as anti—government protests go on. at least 22 people have died since the demonstrations began seven days ago. america's ambassador to the un has called for a security council meeting, and is denying accusations from the iranian leadership that the us is helping organise the unrest. a bus has crashed in peru, killing at least 48 people. it happened on a dangerous stretch of road north of the capital, lima. witnesses say the driver lost control after the bus was hit by another vehicle. it then plummeted nearly 100 metres down a cliff. president trump has threatened to cut financial aid to the palestinians, saying the us paid them hundreds of millions of dollars a year and gets no appreciation. mr trump said the palestinians were no longer willing to talk peace with israel. now on bbc news: one of the highlights of the year from our award—winning documentary series our world. in welcome to germany, catrin nye spent two years following a syrian and a german family in the small city of geara,

as the country adjusts to the massive influx of refugees. more thani million refugees are now in germany, having escaped the brutality of the world's war zones. for two years, we have followed a syrian family in their struggle to adapt to life in a small east german city, and a german family also struggling to adapt to refugees moving into their hometown. there's a problem with racism all over germany. it was never away, and it grew and grew. ..those who arrived at munich

railway station last night were welcomed with cheers and applause. what happens to them after the applause dies down? gera, in the former east germany. a small city unfamiliar with immigration because of its isolated communist history, home now to a new population of refugees. around 2000 are expected to arrive in the next few years. hello! well, are you going to show me around? wow, that is a big handshake...

this family is among them. they show me videos of life in syria, for the war they fled. daham worked in electronics in syria. his wife is from a family of farmers. da ham was imprisoned

by the syrian regime, accused of being involved with rebels. he suffered beating s while locked up. daham fled, making the epicjourney overland across europe on his own. he got asylum in germany and his family were flown over by the german government as part of family reunification. l, m, n, 0, p... across germany, 500,000 people applied for asylum in 2015. in gera, a small army of volunteers

fills local community centres to welcome them. (speaking german). the arrival even spawned studies, local academics looking at their impact here. they are not experienced with any kind of lifestyle or ethnic diversity before 2012. the proportion of migrants is below 3%, and that is not what it is like in west german cities, for example. they don't have any knowledge about them, they are quite easy to be manipulated by the right wing extremist parties. do you think there is a problem with racism in a town like this? yes, there is a problem with racism all over germany. and it is increasing.

it was never away, it grew and grew. watching as these new changes unfold is this family. mum daniella, dad dirk, who has lived his whole life in gera, and their children. and on a trip to the city centre, dirk and daniella find refugees are already a key political issue in gera. vying for their future votes are both the far right afd, who are broadly anti—islam and anti—refugee. and the spd on the left. they are pro—refugees. it is now december, and that means the first time ever, the al—mohammed family gets to experience a german christmas

market. cheering and applause. 0n radio: ..0pinion polls are turning, people are getting more and more worried about what we will do about the massive influx of refugees into the country.

we're looking at 1.1 million... today in gera, a demonstration by pegida, a far—right protest group expanding all over germany. chanting in german. "abschieben, abschieben," is "deport them". "people should go to the toilet in front of refugee homes." speaking in german. we are allowed to film... excuse me, can you stop blocking our camera 7 the black and the white,

i won't touch it, the black and the white are northern prussia, and the white and the red are southern prussia. i'm here because i love my city, i love my country... what are you worried about? i am worried about my family. i am worried about my race, the german people. they lose their normal blood. so the crowd is shouting now, "we don't want refugee homes". pegida.

200—ish against the refugees. dirk wasn't demonstrating in gera, but his views towards refugees have hardened since i was last here. and he thinks it is especially unfair that germany is welcoming so many compared to the uk. lots of people will argue that germany is doing the right thing

by being more generous. how many children are here? we have 299, and 12 from other countries. and how many refugee children? three. some of gera's other residents, like this teacher, are adapting to life more comfortably. speaking in german. this is nine—year—old mohammed, daham's son, who has just started school. his classes entirely in german. are you talking to people about refugees, about who they are, where they have come from? some people in gera think that it is too much, and they have problems for us, and so on, and so on, but i haven't got a problem with it. children are not responsible for all the problems we have got around the world.

and so we have to welcome the children. i want to help them, that's it. toy chatters. the increasing hostility towards refugees in gera is a worry for the al—mohammed family. there have already been ten attacks here on refugees in their homes. and after school, talk turns to returning to syria. a subject daham and his wife don't agree on. you want to go back?

so this is a big debate? horda wants to go back and you want to stay. daham is still learning german, still training for a job, desperate to work. news on car radio: whether merkel or schultz becomes chancellor, one thing is certain — the german political mainstream is set to move to the right. 1.5 years on, and daham finally has

the job he was waiting for. this looks — everything here looks so complicated. stephan is daham's new boss. we had the idea of actually looking among those people who came in 2015, 2016, who we assumed there would have been quite a few qualified workers. why did you think that? well, because, here, the saying is that syrians are the engineers of the middle east. by late 2017, daham's daughter is about a foot taller, and the population of gera is visibly changing. the number of people in the city defined as foreign is doubled from around 2,500 to almost 5,000.

a third are syrians. when did you open? ah! hello! the family have been allocated a bigger house now, because there's a new baby — their first born in germany. may i sit next to you? you're so german! apart from her getting noisier... how has life changed since i was last here? september's german election saw huge gains for far right party the afd,

alternative for germany. in gera, they won more votes than angela merkel‘s party, who won. so there's another one. a party with posters like these took almost 30%. look how big you are! hello! nice to see you again. dirk and daniella don't even usually vote. in fact, dirk hasn't for decades. but this time, they both turned out for the afd. what does the government need to do to make you feel happier, to make you feel like people are integrating more? do you think your views are racist? for daham, for very

different reasons, life is also increasingly frustrating. he got asylum for three years. but the rest of his family have a different immigration status — a protection status — and have to have it renewed every four months. it feels like life is

still very difficult. do you think it would be any better anywhere else? do you feel like this whole journey is easier for men than women? do you feel like you've had

to make a huge sacrifice? a very windy, stormy night for some, and certainly a stormy start to wednesday. met office amber be prepared warnings for the wind likely to expire during the early hours of wednesday. it's likely we could see disruptions, power cuts, maybe even trees down in places because of this,

storm eleanor, which brought some very strong winds across parts of ireland during tuesday evening. it's continuing its journey eastwards. tightly packed isoba rs across much of the country, away from the north of scotland, which will have relatively light winds. but very strong winds to start wednesday across the north of england, southern scotland. 70—90 mph gusts. certainly 90 mph in exposure. 60 mph across england and wales, with the risk of 70, maybe 80 mph across the south coast there. so likely to be some disruption from these severe gales for much of the uk through the early hours. and to start wednesday, keep tuned to bbc radio for your latest updates, particularly if you head out for the morning rush. a very windy morning, gale force winds. the severe gale easing down as storm eleanor moves out in towards the north sea. but plenty of showers rattling through the morning and also into the afternoon.

some of these showers will be heavy with some hail and thunder. very squally, gusty winds as these showers arrive. but, in between, there will be spells of sunshine. top temperatures reaching around 10 degrees across the south. it may not feel like that because of the strength of the winds. plenty of showers further north as well, merging together to form longer spells of rain, northern ireland, central and southern scotland. but, actually, pretty quite across the north of scotland. fairly light winds, sunshine, showers there into the northern isles. and then we end wednesday on a brief respite, the wind will die down somewhat. plenty of clear spells. it's going to be quite a cool night to come. but then we look to the south—west, to the next area of low pressure, which will make inroads during wednesday night and into the start of thursday. now, this area of low pressure will be a little bit further south. so it looks like we could see the strongest winds across southern britain, certainly south wales, southern england seeing gale force winds. but quite mild with it. 12 or 13 degrees despite all the heavy rain. further north, maybe a bit cooler, maybe snow in the higher ground, outbreaks of rain.

fairly strong winds here, too, but not as strong as in the south. as we head through friday, transitional days. the weather front moving southwards. heavy rain on it. behind it, the air turns much colder. we start to see increasing amounts of snow to the hills and then down to lower levels. and that's a sign of things to come into the weekend. much colder air pouring down across the uk, it's likely to introduce some snow showers in places and a return to overnight frosts. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: taking sides in iran. the us calls for a un security council meeting, denying claims that it is involved in the anti—government protests. tragedy in peru. at least 48 people are killed as their bus plummets down a cliff near the capital, lima. the long climb out of poverty. a special report on china's hopes of lifting millions from their remote villages to a better life. the continued existence of serious, widespread poverty represents a threat to the very legitimacy

of a communist party that came to power promising to help communities like these, not leave them behind. the plastic problem. the uk under pressure to find new ways to recycle, now china is banning plastic waste from abroad.