welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: a draft agreement on brexit, but will it get through the british cabinet and parliament? the deadliest wildfires in california's history, at least 50 dead and thousands of homes destroyed. after the heaviest exchanges in years, the un security council is set to discuss the situation in the gaza strip and israel. for the third year in a row, a surge in reported hate crimes in the united states. and we have a special report from egypt where a new law, supposed to counter fake news, is putting critical voices injail. two—and—a—half years after the referendum, officials in london and brussels have finalised a draft brexit agreement.

little more than four months before the uk is due to leave the european union, cabinet ministers were called into downing street to read what's being proposed, there'll be an emergency meeting of the whole cabinet on wednesday. but some senior politicians have already said publicly that the deal appears deeply unsatisfactory and it is farfrom certain the government can pull together enough votes to get it through parliament. here's our political editor laura kuenssberg. there is 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 approve the divorce with the eu in all our names. well, we're obviously working hard on this final phase of negotiations, this final stage. 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's 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. member, the prime minister has the

vote is of the iphone and its vote is from the dp. the trick will be for theresa may, can she satisfy everyone? it will be a hard sell, i would have thought. 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. gary lineker! 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 totally 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're 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. a little more analysis now on what might happen next. in a moment, we'll hear from our europe editor katya adler, in brussels. but first more from laura kuenssberg. number ten has told me the withdrawal agreement

will have the promise of a uk—wide customs agreement. they believe that fears in northern ireland and if he is amongst many tory eurosceptics that somehow in northern ireland could be hived off as part of this, do not have to come true. they think they have enough reassurance from brussels to get that through the cabinet tomorrow. frankly speaking, there will be a huge amount of importance placed on every single line in this enormous telephone book—style 500 page document. 0ne senior source said to me there will be plenty of scope for mischief inside there. all the governments of the 27 eu countries and the european parliament will want to pour over the words of this several hundred—page document of the draft deal. a particular interest will be compromised wording over

the backstop, that guarantee over the irish border and because that guarantee would include eu customs partnerships between the eu and the uk, those who trade closely with the uk, including big hitters germany and france, would want to make sure that the uk would get no competitive advantage out of that customs document. first of all, here in brussels, we have a meeting tomorrow between the 27 eu ambassadors, they will talk about this outlined draft agreement, they will talk about a possible extraordinary brexit summit as early as the 25th of november and as a sign of the current uncertainty, they will continue talking about contingency planning in case there is no brexit deal at all. for more on brexit and what it means for the uk and europe, go to the bbc news website. there's full background and analysis and a section that promises to tell you all you need to know about the uk leaving the european union. go to bbc.com/news and follow the links. around a hundred people are still missing in california and the worst wildfires in the state's history look unlikely to be under control before the end of the month. it's now confirmed 50 people have died, but that number is expected to rise. the fires have broken out across california. at least 7,000 homes and other

buildings have been destroyed. most of those who died were in and around the town of paradise, which is pretty much gone. dave lee is there for us. 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, so... 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. let's get some of the day's other news. italy's government has defied the european commission by sticking to its big—spending budget. deputy prime minister matteo salvini, said the deficit target of 2.4% and a growth forecast of 1.5% remained unchanged. italy now risks being fined by the commission.

in an unusual development, melania trump's office has called for the sacking of a top national security aide to president trump. a statement from the office of the first lady says mira ricardel "no longer deserves the honour" of serving at the white house. us media report mrs trump's staff clashed with mrs ricardel on a trip to africa last month, apparently over airline seating. the latest ebola outbreak in the democratic republic of the lawyer representing the mexican drug lord, joaquin ‘el chapo' guzman, at his trial in new york has claimed his client is a scapegoat. his lawyer claims the real leaders of the sinaloa cartel are still living openly in mexico and have bribed the current and previous mexican presidents. president enrique pena nieto and his predecessor felipe calderon have rejected the allegations.

more exchanges of fire between israeli forces and palestinians in gaza, it is the most serious escalation of violence in 4 years. israeli planes haved carried out bombing raids on at least 160 sites in gaza and hundreds of rockets and mortars have been fired towards southern israel by the palestinian militant group hamas. the latest violence erupted on sunday when palestinians discovered an undercover israeli special forces unit inside southern gaza, close to the city of khan younis. seven palestinians and an israeli soldier died. there are reports now that egypt has brokered a ceasefire. from gaza city, our middle east correspondent tom bateman. gunshot a warning shot is fired. then an israeli warplane hits the studios of a tv station run by hamas. people flee in panic. the building had been evacuated. israel said its waves of air strikes were in response to this.

more than 400 rockets and mortars were fired by militants in gaza into southern israel. some were shot down. 0thers hit homes. air raid siren. the flare—up started on sunday. israeli special forces operating inside gaza were spotted by palestinian militants before a fierce exchange of fire. an israeli officer and seven palestinians died. at their funerals, anger, before the rocket barrage from gaza was stepped up. sirens blared in southern israel. one man, a palestinian, died when a building was hit in the israeli town of ashkelon. residents were told they had 15 seconds to find shelter when the alarm sounded. we couldn't sleep. there was a lot of alarms in the middle of the night. we had to run to the shelters,

and we didn't have enough time to do it. and when you get to the shelter, there was just like so much bombing and so scary, you can't even leave the house. israel says it hit more than 150 militant sites in gaza. seven palestinians were killed. buildings were reduced to rubble, including one where this doctor also lived. he says he lost everything. the neighbours called me through mobile. they asked me to leave the building immediately. just hardly i could leave. and ijoined the people, the crowds, away from the building. and it happened. the building, as you see, is totally destroyed. there had been an intensive effort by egypt and the un to broker a longer—term truce between israel and hamas, but after this, the worst escalation between the two sides in four years, the chances of reviving that are looking increasingly remote. tonight a tentative ceasefire appeared to emerge, but internal political pressures remained for both sides not to be seen to back down.

more conflict may be on the horizon. tom bateman, bbc news, gaza city. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: a boy and his rhino. how one young south african is helping to save an endangered species. 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. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: after months of negotiations, british and european union officials have reached a draft agreement on brexit. the prime minister theresa may must now convince her cabinet to accept it. rescue crews are searching for more than 200 people reported missing in california's deadliest recorded wildfires. 50 people are now confirmed dead.

a new fbi report has found a spike in hate crimes in the united states last year — the third straight year that attacks, motivated by bias, have risen. law enforcement agencies report at least 7000 incidents in 2017 — that's up 17% from 2016. caroline rigby has the story. pittsburgh is still grieving for the 11 jewish worshippers killed by a gunman motivated by religious hatred. last month's mass shooting was the worst anti—semitic attack in recent us history, but figures released by the fbi show this was not an isolated incident. for the third year running, hate crimes are on the up in the united states, with black and jewish—americans particularly affected. law enforcement agencies reported just over 6000 hate crimes in 2016, but that increased to more than 7000 last year. of those, around 2000 were aimed at african—americans, while more than 900

were againstjews, a 37%jump on the previous year. the fbi figures reveal the majority of hate crimes were motivated by ethnicity and race, though religion and sexual orientation were also key factors, with abuse ranging from vandalism and assault to rape and murder. and with a 17% increase in hate crimes last year, the us acting attorney general described the report as a call to action, adding: although the number of attacks has increased, so too has the level of police reporting. but civil rights groups say many victims never report incidents at all, so these statistics could be just the tip of the iceberg. whatever the true extent, many would agree that more

must be done to tackle hate crime fuelled by heated rhetoric in an ever—divided america. caroline rigby, bbc news. i spoke just now to ahmed rehab, executive director for the chicago office of the council on american—islamic relations. unfortunately, one cannot discount the rise in the sort of speech coming from political officials, especially the president of the united states, that tends to stoke racial sentiments. and what we've seen is an emboldening of those americans who believe that america belongs to white christians, that it is not set by its values and its promise but rather by a particular race and religion, and so those who are a minority in regards to race and religion and sexual orientation have felt the brunt of some of these people. although these figures were beginning to spike before donald trump came

on the scene, weren't they, politically? they have been on the rise for quite some time, the numbers, as mentioned in your report, by the fbi are not are not exactly comprehensive. they may be just the tip of the iceberg. as a matter of fact, the us bureau ofjustice statistics ran a survey between 2007 and 2011 and concluded that the numbers were likely to be around 260,000 hate crimes a year, rather than the 6000 to 10,000 typically reported by the fbi for any year. do you think they are not reported because people are reluctant to report? i think that is definitely a factor, especially my own community, particularly among the new immigrants who come from countries where there is suspicion of government and law enforcement, and when something happens to them, they're very reticent to report it to law enforcement authorities, so we see a lot of that happening in the community as well.

and in your experience, what response are people getting when they do report for government, law enforcement, and civic authorities? there is support within various law enforcement entities, including the fbi. i think part of the problem with the muslim community as well is that there have been a lot of fbi investigations of individuals, or rather even just cold calls, not even investigations, of people who just happened to be of muslim or arabic backgrounds, and as a result of that what i would could fbi harassment, there has been this additional reticence to report things to the fbi. what we do as a civil rights organisation is to try to bridge that gap and try to encourage community members to come with a crime and bias incident reporting. there are mounting concerns about freedom of expression in egypt. a number of journalists

and activists have been jailed on the charge of spreading fake news, which is illegal under egyptian law. human rights activists say new legislation passed injuly concerning social media has further curtailed independent comment. the government says it's trying to fight rumours that destabilise the country. sally nabil reports from cairo. that's amal fathy, a 34—year—old egyptian mother. she was venting her anger because twice in one day, she had been sexually harassed. in her facebook post, she blamed the government for failing to protect women. two days after she posted the video came the knock at her door. amal was arrested and separated from her family on charges of spreading fake news. i met amal‘s husband, a human rights lawyer, in his office.

he told me amal is not the only person falling foul of the law in this way. the government says it's trying to fight rumours that destabilise the country. the government has now set up a hotline for egyptians to report fake news and rumours, and the crackdown appears to go wider than that. hundreds of websites have been blocked in egypt since last year. some of them belong to critical media organisations and some to human rights groups. egyptian authorities deny any systematic

crackdown on free speech. amal‘s husband told me he hoped his wife would be released on appeal and reunited with their two—year—old son, zidan. —— three—year—old son, zidan. while there might be some light at the end of the tunnel for amal, the space for expressing dissent in this country is obviously shrinking, and the phrase "fake news" is seen by many opponents as a powerful tool to silence them. sally nabil there. throughout this week, there'll be much more on this on bbc world news, in our beyond fake news season.

you can also follow the debate and research by visiting our website. that's at bbc.com/fakenews. 0rjoin the conversation using the hashtag, #beyondfakenews. we have reported so often on the hazards facing wild rhinos, one of the most endangered species on earth. in africa, it's thought there are only around 25,000 left alive. but one boy in south africa is doing his best to change that. the bbc‘s tim allman explains. nicky — he's the one on the left — is a six—month—old white rhinoceros, whose mother was killed by poachers. with him is 11—year—old hunter mitchell, and hunter is no ordinary young man, he is on a mission. it all started on the 31st of december 2015, when i heard about a band of baby rhino at aquila private game reserve,

and i knew that instantly that rhinos are super endangered, so i wanted to help him by raising money for him. so far, hunter has raised nearly $16,000 — money that will help baby rhinos like nicky. they can be taken care of at feeding stations like this one, protected until they're old enough to be released into the wild. all the money goes to rescuing, raising and rehabilitating orphaned rhinos, because the mothers or parents die, but if we can save those babies, they can grow up and make more babies for the next generation, which is extremely important. hunter has become something of a local celebrity and he's using his fame to raise awareness of animal protection. he says he wants to be a doctor, but he also wants to keep up the fight and protect the wild rhino. tim allman, bbc news. an exceptionally large and rare pink diamond,

called the pink legacy, has been sold at auction for a world record price. it weighs just under 19 carats, and it fetched $50 million — a record price per carat. it was bought by the us luxury jeweller harry winston at auction in geneva after only five minutes of bidding. the new owners have rechristened it the winston pink legacy. more on that and all the news any time on the bbc website for you. you can reach me and the rest of the tea m can reach me and the rest of the team on twitter. that is it for now. thank you very much for watching, do come again. hello.

after the heavy, blustery showers many of us saw to start the new week, tuesday delivered us something much drier, with a good deal of sunshine. this was the scene on the north yorkshire coast during tuesday afternoon, and a very similar picture in perth and kinross. but already some changes to the western side of the uk. outbreaks of rain will continue to work their way north and eastwards through wednesday morning, courtesy of this frontal system. notice the squeeze in the isobars. some windy conditions as well. particularly for western coasts. quite a wet start to wednesday across northern ireland, north wales, north—west england, and the western side of scotland. let's take a look at nine o'clock in the morning. much of england and wales will be dry, some bright or sunny spells, but these black wind symbols give an indication of the wind gusts through wednesday morning. wuite widely a0 to 50 miles an hour for many western coasts, and some heavy and persistent rain across southern and western scotland. warnings in place for that rain.

through wednesday, that rain will be slowly pulling away north and eastwards, so slowly turning drier across northern ireland, north—west england, cumbria, central and southern scotland. eventually that rain clears away from the highlands and by the afternoon, most places becoming dry. some spells of sunshine. a mild day, 15 or 16 celsius, particularly for the eastern side of scotland, given any sunshine and some help from the foehn effect. now, through wednesday evening, a fair amount of cloud across parts of scotland. further outbreaks of rain arriving into the far west of northern ireland, and perhaps later in the night, across the western isles of scotland. elsewhere, it's dry. a mixture of variable cloud and clear spells, but could see some mist and low cloud developing. a little bit cooler where we keep clearer skies, temperatures down to four or five celsius. we are going to hold onto this mild air as we go into thursday.

it'll be a mainly dry day for most. there will still be this front fringing the far west of scotland and northern ireland. a fairly gloomy day, but where it does thin and break, we'll see some good spells of sunshine and again, temperatures 13 to 16 celsius. however, with lighter winds, we're likely to see some mist and fog and that may linger at times, and temperatures just starting to slide away through saturday. bye— bye. this is bbc news, the headlines: theresa may has been meeting her ministers to win their support for a draft agreement on brexit. there's to be a cabinet meeting on wednesday, when she'll expect ministers to back the proposed withdrawal agreement. it will then have to be approved by other eu leaders and parliament. hundreds of people are still thought to missing in the aftermath of the worst wildfires in the history of california. 50 people are now known to have died. firefighters have made some progress in containing the two biggest blazes but say there is still a long fight ahead. the un security council has failed to agree how to address violence between israel

and the palestinians in gaza. the heaviest clashes in four years erupted on sunday evening when hamas militants intercepted an undercover israeli operation. hamas has said it will observe an egyptian—brokered ceasefire if israel does. now on bbc news, panorama. the government's controversial new benefit system is in crisis. i don't really have a lot to live on. it is less than £30 a month. without places like this you would be in trouble. families have been driven to despair. would sell things around the house just to make money to put it back into the electric. tenants under pressure are not paying their rent and some face eviction.

i have had enough. honest to god i've had enough. one of first councils to experience universal credit has opened its doors to our cameras. are you still in homeless situation now?