this is bbc news, the headlines: the duke and duchess of sussex have announced they will step back as senior royals and work to become welcome to bbc news. financially independent. i'm mike embley. prince harry and meghan plan to split their time between the uk our top stories: and north america. breaking with tradition...again! the royal family is believed to be harry and meghan announce they'll be disappointed by the announcment, stepping back as senior members made, apparently, without of the royal family. president trump says iran appears consulting any of them. to be standing down after it fired president trump has said iran missiles at air bases appears to be standing down after tehran launched more housing us forces in iraq. than a dozen missiles at air bases housing us troops in iraq. fresh warnings and evacuation notices in australia as hot, mr trump said no americans were injured in the attacks. windy weather returns, but he also said he would impose threatening towns and communities. further sanctions on tehran. the former boss of renault—nissan, more hot and windy weather carlos ghosn, hits out at japan's is expected to hit australia judicial system in his first public in the coming days as comments since hejumped bail. the bushfire crisis continues. 27 people have died since the fires started in september and more than 2,000 homes have been destroyed. millions of animals have also been killed in the fires.

the prime minister has helped hello to you. the duke and duchess of sussex are to step back as senior royals and work to become financially independent. the personal statement from prince harry and meghan was a surprise announcement, apparently made without consulting any members of the british royal family, which is said to have left the family feeling hurt. the couple say they will continue fully to support the queen, but now plan to split their time between the uk and north america. north america. there is flash photography in this report from our royal correspondent nicholas witchell. canada house in london yesterday. harry and meghan had just returned from their extended break in canada. laughing it's now clear that although they'd been discussing a new role for themselves with other members of the royal family, they did not tell senior members of the family or their officials that they were about to issue a personal statement setting out their intentions. the bbc understands buckingham palace is disappointed — that's unusual.

in their statement, the sussexes said: cheering quite what a progressive new role means is unclear, though the statement says they plan to balance their time between the united kingdom and north america. cheering the signs that the couple were unhappy with their royal life have been apparent for some months, notably during and since their tour of southern africa, when both of them gave interviews. harry conceded that he and his brother, william, were not as close as before. just 20 months ago at their wedding in windsor, it had all seemed

to offer such promise. a young prince and his american bride, harry and megan were a couple who, it was said, and as they demonstrated, could bring something fresh to the british royal family and reach sections of the population, which were otherwise largely indifferent to the royals. but now, some at least of those hopes have been dashed. i think this is the most extraordinary news, but it's also very sad. i mean, harry and meghan are very much loved, and if we're not going to see so much of them, i think that's a real tragedy. so, the sussexes have taken the initiative — without waiting for the approval of the queen or the prince of wales, they have made their own announcement about their new life. there isn'tjust disappointment at the palace, there is hurt at the most senior levels of the family. nicholas witchell, bbc news. live now to new york and to royal commentator kristen meinzer. very good to talk to you. i call you

a royal commentator but i know you travelled here for their wedding and you work on a podcast. are you a superfan? you work on a podcast. are you a super fan? i am a super fan. i have been following them my whole life, and that wedding was one of the greatest days of my life. i am sure it was a great day in their life as well. what do you make of this personal statement? on the one hand, iam very personal statement? on the one hand, i am very saddened by it because i think it was driven by the abuse of the uk tabloid press. they had been treated absolutely horribly, meg and in particular has been the victim of outrageous racist claims for years, and has clearly taken a toll on her —— meghan. they have spoken publicly about that. i don't know how long they have lasted, it really has been abusive. it is sad, but on the other

hand, a lot of the american fans are overjoyed. they love the idea of harry and meghan saying we're not going to take anymore, we are going to step back a little bit, we will still work hard, we are going to make our own living but we are still going to support the queen but we're not going to take the abuse anymore is how a lot of people are this. their statement about dipping back from senior roles also included state m e nts from senior roles also included statements about how they are going to change their relationship with the press. the press has been abusive to them over there. how do you take this phrase financially independent? do you think their titles will change? will they have less earning power?|j titles will change? will they have less earning power? i don't think their titles are going to change, at least not for the time being. for the time being they are still going to be supporting the queen and her effort, they have made that clear, and as faras effort, they have made that clear, and as far as being financially independent, let's face it, they already have the money to be able to do that right now. harry has his mother's inheritance and meghan has her money that she made after a very

successful career in the entertainment business over here. they already have the foundation to be way more successful and well off than most people on the planet with the resources they already have, plus they have huge earning potential just being who plus they have huge earning potentialjust being who they are. the world is very interested in them. they are so beloved around the world, especially in the us.” them. they are so beloved around the world, especially in the us. i am sure a lot of people would agree with you about the racism. would that be less in north america? yes, i absolutely think it would be less. in the usa lost of us see her as america's princess. see her as royalty. she is very relevant here. we love that she is outspoken about issues like feminism and the environment and race and equal rights. we don't see any of those things is worth criticising here. we celebrate those things about her and we love them and those are some of the main things that uk tabloid presses tore her downfall. what do you make, prince charles has spoken

about streamlining the royal family, hasn't he? we hear the royalfamily is hurt by the statement, there was a lack of consultation. presumably, the future monarch will be happy. yes, i very much think so. it is no secret charles has wanted to streamline the monarchy and to use the old phrase, the air and the spare, we don't really need despair anymore. the air has three spares already. william has three children and harry has new life right now, a wife and child, his own charities. they have their own causes that they champion. they have a life outside of the royal family and the royal family has plenty of other members who can carry on the work going forward , who can carry on the work going forward, even in a streamlined way. that is still quite a few family members who can carry the torch. thank you very much. thank you so much. in iraq, at least two rockets have been fired into in the heavily fortified green zone in the capital baghdad. foreign government buildings, including the us embassy, are based there, but american

officials say there are no coalition casualties or damage to facilities. earlier, president trump said iran appeared to be standing down after the launch of more than 20 missiles at iraqi bases where american and iraqi troops are stationed. vice president mike pence claimed again that americans are safer for the assassination of the iranian general, qasem souleimani. and he suggested the us had received intelligence that iran has told its allied militias not to attack american targets or civilians. our middle east editorjeremy bowen reports from baghdad. the iranians kept their promise and may have bought some time. iran had to calibrate its missile launchers. enough to satisfy angry iranians. not enough to provoke a much more destructive american response. they seem to have guessed right.

iraqi soldiers shouted warnings to each other. shouting they share the huge ayn al asad base in western iraq with the americans. afterwards for the leaders came a chance to save face, claim victory and step back for the moment. no americans were harmed in last night's attack by the iranian regime. we suffered no casualties. all of our soldiers are safe. iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world. it looks different in iran. a few in tehran even got up early to celebrate revenge. here is a university student. "i have a great feeling," she said. "i hope revenge continues

and i hope to see trump fail." and later, the regime's faithful chanted "death to america" as the supreme leader, ayatollah ali khamenei, told them he hadn't finished yet. translation: the issue of revenge is something else. what happened last night was just a slap in the face. for him, the assassination promotes unity in a divided country, and now iran has more time for its speciality — unconventional warfare using proxies and allies. here in baghdad, the morning had nothing for iraqis who want iranians and americans to leave them alone. the badr organisation, a political party based on a pro—iranian militia, gathered to mourn the assassinations and condemn the us refusal

to pull their troops out of iraq. they insist on their presence in iraq. that means they force everybody in iraq, everybody in iraq to go for military resistance against them. do you think now that the iranians have made this attack, that it's the end of this chapter? they do more and they increase, i think. i think this is only a message, not more. a message to the americans, saying...? that we are serious. this is a long—term conflict. the biggest danger of the moment in the most unstable part of the world. without a political dialogue and some kind of deal, the slide towards war will continue. jeremy bowen, bbc news, baghdad. let's get some of the day's other news. the canadian prime minister, justin trudeau, says his government will make sure a plane crash in iran

involving many people travelling to canada is thoroughly investigated. he said 138 of the 176 passengers on board the ukrainian plane were connecting to canada. the new president of the european commission, ursula von der leyen, has said that britain will find it "basically impossible" to negotiate all aspects of its future relationship with the european union by the end of this year. she's been holding talks with britain's prime minister, borisjohnson. she said the transition time is very tight for a long—term post—brexit relationship. the world bank is forecasting a slight increase in global economic growth for the coming year following a marked slowdown in 2019. the bank predicts that growth will reach 2.5% so long as there's a substantial improvement in some large emerging and developing economies. australia's prime minister has been outlining his plans to deal with the country's bushfire emergency. he also confirmed

27 lives had been lost and over 2,000 properties destroyed by the wildfires. scott morrison also told reporters that more money would be allocated to help towns rebuild. we have been blessed with the amount of support and assistance provided to us from countries all around the world. and one obviously where we have the existing standing arrangements with new zealand, canada and the united states, i have got to say it has been a great comfort as i have walked into incident response centres, wherever i have been around the country, and you can hear that canadian and us and kiwi accident —— accent that is there alongside the aussie accents, just focusing on the task. i tell you what has been overwhelming has been a loving response from our pacific family. the vanuatu government provided 250,000 dollars australian, and it might not sound like a lot in terms of the

tremendous assistance provided by many other countries, but from them, that was a gift from the heart. australia's prime minister there. let's speak now with our correspondent phil mercer who is in sydney. scott morrison has taken a lot of fla k scott morrison has taken a lot of flak in all this, partly for the way he has dealt with the emergency and partly his links to big: denial to climate change. what is the response to what he has been saying? what we are seeing here is a prime minister trying to reassert his leadership, trying to reassert his leadership, trying to reassert his leadership, trying to reassert his authority. he was heavily criticised, scott morrison, for being on holiday in hawaii during one of the worst weeks of this bushfire crisis before christmas. mr morrison also criticised for underplaying the role of global warming in this crisis as well. so here we have a prime minister trying to get back onto the front foot, he has brought in the military, he is promising billions of dollars in recovery assistance for bushfire hedge communities, and

i think many australians simply want their leaders to lead, so that is a message i think that scott morrison is trying to tell the country, that he is back in control and he will chart —— charter a way through this crisis that he's still has a long way to go. there has been a lot of talk about the need to change the way fires are handled, if indeed they can be handled, and where people build and how they build. what chances of that? after the black saturday bushfires of 2009, australia learned an awful lot of terrible lessons. 173 people died in that disaster just over ten terrible lessons. 173 people died in that disasterjust over ten years ago, and no doubt this crisis, it is not over yet, but when australia can draw breath and consider what has happened since september, this crisis has been going for weeks, it began in the state of queensland, so no doubt there will be serious questions to be asked about australia's attitude to global

warming, for example, although more local issues such as how to protect communities, taking down bushland neophyte affected towns for example, building codes, alert systems for residents, evacuation orders, the role of the military. the list really is endless. at the end of the day australia will have to learn some very painful lessons because this fire season has begun far earlier than normal, it is far more intense than we are used to, so australia really does have to learn what to do if these sorts of conditions are likely to present themselves again and in the future. is the money enough to make a difference? a lot on how it is spent. absolutely. at the moment we don't know the true extent of this disaster. australia is clearly war weary each new day brings more grim figures. as to the extent of this

crisis, 27 people have died so far, more than 2000 homes have been destroyed. the impact on australia's land is immense. we are hearing that more land than an area the size of portugal has been scorched. the impact on wildlife is unknown. we may never know the true impact on australia's native animals. so this isa australia's native animals. so this is a crisis that may take months, if not years to fully appreciate. thank you very much. stay with us on bbc news. the former boss of north and had sat at japan's judicial system, his first public comments since he jumped bail. clinic the japanese people are in mourning following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it was announced he was dead.

good grief! after half a century of delighting fans around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quits. the singer paul simon starts his tour of south africa tomorrow in spite of protests and violence from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa until majority rule is established. teams were trying to scoop up lumps of oil as france recognises it faces an ecological crisis. three weeks ago, the authorities confidently assured these areas that oil from the broken tanker erika would head out to sea. it didn't. the world's tallest skyscraper opens later today. the burj dubai has easily overtaken its nearest rivals. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: prince harry and his wife meghan

have unexpectedly announced they're stepping back from their roles as senior members of the british royal family. president trump says he believes iran is standing down in its military confrontation with america after it fired missiles at us air bases in iraq. in australia, temperatures are expected to soar again later this week as the bushfire crisis continues. at least 25 people have died since september and almost 2,000 homes have been destroyed. ——at least 27 people. the eastern and southern sides of the country have been the worst—affected — and many animals have also been killed in the fires. clive myrie sent this from the town of mogo in new south wales. preparations well under way, sadly, again for more intense bushfires because temperatures are likely to rise across the south—east of australia to a0 degrees tomorrow. people in towns not far from here have been told they've got to evacuate because of the possibility of high winds,

bringing together three raging fires into one giant monster and, when i say giant, i mean a wall of flames, 20, 30 maybe a0 kilometres wide and scores of feet high. but this wooded area here, that is completely destroyed, the fire was visited on this place about new year's eve and, look at this, just over here, days later, you can still see the smoke from burning embers. and if our cameraman, johnny, just pans down to the ground here, you can that see everything is black — the earth, the trees — everything. colour has changed and up to the sky, you'd normally see a canopy there, and — i'm going to shut up for a second... silence ..nothing. a cacophony of trees, birdsong in those trees is what you would hear. and johnny, if we just bring the camera down here, just look down here — a corridor of burnt trees, wallabies, koalas,

everything that was living in this place was incinerated. the world war i artists, wyndham lewis, paul nash, they never saw anything on this scale. but this is just a tiny fraction of the millions of acres that have been destroyed in this appalling bushfire season. in peru, heavy rains in southern and central regions have washed away bridges, with homes and medical centres engulfed by severe flooding. the country is currently in the middle of its annual rainy season, but local authorities said such rainfall had not been seen in the region since 2002. gareth barlow has more. roads transformed into rivers of mud. this, the heaviest rain in southern and central peru for almost 20 years. homes engulfed, bridges washed away. "the floods took my

house," this man said. "my fish farm, my animals. the entire farm is gone." peru is in the midst of its rainy season, which usually continues until april. the country was engulfed by deadly floods in 2017. more than 100 people died. with more rain forecast, the clean—up is already under way, but the rainy season is far from over. gareth barlow, bbc news. the former boss of nissan has appeared in public for the first time since his dramatic escape from bail injapan. carlos ghosn claims he's innocent of charges of financial misconduct, and blamed japanese prosecutors and nissan for his downfall. our world affairs editorjohn simpson was at the press conference, and sent this report. it was chaos. everyone wanted a first glimpse of the international motor industry tycoon

turned escape artist. i'm going to try, as much as possible, to answer as many questions as possible. this is the chartered jet that whisked carlos ghosn out of kansai airport in japan to istanbul. and these cctv pictures seemed to show him being shunted onto a smallerjet, which then took him onto beirut. but this, on the right, is apparently the box he was smuggled out in. he's 5'6". i did not escapejustice. ifled injustice and persecution. i was left with no other choice but to protect myself and my family. he endured, he said, 400 days of inhumane treatment, designed to break him. there's a 99% rate of conviction in japanese criminal trials. "it will get worse for you if you don'tjust confess," the prosecutor told me repeatedly.

he thinks it was all a conspiracy to prevent his company, nissan, being swallowed up by foreign ownership. how high up in the japanese system does that conspiracy go? does it go up, perhaps, to the very top? i don't personally think that the top level was involved, if this is your question. if you are talking about abe—san, i don't think abe—san was involved. in other words, not the japanese prime minister, mr abe. someone asked if he shouldn't have seen the trouble coming. his answer — it was like america in 19111. you know what happened in pearl harbor? did you see pearl harbor happen? did you notice what happened in pearl harbor? injapan itself, the response to all this has been furious. carlos ghosn's one—sided criticism of the japanese justice system was completely unacceptable, said the japanese justice minister. but the basic reason carlos ghosn escaped from japan was sitting on the front row —

his wife, carol, rarely taking her eyes off him. he had only seen herfor two hours in his nine months of detention. "i had to be with her," he said. john simpson, bbc news, beirut. the canadian singer, justin bieber, has confirmed that he's been diagnosed with lyme disease. there had been speculation on social media that he had a drug problem after he was photographed looking unwell with blotches on his skin. lyme disease is a bacterial infection caused by ticks. in a post on instagram, bieber said it had been a rough couple of years, but he hoped the right treatment would help him recover from the disease. 40 a0 tourists have been rescued from a

glacier on iceland, when they got caught ina glacier on iceland, when they got caught in a severe lizard. everybody unharmed, we understand. thank you very much for watching. hello. weatherwise, it's pretty much a case of you name it and we've got it coming our way in the next few days. we've got a chilly start to thursday to the far north of the uk with a patchy frost and some fog. further south, it's unseasonably mild. this area of low pressure will bring wet and windy weather to a central swathe of the uk early on in the day. later on, the south—west gets targeted by another low, heavy rain, thundery and a risk of gales. here is the rush hour across northern england and southern scotland, snow for the higher routes of the pennines, some heavy rain and some squally winds. all of that pulling out into the north sea as the morning wears on. quite a cutting north—easterly wind, though, following on behind, so chilly for those

north sea coasts. by the afternoon, our next low coming in to the south—west, that's set to produce some heavy rain. strong winds, particularly, for the isles of scilly and for the channel islands, 12 degrees in plymouth, and contrast that to just 3 in aberdeen. through thursday evening and overnight into friday, some very heavy rain tracks across southern england as this low heads off into the continent, and then, by friday morning, the pressure is building. the winds fall light, the skies clear and it will start to turn pretty chilly. perhaps an exception being the far south—east where the cloud will only clear towards the end of the night, so not so much cooling here, but quite widely a frost first thing on friday. a lot of dry weather to get the day under way. light winds and sunshine but cloud gathering towards the north—west through the afternoon, the wind picking up and the rain starting to approach. but friday's temperatures, notice just 6 or 7 degrees, a much cooler story overall. but overnight friday into saturday,

we start to pick up a strong south—westerly air stream, strengthening south—westerly winds and very mild air floods into the uk for saturday. that's important because warmer air holds more moisture and that's going to make this front all the more potent to the north of the uk, bringing heavy rain before it clears through during the second half of the weekend. so, here is saturday, a very wet day for parts of scotland, northern ireland and northern england. 100mm of rain possible in some spots with i think localised flooding before that system clears away. warnings have been issued for the rain, also for the wind, quite widespread gales at least until the middle part of saturday. by sunday, the front away into the continent, the skies are looking clearer, the wind is lighter, but we've moved back into cooler air, so we're down into single 00:28:46,510 --> 2147483051:51:07,970 figures with some wintry 2147483051:51:07,970 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 flurries in the north—west.