this is bbc news i'm karin giannone. our top stories: israel's prime minister benjamin neta nyahu declares victory in his party's leadership contest, the final results have just been announced. blocked roads and widespread flooding hamper rescue efforts in the philippines where a typhoon has killed at least 16 people. 15 years after the indian ocean tsunami, how ready are communities if disaster strikes again? the next step is to grow coral on land, tinker around with them until they become resilient to climate change and plant them back.

hello and welcome to bbc news. the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, has declared victory after his governing likud party held a leadership contest. he tweeted: the official result is due in the next few hours, but a preliminary count indicated the long—time party leader was headed for a landslide win. our correspondent barbara plett usher explains the background to this leadership contest. over the past year, there have been two elections and in both of them mr

netanyahu two elections and in both of them mr neta nyahu was an two elections and in both of them mr netanyahu was an able to form a government, he was able to get enough allies who support him to actually create a government that he could lead. hanging over all that was the pending possibility of criminal charges on corruption cases and that, is by the belief, he wants to form a strong government that would grant him immunity. it wasn't able to do that and that hung over his ability to form a coalition government exact made potential allies wary and in november he was actually charged in three cases of corruption. that indictment now is something that has weakened his hand going into the third election. he is very popular there is a lot of loyalty to him but it's beginning to show a crack. when the shows disquiet amongst members. there is a growing amount of support amongst the grassroots, the local party leaders and the concern is that mr

netanyahu leaders and the concern is that mr neta nyahu might‘ve lost leaders and the concern is that mr netanyahu might‘ve lost his magic touch that it wasn't much able to form a government and the government without election, he will be able to form a government and the right wing could lose power and that they could go to the opposition. that's up our seeing in the big thing to watch is by how much mr netanyahu wins. if you win substantially, because what he wants. if he win substantially they will begin his grip on the party. gil hoffman, thejerusalem post's chief political correspondent, outlined what appeals to mr netanyahu's supporters. there are three answers. security, economy, diplomacy. those are three issues people vote on in israel and other well. the economic situation is very good, economic growth and deployment, security situation could be life worse. the diplomaticjewish and, israel has improved ties in recent yea rs and, israel has improved ties in recent years with countries around the world.

a recovery operation is beginning in the philippines after typhoon panphone hit islands in the centre of the country leaving at least 16 people dead. winds of up to 190 kilometres an hour left tens of thousands of people stranded at ports, many unable to join their families for christmas. the pope has prayed for the victims. james waterhouse reports. typhoon phanfone first arrived on tuesday night. with it came winds of almost 120mph, causing devastation and fear. the storm then worked its way over the islands of the central philippines. only today is there a sense of the damage caused. buildings were torn apart, roofs blown off. whole villages were devastated as the typhoon swept through, leaving residents to pick through the debris left behind. it was so powerful, even large boats were overturned.

the philippines is no stranger to tropical storms and typhoons, with around 20 arriving each year. the most powerful one to hit land ever in the world, typhoon haiyan, struck in 2013, leaving more than 6,000 people dead. today, as a country rebuilds, the red cross warns it could take weeks to bring back power and running water. not only that, many people are still missing. james waterhouse, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news. rescue workers in austria and switzerland have been searching for possible victims of avalanches that hit two ski resorts in the alps. swiss police say several people were freed from the snow on a piste in andermatt. seven people died and 64 were rescued after a boat carrying migrants from south asia sank off the turkish coast. it was near bitlis on the northern shores of lake van when it capsized.

firefighting teams in australia, have had some respite over the past few days with lower temperatures but that's about to end with the intense heat returning. since september, close to 3000 firefighters have been out nearly every day battling blaze. almost 90% of those on the ground, are unpaid volunteers. many families in new south wales are spending the holiday season in shelters, their villages and towns, still smouldering from last week's fires. our correspondent, phil mercer, is in bilpin, about 80 kilometres north west of sydney. the physicalfinancial, the physical financial, and emotional cost of these fires has been immense. communities across australia have been terrorised by giant walls of flame. here we have been talking to is this man. he is originally from leven on but has lived here for more than 30 years.

he owns an orchard that was about the damage. he joined he owns an orchard that was about the damage. hejoined the firefighting effort and muscles is life. we thought we were safe. we thought... suddenly came on a five o'clock and the turn of the fire around and it came back towards us. what was most frightening bit) facing it. driving towards it. i can get out of it. obviously i made it through but it's scary. very scary. simon and his family, has been an enormous financial cost, 40% of his farm been lost. for the conditions today in new south wales are helping the firefighting effort is more dangerous days do lay ahead. here in

australia's more probable state, 70 plays a burning but this is a nationwide crisis. there are active buyers in the state of victoria and south australia. i've been speaking to ben shepherd from the new south wales rural fire service, he told me how they are preparing for yet another heatwave. we are expression temperatures decline, coupled with strong westerly winds, dry winds from the centre of the continent, it tends to drive a continent — mugford drive the fires. them standards going to bea the fires. them standards going to be a difficult time, the real thing we need is rain. and there's none of that on the horizon. so difficult few days but are difficult few weeks while we continue to deal with more than 70 fires burning causes of wealth. what difference has the cooler temperatures made over the last few days? i want to enable -- what enabled us to do is to get containment lines build and

undertake some bug burning, that is where we live fires to remove the fuel head of the main fire front so that it needs to continue as conditions allow. it is bizarre to review the back end of the week and injune you review the back end of the week and in june you week, review the back end of the week and injune you week, those opportunities will be limited so have to move back into a firefighting mode. great roger moran some own community centre that deteriorating weather but there is no doubt that over the coming days and weeks with a c that the property threatened and that the home is lost. only as being to the biggest regular, i spoke she weeks ago, however that this that been and what's more like? a lot of your volunteers. it has been an extraordinarily long season. approaching 900 homes that have been lost on most practically eight lives. but by unfortunately at this time of year, many of our members to ta ke time of year, many of our members to take leave and they're using that

leave to go out of the fire ground and assess whether they can. the community response this year has been amazing and people actually preparing their own homes, ensuring they are prepared for any impact. it makes ourjob they are prepared for any impact. it makes our job easier as they are prepared for any impact. it makes ourjob easier as firefighters but have had the support of foreign rescue from other states and filled with this heatwave ripping through a number of states, that's assistance is going to start to diminish. they are in good spirits, they throw up their hand to help and we have a long way to go before the fire season long way to go before the fire seasonis long way to go before the fire season is over. mexico is threatening to take bolivia to the international court ofjustice over what it calls harassment of its diplomatic mission in la paz. the bolivian government is demanding that mexico denies asylum to nine bolivian officials who've taken refuge at the mexican embassy. the two countries have been in a diplomatic spat since mexico granted asylum to bolivian ex—president evo morales after he resigned in

the face of mass protests. the mexican foreign minister insists they will protect the interests of their people in bolivia. we have 10,000 mexican vigor in bolivia that we need to protect. also nine people are seeking asylum and international —— under international law so we are not going to redo our staff. —— withdraw our staff. 15 years ago today, more than 230,000 people were killed in a massive tsunami along the coasts of countries on the indian ocean triggered by a 9.1 magnitude quake off the indonesian island of sumatra. memorial services have been held in indonesia, thailand and sri lanka, which were among the worst—affected countries. since then money has been spent to improve warning systems in the case of similar natural disaster. olivia crellin reports. 15 years and the images of

devastation brought by the indian ocean tsunami are no less shocking. waves as high as 17 metres, killing more than 200 and that thousand people and displacing more than 2 million. by the physical landscape has recovered, and development has returned to thailand and sri lanka and indonesia, among other areas affected, the psychological trauma remains. this person lost both pa rents remains. this person lost both parents and other relatives in that term hit the thai province. i'm still scared, very scared. i want to live somewhere else but is not possible because i was born here. i grew up in. father and mother died here so must remain and live here. sometimes i dream that a wave is

coming. i'm still scared, is an image that scares me when the wave was coming. i can still remember. the disaster was indiscriminate. hitting families from the small fishing village, where interfaith memorial was being held. foreign tourists holidaying and the country ‘s royalty. officials remembered the king's nephew who is seeing — vaccine descant. king's nephew who is seeing — vaccine desca nt. many king's nephew who is seeing — vaccine descant. many bodies were never recovered. her genius on. many people have attributed, to building seismic centres, doubts remain about how many countries are ready for a giant wave. if we count it again, i'm not confident we can handle it. kaiser always ready when it comes to volunteering in a crisis. those

skilled and 20 —— 2004 received no warming dishrag no warming of the waves and no chance to escape. those still living with the threat of a similar disaster hope that by now lessons have been made. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come: the chinese children set on stardom, and the classes teaching them how to be an idol. levels the introduction of the euro.

george harrison, the former beatle is recovering in hospital after being stabbed in his oxfordshire home. a33—year—old man liverpool is being interviewed by police on suspicion of attempted murder. being interviewed by police on suspicion of attempted murderlj think it looks good. it was good? it's fantastic. that's better. big ben bongs this is bbc news. the latest headlines: israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, retains his leadership of the governing likud party. the official result has just been announced. rescue and repair operations

continue in the philippines after a powerful typhoon left at least 16 dead and tens of thousands stranded. the seychelles off the coast of east africa is setting itself up as a hub for marine preservation. with over half of the world's reefs already lost because of rising sea temperatures, could this tiny archipelago hold the key to saving these animals from extinction? bbc africa's catherine byaruhanga has been finding out. they're called the reef rescuers. atina and chloe work in the indian ocean trying to find ways of saving the world's dying coral. today, they're checking on their nursery. it's a man—made coralfarm and one of the biggest in the world. this is a large—scale coral reef restoration project. the nursery that we use is a rope nursery. so, our coral fragments are actually placed inside a rope and then they are hung mid—water.

over half the world's reefs have already been lost because of climate change. coral gets its colour and its energy from the algae which live inside it. as the water gets warmer, though, the algae becomes toxic, so the coral evicts it. this is called bleaching. with its food source expelled, the coral often die. from the nursery, the small coral are brought down and cemented to the ocean floor. within minutes, fish swim to what the reef rescuers call super coral. our coral gardening methodology identifies resilient colonies by visiting reefs shortly after bleaching events and looking at which colonies have survived, and have some level of confidence that they are resilient and will make our restoration site resilient forfurther climate change events. the nursery is also an open water classroom. from the surface, i can see hundreds

of coral beneath me. scientists have come from all over the world to learn how it's done here. this technique has already been taken to countries like colombia and the maldives, and next are kenya, tanzania and mauritius. the reef rescuers‘ project was born here on cousin island, a thriving world—class nature reserve. cousin island was the desired prize... it was set up by nirmal shah. he's been running conservation projects here for over three decades and he's already thinking about the next big idea. so, all these experiences we've learned from scratch, ok? we know the entire technique now. so the next step is to grow corals on land, tinker around with them until they become resilient to climate change and plant them back.

scientists predict most of the world's coral will be gone by 2050. innovation might be the only way to preserve them. catherine byaru hanga, bbc news, the seychelles. spanish police have named a british holiday maker who died at costa del sola christmas eve. the family had been staying at the club costa world resort. an investigation into what happened is under way. the owners of the hotel have described it as a tragic accident. lana wilkinson reports. this is gabriel diya, the 52—year—old father who died trying to rescue his daughter. and here he is with nine—year—old comfort. they were on a family holiday

when on christmas eve, she got into difficulty in this hotel swimming pool. despite her father's efforts, she also died, as did her 16—year—old brother, praise—emmanuel, who also tried to help. postmortem examinations confirmed that all three drowned. a 14—year—old girl, the children's sister, raised the alarm. today in south—east london, neighbours of the family have been speaking of their shock. they were just beautiful, lovely people. i'm absolutely devastated. i cannot... i'm still trying to get it in my head that this has really happened to them. it's just so cruel. it's just so unfair. yes, it's shocking, shocking, to hear somebody died by drowning, especially, who went for holiday. it is a bit shocking. mr diya was a parish pastor. one of the churches he was associated with has paid tribute, saying their thoughts were with his family and friends at this difficult time.

the foreign office says it's continuing to support a british woman in spain, thought to be the children's mother, and the resort has tonight said it is continuing to fully co—operate with authorities and offer any assistance it asks for. it also says it's helping support bereaved family members. the hotel owners have described the incident as a tragic accident, and say the investigation found no concerns relating to the pool or procedures in place. but questions remain as to precisely what happened to a father and his two children on their christmas holiday in spain. helena wilkinson, bbc news. tu rkey‘s turkey's constitutional court has ruled the ban on wikipedia in the country is illegal. the court said that it violates rights of freedom of expression, and ordered that it be lifted. the turkish government barred the online encyclopaedia in 2017, because of entries which suggest that turkey cooperated with what it called terrorist

organisations in syria. danny aeberhard, europe regional editorfor the bbc world service, explained the significance of the ruling. it's unusual that the constitutional court will rule against the government. it doesn't happen too often. now, the turkish government we re very often. now, the turkish government were very annoyed at wikipedia because of some of the entries on its site. they suggested the turkish government supported terrorist groups inside syria, groups such as islamic state, that is obviously something the turkish government rejects out of hand. and the turkish telecommunications watchdog used its powers to close or ban websites on the grounds of obscenity or on the grounds of national security to shut it down. wikipedia has now been fighting for 2.5 years to restore access to the sides for the 80 million or so turks who can use it —— sites. in china, pop stars who are young, mostly female and highly trained

in singing and dancing are attracting billions of views online. now, inspired by their idol‘s success, children are trying to do just the same. some even spend their weekends training with special agencies to give themselves every chance at a shot of stardom. but how likely are they to succeed?

the chinese children being trained for stardom. you can reach me on twitter, i'm @karinbbc. from the rest of the team, goodbye for now. hello there. after the dry and often bright weather of christmas day, boxing day brought a return to something wetter. certainly rather damp for a weather watcher at southport on merseyside. not like that everywhere. scotland had the lion's share of the bright and dry weather. this is what is going on as we start friday. it's taking a bit of rain with it, but also as the name suggests, introducing some warmer, or at least milder air, which will be wafting its way up from the south. secular western areas feeling

the effect of that as we go through the effect of that as we go through the day ahead. so, we start the morning with a outbreaks of rain drifting across scotland, some of that rain getting into northern england as well, putting it eastwards. another frontal system bringing rain back into western scotla nd bringing rain back into western scotland and northern ireland to the day. elsewhere, generallya scotland and northern ireland to the day. elsewhere, generally a lot of cloud around but generally it will be dry. some glimmers of brightness here and there, sub— temperatures in single digits across eastern areas of england, but further west, 12 degrees for belfast, stornoway and plymouth. quite windy across the north—west of the uk, particularly western scotland. then as we got the friday night we will see another positive rain putting back across northern ireland, northwards across scotland. for england and wales cricket board phenomenally dry. simply as bells, generally a lot of cloud on what will be quite a mild night. i think the vast majority will stay frost—free. so, the saturday morning then still frontal systems running up towards the north—west, there will be positive rain at times, but high pressure close to the east and south of the uk keeping things fine and dry here.

still, rather cloudy for many of us on saturday, some glimmers of brightness again developing, i think particularly across the southern england and south wales through the afternoon. for northern ireland and scotla nd afternoon. for northern ireland and scotland i think we will see some outbreaks of rain, some of that will be happy over heels in the west but notice that mild theme, temperatures 9-12, notice that mild theme, temperatures 9—12, maybe 13 degrees. and if there night into sunday and at this stage we are likely to bring some slightly drierairupfrom the we are likely to bring some slightly drier air up from the new continent. so more sunshine to come across england and wales cricket board northern ireland and also the south—east of scotland. still simmering to the north—east of scotland, but with those southerly winds, those temperatures up to 11, 12,13, winds, those temperatures up to 11, 12, 13, maybe for the moray firth for example, could see around 40 degrees. and then we head into the last couple of days of 2019, we stick with that relatively mild theme, a lot of dry weather, still some rain up towards the north—west.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, has defeated his rival, gideon saar, for the leadership of the governing likud party. he will now lead likud into the country's general election, due in march. mr netanyahu's victory came despite being charged with fraud, bribery and breach of trust. a rescue and recovery operation is under way in the philippines after a devastating typhoon which hit the country on christmas day. the authorities said phanfone killed at least 16 people and cut a swathe of destruction through the centre of the country. many people are missing. firefighting teams in australia are preparing for renewed activity with the expected return of intense heat in parts of the country. there are currently 72 bushfires in the state of new south wales, about half of them burning out of control.