i'm kasia madera with bbc world news. our top story. mp's in britain have voted overwhelmingly to hold a snap general election in december. the prime minister, borisjohnson, says he hopes the poll will stop further delays to brexit. the measure still needs mps m ps vote mps vote overwhelmingly the approval of the upper house. us politicians accused boeing are us politicians accuse putting profit before safety as the boeing of putting profit company boss before safety as the company boss testifies before a senate committee, putting profit before safety as the com pa ny boss testifies putting profit before safety as the company boss testifies over the 737 over the 737 max plane crashes. max plane crashes. on behalf of myself and the boeing company, we are deeply and truly sorry. also a newsday. the first time, a white

an estimated 1.5 million house official testifies about the people in california are set to lose power on tuesday concerns are raised. an onlooker by as a utility firm tries to stop damaged cables triggering wildfires. strong winds have been fanning the fires, and thousands of residents in los angeles have parts of asia are seeing birthrates been told to evacuate. at new lows and ask what governments that's all. can do about it. welcome to the programme. it is seven in the morning in singapore, 11 o'clock night here seven in the morning in singapore, 11o'clock night here in london. a general election has finally been called. borisjohnson says the public must be given a choice over brexit. jeremy corbyn said the

election is a once in a generation chance to transform our country. our political editor begins our coverage. these will soon be portraits from the past. order! order. the howls and the rage of a house divided. they'll be replaced with some new voices. some here will disappear. an i call the prime minister. mrspeaker, thank you... but it's never been that straightforward with this group of mps, as this still new prime minister knows to his cost. there is only one way to restore the esteem in which our democracy is held, and to recover the respect in which parliament should be held by the people of this country, and that is finally to offer ourselves to the judgement of the people of this country, and i commend this bill to the house.

labour had said no three times already, but this morning they were up for the rallies and the photo ops of a campaign, ready after weeks of refusing for the first december election in nearly a hundred years. it's going to be fun, and i've just had a weather forecast — it's going to be good weather! even though some in this crowd believe it's a mistake to go to the polls now. we are going out there to fight an election campaign, and i can't wait to get out there on the streets. in every town and village in this country, labour will be there, giving a message of real hope, where this government offers nothing. labour only in line because the smaller parties changed tack. the snp and the lib dems reckon now the eu has backed a delay to brexit, their best chance of stopping our departure is that election. if you'd heard them earlier, you might have imagined it was under way already. i welcome the opportunity of an election, because make no mistake, the election that's coming is going to be the right of scotland to determine its own future. as a united kingdom family of nations, strong together, working within the eu, we can reshape our economy and harness the technological revolution, and build a brighter future, and that's the message

the liberal democrats will be taking to the country in this general election. those backing a trip to the ballot box won the day. the ayes to the right, 438. the noes to the left, 20. barring something strange happening in the house of lords tomorrow, the election will be on the 12th of december — giving the prime minister his way, giving all of us the chance to say who will come here, which mps, which parties will have the job on unfurling the tangle of the last few years, who will be the prime minister who defines what happens next. we'll come back to that story a little later on newsday but now let's take a look at some of the day's other news. a white house official who overheard a call between us president donald trump and ukraine's president has testified in congress as part of the impeachment inquiry against mr trump. lieutenant alexander vindman

told congress he twice reported his objection to mr trump pressuring ukraine to investigate leading us democratjoe biden. our north america editor jon sopel has more. donald trump is sought to characterise what is on holding as do nothing democrats trying to tear him down over what was a perfect call. he's called it a lynching and says it is people giving evidence are never trumpers and that is what he accused lieutenant colonel vinman of being, except that lieutenant colonel vinman is a decorated war hero, injured in iraq and it's hard to characterise him as some kind of party hacker wants to destroy the president. he is served both republican and democratic party administrations so that makes it

more difficult and what he said in his testimony was devastating. he said, "i did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigator us citizen." the us citizen he is referring to is donald trump's democratic rivalled joe biden and his son hunter over the business dealings and he said there was no national security justification and turning ukraine into a partisan issue which it shouldn't be and he said the president's interest in ukraine and joe biden predated this particular phone call. in other words, he is flatly contradict what the president has said. not only that, the white house has tried to put a ban on officials giving evidence to this impeachment investigation. they have given evidence and it hasn't been favourable to the president. also making news today, lebanon's prime minister saad hariri has said he will resign, in the face of huge protests that have rocked the country for almost two weeks. in his announcement, mr hariri said lebanon was deadlocked and needed a shock to break the crisis. he was met with cheers

from protesters in beirut, who have been demonstrating against political corruption and economic uncertainty. 1.5 million people in california are set to lose power on tuesday as wildfires threaten to damage cables across the state. the electric company pacific gas & electric has already cut power to almost a million properties in a bid to reduce the fires. strong winds have been fanning the fires, and thousands of residents in los angeles have been told to evacuate. two brothers are being hunted by the uk police on suspicion of manslaughter over the deaths of 39 people found in a lorry in south east england. two brothers are being hunted by the uk police on suspicion of manslaughter over the deaths of 39 people found in a lorry in south east england. ronan hughes and christopher hughes from northern ireland are also wanted on suspicion of human trafficking. the driver of the lorry appeared

in court on monday charged with several offences, including 39 counts of manslaughter. a mountaineer from nepal has broken records by climbing the world's fourteen highest peaks in less than seven months. nirmal purja — who's 36 and a former british marine — reached the top of his last mountain, shishapangma in china on tuesday morning. nirmal could have been faster though — he climbed everest, lhotse and makalu in five days, instead of three — because he stopped for two nights "to have a drink". we'll be speaking to nirmal purja on bbc world on friday after his descent to hear how he achieved this incredible feat. an incredible achievement. us lawmakers have fired tough questions at the boss of boeing, about the company's response to two fatal crashes involving its 737 max airliner. it's exactly one year

since a lion air aircraft crashed into the java sea, killing all 189 people on board. five months later, an ethiopian airlines plane crashed, killing 157. the finger has been pointed at the plane's flight control system. laura trevelyan reports from washington. hold up the photographs that you brought. images of those killed by the crashes of boeing 737 max eight aircraft held up ice relatives at a senate hearing. lawmakers told the families they could only imagine the pain they had endured. for boeing ceo dennis muilenburg, this was a chance to apologise. on behalf of myself and the boeing company, we are sorry, deeply and truly sorry. the first 737 max eight crashed into the java sea a year ago killing 189 people and a second 737 max crashed

in ethiopia five months later with the loss of 157 lives. lawmakers wa nted the loss of 157 lives. lawmakers wanted to know when boeing's boss new test pilots had concerns about the flight control system back in 2016. it was after the crashes were made aware of it? sir, as i recall, i believe it was prior to the second crash. after the second 737 max question ethiopia, flight regulators around the world started to ground to aircraft and it's still grounded here in the us as boeing try to figure out what went wrong. we've made mistakes and we got some things wrong. we are improving and we are learning and we are continuing to learn. but lawmakers weren't convinced. i would walk before i will i would get on a 737 max. these people never had a chance, they were in flying coffins. these hearings

are about preventing future accidents. lawmakers want to know if the plane was approved for passenger flights before it was ready. laura trevelya n, flights before it was ready. laura trevelyan, bbc news, washington. the recent death of terrorist leader abu bakr al—baghdadi at the hands of us forces was an important milestone in the fight to defeat the so—called islamic state. but the jihadist group's ideology is still very much alive, especially in parts of southeast asia. the philippines, indonesia and malaysia are home to some of the region's most organised islamist militants and their governments say they are bracing for retaliation attacks. joining me now from canberra is jacinta carroll, a research fellow for the counter terrorism and social cohesion project at the australian national university. why are these southeast asian governments expecting a reprisal? good morning. yes, we have heard from prime minister scott morrison

here in australia, the defence secretary in the philippines, concerned that there may be a number of low—level attacks undertaken in southeast asia in response to the death of abu bakr al—baghdadi. the reason for this is that isis had a very significant impact on terrorist groups in southeast asia and also south asia. in the decade or so before we saw the establishment of the so—called caliphate, counterterrorism authorities in indonesia, malaysia, philippines, singapore and other effectively defeated those groups. they were either locked up, nullified or engaged in a peace process. this meant that there wasn't a place for people to train so they were able to find these, regroup their courses with isis. jacinta, i'd like tojump in here but are these governments in the asia—pacific sharing intelligence information to stop these attacks before they happen,

cutting off the tactical learning and financial support? well, absolutely they are and there are some very good arrangements, particularly based around asean whether countries work together and also interpol and our local southeast asian version of that and variant. what's that meant is that most sophisticated large mass casualty attacks have been defeated. even when we see something like the terrible attacks on the department store in jakarta, terrible attacks on the department store injakarta, that was the last attempt by a group that had really tried and failed to do that over a number of times and when they did it, it wasn't as effective as they wa nted it, it wasn't as effective as they wanted to be. in your view, jacinta, how fractured is the is movement in asia and do you think with baghdadi's death, it eradicates the movement or it's likely to be the case of someone else taking its place? well, isis - affiliated

groups in southeast asia were drawn from existing groups and they were attracted to this strong brand that isis had but also isis's money. isis provided a lot of resources, financial planning and otherwise to mount the attacks in marawi and with the demise of isis, you might see, we've seen in the middle east and elsewhere, infighting about who would be taking over in terms of ideology and groups in our region would be looking now for, where is the more important round, who should i giving my allegiance to in terms of who can really help me? that's what we saw in the philippines. these groups won't isis groups before. it was around a dozen groups that came under the brand of isis suitable be really interesting to see as isis continues to fracture, whether power will go and of course, is sitting on the side, very effectively regaining territory throughout africa and in afghanistan. we will have to leave it there. thank you so much for your

insight, jacinta carroll from the australian national university. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: southeast asian countries —— we'll examine what's next for brexit, now that the uk prime minister borisjohnson has his december general election. indira gandhi, ruler of the world's largest democracy, died today. only yesterday she'd spoken of dying in the service of her country and said, "i would be proud of it. every drop of my blood would contribute to the growth of this nation". after 46 years of unhappiness, these two countries have concluded a chapter of history. no more suspicion, no more fear, no more uncertainty of what each day might bring. booster ignition and lift—off of discovery, with a crew of six astronaut heroes and one american legend. well, enjoying the show is right.

this is beautiful. a milestone in human history. born today, this girl in india is the 7 billionth person on the planet. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. i'm kasia madera in london. our top stories: mps in britain have voted overwhelmigly for a snap general election in december, as brexit is delayed. the impeachment investigation into donald trump hears from an official who says he personally heard the us president pressure ukraine to investigate leading democrat, joe biden.

let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. first up, the japan times pays homage to former un refugee chief sadako ogata who has died at the age of 92. the japanese scholar was the first woman to serve as the united nations high commissioner for refugees from 1991 to 2000. it comes as no surprise that the uk's metro leads with news of the forthcoming december election. it says this year's ‘jingle polls' will be the first christmas election in the country since the early 1920s. finally, the south china morning post reports that the number of break—ins in hong kong rose over 74% over the summer period. the paper says criminals took advantage of police stretched thin while dealing with ongoing anti—government protests.

just a touch of some of the papers. now, rico, are you a fan of the band that is dominating discussions online? yes, iam yes, i am and my nephews and nieces are as well. they have a huge following around the world. k—pop superstars bts have finished their world tour — and it was an emotional finale. they wrapped up in their hometown of seoul, over a year after kicking things off in august 2018. together, the concerts brought together more than 2 million fans, including some 132,000 spectators who bought tickets for the final shows. i have never been to a concert, but i have never been to a concert, but i have seen their videos. ijust knew you were a fan! let's return to our top story, the uk will hold a general election in december, in an attempt to break the deadlock over brexit.

from edinburgh we're joined by dr katie hughes, the director of the scottish centre for european relations. an independent think tank focusing on the eu. we spoke a day ago and what a difference a day makes. now the british prime minister has, in theory, a general election. what do you think the focus will be? will it be brexit or could it go another way? general elections are always under the bull and this one is particularly extraordinary after 3.5 yea rs of particularly extraordinary after 3.5 years of this brexit chaos, groundhog day and political failings. but the last one, which was only 2.5 years ago, people thought it would be a brexit election and it was not. i think this one will be. brexit still has not happened and borisjohnson wants to make it is battle cry. he wants

to make it is battle cry. he wants to call it a people versus parliament election. the snp, the third party at westminster will also make it brexit or independence their battle cry. anjeremy corbyn will have to argue about why boris johnson's rex it is a mess and a bad deal and why he could do better. can it untangle where we are at the moment in the uk? willa general election do that? it might. a number of people are talking this evening about how we could just end up with another hung parliament. but even the conservative party under boris johnson won a majority and if they did then brexit will happen and before the end of next january. because he will have a more homogenous group of tory mps. he will have gotten rid of some of the rebel mps who wanted to stop him

going for no deal or a softer brexit. and if he does not get a majority, although he is ahead in the polls, which is likely because the polls, which is likely because the snp and the lib dems are doing better—than—expected, then we will see labour live dams and snp try to agree on what they can do about brexit. whether they can have another referendum, whether they agree with the eu for another extension for the time they need to do that. this election may take us to brexit, and a hard one under johnson, and it will not be finished. there will still be trade talks with the eu. 0r finished. there will still be trade talks with the eu. or it may perhaps ta ke talks with the eu. or it may perhaps take us to another eu referendum, it could even take the uk saying we wa nt to could even take the uk saying we want to stay. what do you think brussels makes of all of this?” think brussels gave up a long while

back on being surprised and appalled at british politics. it is just waiting to see whether anything is actually going to change. the outgoing eu president tweeted today saying don't think that you will definitely get any further extensions. he basically said make good use of this time. and it is true that he will be replaced by the incoming eu president who may be much less concerned to see a brexit can be stopped and much more concerned to let the eu 27 get on with their business. so if labour scrapes in with the support of the lib dems and the snp, the eu may not notice a change in direction but equally they may consider it to be another period of uncertainty over whether or not there may be a referendum. thank you so much for coming back to us on that. japan's prime minister has called it a ‘national crisis', while the south korean leader says it's a problem that

needs urgent fixing. birth rates in many asian countries are plummeting to historic lows. new statistics released in singapore for 2018 show that the average woman will have 1.2 children. that's the lowest since records began. in south korea, the fertility rate has gone below the one child mark for the first time ever. and japan, in 2018 saw the lowest number of births in the country's history. while in china the birth rate is at its lowest since 1961 — that's despite the one child policy being scrapped five years ago. let's talk now to professor mary brinton, a sociologist at harvard university who's done extensive research in this field. professor, we have spoken a lot about women and the low birth rates. what about men? they must be involved in all this as well. yes, there. by definition they are involved. and there are a number of problems that japanese men face involved. and there are a number of problems thatjapanese men face in participating fully in their family,

participating fully in their family, participating at home and i think this is very much affect the quality of family life and is discouraging to many people. i am sure it is also the pressure of work. the standard of living, that puts a lot of pressure on parents to just have possibly one or two children. that is right. typically injapan, marriage means children. so there are very few births outside of marriage. couples who marry plan to have at least one child, maybe to but as you pointed out, work hours are long. very long in both korea andjapan. are long. very long in both korea and japan. and this means that men who presumably have very good jobs in large companies often don't come home until nine or ten p.m.. so the family rarely eats dinner together on weekdays and men... sorry. can

the government do anything about it or is the bottom line couple? i think the government can do much more about it. many of the policies that the japanese government has established a not working and some new policies are needed. for example, paternity leave is now available to japanese men but only about 5% of men take it. and my feeling is that japanese companies should be required to give new fathers paternity leave. this would create, you know, a lot of momentum. evenif create, you know, a lot of momentum. even if fathers could take one or two months off, if all men are required to do it then they will do it and this will create a nice new social... professor, i mustjump in.

thank you forjoining us on newsday. thank you forjoining us on newsday. thank you forjoining us on newsday. thank you so much forjoining us. hello there. it is interesting that although the rain has stopped across most parts of the country and the sun has been out we still had quite a few flood warnings on rivers in england that have only slowly gone down. further south we have seen most of rain today in the south—west corner of england where it has been windy. but this blanket of cloud is affecting other southern parts of england and pushing into south wales as well. we could see that rain not just affecting devon and cornwall, pushing towards hampshire maybe into the far south of wales stop north of that, clear skies, light the far south of wales stop north of that, clearskies, light winds the far south of wales stop north of that, clear skies, light winds and a couple of showers. whether cloud stays, temperatures will be on the higher side and as you further north the temperature gets colder. clear skies and light wind in northern

scotla nd skies and light wind in northern scotland to places will have a touch of frost. here we are close to this area of high pressure that has been dominating our weather over the last few days. it is still essentially in charge that is getting squeezed by the weather fronts on the south—west that are continuing to bring patchy rain and drizzle. a game that will mainly be affecting the south—west of england. that cloud shield may push way for the northwoods across wales and towards the midlands at sunny skies continue further north and fewer showers across eastern scotla nd and fewer showers across eastern scotland and north—east england where the wind should be lighter. breeze picks up in northern ireland and eases later in the south—west of england where we have that rain. 13 degrees is the temperature otherwise 9-11, degrees is the temperature otherwise 9—11, similar to today. the weather is slowly changing later on this week because the high—pressure will ease away into continental europe and those weather fronts. to work their way into the uk. very week on thursday so there will not be much rain, pocket of light rain and

drizzle perhaps in northern ireland, more likely pushing across england and wales full with milder air coming in over the cold ground it could turn rather misty and murky. temperatures generally ten, 11 degrees, not changing a lotjust yet and brighter whether across northern and brighter whether across northern and eastern scotland. mild air will come in as the wind changes to more ofa come in as the wind changes to more of a south, south—westerly but the next weather system coming in from the atlantic and the one up that is probably a little more active so we will find rain more widely across the uk, temperatures at 15 or 16 degrees. by day it will be milder with a lot more cloud around and not 00:28:35,753 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 as cold at night.