with north korea on the left and china on the right as they go into 2020. —— the scene. the presenters onjapanese state television welcoming the new year. you heard the first side was the sound from the temple bell which is about 70 tonnes in weight. it is enormous. it will ring 108 times to celebrate the new year. he was the scene in —— here is the scene in

north korea. mercifully no rockets going off, just fireworks. perhaps an international purpose as well as an international purpose as well as a domestic one and promoting the image of north korea abroad. still a pretty quick title show. —— are pretty quick title show. —— are pretty spectacular show. in the days of continuous new channels around the world people get to see what other countries are doing and want to go one better. there will be the usual spectacular firework display at edinburgh castle. and also in london along the banks of the river thames and at places around the uk as well. this is the scene from japan live. a lot of the japanese cemetery is to do with the buddhist faith injapan. —— ceremony. a lot of these things are

very old and traditional. fireworks area very old and traditional. fireworks are a chinese invention so maybe thatis are a chinese invention so maybe that is more of a modern addition to the japanese display. has been 20 of snow in tokyo tonight. —— plenty of snow. in moscow they have had to quietly lay artificial snow around red square and other landmarks because it has been the mildest winter in russia since about the 18805. winter in russia since about the 1880s. they have not had snow at all and people were failing to get worried, the authorities were worried, the authorities were worried what it might mean for the moscow citizens. we will see the effects in moscow in about a couple of hours. about ten o'clock this evening. we will have all the fireworks and bbc news. let's go back to look at the north korea and

japan approaches. a contrast. near neighbours was not that friendly relations. japan is nervous where north korea may fire a missile onto its territory. the floor show for north korea and we have singers from the army singing in unison with a spectacular display behind. i love the snowman in affairs. —— a fez. everybody is waving like sex. i

don't know if we get to see kim jong—un. the new king. —— waving light sticks. a new day has begun in the southern hemisphere. a new decade has begun. there has been rather more sombre start to the new yearfor rather more sombre start to the new year for thousands of people in southern australia who have been forced to seek refuge on beaches and boats after becoming trapped by advancing bush fires. in the state of victoria, 4,000 people, locals and tourists alike prepared to flee into the ocean as a last resort.

military aircraft and naval ships are being deployed to carry out evacuations and support firefighters. in new south wales two more people have been killed and dozens of properties destroyed along a stretch of coastline. 0ur sydney correspondent, shaimaa khalil, reports. this is what uncontrollable blazes pushed by strong winds have done to towns across eastern australia. and this is what firefighters have been up against for weeks now. this crew trapped in their fire engine as they fight an impossible battle. in the coastal town of batemans bay in new south wales, residents have fled, taking shelter on the beach, desperately trying to escape the hellish fire conditions. 300 kilometres south in the state of victoria, thousands in mallacoota also escaped to the shores. at one point, people were told to jump in the water

if the fire came their way. more than a dozen emergency level blazes, spanning 500 kilometres, have stretched across the two states of victoria and new south wales. several holiday spots along the coast have now been cut off and the main road in the region is closed. military aircraft and vessels could be sent to help rescue efforts and to bring aid to those trapped in the worst—hit areas. time and time again, people have told us that the scale of these fires is unlike anything they'd ever seen before and so too is the extent of the damage. and as these blazes continue to rage across eastern and southern australia, many are dealing with the reality of going back home when they've lost everything. the village of balmoral in new south wales has seen some of the worst devastation in recent weeks. everywhere you look is a sign of how the blazes ravaged through the area.

rosemary doyle lived in this house for 13 years with her late husband. she tells me she felt relatively safe, living just across the road from the local fire station. but nothing here has been spared. and then i stood across the road and just watched it burn, room by room, which was really, really difficult. the last room to burn was where i'd left my husband's ashes. soaring temperatures, strong winds and relentless drought have made it impossible to stop the trail of these huge fires and with no rain predicted, australians will now head into the new year with the threat of more blazes looming over them. it is the middle of the night now. david jeffery runs a b&b in mallacoota and had to seek refuge on the beach when the fires struck.

he gave us an update on the situation. well, it's evening now, so things are... people are settling a little bit. behind us there's still active fire. that there is fire trucks filling up from the inland here, a bit of salt water and everything, still driving around trying to douse the fires. 0ccasionally, another house goes, unfortunately. not just another house, it's people we love and care about and it's their dreams going up in smoke. this is a beautiful, beautiful part of the world. we know the dangers when we live out in these areas. yes, it's been dry, but these

are eucalyptus, these are forests, they're here because they've been selected by fires over many centuries. they're the only ones that survive, everything else has gone over those many centuries. so, we know the dangers, but the reality is we might know it but we don't really know it. when it goes off today, it's horrendous. i'm just thinking, i don't want to ever go through this again. i think i'll go and live in that time again. man, it was just... nothing prepares you for that bearing down of a fire front charging at a community. we're talking massive walls of fire, coming straight at you. we had 4,000 people... let me show you. all along here, along the wall, along here, everyone ready to dive into the water if it got here. it didn't. thank god we didn't get the fireballs hitting us here because we would have had mass casualties. but, yeah, thank god. it was answered, the prayer. thank you, jesus, you really answered us. even though it might not look like he has, there could have been hundreds killed, if not more than that. we have a lot to be thankful for, we've had a little bit of rain. we've got the authorities, here doing their bit,

the government doing things with the militaryjust off here. this they've been feeding us with pies and all sorts of things. but it's still going on. some people are trying to go back out there to their homes, i'm tempted to too, because miraculously our b8b is still standing, i don't know if you can see in the distance. i thought i was watching it burn to the ground today. we would leave if i'd had to, but i was finding it hard, emotionally, watching other peoples homes. people i know and care about and love. we're very close. in small communities, when you have a thousand people... you get that anywhere on the planet, there is love and care. it is gut—wrenching to go through. i don't know how i can look these people in the eye, that my home survives and theirs doesn't. i just feel terrible. one man's view of his experience and thousands of others sheltering on

the beach trying to avoid the bushfires. the former boss of the car giant nissan has fled japan, where he was facing trial over allegations of financial misconduct. once one of the most powerful figures in the car industry, carlos goan flew to lebanon to escape what he calls "injustice and political persecution". rupert wingfield—hayes is in tokyo — there's some flash photography in his report. rupert wingfield—hayes is in tokyo — there's some flash photography in his report. last march, carlos ghosn disguised himself as a construction worker as he attempted to slip past the waiting media on his release from jail. now, he has succeeded in slipping out ofjapan, perhaps in another disguise. even his own defence team have been left dumbfounded, unable to explain how mrghosn did it. translation: it's a complete surprise and we are perplexed. his passports are with his lawyers. somehow, mr ghosn managed to board a privatejet and last

night he landed here, in the lebanese capital, beirut. in a defiant statement he said he had not fled japanese justice but escaped from injustice. "i'm now in lebanon", he said, "and will no longer be held hostage by a rigged japanese justice system, where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant and basic human rights are denied." carlos ghosn was born in brazil to parents of lebanese descent. in the late 1990s he helped save french car—maker renault. in the 2000s, he took on an even biggerjob, turning around japan's moribund car—maker, nissan. he rose to become one of the most powerful figures in the global car industry, but in 2018, he was arrested at tokyo airport on suspicion of financial misconduct. he was held in this tokyo detention centre for more than 100 days, facing daily interrogations.

this is a conspiracy. since his release on bail, carlos ghosn has angrily proclaimed his innocence, accusing his former colleagues at nissan of conspiring with japanese prosecutors to manufacture a case against him. the media injapan had been preparing for what was expected to be the trial of the decade. instead, carlos ghosn is now far away in lebanon, a country that has no extradition agreement with japan. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in tokyo. 0ur economics correspondent andrew walker, who told me earlier it would be difficult for carlos goan to resume a career in the motoring industry. the reports coming from lebanon are that he arrived in a private jet coming from turkey and that he got into the country using a french passport despite the fact that his lawyer injapan thought he had all his passports. so multiple nationalities? three nationalities and, frankly, there's always the possibility of someone as internationally mobile

as he is that they've got more than one passport from each jurisdiction when you're trying to get visas and so forth. he might want another one to travel on. and he's said also to have used a lebanese identity card, and the lebanese government's position is basically that he's welcome there. the sense is he's got very strong support within the establishment of lebanon. i can remember when he was head of the car company and at one point he wanted to be interviewed for hard talk there and it didn't happen but he wanted it done in lebanon, so he honestly feels at home there. what opportunity will it create

for him, then, that there he is not under house arrest? i think it's going to be very difficult for him to resume any kind of major career in international motor industry. his position should now be safe. he is not unable to travel around the world. 0bviouslyjapan is not on his agenda and japan does have extradition treaties with south korea and the united states, both of which are important locations for the global motor industry. but bear in mind, he has the nationality of brazil and france, both of which are countries that do not extradite their own nationals, so he'd be entirely free to go there. and i imagine, with some very careful legal advice, hit have quite a lot of freedom to move around other places, just as long as he avoids those particular nations that i mentioned. this whole legal process was very difficult to unravel. what do we know or what do you understand about what was going on when he ended up being kind of arrested by the japanese authorities at the height of his significance as a political figure in the car industry, and now he's saying, actually, it was all a political put—up job. well, and he puts a lot of the blame on nissan, on forces within nissan, in particular. he's suggesting there was some sort of collusion

with the authorities going on. he was very much... he was very much the figurehead of this alliance between renault, nissan and, more recently, mitsubishi, and he certainly had in mind moving toward some sort of full—scale merger, which the japanese side of the business really did not want, and certainly his suggestion is that they were trying to undermine his position and to ensure that nissan did not go down that path of fullyjoining forces with renault. the headlines on bbc news. thousands of people in south—eastern australia are forced to seek refuge lebanon says the former nissan boss carlos ghosn entered the country legally and will not face any legal consequences, after he fled japan, where he was awaiting trial. thousands of iraqi militiamen attack the american embassy in baghdad, angry at us air strikes on theirforces. sport, and for a full round—up, from the bbc sport centre,

here's 0lly. there's finally some good news for england ahead of the second test against south africa that starts on friday in cape town. 0llie pope says he's "ready to go", after recovering from the illness that has affected most of the squad. he, chris woakes and jack leach sat out the first test defeat, three of 11 players who've been hit by a sickness bug. couldn't have coma at a worse timing, really, with the test match, but luckily feeling all right now. been feeling good for the last few days, so, yeah, i'm on the mend and ready to go. i was a bit more feverish. for the first two days, i sort ofjust stayed in bed, really. i think probably caught it off broady and jof and those guys who missed about a week of the warm—up games, which wasn't ideal. it swept through pretty much the whole camp,

so there's not much we could have done about it. gerwyn price and peter wright have kissed and made up after their bad—tempered semifinal at the pdc world darts championship. both men goaded each other on the 0che and price refused to shake hands after losing. price took to social media today to say, i over—reacted to what peter did. it might have been banter but i was so in the zone and just missed a load of set darts. he went on to apologise for not shaking wright's hand, saying, "i should've bit my tongue". wright, who won six sets to three, has also apologised for his conduct. he'll face reigning champion michael van gerwen in tomorrow's final. meanwhile, fallon sherrock has withdrawn from the bdo women's world championship next week. her decision comes after the bdo announced that they'd be reducing prize money following poor ticket sales. the event has moved to indigo at the 02 in london after 3a years at the lakeside in surrey the manchester united manager

0le gunnar solskjaer says he has money to spend in the january transfer but won't just for the sake of it, with the worry that he could upset the team. i am optimistic we can keep players fit. and if the right ones become available we do have the resources. and i do have the backing from the board but it is also about getting the right ones, it has to be, there is no point suddenly thinking, bringing someone else in nowjust for the sake of three orfour months. if that can disrupt any... not good feeling in the group, but the chemistry in the group because the chemistry is really good. the west ham captain, mark noble, has backed david moyes to turn things around at the club. there has been a mixed response from hammers fans to the scot‘s return to the club. he helped keep them up two years ago but was then replaced by manuel pellegrini, who was sacked on saturday, with the club one point

above the relegation zone. noble says moyes is the best person for the job and brought out the best in the players in his first spell in charge, so everyone should support him. ian holloway is the new manager of league two side grimsby. he'll also have shares in the club and take a place on the board. he led blackpool and crystal palace into the premiere league but his last managerialjob was with qpr last year. he will take charge with the club 21st in league two and without a win since september. rhys webb has signed a two—year deal to rejoin the 0spreys from next season, which could see him back in the wales side. the scrum—half has been at toulon, who have agreed to release him from the final year of his contract forfamily reasons. he left 0spreys last year to join the french side for three years, which ruled him out of international test selection, but his return makes him available to new wales coach wayne pivac.

that's all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. the labour mp richard burgon has announced that he will be standing to be deputy leader of the labour party. the mp for east leeds and shadowjustice secretary made the announcement on twitter this afternoon. 0ur political correspondent mark lobel is here with me now. he isa he is a figure well known in labour party circles and may not be that no one well outside the labour party but he is getting quite early. don't forget this is to fill because tom watson left just before forget this is to fill because tom watson leftjust before the election for personal not political reasons. we have since learned party officials conceal the death rate to watch them and did not him —— we

stood down because of the brutality and personality within the party. richard burgon as a media performer, often on tv and he has been mp for leeds east since 2015 was one of those mps who stood by a man might put a lot of mps were abandoning his cabinet. ——. —— jeremy put a lot of mps were abandoning his cabinet. ——. ——jeremy corbyn. he saidi cabinet. ——. ——jeremy corbyn. he said i am standing to be the new labour party deputy leader and here is my tribune article where he explains what he thinks is why labour lost the election. he said abandoning the labour party transformational policies estate and

jeremy corbyn and the manifesto should not shoulder the responsibilities. he says it was the brexit election and because of that they couldn't deliver their ma nifesto. they couldn't deliver their manifesto. he wants to keep labour party commitments to anaesthetic and return rail and mail and water to public ownership. he is part of a crowded field. we are expecting angela rayner to put a name forward. she has been endorsed by rebecca along bailey. ——long—bailey. we also have other candidates standing including don

butler. —— dawn. the timetable for the race should be announced on monday of tuesday next week and we expected to run until march. iraqi security forces have fired tear gas at thousands of militiamen protesting at the us embassy in baghdad. crowds of demonstrators attacked the american embassy in baghdad during a protest against us air strikes on an iraqi militia group. the national living wage is to rise by more than four times the rate of inflation. the rise takes hourly pay for people over the age of 25

to £8.72 from april. 0ur economics correspondent andy verity explained who will benefit from this. well, strictly speaking, its 2.8 million people who will benefit directly from the national minimum wage, living wage, going up. but also some people above them will benefit because their wages bumped up to maintain the differential between the two. so several million people, but remember, there are 32 million people in the workforce and not all of them by any means will benefit, so if you look at what's happened since 2008, people on the minimum wage have seen their pay go up in real terms above inflation by 13%, whereas if you look at what's happened to the average pay, that's barely budged at all for the last 11 years. in fact it will buy you £1 less after you take into account inflation than it would way back in 2008, so that has, in a way, reduced income inequality — the gap between the low—paid and the average—paid — but it hasn't helped to improve the fortunes ofjoe average right in the middle. inflation than it would way back in 2008, so that has, in a way, reduced income inequality — the gap between the low—paid and the average—paid — but it hasn't helped to improve

the fortunes ofjoe average right in the middle. you've got this strange picture where we've got record high employment, three million more people employed than there were a decade ago, and yet people's individual fortunes haven't improved that much. a lot of the economic growth we've seen has just been adding people to the economy, not making individuals better—off. and small firms will be saying, 0k, we want to pay people more but how do we afford it? without gains in productivity, which at the moment is falling, that's very difficult. without gains in productivity, which at the moment is falling, that's very difficult. a ten—year—old girl who was hit by an ambulance on an emergency call—out days before christmas has died. the girl was on foot at the time of the crash, which happened in nottingham at around 6:30 in the evening on the 22nd of december. the chief executive of east midlands ambulance service offered his "deepest condolences" to the girl's family. offered his deepest condolences to the girl's family. nottinghamshire police are looking for any witnesses to come forward. thousands of mixed—sex couples in england and wales are expected to enter into civil partnerships from today. it comes after a long legal battle against the law that had previously only permitted same—sex couples to become civil partners. daniela relph's report

contains flash photography. the change comes into the northern ireland soon and is before the scottish parliament. cheering. finally, civil partners — something they'd always wanted but, until today, had been legally impossible. rebecca steinfeld, charles keidan and their two young children marked the occasion at chelsea registry office in london. i love you. i love you too! this wasn't a wedding, they didn't even call it a ceremony. this was the registration of a civil partnership, giving the family the legal and financial protection that a marriage provides. when we came here five years ago to try and form a civil partnership it was a very different experience. today, it's been wonderful. we've been warmly welcomed and we've finally been able to say to each other, in front of our very close friends and family, everything we wanted to say and to have legal recognition and status and financial protection that we've sought all along, so it feels incredible. it's just sort of an amazing moment for us.

the end of a long journey and the start of a new decade and the beginning of our life together as civil partners in law. i couldn't have wished for a better moment than that! for rebecca and charles, this is both a private family celebration, and a public recognition of a change in the law — something they have been fighting for through the courts for more than five years. the couple took their challenge to the highest court in the land. the supreme court agreed with charles and rebecca — excluding different sex couples from civil partnerships was ruled incompatible with their right to a family life. i don't believe this change would have happened without charles and rebecca, but whilst, as of today, they are civilly partnered, this is something now which will affect thousands or potentially millions of people across the uk. one of the things people just don't realise until things go wrong in a relationship, is that unless they were married or now have a civil partnership, they're not legally protected. rebecca and charles were amongst the first but the government predicts as many as 84,000

heterosexual couples could become civil partners in 2020. daniela relph, bbc news, west london. celebrations to usher in 2020 are taking place in the southern hemisphere. auckland was the first major city to see in 2020, with the sky tower at the centre of celebratory fireworks. sydney welcomed in the new decade centering on famous landmarks like the harbour bridge and the opera house. this was despite demands that the fireworks be cancelled this year as a mark of respect to those who have lost their homes and lost their lives as a result of bushfires. north korea got in on the action, too, with fireworks lighting up

the sky as crowd watched on. it has become quite competitive thing is country project their image asa thing is country project their image as a successful and confident nation. north korea sets great store by the picture transmits to the rest of the world. japan saw in the new year — or "shogatsu", as they call it there — with a traditional buddhist ceremony. bells across the country ring 107 times before midnight and a final time on as the clock strikes 12. the bell takes 17 monks to carry out the