i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: china approves the removal of term limits for its leader, paving the way for president xijinping to remain in power indefinitely. wash everything you had with you — the message to english drinkers and diners in the area where a former russian spy was poisoned by a nerve agent. i'm babita sharma in london. also in the programme: amnesty international says the myanmar military are building on razed rohingya villages, in a move it describes as a military land grab. also coming up: we meet the soccer—playing robots able to learn from their mistakes and improve their game every time they play. good morning.

it is 8:00am in singapore, midnight in london, and 8:00am in beijing, where in an historic move, the national people's congress of china has abolished presidential term limits. the vote allows the current president, xijinping, to stay in office beyond the end of his second term in 2023. as expected, the amendment was passed overwhelmingly. so what does this all mean? critics argue the move gives one person too much power. we will be getting reaction to the news, and analysis, later on newsday. but first, let's start with this report from john sudworth, our correspondent in beijing. china's parliament was preparing to hand unlimited power to its president, and there could be no doubting the outcome. "should xijinping rule for life," i ask. "yes," they answer.

and then she adds. please don't say that it is president for life. it is just that there is not a limit for the number of terms. but, whatever you call it, the change means mr xi can rule china for as long as he wants. he was the first to cast his ballot. the applause, further proof of the inevitability of the result. out of almost 3,000 delegates, only two voted against. " passed , " the announcer says, and this man's hold on power now becomes both complete and indefinite. the cost of opposition to the rule of xijinping can be high. i am shown papers left behind by her husband,

a lawyer, who recently wrote an open letter calling for democratic elections. he is now being detained for subversion. translation: he did everything within the boundaries of the law, yet it's not allowed here. now, many people are afraid of speaking up. what has been the effect on you and your 13—year—old son? my son loves his father. this situation is a huge blow for him. all public discussion of the constitutional change is being tightly controlled and censored. the two—term limit solved a problem facing all undemocratic authoritarian states. it helped china ensure orderly and regular leadership successions. what has happened here today, then, is highly significant. a choreographed, compliant, rubber—stamped parliament has

removed the last limitation on xi jingping's power. as the delegates left, they may have glanced at this, chairman mao's portrait, a stark reminder of the risks of lifetime rule. john sudworth, bbc news, beijing. 0ur correspondent in beijing, stephen mcdonell, joins us now. stephen, how much debate was there on lifting these term limits? well, you know, china has woken up today to co m plete you know, china has woken up today to complete overhaul of its political system. 0ut to complete overhaul of its political system. out with collective leadership, in with 1—man rule. now, you would think that such a massive change would have prompted quite a public debate, but there has been none. i mean, to give you indication, our coverage, even, over

the last 2a hours, has been massively censored, so most of the time we talk about this issue, the screens go black all over mainland china. and, you know, one of the things, if they had been such a debate, that would be talked about, is the role the anti—corruption crackdown has played in really empowering xijinping, crackdown has played in really empowering xi jinping, and crackdown has played in really empowering xijinping, and putting fear through the party. he has punished 1.5 million party members for corruption, and the critics of this move would point out that not only has it enabled him to take out his political opponents, but it has made extrajudicial kidnapping, effectively, and forced confessions are run of the mill thing. and now this is going to be extended beyond the party, so you can imagine the fear that put through the entire power structure here. how could you question such a man? and this is one of the reasons why we have only to make people voting no to this move,

from nearly 3000 delegates.” make people voting no to this move, from nearly 3000 delegates. i am quite curious, stephen, who were these two delegates who voted against removing the term limits? well, who knows who they were? and evenif well, who knows who they were? and even if they exist, because there is one theory that the numbers come through, and actually it was 100%, and somebodyjust through, and actually it was 100%, and somebody just went, through, and actually it was 100%, and somebodyjust went, we can't have a complete vote, you know, in favour, so they just have a complete vote, you know, in favour, so theyjust make it up and put a couple in. if there are two people who really did vote no, you would hope, for their sake, that nobody is able to identify them. and overall, what impact will this change have on china? well, you know, it is going to be a huge impact, really, because it means we are going to have xijinping for a long time. they would not have brought this change in if he didn't intend to stick around. so if people

don't like the way that xi jinping is governing, they'd betterjust get used to it. there's no way of challenging him, there's no way of altering the leader, even within that top structure of the party, like i said, there is no sort of collective leadership concept any more. it's all about xi jinping. collective leadership concept any more. it's all about xijinping. the cult of that leader, now that he has his philosophy in the country's constitution. and so this is a new china today. thank you so much for joining us. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. us officials have defended president trump's decision to meet the north korean leader, saying that he appreciated the risks involved. e—

gets the that f? has . that f? has {a that é has is? forth objective that he has set forth consistently during his entire time in office. rest assured, when the president enters that room with kim jong—un, if kim jong—un president enters that room with kim jong—un, if kimjong—un lives up to the four commitments that he has made, those four major concessions, the president will be fully prepared for his conversation with kim jong—un. also making news today: polls have closed in congressional elections in colombia, a vote seen as a test of a peace deal between the government and the former guerrillas of the farc. presidentjuan manuel santos said the participation of candidates from the former rebel group marked a historic moment for colombian democracy. melanoma is the fourth—most—common form of cancer in australia, and kills five people a day. now, australian medical researchers have launched a 90—second online test capable of predicting an individual‘s risk of developing a fatal form of the disease. the test has been developed from the world's largest study of skin cancer, and is reported to be highly accurate. pope francis has criticised policies targeting migrants,

a week after a general election in italy saw a rise in support for populist and anti—immigrant parties. the pope did not single out any country, but said that in a world full of fear, people who were foreign, different or poor were often treated like enemies. the syrian government assault on the rebel—held enclave of eastern ghouta is continuing, with air strikes and fierce fighting on the ground. conditions for civilians are dire, with the bodies of the dead left to rot under the rubble. more than 1,000 people have been killed since the offensive began three weeks ago. football freestylerjohn farnworth, from lancashire, is aiming to set a new record by doing "keepy—uppies" on the way up mount everest. he is hoping to juggle a football continuously for two weeks while trekking to everest base camp, at an altitude of 5,380 metres. mr farnworth said he hopes to complete the 62km keepy—uppy

charity challenge in march next year. hundreds of people in the english city of salisbury, who went to the same restaurant and pub visited by a poisoned former russian spy, have been advised to wash their clothes and possessions. england's chief medical officer says anyone who spent time at the locations should take precautions, but she stressed the risk was extremely low. daniel sandford reports. more surreal and extraordinary scenes in salisbury this afternoon. wearing gas masks and protective clothing, military personnel loading potentially contaminated cars onto trucks. the vehicles, some but not all of them with police markings,

were being recovered from a pay—and—display car park behind a church not far from the city centre. it was the attack on yulia and sergei skripal, with a with a rare and lethal nerve agent last sunday, that led to this huge operation, called 0peration morlop. today, police confirmed that traces of the nerve agent were found in the mill pub, as well as the zizzi restaurant, where the bbc understands the table used by the skripals was so contaminated it had to be destroyed. today, the chief medical officer gave this advice to people who were in the pub and restaurant on sunday afternoon and monday. wash clothing you haven't already, ideally in the washing machine. any items which cannot be washed, and would normally be dry—cleaned, should be double—bagged in plastic until further information is available. wipe personal items such as phones, handbags, and other electronic items with baby wipes,

and dispose of them in plastic bags in the bin. wash hard items such as jewellery and spectacles, which cannot go in the washing machine, with warm water and detergent. steve cooper was in the pub on sunday at exactly the same time as the skripals, and told me that he is now getting worried. certainly, because they haven't revealed what the nerve agent was, and actually what the effect, long—term, on anyone's health could be. so i'd like to know more about that, i'd like to know what precautions i personally can take, rather than just washing my clothes. having potentially already been exposed, what long—term affects for me and my wife, and then using baby wipes to wash my phone and my watch... i don't really think it's going to get rid of a nerve agent. so did the police and other emergency services respond fast enough to last sunday's events? are you satisfied that you escalated

this incident quickly enough at the beginning of last week? the machinery, the support, the national advice, the capability and expertise of both national and local partners, was mobilised by monday. for this ancient, mediaeval city, it has been a bizarre and at times frightening seven days. the bishop of salisbury said this afternoon that what he called the shocking attack had violated their community. but, if suspicions prove right, what happened here, the use of a chemical weapon, a nerve agent, to attack two people, is likely to have huge implications for britain's relationship with russia. the myanmar military are building on razed rohingya villages in rakhine state, according to a new report from amnesty international. a military land grab is how amnesty describes the new structures, which include fences, roads and military bases, being built where villages stood. for example, take a look at these satellite images from rakhine state. this photo taken in september 2017 shows three burned villages, surrounded by fields

for agriculture. compare this with this image taken in february, showing new structures built on the fields next to where the villages stood, and two new helipads. matthew wells is a senior crisis advisor at amnesty international, who spent january and february this year at the refugee camps in bangladesh, gathering the testimony and materials upon which amnesty is basing its report. hejoins me now from washington. welcome to the programme. now, the mainfindings of welcome to the programme. now, the main findings of this report point to some very worrying developments. just over six months ago, the myanmar military unleashed its campaign of ethnic cleansing against the rohingya population in northern rakhine state, dragging more than 600,000 men, women and children across the border into bangladesh.

what a new report today shows is that as the rohingya shelter in refugee camps there in bangladesh, the myanmar authorities are in effect remaking rakhine state, that areas that used to be rohingya homes, markets and mosques have been bulldozed. farmland has been cleared away. and in their place, the myanmar authorities have built new infrastructure, including security for spaces, roads, at times villagers for non— rohingya ethnic groups. and all of this shows that, as the authorities say that they are ready to start returning rohingya, that in fact every day they are making that far more difficult i remaking rakhine state. that's right, and we saw this in the satellite imagery. but of course, the myanmar government are going to argue that they are actually rebuilding to accommodate the returning community, and of course, as you mentioned, it has been brokered a recent deal between the two governments. right, but what we

see... take, for example, there is a village in one township, and our evidence comes not just village in one township, and our evidence comes notjust from testimonies, but what we see on satellite imagery, from voters and videos that have been taken by people still in northern rakhine state. and all that together shows that in this particular the myanmar military, the security forces, are building an enormous new base that has in effect driven off many of the rohingya people in that village. they had stayed during the worst period of violence, they stayed as surrounding villages were burnt. but what happened then is the military put flags down marking off an enormous amount of space that used to be farmland for this village. they forcibly evicted people from a particular part of this village, and that has led to hundreds of people from the village going to bangladesh in the last couple of months. and so, as the government says it is preparing for returns, in fact its action show something very different. that it is remaking rakhine state, including new security bases, which makes any form

of safe and voluntary return incredibly difficult. thank you for joining us, on the details of that report from amnesty international. this is newsday on the bbc. we meet the world's first openly gay prince ina we meet the world's first openly gay prince in a country where homosexuality is still illegal and also on the programme, at the football playing robots able to learn from their mistakes and improve their game every time they play. the numbers of dead and wounded defied belief. this, the worst terrorist atrocity on european soil in modern times. in less than 2a hours then, the soviet union lost an elderly sick leader and replaced him with a dynamic figure 20 years his junior. we heard these gunshots in the gym. then he came out through a fire exit and started firing at our huts.

god, we were all petrified. james earl ray, aged 41, sentenced to 99 years and due for parole when he's 90, travelled from memphis jail to nashville state prison in an 8—car convoy. paul, what's it feel like to be married at last? it feels fine, thank you. what are you going to do now? is it going to change your life much, do you think? i don't know really. i've never been married before. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. i'm sharanjit leyl in london. our top stories. china has removed presidential term limits from its constitution, allowing the current leader, xijinping, to remain in power indefinitely. hundreds of people in the southern english city of salisbury who went

to the same restaurant visited by a poisoned former russian spy have been advised to wash their possessions. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. the japan times reflects on the moment seven years ago when an earthquake and tsunami left around 18,000 people dead or missing. it says that a moment of silence was held at 2.16 pm on sunday to remember those who lost their lives. thousands of people from the disaster—hit areas are still waiting to return to their home towns, it reports. and as we've been reporting, the china daily‘s main headline is that china's top legislature has adopted a landmark amendment to the country's constitution. it allows president xi jinping to effectively remain as president for life. the paper says it's the first amendment to china's constitution in 1a years and won the almost unanimous support of lawmakers. and the straits times also features the story with this photograph of the chinese president

casting his vote on the proposal that included the amendment to abolish the two—term limit to his the presidency. now sharanjit, what stories are sparking discussions online? yes let's looks at what is trending right now. as we've been reporting, marvel‘s superhero film black panther has taken more than a billion us dollars at cinemas worldwide. the film has been widely praised as game—changing — by many including the likes of michelle 0bama — for having a largely black cast and a black director, ryan coogler.

— that story is popular on bbc.com the first openly gay member of india's royalty is opening up his royal property to the lgbt community. gays in india are notjust discriminated against, homosexuality is also a criminal offence. a bbc team met the prince in his hometown of rajpipla. it was a royal secrets that i'm gay. the first reaction when i came out of the media, or to the world, was my effigies were burned by people who respected me as a royal and who looked upon me or treated me as an icon. iam the i am the crown prince of rajpipla which is a princely state. i also happen to be the royal‘s first openly gay prince. my

my decision to convert my royal establishment into an lgbtq community centre came from my own life experience when i was disowned from the royal family and after i came out openly as gay to the world. this is precisely what happens to any other lg btq this is precisely what happens to any other lgbtq is on in india. with the aim of providing social empowerment and financial empowerment and financial empowerment to the community, i came up empowerment to the community, i came up with this idea. except at the way we are, we are

also human beings. if you give us a little bit of love, we will give you a lot of love. researchers in texas are trying to develop robots with a mind of their own. they are developing systems that can learn for themselves and so able to operate in the home, the workplace — even the sports field. this report from our science correspondent, pallab ghosh. meet the soccer playing robots of the university of the excess. they are not being operated by remote control. instead they're making fast moving decisions as a team on their own. that's because they've been programmed with artificial intelligence. they're able to learn from their mistakes and improve they are honing their skills for the robot world cup, this one from two

years ago in leipzig. football is far harder for computers than chess or other boardgames. rather than turn—taking, everybody‘s moving at the same time. if you take too long to think about what you're going to do when you're going to pass the ball the opponents can come and take the ball away from you. it's also continuous, there's not discreet places people can be, but always moving through air, space, continuous space, so there's really many challenges in contrast to some of the boardgames. this might look like a very simple robot but what it's trying to achieve is incredibly difficult. it's attempting to work with people in an unpredictable office environment. researchers are now building robots more like the ones you see in science—fiction films, once you can talk to, interact with, even give commands to. this one is an office assistant. you can avoid any objects or people that get in its way. it's one of a new generation

of intelligent robots. what should i do? this is not voice recognition. move a rattling container. the robot is actually learning the meaning of the words in the same way a baby does. the essential aim is to have robots you can have a conversation with. the problem is robots have to be able to deal with the dynamics and the noise and unpredictability that people bring into the environment, so we have to think about perception and control and learning and adaptation programmes that we have to build that can deal with that sort of dynamic. thank you for watching. we'll be back at the top of the hour.

southern parts of the uk were u nsettled. southern parts of the uk were unsettled. the best of the dry and bright weather was further north. but despite the showers and increasing rain, there were spells of sunshine which broke through. as we head into monday, this area of low pressure will be in control of the weather across england and wales. further north, it should be drier with clear spells. as we head through the course of the night into the early hours of monday, the rain will pep up to become quite. nudging into southern parts of scotland. it should be a dry start to monday. less cold because of the cloud and rain and the wind across england and wales. it looks like a messy morning commute and outbreaks of rain. some heavy and windy. gusts of 40— 50

mph. we will see a line of showers pushing in. some sunny spells for western scotland. a cool feel that two things across the board. temperatures meaning 27. bringing a succession of fronts with outbreaks of rain. for tuesday, we will start to use the low pressure system from the south—east. and then conditions brighten up. the winds for lighter and it should feel quite decent in the sunny spells although temperatures will still be in single figures for a few. we could see ten or 11 degrees in a few spots, maybe the odd shower. a reach of high—pressure breaks down. ——a ridge. notice, the isobars become tightly packed together. winds coming up from the south. we start

off on coming up from the south. we start offona coming up from the south. we start off on a cool note. the best of the sunshine. further west, outbreaks off on a cool note. the best of the sunshine. furtherwest, outbreaks of rainfor sunshine. furtherwest, outbreaks of rain for northern ireland around irish sea coasts. it should stay largely dry and given some sunshine, and a mild feel, temperatures into the low teens celsius. for the week ahead, fairly unsettled with a lot of cloud and windy. a bit of rain at times and then turning a bit colder, particularly towards the weekend as called msn of the near continent. —— called msn of the near continent. —— called —— cold msn. i'm sharanjit leyl with bbc world news. our top story: xijinping is set to become the first chinese leader since chairman mao zedong to remain in powerfor life. that is after the chinese parliament voted to abolish term limits

on the presidency. the vote was widely regarded as a rubber—stamping exercise. out of almost 3,000 votes, just two delegates voted against the change, while three abstained. hundreds of english drinkers and diners in the area where a former russian spy was poisoned by a nerve agent have been told to wash their possessions. it is a precautionary measure after traces of nerve agent were found. and this story is trending on bbc.com: it is marvel‘s superhero film black panther, which has taken more than $us1 billion at cinemas worldwide. the movie has been widely praised as a game—changer. its cast is largely black, with a black director, ryan coogler. that's all from me now. now on bbc news, it is time for hardtalk.