this is bbc news. the headlines: israel's prime minister benjamin neta nyahu has defeated his rival gideon sa'ar for the leadership of the governing likud party. he will now lead likud into israel's third general election within a year, despite facing criminal charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust. a rescue and recovery operation is under way in the philippines, hit by typhoon phanphone on christmas day. authorities say the storm killed at least 16 people and cut a swathe of destruction through the centre of the country. many more people are missing. firefighters in australia are bracing for a new test with a new intense heatwave expected in parts of the country. close on 3,000 firefighters have been out nearly every day since september. there are still 72 bushfires in new south wales, about half of them burning out of control.

now, what is it like being 17 countries around the world? —— being 17 in countries around the world? being 17 has never been easy. no longerfeeling like a child, but technically not yet an adult. in most countries, you can't drive, drink alcohol or vote. but whether it's just hanging out with friends... ..spending time with family... ..practising religion, going to school, going to work orjust having fun... three, two, one! ..17 is one of our most formative years. we're following five 17—year—olds in five different countries to see how they spend a typical saturday. the nightlife is amazing. from thailand to uganda... when you tell people that we have school six days a week, they are like, "what?!"

..lebanon to russia. what's it like being 17 and is it harder to be a teenager 110w than ever before? for lots of teenagers, saturdays are a day of rest. no school or work and a time to catch up on some much—needed sleep. but for ruth, saturday is just like any other day and work starts early. she lives about a 5—hour drive along the coast from the ghanaian capital, accra, with her 5—month—old daughter. ruth never knew her birth mother

growing up, and with nowhere else to go, she moved here to live with a family friend when her father passed away three years ago. around 1a people live with ruth in this compound in the village and on cooking day, everyone mucks in to prepare, cook and bag the chips ready to be sold. around 9am, it's time for ruth to leave. she will visit three markets today, helping to sell enough bags of chips to support both her and her daughter. south—east of ghana, in the ugandan capital kampala, joy has already been awake for hours.

it's saturday. i'm going to school and i have maths, technical drawing and physics today. joy leaves for school around 6am and it can take about an hour to commute through the heavy kampala traffic. when you go through school, you are more likely to succeed in life. for example, i want to be an architect. there is no way i am going to achieve that except if i do go through school. i do maths, physics and technical drawing and next year i will finish high school and i hope to go to university and study architecture. it starts from this top, then merges to this outermost... technical drawing is the smallest class thatjoy has, but there are still over 50 pupils.

let me give you a rough example here. most people in my family, they are doing arts—related careers and i'm the only one doing this science—related career. so, i chose it for myself. 11,500 miles east, there's no lie—in for yean either. yean‘s the oldest of six, and starts her weekend by helping her parents to look after her younger brothers and sisters.

# and all the roads that lead you there are winding... things are off to a more lively start in lebanon. it's mid—morning and tiffany is off to the beach. lebanon is a perfect mix of europe, arab — it's literallyjust a mix of everything. among me and my friends, we always talk in english, but sometimes we mix it with french and arabic, it's really common to just mix these

three languages together. lebanon is one of the most religiously diverse countries in the middle east with large muslim and christian populations. i'm a christian, personally, and religion here is a really big part of our lives. it's not enforced and it's not as strict as other places. we're serious about it, but it's not like in other cultures where you have to give your life to your religion. i have friends in dubai that can't even go out with guys, but i can tell you that more than 50% of my friends are all guys. it's just really open—minded, i like it a lot. everyone thinks it's dangerous, but to be honest, i'd feel more comfortable, personally, walking in the streets at night here than any other country. so, why do tiffany and her mates think lebanon gets a hard time? civil war between 1975 and 1990 defined the country for a whole generation. and further violence in 2006 means that for many, it still has a reputation

as a troubled nation. i always wanted my children not to go through this, but it seems we are never going to find peace in this region. but it's how close to syria and israel it is that many people find worrying now. in truth, lebanon has been largely peaceful for over a decade, and the capital, beirut, is trying to claim back its reputation as the paris of the middle east. with the warm mediterranean sea down the coast and a bustling nightlife, many visitors see it as a perfect mix of cultures. it hasn't been completely without trouble, though. the murder of british embassy worker rebecca dykes in 2017 made many foreigners in the country feel uneasy and there are some areas, particularly along the border with syria, where the british foreign office advise against all travel. one, two, three!

i think that people that have never come to visit lebanon has a really bad idea because of what they watch on the news. but when people come here, their whole idea changes. it's late morning, and the last 17—year—old to be up and about is katya in moscow. katya has organised a gig for this evening and her friends are the headline act.

the band have travelled on the overnight train from st petersburg and are keen to see some of the moscow sights. russia is the largest country on earth, home to 142 million people. russia is the largest country on earth, home to 142 million people. and it's had a turbulent

relationship with the west for a long time. for seven decades, it was a communist country, and russians had very little contact with people outside. communism ended in 1991, but adapting to a capitalist society has not been an easy transition. still now, fewer than a third of russians have a foreign passport and you don't have to look far to find negative stories about russia in the world's media. more is now known about the substance involved in the suspected poisoning of a former russian spy and his daughter. vladimir putin has been the political face of russia either as the president or prime minister for nearly 20 years, and that means for teenagers like katya, he's the only leader they've ever known. katya's day may only justjust be starting, but forjoy, halfway through the school day, it's break time.

i have school six days a week. i would love to do other things on saturdays of course because you'd love to have that break, but now, the only break i have is sunday, and sunday is also a busy day. sunday is a church day. if i could have a saturday to myself to hang out, yeah, that would be good. i've gotten used to it. it's not so bad. by mid—afternoon, all across the world, it's lunchtime and whether that's some fast food on the beach in lebanon, a burger king in moscow, street food in bangkok or a school lunch in kampala, everyone is tucking in to something to eat. well, almost everyone. for ruth, she is still out selling. sadly, at the moment, the chips aren't selling very well either.

her daughter stays at home with her adoptive mother whilst ruth is working. 20 cedis isjust under £3, oraround $3.80. it means ruth is earning more than the official absolute poverty line of $1.90 a day, set by the world bank, but she is still very poor.

around a quarter of the people in ghana live below the national poverty line. but ghana is considered to be one of the more stable countries in west africa and was the first black african colony to declare independence in 1957. and it's a young country. of the 25 million people living here, 57% are under 25. english is the official language, but other african languages, like twe, akan and the language that ruth and her family speak, bantu, are all common. eventually for ruth, business starts to pick up. but despite a few sales, her takings today are still low.

ruth is no longer with her daughter's father. she says he has never seen his daughter and in her community it's not uncommon for people who have a child outside of marriage to suffer stigma. 0k, three, two, one, go! as the sun sets, tiffany and her mates move to a restaurant overlooking the sea. for dinner, we have tabbouleh, hummus and fatoush, that's usually the lebanese starters. and then we've got lebanese and fish, it is a mix. the lebanese are definitely the most open—minded. i can say that definitely. 0n the news, how they show our country is not how it is. they show violence, we are not violent at all. conversation moves on to how lebanon

compares with other countries. the foundation of everything is family here. that's what they focus on. that's very true. here, people are still 25 and living with their mum and dad. and it's not a problem. and if they get married the wife will usually still live there until they get a house. personally, i had a talk with one of my friends recently about, for the future when we get married and have kids, would we like to live somewhere else or in the country? i pick in the country because we are used to how we were raised here and we know how things work. ijust think that it's the best here. you can do everything. you can have lunch in nature and then go and party in beirut at night. you can do everything and everything is easy and fun. we are very western, i would say. open—minded. i've met people from other countries and they would say, oh, you know drake in lebanon? you listen to music? they think we ride camels and stuff.

when i moved here, they asked if we would have internet and light or live in tents. i moved from australia and they could not believe it. as night falls, 8500 miles away in bangkok, yean is also spending saturday night with her friends. for katya and her friends, it's nearly time for the gig.

seeing her friends from st petersburg has made katya reflect on how different life is for russians living outside of moscow.

by the end of the school day, it's rush hour again in kampala. joy and his best friend mark are walking straight to band practice. their band is called ypf, which stands for youth passion fellowship and is attached to the church. at the moment in the band we are doing mostly covers, but i'm working on some original music. over the years uganda has changed. right now there's more opportunities for women in school and workplaces. writing music is fun for me, and i hate being bored so i do all these things to keep active. the church and my spiritual life are very important to me.

# me love the way you handle me # me love the way you fight for me. # me love the way you do all the things for me. # i love the way you handle the situation # i love the way you fight for me # i love the way you handle my situation... the vast majority, around 85%, of ugandans are christian and spending a lot of time at church is by no means unusualfor a lot of teenagers here. since its independence from britain in 1962, uganda has endured a military coup, a brutal military dictatorship and a five—year war that saw the current president, yoweri museveni, take power in 1986.

it means, for many ugandans including joy, he's the only leader they have ever known. often called the pearl of africa, around 1.3 million tourists visit uganda each year. many come to see the wildlife and go on safari. in recent years the country has been praised for its campaign against hiv and aids but also received a lot of negative international press for taking a hardening stance against the lgbt community. nearly 4000 miles away, music is very important to katya as well. slightly different genre, though. rock music plays.

the world saturday night is well under way. even though she's already allowed to ride a motorbike, yean is hoping her dad will allow her to get a car license when she turns 18. an ambition joy shares. once i'm 18 i will be

able to drive legally. in ghana, ruth is hoping she can soon carry on with her education. as the night sets in, for most, saturday is almost over, but in lebanon the night is still young. usually here in lebanon the night life is amazing, so we won't even get back home before two or three in the morning. this is how we wrap our day. we alljust come here and take some drinks and chill, relax by the beach. it's amazing. the vibe, the people, the music, it's all really good. five teenagers, all on the brink of becoming adults. all from different places, all leading very different lives. but, when it comes to priorities,

teenagers around the world maybe aren't as different as it first appears. i would like to go and study abroad. i will visit other countries. but then eventually i would come back here, come back and stay in uganda. my plan, and i'm pretty sure that most of my friends' plans, is to go to college. here in lebanon, it's not common for us not to go to college.

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, i'm 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? is this a way to save the world's coral from climate change? scientists are trying to grow new reefs in the seychelles. for a leaderfacing criminal charges

of fraud, bribery and breach