officials are urging people to make preparations for snowstorms, high waves, and frozen roads. now it's time for a look at the weather with mel coles. hopefully not the same weather. hello, there. high—pressure will continue to berule the roost for the coming week — which will be a big influence on the feel of our weather. at the moment, it is mild, but with a lot of cloud around. this area of high—pressure is sitting towards the south, dragging in southerly or south—westerly winds. quite a mild direction to be coming from, but there is a lot of moisture in there, so we are seeing a lot of cloud. through the day today, the best of the breaks will favour eastern areas — aberdeenshire seeing the lion's share of it. temperatures in double figures across the board. as we head into this evening, there are a few breaks in that cloud seeing the return of some mist and fog. most places will see that cloud fill in.

temperatures won't be particularly cold, particularly to the further north and west. in scotland, a breeze here and some thicker cloud. then we're up and running into new year's eve, really, it's a case of spot the difference. the best of the breaks are once again to the east but some southern areas should see some sunshine. the only fly in the appointment being this weather front, introducing rain to north and western parts of scotland. strengthening winds for the northern isles, particularly shetlands, where we could have severe gales. away from that, it looks as though it will be mostly dry story to welcome in the new year — if not a bit cloudy misty, and murky in some places. that weather front introducing the rain is a bit of a game changer, it's going to be sinking southwards through new year's day. introducing much cooler air behind it, high—pressure sits out to the west. we start to bring in air from a northwesterly direction, a colder direction to be coming from, certainly, but a drier direction. through new year's day, it looks like a dry and fine story. brighter also, losing some of that cloud.

that cold air will take a while to make inroads towards the south, so temperatures will remain in double figures here, but it will feel much colder the further north you go — despite all that sunshine. we will also see the return of some frosty starts, particularly out towards the west, as we go into wednesday. as we head toward the new year, it looks like it will be colder. frosty starts will return, but there should be more sunshine on offer. hello — this is bbc news with annita mcveigh. the headlines: another group of migrants cross the channel and arrive in kent — as the uk and france agree to step up action to deal with the problem. the president of the european commission, jean claude juncker,

has urged the uk to "get its act together" over brexit — after trade secretary liam fox says the chances of britain leaving the eu will only be 50—50 if mps reject the prime minister's brexit deal. a british couple, whose son was murdered by his chinese wife, have won custody of one of their grandchildren after a long legal battle — but have been forced to leave their grand—son behind. polls have closed in a general election in bangladesh that has been marred by violence and accusations of vote rigging. now on bbc news — it's time for witness. and a special edition looking back at some of most compelling stories of 2018 — from the great—niece of the tsar reflecting on the russian revolution, to the doctor who saved bulgaria's dancing bears. hello, and welcome to witness

with me — razia iqbal. i'm here at the british library with five extraordinary moments in history, told to us by people who were there. in this special edition — we present five of our most powerful stories from 2018. we will hear about how a us warship shot down an iranian airliner in 1988. the tragedy that wiped out the australian town of wittenoom. the man who rescued the dancing bears of bulgaria. and chairman mao's attempts to bring healthcare to the masses with barefoot doctors. but first, we head back 100 years to 1918 when the russian tsar, nicholas ii, and his entire family were murdered

by russian revolutionaries. in 1998, after the fall of communism, their remains were unearthed and they were reburied in st petersburg. princess 0lga romanoff, the great—niece of the tsar, tells the story. following the priests and the nobles, tsar nicholas of imperial russia, with his wife and children. one day, all to find death in a bullet swept cellar. my grandmother was tsar nicholas ii's sister, and my father was tsar nicholas ii's eldest nephew. he called him "uncle nicky". nicholas adored him and he travelled a lot with the tsarina and with the tsar, and was very close with the girls. they used to have cycle races and pony races up and down the palaces.

the russian territories were vast and they were incredibly powerful. also, nicholas was the head of the church. already, there were bolshevik movements, and the russian royal family were not as powerful as they were, say, in 1900. 0n march15, 1917, tsar nicholas ii, supreme ruler of all the russias, was forced to abdicate in the face of political and economic pressure, that lead in the end to total revolution. nicholas and his family were taken to tobolsk, where they were held, and from tobolsk, they went to ekaterinburg, which is where they were eventually murdered. i think that the bolsheviks feared that if he was on the throne, he might have more influence than they would like him to have. his memory is honoured here, but during his lifetime,

the tsar was accused of being both weak and inconsistent, stubbornly clinging to power. but the romanoffs are credited with dignity in the months leading to their execution. the children, their brother, along with the emperor, nicholas himself, were all shot. after the fall of the soviet union, we heard on the grapevine that the bodies of nicholas and his family had been discovered in a swamp outside of ekaterinburg, and there was a movement that they would get a decent burial in st petersburg, with the rest of the family. in 98, injuly, one of my sons and myself went st petersburg for the first time for the funeral of nicholas ii, and between 52

and 56 romanoffs. as the cortege approaches, it slows down, in keeping with the russian tradition in which the coffins of the dead are driven past the place that was their last home on earth. we followed the cortege all the way from the airport to peter and paul fortress, and what struck me, amazingly, there were so many people in the street, and all of them were signing the cross and crying... the queen had very kindly sent officers from the scots. the honour guard including a royal piper from the royal scots dragoon guards, tsar nicholas was their commander—in—chief. it was a very long service, they all laid out in front of the altar and it all felt very emotional.

it had a feel of holiness and sanctity. it was, you know, it wasjust nice to have them safely buried. princess 0lga romanoff on burying her great uncle, the last tsar of russia. in 1988, an american warship, the uss vincennes, shot down an iranian airliner, killing all 290 people on board. at the time, rudy pahoyo was a navy combat cameraman, and happened to be on board the vincennes that fateful day. it was a tragedy, to shoot down an airliner. one of those things you just — i am still in disbelief that it could have happened. the mood in the gulf was very tense — iran and iraq were in the middle of a war at the time and the us navy

was protecting the oil tankers that came out of kuwait, to make sure the flow of oil kept coming to the united states, and the iranians were harassing those ships. the speedboats that the iranians were using, they would round—robin the ships while they were shooting and try to catch fire. so ourjob was just kind of like a police force, if you will. the team i was with was my crew, i am videotaping the whole time. and i caught a ride with the uss vincennes cruiser, it is a billion—dollar boat, state—of—the—art at the time. as we were sailing back, we got into a battle with iranian speedboats. during the gunboat battle, we were thinking that they are going

to come at us with whatever they have now, that would have been the air force. the year before, in 1987, the uss stark got hit by a missile, that was launched by iraq, we always had in mind — remember the stark, remember the stark. and about five minutes went by and they said there was a target that had left bandar abbas, the iranian airfield, and the military airport and the civilian airport is the same place, so the aircraft, when it took off, was identified as air hostile. they thought it was iranian air force but the plane, in reality, was flight 655, it was an airliner, an airbus. five times a week, there is a scheduled service across the bandar strait to dubai. they travel a flight path... but here the crew is,

waiting for another target to come at them when the aircraft takes off. and i believe that one of the lieutenants, i went up and asked him and i said, "what are we doing?" he said "you are going to see some missile action." and i went to the specialist who was watching the scope and he is watching the missiles, because you can track them off the radar, and then he sees it hit the target. but they found out like 15, 20 minutes later, that it was an airliner. an iranian airbus is presumed crashed. please look for survivors or aircraft wreckage. and so that is when it was like what?

airliner missing? we didn't shoot an airliner, we shot a tomcat, i thought. there was a lot of soul—searching, disbelief. that's not supposed to happen, that's not what we're here to do. 290 civilians passed away on flight 655, and of those 290, 66 were children. i felt so bad for the families that lost their loved ones, and sometimes you are part of history and you love it, sometimes you're part of history and you hate it. this is just one of those things where you just wish it didn't happen, but i was there. rudy pahoyo remembering the iranian airliner tragedy. our next story takes us to the balkans. in 1988, bulgaria banned the centuries old form of local entertainment, where captive, chained bears were forced to dance to music. following the ban, the retired

and often traumatised bears needed a place to go and one man, dr amir khalil, came to their rescue. in 1998, it was clear from the announcement that the brown bear needed to be protected. for me, it was a huge challenge. in the heart of the bulgarian capital sofia's commercial and political centre, a tradition from mediaeval times. a 1a—month—old brown bear. she is muzzled and chained by rings through her nose and upper lip to her master. the dancing bear was a cultural problem in bulgaria. for hundreds of years, a tradition. the bear is trained, they take the bear cub and work them on a metal hotplate, very hot, like fire. they smear the sole of the leg of the bear with vaseline and then

they start to play with small instruments and music and they put the bear up on the fire, on this hotplate and the bear starts to move his leg up and down because it's burning him. and they do this procedure many times and for the bear, when they hear this music, they start to move their leg and this is how they have the dancing bear. the bear is also alcoholic. they have one hobby. so that they are working many hours, the bear has to drink also alcohol, like its owner. so we tried to work with the public and make a lot of publicity about the situation and soon enough, aftera month, a lot of hotel owners in sofia on the seaside, they refused the owner of the bear to come to dance in front of his hotel. this bear was born in captivity and don't have the chance to learn how to survive in the wild

so we can't let them to the wild. it was very clear there needs to be a sanctuary. for me, it was a huge challenge. like really, how to get the first bears and convince and prove that this project is possible? this is a retirement house for older dancing bears. the first time, when i have the chance to bring the bears here, to the dancing bear park, first i was very excited. we have to wait all the night outside till the morning coming so i have to dart the bear to remove the chain and bring the bear inside the enclosure. to be honest, i was very scared because i don't know how the bear will react. they will wake up, they are chained, what will they do? he is a wild animal still and i was scared and think the bear also scared so when he woke up, i will never forget this moment. he stands up, he was looking

that he was afraid to walk, even to walk, he was afraid to step in front because he was just chained and his smell, he just smiled. there is no chain, no owner, just food. he is free. in bulgaria, there is no more dancing bear. the last dancing bear in bulgaria was rescued in september 2007. it is a tradition from the middle ages. it no more exists and it will never come back again. dr amil khalil on rescuing dancing bears. remember, you can watch with us every month on the bbc news channel or you can catch up on all our films along with more than 1,000 radio programmes in the online archive. just go to:. our next story is about an australian tragedy.

the town of wittenoom in western australia grew around an asbestos mine in the 1940s but at the time, few people knew that asbestos was lethal and could cause lung cancer. bronwyn duke lived in wittenoom as a child and is one of the few members of her family that is still alive. people were warned but they didn't take it seriously until people started to die. i lost both parents, both grandparents, my brother, three uncles, about four cousins that i can think of and that's just the immediate family in my world. i was born in 1958 in the far north of western australia, in the pilbara, the little town of wittenoom. the blue asbestos mine was the genesis of the time. asbestos is a naturalfibre

that is encased in rocks. they would have extracted the asbestos out of the mine and the mill would package ready for shipment, and it was sent to all places around the world. voiceover: fire-resistant fabric known as asbestos is a piece of rock. the practical uses of asbestos are very numerous. at least 18,000 articles are made of it. packing the steam engines and friction services. there were a lot of immigrants who came to australia after the second world war. there were jobs to be had in wittenoom. my dad was a jack of all trades. he took the guys from town

to the mine every day. my mum and her sisters all met their husbands up there. it had all of the elements of a normal country town — they used to have race days, there would be balls and all sorts of social activities that everyone was involved in. my parents weren't aware of the dangers at all. asbestos fibres get into the lungs and those fibres can cause asbestosis, or mesothelioma. it encases the lung in cancer and prevents you from breathing. in wittenoom, the asbestos wasn't confined to the mine. asbestos was used in gardens and driveways and on the roads. it was literally everywhere and if you went out to play, as all small children do. you are playing in asbestos. one of the flying doctors flew into town and said, as soon as he got there,

we had to close this, this has to stop. the mine was very profitable, so it was decided that wasn't the case. it was 1966 before they closed the mine. people had started to die. we left when my dad got sick. we now know in actual fact he had asbestosis at that time. it's almost like having an asthma attack where you can't breathe and you are fighting to catch your breath. my mum and my brother died from mesothelioma. it is an extremely harrowing disease to see someone dying from mesothelioma. there is just hundreds of people from wittenoom that i know of who have gone with mesothelioma or asbestosis. none of my family in that photo is alive, they are all gone, every one of them.

there is no compensation for taking away your parents or your family. there is no justice in that at all. nothing. money doesn't bring them back. money doesn't compensate for their death or what you miss. bronwyn duke on the wittenoom asbestos mine in australia. now in 1968, chairman mao launched a scheme to improve healthcare in rural china by giving thousands of people basic medical training and sending them out to work in villages. they were known as the barefoot doctors. gordon liu was one of them. i became a barefoot doctor after i graduated from high school simply because i was one of the most educated young persons. i had no training, no experience or knowledge in medicine whatsoever. voiceover: chairman mao says the sick must be healed and has

caused a real shake—up in china's health services. voiceover: every commune, they say, now has hospitals and clinics providing medical attention where there was none before. perhaps the most striking development has been the training of a vast corps of a barefoot doctors. they have their farm work to do as well, and their training is limited but even if you can teach people simple hygiene, it saves countless lives. we provided very basic services to our villages, mostly for the common cold conditions, infections, diarrhoea, things like that. barefoot doctor simply described that sometimes we had to take shoes off to work in farmland. we were not always barefoot. i do have shoes! i started as a barefoot doctor to not only treat the people but also treat animals. there was one case i still remember. one of my relatives,

she had a teeth problem, she had to go to the county hospital and she returned to the village and it was very painful. she said, "my little brother, can you do something for me?" i said, "i will give it a try." i went back to the chinese medicine books i had, i read the relevant chapters for dental care and i said, "can we try this?" after three or four days, the problem was gone. that news was out to the whole village. this little kid can do something much better than the county hospital, so i was very, very proud of it. big epidemics have been largely checked.

this doctor said, "the only venereal disease cases we get in china now are those that come over the border from hong kong. in china, we stamped it out." certainly, cholera and smallpox claim fewer victims than in the old days. i think most people in china and many people in other countries perceived the barefoot doctor system very highly. my view is somewhat different from that. back in the ‘60s, ‘70s, as a result of the cultural revolution, the chinese higher education system was shut down, but if i could choose between going to the countryside for three years or going to college, mostly i would have chosen college but given that was the only choice available to me but yes, there was something positive there.

gordon liu, one of china's barefoot doctors. that is all from witness this month at the british library. we will be back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history but now, from me and the rest of the witness team, goodbye. hello, there. high—pressure will continue to be the theme for the coming week — which will be a big influence on the feel of our weather. at the moment, it is mild, but with a lot of cloud around.

this area of high—pressure is sitting towards the south, dragging in southerly or south—westerly winds. quite a mild direction to be coming from, but there is a lot of moisture in there, so we are seeing a lot of cloud. through the day today, the best of the breaks will favour eastern areas — aberdeenshire seeing the lion's share of it. temperatures in double figures across the board. as we head into this evening, there are a few breaks in that cloud seeing the return of some mist and fog. most places will see that cloud fill in. temperatures won't be particularly cold, particularly to the further north and west. in scotland, a breeze here and some thicker cloud. then we're up and running into new year's eve, really, it's a case of spot the difference. the best of the breaks are once again to the east but some southern areas should see some sunshine. the only fly in the ointment being this weather front, introducing rain to northern

and western parts of scotland. strengthening winds for the northern isles, particularly shetland, where we could have severe gales. away from that, it looks as though it will be mostly dry story to welcome in the new year — if not a bit cloudy misty, and murky in some places. that weather front introducing the rain is a bit of a game changer, it's going to be sinking southwards through new year's day. introducing much cooler air behind it, high—pressure sits out to the west. we start to bring in air from a northwesterly direction, a colder direction to be coming from, certainly, but a drier direction. through new year's day, it looks like a dry and fine story. brighter also, losing some of that cloud. that cold air will take a while to make inroads towards the south, so temperatures will remain in double figures here, but it will feel much colder the further north you go — despite all that sunshine. we will also see the return of some frosty starts, particularly out towards the west, as we go into wednesday. as we head toward the new year, it looks like it will be colder. frosty starts will return,

but there should be more sunshine on offer. this is bbc news. the headlines. another group of migrants crosses the channel and arrive in kent — the uk and france agree to step up action to deal with the problem. the government defends its decision to award a £14 million contract to a shipping company with no trading record as part of its preparations for a possible no—deal brexit. a british couple whose son was murdered by his chinese wife have won custody of one of their grandchildren after a long legal battle. votes are being counted in the general election in bangladesh, which has been marred by violence and allegations of ballot—rigging. and the favourite looks to be odds—on to scoop several awards at this year's 0scars.