this is bbc news. the headlines: three, two, one, go! nasa scientists wait to find out whether their space probe, new horizons, has successfully flown past the most distant object ever explored. the robotic craft was due to fly past the icy mass of ultima thule four billion miles from earth a few hours ago. we set a record. never before has a spacecraft explored anything so far away. a man's arrested after three people, including a police officer, are stabbed at manchester's victoria station. the world welcomes in 2019. london celebrated the new year with a specatacular dispay of fireworks. in edinburgh — home of hogmanay —

the city's castle was lit up by fireworks as thousands attended a concert headlined by franz ferdinand. new year is celebrated all across the globe and people celebrate in all sorts of ways, but i don't think anywhere does it quite like hogmanay. we will explore how wind is expanding the energy industry. good morning. happy new year. the american space agency, nasa,

is waiting for a signal from its new horizons probe, which has aimed to fly past the most distant object ever explored in our solar system. the robotic craft was due to fly past a huge body of ice and dust called ultima thule. but it is some 6.5 billion kilometres from earth, so it will take over six hours for new horizons to get a radio message and any pictures home. here's our science correspondentjonathan amos. far beyond the big planets, like saturn and neptune, far beyond even the dwarf planet pluto, the new horizons spacecraft has been chasing down a mysterious, icy world known as ultima thule. three, two, one, go, new horizons! and, atjust after 5:30am gmt this morning, the probe should have whipped by its target, flashing its cameras and gathering all sorts of scientific data. researchers believe the deep—frozen, 30—kilometre—wide object can tell them new things about how the solar system formed,

4.6 billion years ago. ultima appeared as a tiny blob in the pictures taken on approach. the new ones, when they arrive, should be very detailed. but patience is required. the vast distance radio signals must travel to get home mean the images will take fully 20 months to download. the great thing about such a slow data transmission rate is that it's almost a gift that keeps on giving. every week or so, we'll get new images back from the spacecraft, and we're going to learn new things for the next two years, out through most of 2020, of what ultima thule looked like during the fly—by. new horizons will continue to push deeper and deeper into space. with plenty of fuel and power, scientists say it could keep working until the 2030s. by that stage, it could be leaving the solar system, on its way to nearby stars. so exactly where is

the lump of ice and dust known as ultima thule? 0ur science editor david shukman has this explanation. 0rbiting closest to the sun are the four small rocky planets including earth and then further road there are four larger planets, the of theseis are four larger planets, the of these is that turned with its famous rings. 0n the margin is tiny pluto, three that —— billion miles away, but that is part of an outer zone we only started discovering in the last 20 years or so. thousands of tiny worlds and lumps of ice, objects left over after the planets were formed. 0ne left over after the planets were formed. one of these is known as ultima thule and until now we have

only had this artist's impression on it. but after racing from earth on a 13 year journey, nasa's it. but after racing from earth on a 13 yearjourney, nasa's new horizons spacecraft a new mission in history. let's speak now to dr robert massey who is the deputy executive director at the royal astronomical society, whojoins me on the line from bristol. new year and new horizons in every sense with this. this is quite something. it absolutely is. the most distant target we have ever said a space probe to and it has been on an incredible journey already. it went past pluto and sent back amazing pictures and hopefully went past ultima thule this morning but it takes six hours for radio waves to travel back so we will not know until it has been successful until later. it will take a long

time for all the images to come back. we should start to see those pictures fairly soon later today. back. we should start to see those pictures fairly soon later todaylj have seen ultima thule described as a frozen peas of cosmic history. what can we expect? what can we hope to learn? there will be surprises. no one has seen anything like this. it is an object on area chain of, it nuclei, rocky things beyond neptune and it is an example of one of those. the thing about these objects as they are a long way from the sun and less affected by the heat of the sun. they are much more pristine than objects like venus, mars, objects closer in. that is intriguing. it may also be weirdly smooth because impacts could be slower than objects closer in. there could be a mass of material bundled

together by gravity. we just do not know until the pictures come back. it was spotted by hubble, and was at the most distant object spotted, is that why this mission has been headed towards it? no. there are much more distant objects and exa m ples of much more distant objects and examples of objects, although we would not easily be able to detect them, iam pretty would not easily be able to detect them, i am pretty sure there are things we vote, there are things getting on for a late year away, it is much closer than that. the reason to sending the problem this direction was it was a target that could be reached. when new horizons was launched we did not know about but there was that idea in mind to go past pluto and see what was beyond the it was handy this was discovered and it was a target that was achievable. there is no reason why we could not look for more distant objects. there are hundreds

of thousands of these things out there. peace is very big so there is no guarantee we would reach them but we we re no guarantee we would reach them but we were lucky this was found that it was something that new horizons could aim for. huge advancements in the technology all the time. if this was launched today with the technology be very different? some of the image technology would be better. you're talking about the same kinds of systems to power the spacecraft. it is so far from the sun that solar panels are not going to be much use and you're still using radio signals so the basics would be the same but new technology is improving a lot and our ability to process those images when they get back to the earth. this is something on the edge of the solar

system. when you have the power of a large light bulb per billing a spacecraft sending a signal back to earth you have to do some pretty ingenious things, the fundamental principle still apply, but we get better results through time. you mentioned we should expect the first information back later today, roughly what time? there is a press conference scheduled for later this afternoon, 3:30pm or apm, something like that. it would be great to see one 01’ like that. it would be great to see one or two back of the first image then so fingers crossed. we will also have to watch over the next 20 months for the data to come back. here's hoping. thank you. counter terrorism police are leading an investigation into the stabbing of three people at victoria station in manchester. two passengers and a british transport police officer have been treated for knife wounds. will batchelor reports.

move away now! move! a new year, but an increasingly familiar sight — one man, armed with a knife, bringing violence and fear to uk cities. this was the scene at manchester victoria station just before 9pm yesterday evening. the man being restrained by police officers had allegedly stabbed two people, a man and woman aged in their 50s, as they waited on the platform. a british transport police officer who went to help was stabbed in the shoulder. all three suffered injuries described as serious but not life—threatening. i don't want to say it's this or it's that... bbcjournalist sam clack was waiting for his tram home when he saw the attack. it's new year's eve, people have had a drink. they've probably — it's just a fight, it'll fizzle out in the next few seconds. but then, ijust heard the guy shout — as part of a sentence he shouted "allah", and then i thought, hmm, that doesn't sound good.

but, at the point i was just edging towards the tracks to jump onto the tracks, he was pepper sprayed, he was tasered. theyjust kind of swarmed on him, brought him down. greater manchester police said that, while there was no evidence of a wider threat, the investigation is being led by counter—terrorism officers. manchester victoria is just yards away from the city's arena, where, in may 2017, a suicide bomber murdered 22 people as they left a concert. the station was closed overnight as officers maintained a high profile. will batchelor, bbc news. a small van has ploughed into pedestrians celebrating the new year in tokyo. nine people were injured, including one seriously, when the attacker struck shortly after midnight. the street where the incident took place was sealed off to traffic and was packed with people heading

to a shrine for new year's prayers. the man driving the car fled the scene was but was later arrested and charged with attempted murder. two uk border force boats have been redeployed from overseas to patrol the english channel in response to recent migrant crossings. the home secretary, sajid javid, says the operation will protect human life, as well as borders. since november, more than 230 migrants have attempted to cross the english channel, illegally, in small boats. the amount of plastic waste predicted to reach landfill in the uk last year, after china banned imports of waste, has failed to materialise. research by the bbc‘s reality check team found that waste diverted from china has been shared out between other nations. 0ur environment analyst roger harrabin has more. china was the world's waste eater. the uk was exporting 500,000 tons of plastic a year to be recycled there. when it closed its ports to foreign rubbish, there were fears that

plastic waste would build up in the uk. but instead, britain's waste has been brought here to indonesia, where some of it gets dumped. the other main nations accepting british plastic are malaysia, turkey and poland. malaysia is now suffering from dumping of low—value waste, and its government is considering a ban on rubbish imports. the real concern is that we're causing environmental damage in other countries, where they've accepted what china's said no to, but they don't have proper, modern facilities to deal with it, and it's ending up in the environment. so why doesn't the british government build its own waste recycling? ministers say they are trying to cut down on waste, but they say international shipments are an acceptable way to trade an often valuable resource. roger harrabin, bbc news. well, we saw her there in roger's report, and samantha harding, the litter programme director for the campaign to

protect rural england, joins me now to discuss this in more depth. i guess from the prospective of the campaign to protect rural england you are probably happy the west is not ending up here but you are not happy it is going other places. now, exactly. a couple of things we are not happy about are the waste we we re not happy about are the waste we were sending to china in the first place was such low quality and that is why china said we do not want this any more. there is the question of seeing we should not be looking for other markets to send poor quality wasted, at this point china has given us the opportunity to ask the question why is the waste we we re the question why is the waste we were sending via such poor quality and that is partly because we have such poor collection systems. by that poor quality you mean waste that poor quality you mean waste that cannot easily be recycled for

further use? yes. often it is being collected in a way that means it has become contaminated, paper mixed with glass. it is very difficult for the reprocessing is we have here in the reprocessing is we have here in the uk and overseas to turn that into any meaningful products so that is why we have seen this plastic waste mountain we were feeling, a lot of it has been sent for a simulation which we should not be doing. the answer is not sending waste other countries, it is about not producing so much waste in the first place and about better collection methods and better recycling. what about not producing the waste in the first place, what are you doing on that front? one of the things we worked with the number of ngos on was the carrier bag charges. in england and wales and scotla nd charges. in england and wales and scotland they have the tax in

northern ireland as being hugely successful. in terms of reducing the products we use and reducing waste in england the figure is we have stopped using 15 billion plastic bags since the charge came in in 2015 which was a clear direction of travel for us as consumers that we are happy to embrace some of these changes that have been introduced. the point about better collection and better handling of waste in terms of turning it into other products, better recycling? we have an opportunity to say let us improve the quality of how we collect products here. therefore if we have lots of really good products, good material, but that will attract this investment in the reprocessing facilities we could have in the uk which would create jobs. facilities we could have in the uk which would createjobs. an facilities we could have in the uk which would create jobs. an example of something like a deposit return system for cans and bottles were from a consumer perspective qpr

small deposit which get back when you return your can or bottle for recycling but the way the system works is a separate said those materials when you return them back to your local shop for example. 0r they are really high quality and that attracts investment and jobs into recycling those materials. lots to campaign on in 2019. thank you. a new energy price cap has come into force in england, scotland and wales. the industry regulator, 0fgem, estimates the cap will save 11 million people an average of £76 a year. consumer groups are warning that it could cut the number of cheap deals available. northern ireland has a separate energy regulator and already has a price cap. the headlines: nasa scientists wait to find out whether their space probe, new horizons, has successfully flown past the most distant

object ever explored — the icy mass of ultima thule four billion miles from earth. a man's arrested after three people — including a police officer — are stabbed at manchester's victoria station. counter terror police are investigating the incident. billions of people around the world have welcomed the start of the new year. 2019 was ushered in with spectacular fireworks displays and concerts across the uk. sport, and a full round up from the bbc sport centre. andy murray said he was nervous

about returning to court. it has been a hard 18 months with a lot of ups and downs. it has been tough to get back on the court competing again. i am happy i am competing again. i am happy i am competing here again. i will try to enjoy it as much as i can. try to enjoy it as much as i can. try to enjoy playing tennis as long as i can. ido enjoy playing tennis as long as i can. i do not know how much longer it is going to last but we will see. and a great start to the year forjohanna konta, too — the british number one beat former us open winner and world number 6 sloane stephens in straight sets.

things looking better for konta — who's fallen to 37th in the world after an inconsistent 2018. there's more festive football to look forward to today — as well as a full programme in the lower divisions, we have three games in the premier league, and after they lost at home to wolves on saturday, tottenham will be taking their frustrations to cardiff city, who arejust outside the relegation zone now, thanks to their win over leicester. we have got as good a chance as five 01’ we have got as good a chance as five or six other teams, the bigger teams of us that probably did not think they would be down there, more pressure on them. we have improved so much since the start of the season, the lads have taken it on board. we are competing and that is what we have to do for the remainder of the season. totten will be trying to bounce back on tuesday. they are all difficult games. you've just taken over in a big newjob, all eyes are on you — do you want to take advice from the guy who did the job before you? well you probably would if that guy was sir alex ferguson. he's been back at manchester united's training ground since 0le gunnar solskjaer took over as caretaker boss — and solskjaer says he's been looking for tips from the great man. i've had him for 15 years, so obviously, he's influenced me

more in the 15 years before that he has in the last week. obviously, i do keep him informed, and he did pay us a visit yesterday and i think he enjoyed his time at the training ground and we had a nice few chats, us and the staff, and he encouraged us. he knows that we are — we've got this. it's man united through and through. i've had him for 15 years, so obviously, he's influenced me more in the 15 years before that he has in the last week. obviously, i do keep him informed, and he did pay us a visit yesterday and i think he enjoyed his time at the training ground and we had a nice few chats, us and the staff, and he encouraged us. he knows that we are — we've got this. it's man united through and through. floyd mayweather came out of retirement for a lucrative exhibition fight in tokyo — and who can blame him? he earned £7 million for 140 seconds' work — that's how long it took him to beat the japanese kick—boxer tenshin nasukawa. mayweather is a former world champion at five different weights. he's 41 now — 21 years older than his opponent. this fight don't go on his record, this fight don't go on my record.

and it's all about having fun. but while having fun, of course i want to make a couple of dollars when i'm having fun, so we did that. michael van gerwen plays michael smith in the final of the pdc world darts championship at the ally pally tonight. both players were in extraordinary form in their semi—final wins on sunday and now the pdc chairman barry hearn says those standards can help take the game even further. he wants darts to have the same global pulling power as sports such as golf. we are not a uk sport, we are a global sport, and as such now, we're looking at expanding into north america, into south america. we've opened a small office in china because we're looking at the chinese market. there is a huge way to go, and i don't see any reason at all why darts shouldn't be the same size as professional golf. that's all the sport for now. people around the world have been

saying goodbye to 2018 and welcoming in 2019 with a bang. in london, an estimated 100,000 people gathered to watch big ben's customary bongs mark the start of the new year. 0ur reporter ben ando joined the crowds. big ben bongs. silenced by repairs for much of 2018, to herald 2019, big ben was back. london's now—traditional new year fireworks drew thousands to the banks of the river thames. and the theme this year, according to the mayor of london, sadiq khan, was that london is open, and europeans are welcome. with more than 100,000 tickets sold, this is the largest annual fireworks display in europe. it involves eight tons of fireworks, fired from 348 separate positions. the whole sky was glowing, and it was...

i don't know, it was — we see it always on the tv, and it was one of the best fireworks displays that has happened. princes street in edinburgh was the focus of the scottish hogmanay celebrations. four, three, two, one! around 60,000 people gathered to watch the fireworks and the concert, headlined by the group franz ferdinand. this party is one of the biggest parties in the world. new year is celebrated all across the globe and people celebrate in all sorts of ways, but i don't think anywhere does it quite like hogmanay in edinburgh, you know? just look around you, it's completely amazing. auckland, closest to the international dateline, is the first of the world's great cities to usher in the new year. in sydney, more than a million turned out to watch, despite huge thunderstorms just hours earlier. across asia, from north korea, to hong kong, to russia, music and fireworks.

in dubai, the world's tallest building, the burj khalifa, became a tower of light. across europe, in paris, athens and berlin, the festivities continued. but in new york, the good mood was not matched by the weather, as 2019 arrived with a downpour. ben ando, bbc news. theresa may has used her new year message to suggest that britain "can turn a corner" if parliament backs her brexit deal. mps are due to vote on the prime minister's withdrawal agreement this month, after a vote on the deal was postponed because of fears it would not get the support of the commons. new year is the time to look ahead.

the deal i have negotiated delivers on the will of the british people, giving us control over our borders, money and lows. it is good forjobs, protects our security and works for the whole united kingdom. in the next in the next few weeks, mps will have an important decision to make. if parliament backs the deal, britain can turn a corner. the referendum in 2016 was divisive, but we all want the best for our country. 2019 can be the year we put our differences aside and move forward together. into a stronger relationship with our european neighbours and out into the world as a globally trading nation. important though brexit is it is not the only issue that counts. when each of us looks back on 2019 it will be the personal milestones that stand out, starting a new school, college or

apprenticeship, getting a job, starting a business, yearning a pay rise, buying a house, getting married or starting a family. these are the things that matter most and by agreeing a good brexit deal we can focus our energies on those things. pope francis is celebrating new year mass in st peter's basilica in rome. the congregation they are listening intently to pope francis at the moment and we will bring you details of what he is saying later. north korea's leader kimjong—un has given a new year address in which he says the country is still commited to giving

up nuclear weapons — and that he is prepared to meet again "at any time" with us president donald trump. laura bicker reports. this new year offers a tantalising prospect for south koreans. for decades, this nation, technically still at war with its neighbour, has simply longed for peace. but a year of talks between north and south and the united states has meant some are now daring to hope, could 2019 be the year that dream is achieved? translation: i think because of the atmosphere kimjong—un is hesitant right now but i hope he comes and meets with our president and tours around seoul. just a few miles away, pyongyang celebrated new year with more than its usual flair, a glitzy midnight show, despite being under strict economic sanctions. the north‘s leader kim jong—un was also upbeat and rewarded those watching his speech from washington and seoul by renewing his commitment to denuclearisation. translation: we have proclaimed that we will no longer make nuclear weapons.

we will not use them or spread them. but then came the warning. translation: i am always ready to sit down again with the us president at any time and will make efforts to produce an outcome that the international community would welcome. however, if the us miscalculates our people's patience, forces something upon us and pursues sanctions and pressure without keeping a promise made in front of the world, we have no option but to explore a new path in order to protect our sovereignty and achieve peace in the korean peninsula. the deal reached in singapore injune was so vague that neither side can agree on what was agreed. north korea believes it has held up its side of the bargain by not testing any new missiles and destroying one test site but since then talks have stalled between the two sides. in his speech, kimjong—un pointed to the hope and optimism in both south and north korea that they can forge a path towards peace. his message to the united states

is we can have that relationship too but the ball is now in the trump administration's court and, unless they act, 2019 might not be as peaceful as everyone here hopes. laura bicker, bbc news. one of the singers with the american ‘70s band dr hook, ray sawyer, has died at the age of 81. # when you're in love with a beautiful woman it never ends # he was known for his trademark hat and eyepatch, which he wore after losing his right eye in a road accident. the group's hits included sylvia's mother and when you're in love with a beautiful woman. now it's time for a look at the weather.