not, but if a police officer has been shot, what is the response likely to be from the authorities? very likely that it will be escalated, because so far the iranian establishment has shown restraint and they have not used a heavy hand because it is very easy for them to get involved and kill many of the protesters as they did in 2009, and even today one of the commanders of the revolutionary guard said these have been insignificant and the revolutionary guards have not been involved, but this could turn a new page in the recent developments that we are witnessing in the country. thanks for joining witnessing in the country. thanks forjoining us. joining me now from washington

is daniel serwer, from the middle east institute and johns hopkins university. looking at what is going on in iran right now, how would you characterise the significance of these protests? are they about the economy or political? they seem to be about both, there are economic demands going on but also they reflect the political goals especially against the supreme leader which is quite extraordinary and suggests deep... you mentioned the supreme leader but we have not heard from him so far, is that significant? it is significant, he seems to be leaving this to

president rouhani at the moment, but i would expect that some point if this continues, for him to interfere with words and then the revolutionary guard and the paramilitary forces which would >> studio: -- repressed the rebellion in 2009. how significant is this in contemporary iran, you are comparing this to 2009 as our correspondent did. so farthe this to 2009 as our correspondent did. so far the authorities have taken a more softly did. so far the authorities have ta ken a more softly softly did. so far the authorities have taken a more softly softly approach, is that because they feel less threatened compared with 2009? we don't we know because they are not talking, but they appear to be taking another strategy, partly because 2009 wasn't such a great experience for them either. it seems to me that they are being rather

wise enough reacting strongly with violent repression right away. let's face it, if the demonstrators become violent, i have no doubt that the regime will become violent. non—violent discipline is absolutely essential to the success of the demonstrations. and what about president trump's contribution to what is going on in iran? is he helping the protesters?” what is going on in iran? is he helping the protesters? i don't think so, it ties them with the american brush. there are things the americans can do to help in terms of sanctions and things like that, lifting the fees a ban on iranians but i see no sign that the administration is doing anything more than tweeting at this point. ——

freezer ban. we have to leave it there, thanks for joining we have to leave it there, thanks forjoining us. air accident investigators in australia say it may take months before they know why a seaplane carrying a prominent british businessman and his family crashed on new year's eve. richard cousins — who ran a multi—billion pound catering company — was killed along with his two sons, his fiance, her daughter and the pilot. they were on holiday and returning to sydney after a family outing. phil mercer reports from sydney. the wreckage of the seaplane lies 13 metres below the surface of the hawkesbury river. one of the victims was the british businessman richard cousins, the chief executive of the world's largest catering firm, compass, who was due to retire later this year. the company confirmed his death in a statement. mr cousins, who was 58, died alongside his fiancee emma bowden and her 11—year—old daughter, heather. also on board the seaplane that crashed intojerusalem bay — william cousins, who was 25,

worked for open britain, a pro—eu group set up in the aftermath of the brexit vote. colleagues said they were shocked by news of his death. his brother, edward, who was 23, had recently graduated from the university of st andrews. losing both my godson and his sibling, and my brother—in—law as well, has left a huge hole. they had a lot of friends. they had... they were very, very popular lads. and that's because they've had a fantastic upbringing, from both my sister and richard. the pilot, gareth morgan, had done more than 10,000 flying hours, 9,000 of which were on seaplanes. the pilot had collected mr cousins and members of his family from an exclusive waterfront restaurant, and was heading back to rose bay on sydney harbour. shortly after take—off, the plane plummeted into the water. investigators say it quickly sank,

and there were no survivors. this is people that have come over on holidays to visit australia. they were in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. and for this to happen to them at a place like that is nothing more than just tragic. it could take months to work out how and why a routine sightseeing trip could end in utter disaster. air crash investigators have begun their work. their task won't be easy. the wreckage of the seaplane has been submerged in more than 40ft of water. and although these idyllic bays and inlets are geographically close to sydney, the crash site is tucked away and hard to get to. sydney seaplanes, which owns the aircraft, has suspended all its flights until further notice. phil mercer, bbc news, sydney. four young men have been stabbed to death in london in a 2k

hour period either side of the new year celebrations. three men, aged 17,18 and 20, were killed yesterday. a fourth victim, another 20—year—old, died after being stabbed in the early hours of this morning. police say the deaths are unrelated. ben ando reports. late morning, enfield, north london. the victim, aged 18. early evening, west ham, the victim, 20 years old. three hours later, tulse hill, south london, a teenager of 17. and then in the early hours of new year's day, a 20—year—old man killed in old street. all four, stabbed to death, but according to the police, none of the murders are linked. tragically, there are four families who awoke this morning to the heartbreaking news that they've lost loved ones to the callous use of knives as lethal weapons. our detectives are working tirelessly today and going forward to bring those who've committed these murderers to justice. the three murders before midnight take the total number of fatal stabbings in london for 2017 to 80.

that compares with 60 in 2016. police say the reasons for the increase are complex, but it underlines the importance of stop—and—search. my my mum needs me alive. in november, a campaign to convince teenagers not to carry knives was launched. london needs me alive... one campaigner who lost a son to knife crime says youngsters need more help to make the right choice. so i don't carry a knife... they are living in total fear. they weren't born killers. they didn'tjust become like that. it's a process. and now, what we've got to do is unravel that process, stage by stage by stage, to get to the core of the individual, which is the state of their heart and the state of their mindset. as work goes on at the scene of the first knife killing of 2018,

the question is, will this worrying trend continue? ben ando, bbc news, south london. with me is dal babu, a former chief superintendent with the metropolitan police. this is a terrible start to the new year. but this is a phenomenal that london is too familiar with. the stabbing of young people. you are absolutely right, it is appalling, this is a family time, people are thinking about families are my thoughts go to the families of these young men, many of them are very young, 17, 19, 20, very young people. 26 is the number of young people. 26 is the number of young people that have been murdered under the age of 19 last year. we have already had the first murder and one of those was in the early hours of today. it is tragic. awful. what we

need to be looking at is having more of the local authorities and police, the third sector organisations, working closely together, and i would also point out that we have had a significant reduction in resources , had a significant reduction in resources, not just in had a significant reduction in resources, notjust in the police, 20% reduction in the number of police, but also reduction in local authority funding for youth clubs and places the young people to go to. so, if you do, that's a huge problem around resources, and it it more difficult to work across the different resources. if young people are carrying knives, what can be done to stop them? yes, absolutely, and we have seen an increase in that, and the commissioner cressida dick has been very clear, she wants to see appropriate sentencing for individuals, it's a robust approach, using stop and search effectively,

but ultimately it is notjust the police, we need to work with families and we need to work with schools and with colleges and youth clu bs, schools and with colleges and youth clubs, but if the funding isn't there to bring all these agencies together it will be incredibly difficult. that is the challenge, how do we do it. when i was a borough commander, every single ward had six people on it, that isn't the case any more. six people on the streets ? case any more. six people on the streets? for each individual ward. you don't have that now. when i was a borough commander, going back five yea rs, 32 a borough commander, going back five years, 32 and a half thousand officers, but now 30,000. we have been told there will be further cuts in the public sector. we need to ta ke in the public sector. we need to take a hard look at how we are funding the public sector organisations and the consequences of not having sufficient resources out there to deal with individuals. if people are committing crimes we need to arrest them and charge them

and put them in prison, that is very simple. you are saying that is the problem, that is not happening? i'm not clear, is the problem the message going out about the dangers of carrying knives or people are not being punished? it is a bit of both, and the fact that resources, not just police, we need to be looking at resources in the local authority and what schools are doing, and i would like to see more schools having knife arches, . .. would like to see more schools having knife arches,... when knives are detected when they go into school? absolutely. i would like to see more work done by agencies other than the police, looking at ways of getting the message across about the danger of carrying a knife. the met police are very 64 at —— very successful at arresting people who have committed murder, so the

chances of being caught are very high, this destroys the lives of the individuals, the young victims, but also the lives of the individuals who will get 25—30 years in prison, so we need to get that message across. what frustrates me as a londoner, the lack of resources in local authorities, third sector organisations, in the police, so we can geta organisations, in the police, so we can get a more co—ordinated approach to deal with this problem. can get a more co—ordinated approach to deal with this problemm can get a more co—ordinated approach to deal with this problem. it was a failure resources but something has also gone severely wrong over a period of time. 20 years ago a stabbing in london was fairly rare, and now you get the impression, perhaps wrongly, there is at least one week. 26 young people under 19, and the perception of crime, and we should be horrified when these occur, we are not in this situation of america. across the whole of the

country, in london we had 121 murders last year, across the whole of the country, 573, so in terms of the numbers they are significantly smaller than what you have in america, for example. new york has more murders in one state than we do in the whole of the country. we need to put that into perspective, but we are seeing young lives lost. what we need to be doing is asking much more challenging questions around children's services and around safeguarding boards and make sure we are more co—ordinated, working together. stephen lawrence's father, he has made it very clear that we need to be doing more, we need to work more closely together, and he has been very clear that we need to be making sure that we challenge where ever appropriate and we need to say to families what are you doing to work with your young

people, it's about local authorities, it is about more effective use of stop and search, all of these things, but i know at the met police they are working incredibly hard, so we should have faith in them, but it is about making sure they have sufficient resources along with the local authority and the schools and the volu nta ry authority and the schools and the voluntary groups that do a huge amount of work in making sure that we try and stop this happening again. thanks forjoining us. the headlines on bbc news: in iran, state media reports that a protester has shot and killed a policeman, as anti—government demonstrations continue for a fifth night. a british family of five who died in a seaplane crash near sydney are named — among them the boss of one of the world's

largest catering companies. police appeal for information after four men are stabbed to death in london — in separate new year attacks. eye witnesses have been describing a huge fire which destroyed up to 1,400 vehicles in a multi—storey car park in liverpool. the blaze at king's dock, next to liverpool's echo arena, is said to have spread after one vehicle caught fire yesterday afternoon. firefighters worked through the night and many people were forced into temporary accommodation as nearby buildings were evacuated. danny savage has the story. it was shortly after dark yesterday evening when fire took hold on the multistorey car park on liverpool's famous waterfront. the fire service says a small fire in a land rover spread rapidly. this is a photo taken of it at the time. as the blaze spread, cars could be heard exploding. the car park is next to the liverpool arena, where an international horse show was taking place.

those attending helped get the horses to safety. ijust took it upon myself. isaid, right, ok, everyone, listen to me, we are going to bridle up the horses and we are going to get them out. i want you to all leave calmly now, use this exit or use the tunnel. it was soon a huge blaze. merseyside fire and rescue say it is one of the worst they'e ever dealt with. this was a challenging incident. let's be under no illusions about that. the crews worked very hard indeed to prevent the spread of this fire. the fire burned for much of the night. all the car owners could do was watch and accept they would never see their vehicles again. i've got a vehicle in there, yeah, so i'm unsure at the moment what it's going to be. we can't get anywhere near it. are you holding out much hope for your car? looking at the flames, no. chuckles this morning the blackened building was surrounded by fire engines. it's likely it will have to be demolished.

in the remains of this multistorey car park there are many hundreds of cars which have been totally destroyed. but we understand that right on the rooftop level are some cars which are almost untouched. and after the fire had been put out this morning, after many hours, some dogs, which had been left in those cars were safely rescued and reunited with their owners. as the dogs were handed back to their owners there was a hug of gratitude for the firefighters. the insurance bill will run to millions of pounds but thankfully no one was hurt. danny savage, bbc news, liverpool. the leader of north korea, kimjong un, has warned the united states that he has a nuclear button on his desk, ready for use, if his country feels threatened. but his televised new year's day speech also seemed to open up the possibility of better relations with neighbouring south korea — from where our correspondent sophie long reports. lets get some reaction

from the us and we can speak to anthony ruggiero, a seniorfellow at the washington—based conservative think—tank, the foundation for defense of democracies, and spent more than 17 years working in the us government. hejoins us from woodbridge, virginia. this is a mixed message from kim jong—un, threatening with the nuclear button, but also offering a message of hope to south korea. there is more consistency there, because earlier in the message he makes clear that they will develop and produce more nuclear weapons and ballistic missile is. the reported olive branch to south korea, if you look closely, it looks like north korea is saying, stop the military drills with the united states in order to negotiate and have we're between north and south. so

essentially it is offering to have a conversation with someone with north korea having a gun poised at south korea's head, it is not really a positive movement forward —— and have negotiations between north and south. he is considering sending athletes to the winter olympics. south korea will be relieved? they thought it might be at risk. south korea thought there might be a provocation from north korea, but the question is, who pays for that, in many of these exchanges north korea asks for a very exorbitant fee, andi korea asks for a very exorbitant fee, and i think they have two athletes that might have qualified and it would be great if they are pa rt and it would be great if they are part of the olympics but we should be very cautious in seeing this as a broader opportunity. the north koreans are very clear, throughout

their new year ‘s message, they mentioned renu >> studio: -- they mentioned renu >> studio: -- they mentioned reunification but it is under their terms, and under a commonest human rights abuser, proliferator with nuclear weapons, and so this is not kimjong—un waking up and saying he's going to turn over a new leaf for the eu has accomplished a lot in 2017 and now he will start to use that leveraged —— he has accomplished a lot. he will start to use that leveraged -- he has accomplished a lot. how is president trump going to see this? he will try to describe to south korea some of the things i was saying, making sure that the alliance remains close together, and there's really no reason to stop or even turned down or reduced the military exercises when you have north korea's conventional arms

across the border, and the fact they said they will make more nuclear weapons. the trauma administration will say, if south korea wants to talk to north korea, that is fine —— trump administration. if this is a concession at all by north korea, you can see this as a positive development of the maximum pressure policy. if that is the case, would it not be a good idea to accept that there might be an opportunity, that this might present an opportunity of some sort? the issue here, over the last six weeks, we have focused on whether rex tillerson was preconditions, no preconditions, but there was really only one precondition that needs to exist, and there is no real discussion of

it, north korea needs to be committed to getting rid of its two clear wea pons committed to getting rid of its two clear weapons up front in the negotiations and there is no reason to have discussions with them unless they are committed to that —— getting rid of its nuclear weapons. nothing i saw in the new year ‘s address address to that, in fact, just the opposite, he has made clear that the nuclear reality is a threat, and so there needs to be more pressure as happened with iran before the iran nuclear deal, so what we are looking at here, perhaps north south discussions but not really the time for a us north korea discussion. thanks forjoining us. each year, a quarter of our plastic waste is shipped

to china in vast quantities. but from today, china will not allow the import of what it calls "hazardous foreign waste" — that's likely to have a big impact here. in the first of a series of reports on how we deal with plastic waste, robin brant reports from shanghai. china has been recycling for decades. he has made a living out of bashing, breaking up, and disassembling. he's been doing it for five years. it's hard work, he tells me. tiring. but he's not a green warrior. he does it because there's money in it. china needs the raw materials, so much so that chinese workers have been sorting through your waste shipped in from abroad. but the government is stopping that. china has long been the destination of much of the world's waste. it has imported 7.3 million tonnes of plastic alone in 2016. the uk sends 1200 tonnes of it to china every day. but most of that is

ending, and here is why. china has become a much richer but much dirtier country. it's blighted now by home—made pollution and contamination on a vast scale. the government claims some foreign waste is dangerous and the last thing this country needs is even more of that. translation: china is putting the onus back on all of the waste exporting countries. you need to show the responsibility of disposing your own waste and your own sources of pollution. the ban presents a problem for china, though, because it still needs the cardboard, the paper, the high end clean polystyrene like this which is easy to ship here, easy to turn into something to sell, and sometimes selling it back to the country it came from. somewhere in there are polystyrene fish boxes. from grimsby.