welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: 50 days after he was first detained, former nissan chairman carlos ghosn makes his first appearance in a tokyo court — he says he's been wrongly accused. a fourth visit to china by north korea's leader — and there's speculation about another meeting with president trump. while the actor kevin spacey appears in a us courtroom — charged with sexually assaulting an 18—year—old man. vancouver has a drugs problem — but is treating it with medicine rather than punishment. the former chairman of the nissan motor company is appearing in court in tokyo. according to reuters newsagency he told the court in a preparted

statement: "i have been wrongly accused and unfairly detained based on meritless and unsubstantiated accusations. this is carlos ghosn‘s first public appearance since he was arrested in november on allegations of financial misconduct. he requested the hearing and his lawyers want to press the court on why he has been held for so long. the case has rattled nissan's alliance with the french car—maker renault as he is still chairman and chief executive of renault. live now to tokyo and the bbc‘s rupert wingfield—hayes. what is the latest? well, as you said, this is the first opportunity any of us have had to hear directly from carlos ghosn since his detention at tokyo airport or the way back on november 19. since then he has been arrested three times, the first 20 days and then he was

arrested again and held for another ten days before christmas and rea reested a ten days before christmas and reareested a third time on septal —— separate allegations. —— rearrested. that is did when on friday. carlos ghosn and his lawyers have requested this court hearing today because they say this is and unfair and they wa nted they say this is and unfair and they wanted the japanese prosecutors in the court to justify his detention. during his short hearing, they made a very robust defence and denial of allegations that the riverland bit more of that statement. he said, i have not received any compensation from nissan that was not disclosed to the management. i've acted honourably, legally and within the knowledge of and approval of the executives inside the company. what's expected... we may have lost that connection with rupert. he was telling is that carlos ghosn has been interrogated every day, and has

had no meetings, which is cast enormous interest on the japanese judicial system. there are only 1a places in the tokyo district court in 1000 people lined up for places trying to get into that court. i was hoping we can get back to him. more on the main news now. american and chinese officials have been holding the first of 2 days of talks in beijing aimed at resolving their trade dispute. last year, both countries imposed billions of dollars' worth of tariffs on each other‘s goods. this is the first formal meeting since they agreed not to impose further tariffs for now. world anti—doping agency experts have been given access to a russian lab to take data that could lead to the prosecution of hundreds of drugs cheats. the original deadline of new year's eve was missed. but an anti—doping team will now be allowed into the moscow facility on wednedsay after weeks of the so—called yellow vest

protests, the french government is to ban what it calls "unauthorised" demonstrations. the prime minister says a new law will punish anyone who organises such protests, anyone taking part in them, and demonstrators disguising their faces with masks. the british transport minister has announced that drone exclusion zones around uk airports will be extended to 5 kilometres. drone sightings caused chaos last month at britain's second busiest airport, gatwick. the north korean leader kimjong un is in china for a summit with the chinese leader xi jinping. it will be the fourth summit between the two leaders. president trump has also said negotiations are underway to decide where his next summit with kimjong un should be held. well, summits between north korean

and chinese leaders used to be a very rare thing indeed. president xi jinping and kimjong—un hadn't met at all during the first five or six yea rs of at all during the first five or six years of kim jong—un‘s time at all during the first five or six years of kimjong—un‘s time in power but suddenly over the past few months, we've had a flurry of diplomatic activity and as you mentioned in the introduction, this is your fourth visit over the past year or is your fourth visit over the past year 01’ so. is your fourth visit over the past year or so. a lot of speculation of course astor whether this is meant to the idea that they may be another us north korean summit in the near future. it was pretty tightlipped in terms of coverage. nothing really beyond the official confirmation that this visit is under way. its kind to last for four days. even thatis kind to last for four days. even that is bit of a departure. that

won't happen until kim jong—un that is bit of a departure. that won't happen until kimjong—un is safely on his way back home. law in the south korean capital, an historic summit. all this is bound to fuel speculation of another summit with president trump. yes, last year, when kim jong—un travelled to china, they did so ahead of these big summits, firstly the summit with president moon jae—in and then donald trump. when it comes to that second potential summit between the united states and north korea... not having much luck with our connections on the satellite. i don't know if we can getjohn back. satellite. i don't know if we can get john back. i am still with you, if you can hear me. i think that technology is allowing that. maybe we will know china, north korea's main ally, this is absolutely a

crucial relationship. i suppose it may be significant that kim jong—un has gone into celebrities but they. depending on who you asked. north korea and china co—ordinating their strategy. kim jong-un paying homage to the chinese leader. summoned to the capital. more accurately, intentionally or not, this signals to the united states. as it has a lwa ys to the united states. as it has always been, a question of trying debate and interests. and at the

moment, of course, washington wants something of both beijing and pyongyang. china and north korea have shown how their interests are intertwined, the more their diplomatic leverage rises. washington knows in its trade dispute with china, it needs to take regard to china's influence over north korea. in terms of pressuring pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons, taking into accountjust how big and important and allied beijing is. thank you very much. what are you drawing from all of this? the united states knows how close north korea is. he is beneath

to meet donald trump, those lower level meetings between state department officials, it'sjust level meetings between state department officials, it's just not happening. we've heard there may have been a meeting in vietnam's over the last month or so between north korean and washington officials. whether or not that has taken place and whether or not that signals that a second summit is on the cards in the not too distant future, as donald trump has said, they will have to wait and see. when it comes to the main progress, the one that the united states has, denuclearisation, getting rid of weapons, you can see the summit is in and of itself. but when it comes to that main aim. getting rid of north korea's weapons. people will wa nt to

north korea's weapons. people will want to see the details. they will wa nt to want to see the details. they will want to see the details. they will want to see progress. as you are saying, president trump said in not too distant future, there is talk of hanoi and mongolia. as for the location of the summit. your pictures of the beijing traffic. that, as you can see, a motorcade. he travelled there on his special green and yellow bullet—proof train. his fourth visit to china in less than a year. we believe it is his 30th birthday. as soon as we can glean more on that. the actor kevin spacey has appeared in court in massachusetts charged with sexually assaulting an 18—year—old man in a bar, in 2016. the 0scar—winner and star of house of cards said nothing in court and was granted bail. 0ur north america correspondent nick bryant reports from nantucket. this was a journey kevin spacey

didn't want to make. touching down on this jet—set island, before completing a televised drive to his first appearance in court. clear the sidewalk, please. clear the sidewalk, clear the sidewalk. his legal team argued he shouldn't have to appear in person because of the negative publicity that's already surrounded this case. but the actor who's spent so much of his life in front of the cameras found it impossible today to avoid them. there was even a live stream from the courtroom to record the charge levelled against him. this complaint charges that in the town of nantucket onjuly 8th, 2016, did commit indecent assault and battery on a person 1a or over. the 0scar—winning actor shared a joke with his lawyer, but did not address the court. he's pleaded not guilty and agreed not to approach his accuser. stay away and no contact with the victim and the victim's family. thank you. nantucket is the playground of america's elites. and in the summer of 2016, kevin spacey is alleged to have sexually assaulted an 18—year—old waiter. during a late night drinking

session in this bar, he's accused of unzipping the man's trousers and groping his groin for about three minutes — an encounter that he claims was consensual. i will never cease... the actor was fired from the hit drama, house of cards, because of multiple sexual assault allegations against him. and you trusted me, even though you knew you shouldn't. but bizarrely, he revived his character, president frank underwood, in a video posted online shortly after he was charged. you and i both know it's never that simple, not in politics and not in life. but you wouldn't believe the worst without evidence, would you? you wouldn't rush to judgments without facts, would you? 0utside court, he confronted another wall of lenses. what are your feelings today, mr spacey? but chose not to answer our questions. mr spacey? kevin spacey has already been dondemned in the court of global opinion, but now a legal process is under way. he flew out minutes afterwards on that private jet, but a trial now is in the offing, where the public

scrutiny will be intense. nick bryant, bbc news, nantucket. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: states of emergency have been declared in parts of the european alps — after a weekend of heavy snowfall triggered avalanches and disruption. the japanese people are in mourning following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it was announced he was dead. "good grief." after half a century of delighting fans around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quits. the singer paul simon starts his tour of south africa tomorrow, in spite of protests

and violence from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa until majority rule is established. teams were trying to scoop up lumps of oil as france recognises it faces an ecological crisis. three weeks ago, the authorities confidently assured these areas that oil from the broken tanker erika would head out to sea. it didn't. the world's tallest skyscraper opens later today. the burj dubai has easily overtaken its nearest rivals. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the former chairman of nissan, carlos ghosn, has appeared in a tokyo court — his first public appearance since his arrest in november on allegations of financial misconduct. north korea's leader, kim jong—un, is visiting china for his fourth meeting with president xijinping. the talks come amid reports of plans for a second summit between mr kim and president trump. over the past few months

we've reported extensively on the opioid epidemic gripping america. tonight we turn our focus to canada, where over the past two years more than 8000 people have died due to opioid overdoses. the city of vancouver is trying to fight the problem, by installing supervised injection sites. people can use illegal drugs with trained staff present, ready to respond if there's an overdose. the bbc‘sjeremy cooke reports. he is my best friend. downtown vancouver. a tragic street theatre. the desperate, the dying, and the addicted. the opioid crisis has swept north america but the unique response here is to treat all of this as a public health epidemic. fentanyl, a powerful opioid, has taken 1500 lives on the streets in the past year. stay safe.

my name is melissa. i've overdosed three times and i didn't even know i overdosed. it's terrifying. yeah. yeah, it is. what saved you? what saved me? probablyjust my own willing to live. are you going to be ok? i hope so. i hope so, too. i really do. it's all centred on these few city blocks. so many people here are living with their addictions and are openly injecting and smoking drugs out on the streets. but that very visibility is taken here to be a good thing. it's argued that if these people can be seen, they can also be saved. the cops mostly back off and there are few

arrests here for drug use. instead vancouver has these. safe injection sites. what are you using? this one was started illegally by the community. it was highly controversial but has become the prototype for the official public health programme. users bring their own street drugs. they take a seat and they take their hit. jamie is ex—army, an afghanistan vet. now battling the cycle of prison, homelessness and addiction. it's pretty wild. i've never seen so much death other than when i was in the military. i've overdosed probably eight times. do you think they've saved your life?

0h, totally. saved by the opioid antidote, narcan. vancouver policy is to make it freely available to everyone. including users themselves. and it works. 0verdose victims critical cases. what's his name? back from the dead. the vancouver model accepts that some will never beat their addiction. and so the argument goes just as those with diabetes are given insulin, at this cutting—edge clinic, opiod users are prescribed pure, medical grade heroin. the world being what it is some people say, have you gone crazy? you are giving heroin, giving heroin to people with addictions. when somebody is using opioids daily there is a huge cost to society. in the criminaljustice system,

court costs, policing costs, transmission of infectious diseases, and all of that can be reduced. patty and joey take heroin here three times a day. freed from the tyranny of finding and funding their next fix. what do you think your lowest moment was? um... being on the street selling whatever i could to get better. yeah. what were you selling? everything but my soul. for them, heroin on prescription means stability. a new apartment. plans for education. and work. you see a future, both of you, don't you? yeah. that's what is wonderful about this. a good future. a bright future. a healthy future. never, ever let you go.

never, ever. and so there is some success. but what's really needed across north america is to find a way to block the initial road to addiction. the road that leads here, to all of this. jeremy cooke, bbc news, downtown eastside, vancouver. the president of the world bank,jim yong kim, is stepping down unexpectedly, three years before the end of his second term. he's not yet given a reason for his early departure, simply saying he willjoin the private sector and will focus on developing countries. the current ceo of the world bank will take over until a new appointment is confirmed. earlier isolated to the world trade editorfor earlier isolated to the world trade editor for the financial times. —— earlier i spoke to. it is a stunning development.

bear in mind that he was appointed for a second term to the presidency of the world bank 1.5 years ago he began his second term and he was not due to finish until 2022. yet here we are on a monday morning in january three years ahead of schedule and he is stepping down to the private sector. there has been some rumour about a potential departure but this did come as a big shock. you must have some of the best contacts in this field. what do you hear about what might be happening? it is hard to tell. there was some unhappiness among the staff about his efforts to shake up the organisation of the world bank. overall it seems to be a voluntary decision on his part. he was ready to move on and he probably received an offer that he could not refuse from the private sector. china and the us are significant in all of this of course. he has not seen eye to eye with donald trump

but the us will also be significant in the succession. there are a few points of discord between the world bank and the trump administration. one was the funding of climate change project which the us disagreed with and the other was that the united states was gradually getting more and more concerned that chinese influence on the world bank was growing. there were certainly some areas of discord. having said that, however, the trump administration did back a capital increase of the world bank last year. the eritrean president and ethiopian prime minister have officially opened a border crossing point between the two countries. the two leaders cut a ribbon to declare the new crossing open. just over a week ago there were complaints that eritrea had closed other crossing points and this ceremony seems to be

a reaffirmation of the peace treaty signed in july. the agreement ended two decades of hostility which killed 80,000. at least seven people have died in the alps during a weekend of heavy snow. up in parts of the mountians the snow stands at 3 metres high. heavy snowfall has triggered a number of avalanches and some regions have declared a state of emergency. eliza philippidis reports. roads are blocked, schools are closed. getting out to do the food shop is almost impossible. but even so, people are trying to clear pathways to get out of their homes. with so much snow already on the ground and more on the way, officials say the chances of further avalanches are high. translation: here in the bavarian alps it has snowed a lot in the past few days. for this reason we have very high snow and the risk of avalanches is very big. the bavarian avalanche

warning institute has issued a level for warning, the second—highest. that also poses a high risk of avalanches in unsecured skiing areas. in central and nerves -- and northern austria much snow has a ready fall in. this house collapsed under the weight of the snow. with the help of local residents, the fire brigade has shuffled the snow of the other routes to stop them collapsing. in southern austria it snowed all day. many roads are blocked. the situation is very difficult. people have been stranded in villages and the helicopters deployed for avalanche control have been grounded because of the bad weather. translation: more than 500 residents are caught off and i spoke with the mayor and he said everyone is calm. with around 80 centimetres

of snow forecast in austria from tuesday, things look set to remain difficult. mercifully, there is a lighter side to winter. now that christmas is well and truly over, what better way to get rid of old trees than a christmas tree growing contest? could this become the latest discipline for the winter olympics? it has everything from hammer to high olympics? it has everything from hammerto highjump. olympics? it has everything from hammer to high jump. and olympics? it has everything from hammer to highjump. and this year there were quite a few world records. there is much more on all the news at any time on the bbc website. thank you very much for watching. hello there.

northern parts of the uk on monday were particularly blustery. winds gusts in excess of 70 miles an hour for some. but i think it's eastern areas that will see the strongest winds through the day ahead. the swirl of cloud, this area of low pressure, is responsible for that very windy weather in the north on monday. sliding its way eastwards towards scandinavia, but on its western flank we are still bringing in some strong winds, brisk northerly winds particularly close to those eastern coastal areas. the winds will feed one or two showers in towards the east of the uk at times through the day, but generally speaking, though, we are generally looking at a lot of dry weather. there will be some spells of sunshine, fairly large areas of cloud floating around as well. it'll be breezy wherever you are, but if you're spending your day close to the east coast of scotland you can expect wind gusts of 40—45mph, one or two showers drifting through too. down the east coast of england, wind gusts the same but may be close to 50 miles an hour for some spots around the east anglian coastline.

and combine those strong winds with high tides, well, there is the risk of some coastal flooding. temperature between six and nine degrees, but when you factor in the strength of the wind, it will probably feel a bit colder than that. it stays pretty breezy in eastern areas as we go through tuesday night. still the potential of a couple of showers here. out west, where the wind is lighter and the sky is clear, parts of western scotland and northern england, maybe down into the midlands, we could see a touch of frost, but i think many places will start wednesday morning just above freezing. so, during wednesday it will still be breezy, not quite as windy as it will have been on tuesday, and that wind still feeding some showers in across some eastern parts of england. we also see cloud thickening for northern ireland and western scotland, a bit of patchy rain here late in the day. in between, some spells of sunshine, those temperatures struggling a little bit — five to seven or eight degrees. but it is set to turn milder as we head towards the end

of the week. high pressure builds its way back in, and we start to bring the winds back in from the atlantic. so it is, from the north—west, going to turn a little bit milder. holding onto some chilly air across the south—east on thursday. some places could start off with a touch of frost but i think that is where we will see the best of the sunshine through the day. also, north—east england and eastern scotland will see in some sunshine, generally a lot of cloud, maybe the odd spot of drizzle, but towards the west, things start to turn milder. through friday into the weekend, all of us will get into that milder air. there will always be a lot of cloud and perhaps some rain at times, especially in the north. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: after 50 days in detention, the former chief executive of nissan, carlos ghosn, has appeared in court in tokyo, telling the judge he's been wrongly accused.

he entered court handcuffed and with a rope around his waist. he's facing allegations of failing to declare millions of dollars in income. the north korean leader, kimjong—un, is in china for talks with president xijinping. it's their fourth meeting. it's fuelled speculation that kim jong—un plans a second us north korean summit soon. president trump has said a location for a second summit will be announced shortly. the american actor kevin spacey has appeared in a court in massachusetts, facing charges of sexual assault against an 18—year—old man at a bar on the resort island of nantucket in 2016. his lawyers entered a not guilty plea. he was ordered not to contact the alleged victim.