welcome to newsday. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. the headlines: red carpet—ready for the golden globes, the first major hollywood award ceremony since the sexual harassment scandals. we hear from one of its top stars. the bbc‘s china editor, carrie gracie, steps down from the role, citing unequal pay compared with her male colleagues. i'm reged ahmad in london. also in the programme: australia experiences its hottest weather in nearly 80 years, with sydney temperatures up to 47.3 degrees celsius. the indian child bride who has turned her life around to become a national wrestling champion. good morning. it's 9am in singapore, 1am in london and 5pm

in los angeles, where the film awards season is getting under way, with the 75th golden globes. this is no ordinary showbiz gathering. it's the first major awards ceremony since hollywood was hit by a succession of sexual harassment scandals, involving some of the most powerful people in the industry. many were determined to highlight the issue by wearing black on the red carpet, in a show of support for victims. some winners are expected to use their acceptance speeches to speak about the issue. we'll be live in los angeles in a few minutes, but first this report from james cook. this year the red carpet will host a protest, not a party. the downfall of movie mogul harvey weinstein exposed decades of sexual abuse and harassment in hollywood and now scores of stars are wearing black to the golden globes in solidarity. people will be in black, but i don't think it'll be funereal, i think it'll be a celebration of all of us saying it's time to deal with this and not put up with it any more.

we're wearing black not only to represent hollywood, but to stand up for women across all industries and to support them. so much darkness is creating unity and people are standing together. unfortunately, tragic times bring unity. the cleansing has already begun. accused of sexual assault, kevin spacey was cut from this film and replaced with christopher plummer. co—star michelle williams told me she shot her scenes again for free. films, because they're larger than life, they glorify people, and i couldn't bear the thought of being in a movie that glorified somebody who had hurt people. is what is happening in hollywood a permanent, significant change, do you think? everyone is working day and night to create the kind of change that will be permanent. our hope is to hand our daughters a different world. the mood at the golden globes is different this year.

some of the world's most famous actresses are going to be accompanied on the red carpet by activists as part of their demand for equality in the entertainment industry and the wider world. james cook, bbc news, los angeles. let's cross live to los angeles now, and speak to our correspondent peter bowes. we have seen the arrivals. are we seeing people wearing black in solidarity? yes, most people walking down the red carpet had been wearing black, thick black liners, meryl streep has put it, in solidarity with people, with women, who have suffered from sexual harassment. and it really goes to the story that we've been hearing about over the last few weeks and months, and this is an event, the biggest, at least, the opening showbiz event of the year. the awards that so many people

are looking at, and traditionally they look at the golden globes because they are a pointer to the oscars. this is a shopfront, the opportunity for actresses to get their message across, that as they have put it, in the campaign they have put it, in the campaign they have launched, time is up, they say time is up on the sexual harassment that has been going on for decades in hollywood studios, in the offices around los angeles, and of course much wider afield as well. seth meyers is the host and they can play quite a crucial role with these ceremonies. do we have any idea whether he plans to say anything about this issue? seth meyers is actually speaking right now and the show has just started. in the days running up to the ceremony he said yes he absolutely plans to talk about this. he plans to tackle this issue and i think show the audience, to show the world, that this is very much utmost in his mind. i expect a lot of comedy, a lot ofjokes as

well, this is a hollywood award show, but it is an award show with a difference, it has got a political edge to it, and everyone involved, absolutely everyone, it seems, determined to make a stand and to ta ke determined to make a stand and to take this opportunity that they have, with millions of people watching around the world. just to get the message across that this has to end and perhaps this has ended at least the old school ways of things happening in hollywood, the old casting couch culture, that has come to an end. he is there any sense how hollywood is going to try to make this what is really a momentous change in culture? well, yes. a lot of these actresses who have launched the time's up campaign said this has lots of aspects to it, it is a campaign to get changes in the law. perhaps they want to encourage companies to be more vigilant in terms of listening to the complaints of women that they employ. they want

to end the so—called nondisclosure agreements, which we have heard quite a bit about over the last few weeks. these kind of pseudo— legal document signed by people who promised not to talk about whatever has happened, and perhaps allows the perpetrators of sexual harassment to hide behind those documents. so they wa nt to hide behind those documents. so they want to see an end to that. there are want to see an end to that. there a re lots of want to see an end to that. there are lots of practical implications to what they are calling for. i think above all it has given power to women to speak. women and men to speak up if something is happening that shouldn't be and specifically sexual harassment. peter bowes, keeping us across what's happening with the golden globes. thank you very much. china editor carrie gracie has stepped down from her role, citing the indefensible pay gap with male colleagues. she made the announcement in an open letter and she said that the bbc was breaking equality law. our media

editor mr rajan has more. it's worth saying that carrie gracie who appears frequently on this programme, is a hugely respected international editor. she has been at the bbc for over 30 years and her essential allegation in this letter is that the bbc discriminates illegally against women by paying many of them less than men who are doing equivalentjobs. the key point is that she doesn't want a pay rise, she wants to be paid the same as men who she sees as doing the equivalentjob of being an international editor. the bbc says they take the issue very seriously and that they have undertaken not one but three internal audits of pay and that they go much further than other public organisations on the issue of equality. this is a moment of high danger, i think, for the corporation because last summer it was forced against its will to publish the salaries of on—air staff getting over £150,000. now they'll be on the front of tomorrow's times. some 200 women have complained formally internally. there is huge anger at all levels of the corporation among female staff about this issue. this is not nowjust about internal staff management. it is also about public perception to the corporation. there is a real danger that if carrie gracie's

letter leads to legal action, that bbc and bbc news could be generating headlines for all the wrong reasons. also making news today: syrian state television says that the army has broken the siege of an army base, encircled by opposition forces in east ghouta, on the outskirts of damascus. rebels had widened their control over parts of the base last sunday. earlier, 18 people were killed in an explosion in idlib, to the north of the country. the explosion targeted the headquarters of a rebel group. the us ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley, has told abc that president trump's tweets against north korean leader kim jong—un are useful to keep him on his toes. she said it was important to keep up the pressure on kimjong—un‘s regime. we are not going to let them go and dramatise the fact that they have a button right on their desk and that they can destroy america. we want to always remind them, we can destroy you, too. so be very cautious and careful

with your words and what you do. i know it's something that makes people nervous, but if we didn't do it we would be in an... do you think the tweet was a good idea? i think he needs to keep kim on his toes. it's very important we don't ever let him get so arrogant that he doesn't realise the reality. the german chancellor, angela merkel, says she's optimistic that her centre—right christian democrat party can reach a coalition deal with the centre—left social democrats. five days of talks have just begun, three months after mrs merkel failed to win a parliamentary majority. malaysia's long—serving former prime minister mahathir mohamad has been chosen once again as a candidate for the top job, at the age of 92. mr mahathir resigned as prime minister in 2003, but has been drawn back into politics because of his opposition to the current prime minister, najib razak. let's take a look at yet more disruption caused by winter—storm grayson, which has swept the east coast of america this week. this isjfk airport in new york,

where flooding has led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights. it got so bad water poured from the ceiling onto check—in desks, covering most of the floor in terminal 4. while the us east coast has been in the grip of arctic conditions, the australian city of sydney has experienced its hottest weather in nearly eighty years. temperatures reached a sweltering 47.3 celsius. there have been several major bushfires and athletes have struggled to complete their matches. rylee carlson reports. it is summer in australia but temperatures are soaring to uncomfortable highs. sydney hasn't been this hot for 79 years, leaving people struggling to stay cool. fans taking in the ashes cricket tournament ditched their shirts and dug out umbrellas to watch the test match in temperatures of 47 celsius. not quite a record but still hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement.

parts of the southern hemisphere are experiencing heatwaves. the south african weather service is issuing alerts and warnings for heatwaves for much of the country this weekend. we are expecting large parts of australia to be more than a0 celsius this weekend, with very high risk of fire in parts of southern australia. that risk is becoming a reality with fire crews stretched to the limit trying to get brushfires under control. one crew had to take shelter in their trucks as the fast—moving fire burned over the top of them. there was minimal damage to the appliance and no injuries to the crew, while they are shaken. and strong winds are not helping, fanning the flames across 8000 hectares of farming land so far. when i was trying to move out in the south direction, itjumped in front so i had

to turn back and come back to the house, terrified. surrounding me is smoke. it is very, very thick with smoke and it has just gone a bit dark so obviously now the smoke is it so thick in the sky it is blocking out the sun. a number of properties were destroyed in the states of victoria and south australia and residents have been warned to prepare for more. the winter of 2017 was one of the driest on record. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: the stunning shot that picked up a top international photographic prize. also on the programme: sculpting in ice — the international competition in the chinese city of harbin. the japanese people are in mourning

following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it announced he was dead. good grief! after half a century of delighting fans around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quits. the singer, paul simon, starts his tour of south africa tomorrow, in spite of protests and violence from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa until majority rule is established. teams were trying to scoop up lumps of oil as france recognises it faces an ecological crisis. three weeks ago, the authorities confidently assured these areas that the oil from the broken tanker erika would head out to sea. it didn't. the world's tallest skyscraper opens later today. the burj dubai has easily overtaken its nearest rivals. this is newsday on the bbc.

i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. i'm reged ahmed in london. our top stories: hollywood is getting red carpet—ready for the golden globes. it's the first major award ceremony since the sexual harassment scandals. the bbc‘s china editor carrie gracie is stepping down from her role, citing unequal pay compared with her male colleagues. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. the south china morning post is reporting on a new so—called virtual boyfriend game that's a hit download and the most talked about game on weibo, china's equivalent of twitter. in love and producer, that's said to be like a romantic novel, female players can pursue relationships with four different men. while the download is free,

the game's add—ons are reportedly making nearly $50,000 a day for its creators. the uk's financial times looks at the contrast between two really extreme temperatures. while the usa's new hampshire has been at —73.3 degrees centigrade with wind chill, australia's capital sydney has hit 47 degrees. i'm not sure where i'd rather be. and the china daily looks the country's people's liberation army beginning land, waterand airtraining in the coming week. president xi jinping has called on the military to continue improving its combat—ready training so it will be able to win modern wars. that brings you up to date with some of the papers. now, what's caught your eye online, reged ? this story is trending right now.

it's the german tennis star boris becker hitting back at what he describes as a racist tweet by a far—right mp. it comes afterjens maier of alternative for germany used a derogatory word to describe becker's son, noah. he has an african—american grandfather on his mother's side. the twitter post has since been deleted. more than 30 people are missing after a collision between an oil tanker and a cargo ship off the east coast of china. three women have accused the australian actor craig mclachlan of indecent assault during a tour of the musical, the rocky horror show. the 52—year—old, best known for his roles playing a heart—throb in the long—running tv soap operas neighbours and home and away, says the allegations are baseless and vicious. the women making the accusations were cast members in a 2014 tour of the rocky horror show, in which craig mclachlan had the lead role. the women say they raised complaints with the theatre company at the time, but no action was taken. more than 30 people are missing after a collision between an oil tanker and a cargo ship off

the east coast of china. the missing sailors, mostly iranians, are all from the tanker, which is still on fire. andy moore reports. still burning fiercely many hours after the original collision and still no confirmed news about the fate of its 32 crew. 30 were iranian and two were from bangladesh. the sanchi is more than 170 metres long and carrying just under one million barrels of oil. if the entire cargo ends up in the ocean, that will effectively be in the top ten oil spills worldwide, ever. it has a huge potential for environmental damage. the pa namanian—registered tanker set off from iranian oil port of kharg island in the persian gulf on its journey to south korea. it sailed through the malacca strait before colliding with a chinese freight ship in the east china sea about 160 nautical miles off the chinese port city of shanghai. major oil spills from tankers are becoming less common. one of the most serious in recent years was the sinking

of the prestige off the coast of spain in 2002. more than 60,000 tons of oil came ashore over a long stretch of coastline. specialist clean—up vessels have been sent to the scene of the tanker fire. chinese authorities have confirmed there is an oil slick but they cannot confirm at this stage how big it is. andy moore, bbc news. when nature photographer jayaprakash bojan set off for the island of borneo last august, he didn't quite imagine that a photo he shot there would make him national geographic‘s nature photographer of the year. this photo of an orang—utan crossing a river was chosen as the winning photo from more than 11,000 entries. jayaprakash took the image while standing in the water himself, as he came face to face with the orangutan, which has been since been nicknamed cooper. i spoke to jayaprakash earlier about his work. i have been travelling extensively over south east asia for the last

two years chasing primates. i was in borneo for a week, i photographed several orangutans, several proboscis monkeys. two days before i had to leave we were having a little chat with one of the local rangers and he happened to say that he had seen a male orangutan a few miles down the river occasionally crossing the river. i knew i had to see it. we got to the location overnight with the help of the rangers, hoping to see him in the morning because he usually does that in the morning. unfortunately he did not show up. i came back and i knew it was a natural history moment and had to see this. so i stayed another day and thankfully the next morning he showed up and what you see is there in the pictures. that's right. we were just looking at that photo and what comes across is the vulnerability of the orangutan. it's incredibly unusual for these primates to be crossing rivers in the first place, isn't it?

absolutely. there's no reason for them to be in the water. they're very water shy, especially as these waters have crocodiles in them. but i guess illegal logging, palm oilfarming and the pet trade allow these challenges to push them to the edge. while i'm not a scientist, i think the two possible reasons, one is that they are adapting to the changing environment or two it is something they picked up looking at humans in their surroundings. i believe we have this photograph of you taking the shot as well because as you mentioned it is not safe for the orangutan to be there, is it safe for you because there are crocodiles and all sorts of dangers? it's not the best example to show. i just want to let the viewers know it was done under supervision, with the support of a large team and a lot of planning

because being on location for over two days... sometimes the adrenaline rush takes over when you are passionate about something. you just forget and you live in the moment. it's part of what i do. what was so unusual about it was the fact this orangutan made eye contact with you, which is highly unusual. what's really interesting about your background is your a self—taught photographer, so what kind of advice would you give to others seeking to go your path? the basics of photography is really not difficult, but then i guess what one cannot teach overnight is composition, getting the right angles, understanding animal behaviour, patients, lots of patience, anticipation. these are aspects i

guess you learn all the time i spending a lot of time in the field. having a connection with the animal as well? absolutely, observation is the key so once you spend a lot of time it becomes a lot easier to, you know, make storage travelling of nature. india has the highest number of child brides in the world. almost half of girls there are married before they are 18 even though the practice is illegal. but some girls are determined not to let it stop them. 21—year—old neetu was married and a mother at 1a, and she has gone on become a champion wrestler winning a medal in the national games. her inspirational story there. you have been watching newsday. stay with us, still to come: 8th january is known as divorce day in india, we'll be hearing from one divorcee trying to help couples navigate their way through a process still surrounded by stigma. before we go, let's take you to glacial northern china and the city of harbin. this isn't a construction site,

it's an international ice sculpture competition, which has attracted artists from 1a countries around the world. that's all for now, stay with bbc world news. hello there. it's been a cold and wintry feeling weekend and that wintry chill will continue into the first part of the new working week. this is how things looked on sunday afternoon in cumbria. you can see the snow lying on the hills with blue skies. monday morning starts on a cold and frosty note. there will be some sunshine, similar to sunday. but it will be more confined to the northern half of the country. further south what we have on monday morning is cloud moving further northwards. top temperatures to start the day in minus double digits across rural parts of scotland. cold at 8am across scotland, northern ireland and northern england, the odd icy stretch and patches of mist around too. further south, cloudier morning to come, anywhere south of birmingham will be grey in the morning with hill fog

across the south—west. this cloud could bring a few spots of drizzle and some snow grains, frozen drops of precipitation edging north. many places stay dry. feeling quite chilly where you are stuck under the cloud in the south. lighter winds for northern england, northern ireland and scotland. a north—south split to the day with temperatures 2—5 in the north in the sunshine, slightly milder in the south but feeling colder with the breeze. through the course of monday night we will see the cloud thickening and moving northwards across all the country. bringing with it a lot of low cloud, hill fog, mist and murk and also some drizzle and the risk of ice as well as that drizzle falls on the cold surface. tuesday morning starts grey, cold and icy. through the day things will start to slowly improve as the winds pick up a bit from the west and so the cloud should just break up a little bit later on in the day. there will be a little drizzle

here and there ahead of the next band of wet weather moving into the west later on. the wind will pick up as well. top temperatures by tuesday, 3—7 degrees in most places you could just see double digits returning to the south—west later in the day. this frontal system will move in. tuesday night into wednesday bringing a spell of rain. bumps into an area of high pressure so it does not move quickly and will linger on wednesday bringing spells of rain to the eastern part of the country. in the west a return to sunny skies with sunshine and a few showers. temperatures at 5—10 degrees. mild through the middle of the week after an icy start. summarising the week ahead it is a cold start, a lot of frost first thing. rain through the middle part of the week and then eventually things will become less cold later in the week. i'm reged ahmad with bbc news. our top story: the golden globes film awards in los angeles, dominated by the hollywood sexual harassment scandals. stars of film and television have vowed to wear black on the red carpet in a show of support for victims of sexual assault and sexism. the issue is also likely to feature in acceptance speeches.

the bbc‘s china editor, carrie gracie, is stepping down from her post, citing unequal pay compared with her male colleagues. ms gracie accused the bbc of having a secretive and illegal pay culture. and this video is trending on bbc.com: in the chinese city of harbin, an international ice sculpture competition, which has attracted artists from 1a countries around the world. the sculptors are given solid blocks of ice from the nearby songhua river. they can use tools of their choice and have three days in which to complete their imaginative designs, frostbite permitting. judging is on monday. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: theresa may has confirmed that she's about to carry out a reshuffle