this is bbc news. the headlines at 11:00pm: a state of emergency is declared in south—east australia amid warnings of more bushfires. it's the largest forced evacuation new south wales has seen, as thousands flee the path of the flames. the the path of the flames. fireballjust came through i about the fireballjust came through at about 80 kilometres an hour, hit the house, and then we ran into the lake, and all the embers and everything were hitting us, don't her haira everything were hitting us, don't her hair a little bit. there is anger over the government's handling of the emergency, as the prime ministerfound out when he toured the area. how come we only had four trucks to defend our town! because our town doesn't have a lot of money, but we

have hearts of gold, mr prime minister. delays and cancellations on the railways, but fares still go up from today by an average of nearly 3%. researchers say artificial intelligence can be better than doctors at diagnosing breast cancer from scans. and at 11:30pm we'll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers, madeline grant, the deputy comment editor of the telegraph, and the financial times‘ political correspondent laura hughes. stay with us for that. good evening. in australia, a state of emergency has been declared in new south wales, the area worst affected by bushfire crisis. the emergency status has been upgraded in parts of victoria to a state of disaster, giving the authorities even more powers to force evacuations and close roads. many thousands of people have already left their homes.

these are the fires burning and breaking out since monday. they're focused around australia's south—eastern coastline, one of the most highly—populated parts of the country. this report from our correspondent shaima khalil, who's in the town of milton, one of the areas worst affected. a mass exodus from the devastation on the southern coast and a race to escape the dangerous fire conditions to come. thousands of holiday—makers have been given 48 hours to escape the blazes before conditions worsen, but it hasn't been easy. families have heeded the calls to evacuate, but, because the conditions on the road are still very dangerous, there have been closures in different directions and now they tell us they feel stranded having evacuated those fire—raged towns, now unable to get home. you kind of have a feeling that

you can't go forwards, you can't go backwards. and, really, you know, stuck between a burning rock and a burning rock, aren't you? just have to sit it out and hopefully, you know, don't get caught in the middle of a fire. some families were able to get away early in the morning before the road closures. this couple lost their house and had to take refuge in the lake across the road. the fireball came over the hill just opposite the lake. we thought we had a few minutes at least. we were hosing down the house and everything, doing the gutters, what they say to do, and, within two or three minutes, the fireball just came through at about 80 kays an hour, hit the house, and then we ran into the lake and then all the embers and everything were hitting us, burnt our hair a little bit, and we were in there for about an hour before we got rescued. this is what they're escaping. burning since september, these bushfires have destroyed more than 1,200 homes.

the prime minister, who has been a staunch supporter of fossil fuels, insisted that government policy struck the right balance between supporting the economy and protecting the environment. how come we only have four trucks to defend our town? because our town doesn't have a lot of money, but we have hearts of gold, mr prime minister! but he got an angry reception from the residents of cobargo when he visited their town. no, you're an idiot, mate. lake conjola is a popular holiday destination. now it looks like a conflict zone. when kim harper came back to her house, she couldn't recognise the neighbourhood. it feels like i'm in the middle of the apocalypse. like, i think someone‘s dropped a bomb on us, basically. that's what it feels like. in the neighbouring state of victoria, the navy has been helping evacuate those people

stranded in mallacoota. a series of committee meetings have been held to decide who will get to leave the area by ship first. so far, 18 people have lost their lives in the fires. volunteer firefighter geoffrey keaton was one of them. today was his funeral, where his 19—month—old son harvey was presented with his father's medal for bravery. gusty winds and temperatures soaring above a0 degrees are set to create hazardous fire conditions in the coming days. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, lake conjola, new south wales. australia has experienced bushfires throughout the summer over many years, but the ferocity and intensity have not been on this scale before. 0ur science editor david shukman has been investigating how the fires reached this level of destructive power. on a terrifying scale, and burning in too many different areas to be stopped, the flames are causing a massive shock — even in a country that's used to fire. usually, the blazes

strike scrubland. these are instead tearing into the forests, which means the fires are hotter and taller, and harder to tackle. for a sense of their size, on a map of the uk, here's the vast area in australia that has burned so far. the impact has been devastating, with lives lost among firefighters and residents, more than 1,000 homes destroyed and an estimated death toll among animals of 500 million. so, what's behind these fires? well, 2019 was the country's hottest year on record. and the higher the temperature is, the greater the risks, because fires start more easily as plants and soils dry out. so, no surprise that australia has just come through its driest spring on record, leaving a lot of vegetation ready to burn.

and this was partly caused by the waters of the indian ocean being relatively warm in the west, and cooler in the east, which has the effect of leaving australia dry. and all the time, the global average temperature is heading up. scientists researching the fires say conditions have created a perfect storm, with climate change heating the planet and adding to the dangers. clearly, the warmer, dry weather that we expect to see with climate change, and what we have probably already seen in australia, leads to more vegetation being available to burn, and more vegetation being available to burn earlier in the year. so, the fire seasons have lengthened, they are beginning earlier and also finishing later as a result of climate change. the past year saw fires around the world. in the amazon rainforest they were started deliberately to create farmland. and in california, they encroached on urban areas. a view from space of the australian fires. the smoke, drifting several thousand

miles to new zealand where, on this glacier, the ice and the sky turned dark. the sense of threat is far from over. shukman, bbc news. rebekha sharkie is an mp for the centre alliance party on the cross—bench group in the australian house of representatives, and chair of friends of climate action. she joins us from adelaide hills in south australia, one of the first areas to be affected by bushfires back in september. very good of you to be with us. we will talk a little bit about the politics of this in a moment, but first, just give us a sense of how your community has experienced the fires? good evening, good to be with you. the adelaide hills and kangaroo island, our fire started you. the adelaide hills and kangaroo island, ourfire started on december 20. we contained the fires in the adelaide hills, but they are not

out. however, we have a 42 degrees day today and kangaroo island is still uncontrolled. and can i say, it is just devastating. many townships across the adelaide hills are ravaged. we have lost 63 vineyards, or they have sustained serious damage. many businesses, orchards. we are the food bowl for south australia and indeed, i think, much of ourfood south australia and indeed, i think, much of our food and some even south australia and indeed, i think, much of ourfood and some even in the uk, and it will take us a long time to get over this. the pictures, for people watching around the world, has been truly shocking. it has really sparked a much wider debate about climate change, one that you have wanted to push forward 7 that you have wanted to push forward? look, certainly, i sit on the crossbench, as you said, and in the crossbench, as you said, and in the 45th parliament, with doctor kerryn phelps, i created

parliamentary friends for action. that is a formalised party group that needs a speaker and a president of parliament to agree to degree's formation. that happened in the last parliament. we only had one liberal mp willing to sign on in the 45th parliament. we had a number who have agreed to sign on in this parliament. we have not actually had any meetings yet, but hope springs eternal there. really, what we wa nted eternal there. really, what we wanted to do, and in this parliament i was involved in the group with the zali steggal, the memberfor warringah, the member who unseated the former prime minister tony abbott, and with helen haynes, another independent member. the three of us have conservative electorates. both helen and i have regional electorates. and we are hearing from our communities that they want to see real action in the parliament. so the parliamentary friends group is about creating a space for us to bring in the experts, to hopefully change minds

of many government members who do not accept the science of climate change. and give us a sense of how much work you think needs to be done there? clearly there was a lot of controversy around the prime minister and his comments, but how widely held do you think this scepticism is about how much of a role climate change is playing in this? look, ithink role climate change is playing in this? look, i think the bushfires have certainly changed the minds of many people who were potentially unsure of the science. however, i have seen a real mood shift in the last three or so years in my electorate, where i now have a number of farmers who say to me, climate change isn't an issue for the future. they are seeing that right now. so far, the parliamentary friends group has brought in farmers for climate action, to talk about the support they need, also the progress they are doing on their without the support of government to

mitigate the damage caused by climate change, and we have recently had come into the parliament, a range of health professionals, we know that elderly people, vulnerable people, and particularly people in regional areas will be most severely impacted by climate change, and that is what we are seeing this summer. rebecca sharkey, very good idea to make time to to us. —— rebekah sharkie. thank you. despite delays and poor performance from some train operators, millions of commuters in england and wales will have to pay an average of 2.7% more for their tickets from today. it means some passengers face a rise of more than £100 for their annual passes. prices in scotland are also going up. the rail delivery group, which represents the train companies, claims average fare increases have been kept to below inflation for the third year in a row. 0ur transport correspondent tom burridge reports from manchester. the service is absolutely shocking. i can't get to the nursery sometimes on time.

we can't get to meetings on time. it causes logistical nightmares. travel from the midlands... at the end of the day we're always late for work, we're neveron time. it's so bad, sometimes i have to get a taxi. ..to the north of england and the stories are similar. today's rail fare rise, hard to swallow. the prices seem to keep going up and you don't seem to get anything more for your money. as i say, they are always late. sometimes only by a minute or two, but always late. as the price hike took effect this morning, the transport secretary said the company running the largest franchise in northern england wasn't fit for purpose. ijust don't think it is acceptable. i've been a long—suffering commuter myself for many years, and i don't think it's right that people can't always rely on their train services, and particularly in places like northern, where it has been notably bad, i will absolutely bring that situation to an end. northern, the company operating these services, is effectively on a final warning. in a matter of weeks,

the government has to make a controversial call. either strip the company of this franchise, or let it keep operating these trains on a simpler type of contract. paul has been campaigning for improvements for years. he wants northern out. nothing has improved in 12 months and yet we have had two fare increases. people are paying a lot more now for their journeys, they're taking hours to get home from work or to get to work, people have had to change jobs, lose theirjobs. northern says delays to infrastructure upgrades have affected its performance. but the problems stretch far beyond northern. the scottish government will end its contract with scotrail early because of poor performance. and in the second quarter of last year, only a 40% of services on transpennine express made it within a minute of their arrival time. the punctuality record of london north eastern railway and cross country

were only slightly better. the trains were so unreliable last year on west midlands and london northwestern railways that season ticket holders there will not pay more this year. the body representing train companies says it's not all bad. there are surveys taken of passenger satisfaction, not by the rail industry, they're done independently, and they consistently show 83—84% satisfaction levels. but too often passengers are let down. the government will soon publish a blueprint on how our railways can improve. tom burridge, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news: a state of emergency is declared in southeast australia amid warnings of more bushfires. it's the largest forced evacuation new south wales has seen, as thousands flee the path of the flames. delays and cancellations on the railways, but fares still go up from today by an average of nearly 3%. and researchers say artificial intelligence can be better

than doctors at diagnosing breast cancer from scans. artificial intelligenc, or ai, could be as accurate, if not better, than doctors at spotting breast cancer in scans. researchers trained a computer system to read x—rays and found it was more accurate than a single radiologist and equal to the ability of two experts working together. as our medical correspondent fergus walsh reports, this use of ai could well improve all cancer care. this is painstaking work. it takes more than a decade of training to become a radiologist and have the skill to read a mammogram. in the nhs, two doctors analyse every woman's x—rays. now, artificial intelligence, a machine learning computer designed by google health,

can do itjust as well as humans. this went far beyond my expectations. it will have a significant impact in improving the quality of the reporting and also freeing up radiologists to do even more important things. women aged between 50 and 70 are invited for breast screening every three years. the study in the journal nature showed al was actually better than one doctor working alone at reading mammograms. it produced 1.2% fewer false positives, where a healthy mammogram is wrongly labelled as abnormal. and there were 2.7% fewer cases where a cancer was missed. and ai will only get better. this study shows us that in the future it might be possible to make that screening programme more accurate and more efficient, which means less worrying time waiting for patients for results and better outcomes overall. helen edwards from surrey has been

clear of breast cancer for 15 years. she was a patient representative on the panel which had to approve google health's access to the mammograms, all of which were anonymised. initially, i was concerned — google, what are they going to do with this information? what are they going to do with the data? but when i thought about it, longer term it can only benefit women in having less recalls when you haven't got a cancer. this is a breakthrough moment for artificial intelligence, which seems certain to play a major role in the diagnosis of breast cancer in years to come. and ai has already proved its ability to read other types of patient scan, showing itself as good as leading ophthalmologists in diagnosing more than 50 different eye conditions. the nhs needs another 1,000 radiologists, so using al to replace one of the two doctors who read mammograms would ease that pressure and speed up diagnosis. fergus walsh, bbc news.

dr caroline rubin is the vice president of faculty of clinical radiology at the royal college of radiologists. great to have you with us and. what do you make of these recent developments? i think they are very interesting and exciting. certainly the data presented does seem to show they have as good if not better pick up they have as good if not better pick up rates for breast—cancer, but also they do not recall so many ladies who have other soft signs but may not be cancerous, so they are the false positive recourse. presumably, in the light of the fact there are currently such shortages of radiologists, this could have a big impact on screening times and so on? it will certainly help, but i don't think the impact on the individual radiologists will be particularly

great. in my own case, it may save me about two hours a week of reading. there are many other things we are involved in in terms of the actual diagnosis of breast—cancer once the films have been read. the skills of the radiologists as a human being are still very much—needed, but in terms of reading x—rays, do you see this having wider repercussions for other illnesses? certainly there are a lot of ai companies developing algorithms, looking at all imaging modalities and many different disease processes , and many different disease processes, but many of them only pick up one particular abnormality, so pick up one particular abnormality, so it may be a combination of a number of ai algorithms that we'll be using in the future.|j number of ai algorithms that we'll be using in the future. i don't know how much you followed the technology of all of this, but i wonder if you have any insight into how the ai side of things differs to what a

human being sees when they look at an x—ray? human being sees when they look at an x-ray? i'm certainly no expert on that, so i can't answer that question. no, i don't pre- that. in terms of other scans where this could be used, are there particular illnesses where you think it might have a clear usage? there are certainly algorithms are developed to look for clots in the plane, which is very useful now we are developing mechanicalfrom which is very useful now we are developing mechanical from back which is very useful now we are developing mechanicalfrom back to me for stroke treatment. it can also identify whether there has been bleeding in the brain in cases of trauma. certainly there are algorithms that look for the calcium stores in coronary artery ct for people at risk of a coronary. there are many others being developed at the moment. really interesting stuff. great to have your insight.

doctor caroline rubin, thank you very much indeed. thank you. derbyshire constabulary has referred itself to the police watchdog after it was revealed that a woman found stabbed to death on new year's day, alongside her partner, had contacted officers before she died. the couple have been named as helen hancock and martin griffiths from the village of duffield. the woman's estranged husband has been charged with their murder. the prime minister's senior aide, dominic cummings, has called for rapid and large changes to how government works. writing in his blog, the architect of the leave campaign and borisjohnson‘s election victory says there are profound problems with how the british state makes decisions, and he urges people with different skills to send him their cvs. the former nissan boss carlos ghosn has insisted that he acted alone in fleeing from japan to lebanon, despite seven people being detained in turkey for helping him escape. mr ghosn had been under house arrest

in tokyo awaiting trial on charges of alleged financial misconduct. there's now an interpol arrest warrant for him. 0ur middle east correspondent quentin somerville is in the lebanese capiral beirut. well, the lebanese authorities responded to that interpol arrest warrant today, saying carlos ghosn may be summoned, he could be interrogated, but the justice minister then made the point that lebanon simply doesn't extradite its citizens. so how did he pull off this caper? that's the big question eve ryo ne this caper? that's the big question everyone is asking. his home in tokyo was under 2a hours surveillance and all three passports he had were under lock and key in his lawyer's office, and there was the suggestion he could have been smuggled out of his home in a musical instrument box. tokyo, japan, has no record of him leaving and the turks have no record of his private jet landing and departing, so private jet landing and departing, so hence we saw the arrests of the

aircrew in turkey today. carlos ghosn is the only person who can a nswer ghosn is the only person who can answer all these questions and he will do so in a pro— conference here in beirut later this week but the fa ct of in beirut later this week but the fact of the matter is, for the moment, as long as he is in lebanon, carlos ghosn is a free man. talks to restore powersharing in northern ireland have resumed today in the hope of breaking three years of political stalemate at stormont. the talks were put on pause over the christmas holidays, after the dup was accused by opponents of standing in the way of a possible deal. devolved government collapsed injanuary, 2017. 0ur ireland correspondent emma vardy has been following developments at stormont. there is that the pressure is really on the parties right now, because if they don't reach a deal by the 13th of january, they will have to face fresh assembly elections, and that provided some real added incentive and really focused minds here.

because both the dup and sinn fein got hit pretty hard and got pretty bruised with their vote share going down at the general election, so it is unlikely they will want to face voters, perhaps punishing them again at the ballot box quite so soon. one of the big issues is they are still wrangling over to get everybody over the line is something called the petition of concern. the mechanism used in the assembly a bit like a veto, if you get enough names on the petition, you can block certain legislation. critics say it has been misused too many times by one party or another to block things they don't like. same—sex marriage legislation was blocked, for example, one of the things blocked because of it. that's one thing they need to get agreement on just to remind people of the unique situation, a government in northern ireland requires a mandatory coalition between unionists and nationalists. why this all fell apart is the deputy first minister pulled out of the executive, and that collapsed the assembly. and one thing talked about today is sustainability so that cannot be collapsed so easily in future. the dup were particularly talking about that again, and again they have accused sinn fein of holding people to ransom over this and want

to make sure the executive cannot be collapsed easily again. we've had three years now without a government. three years people now of people being held to ransom, three years where key decisions were not being made that affect people i represent and people represented by all of us. and therefore we need to get this right. we cannot go for a quick fix solution, we need to ensure that we don't repeat the mistakes that have been made in the past, that we avoid getting into the kind of situation we have seen in the past, where people can walk away. we went over 30 years through the troubles in northern ireland, and our government worked its way through all of those 30 years and all the difficult issues that arose. we want stormont to be the same. we saw sinn fein come out today and urge the dup to make compromises and to really get on with it.

they were saying they don't want to see some sort of dramatic last—minute agreement made just before the 13th of january. they believe they're coming on the table right now that everybody could sign up to pretty soon, and just to warn you, we will hear this clip from sinn fein which does contain some flash photography. for our part, our objective has always been to restore credible sustainable functioning institutions which deliver for everyone which have sufficient resources to deliver our public services and are based on genuine power—sharing on principles of the good friday agreement — equality, respect, parity of esteem, and that this the basis on which these institutions were designed and that is the basis on which they need to operate. we think this agreement can be reached in short order. we don't see any need to run this down to the wire to the 13th of january in some kind of dramatic way. the issues we deal with are all well rehearsed. what we need now is political will to resolve them very quickly. and that is going to be our focus

in the next day or two. the latest from northern ireland there. and we'll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers madeline grant, the deputy comment editor of the telegraph, and the financial times political correspondent, laura hughes. that's coming up after the headlines at 11:30pm. now it's time for the weather for the week ahead with lucy martin. hello there. thursday brought predominantly cloudy skies, some rainfor predominantly cloudy skies, some rain for some and a brisk south—westerly wind. this translated to photos like this. this one sent in bya to photos like this. this one sent in by a weather watcher on thursday but despite the cloud, wind and rain, temperatures might widely managed to get into double figures above where we would expect them to be for the time of year, that is set to change. as we move into friday, these two weather fronts sink into these two weather fronts sink into the south—east, squeezing away the milder air, look at yellow on the map, replaced with something fresher. into friday, a mild start in the south of england, plenty of

cloud and patchy rain about that will clear to the south and east and then we'll see plenty of sunshine. a scattering of showers from the north—west, wintry over ground, but less windy than thursday with the exception of the northern isles where we will have gales, and attem pts where we will have gales, and attempts dipping away a bit with a fresher feel compared to thursday with highs of around nine. temperatures dipping away after a mild start in the south. into the weekend, high pressure takes charge. a few weather fronts around the top of that high pressure. so further to the north, the greatest chance of seeing outbreaks of rain and more in the way of cloud here as well, but dry and bright for southern and eastern england where the best of the brightness will be found. temperatures at a maximum of around ten. not a great deal of change to come as we move into sunday. high pressure still in charge and it edges a bit further to the east. this weather front towards the north will bring some patchy outbreaks of

rain. again more in the way of cloud across scotland, northern ireland, parts of northern england and the best brightness is further south and here, the best of the dry weather as well. temperatures similar to saturday, a couple of degrees up, a maximum of 8—11. as we move into monday, that area of high pressure edges further to the east and it gets replaced by this weather front moving its way gradually further east and we will see a spell of rain, heavy and persistent at times, turning windy as well. temperatures on monday, fairly similar to the weekend with a maximum of ten or 11 celsius. as we move into tuesday, we see one weather front clearing towards the east and the next one not far off, pushing in from the west. we' re not far off, pushing in from the west. we're looking at another spell wet weather. tuesday, we are seeing wet weather. tuesday, we are seeing wet weather. tuesday, we are seeing wet weather working east, particularly heavy in the north and

west, could fall as snow for a time over high