the latest headlines. israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, has deleted his rival, for the leadership of the governing likud party. he will now lead the party into the third general election in a year. it is due in march. the contest has been a hold of his system power. he faces criminal charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust. a rescue and recovery operation is under way in the philippines. authorities say the storm killed at least 16 people and cut a swath of destruction through the centre of the country. many more are missing. firefighting teams in australia are bracing for renewed activity, with expected return of intense heat in parts of the country. there are currently 72 bushfires just in the state of new south wales. about half of them are burning out of control.

spanish police have named a british holidaymaker and his two children who drowned in a simple in the costa sol on christmas eve. gabriel diya who was 52 and from london died with his 16 year—old—son, praise—emmanuel and his 9—year—old daughter comfort. an investigation into what happened is underway. helena 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. 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. forfive months, huge protests have rocked hong kong. hundreds of thousands of people taking on the authorities now on bbc news, one of the highlights of the year from our world. for much of 2019 protests have rocked hong kong, pitting hundreds of thousands of young, idealistic demonstrators against the authorities and the might of china. in november our world told the stories of some of those involved — and a warning this programme contains some flashing images. forfive months, huge protests have rocked hong kong. hundreds of thousands of people taking on the authorities and the might of china.

so why are they risking so much? in an ever more violent battle. and how will this struggle and for ordinary hong kongers? and how will this struggle end for ordinary hong kongers? our city is really under chaos, right now, we are within the flame.

bobby and joyce, not their real names, are monitoring police movements. they are constantly on social media, feeding the information to a hub that shares it with the crowds. part of a sophisticated web that makes these protests so hard to police and control.

bobby is a veteran of the last big demonstrations in hong kong five years ago, but he has never seen anything like this. since june, hundreds of thousands of protesters have been out on the streets in hong kong stubbing the demonstrations were sparked by a proposed law change allowing the extradition of hong kongers to face trial on mainland china.

but they morphed into a movement demanding democracy, and an end to the steady erosion of rights. in an atmosphere of distrust and fear, protesters are wary of revealing their identity, and some have special reason. gearing up is someone we are calling eson. protected from police eyes by the protesters' main weapon, the umbrella.

the so—called valiant account at the police on the line of the protest. eson‘s team is in downtown hong kong. they are holding territory from the police while the demonstrators march past.

the black flag is the police‘s warning they are about to use tear gas. and in response, the protesters light their barricades.

it's notjust the politically active out on the streets. holly is a professional nurse, and for months, she has been supporting the protesters after her long shifts at the hospital.

holly is one of many dedicated first aid volunteers who come out on a regular basis.

violence has been steadily on the increase. police regularly deploying rubber bullets and tear gas, resorting to brutal violence on empty undergrounds. protesters storming buildings and taking on the police on the streets. meanwhile, the authorities have been slow to respond to the protesters demands, preferring to condemn their actions. violence is not a solution to any problem. violence will only breed more violence, and at the end of the day, the whole of hong kong and the people will suffer as a result of the loss of law and order in hong kong.

unable to counter the superior force of the police, protesters have found inspiration in martial arts legend and hong konger, bruce lee's mantra, be water. if you put water into the cup, it becomes the cup. put it into the teapot, it becomes the teapot. water can flow or creep or drip or crash! be water, my friend.

bobby has heard things are turning violent just few blocks away. we just saw the protesters have been breaking the glass, so there are protesters inside the station.

their accusations that the network is enabling police violence. the police response might be heavy on ordinary protesters — time for them to be water, and withdraw. the government eventually withdrew the extradition bill but protesters feel the authorities have not sufficiently engaged with their demands.

frustration and anger over the police‘s use of force means the crowds keep coming onto the streets. and as darkness falls, the chances of violent confrontation increase. frontliners are preparing molotov cocktails. eson has his brick at the ready. one of many prepared by the crowd to throw at the police. but for many protesters,

resorting to violence is a moral dilemma. the protesters moved out

from the commercial city centre. there has been sporadic violence across the city. we're heading out to a district further east. there's been trouble between the protesters and local residents. north point is home to a large pro—china population. fights have broken out. finally, a man accused of attacking the protesters is badly beaten up. by the time bobby arrives, the protesters are confronting a group of locals they accuse

of being members of criminal gangs. blamed in the past for siding with the police. the situation in hong kong is slipping further out of control. over in beijing, the chinese state is celebrating its national day.

this year, the 70th anniversary of the people's republic of china. a projection of unity and might. in hong kong, there are rumours of a heavy crackdown planned by the security forces. six demonstrations are planned over the day. eson goes to one of the city's hot spots, admiralty. quickly, tensions begin to mount. chanting

eson is in a group of around 50 protesters who advance on the police positions. gunfire holly and her team are in the thick of it as the crowd retreats. holly's team is one of several in the area, all in touch on social media.

many people are suffering the effects of tear gas. and it's notjust protesters. bewildering running battles last throughout the day. there's been bad news. an 18—year—old boy has been shot in the chest by a police officer.

the scout, bobby, is also out. national day saw a large rise in violence by the authorities. unable to counter the force, some protesters are beginning to talk of something almost apocalyptic, called laam chau. usually translated as "if we burn, you burn with us." mutual destruction. chanting

but for holly, the escalation of violence and refusal of the authorities to give ground make her question what she can achieve.

hong kong's protests seem to have gained a momentum of their own. and neither side knows where they will end.

hello there. after the dry and often bright weather of christmas day, boxing day brought a return to something wetter for many of us. this was the scene for a weather watcher at southport on merseyside, quite a lot of rain here. but it wasn't like that everywhere, parts of northern scotland had the lion's share of the bright and dry weather. and i think more of us will get to see some dry weather over the next few days. a lot of cloud around, and with that it is going to feel milder. this is what's going on as we start friday. this warm front moving its way north

eastwards, 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. particularly, i think, western areas feeling 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, pushing its way eastwards. anotherfrontal system bringing rain back into western scotland and northern ireland through the day. elsewhere, generally a lot of cloud around but generally it will be dry. some glimmers of brightness here and there, top 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 pulse of rain putting back across northern ireland, northwards across scotland. for england and wales it's predominantly dry. some clear spells, 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, so 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. but still, rather cloudy for many of us on saturday, some glimmers of brightness again developing, i think particularly across the south of england and south of wales through the afternoon. but for northern ireland, for scotland, we will again see some outbreaks of rain, some of that will be heavy over hills in the west but notice that mild theme, temperatures of 9—12, maybe 13 degrees. and it stays mild into sunday and at this stage we're likely to bring some slightly drier air up from the near continent. so more sunshine to come across england and wales, northern ireland and also the south and east of scotland. still some rain to the north—west of scotland, but with those southerly winds, those temperatures up to 11, 12, 13, maybe for the moray firth for example, could see around 1a 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.

welcome to bbc news. my my name is mike embley. our top stories: israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu retains the leadership of his likud party and will lead it into march's general election. 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? and is this a way to save the world's coral from climate change? scientists are trying to grow new reefs in the seychelles.