welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm duncan golestani. our top stories... the golden globes get under way — the first since the sexual harassment scandal that's shocked hollywood. a senior bbcjournalist stands down, accusing the broadcaster of a "secretive and illegal" pay culture. reports from syria say the army have ended a siege at a military base outside the capital, damascus. more than 30 people are missing after a collision in the east china sea. a huge oil tanker is still on fire. and, a night to forget. why the spanish military had to rescue thousands of motorists trapped by heavy snow. hello, welcome to the programme.

stars of film and television are attending the golden globes ceremony in los angeles. it's the first major awards since hollywood was hit by a series of sexual assault scandals. many are wearing black to highlight a campaign against harassment. several actresses are attending the event with campaigners for gender and racialjustice. peter bowes is in los angeles for us. to the girl, what are the winners saying on stage about this issue? well, a lot of the winners are taking the opportunity. a crucial 45 seconds or so to say something about this controversy that has really overwhelmed this entire awards season so overwhelmed this entire awards season so far. for example, laura dern, she said that she wanted to

send a message out to children that speaking out without the fear of retribution was in her words, our favourite new zero style. and also from baguette little lies, nicole kidman talked about the power of women and named the powerful women on her table in the audience. —— big little lies. she said she really wanted to change stories to the change that it can elicit. they are saying something positive to move the situation forward. what about the host? because normally the golden globes are quitejolly because normally the golden globes are quite jolly and biting affair from the host ‘s? how is he doing with this? well, he is dealing with this through comedy. he has been perhaps a little less hilarious than you might expect a host on these occasions, but certainly addressing

it head on. his first words were good evening ladies and remaining gentleman. it is 2018, he says, and one is ok, that is a reference to the fact that no one for recreational purposes is now legal in california, but sexual harassment is not. that really set the time, he is not. that really set the time, he is addressing the issue, it's still a very light touch. did mention harvey weinstein and it was quite harsh comment that he had to say about harvey weinstein but again, another example just about every opportunity, certain people are referring to this issue, they are not adding it live and they are this into more of a political event than it isa into more of a political event than it is a show business event. now, of course, the reason that they are all there, can you tell us about some of there, can you tell us about some of the winners that have been coming out? well, yes, and certainly big

little lies was the most nominated tv series. by my count, it has one be so far, so it is having a very successful night. the handmade's tale has had several nominations. we are getting some from the animated section, it was thought by many to be the favourite i think it turned out to be that way, coco, which is about the mexican boy and girl. the best foreign—language film, a surprise to some was a german film, in the fade, and best supporting actress in the motion picture went to alison jani for i, actress in the motion picture went to alisonjani for i, tonya, the film about the american ice skate, tonya harding. this goes back to the

80s, she was banned from the sport after her arrival was attacked and there was a whole controversy about whether she had some involvement in that attack. 0k, thank you very much. a senior bbcjournalist has stepped down from her role, accusing the broadcaster of having a "secretive and illegal" pay culture. carrie gracie is leaving herjob as china editor, citing what she called an "indefensible" pay gap with male colleagues. she made the announcement in an open letter, in which she said that the bbc was breaking british equality law. 0ur media editor amol rajan explains more. it is worth saying that carrie gracie, who appears frequently on this programme, is a hugely respected international editor and has been at the bbc for over 30 years. her allegation is that the bbc discriminates illegally against women by paying many of them less than men doing equivalentjobs. the key point of her letter is that she says that she does not want a pay rise, she wants to be

paid the same as a man doing an equivalentjob as an international editor. the bbc says they take this seriously and they have undertaken 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 for the corporation because last summer, it was forced against its will to publish the salaries of staff. many women have complained internally and there is a huge issue in the corporation about pay. this is notjust now about internal staff management. this is about public perception of the corporation and there is a danger that carrie gracie's letter could lead to legal action, then the bbc and bbc news could be generating headlines for all the wrong reasons. syria's state—run tv is reporting the army has broken a siege of a military base outside the capital, damascus. hundreds of soldiers were trapped inside after rebels surrounded the base in december, which borders the rebel—held

territory of eastern ghouta. the rebel action has triggered heavy airstrikes and dozens of casualties. as andrew plant reports. smoke rising above abandoned buildings, a ruined town outside the capital, with syrian army tanks on the ground, and here smashing their way into the compound and freeing the army inside. the army has broken a siege here, a military transport compound surrounded by rebels for weeks — the latest battle in syria's seven year war. the rebel area of eastern ghouta, home to a00,000, is north—east of the capital, damascus. the military base under siege is in a townjust outside the capital. this was the syrian army's response to the rebel action, massive airstrikes in eastern ghouta. and this was thursday, 23 people reported to have died

and dozens more injured. after the explosions, the rescue teams moved in, known as the white helmets. one of them also killed. idlib, another rebel stronghold, hundreds of kilometres north, and the aftermath of explosions here too. a car bomb at the weekend killed 18 people, thought to have been targeting a rebel hq. there are reports of hospitals destroyed in the strikes outside damascus. doctors in the area are few and far between, and medicine is scarce. as the planes move away, though, people still come out to scavenge useful supplies from between the lumps of concrete and brick buildings. reports suggest more than 100 may have died from rebel and syrian army forces during the latest skirmish, as the military compound was freed. more than 340,000 people have been killed in syria since the conflict began almost seven years ago.

let's take a look at some more stories making the news... the us ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley, has told the abc network that president trump's recent tweets aimed against the north korean leader are useful to "keep kim on his toes". she said it was important to keep up the pressure on kim jong—un's regime. 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. and 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. more than 39 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. it was carrying just under a million barrels of oil. now, if the entire cargo ends up in the ocean, that will effectively be in the top ten oil spills worldwide, ever. so 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 can't confirm at this stage how big it is. andy moore, bbc news. the bbc‘s robin brant is in shanghai. he says the rescue operation is ongoing. we have a rescue operation under way with numerous vessels and aircraft, being co—ordinated by the chinese ministry of transport. there are also south korean planes involved and also an american plane. essentially, there are two sides to this operation.

one is search and rescue. it's now 38 hours since the collision happened late on saturday night. the news is increasingly grim for those 32 crew members of sanchi who remain missing. the vessel, sanchi, as andy moore referred to, remains afloat, but it remains burning 165 nautical miles off the coast of shanghai, from where i'm talking to you now. the other part of the operation is containment, trying to contain the oil spill. as you heard in that report, if all1 million barrels aboard sanchi were to spill in the ocean, it could be one of the biggest spills ever. the water depth is 50 to 60 metres. there is a concern that it doesn't have anywhere to go. it is a long way off the coast. at the moment, the chinese authorities, their main priority after trying to find these members of the crew, is to contain the spill.

in spain, hundreds of soldiers had to be deployed to rescue drivers and passengers who were trapped when their cars were stranded due to heavy snowfall. thousands were forced to spend the night in their vehicles in a section of motorway between the capital madrid and the northwestern city of segovia. the bbc‘s tim allman reports. what a welcome sight this must have been. a snowplough clearing an escape route for an awful lot of people who'd experienced a truly awful night. members of the military‘s emergency unit helping to free more than 3,000 vehicles. a 70—kilometre stretch of motorway brought to a standstill. soldiers handing out blankets and bottles of water. some motorists said they'd been trapped for up to 15 hours. this was the scene earlier in the morning before help arrived. this woman describing how she'd been

stuck since 6pm the night before. this was the worst chaos she'd ever experienced, she said, and she felt like she was hallucinating. you can see dozens of other cars. all told, it's believed as many as 4,000 people spent the night in the freezing cold. but eventually, help did arrive and the cars, buses, lorries were able to complete theirjourney. the company that runs this stretch of motorway is now being investigated to see if it properly prepared for such dramatic weather. for everyone else, this will be a night to forget. tim allman, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: australia experiences its hottest weather in nearly 80 years, with temperatures in sydney reaching up to 47 degrees celsius. 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 bbc news.

our top story this hour: the golden globes award ceremony is under way in los angeles with most of the hollywood stars dressed in black in solidarity with victims of sexual harassment and assault. let's get more now on the golden globes now. melissa silverstein is founder of the advocacy group women and hollywood and she told me how the recent sexual harassment allegations have affected the ceremony. it was very interesting to see all the women talking about why they're part of time's up and how things need to change in hollywood and to see most of the men not being asked about that at all. it's fascinating, isn't it, rather than the women being asked

what designers they're wearing but having discussions about equal pay and harassment? i think it was more about why this moment is so important to these women, and i think what you saw on the red carpet was a lot of women who have spent many years thinking about why hollywood is a place where women are second—class citizens, and having to deal with issues we probably don't even know about in our regular lives that they have to deal with, whether it's, you know, in casting and meetings they have to take in places... things we don't have to deal with in our everyday lives. so what we're seeing here is a coalition of women, intergenerational, intersectional, saying, no more. do you think it will have the impact they want it to? i think it already has had an impact. what we saw tonight was a completely different red carpet where it's usually very superficial and people

get asked about the clothing that they're wearing, their children and other things like that, and this red carpet really focused on why people are pushing for systemic change in hollywood. one of harvey weinstein's most vocal accusers, the actress, rose mcgowan, she tweeted, your silence is the problem, in criticism of the actors wearing black. do you have any sympathy for her argument there? i think rose has been through so much and whatever she needs to say for her, support her in whatever she wants to say. she's been through things i can't even imagine going through, so i'm going to be in solidarity with her, she has her way of expressing it. i can't wait to see her show, and i think the women part of time's up and the women seeing these things on the red carpet did

what they thought was best. 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. sydney in australia is experiencing its hottest weather in nearly 80 years. temperatures reached a sweltering 47 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 degrees 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 40 degrees 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. 0ne 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 there are no injuries to the crew, whilst 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've had to turn back and come back to the house. terrified. surrounding me is smoke. it's just 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's 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. rylee carlson, bbc news. 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 achieving their ambitions. 21—year—old neetu was married and a mother at 14, and she has gone on to become a champion wrestler winning a medal in the national games. french singer france gall, who rose to pop fame in the 1960s, has died. singing she was born in october 1947 into a musicalfamily — herfather was a singer and songwriter. gall, who won the eurovision song contest in 1965 representing luxembourg, enjoyed international success with her song ella, elle l‘a — a tribute to jazz legend ella fitzgerald. the french singer had been suffering from cancer for two years.

she was taken to hospital last month with a severe infection. that is how it is looking. stay with us that is how it is looking. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. it's been a cold, wintry—feeling weekend and that wintry chill will continue at least into the first part of the new working week. this was how things were looking sunday afternoon in cumbria. you can see the snow lying on the hills there, blue skies. monday morning starts on that cold and frosty night. 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've got monday morning is this cloud moving its way gradually further northwards. but temperatures to start the day, minus double digits across rural parts of scotland. very cold at 8am across scotland, northern ireland and northern england. watch out for the odd icy stretch perhaps, perhaps a few patches of mist around too. further south, a cloudier morning to come. anywhere south of birmingham we're

likely to see a bit of a grey morning, some hill fog possible across the south—west and this cloud could bring a few spots of drizzle and perhaps a few snow grains too, that's small grains of frozen precipitation gradually edging their way northwards but many places staying dry, feeling quite chilly where you are stuck under the cloud in the south. lots more sunshine and lighter winds too for northern england, northern ireland and scotland. so it's a north—south split to the day on monday with temperatures at around 2—5 degrees in the sunshine in the north. slightly milder further south, 4—7, but feeling colder with the breeze, the cloud and the drizzle as well. through the course of monday night then, we'll see that cloud thickening and moving northwards across all of the country, bringing with it a lot of low cloud, hill fog, mistand murk and also some drizzle. the risk of some ice as well as that drizzle falls onto very cold surfaces. so tuesday morning starts on a grey, cold and an icy note. through the day things will start to slowly improve as the winds pick up a bit from the west, so that cloud should just break up a little bit later on in the day. there will be a little bit of drizzle here and there

ahead of this next band of wet weather moving into the west later on, and the winds are going to be picking up too. top temperatures by the time we get to tuesday, between around about 3—7 degrees for most places but we could just see double digits returning to the south—west later in the day. so this frontal system will eventually move in tuesday night into wednesday, bringing a spell of rain. it bumps into an area of high pressure so the front doesn't get across the country very quickly. in fact, it's going to linger for a time on wednesday. could bring some spells of rain across eastern parts of the country. from the west, a return to sunnier skies, with sunshine and a few showers. temperatures back up to around 5—10, so milder through the middle part of the week after that very icy start. so to summarise the week ahead for you, it is a cold start, a lot of frost first thing. some rain through the middle part of the week and then eventually things are going to turn less cold later in the week. bye for now. hello. this is bbc news. the headlines... the golden globes award ceremony is well under way in los angeles —

with most of the hollywood stars dressed in black in solidarity with victims of sexual harassment and assault. many celebrities are attending with gender and racial equality activists to highlight the scale of the problem. a senior bbcjournalist, carrie gracie, has resigned from her post as china editor, citing what she called an "indefensible" pay gap between men and women. in an open letter, ms gracie accused the corporation of breaking equality law and resisting pressure for a fair and transparent pay structure. syria's state—run tv is reporting the army has broken a siege of a military base outside the capital, damascus. hundreds of soldiers were trapped inside after rebels surrounded the base in december. now on bbc news, it's time for dateline london.