on and not saying anything. welcome to bbc news, i'm mike embley. our top stories: in hong kong, just one hundred activists remain inside the university campus stand—off, with supplies of food and drink running out. we will use whatever means to continue to persuade and arrange for these remaining protesters to leave these remaining protesters to leave the campus as soon as possible. the trump administration reverses four decades of us policy, saying israeli settlements in the occupied west bank aren't illegal. prince andrew loses sponsorship from a major international firm following revelations about his relationship with sex offender, jeffrey epstein. and tiny manuscript, but a big price. one of the first works by charlotte bronte is sold for half a million dollars.

we start in hong kong, with activists still under siege inside the polytechnic university. but around 100 protesters, including 50 under—18s, have been led from the buildings as part of a deal negotiated by a group of headteachers. there's been more violence as police try to keep the activists trapped inside. some have tried to escape by abseiling onto the highway. outside the university protesters have tried to break police lines. police responded with rubber bullets and teargas. our correspondent rupert wingfield hayes has the latest. for a few minutes today it looked like the siege of hong kong polytechnic university might end peacefully. the young protesters began streaming

down the stairway that on sunday was set aflame to block the police storming the campus. but seconds later, riot police began firing tear gas grenades, sending the young protesters scattering in confusion. some did not escape. the clear message from the police today — if you surrender, you will be arrested. hundreds of protesters are still holed up inside the university and some of them still preparing for a fight. this young man's brother is one of them. he is 22 years old. he graduated last year in poly university. he was go to the school after work and we reached him by whatsapp. we know he's safe now but he cannot come out because of police forces around the school. he tried to come out last night but not successful. this evening, a small group made another break for it,

abseiling down ropes from one of the university footbridges to a roadway below, and being taken away in motorcycles. as night fell in kowloon, thousands of other protesters began coming onto the streets in support of those still besieged inside the university. soon the streets of kowloon were once again ablaze. down the street behind me here, about half a mile away, is the hong kong polytechnic university, which is still under siege. around it, in many, many places tonight, are scenes like this, of complete chaos, of running street battles between protesters and riot police. this, where we're standing here, is right next to many 5—star hotels. this is the heart of hong kong's tourist and shopping district. trapped in their rooms, tourists gaze down at the scenes below. late tonight, a handful of underage protesters were allowed to leave the university campus. but for everyone else,

the police here are now taking an increasingly hard line. just under an hour ago hong kong's chief executive carrie lam spoke to the media. in the statement she claimed that the presence of people's liberation army troops in the city streets, who had been seen helping to clean up debris left in the wake of the protests, had not been at her request. this involuntary act of the garrison did not come under any provisions in the basic law. it was not in response to my request to. you ask about when we would resort to formally inviting the garrison to help. i would assure you that we remain very confident that we are able to cope with the situation.

she also said that she asked the police to end the siege humanely but also did not rule out the use of force. we have about 200 of these underage teens who have come out of the campus and have been dealt with in a humanitarian manner, so that is something that we will continue to adopt is a very important guideline. the reason i cannot give you an absolute guarantee is because the situation is changing. for arguments sakeif situation is changing. for arguments sake if we were suddenly seeing some very major life—threatening incidents on the campus, then as i said, the police are on the reactive side of. the police have to take necessary action to prevent any tragedies from happening in hong kong. the hong kong chief executive carrie lam hasjust begun making her weekly address. let's speak to our correspondent andrew wood.

what are the main lines you are taking from that? she has as you say, tried to play down the situation, or tried to reduce tension at the situation at polytechnic university where first of all, the protesters have been for three nights there, and she suspect that some of the protesters may not be from the polytechnic university, and she repeated as well, she said it is possible that there are protesters on the age of 18 that could go three, would not be arrested. at the moment the stand—off does seem to be continuing. some protesters actually escaped in the middle of the night, shimmying down robes and so on. i don't see any sign of it. soon. remembered that carrie lam had said on monday, she said that if the protests continue, then that increases the chance that she might have to suspend or cancel the

district elections that are due for the weekend. just a couple of things there, she said of course the underage teens may not be arrested but they will have their personal details noted down. that may worry some. what is the suggestion that the pla garrison were not on the street at her request? this is very much a big embarrassment for carrie lam. the pla have garrisons, and they have always had garrisons in hong kong since the handover in 1997. under the basic law, hong kong since the handover in 1997. underthe basic law, if hong kong since the handover in 1997. under the basic law, if the hong kong government feels a situation is getting under control — out of control, perhaps there is a natural disaster, they can call on the hong kong soldiers of the pla to help. what happened on the weekend is it seems the official story is that the soldiers were actually performing voluntary duties, that they went out on the street voluntarily, a cherub charitable

thing to clean up the streets, the debris left behind when the barricades were overthrown. at the same time it seems to be a rather soft warning, a reminder to the protesters that the garrison is there, and if things get out of control, then perhaps amazing may not be afraid to use those soldiers to try to keep control of hong kong — beijing. to try to keep control of hong kong - beijing. quite a significant move on the facemask band? yes, back in october, carrie lam used emergency powers a bit like the british colonial governors had which had, she thought she still had them, to ban facemask. on monday the high court said that was not compatible with hong kong's basic law, which is the many constitution that hong kong has had since 1997. now the mainland authorities are saying basically thatis authorities are saying basically that is not right, and they feel

that is not right, and they feel that thejudges that is not right, and they feel that the judges have that is not right, and they feel that thejudges have misinterpreted the law and have pointed out that perhaps the law may need to be changed in order to make sure that any ban on facemasks was legally solid. thank you very much for that. the us secretary of state has announced that washington no longer considers israeli settlements built in the occupied west bank to be illegal. the move breaks with 4 decades of american foreign policy. the settlements are widely considered illegal under international law, although israel has always disputed this. palestinians want this disputed territory as part of a future independent state. calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with civilian law has not worked. it has not advance the cause of peace and. the hard truth is they will never be a did traditional resolution to the argument and arguments about who is right and long as a matter of international law will not bring peace and. this

isa law will not bring peace and. this is a complex political problem that can only be solved by negotiations between the israelis the palestinians. the united states remains deeply committed to help facilitate peace and i will do everything i can to help his cause. the united states encourages the israelis and the palestinians to resolve the status of israeli settle m e nts resolve the status of israeli settlements on the west bank in any final status negotiations, and we encourage both sides to find a solution that promotes, protects the security and welfare of palestinians and israelis are like. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu welcomed the news, and said the us review of the legality of west bank settlements recognizes the rights of the jewish people to settle in theirland. translation: people of israel, this isa translation: people of israel, this is a historic day, another great

achievement to our policy. the us administration has now put an end to the lie that settlements are illegal. i think president trump and i thank the secretary of state pompeo. palestinian chief negotiator saeb erekat added that "this is turning the international community from the rules of international law, the rules of solving conflicts by peaceful means, into the rules of the jungle." israeli settlements including in jerusalem are not only illegal under international law, they are war crimes. the statement of pompeo is absolutely rejected and must be condemned because once superpowers, once the trump administration decides to undermine international law, once they become a administration that is pro— israeli occupation, pro— israeli war crimes, this constitutes a major threats to international peace and security. so how does the trump administration explain this u—turn in us policy? here's the bbc‘s north america correspondent, david willis.

the trump administration, the secretary of state may pompeo saying that previous policies as far as this was concerned where inconsistent in his words. the trump administration it was reversing a0 yea rs of administration it was reversing a0 years of policy in regard by declaring that these settlements we re declaring that these settlements were not in breach of international law. now, that puts the united states at odds with the eu, the united nations, and of course american allies in the middle east. as far as the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is concerned, it is music to his ears. his opponent has of course until wednesday to form a government stopper if he cannot do that, there will be a third election in israel and this could play into the hands of benjamin netanyahu, who i might add, has run president trump this evening

to thank him making this move. it is seen as the third pro— israel move on the part of the trump administration, the recognition of jerusalem as the capital of course and the recognition of the annexation of the golan heights earlier this year. you probably are speaking to your colleagues, but palestinian analysts are speaking to oui’ palestinian analysts are speaking to our other correspondence said that international law has not helped very the growth of settlements already has pretty much killed any hope of a two state solution this will not give any hope of the palestinians. the feeling is that it just encourages the annexation, is rarely annexation of the west bank, and this is something that benjamin netanyahu and this is something that benjamin neta nyahu has floated and this is something that benjamin netanyahu has floated in the past on two occasions, before the two election that israel have seen this year, but you are right, there is a feeling that this kills stone dead, any possibility of a two state

solution which has long of course been the approved, favourites template for some sort of peace in the middle east. let's get some of the day's other news four soldiers and two porters have died in an avalanche on the siachen glacier in indian—administered kashmir. the patrol was 5,800 metres up in the himalayas when they were hit. rescue teams managed to pull all the men out and helicopters evacuated seven critically injured. six later died from hypothermia. iranian officials have acknowledged that 12 people have been killed in three days of protests, triggered by a steep rise in petrol prices. other sources suggest the number of dead is higher. authorities say that things are now calmer, but they have imposed an internet blackout that has stemmed the flow of information. thousands of people in bolivia have taken part in a demonstration in the streets of la paz calling for the resignation of the country's interim leader, jeanine anez. supporters of the former president, evo morales, say ms anez has played

a key role in a right—wing coup backed up by the army and the police. more than twenty people have died in protests since mr morales resigned last week and sought asylum in mexico. stay with us on bbc news, still to come — unusually heavy early snowfall and avalanches cut off thousands of people in parts of austria and italy. benazir bhutto has claimed victory in pakistan's general election and she's asked pakistan's president to name her as prime minister. jackson's been released on bail of $3 million after turning himself in to police in santa barbara. it was the biggest demonstration so far of the fast—growing european anti—nuclear movement.

the south african government has announced that its opening the country's remaining whites—only beaches to people of all races. this will lead to a black majority government in this country and the destruction of the white civilisation. part of the centuries—old windsor castle, one of the queen's residences, has been consumed by fire for much of the day. 150 firemen have been battling the blaze, which has caused millions of pounds worth of damage. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: a hong kong politician who has visited besieged protesters at a university campus say they are running out of food and water. more on that now. while the standoff continues, beijing has issued a statement declaring that only it has the authority to rule on hong kong constitutional matters, following a decision by the cities high court yesterday

against a ban of face masks. i spoke about the significance of this statement with danny gittings, a hong kong legal scholar. yes, this is very significant indeed. yesterday, the court in hong kong issued a decision that the anti—facemask law is incompatible with our human rights protection in the basic law, but our constitution here is written by china and china has the ultimate power to interpret it, and today, a working body, a committee, certainly working—level so far, under the national legislator said the court decision was wrong. as i said, it's only a working—level body at the moment and in the past they have issued statements which haven't been followed by action, but there is a general feeling and already some indications that this will be followed by action which would essentially reverse the court decision and would also greatly reduce the power of the courts of the hong kong going forward.

it isn't definitive yet but if it becomes definitive, surely it would, in effect, render all of hong kong's protections, completely conditional on assent from beijing. well, those protections which come from our constitutional document, which is a very large amount, yes, because if it does become official, the courts will no longer then have the power. if you pass a law that takes away freedoms in hong kong, it would no longer be for the courts to decide whether that law was allowed or not, it would be for the national legislator. we do have freedoms protected in other ways in hong kong apart from the china—written constitution and those probably wouldn't be affected, but most freedoms in hong kong are protected through the basic law. briefly if you can, it is surely a profound challenge to the so—called one country, two systems.

do you see there is much the rest of the world can do about it? this idea's been knocking around a long time in china, there have long been scholars in china saying courts in hong kong shouldn't be allowed to do this sort of thing, so the idea isn't new. what is new and very significant is an official statement from part of the chinese state endorsing the idea. we've never seen that before and you can already see it going around the world. it is only a few weeks since the foreign affairs committee in london warned around the possible reputational risk of british judges continuing to sit on our court of final appeal here. a very unusual arrangement. british, australian, new zealand and now a canadianjudge come and visit and sit on the courts here and there were already concerns about whether that practice should continue and i am sure that these latest events will feed into that. in europe, thousands of people have been left stranded after avalanches across northern italy and southern austria cut off towns and villages, leaving them accessible only by helicopter.

one austrian village has been cut off from the outside world since thursday. this report, from rich preston. in the austrian alps, the picture perfect area in east tyrol. but this has been the only way in and out. avalanches have left this town of over 1000 people cut off. two people had to be evacuated with medical emergencies. on sunday, 70 people had to be evacuated after an avalanche hit another nearby village. translation: we had to evacuate people in a village by helicopter. we could only reach there by helicopter. they were flown here to the fire station and lodged in hotels. translation: the situation is so sensitive. we need to get food here, this will be a big problem. at the moment we still have electricity but

tomorrow fresh snow is expected and it will be dark again. we will have a problem. there have been similar problems in south tyrol over the border in italy. over the weekend, the village of martel was covered in snow and more than 900 residents cut off from the outside world. heavy machinery has been brought in. translation: our biggest problem is to free the people. approximately 250 people are closed off stop there are approximately a000 5000 even 6000 two big metres of snow. we have three excavators and lorries. forecasters say the risk of more wet snow avalanches is still high, meaning for now, these villages remain isolated and worse maybe yet to come. rich preston, bbc news. research by brazil's space agency shows deforestation in the amazon is at its highest level in more than a decade — and up 30% on last year. the total amount of trees cleared

in the year to august was almost 10,000 square kilometres, to put that into perspective, around 2,000 football pitches a day. greenpeace brazil's spokesperson for the amazon cristiane mazzetti said she wasn't surprised by the data. this data is the highest since 2008 so it is a very large area, taking into consideration that we should be going towards a little bit less than a00,000 square kilometres. this is the milestone of the government for 2020 which isn't very far away and this is a direct result of bolsonaro's administration's agenda which has been dismantling environmental agencies and policies that should be in place to reduce deforestation. the bolsonaro government would say ans has been saying that this figure really is nowhere near as high as the early 2000 and the years before that, and that he hasn't actually changed any laws. right, it is not as high

as it was back there, but many measures and policies were implemented that dropped deforestation by a little bit less than 5000 square kilometres in 2012, so what bolsonaro has done is he removed, his government removed lots of mechanisms that were there, in place, to reduce deforestation to the prospects are not great for the following years. yes, i was going to ask you, where do you see things going from here? i see that until the government doesn't refer to this anti—environmental agenda and puts in place very concrete and effective policies, we are not going to reduce deforestation. the trend is that it will keep going up. if we look at the alerts for the following period, we can see that from august to october, there was already

an increase of 100% in the area with deforestation alerts, showing there is a trend of deforestation going up and up again. a tiny piece of literary history has sold for more than half a million dollars in paris. it's a miniature magazine by the author, charlotte bronte. lucy williamson has the story. inside this tiny book charlotte bronte covered the world. stories of heroes and adventurers, feuds and love affairs in far—flung corners of the globe. the manuscript called the young men's magazine was written for her brothers‘ toy soldiers. today it sold for three quarters of a million euros to the bronte parsonage museum in howarth. it already has the other four surviving little books. we are absolutely delighted.

i could almost hear the whoops of delight all the way from howarth. it's the second time they've tried to buy this manuscript. the first time they tried and failed in 2011 when it was bought by the collection that is being dismembered here. to finally bring it home for them now is a great moment. packed into these a000 tiny words are early clues about charlotte bronte's literary ideas. in one story she describes a man in a burning bed, a scene that is revisited in her most famous workjane eyre. after a journey of almost two centuries, the little book that allowed charlotte bronte to explore the world outside howarth is finally coming home. lucy williamson, bbc news, paris. and briefly a reminder of the main news. the hong kong legislator that has visited a hundred demonstrators still inside the polytechnic university, visited by police, they

say food and water supplies are unlikely to last another day. thank you for watching. much more on our website. hello there. the largely dry and sunny conditions of the next few days will be very welcome across much of the country, particularly for england and wales which has seen so much rainfall over the past few weeks. this morning we're starting off on a cold, frosty note with some fog around. some of it could be quite dense. it looks like it will stay sunny for many areas through the day. a ridge of high—pressure bringing these fine, settled conditions. this weather front pushing into western areas means that temperatures will be starting on such a cold note, as they will be further north and east. perhaps —9 or —10 degrees in one or two spots in scotland and around —5, —6 for northern england, so a bitterly cold start of the day with a hard frost across the country. dense fog patches through the midlands into southern england, wales, could cause some issues through the morning. they'll tend to lift into low cloud, perhaps drift northwards into parts

of lincolnshire and yorkshire, spoiling the sunshine a little bit here. for most it will be cold and sunny. this weather front bringing outbreaks of rain into parts of northern ireland, western fringes of wales and into the south—west of england where there it will be less cold here, but another chilly day for all. on into tuesday night, picking up more of breeze from the south, so although it starts off cold, by the end of the night, it looks like rural frost will be limited more towards scotland and the north—east of england. still actually start for wednesday. variable amounts of cloud with spells of sunshine too. this weather front across the west will be producing spells of rain for northern ireland, perhaps western wales and in towards the south—west of england. but most places should be dry. temperatures reaching 10 degrees, belfast, plymouth, but still single values elsewhere. now into thursday, subtle change as this area of low pressure, this weather front, just wiggles a bit further east. it could introduce outbreaks of rain through thursday to western parts of england, wales, northern ireland and perhaps south—west scotland. could see just one or two showers moving up the east coast affecting the north—east of scotland. these will be wintry on the high ground. a breezy day with the wind blowing

up from the south—east. again temperatures reaching double figures across the south, maybe 11 or 12 in plymouth. single figures elsewhere, will remain fairly chilly. and dry and bright with sunshine. as we head into the latter parts of the week and into the weekend, low pressure skirts by southern parts of britain and heads on into the central mediterranean but another low pressure system will push into western parts of the country through the weekend, perhaps into the start of next week, bringing very mild air to our shores but also could push some rainfall across more central and eastern parts of the country as well so turning a bit more unsettled into the weekend.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: a hong kong legislator who has visited about a hundred pro—democracy protesters still inside the polytechnic university, which is surrounded by police, has said supplies of food and water are unlikely to last another day. hong kong's chief executive carrie lam has said she has told police to end the siege humanely, and that anyone under 18 will not be arrested. the trump administration has declared that israeli settlements in the occupied west bank — widely seen as illegal under international law — are not illegal. that reverses four decades of american policy. israel invaded the area in 1967 and has since built hundreds of thousands of homes forjewish settlers. the multinational accountancy firm, kpmg, is not renewing its sponsorship of an entrepreneur initiative started by britain's prince andrew. it's understood a major reason is the revelations about his ties to the convicted sex offender, jeffrey epstein.