this is bbc news, i'm vicki young. the headlines at 3.00pm: a terror investigation is launched after three people including a police officer are stabbed at manchester's victoria station. my thoughts are very much with the couple who are still being treated in hospitalfor their very serious injuries and of course, with the brave british transport police officer that was stabbed during the attack. 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. 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 ii—month—old baby is pulled from the rubble of a block

of flats hit by an explosion — eight bodies have so far been found. and coming up in dateline london, our panel of correspondents share their thoughts on the prospects for the globe over the next 12 months. 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 9pm 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, 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, "allah", and i thought, that doesn‘t sound good. 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. three people were stabbed, one of them was a police officer, the other two were a man and woman

in their 50s. the injuries are serious but not life—threatening. allahu akbar! a short time later the man was taken away from manchester 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. danny savage, bbc news, manchester. 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‘s 25 years old and lives locally, and lives in manchester, but they won‘t 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. that was danny savage reporting their movejust been that was danny savage reporting their move just been hearing from their move just been hearing from the mayor of greater manchester about the attack. last night's incident at victoria station was a vile attack on families seeking to enjoy a peaceful new year. we are all thinking to date of the couple who were injured and of course, the police sergeant as well. they are in out police sergeant as well. they are in our thoughts and we wish them all a very speedy recovery. the incident

could have been much more serious we re could have been much more serious were it not for the outstanding savoury were it not for the outstanding savoury and professionalism of office rs savoury and professionalism of officers from british transport police who were instantly on the scene and took decisive action to bring it under control and protect the public and ijust wanted to say today, on behalf of the people of greater manchester, is huge thank you to those brave officers and estate we are all indebted to the british transport police for their actions. i would also like to thank colleagues from greater manchester police and northwest counterterror who worked through the night to ensure that the investigation proceeded apace. there is honestly a limit to what i can say at this particular time but colleagues were working through the night and have

made significant progress. i have spoken to date to the security minister who is spoken to date to the security ministerwho is in spoken to date to the security minister who is in touch with the home secretary. we will be working closely with the government over the coming hours and ensuring that there is full of operation from a greater manchester level but everything that is being done at a national level. of course, as i said before the ongoing investigation means there is a limit to what can be said at this time, though from what i do know it has all the hallmarks and appears to be an isolated incident. what i would stress that people do need to remain vigilant they should never the less not be unduly alarmed and should continue to go about their daily excess. —— daily business.

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?

0ur 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. 0rbiting 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. a man has been arrested after a woman was stabbed to death in south london. police were called to an address in camberwell in the early hours of the morning after reports a woman in her early 30s had a knife injury. she later died at the scene. an ii—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 in magnitogorsk. 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 set up to help those have lost everything. the explosion has been blamed on a gas leak. it‘s thought that it ripped through the first floor, then 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. 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 welby, didn‘t venture far. 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 community over conflict, hope over despair, and he says that we should do the same in 2019. 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. 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 tooley ——ultima thule

4 billion miles from earth. the archbishop of canterbury calls for a "spirit of openness" in 2019 in his new year sermon. sport now. good afternoon. the first prmier league match of the year went leicester city‘s way. they won 1—0 against everton at goodison park. jamie vardy was the matchwinner, his goal came in the second half and that moved them up to 7th in the table. vardy also showed off an acrobatic celebration, he said he had been saving it for a special occasion. the win caps a really good run of festive fixtures for leicester, with 9 points from a possible 12. they also beat chelsea with a vardy winner and also stunned manchester city. two other premier league matches today, we‘re about 15 minutes into the match at arsenal, they are playing lowly fulham. spurs can move back up to second

with a win at cardiff later but cardiff have picked up 4 points from their last 2 matches. we‘ve as good a chance as five or six other teams. there are bigger teams that didn‘t think they would be there. there are more pressure on them than us. we have improved so much since the start of the season, i can‘t tell you. they have really taken it on board and we are competing. that is what we have to do in the remainder of the season. it is a long season. tottenham, they‘ll be trying to bounce back i imagine on tuesday. but they are all difficult games. roger federer came out on top against serena williams in the battle of the tennis heavyweights. after both won their singles matches in the hopman cup in perth, they faced each other in the deciding mixed doubles — the first time they had played against each other in a tournament. federer and belinda bencic, representing switzerland, are the defending champions and they beat williams and her us teamate frances tiafoe in straight sets. federer says it was an honour to play against serena. andy murray is also playing

in australia but says he doesn‘t know how much longer he‘ll be able to compete. last year was virtually a write—off following hip surgery. he beat the australian james duckworth in straight sets in the first round of the brisbane international today but revealed just how hard his rehabilitation has been. it is not easy to some up in one sentence or in it is not easy to some up in one sentence 01’ in one answer. it has been a hard 18 months with a lot of ups and downs. it has been tricky to get back on the court competing again. i am happy i am competing here again. i want to try to enjoy it as much as i can. try to enjoy playing tennis as long as i can. i don‘t know how much longer it is going to last but we‘ll see. just got through that, did the? ——

didn‘t he? the british number 1 johanna konta has been talking up her chances this year after switching coaches and she has made a really impressive start. she‘s also playing in brisbane and beat the former us open winner and world number 6 sloane stephens in straight sets. konta is just inside the world top a0 after a patchy 2018. this is going to be interesting next summer. geraint thomas and chris froome are both going to focus on the tour de france this year. froome isn‘t going to defend his giro d‘italia title in may, conserving his energy for a tilt at a record—equalling fifth tour title in france injuly. that means he‘ll go head to head with fellow team sky rider thomas again, who won the tour for the first time last year despite froome being team leader. maybe if i hadn‘t have won it in 2018 i might have looked at a giro/vuelta type programme as well. but having won the tour, with number one on my back,

i would be sad not to go back to it, really, and not to go back at 100%. so i think the year will be geared around that. england all—rounder tom curran starred for sydney sixers in the big bash — the t20 tournament in australia. they beat the brisbane heat, he took three wickets in the match and also hit the winning runs. they reached their target of 165 with three balls to spare, to win by five wickets. that‘s all the sport for now. still goalless between arsenal and the lump but for them just getting back into the match there. i will have more in the next hour. —— fulham. 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. 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. 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. our reporterjohn mcmanus has spent the day in dover, and says the numbers of migrants making it to the uk to the uk undetected is low.

it‘s important to keep the numbers here in perspective though. the government says that more than 500 people tried to make the journey illegally across the channel in 2018 but more than 200 of those didn‘t make it to kent because they were found, stopped and returned by the french authorities. compare that to the numbers trying to make the journey between greece and turkey where those two clippers are currently based. that can amount to at least 200 people a day so although sajid javid says this is about protecting britain‘s borders and also making sure there are no accidents or disasters in the channel, it is important to remember that the numbers here are small beer compared to what is going on in other parts of the world. 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. well, as you can see, everybody here is getting ready. it is four hours before the ceremony starts, six hours until he gives his first speech to the nation as president. it has been pouring with rain but that hasn‘t stopped people coming. people have turned up in green, blue and yellow, the colours of the brazilian flag, but also the adopted colours of jair bolsonaro‘s supporters. i met one man who said he bought his ticket a year ago, from the north east of brazil, so sure he was that he was going to win. a lot of mr bolsonaro supporters, as well as benjamin netanyahu, from israel, us secretary of stae, mike pompeo, and many latin american leaders. who isn‘t invited is maduro from venezuela, the cuban leader, too. this far right president is very clear that the left is not welcome here. his campaign was full of rhetoric, sexist, homophobic, racist rhetoric, that got many people nervous about what that would mean for his presidency,

whether he would rule for all of brazil. whether he will turn that down once he comes into power, he said he would be ruling for all of brazil, a lot of people are nervous about what the next four years will mean for the people here, especially minority groups. the financial markets are happy, they think the economy will be in better hands with mr bolsonaro, but socially in terms of progress, what that means for brazil is something a lot of people are nervous about here. now it‘s time for a look at the weather. hello there. the first day of 2019, and it‘s been a brighter kind of day for many of us, with the best of the sunshine in northern england and southern and western scotland. but it‘s here where temperatures will be falling fastest overnight, with a sharp frost on the way across western areas. a bit more in the way of cloud further east may well keep a few areas frost free. now, the coldest air is across the west. and it‘s here where we will see temperatures in the countryside potentially getting down to —5

for northern england and wales, —6 or so in scotland. so, it will be a cold, frosty start to the day on wednesday but there will be more in the way of sunshine to go around for most of us. a bit cloudy again for northern and some eastern areas of scotland, but cloud runs down the north sea coast. it could bring the odd isolated light shower to lincolnshire and norfolk, but still for most of us it should be a dry day. but feeling cooler, temperatures between 3 and 7 degrees celsius. over the next few days, with high pressure in charge, it will often be quite cold and frosty at night, but a lot of dry weather to come over the next few days. that‘s 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 thule — the most distant object ever explored. 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, it‘s time for dateline london where our panel give their views on the next 12 months around the globe. hello and welcome to the final dateline london of 2018, a chance to look ahead to? the people, the countries and the events which, our panel predicts, will shape the year ahead. joining me today — abdel bari atwan, who writes on arab affairs, janet daley,

whose column appears in the uk‘s sunday telegraph newspaper, maria margaronis from the weekly news magazine the nation, and the american michael goldfarb, host of the podcast, the first rough draft of history. i suppose this could be called that, michael. welcome to all of you. let‘s begin in our attempt to map out the territory for the year to come with the uk in europe. notjust brexit but perhaps other things on the horizon too. what are you looking for in the year ahead? the year ahead is a long projection! let‘s look at the week ahead or the next fortnight. i think we‘re definitely going to leave, there‘s no question