i'm kasia madera in london. the headlines: after weeks of division, justice brett kavanaugh is sworn in as the latest member of the us supreme court at a special white house ceremony. the senate confirmation process was contentious and emotional. that process is over. my focus now is to be the bestjustice i can be. you sir, and the historic scrutiny, we re prove i'i you sir, and the historic scrutiny, were proven innocent. thank you. —— under. china says its investigation into the detained ex—interpol chief is proof it's determined to stamp out corruption. i'm mariko oi in singapore. also on the programme: a special report on china's organ transplant system, as the authorities deny they're being sourced from executed prisoners. and inside president obama's mailbag. from hardships to homework, americans put it on paper and receive a personal reply.

good morning. it's iam here in london, 8am in the morning in singapore, and 8pm in the evening in washington, where president trump has just hosted a special ceremony at the white house for the swearing—in of brett kavanaugh as a judge of the us supreme court. the president paid trubute to his new supreme courtjustice and the appointment process. brett kava naugh is brett kavanaugh is a man of outstanding intellect, a brilliant scholar and his credentials are unsurpassed. a graduate of those gay

oi’ unsurpassed. a graduate of those gay or college and yale law school. he has taught at harvard, yale and georgetown. when he is not working with his family, he is giving back to his community. he spent 26 years in public service and just like justice gorsuch, he clerked for justice gorsuch, he clerked for justice kennedy. he was on the dc court of appeals, widely regarded as oui’ court of appeals, widely regarded as our nations second highest court. dring his tenure, he authored over 300 opinions distinguished by their masterful and impartial reasoning. known as a judge'sjudge, masterful and impartial reasoning. known as a judge's judge, he is a fair—minded, and biased and evenhanded person. brett kavanahugh has been speaking about being confirmed as a justice of the supreme court. the senate confirmation process was contentious and emotional. that

process is over. my focus now is to be the best justice process is over. my focus now is to be the bestjustice i can be. i take this office with gratitude and no bitterness. on the supreme court i will seek to be a force for stability and unity. my goal is to bea stability and unity. my goal is to be a greatjustice for all americans. our north america correspondent, peter bowesjoins me now. peter, a very different approach there, a different speech compared to what we saw at that confirmation process. yes, this was, in many respects, quite a unique ceremony. 0f respects, quite a unique ceremony. of course it was a ceremonial swearing—in, as opposed to the official swearing in, which actually took waste on saturday night. now we have had an opportunity here together on a speaking at the same time, justice kavanagh and president

trump. president trump, he acknowledged this. he started proceedings in a rather unprecedented way, by apologising to thejudge. he unprecedented way, by apologising to the judge. he apologised for the terrible pain and suffering he had been forced to endure. he said he has endured a campaign of political and personal destruction, the president also repeated what we heard him say several times over the last you weeks about the presumption of innocence and he said the judge that he had been found to innocent after this process. what we saw at the senate judiciary after this process. what we saw at the senatejudiciary committee are we saw brett kavanaugh being quite competitive, here we saw him talking about not having any bitterness, but that he had been tested, but he had been appointed to not serve one interest, but one nation. yet, he is the president's nominee. yes, he is,

but then again all supreme court justices are presidential nominees. in that respect, there is a political aspect to the process, but once appointed to the bench, to the highest court in the land, all of these justices will say that of course, they don't represent any political party, they represent one nation, as in deepjustice kavanagh said tonight. in his case, the selection and the vote in the senate at was so political, so partisan, with such it is involved in the process. was interesting to me that he addressed that and make that point and certainly his determination to move on now and to behave as alljustice' are expected to behave in this land, in an entirely impartial way. we have to behave in this land, in an entirely impartialway. we have been hearing about the correct bounce perfect looking forward to the mid—term. what effect has all of this, this bitter battle that we saw, what could this affect on the

mid—term is coming up? saw, what could this affect on the mid-term is coming up? it will be fascinating to see in the next few weeks what impact it has, whether it will indeed benefit the republicans oi’ will indeed benefit the republicans or the democrats. just a few hours ago the president trump talking about a hoax that the judge had been caught up in, a hoax that was generated by the democrats and democrats lawyers and the allegations against him were entirely untrue and suggesting that perhaps some democrats wanted to impeach the justice, perhaps some democrats wanted to impeach thejustice, now perhaps some democrats wanted to impeach the justice, now that perhaps some democrats wanted to impeach thejustice, now that he was in office. whether indeed there were area in office. whether indeed there were are a significant number of democrats that believe that is debatable, but it certainly looks as though it president trump wants to make this a political issue over the next few weeks. whether that bounce will be in his favour or the democrats favour, that down to continue over the next few weeks. fascinating, as always, thank you so much. find out more about the latest member of the us supreme court on our website.

it's all at bbc.com/news. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. china's foreign ministry has defended the investigation into the man who untiljust a few days ago was the president of interpol saying beijing is determined to stamp out corruption. mung hongwei had spent more than three decades extablishing himself as a senior figure in the chinese power structure. but his fall from grace has been swift. —— establishing. our correspondent in beijing, john sudworth, reports. the head of interpol, an organisation that tracks criminals across international borders, is not meant to go missing. but this is china and today's foreign ministry briefing was dominated by questions over mung hongwei's whereabouts. would you accept that it is extraordinary to have the head

of interpol removed in the circumstances and what conclusions do you believe the international community should be drawing? translation: this case demonstrates that the communist party is firm in the fight against corruption. anybody who violates the law will be seriously punished in accordance with the law. that tough message comes from the top. president xijinping, seen here at a few days ago overseeing a military drill, has used his sweeping anticorruption drive to target dozens of senior officials. mung hongwei is simply the latest to be caught in the crosshairs. at a press conference in france, close to interpol headquarters, mung hongwei's wife kept her identity hidden. but she showed reporters the last message her husband sent from china, a picture of a knife.

mung hongwei's appointment as head of interpol was seen as a sign of china's growing clout on the world stage. his demise is proof of its unreconstructed communist politics back home and it confronts the international community with a truth long known here in beijing — if he can disappear, so can anyone. another beneficiary of the communist party system has been taken down by it. china will say it shows no one is above the law, critics will say it shows no one is safe. john sudworth, bbc news, beijing. also making news today: an investigative website has said it has identfied the second suspect in the nerve agent attack in salisbury earlier this year. the website bellingcat says he is alexander mishkin, a medical doctor serving in the russian military intelligence, the gru. they say he travelled to the uk under the alias alexander petrov. they have already named the first suspect as gru colonel anatoliy

chepiga. hurricane michael has brought strong winds and heavy rainfall to western cuba, and is now set to strengthen as it makes its way across the gulf of mexico towards the us. the state of florida has been warned to prepare for life—threatening flash floods. forecasters say the storm system is likely to become a force three storm by the time it makes landfall in america on wednesday. a former doctor in spain has been found guilty, but spared punishment, over the theft of babies during the franco dictatorship. eighty—five—year—old eduardo vela was acquitted of charges owing to the length of time it took to bring the case to court. vela stole the newborn babies from their mothers and supplied them to infertile couples under a policy against dissidents. google is shutting down its online social network google plus, after discovering a bug

which exposed the private data of up to half a million accounts. the company says it has now fixed the software, which was launched seven years ago, but it will now, as it puts it, "sunset" the service. let's show you this amazing picture. if you live in the northern hemisphere, this is one of the best times of year to see the night—time phenomenon known as the northern lights. as these pictures, filmed in the skies above finland, demonstrate. this amazing natural display took place in the arctic circle. the light show is formed when electrically charged particles from the sun enter the earth's atmosphere. the main colour is green, but some people say they can spot white and purple as well. the boss of china's transplant system has denied claims

that organs are still being taken from executed prisoners. the former health minister huang jeiyfu claims there are plenty of organs available from patients in intensive care, as well as the rising number of people registering to go on the countries new organ donation system. but campaigners claim there's thriving trade in organs from prisoners of conscience to meet transplant targets of up to 100,000 operations a year. matthew hill has this investigative report. she seems so used to seeing korean visitors... this undercover reporter captures a korean patient recovering from a liver transplant, at hospital in china. the suspicion is there is a roaring trade in organs being harvested by the chinese regime. in other countries, it can take years to get a suitable organ, but here it is only weeks. so where are they coming from? china admits it used to take organs

from executed prisoners and claims it stopped the practice in 2015. this campaigner believes organs are still being harvested from prisoners of conscience. falun gong is a sipritual movement based on meditation, but regarded as an illegal sect by china. haikuan liu, who was released from a re—education labour camp last year, claims healthy falun gong practitioners like him were given invasive and unwanted medical tests. translation: so, in the jail hospitalfor a few times they took my hand inside a window and then they would have a rubber band wrapped around my arm and took the needle over there and take the blood out. notjust me, all the practitioners of falun gong. they would beat you up. they chose places like your legs, your arms and see your hip part, but your organ part they don't touch. i have come to a gathering of international transplant

surgeons in madrid. the doctor in charge of china's fledgling organ donation schemes was prepared to take a few questions. he said so far there were half a million volunteers. but is that really enough to deliver all of the transplants in such a huge country? he claimed organs came from some of the 6 million people who die each year in intensive care. china has yet to allow transplant surgeons from abroad to inspect their hospitals unannounced. until there is greater transparency, the suspicion will remain that prisoners detained for what they believe are the new source for organs. matthew hill, bbc news. you're watching newsday on the bbc.

live from london and singapore. still to come on the programme: inside president obama's mailbag. from hardships to homework, americans put it on paper and receive a personal reply. this was a celebration by people who were relishing their freedom. they believe everything's going to be different from now on. they think their country will be respected in the world once more, as it used to be before slobodan milosevic took power. the dalai lama, the exiled spiritual leader of tibet, has won this year's nobel peace prize. as the parade was reaching its climax, two grenades exploded, and a group of soldiersjumped from a military truck taking part in the parade and ran towards the president, firing from kalashnikov automatic rifles. after 437 years, the skeletal ribs of henry viii's

tragic warship emerged. but, even as divers work to buoy her up, the mary rose went through another heart—stopping drama. i want to be the people's governor. i want to represent everybody. i believe in the people of california. this is newsday on the bbc. iam mariko i am mariko oi in singapore and i am kasia madera in london. our top stories — after weeks of division, justice brett kavanaugh has been sworn in as the latest member of the us supreme court at a special white house ceremony. china says its investigation into the detained ex—interpol chief is proof it's determined to stamp out corruption. let's take a look

at some front pages from around the world. the front page of the straits times looks at the stark un report into climate change. the newspaper quotes the 33—page report, which concludes that countries must act now to avert disaster. the south china morning post reports on the detention of interpol president meng hongwei at the hands of chinese authorities. mr meng was first reported missing in late september and is now being investigated for alleged bribe—taking. finally, the international edition of the new york times reports on the polarising effect of the recent supreme court nomination. it claims that brett kavanaugh's appointment is distracting people from local issues at the upcoming midterms, to the detriment of the democratic party. it's ten days since

the indonesian earthquake and tsunami brought massive destruction to the northern part of sulawesi — but there are signs of some normality returning. children began to go back to school — not for lessons, but to help clear up their classrooms. it's hoped formal learning can begin again soon. joshua meares is from world relief and spoke to mariko oi from the indonesian capitaljakarta. we are still in the emergency response phase. right now it's all about keeping people are live and planning what to do next. so, distributing water, food, hygiene, places to stay. that's where we are at right now. that'll probably be for the rest of this week. we've been talking about how difficult it is to get notjust palu city alone, but also smaller villages.

what has been your major challenge? i think that is exactly it. access. the liquefaction process, it destroyed roads, it destroyed ways to get into places and the government is doing the best it can. we've got lots of heavy equipment, moving things around, butjust getting to places, especially in the more remote places outside of palu, there is a lot going on that we cannot access yet. your organisation obviously has quite a lot of experience dealing with these kinds of disasters. what is the psychological impact on children, for example? oh, it's unbelievable. i was just talking with our field co—ordinator last night as she was telling us a story of a young boy, nine years old, he was playing with his friends and he watched the ground swallow up his friends. how does that impact the child, to know that the place that they called home is no longer safe? i think in the next six months a big part of our response is going to be around helping children, helping adults recover that feeling of normality, processing the trauma that they have

experienced and learning how to be safe again. normal kids that go to school, go home and aren't traumatised. there aren't many occasions where the us secretary of state turns up for a meeting, only to be publicly chastised, but that's what happened to mike pompeo in beijing on monday. this is what greeted him across the conference table, as china's foreign minister wang yi accused america of carrying out misguided actions. mr wang also referred to unwarranted accusations made by washington about trade, chinese activities in the south china sea, and interference in elections. mr pompeo, who was stopping by in beijing to talk about efforts to denuclearise the korean peninsula, aimed for diplomacy in his response. he just said the two countries had some fundamental differences' more now from our correspondent, robin brant in beijing. we knew that beijing was a too happy

about washington but where we expecting this kind of public criticism from chinese foreign ministers? it's unusual for such blunt words to be expressed in public in front ofjournalists like me and particularly as wang yi was looking across the table at his american counterpart, mike pompeo. i don't think they would be wholly surprised to hear such strong words expressed. this is in the context of an ever escalating trade war between the two worlds biggest economies. there was something last week from mike pence which was wider raging in its allegations and accusations levelled at the chinese government, what america sees as chinese

expansion in the south china sea and allegations of interfering in us domestic elections. you looked at mike pompeo, actions of the white house casting a shadow over the actions of the countries. it is there to say it was very frosty. mr pompeo talked about fundamental disagreements but the focus was on ensuring that china remained supportive of the us stance when it comes to north korea and efforts to dimi akira. the state department spokeswoman last night and said they we re spokeswoman last night and said they were united in what they call the campaign —— di nuclear. —— di nuclear is. given this frosty meeting yesterday, it is likely that beijing will be less supportive of the us stance on north korea. we will just have the us stance on north korea. we willjust have to see. ——

denuclearise. when barack obama was president, he made a point, every night, of reading ten of the letters which had been sent to him at the white house. he had plenty to choose from — millions in fact. he's opened up the files to share some of the messages he received — take a look at this. his wife and two children pay $1200 per month for health insurance. dear president obama, i'm writing to tell you about $15 my familyjust donated to your 2012 campaign. it's about wanting to say that $15 means something these days. $15 is a special pizza dinner at our local pizza stop. it's one and a half tickets to see the newest film at the old—school cinema we walk our daughters to. it's getting fresh fruit instead of frozen.

dear president obama, i hear that you are good at correcting homework. i was wondering if you could take a look at this, particularly the highlighted portion at the back. how did i do? thank you. it gives you a sense of what is best about america. it inspires you and makes you want to work that much harder to make sure that that spirit is reflected in our government. thank you for watching newsday. don't go away, the trade war between us and china, that is really moving over the imf and world bank summit

stop we have all the latest from our asia business correspondence shortly. and before we go, we'd like to leave you with these pictures. this is from los angeles where city residents have been celebrating a public holiday but not as columbus day. instead, la is holding its first indigenous peoples day. the city voted to change the name of the holiday last year saying it wanted to recognise the people who already lived in the americas at the time of christopher columbus. lots more, as always, on our website but from mariko oi in singapore and me, kasia madera, in london and the whole newsday team, that is it for now. goodbye. hello. there's some warmth and some sunshine in this forecast and one more day of rain for scotland

and northern ireland. by the time it pulls away later on tuesday, through the early hours on wednesday, parts of the western highlands could well have seen around 200 millimetres — close to eight inches — on this one front that's been hanging around for a few days. still with us on tuesday and still bringing strong winds and outbreaks of rain into northern ireland and scotland, always heaviest the further north and west you are. slowly through the day, it will push northwards. there is something dry arriving arriving into northern ireland, southern and eastern scotland and increasing amounts of sunshine across england and wales as the cloud through the morning thinks and breaks. —— thins. maybe a bit more cloud across the far north of england. anywhere northwards of wales will see the strongest of the winds on tuesday. this is an idea of the average speeds but the gusts, once again, will be touching a0 or 45 mph. lighter winds in the south and in the sunshine temperatures between 17 and 20.

16 and 17 for northern ireland and scotland. 11 for the far north of scotland. through tuesday evening and overnight, our band of cloud and rain continues to work its way northwards so for much of the uk as we start wednesday morning, it will be dry with clear skies, the odd patch of mist and fog and a mild start to wednesday. temperatures between 7 and 12 as the overnight low. the warmer air continues to push its way up across the uk through wednesday and you will see temperatures rising. the warmest day of the week. our front finally clears away from the far north—west of scotland, just some cloud and patchy rain first thing in the morning before it finally moves away and for much of the uk, it is a fine day. plenty of sunshine. a fairly noticeable south—eastern breeze later in the day. some hazy skies across southern england, perhaps some showers through the evening. to give you an idea of the temperature, you can see warmer area extending right across the uk and we will see

temperatures widely in the low 20s celsius into north england and east anglia could see to it is up to 24. by thursday, it is more unsettled. bands of rain working its way up especially across the west. still holding some warmth. a cooler feel further west. as we go through friday, keep an eye on this because we could see some wet and windy weather, gales are likely across the uk, very unsettled by the end the week. you are watching bbc news. our top story: after weeks of division, justice brett kavanaugh has been sworn in as the latest member of the us supreme court at a special white house ceremony. president trump apologised on behalf of the american people for what he called the campaign of political and personal destruction, based on lies and deception, the judge had to endure. china's foreign ministry says

the man who untiljust a few days ago was the president of interpol is now being investigated for bribery. it said meng hongwei's detention showed china is determined to stamp out corruption. and this video is trending on bbc.com. it is the president of the european commission, jean—claude juncker, showing his moves ahead of a speech on monday. some have compared it to the british prime minister, theresa may's, disco demonstration at her party conference last week. and the top story in the uk: the second suspect in the salisbury nerve agent attack has been named.