a this is bbc world news, the headlines. the un security council will meet on monday to discuss the worsening crisis in syria — after turkish forces crossed the border to drive out kurdish militants. the turkish president has said he hopes the offensive will be brief. afghan officials say at least 18 people are now known to have died in a taliban attack on the intercontinental hotel in kabul late on saturday. most of the casualties were foreigners, several of whom worked for the afghan airline, kam air. the german chancellor, angela merkel, has welcomed the decision of the centre—left social democratic party to enter into formal talks about renewing a coalition. mrs merkel said discussions would start soon but would be complicated. the us senate is holding an unusual sunday session as members try to end a stalemate over the budget that has closed down the federal government. senators have so far been unable to reach a deal on spending and immigration policy. at ten o'clock mishal hussain will be here with a full round up of the day's news. first here is our world.

lele tao is a chinese internet superstar. she sings, chats, flirts, and plays games with her fans online. in china's multibillion—dollar live streaming industry, she is an online goddess for hundreds of thousands of young men, and they shower her with gifts of thousands of dollars every day. but there is always someone younger and prettier waiting to take her place. and the government is tightening the rules on what is allowed on screen. and now, she has fallen out with her manager. it is sunday morning in chengdu, an ancient city in the south

of china, now one of the country's new high—tech hubs. 24—year—old lele tao is here for the weekend. she is visiting herfamily who have recently moved to a new apartment in an upmarket neighbourhood. her dad will spend the whole day cooking her favourite food. she is only home for a few days but before she can relax, she has work to do. lele is a live streamer who makes her living by entertaining people on the internet via her webcam.

she sings, plays games and chats with herfans, and they can watch her for as long as they want. lele is one of the most popular streamers in the country. without a script, she entertains her fans until well past midnight. herfans can interact with her, write her messages, and request songs. her family are also now her fans. lele started live streaming one

day at her dad's office using just her laptop. it all seemed like just a bit of fun until she got paid. back then, that was nine times the average monthly salary in china,

forjust two weeks‘ work! some of her income is from playing computer games with her fans. lele now has over one million followers all over china. the majority of them are men in their early 20s, many with money to spend. one of her most loyal fans is 24—year—old shage. just talking about her makes him nervous.

and lele remembers when he started following her. to get lele to play the song, he kept buying her more and more

expensive virtual gifts. this is how streamers like lele make so much money — fans buy them virtual gifts in exchange for entertainment, a conversation, or sometimes simply for their attention. live streamers can then redeem these virtual gifts for cash. just to be her online friend, shage has spent what the average chinese person living in the city

earns in two years. in china, the internet is tightly controlled and live streaming is a much more significant phenomenon here than in the rest of the world. it is an industry worth $3 billion a year. one of the major hubs is shanghai, where lele lives, and where she is managed by one of the country's biggest live streaming agencies. the pressure to look good on screen is immense. lele rents an apartment five minutes from her management agency, mj entertainment. she is one of more than 3,000 streamers on their books. the ceo max and his wife spotted lele shortly after she began streaming. mj entertainment takes a 20% cut from their live streamers,

although most of them don't earn anywhere near as much as lele. and more fans means more money. looking attractive is crucial for live streamers. but when it first took off, some women took looking sexy so far that it was deemed pornography. the government quickly tightened the rules on what is allowed on screen.

and now, lele and other streamers know how far they can go. if they cross the line, they could be sent to prison, and the streaming channels closed down. but this is just a warm—up. after the training, lele will be live streaming for up to ten hours non—stop until midnight. after hours of live streaming, lele finally gets to eat herfirst meal, at 9pm. she calls her mum to tell her about the highlight of the day so far. it isn'tjust lele who feels good —

fans who spend a lot buying her gifts also enjoy the admiration and respect they get from other fans for the amount they are spending. a sense of community, friendship, and family. and the industry knows this. shage is an only child, like 200 million other people born when china had a one child policy.

decades of sex—selective abortions have led to a dramatic gender imbalance — a severe shortage of girls. he spent his childhood in a small village just outside shanghai. the internet filled the gap. that is when shage met the woman that he describes

as his online goddess, and started showering her with virtual gifts. over the years, shage has spent a lot of money on lele. but still, for him, it is a real relationship, and for lele too. it's lele.

lele has called shage to tell him about a problem she is having with her manager, max, who wants her to sign a new eight—year contract. to try to get her to sign the new contract, he promises to make a big investment in her, to help her record albums or get into films. but to get out of the contract early would cost lele over $1 million. but lele isn't happy, and the situation soon escalates.

behind closed doors, a huge fight breaks out between lele and max. he storms out and orders her channel to be shut down. a few minutes later, she rushes home in tears. he blames her mood. but later, max admits lele is upset because of the contract. nothing is resolved, but neither side wants to push things too far for the moment. still, super fan shage is worried about lele. so the next day, shage orders a taxi

to take him to shanghai to meet her in person. but he is adamant his intentions are not romantic. halfway through the journey, he pulls over to a service station and checks in on her. he discovers that, despite the unsigned contract, lele is back on air. as usual, shage requests a song, and then sings along with her. it took shage four hours to get

to the bund, a romantic and iconic waterfront area in central shanghai, where they have arranged to meet. but by the time he arrives, it is past midnight and all the lights have been switched off. lele is still at work live streaming and shage doesn't want to wait here. they head off to a cafe near lele‘s apartment, but the conversation is really awkward. it is rare for streamers and fans to meet in person,

and they are both anxious. they celebrate their one hour together with a selfie. though they had arranged to meet up the next day, they don't. shage takes a taxi back home, and lele goes back to her on—screen life. hello, we have a very different feel to the weather as we head into the new working week. compared to what we have been used to so far and certainly what we were used to over the weekend. in fact it was bitterly cold with snow and ice causing issues, particularly on sunday, we have so many picture... of snowy

scenes like these, from scotland, through parts of northern central and east england. the snow and the ice though is set to thaw and thaw rapidly, for this week things are set to turn milder from the south—west. but with it things turning more unsettled too. a big area of low pressure out in the atla ntic area of low pressure out in the atlantic will be spinning round, draging up this milder airfrom the south but will start to influence oui’ south but will start to influence our wet refer the middle part of the week on wards. more weather systems in the south, bringing outbreaks of rain, this will clear away through the morning, same in northern scotland. with a ridge of high pressure billing in it should settle things down nicely, we should see good spells of sunshine, milder weathered, to what we had during the course of the weekend. so there will bea course of the weekend. so there will be a few showers round, mostly in northern scotland and across the west too, but to eastern areas we should see sunshine. northern

ireland as well. showers running into north—west england, but the midlands eastwards should stay dry with sunny spells, a fair breeze from the west but on the mild side, temperatures eight to ten. tuesday, we pick up the winds from the more south, south—westerly direction, so a warm direction, whatever time of the year, but it will come with a lot of cloud. 0utbreaks the year, but it will come with a lot of cloud. outbreaks of rain in southern and western hills in particular but we really will notice is how mild it will be with temperatures in double figures celsius for most of us. as we head to wednesday, like i mentioned things turning unsettled. it looks like this secondary low will run in towards our shores and bring a spell of wet and windy weather through wednesday, we could see gales in fa ct a cross wednesday, we could see gales in fact across the north and west. this band of rain expected to be heavy will spread eastwards, another mild day for england and wales but for scotla nd day for england and wales but for scotland and northern ireland schooler, perhaps turning some of rain wintry. high pressure tries to

nudge in from the west but it does allow a run of north, north—westerly winds for a time. so thursday is looking a bit fresher, than what we will start the week on, temperatures backin will start the week on, temperatures back in to single figures for most. showers in the north and west but we should see sunshine in southern and eastern areas. it looks like that will move off and this big area of high pressure be ginds to —— begins to build up, this feature could run-in to build up, this feature could run—in to northern ireland and scotla nd run—in to northern ireland and scotland through friday. most of us on friday, thanks to that high pressure will see a lot of fine and settled conditions. 0n the cool side but things are set to turn milder as we head to the weekend as we pick up the west or south—westerly winds, we did think originally that big area of high pressure would dominate the weather as we head to the following weekend but it looks like things are going to be more unsettled. low

pressure pressure running into the north and west. it will be mild, often windy with rain at time, particularly the north—west of the uk, whereas further south and east we should see high pressure with sunshine at times. opening up a complex new front in the conflict. turkey is acting against a kurdish militia that has been fighting islamic state, but it regards as a terrorist group. turkey is clearly committed militarily to this operation, and has widespread popular support here. but if the turks suffer losses or a civilian casualties grow, that could change. with an emergency debate due at the united nations tomorrow, turkey's being urged to show restraint. also tonight: is your relationship with her over? no comment. ukip leader henry bolton's personal life costs him the support of the party's ruling body — now the membership will decide his fate. explosion. the 12 hour battle to end an attack on a kabul hotel, where foreign nationals were targeted and killed. heavy rain brings flooding and

mudslides to south west england —