a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's 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. an unprecedented rebuke from america's topjudge for president trump, for describing a colleague as an "obama 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. hello.

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 "obama 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 contradicts 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, but the chiefjustice said we do not have bushjudges, clintonjudges, obama judges or trump judges. what we have is an extraordinary group of people, dedicated judges, he said, 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. of course speaking on the eve of the american thanksgiving holiday. 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 judiciary. and the supreme court is right at the top and the chiefjustice is the lead justice on the supreme court. and never the two shall meet, under normal circumstances. certainly you would not get a public debate like this between the chiefjustice and the president. a lot of people are suggesting that, look, the president clearly does not

get that once a judge is on the bench as the chiefjustice is implying, they are impartial and they do their best to be fair to whomever is coming before their court, whatever their political consideration. 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. our 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." over 800 staff will work through the thanksgiving holiday in california to help identify the remains of those killed

in the wildfires that struck the region earlier this month. more than 560 remain unaccounted for with 85 fatalities across the state. the bbc‘s danjohnson has more from los angeles. it well, two more bodies have been found today in what remains of paradise and the villages around it. every day the search teams have made more grim discoveries, but conditions, the weather, is getting worse, making the job conditions, the weather, is getting worse, making thejob harderfor them. there has been some rain this afternoon and there is more forecast over the next few days into the weekend. and the fear is that if the rain is really heavy and causes flooding there, then it may get almost impossible to dig through what is left and actually find any human remains, and the sheriff has emphasised how difficult the job was a nyway emphasised how difficult the job was anyway because of the intensity of

the fire, because of how little is left, certainly worsening weather conditions are not going to make life any easier. but on the other hand, the rate has helped firefighters tackling the wildfires, and they are now all but contained, so and they are now all but contained, so that is one positive. but, as the death toll increases, and the number missing is still above 500, there is definitely work for the emergency services and search teams to do that will take a long time yet. the number of people unaccounted for has been reducing over the last few days. but still there are many hundreds unaccounted for, so work to do to work out exactly where those people are. and a realfear do to work out exactly where those people are. and a real fear that things could get worse over the weekend if there is flooding and even mudslides in that area. and then there are the longer term questions about people returning to see what is left of their home, and contemplating whether they can rebuild. all sorts of questions about the contaminants that are left after the fire of this intensity, and the sorts of infrastructure that needs to be rebuilt to support a

community there again in future, the power, the communication, the community facilities, like churches, schools and shops, all of that has to be considered. at the minute they are trying to find people temporary housing and to bring in education services for the children who have been displaced. so it gives you an idea of the number of levels upon which people have been affected by this disaster. they are also talking about counselling for the people caught up in these fires nearly two weeks ago now. so a long way to go now for the people of paradise and for the people of that town. east timor is one of the poorest countries in the world and for some time is government has hoped offshore oil and fields will make its people better off, but now there is increasing concern there is —— those hopes are about 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 hundreds of millions of dollars to buy the companies‘ stakes, but experts say they will have great difficulty bringing the project to fruition. stephen dziedzic is pacific affairs reporter for the australian broadcaster the abc. he told me what has gone wrong with the plan. the east timorese government has been obsessively persuing this plan of a pipeline between the greater sunrise oil and gas fields and its south coast. as you mentioned, it is an impoverished country and it is very, very keen to try and take some of those resources to its own south coast, after processing. now the problem is that none of the companies, the largely oil and gas giants, that hold the rights to greater sunrise, believes that the pla is feasible. they would rather instead pipe the gas to darwin, in australia, and process it there. there is already a plant there, they think it is much more plausible. over the last couple of months, we have seen a number of parties essentially hand over their stake to the east timorese government. we had conocophillips

a little while ago and now, late yesterday, shell announced that it would also sell its stake in the consortium to the governament of timor—leste. this is a cause of some celebration inside east timor. the government there views it as a great victory. they believe they are one step closer to pursuing their dream of a home—grown lng processing industry. but the australian government is deeply anxious about this. most independent analysts say that it is not feasible to build a pipeline. it would have to go over a trench, which is some two kilometres deep underneath the water, and the pipes would have to be thicker than pretty much any pipe that has been built in the history of the industry. so the australian government is convinced this will fall over in a heap and, when it does, the economic consequences for timor could be very severe. is there any way through this that is good for east timor? well, if timor can actually convince another party to come on board

as the commercial partner, then yes, it could try and find a way through this. interestingly, there have beeen murmurs about the chinese potentially coming in to fund this pipeline. that would send real tremors through canberra, which is already wary about the influence that beijing wields in the south pacific. but, look, at this stage, it is difficult to see a way through this and the clock, unfortunately for timor—leste, is ticking. 90% of the money that they get at the moment comes from existing oil and gasfields that are due to run dry in about four years. they have a young population, they've got great expectations for this but it looks awfully like they will be crushed. so there's plenty of anxiety here in canberra about what's next for this fledgeling little nation. stephen dziedzic who broke the story for the australian broadcaster the abc. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: more than 9,000 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 world 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 killjamal khashoggi is inaccurate, and saying anything disparaging about them crosses a red line. a row has broken out between donald trump and the chief justice of the us supreme court, john roberts, who has rebuked the president for describing a colleague as an obama judge. next month politicians from around the world will gather in poland for the united nations climate change conference, and for the first time, there will be one seat that is 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. let‘s get some of the day‘s other news: to the border with mexico in recent weeks to prevent illegal immigrants crossing. almost 6,000 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 14 million yemenis are at risk of starvation unless the port of hodeida remains open to humanitarian aid shipments. over a period of almost seven years, matt 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 9,000—mile

new york city walk. so i‘m walking every block of every street in the five boroughs. i‘m also walking through parks, cemeteries, beaches, just covering all the ground and public area, and just seeing what‘s there. while he has been on his walk, matt green has lived on a shoestring, staying in different apartments 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 9,000 miles. i think it occurred to me early on that a lot of time, we feel like we have a way to sum up what we‘re doing and explain why

it‘s 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 which opens in cinemas this week. it is the distillation of 500 hours of video shot by directorjeremy workman. so it's a mission? the movie is about discovering the kind of amazing things 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‘s this different look at the world, and it‘s asking people to slow down a little bit, to notice the things around them. there's some butterfly weed, that 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 film mon matt green, believes he has taken

on the mission simply because it was there to be done. you know, there‘s a quote 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 nail salon and a bagel shop. to mark the completion of his mammoth walk, he intends to sample the offerings of all three establishments. tom brook, bbc news, new york. engineers in italy have revealed that the leaning tower of pisa is not leaning quite so much as it used to. 17 years after the first phase of rescue work ended, new measurements show that it has continued to straighten. caroline rigby has more. for decades, tourists have flocked

to pisa in italy to see its leaning tower, and perhaps offer a little support. but, according to experts, the world —famous landmark support. but, according to experts, the world—famous landmark appears to be leaning, well, a little less than before. building work first again on the mediaeval tower in 1173, and 57 metre tall structure has suffered from a tilt ever since. land on the soft sand and clay beneath its foundations, it is lim became increasingly worse over time, reaching a whopping 11.5 metres, or 15 foot, by 1990 when it was close to the public over safety concerns —— its lean. cue a major engineering project to stabilise it. that involved are being removed from the opposite side to correct the tilt and steel braces being added. completed in 2001, the worker saw the tower‘s lean reduced to 38

centimetres. over the following yea rs centimetres. over the following years it appeared to correct itself even more, with experts reporting further movement of 2.5 centimetres by 2013. now, the group who have been monitoring the attraction for the last 17 years say it is stable, having strengthened by a total of four centimetres since the tower reopened. translation: the committee had made a forecast of 15 years to stop this trend. the tower is still recovering, but we can say that now it is almost steady. but some might question whether this is entirely good news for a tourist industry built around a tower famous for its lean. much more on all the news any time on the bbc news website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i‘m @bbcmikeembley. 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. now on bbc news, in a 100 women interview, the chilean writer isabel allende tells kirsty wark about her life in exile