welcome to newsdsay. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: western countries condemn myanmar‘s jailing of journalists, but there's silence from china and the rest of asia. "cruel and unjust", human rights groups are outraged after two malaysian lesbians are publicly caned in an islamic court. i'm babita sharma in london. also in the programme: a nation's heritage up in flames. a lack of funding is blamed for the disaster at brazil's national museum. a world drowning in plastic, we'll find out what the japanese experience tells us about the harsh realities of recyling. industrial plastic has value. it can be recycled and turned into new products. but the same cannot be said of household plastic waste. it is dirty, it is difficult and it has virtually no value. good morning.

it's 8am in singapore, 1am in london and 6:30 in the morning in myanmar, where there's been condemnation following the sentencing of two journalists to seven years in jail. wa lone and kyaw soe oo are accused of violating state secrets while investigating violence against rohingya muslims. the un high commissioner for human rights, michell bachelet, said their convictions sent a message to alljournalists that they cannot operate fearlessly in myanmar. nick beake reports from the court in yangon. in some countries, they would've been given a prize for their work. not here. not in aung san suu kyi's myanmar. instead, forjournalists wa lone and kyaw soe oo, who uncovered a massacre by the country's army, the reward is a prison cell. the reporters say they were framed because they were investigating

the execution of ten rohingya muslims. the un believes in all, the myanmar military and buddhist mobs may have killed more than 10,000 rohingyas in rakhine state last year. but the reporters‘ investigation ended today with a seven—year jail sentence. translation: we performed according to media ethics. we didn't do anything harmful towards our nation. we didn't commit any crime. the fury of the journalists‘ supporters was clear as the pair were driven to prison. now convicted of obtaining secret documents which could've helped enemies of the state. this verdict is devastating for the two reporters, but also freedom of the press in myanmar. many people are concerned about the direction this country is taking. the verdict and the judgement today has struck a hammer blow to the rule

of law in myanmar. many diplomats have been at the trial throughout, and we believe that the judge has ignored the evidence of the case, and has actually also ignored myanmar laws. so extremely disappointed with that. we think it's a bad day for myanmar, and we would call on the journalists to be released as soon as possible. a crushing day too for the families of the jailed reporters, who've endured eight months of court hearings. after the journalists‘ arrests, their employer, reuters, published the full story of the rohingya massacre the pair had been working on, prompting a rare admission of guilt from the burmese army. that crime wouldn‘t have been known had it not been for the reporting of wa lone and kyaw soe 0o. so what happened today was an injustice, and it‘s an injustice that can‘t be allowed to stand. but so far, silence from aung san suu kyi‘s government. last week accused by the un of assisting genocide,

this week condemned for an attack on a pillar of democracy. after free elections three years ago, there was great hope for myanmar. it‘s fading fast. nick beake, bbc news, yangon. and we‘ll have more on that story in a few minutes time. our other top story this hour: britain‘s prime minister has hit back at her former foreign secretary, after he criticised her so—called chequers plan for brexit. borisjohnson says theresa may‘s plan is a ‘disasterfor britain‘. in response the prime minister said she is providing leadership and that johnson has offered nothing new. here‘s our political editor laura kuenssberg. despite a lack of love for the chequers plan in parliament, the prime minister has no intention of budging from her position. the view in number ten, compromise might not be popular, but they believe they have put forward a serious and a viable basis for a brexit deal. there are many critics, in their view, do not have an alternative that could work.

also making news today — argentinia‘s president has announced a series of measures to try to contain a run on the country‘s currency, the peso. mauricio macri promised to cut in half the number of ministries, trying to show investors that argentina is committed to reforming its economy. president trump has warned the syrian government and its russian and iranian allies that they‘ll be making a grave humanitarian mistake if they attack the rebel—held region of idlib. in a tweet he said hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. mr trump‘s warning comes amid reports that syrian government forces are preparing to launch a huge offensive in idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in the country. the philippines‘ president rodrigo duterte has laid a wreath injerusalem to commemorate those who died in the holocaust. duterte wrote ‘never again‘ in the visitor‘s book at the yad vashem memorial. the president is on a four—day trip to israel to boost trade and defence ties. american former nfl quarterback colin kaepernick will reportedly be

the face of a nike advertising campaign commemorating the 30th anniversary of its motto "just do it". kaepernick sparked a national debate when he knelt during the national anthem before matches protesting against racial injustice and police brutality. president donald trump has said the protests disrespect the american flag and military. let‘s get more reaction to the two reuters journalists from mya namar who‘ve been jailed for seven years for violating state secrets. phil robertson is the deputy director of human rights watch. i asked him whether the sentences could affect myanmar‘s relations with other countries in the region. 0bviously asean and china have played this non— interference game. unfortunately for them, relations with the government is more important than the relations with people of that country. quite clearly this is

a major blow against press freedom in myanmar and it is something that will reverberate through the ranks of the local press for quite sometime, as intimidation and self—censorship take hold. indeed, a big blow to press freedom and the freedom of expression. how does this ruling now look for myanmar‘s democratic future? i think this is an indication that that democratic future is increasingly dimming. what we are seeing now is the erosion of the basic civil and political liberties that are so essential to any democracy. the right to speak out, the right to have a free press, the right to have a public protest. all of those are under threat now in aung san suu kyi‘s myanmar. so it could be said that aung san suu kyi is not really in control of myanmar, but the military? i think the military is calling the shots in everything, including the court case. aung san suu kyi is along

for the ride, she is not making the decisions that she needs to make in terms of deciding whether she will be a part of the solution or part of the problem. we‘ve seen that last week with the fact—finding mission and the determination on the rohingya that the genocide and crimes against humanity have been perpetrated and she remained silent and now she is remaining silent on this. i mean, leadership involves choices, it doesn‘t involve just remaining silent. could she have prevented this or did she really want this to happen? well, she certainly could have stepped in at an earlier time in this. she certainly could have contested what seemed to be the fix that was put in by the military to this court. but she did not. in fact, she argued with bill richardson, the former ambassador to the un about this case, when he was in myanmar last year.

is there a possibility then, that some of the asean partner countries could intervene here? well, we hoped malaysia would raise this issue, but they will probably raise it privately rather than publicly. that is the issue with asean, they discuss behind closed doors and you don‘t really find out about it until about a year later. a massive fire has ravaged the national museum in brazil, destroying much of the largest anthropology and natural history collections in the americas. museum staff in rio dejaneiro have blamed a lack of funding for the blaze which is said to have turned the country‘s history to ashes. katy watson reports from rio. a cherished institution up in flames, and the nation‘s history destroyed. this museum was home to 20 million artefacts, but few are expected to have survived this intense blaze. with the fire now out, the extent of the devastation is becoming clear. experts say the loss of brazil‘s most important scientific institution is incalculable. a collection rich with extinct

species from the americas, dinosaur skeletons and this, a i2,000—year—old human skull called luzia. most of that could have been lost. it is the patrimony of our country, but also the patrimony of the world. here we had some of the best specimens from south america. so we really need your help. throughout the day, firefighters, investigators and even some people who worked at the museum had been going into the building and every so often they come out with an artefact or anything they can salvage from the rubble. among the onlookers was livia, a museum intern. she‘s devastated. translation: you'd never think of the louvre in paris catching fire. this sort of thing happens in brazil though. 200 years of historyjust gone in a matter of hours. for some, the sadness turned to anger. they say spending cuts led to the museum‘s neglect. this isn‘tjust brazilian history that‘s gone up in flames. many see this as a metaphor

for the country‘s recent economic and political crises. katy watson, bbc news in rio de janeiro. you‘re watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: under the knife with a new generation of robot surgeons, we‘ll be looking at how they‘re moving medicine forward. also on the programme: we‘ll be investigating japan‘s dirty secret, most of this collected plastic isn‘t being recycled, but exported or simply dumped. she received the nobel peace prize for her work with the poor and the dying in india‘s slums. the head of the catholic church said mother teresa was a wonderful example of how to help people in need. we have to identify the bodies then arrange the coffins and take them back home. parents are waiting and wives are waiting, so... hostages appeared, some carried, some running, trying to escape

the nightmare behind them. britain lost a princess today, described by all to whom she reached out as irreplaceable. an early—morning car crash in a paris underpass ended a life with more than its share of pain and courage, warmth and compassion. this is newsday on the bbc. i‘m rico hizon in singapore. i‘m babita sharma in london. our top stories: there‘s been condemnation from the un and western countries after two myanmar journalists were jailed for violating a state secrecy law.

two malaysian women convicted of attempting to have sex, have been caned in a religious court. and this story is proving very popular on the bbc website: the parents of one—year—old max brett, who was born deaf, have shared the moment he heard sound for the very first time. more on that story at bbc.com/news. let‘s take a look at some front pages from around the world. starting with the straits times, where the journalists jailed in myanmar is the paper‘s lead story too, with this photo of the pair talking to the media outside court. let‘s look at the philippine daily inquirer. its lead story is about president duterte saying sorry to barack 0bama for cursing him two years ago. but its lead picture shows the damage left by an explosion inside an internet cafe on sunday night. the military say

rebels are behind it, the second such attack in a week. the international edition of the japan times is reporting on a typhoon. western japan is bracing for typhoonjebi. it‘s expected to make landfall around noon tuesday. those are the papers. two malaysian women have been caned six times for having sex with each other in violation of the country‘s islamic laws. the women, aged 22 and 32, were arrested when they were found together in a car in the conservative northern state of tereng—ganu. the sentence was carried out behind closed doors in the region‘s high court. human rights groups say it was cruel and unjust. here‘s the views of some activists from the lgbt community in malaysia. how much deeper into the closet do you want people to go? and this is all a distraction

from other much bigger issues, which i think are facing the country. like, you know, tremendous corruption. an economy that‘s being, kind of, need as a result of previous actions. 0h, let‘s pick on these people. now they're not allowing you to have consensual sex. who knows in future, they'll probably not allow you to, you know, same—sex partner, to hold hands in public. anything that anyone does now, it's like they've set a precedent to have a free hand to punish as and when they feel. i honestly think that's really not good for the lgbt society, orjust all of us in general. to discuss this further, i was joined a little earlier by rachel chhoa—howa rd, a researcher on malaysia for amnesty international. she began by giving me her reaction to these public canings. it‘s deeply shocking and appalling

that this punishment took place in the face of international and national outcry. really, caning is a punishment which is inhuman. it may amount to torture and it is prohibited under international law in all circumstances. the fact that it was turned into a public spectacle is even more outrageous, and just to share a few details, we understand that people were encouraged on social media to attend this caning via a state authority agency. we understand that there were audible gasps when the caning was carried out against these two women from the gallery. i think this speaks to the humiliating aspect, the demeaning aspect of caning that is often overlooked, especially by government officials who are justifying this punishment. so really that‘s why we‘re calling for caning to be outlawed completely in the country. this is the first time we‘ve seen this publicly,

but there are a number of private recordings of such treatment against people in the lgbt community. what‘s the next step to protect these people and what can be done by the international community in response to this? well, really we‘re calling for governments to put pressure on the government of malaysia. the malaysian authorities to turn around what seems to be a rising level of attacks against the lgbti community in particular. we‘ve seen a raid on an lgbti venue. we‘ve seen statements and discriminatory statements from high—level government officials, including the religious affairs minister, against lgbti, saying that lgbti need to be rehabilitated and that they won‘t ever be recognised in the country. this flies in the face of promises by the new government to make malaysia a more diverse and inclusive country, so we‘re really wondering what is going on here, really calling on the government to reverse the treatment that the lgbti community have been afforded so far. having said that, though,

homosexual activity remains illegal under sharia law, under islamic law, which is governing malaysia now. so with that, in reality, for these people, every day, the existence of overturning that is some way away? well, it could be some way away, but we‘re hoping that this can be actually done quite quickly if there is that political will and understanding that the lgbti community, the people that are lgbti are a part of malaysia and they have rights. no—one should live in fear for who they are and who they love. and yes, you‘re right, at the moment there are laws that make same—sex relations illegal. other laws that are targeted against the lgbti community. we are calling for the repeal of all of these laws that criminalise lgbti, and for the government to ensure their protection. rachel chhoa—howard

speaking earlier to babita. plastic waste has become a massive problem around the world, and japan is no exception. however, people there spend a lot of time sorting their household plastic so it can be recycled. but what actually happens to it when it leaves their homes? rupert wingfield—hayes has been finding out. the world is drowning in plastic. here injapan, they say recycling is the answer. but is that true? this is kawamura—san‘s kitchen and i would say kawamura—san is, i‘d say, a garbage warrior. she‘s going to give me a lesson on how i should be separating my garbage properly. this is yokohama city‘s instructions on how to separate your garbage. you can see, it‘s quite elaborate. there are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten different types

of garbage separation, but this is the one we care about, plastic containers and packaging. so she‘s going to show me how to do it. it is an arduous task to clean and separate every piece, but the result is that 84% ofjapan‘s household plastics end up in a recycling bin. so what happens to it next? so these ladies are pulling out anything that can‘t be recycled, things like this, cigarette lighters, batteries, bits of metal scrap. everything else, all the other plastic that stays on this conveyor belt will go and be bailed out and sent to recycling. now the shocker — 70% of this material will be exported. last year, a million tons of japanese plastic went to china. this year, china banned all imports. now japan‘s plastic recyclers are desperately hunting for alternatives. so this used to go to china, now it‘s going to go to malaysia.

some plastics are recycled injapan. large industrial ones, like these car bumpers. they‘re chopped up and fed into a shredder. so those car bumpers, which are cut up, shredded, melted and then turned into this, this is the end product, these are pellets, which can then be made into new products. what we‘ve seen here is that industrial plastic has value. it can be recycled and turned into new products, but the same cannot be said of household plastic waste. it is dirty, it is difficult and it has virtually no value. that‘s why it was being shipped wholesale to china, and that‘s why now it ends up either being landfilled or burned, and course why so much of it ends up in the ocean. a british company has unveiled a new robotic surgery system which is expected to operate on patients next year.

the robotic arms are controlled by a surgeon using a console. 0ur medical correspondent fergus walsh reports. imagine this operating on you. it‘s the latest in surgical robot technology. all controlled by human hand at a console with the aid of a 3d monitor. the aim is to make laparoscopic, or keyhole, surgery technically easier for surgeons, allowing greater precision, and so giving better outcomes for patients. it‘s considerably easier. all you can do with a conventional laparoscopic instrument is you can move it in and out, and you can rotate it. and so what the robot enables you to do is to play with this in a much more wide range of movement. the versius robot has been designed and built in cambridge. these robot arms have joints like a human‘s, at the shoulder, elbow and wrist. they‘re smaller and more flexible than current robotic systems,

which makes them more versatile, so they should be able to do many more types of keyhole surgery. none of this would have been possible without da vinci, the first surgical robot, introduced to the uk in 2001. there are now more than 70 of them here, mostly doing prostate, bladder and gynaecological surgery. the british versius system is much, smaller than this american rival and is aiming to do more. so we want to do operations in the upper abdomen, such as gall bladder operations, operations in the stomach, certainly operations in the bowel for bowel cancer. we want to operate in the chest. so the aim is to replicate keyhole surgery, but with all the advantages of the small instruments, the wristed instruments, that will make it better and easier for the surgeon. the field of robot surgery is about to get crowded, with several new systems being developed. the most eagerly awaited is verb

from tech giant google. it aims to connect all its robots to the internet so they can learn from each other. so, when keyhole surgery came in, it really revolutionised surgery, because it was able to deliver a really complex procedures in a much less invasive way. this is where many surgeons learn how to do keyhole procedures, at london‘s university college hospital. training to do this with the aid of a robot will be increasingly common, and eventually machines may be programmed to do some parts of an operation independently. as we develop that human—robot interface, there are going to be certain parts of an operation, simple parts, that may be able to be automated. if you think about stitching or closing the wound, these may be able to be done with a robot. the cost of the versius robot hasn‘t been revealed, but the company aims to make it cheaperfor the nhs to run than its american rival.

the first operation on a patient will be early next year. fergus walsh, bbc news, cambridge. you have been watching newsday. i‘m babita sharma in london. and i‘m rico hizon in singapore. stay with us. new zealand‘s warming up its image. we‘ll see how the minister of agriculture plans to revive the wool industry and snag the interest of top designers. and before we go, rico and i wanted to show you this, india is close to completing what will be the world‘s tallest statue — a 182 metre high tribute to independence hero sardar vallabhbhai patel. thanks forjoining us. hello there. yesterday we had quite a mixture of weather. some warm, humid sunshine across parts of eastern england, but further west, we had this weather front bringing cloudy skies and outbreaks of rain.

i‘m showing you this weather picture from yesterday because that front is going to be with us for much of today as well. it‘s barely moving at all, so it‘s going to be quite cloudy over the next few hours across a good part of england and wales too, with the cloud thick enough for an occasional spot of drizzle, perhaps misty over the hills for a time as well. but for the most part across england and wales, it‘s going to be a mild night. you can see the yellows here. temperatures way up into the double figures. whereas further north and west, we‘ve got the cooler air for scotland and northern ireland. and across sheltered parts of northern scotland, it could well be cold enough for ice touch of frost for early risers tuesday morning. tuesday, though, will dawn on a bright note for most parts of scotland with some morning sunshine. should be a bright enough start too for northern ireland. different story for most of england and wales, where it‘s going to be a great start to the day and the cloud will be thick enough for a few spots of rain or drizzle, perhaps across parts of north—west england, the midlands and eastern parts of wales too. for one or two, a damp start to the morning,

but as we go through the day, that weather front will tend to ease and the cloud will thin a little bit, so we‘ll get a few brighter spells coming through. there will be a bit of sunshine for east anglia and south—east england. perhaps not quite as much as we had on monday. we‘ll still have some sunshine for scotland and northern ireland, although the cloud will tend to bubble up a bit here a little bit as we head into the afternoon. it‘s going to be another quite quiet day really weatherwise on wednesday. a lot of dry weather with some bright or sunny spells coming and going. but a change in the weather to the north—west where we see a weather front moving. that‘s going to be bringing more general rain into western scotland and northern ireland. that rain heavy at times. things cooler there across the far north—west of scotland. further changes towards the end of the week as the jet stream gets more wriggly, more amplified. we‘re on the downward stretch, the downward limb of the jet stream, and that means we‘ll have an area of low pressure form as we head towards the end of the week. here is the low. now, uncertainty about the exact position. it might actually be a little bit further westwards, which will bring more general

rain in across the uk. either way, i think we‘re looking at an unsettled end to the weak. rain at times probably best sums up the forecast on thursday, particularly across the northern half of the country, but nowhere is immune from seeing some wet weather. it will be quite breezy and cool, and some of the rain could turn heavy and thundery too. temperatures ranging from 13 in eastern scotland to 18 degrees in london. i suspect it will stay pretty unsettled on friday and into the weekend with rain or showers in the forecast. that‘s your weather. i‘m babita sharma with bbc news. our top story: there‘s been condemnation from western countries and the un after two reuters journalists from mya namar were jailed for seven years for violating a state secrecy law. wa lone and kyaw soe 0o said they were framed by the military for reporting on the massacre of rohingya people. two malaysian women convicted of attempting to have sex have been caned in a religious court. it‘s prompted outrage from gay rights activists. and this story is trending on bbc.com. the government of gujarat state in india is close

to completing what will be the world‘s tallest statue. it‘s planned to be a 182—metre high tribute to independence hero sardar vallabhbhai patel. the figure has cost $430 million and will be inaugurated on the 31st of october. you‘re up to date. stay with us, more to come. and the top story in the uk: big technology companies have been warned that they face the prospect of new legislation if they don‘t do