welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: drawing a line in the sand. the murder ofjournalist jamal khashoggi had nothing to do with saudi arabia's royalfamily, its top diplomat tells the bbc. and it is a red line when you have individuals calling for the removal or replacement of a leader. that is ridiculous and unacceptable. that is ridiculous and not acceptable. an unprecedented rebuke from america's topjudge for president trump, for describing a colleague as an ‘0bama judge.‘ a briton accused of spying in the united arab emirates begins a life sentence in prison. and taking the chair ahead of the un climate change conference. david attenborough shows off ‘the people's seat, designed to give ordinary people a say. saudi arabia's foreign minister has told the bbc that

criticising the leadership of the kingdom is "a red line" and will not be tolerated. adel al—jubeir said that includes calls to replace crown prince mohammed bin salman, who he said was not involved in the murder of the journalist — and saudi government critic — jamal khashoggi. our chief international correspondent lyse doucet has been speaking exclusively to the foreign minister in riyadh. an unshakeable bond, but the us congress now has the prince in its sights. it wants to know what role did he play in the murder ofjamal khashoggi. but in riyadh, the kingdom's top diplomat hits back. the crown prince of saudi arabia is not involved in this. we have made that very clear. we have an investigation that's ongoing, and we will punish the individuals who are responsible for this, and we will make sure it doesn't happen again. so this is a red line — is this a red line for the kingdom, sir, whatever the evidence is? show us the evidence, show us the evidence.

if turkey has the evidence, please provide it. all we hear is leaks, leaks. show us the evidence, and then we will talk. it's a red line when you have individuals calling for the removal or replacement of our leaders. that's ridiculous, and that's unacceptable in saudi arabia. there is another crisis too — yemen, said to be on the brink of the worst famine in living memory. saudi arabia is under mounting pressure to end the bombing and blockades causing such suffering. we are doing everything possible in orderto minimise the humanitarian suffering of the yemeni people. now, when we have a militia that is radical, allied with hezbollah and iran, that launched more than 200 ballistic missiles at our towns and cities, are we supposed to sit there and say, oh, sorry, we're not going to do anything? so, if i understand you correctly, saudi arabia and its coalition are not ready to do anything to bring an end to their involvement

in this war? we have said that we support all the political efforts aimed at finding resolution to the yemeni crisis. this week the saudi monarch set out his country's agenda for the next year, his son, the crown prince, in the front row, a signal to saudis and the world that the kingdom sets its own course. lyse doucet, bbc news, riyadh. a row has broken out between donald trump and the chiefjustice of the us supreme court. john roberts has taken the very unusual step of rebuking the president for describing a districtjudge as an ‘0bama judge'. thejudge had ruled against the trump administration's attempt to prevent migrants claiming asylum, if they've entered the country illegally. our north america correspondent peter bowes told me this type of row is very rare. extremely unusual that the chiefjustice would step in to what is a political argument that the

president is making here. so when the chief justice of the supreme court makes a statement that clearly contradict what the president is saying, a lot of people are very surprised and he did not mince his words. trump said that this was an obama judge and that is true, he was appointed by president obama, the chiefjustice said we do not have bushjudges, clintonjudges, obama judges or trump judges. we have an extraordinary group of people, dedicated judges doing their level best to provide equal rights to those appearing before them. he said the independentjudiciary is something we should all be thankful for. and this in the same week that we hear the president thought, apparently, that he could order thejustice department to prosecute hillary clinton and james comey. the president has already hit back against this latest rebuke, hasn't he? yes, he has.

the president has come back and he is doubling down on what he said, saying that phrase again, obama judges. he said obama judges have a different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country. i think what this illustrates is that the president does not have a full understanding of the separation between the executive branch of us government, that is what he is the head of, and the traditionally. and the supreme court is right at the top and the chiefjustice is the lead justice on the supreme court. never the two shall meet under normal circumstances. certainly you would not get a public debate like this between the chiefjustice and the president. many people are suggesting that look, the president clearly does not get that once a judge is on the bench as the chief justice is implying,

they are impartial and they do their best to be fair to whomever is coming before the court, whatever the political consideration. let's get some of the day's other news. the pentagon says it's cost $72 million to deploy us forces to the border with mexico in recent weeks to prevent illegal immigrants crossing. almost 6000 troops were sent to the border before the mid—term elections after president trump warned of an invasion of the country by a caravan of central american migrants. the un—recognised government in yemen and houthi rebels have agreed to join peace talks in sweden in early december, according to the american defence secretary, jim mattis. a previous effort to end the three—year conflict collapsed in september when the rebels failed to attend negotiations. the un has warned that m million yemenis are at risk of starvation unless the port of hodeida remains open to humanitarian aid shipments. the british prime minister says she's made good progress

in the brexit talks in brussels with the president of the european commission, jean—claude juncker. they've been discussing the political declaration which sets out what the future relationship between the uk and the eu will be after brexit — in areas ranging from aviation and energy to trade. the american space agency says its latest mars probe, called insight, is on track for touchdown on monday. only a third of previous international missions have succeeded. nasa is expressing confidence that insight with a heat—resistant capsule, parachute, and rockets will touch down safely. a british student has been sentenced to life in prison in the united arab emirates for spying for the british government. 31—year—old university student matthew hedges was there researching the country's foreign and internal security policies when he was detained in dubai by the authorities in may. his wife says her husband is innocent and called for the uk

government to take a stand. 0ur correspondent paul adams has this report. matthew hedges, pictured here with his wife daniela, before his arrest at dubai airport in early may. six and a half months later, the british academic faces life imprisonment in the country he was studying and knows well. daniela says she's in complete shock. "i don't know what to do," she says. "matthew is innocent. this has been the worst six months of my life, let alone for matt, who was shaking when he heard the verdict." daniela says matthew is entirely innocent. simply no question, she insists, that he was spying for britain. here, the government seems outraged. the uae is supposed to be a friend and ally of britain's. we have given them repeated assurances about matthew. and, you know, if we can't resolve this, there are going to be serious diplomatic consequences because this is totally u na cce pta ble. you sound angry about this. did you get the impression from the uae authorities that there was going to be a different outcome? i'd actually spoken about matthew

to crown prince mohammed bin zayed when i visited abu dhabi last week. and i thought i had some understanding that this was going to be resolved in a satisfactory way. so, how did a 31—year—old british academic fall so spectacularly foul of the emirati authorities? his research involved asking sensitive questions about security and defence policies across the gulf. the head of his department says he had a wide range of sources. some would be international experts currently based in the uae. some would be former uae government officials who had worked in relevant areas and who were known to have inside information and understanding about how it is that these processes operate. but, for all the shiny glamour of the modern gulf, this is a region of poisonous rivalries and deep suspicions. someone, it seems, didn't like the questions. i'm sure there's a lot of, sort of, personal politics behind this. and probably somebody in the government who reallyjust wants to make a point and wants

to use matt as an example to say, you know, we will go about our foreign and security policy in whatever way we want to and no—one will ask questions. daniela says that nightmare is getting worse. "i don't know where they're taking him," she says, "or what will happen now." 0ver over 800 staff will work through the holidays in california to help identify the remains of people killed by the wildfires from earlier this month. hundreds are still unaccounted for and there are 85 confirmed fatalities across california. can you bring us up to date on this? the figures have been changing. the number unaccounted for has been reducing after it increased during

the paradise fire. that town was com pletely the paradise fire. that town was completely wiped out along with villages around it. the numbers have fluctuated but over 1000 people missing at one stage. in the update in the last was our there are now 569 people unaccounted for. he said over the last two weeks they have been able to take over 2000 names off that list of people unaccounted for. that is people they have established the whereabouts of and it shows that as time progresses, some people make themselves known, they find out where there. some people are confirmed to have died. that death toll in paradise today increased to 83. slowly they are making progress in this investigation and accounting for people and building up a picture of exactly how many people lost their lives in the fire. but there is still much more work to do and the

officials, authorities, are stressing you will be a long time yet before they have the full picture of exactly how many people we re picture of exactly how many people were caught up in this. and then there are questions about what is next for paradise and the surrounding villages, whether they can rebuild and move people back in. none of that is clear yet. it does seem that the heavy rain has helped firefighters trying to contain the blaze but they have also raised problems in themselves. that has helped them almost completely extinguish the fire is now, there was heavy rain this afternoon that has been of benefit to the firefighters. in terms of the search teams that have to go through the ruins of paradise, those conditions have only made the job harder. everybody has been emphasising how tricky and delicate thatjob is, going through the ashes of homes and businesses, trying to find traces of the people who are missing. in rain, that work is only made even harder.

the sheriff has emphasised how difficult it is anyway and in most cases there is very little trace of what that building was and who may have lived there. certainly the rain is not doing anything to help the job of finding and identifying the people who were caught up in this fire and the possibility that if heavy rain continues there may be landslides and conditions may get even worse ringing added misery for the people, thousands of them, made homeless by the fire. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: more than 9000 miles and seven years in the making — why mat green knows new york better than most. benazir bhutto has claimed victory in pakistan's general election, and she's asked pakistan's president to name her as prime minister. jackson's been released on bail of $3 million

after turning himself in to police in santa barbara. it was the biggest demonstration so far of the fast—growing european antinuclear movement. the south african government has announced that it's opening the country's remaining whites—only beaches to people of all races. this will lead to a black majority government in this country, and the destruction of the white civilisation. part of the centuries—old windsor castle, one of the queen's residences, has been consumed by fire for much of the day. 150 firemen have been battling the blaze, which has caused millions of pounds' worth of damage. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: saudi arabia's foreign minister has told the bbc that

claiming the king or crown prince knew about a plot to kill jamal khashoggi is inaccurate, and saying anything disparaging about them crosses a red line. a row has broken out between donald trump and the chiefjustice of the us supreme courtjohn roberts who's rebuked the president for describing a colleague as an "obama judge". east timor is one of the poorest countries in the world. for some time its government has been hoping that offshore oil and gas fields would make its people better off. but there's now increasing concern that those hopes are going to be dashed. in the latest development, the energy company shell has decided to abandon the development project in the sea between timor and australia — a few days after its partner, conoco, did the same. the east timor government has paid out over $700 million to buy the companies' stakes but experts say they will have great difficulty bringing the project to fruition. joining me now to explain what this means for the future

of timor—leste is stephen dziedzic, pacific affairs reporter for the australian broadcaster, the abc. i think you broke this story. this was going to be a great point of national pride and a game—changer for east timor. what has gone wrong and what does it mean. the government from east timor has persuing this project pipeline and as you mention, it is an impoverished country and it is very keen to take some resources after processing. the problem is, none of the companies that hold the rights to greater sunrise believes the plan isa to greater sunrise believes the plan is a feasible. they would rather extend the pipelines to darwin and process it there. there is always a

plant there and it is much more plausible. a number of parties handed over their stakes to the east timorese government. late yesterday, shell also would sell its stake in the consortium to the east timorese government. this is some cause of celebration. the government sees it asa celebration. the government sees it as a great victory and believe they are one step closer to pursuing their dream of are one step closer to pursuing theirdream ofan are one step closer to pursuing their dream of an industry but the australian government is deeply anxious about this. most say it is not feasible to build a pipeline that has to go over a trench that is two kilometres deep and the pipes need to be thicker than any pipes built in the history of the industry. australia thinks it will fall industry. australia thinks it will fa ll over industry. australia thinks it will fall over in a heap and thinks the economic consequences for east timor

could be severe. is there any way this could be good for east timor? if they could convince another party to come on board, yes. interestingly, the right murmurs of the chinese potentially funding these pipeline. that would send tremors through canberra. at this stage, it is difficult to see a way through this and the clock is ticking. 90% of the money they get at the moment of existing oil and gasfields are due to run dry in four yea rs. gasfields are due to run dry in four years. they have a young population and great expectations but it looks like it will all be crushed. anxiety here in canberra about this fledgeling nation. next month politicians from around the world will gather in poland, for the united nations

climate change conference. and for the first time there'll be one seat that's not for a nation. the people's seat is intended to give ordinary people a voice on an all—important issue. victoria gill has been speaking about it to the broadcaster and naturalist david attenborough. we've been banging on about it for decades now, and no—one's doing anything, ‘cause no—one in power actually cares. it's either too hot or too cold, and we can't grow anything. the world is a place where we all live together, and if we don't take care of it, we will have nowhere to go. the monsoons are sometimes coming too early or too late, like, nothing is on time. translation: of course, but what can i do about that? concern and confusion over climate change — it is a global conversation. and now, the un has turned to a very familiar figure to take messages like these from people all around the world to the crucial climate talks in poland in less than two weeks' time. the people's seat is meant to represent the hundreds of millions of people there are around the world whose lives are about to be affected,

or have already been affected, by climate change, so that it will sit there to remind politicians that this is not a theoretical enterprise. this is our opportunity to collectively make a difference — to have our voices heard. we saw how the response to blue planet, with the issue of plastics in the environment, caused such a huge response. how would you convince people that they personally can make a difference, and that they should be part of the conversation? well, it's what i've been spending my life, really, trying to do — making clear what the natural world is, how complicated it is, and how it works, and how it affects the way in which we live, and making it clear that we human beings depend upon the health of the natural world for every breath of air we breathe. what would you want to say to the politicians? notjust being a conduit

for other people, but what would your message be? my message is that the people of the world know that the world is changing, and they are behind politicians taking action. that's what the people's seat in this new conference that's just coming up is representing — that people want to stop climate change. the people's seat. while the seat might remind leaders at the talks what is at stake, any agreement or action will be in the hands of the politicians who are in the room. victoria gill, bbc news. over a period of almost seven years, mat green has logged more than 9,000 miles, visiting every block of every street in the five boroughs of new york. he is now 500 miles short of his goal and this week a movie opens, documenting his urban trek. the bbc‘s tom brook has the story.

chinatown in new york on a typical day. people go about their business, for matt green that means continuing his marathon 9000 mile new york city walk. i am walking every block of every street in the five boroughs. also walking through parks, cemeteries, beaches, just covering all the ground and public areas and seeing what is there. while he has been on his walk, matt green has lived on a shoestring staying in different departments in exchange for activities such as cat sitting and raising money through donations to his website. strangely he says he doesn't know why he has spent almost seven years walking around new york covering the distance of 9000 miles. i think it occurred to me early on that a lot of time we felt i think it occurred to me early on that a lot of time we feel like we had a way to sum up what we are doing and explain why it is important, a societal pressure

to package that up and put a nice bow on it and tell people about it. i don't really know why. in new york matt green has quite a few followers who monitor his progress. now a wider audience is being introduced to his adventures by way of a new documentary chronicling his exploits in cinemas this week. it is the distillation of 500 hours of video shot by director jeremy workman. it is a mission. the movie is about discovering the kind of amazing that this right in front of your eyes. you can just walk the streets and discover everything the city has to offer. i hope the film conveys that it is this different look at the world and it is asking people to slow down a little bit, to notice the things around them. there's some butterfly weed, the cool orange flower.

i saw that in marine park a couple of years ago. jesse eisenberg the hollywood actor who is executive producer of the world before your feet, believes he has taken on the mission just because it was there to be done. a clip by edmund hillary where they asked him why he climbed everest, because it was there. something about doing something for the sake of itself rather than some kind of capitalisation on it. good to talk to you, thank you for the info. matt green has 500 miles left to go. he knows where it will finish, on the street where he started, where there is a pizza parlour, a bagel shop and a nail salon. to mark the completion of the walk he intends to sample the offerings of all three establishments.

iama i am a little tired, it has to be a underestimation. experts say the tower of pisa has 110w experts say the tower of pisa has now stabilised. the tourist industry is keen to keep some of the lean. famous for giant balloons, such as charlie browns, willjoin new characters in the big apple. 26 floats, clouds and cheerleaders and much, much more for the parade. thank you for watching. hello.

we've had that cold wind, some of us have had the first snow of the season, and now the widespread frost going into thursday morning. coldest in the blue here. in fact, parts of southern england could be as low as —7 to start the day. temperatures down the eastern side of the uk recovering a little bit going into the first part of the day, because you will see here increasing cloud, whereas elsewhere, should be a fair amount of sunshine to begin with. but through the day, the cloud is moving west. now, with the clud, you could see a bit of patchy rain and drizzle, and from the word go into parts of eastern scotland. and this is where it's likely to be most persistent as we go through the the day. let's take a closer look at things at 3:00pm in the afternoon. so you can see the outbreaks of rain, northern and eastern parts of scotland. western fringes of scotland still seeing some sunny spells. northern ireland — early showers clear, and then it's dry with sunny spells here. a lot of cloud through much of northern, central and eastern england. wherever you see that cloud, it could be damp in places, though the rain not amounting to very much. there's still some sunshine through much of wales,

the south midlands, and into south—west england. now, the winds are a touch lighter than they've been. temperatures are still for the most part in single figures, but windchill isn't so much of an issue. still going to feel quite cold though, particularly where you find yourself underneath the cloud cover, and you may be seeing a bit of patchy rain. that will continue on and off through thursday night and into friday morning, still more particularly through eastern scotland. and then, to end thursday and through the night into friday, the risk of a few heavy showers into the far south—west of england, maybe clipping south—west wales. not as cold as friday begins, though pockets of rural frost around, as some spots still get close to freezing. then, on through friday, still some rain affecting parts of eastern scotland, that chance of a shower into the far south—west. could have a bit of hail with these, maybe a rumble of thunder. elsewhere, variable cloud and sunny spells. i think parts of northern ireland, southern scotland, northern england should fare fairly well for sunshine, and temperatures still for the most part in single figures. going into the weekend, low pressure to the south, high pressure to the north, a flow of air coming

in from the east. now, much of the uk under the influence of high pressure. but close to southern england, there is a weather front here that could well be producing some outbreaks of rain during saturday. some uncertainty about the exact position of that, so we'll keep you updated. still either some showers or some patchy rain towards north—east scotland. elsewhere it is looking mainly dry. you get to see some sunny spells, temperatures around 7—10 celsius. not much change going into next week. still much of the uk under the influence of high pressure. not particularly warm, but mainly dry. the latest headlines for you from bbc news: in the jamal khashoggi case, saudi arabia's foreign minister has told the bbc that claiming the king or crown prince knew about a plot to kill the journalist is inaccurate, and saying anything disparaging about them crosses a red line. a row has broken out between donald trump and the chiefjustice of the us supreme court. john roberts has taken the very

unusual step of rebuking the president for describing a colleague as an obama judge. thejudge had ruled against the trump administration's attempt to prevent migrants claiming asylum. a british student is beginning a life sentence in prison in the united arab emirates for spying for the british government. matthew hedges was there researching the country's foreign and internal security policies when he was detained in dubai by the authorities in may. his wife says he's innocent. you are up—to—date with the headlines.