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 sir david attenborough

for spurring her into action. at ten o'clock, reeta chakrabati will be here with a full round up of the day's news stories. first on bbc news, one of the highlights of 2019 from our world. last month, our undercover investigation exposed how people in kuwait had been breaking local and international laws on modern slavery, including a woman offering a 16—year—old child for sale. jess kelly has the story. in kuwait, 90% of households employ a domestic worker. bbc news arabic and our world go undercover in kuwait to reveal a disturbing illegal online trade in domestic workers.

it's been called an online slave market. and this trade is taking place on apps hosted by some of the world's biggest tech giants. what they're doing is illegal. if google, apple, facebook or any other company is promoting apps like these, they are promoting an online slave market. there are more than 700,000 domestic workers in kuwait. in 2015, the government here passed a new law giving domestic workers more rights,

and imposing stricter regulations on this multibillion dollar industry. but it's generated a lot of controversy on tv and on social media. these new laws may have pushed many to turn to a booming new industry, where domestic workers can be bought and sold online. all you need is a smartphone. 0ur bbc team poses a husband and wife looking to buy a domestic worker.

for their safety, we cannot reveal their identities. they download an app called asale, the most popular commodity app in kuwait. it's available on the apple app store and google play. amongst cars, washing machines and tvs, there is a dedicated section where you can buy a domestic worker. 0ur undercover team get

ready to meet the seller. the seller invites our male reporter

outside for a cigarette. in the gulf, a domestic worker's visa is tied to their so—called sponsor or employer. they cannot quit theirjob or leave the country without their sponsor's permission, leaving many women trapped. this policeman was breaking the law.

he was trying to sell us his domestic worker. he'd confiscated her passport and didn't give her a day off — all of which is illegal in kuwait. over the course of the week, our undercover team spoke to 57 users of the commodity app, asale. the app lets you filter by race, violating international law and kuwaiti law. women are advertised at between 2,500 and us$5,000.

it's not only happening in kuwait, and asale is not the only app being used. in saudi arabia, where the employment system makes domestic workers equally vulnerable, we found hundreds of women being sold on another popular commodity app, called haraj. and on facebook—owned instagram, we found hundreds more. a new ad appears on asale, an african domestic workerfor us$3,800.

0ur undercover team travel to meet the seller. nothing can prepare them for what happens next.

the employer admits she is selling a child. in kuwait, anyone who employs a domestic worker under 21 can face six months in prison. she was a child for sale, deprived of her passport by her employer, and not allowed any time off — all of which is illegal in kuwait.

the seller sends us the passport of the 16—year—old girl, who we will call fatou. so fatou was evidently a victim of trafficking, even before she arrived in kuwait. 0nce she's sold on, it might be impossible to find her again. we took our video of fatou to someone we hoped could help. ann abunda is a former domestic worker from the philippines. she now runs an organisation called sandigan, which has rescued thousands of women from abusive households.

ann contacts the guinean embassy for assistance. she doesn't want to involve the kuwaiti authorities, as it often results in the arrest of the domestic worker. but as time passes and no progress is made through the guinean embassy, ann decides to contact the seller directly.

it was chance we'd come across this child for sale and already, she was lost. conakry, guinea. thousands of girls are trafficked from here each year to work as domestic workers in the gulf. it's often the last resort for many families trying to escape poverty. we've arranged to meet a trafficker to see if he might have information about fatou. he agrees to talk to us, as long as we conceal his identity.

as we're filming, he spots some girls who've recently returned from kuwait. we arrange to meet esther and two other girls away from the watchful eyes of the traffickers.

like fatou, they were all underage when they went to work in kuwait.

in kuwait, it's a crime for domestic workers to run away from their employers, and many end up in prison. that's where biba, nana and esther met. eventually, they were bailed out by their families. we wanted to know if they'd seen fatou while they were in kuwait. we also show them the asale app.

their experiences of being moved multiple times between employers without any choice bear the signs of being bought and sold via the apps. the majority of migrant domestic workers, women workers, are extremely vulnerable to exploitation in modern slavery. here, we see an example of how digital technology is used negatively to violate their fundamental human rights. if google, apple, facebook or any other companies are hosting apps like these, they have to be held accountable. what they are doing is promoting an online slave market. google, apple and facebook all claim that they prohibit human trafficking on their platforms. but we found thousands of domestic workers being illegally sold using discriminatory language

on facebook—owned instagram and apps hosted by google and apple. this is in clear violation of their own terms of service, and international law. in a statement, facebook, which owns instagram, told us... but we found hundreds of accounts still active using similar hashtags to sell domestic workers. asale told the bbc... back in kuwait, we were advised to take our video

to the authorities to see if they can help find fatou.

ten days later, the kuwaiti authorities contact ann. there's good news. they've found fatou. we arrive at the state—run shelter for domestic workers. a government official is present and we're not allowed to film ann's meeting with fatou. there are more than 200 domestic workers in this shelter. many are involved in court battles

to decide theirfate. as a minor, fatou is likely to be deported. an hour later, ann returns. fatou told ann she'd been in kuwait for nine months and worked for three households. but during that time, she'd only received two months‘ salary.

fatou is back in guinea. her uncle and grandmother can't afford to take care of her, so she's living with an adopted family. fatou didn't want to show her face on camera, but she wants her story to be heard.

fatou is looking forward to rebuilding her life and going back to school. she has managed to escape her life in kuwait, but fatou isjust one victim of today's online slave market. back in kuwait, the policeman and the woman who tried to sell us fatou declined to comment, and no legal action has been taken against them. as yet, no new regulations have been introduced to tackle the online market in domestic workers in kuwait. following our investigation, asale removed its domestic workers section. both google and apple told the bbc that this type of behaviour had no place on their application stores, and that they are working with app developers to better prevent illegal activity like this on their platforms. but thousands of women and girls continue to be bought and sold online.

hello. thanks forjoining me. not long now till the end of the decade. it certainly looks like it will be a very mild end to 2019. notjust here in the uk but across many other parts of europe. you can see through monday how the mild air spread across europe. temporarily, something a little bit colder for scotland, northern ireland and northern england, through the early hours

of tuesday, light winds, clear skies, cold air from the north atlantic, temperatures here dipping down to around freezing. here is the picture for the last day of 2019. big area of high pressure across western europe with this rather off looking area of low pressure to parts of the southwest of the uk. very small area of low pressure just bringing some cloud and a few bits and spots of rain early in the day to perhaps the southwest of england, but that is pretty much it. the midlands look mostly sunny during the course of the day on new year's eve. and also a little bit colder. five or 6 degrees in the north, around eight to ten in the south. let's have a look at the evening. some of us will be celebrating outdoors, the weather forecast is very important. these are the temperatures around midnight. not cold at all. in fact, many of us will have clear spells. maybe a bit of mist and fog

here and there but to be honest, for this time of the year, it is about as ideal as we can hope for. the forecast for new year's day itself. starting off a bit misty and murky and foggy and quite often is after a night of fireworks. during the daytime perhaps a few sunny spells developing but on the whole, i think we will call it mostly cloudy with just a few glimpses of sunshine and temperatures around seven or 8 degrees. let's have a look at the forecast as we head into thursday. starting to see a change in the northwest of the uk, fronts are gathering pushed by a jet stream and the weather is expected to turn wetter and windier in the northwest of the uk. certainly scotland, perhaps merging into the lake district as well. to the south, and east of that, the weather will remain dry and mild around 12 degrees in london and norwich. that is thursday. how about friday? that weather front will have gone through and will have introduced slightly colder air from the north atlantic, the wind direction will shift

here so perhaps a few snow showers. but during the daytime, temperatures will be hovering around seven or 8 degrees. it never really does get cold in the south. towards the end of the week and into the weekend, high—pressure still in charge of the weather in the south and in the north we still have a weather front coming off of the atlantic. for scotland, saturday, the first weekend of 2020 looking pretty wet, cloudy and quite windy at times, and the south closer to be high—pressure the weather is still looking fine and sunshine and relatively mild. that same pattern continues right to the course of the weekend. saturday and into sunday and monday here. high—pressure to the south of the uk whereas in the north we are expecting weather fronts. let's summarise the weather for early 2020, for many of us,

the southern half of the uk, it should be mainly dry, a bit of rain in the north, stronger winds and at times there will be some mist and fog but wherever you are for new year's, take care. goodbye.

concern about the fairness of a trial in cyprus in which a british teenager was found guilty of lying about being gang—raped. the woman, who can't be identified, accused 12 men of the attack but then retracted her claim — she says police forced her to say she lied. the foreign office described the case as "deeply distressing" and will be raising it with the cypriot authorities. also tonight — the deaths of gabriel diya and his daughter and son in a hotel swimming pool in spain — police say it was a freak accident and the case is closed. as the bushfires continue to rage in australia, a volunteer firefighter dies while battling a blaze. and we speak to greta thunberg about life as a teenage activist —