this is bbc news. the headlines at 2pm. on terror investigation is launched after three people, including a police officer was stabbed at manchester station. my thoughts are still very much at those who are being treated at hospital for the serious injuries. three, two, one. nasa scientists wait to find out whether there is space probe has successfully flown past the most distant object ever explored. we set a record. never before has a spacecraft explored anything so far away. the archbishop of canterbury calls for an end to the "divisions of recent years" in his new year sermon. in russia, an eleven—month—old baby is pulled from the rubble of a block of flats hit by an explosion — eight bodies have so far been found. coming up on bbc news, we look back

at this summer's world cup in russia. it brilliant tournament that had it all, the glory of the french, there were german tears, some fabulous goals and of course england's odyssey, getting so close to the moscow final. that is review 2018, that the brick coming up at half past. —— football fever. good afternoon. police have launched a terror investigation after an incident at manchester's victoria railway station last night in which three people, including a police officer, were stabbed. a 25—year—old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. the chief constable of greater manchester police described the incident as an ‘horrific attack‘.

the victims‘ injuries have been described as serious but not life threatening. our correspondent danny savage reports from greater manchester police headquarters. a railway station in central manchester, just before nine o‘clock last night. move away now! move! police restrain a man on the ground who moments earlier had been wielding a knife, attacking passers—by. a bbcjournalist was on the platform at the time and saw what happened. it's new year's eve, people have had a drink, they've probably... it's just a fight, it will 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, that doesn't sound good. at the point i wasjust 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. three people were stabbed. one of them was a police officer, the other two were a man and a woman in their 50s. the injuries are serious but not life—threatening. a short time later the man was taken away from manchester‘s victoria station by police, shouting "god is greatest" in arabic. this morning the chief constable of greater manchester police said it is being treated as a terrorist incident. we are treating this as a terrorist investigation which is being led by counterterrorism officers with support from greater manchester police. they were working throughout the night to piece together the details of what happened and to identify the man who was arrested. manchester victoria station was closed overnight. it has now reopened but this was obviously a very alarming and frightening incident for people there at the time. a short while ago, danny updated us

on what had been taking place today. what has happened this morning is that there has been a search of an address in cheetham hill in manchester. officers say they believe they have identified the man involved, they know who he is and his name and background to a certain extent. he is 25 years old and lives locally, and lives in manchester but they will not give away any further public details about the identity of the attacker last night. but what is clear is that they are treating this as a terrorist attack. they say there is nothing to suggest that others are involved. they have good quality cctv of what happened and are, obviously, seeking witnesses as well. i think one other key factor is location of the attack though. this was the manchester victoria station which is adjacent to the manchester arena where the bomb attack, the suicide bomb attack happened back in 2017 at the end of that ariana grande concert in which

22 people were killed. police believe that location is a factor with what happened last night because many of those casualties were brought out from that concert through manchester victoria station at the time. so that is all part of the picture which they are building up but what they are keen to stress is that this is very much a fast—moving ongoing enquiry. they don‘t believe that any other people are involved apart from the person they arrested last night but they are seeking to make sure that is the case as they carry out their investigations at the moment. 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 six and a half 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 where exactly is the lump of ice and dust known as ultima thule? our science editor david shukman has this explanation. to explain what this mission is all about, let‘s use our virtual studio and start at the middle of our solar system. orbiting closest to the sun are the four small rocky planets, including earth, and then further out there are four much larger planets. the best known of these is saturn with its famous rings. right on the margin is tiny pluto, three billion miles away,

but it turns out pluto is just one part of a massive outer zone we only started discovering in the last 20 years or so. thousands of tiny worlds and lumps of rock and ice, known as the kaiper belt. these are objects 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 yearjourney, nasa‘s new horizons spacecraft, the most distant exploration in human history. the archbishop of canterbury, justin welby, has called for an end to what he called the "divisions of recent years." in his new year sermon, he says the uk is "wonderfully more diverse" than it used to be — yet people are disagreeing on many things and are struggling to disagree well. our religon editor martin bashir reports.

can i make you a cup of coffee? for his new year‘s message the archbishop of canterbury, justin wells, didn‘t venture far. —— justin welby this is the kitchen at his london residence in lambeth palace. a home that he shares each year with around 20 young people who commit themselves to ten months of prayer, study and community service. they have an extraordinary range of backgrounds, cultures and opinions. they live together, cook together, volunteer with charities together, and, because they are human, they clash together. named after a benedictine monk who became archbishop of canterbury at the end of the 11th century, the community of st anselm is an attempt to challenge whatjustin welby says is increasing division and rancour in british society. we disagree on many things and we are struggling with how to disagree well. turn on the television, read the news, and you see a lot

that could tempt you to despair. quoting the gospel ofjohn, the archbishop said thatjesus chose a community of conflict, hope over despair, and he says that we should do the same in 2019. —— community over conflict. hope lies in our capacity to approach this new year in a spirit of openness towards each other. that will involve choosing to see ourselves as neighbours, as fellow citizens, as communities, each with something to contribute. and he acknowledged how challenging this will be in the current political climate. with the struggles and divisions of recent years, that will not be easy. but that difficult work is part of the joy and blessing of being a community. whether it is the 20 people here or millions of us, i wish all of us a happy, and more importantly hope filled, new year.

an 11—month—old baby boy has been rescued from the rubble of an apartment block that collapsed on new year‘s eve in russia. at least eight people died when a suspected gas explosion on monday brought down part of the building. more than 30 people are still unaccounted for. simon jones has more. out of the rubble a story of hope. a baby rescued after enduring a night of freezing temperatures. the child has been taken to hospital in a critical condition but doctors remain optimistic and the baby‘s mother also survived. it was a huge blast. there are fears that further parts of the building could collapse, hampering the search effort. several bodies have already been found, many are still missing. people are desperate for news of survivors. translation: we are so very sorry. we were crying all night long. we felt really bad. the russian president has visited some of those injured in hospital.

translation: unfortunately such a tragedy took place. i would like to express my condolences to the families of the victims and to assure those affected that we will do everything to help and support them. an emergency centre has been setup to help those have lost everything. the explosion has been blamed on a gas leak. it is thought that it ripped through the first floor and the seven stories above collapsed. the building was home to 120 people, 48 flats were destroyed. people want answers. why did the building come down so easily? a criminal investigation is under way. but this baby has at least provided optimism that others could still be found in the rubble. warnings from the recycling industry, that the uk would struggle to cope with plastic waste after china stopped importing it a year ago, have failed to materialise, according to bbc research. for many years two thirds of britain‘s waste sent abroad went

to china and hong kong. but the bbc has found that other countries have stepped in to take britain‘s waste. our environment analyst roger harrabin reports. 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. a new energy price cap has come into force in england, scotland and wales. the industry regulator, ofgem, estimates the cap will save 11 million people an average of 76 pounds 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 on bbc news... police say they‘re treating the stabbing of three people at victoria station in manchester last night as terror—related. 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, 4 billion miles from earth

the archbishop of canterbury calls for a "spirit of openness" in 2019 in his new year sermon. people around the world have been saying goodbye to 2018 and welcoming in 2019 with a bang. in london, an estimated 100 thousand people gathered to listen to big ben‘s customary bongs mark the start of the new year. our 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. but for some revellers in france a trip to the funfair turned into a traumatic ordeal as eight people ended up seeing in the new year stuck high above the city of rennes, in brittany. a warning — there is some flashing in these images. a helicopter was called in to help

rescue the three adults and five teenagers from the 52 metre high ‘bombermaxxx‘ ride which had suffered a technical fault and stopped at around 8.30pm. the eight people, the youngestjust 13—years—old, were left high in the air with their feet dangling in what was to become a nine—hour ordealfor some of them. initial attempts to reach those trapped using ladders failed, before a rescuer was winched down by the helicopter. they were evacuated one by one with the last person finally getting off the ride at around 6am. the ride‘s owner said a new part had broken. more than 8,500 performers from 20 different countries are taking part in london‘s new year‘s day parade. the parade, from green park to parliament square, is being broadcast on tv stations across the world. the event is in its 31st year, and includes musicians, cheerleaders and even cars. it‘s notjust a new year

but a new leadership in brazil as jair bolsonaro is inaugurated as the country‘s president in the coming hours. the far right politician swept to power on an anti—crime, anti—corruption promise but took aim at minority groups in a campaign that earned him the nickname the trump of the tropics. our south america correspondent katy watson is in brasilia and sent us this update. as you can see everyone here is getting ready. it is about four hours until the ceremony starts, about six hours until he gives his best speech as president. it has been pouring with rain but it has not stopped people coming and turning up in luke, green and yellow, the colours of the brazilian flag but also the colours of jair bolsonaro‘s supporters. one man said he got a ticket a year ago, so surely was that jair bolsonaro was

going to win. some supporters are many latin american leaders and others, there are some who are not invited. this far right president is very clear that the left is not welcome here. the campaign was full of rhetoric, sexist, homophobic, racist rhetoric. it‘s got many people nervous about what that would mean for the presidency not whether he would rule for all of brazil. he said he would be. a lot of people are very nervous about what the next four years will mean for people here, especially when rte groups. financial markets are happy, it they think the economy will be better but socially, in terms of progress, what that means for brazil, is something that means for brazil, is something that many people are nervous about to. 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. there‘s been little progress on north korea‘s denuclearisation since the two leaders held their historic meeting on the issue injune. 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. now, as we enter the new year — let‘s look ahead to what we can expect to happen in the run up to the day we are due to leave the european union, on march 29th. these are the thoughts of some of our best brexit brains. it‘s almost the impossible question. what is going to happen here in 2019 with brexit? can it be any madder than last year? yes, it probably can.

the one thing we do know is we are set for the big meaningful vote in the middle ofjanuary. at least we think we are. that should be a moment of some clarity. we will know if the prime minister‘s deal will go down or if mrs may surprises everyone and delivers on her brexit deal. if it does go down, a whole range of options just explode all over the place. option one is we could drift towards no deal. we could simply slip out on march 29 without any agreement. the other possibility is momentum really builds behind a second referendum. there are all sorts of questions. how do you set it up? what would be the questions? would it resolve anything? that leaves option three, which, i think, might be what possibly happens. that is we ask for time.

we can‘t make up our minds. so yes, we better take a bit longer. in other words, someone decides we are going to have to ask for an extension of article 50 or even revoke it. the real danger in predicting any of this is because brexit has changed all the rules in this place when it comes to politics. all the traditional party loyalties no longer apply. friends are foes. party discipline has broken down. right and left no longer really matters. you just can‘t predict what is going to happen. what is on the horizon for the eu in 2019? brexit, of course. that is due to happen with relatively little fanfare on march 29. then the negotiations over the future relationship with the uk will begin in earnest. they are going to be massive. that is the theory anyway. i suspect theresa may will be back

in brussels trying to seek more reassurances to help her sell her brexit deal back home. if that does not go through, the eu has some back—up plans. it may be prepared to extend the article 50 negotiating period if the uk asks and they have contiguencies in place in case there is a no deal brexit. but what all these countries are really focused on is the european parliament elections due at the end of may. the old centre right, centre left and liberal parties, really be challenged by the eurosceptics and populists, who seem to be on the rise everywhere? there will be some big changes to the eu's top jobs because jean—claude juncker is retiring from the european commission. he will have to be replaced. they will have to find a new foreign policy chief, a new president of the european parliament and a new president of the european central bank. the eu leaders will meet for a massive summit in the romanian city of sibiu

on the 9th of may, where they will sit down and plot a future for the eu that doesn't have the uk in it any more. business is going to start 2019 where it left off in 2018, under dark brexit clouds of uncertainty. you will see that those businesses who have not got ready for it are beginning to think what they thought was unthinkable, that we may leave with no deal. a crash course in customs, vat, cash flow, inventory, all that kind of stuff will keep businesses very busy in the first three months of the year. we may have to ask the eu for a bit more time, which would give some breathing space, but extend the period of uncertainty where businesses invest less. businesses also care about what their customers are doing. we are finishing 2018 with consumer confidence at a five—year low. now that in a way is a bit of a surprise because the good news is that unemployment is very low and wages

are going up faster than inflation. on paper, we are all getting a bit better off every day. that is good news for business. 2019 is shaping up to be perhaps the most challenging and unpredictable year to run a business in living memory. there will be some very tense moments in the weeks and months ahead. if we focus on some good news, the most important economic fact in anyone‘s life is if they have a job or not. record numbers of us do, wages are going up faster and inflation. so we start from a position of reasonable strength in what promises to be a very interesting year. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. we are leaving 2018 behind, of course it was quite a cloudy christmas holiday period, quite mild as well but our weather is on the change as we look at the podcast of the first few days of 2019. we have

some cool air but it is also bringing up from any of us as well. the best of the sunshine across the central portion of the uk, we see quite a lot of cloud elsewhere. i wondered this afternoon comes out in three regimes with showers across the north—east of scotland, is less of sunshine but some cloudy weather for southern, england wales. we can even see a brain. that is how things date with the rest of the afternoon. temperatures go down so it will feel a bit cooler, which is here typically around six or 7 degrees, a bit milder weather south. overnight we will keep a lot of cloud across northern and northern areas. temperatures will get down to around minus five or minus six degrees by the end of the night in the countryside. that is your weather. hello. this is bbc news. the headlines... police say they‘re treating the stabbing of three people at victoria station in manchester

last night as terror—related. nasa scientists wait for a signal from their new horizons probe to confirm that it has made a successful flyby of ultima tooley — the most distant object ever explored. —— thule. the archbishop of canterbury uses his new year sermon to encourage people to go into 2019 "in a spirit of openness towards each other". in russia, an 11—month—old baby boy is pulled from the rubble of a block of flats hit by a gas explosion. eight bodies have so far been found. now on bbc news... the summer‘s world cup in russia saw england make a memorablejourney to the semi—finals. the bbc‘s olly foster was there and reports on the highs and lows of the tournament in review 2018: football fever.