president trump says the us killed iran's top military commander, qassem soleimani, to stop a war, not to start one. in a televised address, mr trump said the us had killed the "number one terrorist in the world." he said soleimani had been plotting imminent attacks. the iranian government said it would retaliate against what it called an "act of international terrorism" by the united states — at a time and place of its choosing. many world leaders have said the killing of general soleimani could lead to serious consequences for regional and global security. new south wales' fire commissioner has warned saturday will be a long and difficult day for everybody, as bushfires continue to burn out of control. there's been a similar warning from the fire chief in victoria, as australia faces possibly its worst day yet in a summer of wildfires. two more labour mps have announced they are joining

the contest to become the next leader of their party. after much speculation, jess phillips has confirmed she will run. on a visit to grimsby, the mp for birmingham yardley said the party needed a leader who could "take on" borisjohson — and who was willing to "try something different". and the wigan mp lisa nandy has alsojoined the race, and said thejob should go to someone from what she called "the neglected areas" of labour's heartlands, who could win back the trust of the party's traditional voters. our political correspondent nick eardley has more. the wigan mp was another one of those people who had said over the christmas period that she was considering whether or not to stand, and tonight she's confirmed, in a letter to her local paper, the wigan post, that she is indeed throwing her hat in the ring to be the next labour leader. her argument is that labour needs to focus on winning back its heartlands, areas that had voted labour for decades and stopped doing so back in december. let me just read you one paragraph on what she says.

she says: "i'm standing because i know too many people in places like wigan no longer feel they have a voice in our national story." basically, she is saying that there are many parts of the country that feel disaffected with westminster politics, and the best solution to that is to get someone like her, who has represented one of those areas, in to sort out that issue. i must say, jess phillips, who announced she was standing a couple of hours ago, has quite a similar argument. she says that people have lost trust in the labour party, that's why it did so catastrophically at the election back in december, and she believes because she has that reputation for being a straight talking politician that she can fix that. she can persuade people of labour's merits and win back some of those voters who have deserted the party, although she does admit that that won't be easy. it means we have four candidates now — lisa nandy, jess phillips,

we also have already had emily thornberry and clive lewis. and now that westminster is starting to creep back into action after the christmas break i think we will see some more, sir keir starmer and rebecca long—bailey likely to lodge in the next few days. that was our political correspondent nick eardley. now on bbc news, the witness history team look at some of their show‘s highlights from the past year. hello, and welcome to witness history with me, razia iqbal. we have been looking back on the many extraordinary moments from history that we have brought you in 2019, so here are five of our favourite stories to share once more. coming up, the children sent away by their parents to save them from the nazis, the ballet

company that defied racism, the first african in the arctic, and the man at mission control when neil armstrong set foot on the moon. but first, a moment which in many ways said the cause for the second half of the 20th century, the birth of the people's republic of china. on i october, 1949, mao zedong declared china a communist state. we spoke to one young recruit in the people's liberation army took part in the parade in beijing which marked that momentous day. translation: i was in the infantry, marching in a prominent position. i was so excited and proud tojoin the parade. i didn't sleep well, i kept thinking about my steps. if my commander ordered, look right, would i be able to do it?

in 1949, i was 19. only some of us could be selected tojoin a military parade to celebrate the birth of the people's republic of china. we had a month's practice for the parade at a compound in southern beijing. we learned how to goosestep in unison, marching together as if we were one man, looking to the right towards the audience. on the day, i saw chairman mao and the other leaders of the country in tiananmen square, i was so excited and overwhelmed. i felt so optimistic because chairman mao said that the army belongs to the people. it was different from the nationalists' kuomintang. october the ist 1949 was the day that the people's republic of china, the world's most populous country, was proclaimed a communist state. until the day, the people's liberation army led by mao zedong

had fought a bitter civil war against the nationalists. now they were victorious, and mao took over the reins of government. translation: at that time i thought our country would become a communist country where everybody could be fed and everyone would have a job. in the old society, this was unimaginable. i saw hunger and death at every corner in pre—revolutionary beijing, but no—one cared about it. ever since childhood, my life was tough. when i was six, my father died, and my mother and i had to go on the streets and beg for a living. it was hard trying to survive. everyone was poor. people gave us free buns and bread which help keep us alive for a while.

after trying lots of different ways to keep food on the table, my mother had to marry again to survive. i went to a local factory to learn how to make and fix bikes, but i still couldn't earn enough to buy basics like bread and butter, so i learned how to ride rickshaws in beijing to earn more money. after the peaceful liberation of beijing in early 1949, an undercover communist party member approached me. he explained that the communist army was different from the nationalist kuomintang. it worked for the people and helped the poor. it made me feel like they were family. that is when i decided to become a communist soldier in beijing. i often told my children and grandchildren that i was so proud to join the army. but even now i deeply regret that i was not allowed to join the communist party. i think it's because i was illiterate.

i never had the chance to go to school and get an education, but when i was in the army, i performed really well and won many medals. here is my proof. i was a beggar in the old days, but my life was transformed into a better one. i won't forget what the communist party did for me. but there's a long way to go to reach the final goal of building a communist society. a soldier of the people's liberation army on the birth of communist china. next, one of the earliest instances of mass child migration, just before the second world war, in 1939, dame stephanie shirley's mother put her on a train in vienna bound for london, not knowing if they would ever meet again. she was one of thousands

of the mostlyjewish unaccompanied children whose parents sent them to the uk for safety during the rise of the nazis in europe. archive: 200 boys and girls wave a hand to england, land of the free. the children are between the ages of five and 17, the advance guard of the first 5000 jewish and non—aryan child refugees from germany to be provided with a temporary home here while arrangements are made forthem to immigrate... everybody said, aren't you lucky? aren't you lucky? and indeed we were. sometimes, when i've been asked my date of birth, i've said 1939. because to me my life started then. the kindertransport was an amazing rescue mission set up by christian and jewish activists who brought nearly 10,000, mainlyjewish, children out of nazi europe.

i was five years old and i was one of those children. my family was a sort of secularjewish family. we had moved over quite a bit of europe, starting in dortmund, where my father was a judge and had been fired in 1933 and finished up in vienna, which was my mother's home city. i think it was clear thatjews in central europe faced catastrophe. there was an announcement that there had been a concession by the nazis to allow children up to the age of 16 to leave without their parents, so we knew something was afoot and that we were going to england. i can remember the scene at the station of many, many families, mostly weeping, some in a sort of whaling.

——wailing. i believe most parents did not expect to see their children again. my mother didn't cry, nor did we. i was with my sister, renata, who was ten years old. i clutched her, you know, because i was scared. we had an overnight crossing to harwich, and then another train to liverpool street station. when we got off the train, the platform was silent, you've got 1,000 children, tired and smelly after two and a half days, just absolutely exhausted, and there was no chatter, no noise. children were called, and off we went with our new parents. we were among the last to be claimed. we were fostered by a lovely english couple in the midlands of england who had seen a photograph in a local paper of my sister and i with just a few lines underneath, saying "two sisters, well brought up, seeking

a home, can you help?" they couldn't speak a word of german, i couldn't speak a word of english. i was traumatised, they were nervous, it was pretty grim! my feelings were just of being disturbed, of being with strange people, of not understanding what was going on, and when was i going to see my mother again? we were reunited after about 12 months or so, and we lived with our natural parents when i was in my teens, but as i think happens quite often with separated families, i never really bonded with them again, and that i really mourn. the act of sending your children away is a fantastic act of love. it didn't seem like it at the time,

but it is the most loving thing a parent can do. the former child refugee, dame stephanie shirley. now to america, and a pioneering dance company that defied the prejudice that kept black people out of ballet. the dance theatre of harlem was the first classical ballet company for black dancers. it was founded by arthur mitchell in a converted garage in harlem in 1969. virginia johnson was one of the first to join. it wasn't until i was graduating from the washington school of ballet that the director came to me, and she said, "you know, you're going to have a career, you're a really wonderful dancer, but you're never going to be a ballerina because of the colour of your skin."

it was following the assassination of martin luther king in 1968 that arthur mitchell decided to set up a dance company for black people in harlem. arthur mitchell was the principal dancer with the new york city ballet, and he was the first african—american to achieve that level in a major american ballet company. he looked around at this neighbourhood and said, these kids don't have a future. education is terrible, the schools are failing, nobody cares about them, they don't have a way of breaking the cycle of poverty. but if i teach them ballet, i'm going to give them something else to draw from within themselves. we started with 30 children and two dancers, and everyone said i was crazy because i was using a european art form, classical ballet, but i think that is the strongest technical foundation.

once you have that technique, you can do anything you want. classical ballet is impossibly difficult and requires focus, it requires self—discipline, and it requires perseverance. in two months i had 400 kids, in 4 months i had 800 kids, so it shows there was a want and a need and a desire for this. i got to new york in the fall of 1968, and somebody told me that arthur mitchell was teaching a class up in harlem on saturdays and i could go up and get a little ballet back in my life. ijoined the dance theatre of harlem in the spring of 1969, and right from the start it was magic. he was maniacal. it soon ice! . if we were going to do ballet, we were going to be the best ballet dancers the world had ever seen. it was extremely difficult

and painful, those first years, nothing that we did was right. he was driving us, he was pushing us every minute. so there were black people who didn't want us to do the white man's art form, and white people who thought we could never understand it or have the talent or the bodies. and we were really fortunate, for our first new york performances, the big critic from the new york times said "this is the most exciting thing in ballet," so he gave us the little nod, and people were saying, ok, let's see if they are any good. ten years after that, i would see young people walking into the studio with a sense of ownership. of course i can be a ballet dancer! and that was the most beautiful thing in the world to me, that they had no question, whereas i had nothing but question. we have been performing all over the place, celebrating the 50th anniversary. it is notjust about being perfect on balance in a tutu. that is just a sliver of what ballet can say.

virginia johnson is now the dance theatre of harlem's artistic director. remember, you can watch us every month on the bbc news channel, or catch up on all our films along with more than 1,000 radio programmes in our online archive. now to a story of courage and adventure. as a 16—year—old, tete—michel kpomassie ran as far away from west africa as he could, when he was pressured to join a snake cult. finally reaching greenland in 1965 to fulfil a childhood dream of living in the arctic. i started a journey of discovery, only to find that

i was being discovered. i was one of them. i became a kind of the african eskimo. i was born in 1941 in togo, west africa. i grew up as an ordinary african boy. but one day i was in a tree and suddenly there was a snake. ifell, and i was badly injured. after my convalescence, i went to the missionary bookshop, and i saw a book, eskimos from greenland to alaska, and i learnt that it is so cold in greenland that there

are no snakes. oh, where is that paradise?! i was obsessed with eskimos. people said, yeah, you are completely mad! i ran away from togo. i was 16 and a half. it took me eight years to get to greenland. i was the first black man they had ever seen. as soon as they saw me, all talking stopped. and the children were so afraid, some started weeping, but i was always welcomed by eskimos, who became my friends. i had to learn everything from them.

i had to learn the language. slowly by slowly, i became accustomed to the climate. i was happy. i really wanted to live forever in greenland. but my countrymen have never seen the polar night before, the polar light before, and i said to myself, after the slavery and colonisation, why can't i write for my people to see the eskimos through, through our eyes? so i decided to go back. it took me five years to write it.

but my deepest wish would be to end my life in greenland. it is my country. yes. tete—michel wrote an award—winning account of his adventures which has been translated into eight languages. our final witness describes probably one of the most important moments in living memory. injuly1969, apollo 11 became the first space flight to successfully land people on the moon. flight controller gerry griffin was at mission control in houston as the world watched in awe. mission control was made up of a bunch of young people. i was 3a and i was one of the older guys in the room. i think we all felt that nobody has ever done this, so let's just do it.

there was a routine from launch, i would say, to the point of going into lunar orbit. the final phases of the descent of apollo 11 were kind of fraught. we had two computer alarms saying that the computer was being overworked. they took a quick look to make sure all the guidance was correct. quickly gave them a go. so it was dicey, and then they started running short of fuel, and we were concerned. you heard 60 seconds, 30. it was in neil armstrong's hands at that point.

neil was a very, very good pilot. he could already see that the computer was taking him into a boulderfield, so he had to manoeuvre to try to find a smooth place. and the fuel gauge was headed down, and we were watching it. and it was nerve—racking. i never will forget when buzz aldrin said we were picking up dust, he did that a little less than 100 feet above the surface, and that is when i thought, "we will make it." when they first touched down, it was a great relief. i remember being proud — we did it!

neil told me one time, "it's like an automobile, when it is on empty, there is a little bit left in the tank." neil went down the ladder, the television picture was pretty grainy, but we could basically tell what he was doing. i think everybody was just awestruck, and there was very little being said in that room. he first actually got down to the footpath, and he was standing there, i think he was collecting his thoughts, and i think he wanted to make sure that he was calm enough and not too excited, which he never was. then he took the one small step.

i remember thinking, you knew he would come up with something profound. buzz came after him. when they planted the flag and talked to the president, i heard these two guys standing on the moon — wow, it worked. it kind of amazes me, 50 years later today, you realise what we did? flight controller gerry griffin remembering the moment that changed the way we look at the world and the universe. that is all for this month here at the royal academy, we will be back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history. from me and the rest of the team, goodbye.

hello there. despite some early morning rain on friday in the south—east and gale friday on friday in the south—east and gale was a better ( sunshine friday was a better day in terms of sunshine and you can see this from the picture in sorry, hardly a cloud in the sky. those clear skies by nature, they stay with us for the night which means actually start to the saturday morning, particularly in the south—east, something we've not had free time and they could even be some light patchy frost. a little bit milder further north than west and it is because there's been more of a breeze and more cloud around. and that is because these weather fronts are trying to push

across the top of the high and running the risk of a few scattered showers. high—pressure really the dominant feature most of us for the start of the weekend and that means the best of the sunshine will be in sheltered eastern areas as well. thicker cloud out of the west and thick enough for the odd spot of drizzle and more persistent rain likely in the far north—west where we might have more of a breeze. in terms of the feel of the weather, maybe eight to 10 degrees, down a touch on where we have been but still not too bad that some of you. as we move out of saturday and into sunday, the high—pressure is going to drift its way a little bit further east. these weather fronts continue to creep in across the top of the high. the isobar squeezed together, the winds are strengthened. at least the winter coming from a milder south—westerly and that is going to continue to feed into a lot of cloud on west facing coasts and a murky afternoon here and maybe cloud thick enough for some drizzle with more rain pushing into the far north—west and the wind is likely to strengthen further. in terms of the feel of things, nine to 12 degrees and the

best of the sunshine again looks likely to be across eastern and south—eastern england. as we move into the new working week when things start to get back to business as usual, we have to look to the jetstrea m as usual, we have to look to the jetstream to see what is going to happen with the forecast and it looks as though the jet will strengthen. a strong fast moving jet means strengthen. a strong fast moving jet m ea ns low strengthen. a strong fast moving jet means low pressure strengthen. a strong fast moving jet means low pressure being driven across the uk. not one as we start off the beginning of the week but another ones waiting out in the winds. plenty of isobars on the charts as well. this means that things are going to turn pretty u nsettled. things are going to turn pretty unsettled. if you have got plans outside, bear in mind that gales, maybe severe gales on and then offer a time on tuesday and some of that rain could be quite heavy at times as well.

welcome to bbc news — i'm simon pusey. our top stories: president trump defends the killing of iran's top military commander in an airstrike. the us says general qasem soleimani was actively plotting an attack — and their decision saved hundreds of american lives. we took action last night to stop a war. we did not take action to start a war. as iran vows revenge, tens of thousands of iranians take to the streets in protest. in other news: safe at last — relief as the australian navy rescues 1000 people who'd been trapped on the coast by bushfires.