this is bbc world news today. our top stories: a man accused of stabbing five people during hanukkah in new york, is charged with federal hate crimes. his family say he suffers from mental illness. a cyprus court convicts a 19—year—old british woman of lying after telling police she'd been gang—raped by 12 men. bolivia expels mexico's ambassador and two spanish diplomats, accusing them of interfering in the country's affairs. and we speak to greta thunberg about life as a teenage activist — and the challenges ahead. i am being listened to and we, climate activists, are being

listened to but that doesn't mean that what we are saying is translated into action. hello and welcome to world news today. prosecutors in new york have filed federal hate crimes charges against a man accused of stabbing five people at a hanukkah party on saturday. the knife attack at a rabbi's house in new york state. the suspect‘s lawyer says his client had a history of mental health issues. it's important to say to the members of the community and law enforcement that what from i understand to this date, this is the action of an individual who for a long time has been compensated, he's been treated in mental health facilities.

the bbc‘s michelle fleury has been following developments from new york and has more on the reaction to those comments from the suspect‘s lawyer. i think you have got the family speaking through their lawyer, michael sussman, who is representing grafton thomas, the man accused of entering a rabbi's home over the weekend and stabbing five people. he has been saying that his client suffers from mental illness and hospitalisation and that is what is behind the attack. that being said, if you listen to authorities, they ta ke if you listen to authorities, they take a different view. the governor, andrew cuomo, wants tougher sanctions on domestic terrorism and now you have federal prosecutors essentially charging him with hate crime. basically they filed five charges today in the southern district of new york accusing him of obstruction of free exercise of

religious beliefs involving the attempt to kill and use a dangerous weapon. this is in addition to state charges which grafton thomas pleaded not guilty to on sunday. talk to us a little bit about where this took place to put it in context for our global viewers. it is place to put it in context for our globalviewers. it is north place to put it in context for our global viewers. it is north of new york city where i am right now, in rockland county. there has been a growing hasidic community there, orthodox jewish community, and growing hasidic community there, orthodoxjewish community, and has been some between the community and the other residents there. some of it is overdevelopment, some of it over taxes but it has inflamed tensions and so there was some question about whether or not this is part of this rise we are seeing in anti—semitic behaviour in that pa rt in anti—semitic behaviour in that part of the world where the community is concerned about safety. this being said, this is a gentleman who lived about 20 miles from rockland county, it is a suburban area, and he allegedly, according to

investigators, had been researching places where there were jewish prayer houses, he was looking up places in staten island, in new jersey and we are still trying to understand more of the motivation, but a journal that investigators recovered seems to be shedding some light in which he made references to hitler and to israelites. so this is something that investigators will be poring over in more detail to try and ascertain his motivation. bolivia's new government has ordered the mexican ambassador and two spanish diplomats to leave the country. mexico gave asylum to former president evo morales after he was ousted last month. bolivia says spanish officials tried to extract an aide of mr morales who had taken refuge in the mexican embassy, accusations madrid strongly denies. president anez has given the diplomats 72 hours to leave.

the constitutional government that i preside over has decided to declare persona non grata the mexican ambassador, the spanish counsel and the group of allegedly mass diplomats. i am the group of allegedly mass diplomats. iam requesting the group of allegedly mass diplomats. i am requesting them to leave the country within a 72 hour period. this group of representatives of the government of mexico and spain has seriously injured the sovereignty of the people and constitutional government of bolivia. our correspondent will grant is in mexico city, who describes the relationship between bolivia and mexico as "broken". let's start at the beginning which was the resignation under duress from the military of evo morales. he came here to mexico city where he was granted asylum by the mexican government. that angered the government. that angered the government in bolivia who are also angry at the way the mexicans have

been dragging their heels over recognising their legitimacy. but specifically they accuse the mexican embassy of housing and giving refuge toa number of embassy of housing and giving refuge to a number of evo morales a's ministers who they say should face charges ranging from sedition to terrorism. that really is the kernel of how this situation unfolded. around those embassy buildings and the ambassador ‘s residence a number of police were posted, there was a ramping up of the security presence and that caused mexico to protest to what was happening outside the embassy buildings. now we see that it has slid further the relationship with this declaring of persona non grata of the mexican ambassador to la paz. as if bolivia and mexico if that were not complicated enough, let's bring spain into the picture as well. the spanish government declared three bolivian diplomats persona non grata in this tit—for—tat move as some people are calling it. describe the significance of that particular

aspect. that is surprising in a sense that i would not have thought that bolivians would want to extend this any further than i bilateral dispute between them and mexico but it is now bringing in other countries. spain in this instance. what happened was a group of spanish diplomats went to the mexican embassy, presumably to hold talks with the ava rally ‘s ministers inside with the mexicans, and the government, the interim government in bolivia say those who turned up we re in bolivia say those who turned up were masked and armed, that it was very threatening. that seems an odd situation. obviously madrid denies that and says it was a routine visit by some of their diplomats to some of their diplomatic friends. exactly who we believe in this instance is ha rd to who we believe in this instance is hard to say. a19 year—old british woman has been found guilty by a court in cyprus of lying about being raped by a group of tourists. she was arrested after withdrawing a claim that she was attacked by 12 israeli men at a hotel in the resort

of ayia napa injuly. our europe correspondent kevin connelly has the story. when these legal proceedings began, the young british woman at the heart of the case was a victim, making a complaint of rape. she came to court today to be found guilty of making a false statement about what the law in cyprus says was an imaginary crime. her lawyers say both the police investigation and the court process were flawed. we believe that there have been many violations in the procedure and the right to a fair trial of our client have been violated. we are planning to appeal the decision to the supreme court, hoping that our client will find justice in cyprus, at least from the supreme court. these are the young israeli tourists who originally faced accusations that they had raped the young woman. they were freed and allowed to fly home after she

retracted the allegation. but she says she only changed her story about the young men because she was put under huge pressure by police, questioning her when she was vulnerable. her defence team are likely to base their appeal on the way they say she was questioned for eight hours without access to a lawyer and then coerced into agreeing that her claims were false. women's rights activists outside the court argued that the young women was a victim, not a criminal. some wore scarves showing lips stitched together — a reminder, they say, that women's voices are not being heard. they say this case is not over. translation: we are here to show our support and solidarity to the victim of this process. the young woman, who has now been convicted, hasn't been allowed to leave cyprus sincejuly. she's been told she will be sentenced on january the 7th, when she could be jailed for a year.

kevin connolly, bbc news. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the iraqi prime minister, abdul mahdi, says us air strikes on what he called "iraqi armed forces" were a violation of sovereignty. iran has condemned the attacks, which it claims left at least 25 members of an iranian—backed iraqi militia force dead. facilities in iraq and syria were targetted on sunday, in retaliation for attacks on bases used by american troops. dense fog has swept across parts of northern and western india. it's being blamed on cold weather combined with pollution. the conditions have led to disruption on roads and rail, and hundreds of flights have been cancelled. the country's meteorological authority says the north of the country, including the capital, delhi, is experiencing one of its coldest spells in well over a century. firefighters in australia are facing another day of extreme

conditions as the nation battles one of its worst ever bushfire disasters. in victoria, there are reports that hundreds of people are stranded on a beach in mallacoota as a fast—paced bushfire approaches the town. further north along the coast in new south wales, residents are also evacuating their homes and seeking refuge in bigger towns or on the beach. from sydney, shaimaa khalil reports. this is what scorching temperatures, strong winds and thunderstorms have done to vast areas of the state of victoria. with blazes rapidly expanding and firefighters rushing to control them. as the temperatures soar to the mid—40s and the winds change direction, some fires were too fast and too big to contain. officials said the wind—driven flames were racing towards the coast and had moved faster than predicted. what we've seen up until today is more than 70 new fires in the state.

more than 20 of those are going fires at the moment. we have got a long way to go. we're only part way through the day in terms of the fire risk to the state and to our communities. the east gippsland region is a popular tourist destination, and it has seen the worst of the fires. thousands of holidaymakers and residents have heeded the authorities' calls to evacuate earlier in the day, trying to beat the speeding blazes in the area. so we decided last night to leave nungera — our family farm, leave there, because it takes so long to get the 30 of us anywhere at once. and yeah, evacuated here, so that we were all safe for the day and see how it all pans out, i guess. it's hot and windy and there's a lot of smoke about and a lot of fires still going, so i'm best off camping down here until it's all over, i think. in new south wales, a volunteer firefighter died battling a blaze. two others were taken

to hospital with burns. this, as the state braces itself for another heat wave. in sydney, just hours ahead of new year's eve, the city's renowned celebrations have sparked a debate. temperatures are expected to rise above a0 celsius in parts of new south wales for tuesday. already, there are nearly 100 fires raging across the state, with the biggest ones surrounding sydney. this is why the issue of fireworks has been so controversial this year. nearly 300,000 people signed a petition saying it's just not the right thing to do, given the bushfire crisis. and while other areas and towns around the city have cancelled theirs, the famous sydney new year's eve fireworks are going ahead as planned. with weather conditions set to worsen throughout the country's hot, dry summer, australia heads into the new year under relentless fire threats. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, sydney.

stay with us on bbc world news, still to come: a scientist — who was condemned globally when he announced the creation of the world's first gene—edited babies — has beenjailed in china. we'll discuss the case with a bioethics lawyer.

this is bbc world news today. the latest headlines: a man accused of stabbing five people during hanukkah in new york, has been charged with federal hate crimes. a british teenager has been convicted by a cyprus court of falsely claiming she was raped by a group of israeli tourists. her lawyers say she will appeal. a chinese scientist who claimed he'd created the world's first gene—edited babies has been jailed for three years and fined more than $400,000. he jiankui was condemned

as unethical when he announced his experiments in november 2018. he said he was trying to make two twin babies, lulu and nana, immune to the hiv virus, but research later showed that he may have given the babies a mutation that significantly shortens their life expectancy. josephinejohnston is the director of research at the bioethics research organisation the hastings centre. great to have you with us. when you saw this sentence was given, what was your first thought? what do you think china is trying to do?” was your first thought? what do you think china is trying to do? i did interprets this sentencing as a message from china to the rest of the world that they have a strong research infrastructure and that they will take violations of research ethics seriously. i think that was the main message they were trying to send. what about him though, he was as i understand it a

rising star within china and within research. how do you understand his role shall we say within the scientific community and what the sentence means? he actually was a rising star and he was recruited back to china from the us where he had been studying, where he had a and he was recruited under a big programme china was using to bring talent back to china to boost their scientific research. he really was a star and my impression of him for watching the videos that he created when he was getting ready to announce the birth of the first twins whose genomes he had edited, was that he was actually very optimistic and a bit i think naive about what he was doing. he was expecting to be heralded as a hero, someone expecting to be heralded as a hero, someone who is leading a scientific breakthrough. actually akin to the

two pioneers who invented in vitro fertilisation, so he was really modelling himself on them and thinking of himself as somebody doing great good. and then i think was really shocked that the international scientific community did not greet the news of the birth of those twin girls as being a wonderful accomplishment but actually with pretty widespread condemnation. do you think china have the same level of condemnation as other countries? i think it is really ha rd to as other countries? i think it is really hard to know what the chinese position was on the research before it was announced or even right when it was announced or even right when it came out, but certainly in response to following widespread condemnation, it was clear action by the chinese government to prevent any more research happening in this way and also a past some new laws and some new research regulations

subsequent to the november 2018 announcement on the birth of those twins. they have taken steps to strengthen the infrastructure subsequent to it. thank you very much. sarah has all the sport. good evening. david moyes says he aims to give west ham no choice but to extend his 18 month contract, after being appointed as the club's manager. he kept the club in the premier league in his first stint in charge, a six month spell as caretaker manager, two years ago. he returns to replace manuel pellegrini who was sacked after saturday's defeat by leicester. and moyes believes he still has plenty to offer the club as jo currie reports. when you are struggling at the wrong end of the premier league table sometimes it is best to turn to what or who you know. david moyes back at the club he rescued from relegation in 2018. and with the same remit. you are getting a very experienced premier league manager. there are only two or three

who have more experience. i will get the biggest win rate out of a certain amount of managers as well, so i think if you are putting it that way, that is what i do. iwin. moyes made his name in the top flight at everton where they spent 11 years but then went on to last ten months at manchester united in 2013 before being let go and relegated with sunderland. but after the failed appointment of manuel pellegrini, west ham have come calling once again. david moyes never wanted to leave west ham in the first place despite gunning them to safety in 2018. the club's owners decided not to renew his contract, instead opting for the high calibre manager of manuel pellegrini. now moyes returns with a point to prove. you got rid of him at the end of the season, why bring him back 18 months later? if he can do thejob, good on him. new manager, new start, let's get behind him and support

west ham like we should. and the hard work starts now for moyes with west ham one point above the relegation zone and due to host bournemouth on new year's day. football's law—makers say var shouldn't be "too forensic" when it comes to offsides — and should only be used to reverse "clear and obvious" errors. lukas brud, general secretary of ifab, which sets out the laws said: "with var we see some things that are going in a direction that we may need to re—adjust." five goals in the premier league were ruled out at the weekend for marginal offsides, leading some managers and players to criticise the system. brighton manager graham potter weighed in today — suggesting referees and linesman could be replaced by drones and artificial intelligence. the next thing we are going to do is get rid of the referees, get rid of the linesmen because we want everything so correct. i don't understand why we want that. but if we want everything so correct, in the end just

do away with linesmen, referees, put drones up, use computers, artificial intelligence. i am sure they will get all the decisions correct but i don't think anyone will like football any more. football at times is unfair but that is what is so good about it, it is like life. sometimes you get on the wrong end of a decision and you to get on with it and i think if we take that away from the game, we are changing the game. india will compete at the birmingham 2022 commonwealth games after fears its athletes could boycott the event when shooting was omitted from the schedule. the announcement comes after commonwealth games federation officials held talks with indian representatives in new delhi. india was unhappy after shooting — a sport it traditionally performs well in — was dropped as a medal event. that's all the sport for now nuala. thank you. some breaking news now

there are unconfirmed reports that carlos ghosn, the former head of renault has arrived in lebanon apparently in violation of his bail conditions in japan. he was arrested in 2018 and charged with corruption. his strict bail conditions meant he could not leave his home or see his wife. local media are reporting that he arrived in beirut on a privatejet. the 16—year—old campaigner greta thunberg has said she wants to go back to school as soon as she can. she's been talking to the bbc at the end of a year in which she became known around the world for spearheading a youth movement pressing for more action on climate change. mishal husain went to stockholm to meet her. she's the girl who galvanised children to go on strike from school, and people of all ages to march, pushing for more action to control a warming world. it's a mission that has taken greta thunberg around the globe, becoming a distinctive, but also a divisive figure. i haven't really grasped what's happened during this last year. i am being listened to,

and we climate activists are being listened to, but that doesn't mean that what we are saying is translated into action. she spoke at the recent cop25 un climate talks in madrid, part of the system under which countries make pledges to cut carbon emissions. with the next summit taking place in glasgow, she wants the british government to make sure it succeeds. since the cop25 failed, that just puts co p26 into a different light. we, and they, must do everything they can to make sure that it doesn't fail. it was outside the swedish parliament in stockholm that greta's activism began, as she sat with a sign saying, "school strike for climate." she is still only 16, and her high—profile has meant scrutiny and criticism. some see her as unrealistic, a teenager who ought

to be in school. on that, she can agree. i hope i don't have to be a climate activist anymore. i am really looking forward to going back to school and to just be like a normal teenager. but of course, this isn't normal. . .situation. and we must all do things that we may not feel comfortable doing — we need to step out of our comfort zones. us movie star zac efron says he's "bounced back" after contracting a serious illness while filming a new tv show in papua new guinea about surviving the dangers of the jungle. efron is believed to have contracted typhoid. he was flown to brisbane in australia for treatment. he thanked his fans for reaching out and said he still managed to have three amazing weeks in the remote island nation. don't forget you can get in touch with me and some

of my team on twitter... thank you for watching today. hello. it has been another mild day across hello. it has been another mild day a cross m ost hello. it has been another mild day across most of the uk. but in the short term we are expecting a touch of frost tonight across the northern half of the uk, scotland, northern ireland and northern england. the last 2a hours we have seen this weather front streaming in out of the subtropics, pushing a mild air in our direction which has been spreading across many parts of europe but now this weather front will be sinking southwards and the colder air that is in the north atla ntic colder air that is in the north atlantic will push into scotland, northern ireland and also the north of england. the winds will also for

light, the skies will clear so that will allow temperatures to dip away. in some of the major cities, belfast, glasgow, edinburgh and newcastle, temperatures close to freezing or even below, but in the south, it will be a good deal milder. in fact in plymouth, around 8 degrees early on tuesday. we are into new years eve and this is the weather front, the weather map across europe. big high pressure with this odd —looking area of low pressure sitting right on in the middle of it and it is an odd blow. just a bit of cloud, a few spots of rain close to the isles of scilly. it means the skies may be cloudy across wales, perhaps other southern parts of england but much of the country is in for a bright if not sunny day and slightly cold in the north too. around 4—6d therefore the lowla nds north too. around 4—6d therefore the lowlands and the north—east. and thenit lowlands and the north—east. and then it is new year's eve night, so what can we expect? at the stroke of midnight it looks like the skies

will cloud over a little bit across western parts of the uk but the important message is that it is going to be dry across most of the uk with light winds. about as on ideal situation the weather gets in this time of year. for the 1st of january 2020, big high pressure to the south however we are closer to weather fronts in the atlantic so that does mean decals will be increasing through the rest of the week across the north—west of the uk, but still a dry day, the 1st of january, with variable amounts of cloud, around 11 degrees in the south. here is the summary for the first few days of 2020. mainly dry but some rain expected in north—western parts the uk.

this is bbc world news, the headlines: a man accused of stabbing five people during hanukkah in new york state, has been charged with federal hate crimes. the family of grafton thomas say he has a long history of mental illness. a british teenager has been convicted by a cyprus court of falsely claiming she was raped by a group of israeli tourists six months ago. her lawyers say she will appeal. a volunteer firefighter has died while battling wildfires in australia, as temperatues exceeded a0 degrees celsius in every state across the country. the most dangerous bushfires on monday were in the state of victoria.

the swedish climate change activist greta thunberg says she wants to go back to school as soon as possible. in a bbc interview she also thanked the british broadcaster