good morning. it's 9am in the morning here in singapore, 1am in london and 9am in hong kong, where a senior police officer has warned that unrest there has brought the city to "the brink of total breakdown". in the latest clashes between police and democracy campaigners, the violence spread to a university campus, where tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon were used. our correspondent robin brant has the latest. i'm mariko oi in singapore, the headlines: in hong kong, police warn that the rule of law is ‘on the brink of total collapse‘ "run", she is shouting in cantonese, and they are running, but not for fun. as the violence intensifies. conditions are about as bad as they can get across much of eastern australia as ferocious bushfires reach hong kong students at the university sydney's suburbs. racetrack were escaping the tear gas and rubber bullets as police i'm maryam moshiri in london. also in the programme: raided their campus. australia's highest court agrees to give cardinal george pell moving onto the grounds a final chance to challenge his of the chinese university is a marked escalation by the police. child sexual abuse conviction. he said they needed to stop people and this is one of the most polluted throwing bricks and other dangerous rivers in the philippines — items from a campus bridge we meet the 13—year—old boy who scavenges for plastic 00:00:55,079 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 in the murky waters. onto passing traffic. by night, that bridge became the front line in a stand—off.

police on one side, protesters on the other, a raging fire in between. 2a hours previously, this place had been completely normal. across the university, protesters and students formed a human chain to supply the front line with water and food. others sat in groups are preparing their supply of weapons. you are sitting here making kind of come up what is a better phrase, petrol—bombs. why we are doing this? because yesterday you know they used real bullets, shooting him right in the chest, and that can kill someone. so if they upgrade their weapons, we need to upgrade our weapons to protect ourselves, too. this scene shows you how drastically the nature of this competition has changed. it started out five months ago with hundreds of thousands of people marching on the streets

in peaceful demonstration. now, at the entrance to a university there is a roadblock on fire, a burned—out car blocking the entrance to this bridge, and around me dozens of protesters in black sitting and waiting, not knowing what's coming next. the start of this week has been different here. the stand—off at the university more dangerous, and in its sixth month now this particular part of the protest felt less like a competition and more like a conflict. robin brant, bbc news, hong kong. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. raging bushfires have damaged properties across parts of australia, and briefly spread to suburbs of sydney. the catastrophic day feared by forecasters has largely been avoided — but 7a uncontained fires are still burning in new south wales. fire chiefs warned that conditions meant the dangers facing the state were far from over. our correspondent phil mercer gave us the latest on the fires from northern sydney. many are still burning

in new south wales and as you say, the catastrophic fire warnings issued for sydney and the surrounding areas have been lifted and for the most part, australia's biggest city has avoided that catastrophe that had been forecast and that is down really down to luck and judgement. and also this military—style firefighting operation that involves thousands of boots on the ground and a squadron of water—bombing aircraft and eastern australia is still gripped by many, many fires and the attention today turns to the northern state of queensland, conditions up there very, very dangerous. so while new south wales can breathe a bit of a sigh of relief today, further north in queensland, it's all hands on deck. it's very much dependent, phil, on what the weather brings in the coming days. well, the forecast is, right across eastern australia in the coming days, it will be warm and windy again.

today here in sydney, the toxic haze that blanketed much of the city yesterday has gone. it's pretty breezy today so relatively cool as well so a bit of respite for the people of sydney who endured that catastrophic fire warning yesterday but spare a thought for other communities elsewhere in new south wales and queensland. they continue to be terrorised by often giant walls of flame and it's worth pointing out that with fires burning in queensland and new south wales, many are out of control and there is a feeling that the next few days could bring yet more perilous conditions. also making news today: the first public hearings in the trump impeachment inquiry begin on wednesday. until now, the testimony has been heard behind closed doors. democrats in the house of representatives are looking at whether the president improperly sought help from ukraine to boost his chances of re—election in 2020. mr trump denies any wrong doing

and house republicans plan to aggressively defend him. bolivia's former president, evo morales arrived in mexico on tuesday, where he was offered political asylum. mr morales said his resignation was forced by a coup and that he left because his life was in danger. bolivia's parliament is expected to swear in senatorjeanine anez as first senate president and later interim president. spain's socialists have signed an agreement with the hard left united podemos bloc to work towards forming a coalition government to resist the far right. it means that acting prime minister pedro sanchez would have pablo iglesias as his deputy. mr sanchez said the deal should last for four years. zimbabwe's central bank has introduced new bank notes. it's an attempt to ease the country's acute cash shortage.

but there are fears it could fuel inflation, in a country where the rate is already about 300%. now have a look at this meteor falling from the sky in missouri — it was captured on a home security camera. the american meteor society says it has received over 120 reports from eight us states from people who say they spotted the object. most sightings were reported in missouri, but people in other states such as illinois, kansas, minnesota and nevada, also registered sightings with the scientific society. australia's high court has agreed to hear an appeal by the vatican's former treasurer, cardinal george pell, against his convictions for child sexual abuse. pell, who's 78, was found guilty of the rape of a 13—year—old choirboy and the sexual assault of another at st patrick's cathedral

in melbourne in 1996. he has always denied any wrongdoing. my colleague shaimaa khalil has more from sydney. remember, mariko, even that bid wasn't guaranteed. we understand before the news came out a little over an hour ago, that when he filed his appeal to the high court on tuesday, it was reported this was not guaranteed that he was going to get a hearing, that this was going to be considered by a panel of 2—3 judges. they were going to make a decision and we have the news that he will indeed get his day in the high court here in australia. we have yet to find out the exact date. we understand it is going to be some time next year, that is going to yet again challenge his conviction. remember, he's serving a 6—year sentence for child sexual abuse of two boys back in the 1990s. this conviction came out back in december. he tried and failed in an appeal

back in august this year when the victorian court of appeal dismissed his appeal 2—1 and he argued the guilty verdict was unreasonably based on testimony of one victim. we will have a clear idea about the grounds of exactly what he's going to with the high court, but it is going to be along similar lines. it means that, yet again, this big high—profile case is going be reopened and looked at again by the judges of the high court. you said high—profile. but it's also very controversial, the case in australia. he is the country's most senior catholic. has there been any public reaction to the latest ruling? not only the country's most senior catholic, he's the most senior, the highest—ranking catholic to ever

be convicted of child sexual crimes, so this has been highly controversial, highly divisive because again, this is a man of such status and of such support, he enjoys a big amount of support here but it was really so divisive, when the conviction came out and also when he failed in his appeal back in august. his supporters maintained that he is innocent, that he deserves to be heard. families of the victims but also families of victims of other cases of abuse have felt vindicated so we are likely to see this kind of division happen again. when this court case is being heard in the high court. it cannot be overstated, his status within the catholic community, notjust in australia but really, in the catholic community around the world. the israeli leader, benjamin netanyahu has warned there could be a protracted flare—up of tension with militants in gaza following israel's killing of a senior islamichhad commander. sirens sounded in ashkelon in the last few hours,

as palestinians militants launched another rocket attack into the israeli city. at least 150 rockets have been fired. and dozens of israelis have been treated for injuries as an indirect result of rocket—fire. israel says air and ground forces hit sites inside gaza throughout the day. the hamas—run, health ministry says, three palestinians have been killed and about 30 wounded in the attacks. translation: whoever thinks they can hit our citizens and evade our long arm is wrong. we've proven we can hit surgically wherever the terrorists hide. whoever harms us, we will harm them. tom bateman has the latest from the israeli—gaza border. well, the firefighters have spent really all of today trying

to douse these flames and as you can see, there is smoke emanating from this building. it is a warehouse that took a direct hit from a rocket fired from gaza. i was speaking to the owner who said it was only really a matter of luck, it was just too early for his staff to have been in the buildings so they had a very lucky escape. as we arrived here, we heard several loud blasts. it has been hard to distinguish the anti—aircraft fire or anti—missile fire from israel's missile defence systems from very powerful air strikes israel has been carrying outjust a couple of miles away on the eastern side of the gaza strip. we've seen smoke rising from some very loud blasts in what has amounted to one of the most serious exchanges of fire between militants in gaza and the israelis in the last 18 months, all starting with that targeted killing of al—ata this morning. the israeli prime minister said he was a ticking bomb, posing an imminent risk to israeli civilians and soldiers and that's why he said this operation took place.

as for the palestinians, the dominant militant group in gaza, hamas, said this action crossed a red line, vowing a response and so we've had rocket attacks from islamichhad all day into israel, air strikes, with israel now targeting militant sites, killing another three palestinians according to officials in gaza. what happens now, i think, in the next few hours or so will be decisive, to see whether or not this escalation continues. the militants in gaza have vowed to resist, to respond. the israelis have said they don't seek an escalation but they are prepared for one. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: we meet the 13—year—boy who searches for scraps in the waters of this manila river — one of the most polluted in the philippines. the bombastic establishment outsider, donald trump,

has defied the pollsters to take the keys to the oval office. i feel great about the election result. i voted for him because i genuinely believe that he cares about the country. it's keeping the candidate's name always in the public eye that counts. success or failure depends not only on public display, but on the local campaign headquarters and the heavy routine work of their women volunteers. berliners from both east and west linked hands and danced around their liberated territory. and with nobody to stop them, it wasn't long before the first attempts were made to destroy the structure itself. yasser arafat, who dominated the palestinian cause for so long, has died. palestinian authority has declared a state of mourning. after 17 years of discussion, the result was greeted with an outburst ofjoy. women ministers who'd long felt only grudgingly accepted in the ranks

of clergy suddenly felt welcomed. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm mariko 0i in singapore. i'm maryam moshiri in london. our top stories: hong kong police warn the rule of law is on "the brink of collapse" as the spiral of violence intensifies. bushfires across much of eastern australia are still burning out of control as some of the blazes reach the suburbs of sydney. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. the gulf news reports on the people who've made the united arab emirates their new home. that's after the 10—year golden visas were granted to a group of scientists, innovators and investors. and the ruler of the emirate of dubai was on hand to welcome them, too. meanwhile, the battle for big data seems to be heating up —

that's according to today's financial times. angela merkel has called on europe to seize back control of citizens‘ personal data from the silicon valley tech giants. the german chancellor wants the eu to claim what she calls its "digital sovereignty". and finally, the japan times looks at how one science lesson led to nobel prize glory. akira yoshino was awarded this year's nobel prize in chemistry. but his journey began when his school teacher gave him an inspirational book on the subject. now, an annual report on the challenges and persecution facing non—religious people around the world says that despite the fact that eight countries have recently abolished blasphemy laws, dozens more retain the crime and some penalties are hardening. the freedom of thought report by the ngo humanists international

says that laws criminalising blasphemy and apostasy — when an individual leaves a religion — are lending a false legitimacy to murder and terrorism. bob churchill told me more about his findings. the report looks at every country in the world for discrimination and persecution against nonreligious people. so amongst the findings are that there are over 80 countries that fit into our worst or very severe category for discrimination or persecution against the non—religious. so that's countries that maybe have blasphemy laws that are punishable with a prison term, or apostasy laws that are punishable by death, and a number of other laws and provisions around family law, for example. so there are countries in the world where if you are an atheist, if you are out as an atheist or if you are accused of being a humanist or a non—religious person, you might have your children taken away from you. so we're talking about very severe and in some cases legal forms of discrimination against people, but also extrajudicial violence by non—state actors,

where people are attacked for essentially voicing their non—religious views of their criticism of religion. so the interesting part of it is — or one of the interesting parts i found is that since 2015, eight countries have abolished the crime of blasphemy, mostly european states. you wouldn't have thought that up to 2015, blasphemy would be against the law in europe. are there still european states that have blasphemy laws? yeah, that's right, sojust this year, greece became the last of those eight to repeal since 2015. but there are still countries like germany, italy, spain, that have laws on the books. we want to reinforce that the general trend in europe and the west has been towards repeal. there are certainly no apostasy laws in the west. but the blasphemy laws — as you say, eight repealed since 2015, and ireland is in the mix at the moment because a referendum last year meant that it's on the way out, but that needs to be legislated on. so the trend in western countries

has very much been to recognise that blasphemy laws lend legitimacy to violence and attacks like the charlie hebdo massacre a number of years ago in paris in 2015. that was cited in all cases as one of the reasons to get rid of the laws, because they seem to be based on the same ideological notion — that there is something so inherently awful about criticising religion that it means that it can be punished, whether it's with extrajudicial violence or through the law. so that's why european states are abolishing them. the concern that we raised in the report this year is that, while that's happening in europe and the west, and countries like new zealand and canada and malta, norway, that have got rid of their blasphemy laws, other countries like brunei and mauritania are increasing the penalties for blasphemy and apostasy, and then states like indonesia and india seem to be prosecuting more around these laws. so we're seeing this growing divide in the world between countries that recognise that blasphemy laws violate freedom of expression, that always violate freedom

of expression, and countries are using these laws to essentially persecute non—religious and religious minorities. now to the philippines, where the country is almost literally drowning in plastic. one study has estimated that the country consumes 163 million micro household goods sachets a day. that's enough to cover the entire city of metro manila one foot deep in plastic waste. much of it ends up in the country's already—polluted waterways, where a trade in scavenging plastic waste has sprung up.

pretty horrendous levels of pollution in the river in manila. you have been watching newsday. i'm maryam moshiri in london. and i'm mariko 0i in singapore. don't go away, though, i will be back with business news. the us president says an initial trade deal with china is close. we will see how financial markets are reacting to the news. yes, and we've been here before, haven't we? quite a few times with president trump. so who knows how the markets will be out, if at all? —— markets will react? and before we go, we'd like to leave you with these pictures. berlin zoo's first panda dad

is having medical treatment. doctors noticed irregularities this past spring and the zoo is now doing everything it can forjiao qing. doctors were able to confirm that one of his kidneys is smaller than the other but decided against any invasive medical techniques so as not to endanger his health. while doctors look after him, his cubs are being looked after by their mum. we always love a cute panda story on bbc news. i can't believe it's your birthday on newsday and you have a sad panda story! but he's 0k, everything going well. —— first day. hello, once again. after so much wet weather in recent weeks, it looks as though wednesday for much of the british isles is going to start at least on a drier, brighter, colder note.

although there's no disguising the fact there is in fact another set of fronts to bring some rain to western areas later in the day. but it's a cold, crisp start — a frosty one for many. a run of showers over the north sea through south—west scotland to the north—west of england. but as you see, even on into the afternoon, many central and eastern areas will end up with a dry, sunny but not overly warm day. now, temperatures down into single figures. where we will see a significant change to the afternoon is rain getting into northern ireland, wales and the south—west of england. and just be advised that in the more intense burst over the moors to the south—west, and the brecon beacons you could well end up with a covering of snow. here we are on into thursday, that same band of weather still producing an awful lot of rain over the southern counties. and as the day progresses, so this more southern future isjoined by a more northern feature and that's the concern, because the rain looks set to return to some of the flood—affected areas. there are already met office warnings out and available on our website.

from thursday on into friday, the big area of low pressure, still close by over the near continent, and it's still a north to north—easterly feed off a cold north sea that will generate an awful lot of cloud across the greater part of england, wales and maybe the southern parts scotland, too. and enough about the cloud for there to be the odd bit and piece of rain. the best of the sunshine across much of northern and western scotland, through northern ireland, the western side of wales, maybe down into the west country as well. but again it is a cold — and underneath those weather fronts — a miserable, dank sort of day. here we are at the start of the weekend. what's changed ? really, not very much at all. the low pressure ever closer toward the south—eastern quarter, still the onshore feed into the eastern side of the british isles. there's still the suggestion of enough cloud for there to be bits and pieces of rain falling from that. no great intensity but of course any rain into some areas is not very welcome at all. here we are as far ahead sunday, no signs of mild air

creeping its way towards the british isles, so sunday is another dank, chilly sort of day. the best of the sunshine perhaps behind a more westerly feature here, out into parts of northern ireland, and still that stripe of thicker cloud all the way from the north—east of england, down through wales, the midlands and on towards the south—west. and again, single figures are the order of the day. so, further rain to come, some hail and snow, often windy and a bit cold, too.

i'm maryam moshiri with bbc world news. our top story: a senior police officer in hong kong has warned that the unrest has brought the territory to "the brink of total breakdown". in the latest clashes between police and pro—democracy protesters, the violence spread to a university campus. tear gas, rubber bullets and a water cannon were used against the demonstrators. raging bushfires have damaged properties across parts of australia and briefly spread to suburbs of sydney.

the catastrophic day feared by forecasters has largely been avoided, but 7a uncontained fires are still burning in new south wales. and these pictures are getting a lot of attention on bbc.com. a meteor has been sighted, blazing through the night sky over the us state of missouri. footage was captured on security cameras as it made its dramatic appearance. that's all.