i'm kasia madera in london. the headlines: a draft agreement on brexit, but will it get through the british cabinet and parliament? utterly unacceptable to anybody who believes in democracy. the deadliest wildfires in california's history. 44 dead and thousands of homes destroyed. i'm rico hizon in singapore. also in the programme: china's premier says a code of conduct for the south china sea is three years away. the philippine defence secretary tells this programme he's baffled. and as part of our investigations into fake news, we look at the particular problems in india, and how one of the bbc‘s language services is fighting back. live from our studios in london and singapore.

this is bbc world news. it's newsday. hello and welcome to the programme. it's 1am here in london where, two and a half years after britain voted to leave the european union, officials in london and brussels have finalised a draft brexit agreement. with little more than four months to go before the uk is set to leave the eu, cabinet ministers were called into the prime minister's office at number 10 downing street to read what's being proposed. but many mps strongly oppose the deal, and there's no guarantee that it will be approved by parliament. our political editor, laura kuenssberg, has the story. her report contains some flash photography. reporter: do you think a deal‘s within reach that you could sign up to?

agreement is finally within grasp of number 10. a document that's been in dispute for so long, at last the plans, the compromises go before the cabinet. tomorrow we'll know whether they approved the divorce with the eu in all our names. well, we're obviously working hard on this final phase of negotiations. i think we should remain positive on getting a good deal for our country. which tonight, a draft of that is on paper. cabinet ministers, many of whom have a less rosy view, had their first chance to take a look in black and white. reporter: is there a deal, mr hancock? one brexiteer who's seen it says do notjudge too fast. the important thing is that we do what is best for britain and the uk and that we deliver a brexit that the british people will feel fulfils the term of the referendum. but eurosceptics and northern ireland unionist allies crowded into parliament to condemn the draft, almost as soon as its existence was announced. for the first time in 1,000 years,

this place, this parliament, will not have a say over the laws that govern this country. it is a quite incredible state of affairs. there's no chance of labour coming to the rescue. given the shambolic nature of the negotiations, this is unlikely to be a good deal for the country. we'll wait to see the detail but we have made it clear on a number of occasions, if it doesn't meet that test, we'll not vote for it. it's hard to see how this crowd with the odd famous face will be satisfied. there's a small, but noisy group in parliament who think that are strengthening and will vote no as they want another choice. i am not going to accept a deal that will undermine our credibility in the whole of the rest of the world, because even if some people in my party cannot see it is a bad deal, everyone else around this entire planet can. cheering and applause the man in charge of trying to get

the deal through parliament was sounding chipper tonight, at least for the cameras. reporter: you been twisting some arms, mrsmith? no. we are getting closer to a deal. the chief whip will only have that chance if and it is and if, his boss can persuade all of his colleagues around the top table actually to agree. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. the death of a 13—year—old boy who was knocked out in a thai kickboxing match has led to renewed pressure on thailand to ban children from boxing bouts. anucha kochana was pronounced dead from a brain haemorrhage two days after he fought in the charity match. he had taken part in 170 fights since the age of eight. the thai parliament is reviewing legislation that would ban children under 12 from boxing matches. eight people have been killed in a flare—up of violence between israel and palestinian militants in gaza.

more than 460 rockets have been fired into israel by militants since monday night, while israeli aircraft have hit 160 militant targets in response. later, palestinian militant groups said egypt had brokered a ceasefire. here's the bbc‘s yolande knell. this is the worst surge in violence that there has been since the last full—scale conflict between israel and palestinian militants in gaza four years ago. on both sides, schools have been closed, many businesses and shops, a lot of normal life is being put on hold. earlier, there was a barrage of rockets and mortars that were fired from gaza into southern israel. the israeli city of ashkelon was hit in a residential area. there was one man killed. we understand that actually he was a palestinian from the west bank who had a permit to work in israel. in gaza, the israeli military has

been carrying out dozens of strikes against what it says are militant targets, and they include the hamas television station headquarters, also a hamas intelligence compound there. yolanda yell reporting. —— yolande knell. cnn has filed a lawsuit against the trump administration after the white house suspended the credentials of one of its seniorjournalists. its chief white house correspondent, jim acosta, had his press pass revoked last week, hours after he got into a testy exchange with president trump. the network alleges this violates its and mr acosta's constitutional rights. three british imams havejoined calls for the uk to offer asylum to asia bibi, the pakistani christian woman recently acquitted of blasphemy. it comes afterformer foreign secretary boris johnson, and other politicians, urged the government to help her. asia bibi was freed last week after eight years on death row, sparking violent protests in pakistan from islamists. around 100 people are still missing

in california after the worst wildfires in the state's history. 44 people are now known to have died, but that number is expected to rise. the fires have broken out across the state. more than 7,000 homes and other buildings have been destroyed. most of the people who died were in and around the town of paradise, which has largely been destroyed. dave lee is there. get back here. this is the inferno faced by one mother and son as they escaped the deadliest wildfire in californian history. we were out of that by 10:37am. with thousands of people behind me. how did it feel to know you were safe? relieving, guilty, terrified

for the people behind me, i know there was a lot of elderly in the community that probably wouldn't make it out. five days on, this is what's left of their home. the harrowing process of trying to find and identify bodies here has now begun. search teams think it could take many weeks. what will also take time is fully understanding what happened here, and why this fire was able to get so out of control. 500 miles south of where we are, fires are continuing to flare, like this one near lake sherwood. fire officials say gusty winds could easily kick—start more flames. the danger is far from over. if you're being held back, it's because your life and the lives of your family and neighbours are still potentially endanger. there are rare glimmers of good news.

some of those who were ordered to evacuate in the south have been able to return to their homes. there is no such prospect for the people of what was once paradise. dave lee, bbc news, in northern california. rival countries have wrangled over territory in the south china sea for centuries. now, as a summit begins here in singapore, the chinese premier, li keqiang, says he hopes a so—called code of conduct for the disputed region can be completed in three years. china, vietnam, the philippines, taiwan and malaysia all have competing claims. the chinese say that everything within the orange line that you see here falls within their territory and they've been building on and developing the islands for years. the us has called on china to stop what it calls the militarisation of the south china sea. a short time ago, i was joined by the philippines‘ secretary of national defense, delfin lorenzana, and i asked them whether he thought this three—year timeframe was realistic. we hope so. rico, thank you very

much for having me here. it baffles me, why wait three more years? you say then it can be done within six months? i don't know, because i am not involved in this code of conduct. i know that our secretary forforeign affairs has been involved in this for quite some time, and i really believe that they have already covered a lot of ground in this code of conduct. it's very comforting to hear the chinese premier to say that it can be done in three years. i think that's something that we can hope for. it but secretary, there are conditions, the chinese say that everything within the orange line falls within their territory. they've been building on that the years. you have the competing claims from the malaysians, vietnamese and the philippines. that's the problem with the sea.

it should not impose conditionalities if you are drafting a code of conduct on how we conduct ourselves in that area in the disputed area. does president duterte agree with this conditionality? i haven't talked to him about that. in the first place, what are these conditionalities we are imposing now? what were the conditions imposed by premier li keqiang? we would like to know what those conditionalities are. what is the use of talking about the code of conduct if the conditionalities maybe against our claims in the area as well. the president has been quoted in the media by saying he's committed to a quick completion of the code, but how can that be done,

secretary lorenzana, when he has chosen to develop warm and friendly ties with president xi jinping? he has even considered the president of china a good friend. there is no conflict there, rico. you can be friends with somebody you are in a dispute with. that's a given. we are neighbours. we consider each other as good neighbours. while discussing this dispute, there is no barrier to being friends. turning now to security in the philippines, secretary lorenzana, it has been more than a year since the end of the battle of marawi. why is martial law still being imposed on the island? when will it be lifted?

there is even talk that it could be extended. martial law is supposed to be lifted by the end of this year, december 31. it was given to us by the president, and it was confirmed by congress. so as i speak now, the national police and the afp are going around mindanao, asking government officials, asking civilians, societies and all of those people involved, who are there in mindanao, asking them if you want martial law to be extended. so are the islamist rebels still a threat to peace in mindanao? in tawi tawi, maybe yes. in mindanao, there is a problem, the islamists, the remnants of the rebel group who tried to forcibly take over marawi, they are still,

as our intelligence has gathered, trying to recruit people to join the ranks. briefly, before we end this interview, you have national heritage returning to the philippines from the us. the balangiga bells, which were seized by the americans in 1901, will be returning to the phillipines very soon. will this mean that president duterte will have a state visit or will be visiting president trump in the us very soon? i cannot talk about that, rico. it is good that the bells are coming home. this has created a lot of bad feelings between the philippines and americans. there were many americans also affected by this. the fact that they're being prepared to be returned, we will wait until they come home and we can celebrate. that was the philippines defence secretary. you're watching newsday on the bbc. live from london and singapore. still to come on the programme: voters in the pacific island nation of fiji head to the polls for a general election. also on the programme:

how one website in india is tackling the threat of fake news. the bombastic establishment outsider donald trump has defied the pollsters to take the keys to the oval office. i feel great about the election results. i voted for him because i genuinely believe that he cares about the country. it's keeping the candidate's name always in the public eye that counts. success or failure depends not only on public display, but on the local campaign headquarters, and the heavy, routine work of their women volunteers. berliners from both east and west linked hands and danced round their liberated territory. and with nobody to stop them, it wasn't long before the first attempts were made to destroy the structure itself. yasser arafat, who dominated the palestinian cause for so long, has died. the palestinian authority has declared a state of mourning. after 17 years of discussion,

the result was greeted with an outburst ofjoy. women ministers, who'd long felt only grudgingly accepted among the ranks of clergy, suddenly felt welcomed. glad you are staying with us. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. i'm kasia madera in london. our top stories: terms for a draft brexit agreement between britain and the other members of the eu have been agreed. but already some members of the uk parliament have said it won't be acceptable. 44 people are now known to have died in the worst wildfires in the history of california. firefighters say they are making progress in tackling two of the worst blazes. and a man has been taken into custody after police appealed for a man who looked like the character ross from the sitcom friends.

the image of the suspected thief was taken in north—west england. it was so widely shared that even the actor who played him — david schwimmer — proclaimed his innocence. they do look alike. they certainly do. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. we start with the straits times, which is leading with the asean summit in singapore. we heard the philippines secretary of national defence tell rico what he hope will come of it. the straits times reports that singapore's prime minister is stressing the need for cooperation between the asean nations, amid threats like terrorism and climate change. the international edition of the japan times has a story on a new survey which suggests that japanese people are more concerned about emigration, that's people leaving the country, than immigration. it comes as japan struggles with a declining and ageing population. and the new york times has travelled

into the brazilian amazon to report on the complex relationship between remote tribes and miners. this picture, dominating theirfront page, is of an illegal gold mine, where one tribe cut a deal with the miners to secure access to the land. but it's come with dire consequences for the land and the tribe's health. you are up—to—date with the papers. now, rico, a rather strange find in the back of a car has got people talking online. that's right. is it a cat or a carb? —— cub. we will find out soon. french police have made a surprising discovery while patrolling the champs—elysees in paris. they found this lion cub in the back of a lamborghini — and the driver taking pictures with the animal. he insisted it was ‘just

a cat, but was arrested. the two—and—a—half—month—old lion cub has been taken to an animal shelter. iam i am confused. the poor little thing. luckily it is in a shelter and is doing well now. thank you for that. the pacific island nation of fiji is hoping to shake off its reputation as a state prone to coups, with wednesday's second general election since a military takeover 12 years ago. two men, who led different military coups, are vying for control. the current prime minister, frank bainimarama and the opposition leader, sitiveni rabuka. mr rabuka was facing a corruption charge before it was overturned by the high court on monday. a short time ago i was joined by samisoni pareti, who is the editor of islands business, a pacific—focussed news and business magazine, in the capital suva. i asked him what voters thought about their options, given that both candidates are former coup leaders. there are only two options for the voters, more than half

a million voters are going to the polls today in fiji, basically they were given those two choices. both of them are former military coup leaders and also stays different crews, 1987 for sitiveni rabuka, 2006 for frank bainimarama. but there is hope that this election will not result in a similar situation, where crew is required and necessary. they certainly, i know that fiji wants to overturn that perception that it is prone to coups. in terms of what the candidates stand for, what other major differences? well, the current prime minister wants to continue with his current policies, whereby fiji is equal and that this issue of race,

which the other opposition party, sitiveni rabuka, tries to stand on, is not prominently highlighted. under frank bainimarama, all fijians, despite our different ethnicities, all called fijians, they are all equal under the law, and he will run to continue this and dissent and the media and trade unions and civil groups, while sitiveni rabuka on the other hand has taken the opposite direction. he believes in his party believes in the concerns and interests of indigenous fijians, he believes that for example the traditional council that she should be resurrected and he also stood on, campaigned very hard on the high cost of living and the need to bring down national debt under the rule of prime minister frank bainimarama. and in terms of the human rights record of fiji, what do you think this election will do for that?

well, that also was an issue in this election. of course, mr frank bainimarama is highlighting the fact that during his rule, in fact just a few months ago, fiji was elected into the seat at the united nations human rights council, but on the other hand, opposition parties are saying that there have been so many, it too many deaths under frank bainimarama's watchman he was in power, particularly people taken into custody by the fijian police force. so they are saying that that needs to change and also the laws against free media media and trade unionism, that also is not reflected very well under the rule of frank bainimarama. that was samisoni pareti speaking

earlier to kasia madera on the fiji elections. now to the latest in our special bbc season, beyond fake news. the spread of fake news is a global issue, but it's a particularly big problem in india. somejournalists there have made it their mission to fact—check and correct the disinformation they encounter. the bbc‘s marathi service has been to meetjency jacob from the website boomlive.com. after 2016, there was a worldwide debate about whether fake news and misinformation can change the result of an election, so we decided to create a website where could concentrate on fake news spread and social media. apart from twitter,

facebook and instagram, we also have a whatsapp helpline where people can forward whatever information they receive. they ask us whether the information is true or not or whether it has any nuances. when we receive photos or videos, we use online tools like reverse image search. we use that to find out if anyone has used the image or video before, or if a credible news organisation has done a on story it. if there is a story related to a crime, we try to find out in which district it occurred. we then call the police authorities and find out exactly what happened. we have noticed that most of the time, the video is repurposed with a new narrative after two or three months. most of the videos...

if we don't counter this today, the problem may become even more serious. if you receive anything on whatsapp or social media, do not trust it blindly. when people understand this, they themselves will start searching for truth. in the conversation the hashtag is beyond fake news. you have been watching newsday. i'm kasia madera in london. and i'm rico hizon in singapore. stay with us. oil prices have been dropping to suffer one of their worst days in three years. more on that on asia business report, next. from both of us in the whole team

thanks for watching. goodbye. hello. after the heavy, blustery showers to start the week tuesday delivered us some sunshine. this was the scene on the north yorkshire coast. a similar picture in perth and kinross. changes are put to the western side of the uk. 0utbreaks put to the western side of the uk. outbreaks of rain will work north and east was through wednesday morning courtesy of this frontal system. notice the squeeze in the isobars. windy conditions as well. quite a wet start to wednesday across northern ireland, north—west england, and the western side of scotland. not just wet england, and the western side of scotland. notjust wet but england, and the western side of scotland. not just wet but windy as well. looking at 9am in closer detail, much of england and wales, the far north—west be mainly dry, right or sunny spells. these black wind symbols give an indication of the wind gusts through wednesday morning. lightly touching 40— 50 mph for western coasts and heavy and

persistent rain across northern ireland in southern and western scotland. warnings in place there. through wednesday that rain will be slowly pulling away north and eastwards. slowly turning dry across northern ireland, north—west england, central and southern scotland. eventually that rain is away from the highlands. by the afternoon most places becoming dry. very mild, 15— 16 celsius, particularly for the eastern side of scotland, given any sunshine and some help from the third effect. through wednesday evening we will see some lingering cloud across parts of scotland. further outbreaks of rain arriving into the far west of rain arriving into the far west of northern ireland. and across the western isles of scotland. elsewhere dry. a mixture of variable cloud and clear spells. with the mist and low cloud developing as the night wears on. cooler where we keep clear skies. the ridges down to four or five celsius. double figures were we keep the cloud. it is mild air which continues to flow across the uk as we go into thursday. it will be a mainly dry day for most. there will

bea mainly dry day for most. there will be a front fringing the far west of scotla nd be a front fringing the far west of scotland and northern ireland. more cloud and some outbreaks of rain. when a breezy day. mister low cloud quite stubborn to clear in places. some may have a fairly gloomy day —— mist and low cloud. temperatures in the mid teens. 13— 16 celsius. looking ahead towards the end of the week, we have got an area of high pressure keeping things fairly settled and keeping fronts in the atla ntic settled and keeping fronts in the atlantic air bay. heading through friday and into the weekend most will be dry. however, with lighter winds we are likely to see some mist and fog, which may link at times. tempted to starting to slide away through saturday. bye—bye. —— temperatures. i'm kasia madera with bbc news. our top story: officials in london and brussels have finalised a draft agreement on brexit. with just four months to go before the uk leaves the european union, ministers were called to downing street to read the draft deal. there's no guarantee it will be approved by the uk parliament or by the other 27 eu member countries. around 100 people are still missing in california after the worst

wildfires in the state's history. 44 people are now known to have died. more than 7,000 homes and other buildings have been destroyed. and this story is trending on bbc.com. a man has been taken into custody after a police appealfor a ross from friends lookalike went viral. the image of the suspected thief was taken in blackpool in the north—west of england. that's all. stay with bbc world news.