welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore. i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines:

in the last few minutes, a los angeles judge has said that britney spears�* father james has been immediately suspended from her conservatorship. the judge sided with britney spears�*s lawyer, saying the current situation reflected a toxic environment. agreeing it was in the star's "best interests" that her father he removed. i'm joined now by sophie long live in los angeles, who is outside the court house.

britney spears the lawyer has just addressed the crowd. it’s just addressed the crowd. it's a ureat just addressed the crowd. it's a great day — just addressed the crowd. it�*s a great day for britney spears. and a great day forjustice. definitely something to celebrate. but it's also a solemn day. britney spears has been faced with a decade—long nightmare, a kafkaesque nightmare, a kafkaesque nightmare orchestrated by her father and others. and i'm so

proud of herfor her courage, her strength and her poignancy. and i've only been on this matterfor a and i've only been on this matter for a couple of months, but i'm proud to say we have got to know each other very well, and she's so pleased and thankful to all of you. and i am as well. in terms of what happened today, i'm so pleased and proud to sayjamie spears is no longer a conservative. cheering and applause. that was britney spears' lawyer. we can now hear from our correspondent who was in the midst of that celebrating crowd after the decision filtered through.- crowd after the decision filtered through. crowd after the decision filtered throu~h. . , . filtered through. there was an enormous _ filtered through. there was an enormous cheer, _ filtered through. there was an enormous cheer, the - filtered through. there was an enormous cheer, the crowd i enormous cheer, the crowd literally erupted when word reached the reporters, hundreds of them gathered outside this

courthouse in downtown la, that jamie spears, britney's father would be suspended from her conservatorship with immediate effect. it is what the star has been pleading for, just over three months since her very passionate emotional testimony to the courthouse, when she said she found her father intimidating. it now seems the judge has decided after more than an hour of legal arguments from both sides that it is in the singer's best interest that her father is no longer controlling her estate the way he has been able to for the past 13 years. the hearing is backin past 13 years. the hearing is back in session, and we are hearing from inside the courtroom that he will be replaced by a certified accountant who will take over the role for the time being. we believe a new date has been set, a tentative date of december 31st, when a ruling will be made on the termination

or otherwise of the conservatorship. as it stands, what we believe is happening is jamie spears will be removed, suspended with immediate effect from the conservatorship. this is a major victory for everyone gathered outside. i ask people for their reactions and they said it is what britney wanted and what we have been campaigning for. her lawyer argued that there was abuse, and thejudge found in her favour. and the 'udge found in her favour. , , , ., and the 'udge found in her favour, , , ., favour. just listening to the eo - le favour. just listening to the people gathered _ favour. just listening to the people gathered outside i favour. just listening to the | people gathered outside the courthouse, you can really hear and see the wealth of emotion and see the wealth of emotion and support britney garnered throughout this entire episode. how much did that play a part do you think in the support for this case, and what we have seen today?— this case, and what we have seen today? this will britney sears seen today? this will britney spears delete _ seen today? this will britney spears delete maker- seen today? this will britney i spears delete maker movement has been going on for years. ——

the free britney movement has been going on for years. there were questions about the extent to which britney spears had been controlled and even exploited. a lot of people have been campaigning notjust for been campaigning not just for her to been campaigning notjust for her to be freed from her conservatorship, but for the whole conservatorship system to be reformed, and they are absolutelyjubilant, they feel absolutely jubilant, they feel vindicated, absolutelyjubilant, they feel vindicated, and this is what the star has wanted. we haven't heard from her in court today, but in her last testimony she pleaded for the court to do this, she found herfather intimidating and the conservatorship abusive. we are waiting for a press conference which should happen immediately after the court finishes the hearing. we expect to hear from her lawyer, and then we will learn exactly what has been decided in court. the free britney movement, many of them outside the court, having flown from all over the united

states, this is a huge moment, one they have really been hoping for. one they have really been honing for-— hoping for. sophie long, outside _ hoping for. sophie long, outside the _ hoping for. sophie long, outside the courthouse l hoping for. sophie long, outside the courthouse a hoping for. sophie long, i outside the courthouse a little earlier. before, infact, we heard from the lawyer. meanwhile, at least 220 female judges are currently hiding in afghanistan, most have passed judgment in legal cases involving violence against women, and the men they sent to prison are now threatening to kill them. the bbc has spoken to one of the judges who is terrified about the future, her words are spoken by a translator. translation: i'm one - of the judges in afghanistan. i studied very hard at the faculty of law and i completed the legal course. i worked in different courts. i worked as an active judge for eight years, until the day when the taliban took over. i dealt with different cases, such as kidnapping, human smuggling, migrant smuggling, membership in groups such as is

and the taliban and so on. with the taliban takeover, judges like me live in fear. we live with anxiety and depression. we are not safe. i am so scared. i live in fear and in hiding. i am not safe at all. some of the prisoners who have been freed are a danger to us. judges feel most scared of them. i know some have been going to the court to find out addresses forjudges. somejudges have been followed and threatened. we are living in a dark time. i had to leave my house and live somewhere else. i don't want anyone to find me. they are chasing us. one of afg hanistan's one of afghanistan's female judges, now living in england, describes her experiences when the taliban were first in power. the taliban were first in ower. , ., ~ power. they tried to kill me when they _ power. they tried to kill me when they came _ power. they tried to kill me when they came into - power. they tried to kill me when they came into power| power. they tried to kill me l when they came into power in 1997, the taliban came into our house and they searched our house and they searched our house to find me and shoot me

because of myjob, because of my career. because i tried to empower women in my town. the second time, in pakistan, again i established a school for refugees, again my title was with me as a judge. again they attacked me. that was my experience with the taliban. when i receive messages, i am crying because i am very hopeless and powerless person. please provide emergency visa for the femalejudges, they need safety, they need security, their children are in a very bad place. just my message on behalf of the female judges in afghanistan. the - li . ht judges in afghanistan. the li . ht of judges in afghanistan. the plight of afghan _ judges in afghanistan. the plight of afghan female judges threatened by the taliban. let's look at some other stories in the headlines. the north korean leader kim john

lennon has condemned the united states offer of talks as a show to cover up the country's hostile acts. the comments were made at the assembly. but he had kind words for south korea. he said he has no reason to hurt his southern neighbour —— kimjong—un. these hurt his southern neighbour —— kim jong—un. these comments come after recent tests of a new hypersonic missile. divisions in the us democratic party are threatening joe biden's $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which has already passed the senate and must be voted through by congress on thursday. although the democrats have a small majority, progressives in the party are threatening to vote down the bill if they are not promised a second multitrillion package for social spending and climate change. the leader of

britain's main opposition labour party sir keir starmer has made a stinging attack on prime minister borisjohnson, prime minister boris johnson, calling prime minister borisjohnson, calling him a trickster and a showman with nothing left to show. after last year's virtual conference, he apologised to supporters who felt his party were not electable at the last general election. next year's winter olympics and paralympics in beijing will be held without fans from overseas, with tickets restricted to fans living in mainland china, because of the covid—19 pandemic. the international olympic committee also said only fully vaccinated participants would be exempt from serving a 21 day quarantine upon arrival unless the athlete can provide a justified medical exemption. a british court has heard how an off duty policeman performed an off duty policeman performed a fake arrest using handcuffs to convince a woman she was being detained for breaching

coronavirus regulations. wayne couzens has admitted raping and murdering sarah everard in march, a case which sparked an outcry over male violence towards women. "she was my precious little girl," said sarah everard's mother. "i can never talk to her, never hold her again. i am tormented at the thought of what she endured." that was at the hands of wayne couzens, in handcuffs when he was arrested at home, telling lie after lie. he'd already kidnapped, raped, murdered and burnt sarah. he's asked if he knows her. within minutes, he's pretending he's handed sarah over alive to an eastern european gang.

as sarah walked from her friend's house, couzens was hunting for a victim. this, the moment of that deception. his car on the pavement, hazard lights on, he stops sarah. his arm outstretched, showing her his warrant card. using his handcuffs, he arrests her. he'd previously been on covid patrols, so knew what to say. witnesses see sarah with her arms behind her back, but they think it's an undercover police operation. it was kidnap. he used all the equipment and knowledge of being a police officer to do it. couzens sat in the dock, never lifting his head. sarah's family and friends listened to the devastating detail that is their daily reality. in the hours after kidnapping her, there was a mixture of the banal and the evil. after dumping sarah's body in woods in kent,

he stops at costa coffee to get a hot chocolate. police think he's raped and murdered sarah by this time. the next day, he goes to buy a green can and fills it up with petrol. he returns to the woods and burns sarah's body in a fridge. later, it's dumped in water. he goes back again to the woods for a family trip with his wife and children, just days after he'd left sarah's remains there. sarah's family remained so dignified as they told the court about sarah and about what they had lost. her father and sister asked couzens, who had his head bowed, to face them. couzens started shaking. mr everard told him, "sarah was handcuffed and unable to defend herself. this preys on my mind all the time. i can never forgive you for taking sarah away from us. all my family want is sarah back. you have broken our hearts." couzens has still never

explained what exactly happened that night. a police officer betraying his uniform, a family left with no answers and without sarah, and a woman who had her life, herfuture, taken. that tragic report on what happened to sarah everard. if you want to get in touch with me about any of the stories you have seen so far, i am on twitter. i am looking forward to hearing from you. still to come on the programme, a warning that the trade in wildlife trafficking is returning to asia despite the coronavirus pandemic. in all russia's turmoil, it has never quite come to this. president yeltsin said it would decide russia's destiny.

the nightmare is playing out its final act, russians are killing russians in front of a grandstand audience. it was his humility which produced affection from catholics throughout the world, his departure is a tragedy for the catholic church. this man, ariel sharon, visited the religious compound and that started the trouble. he wants israel alone to have sovereignty over the holy sites, an idea that is unthinkable to palestinians. after 45 years of division, germany is one. in berlin, 1 million germans celebrate the rebirth of europe's biggest and richest nation.

a los angelesjudge has suspended britney spears father from his position as controller of her business affairs. japan's governing liberal democratic party has elected a new leader, kishida is to become the leader within days, replacing yoshihide suga, after only a year, partly because of his handling of the pandemic. meetjapan's soon—to—be 100th prime minister, who will most certainly be confirmed on the 11th of october by parliament, after winning the ruling party's leadership election.

fumio kishida, just like many other lawmakers injapan, comes from a family of politicians. the former foreign minister is known as a moderate liberal, so he's expected to steer the ruling party slightly to the left. and while his critics describe him as bland and boring, he's known to stand for stability. he's long been seen within the party as a consensus builder and a future leader who had the backing of its elders. translation: from today, i will with all my energy i get straight to work. party members around the country and members of parliament, please work with me. mr kushida is well—known for his advocacy for nuclear disarmament, who helped realise the then—us president barack obama to visit hiroshima in 2016. but he wasn't the most popular among voters. and as he has to call the general election before the end of next month, he needs to gain the support from the public, who don't

know him too well. his victory was greeted with mixed views. translation: from the candidates' policies, i i feel that all of them are thinking about people and doing various things for us. but among them, i personally was convinced by kushida's proper policies. translation: no matter who becomes the leader i of the ruling party, i don't think it will make any big difference. however, with kushida, the bureaucrats will get to work. in that sense, i think he will run the next administration smoothly. translation: the current prime minister lacks i popularity a little bit. when it comes to popularity, appearances matter a lot i when you show up in the media, so i think kushida _ is good because of his physical appearance. i the party's popularity has already suffered after the government pushed ahead to host the tokyo olympics despite strong public opposition. so far, he's promised to spend billions of dollars to help the world's third—biggest economy recover from covid restrictions. china was also high

on the agenda, and mr kushida has accused beijing of wanting to export its authoritarian system. ahead of the general election, voters will be watching how he aims to balance relations with the us and china. mariko oi, bbc news. i think mr kishida's victory in the ldp leadership race shows that they value stability and continuity over change. i say this because he came out top in the first race, beating the administrative reform minister, who is outspoken in his tendencies and known as a bit of a maverick. of course they needed a second round vote to

determine the winner, but the strong showing in the first round showed that the ldp greatly preferred continuity in this case. he has a number of foreign policy issues to deal with, if indeed he is selected as prime minister next week. on the foreign policy front, for instance, with the recent north korean missile tests, as well as relations between the us and china, how do you see him managing foreign policy? yes, i think mr kishida has a dovish image when it comes to foreign policy, but on the campaign trail he struck a notably tougher tone, particularly towards china. for example, he talked a lot about wanting to work with other liberal democracies to gain influence and counter china's assertiveness.

he also talked about appointing a special adviser on human rights, whose portfolio will include china's human rights abuses. he is calibrating his position a bit on those points. conservation groups in south east asia have warned of a recent increase in wildlife trafficking and consumption. consumer demand for wildlife fell at the start of the pandemic, when it was believed that covid—19 had originated in a wet market in wuhan, china, but people's appetite for illegal wildlife in the region is returning. i spoke to the bbc world service environment correspondent navin singh khadka. what we're hearing

from campaigners is that because of this unsettled state of the origin of the virus, as you know, scientific community or even intelligence community are divided over whether it was a spill—over from animal to human or was it a lab leak? and scientists are saying that it will take many years for us to reach a conclusion, and so wildlife campaigners are telling me that this unsettled state has kind of led to people being less reluctant, or let's say more relaxed, in terms of consuming wildlife. in the meantime, we're also seeing an increased number of seizures, so they are very worried we might be heading back to the pre—pandemic levels of wildlife consumption. navin, how widescale is the problem? or how widescale are people concerned about the problem becoming? there has been no study in terms of how many people are really going back like that, or surveys, but what campaigners and wildlife investigators are telling us is that they have spoken to people and have found

this relaxed attitude. and in the meantime, as you said, so many seizures in vietnam or in thailand. and just last year, or in 2019, after the outbreak of the pandemic, there have been reports that in the greater mekong region or lower mekong region, there has been selling of all this wildlife products — in one report, they found 80,000 different wildlife products in more than 1,000 outlets. and also in the meantime, there have been major seizures in africa. investigators tell me they were destined for southeast asia, the regular destination hotspots. navin, what are authorities doing about this, given the scale of the problem you've described? as we know, china and vietnam, they have introduced bans, as you know. china, for instance,

basically it's about certain terrestrial wildlife, in terms of food. similar restrictions, a similar ban in vietnam. but the issue here is that these countries... in china, for instance, they allow traditional use of medicines or even ornaments, and experts are telling me that these are loopholes, and even when these countries are trying to implement those bans, the market is so entrenched, it is a huge area, enforcement is really challenging. in the meantime, because of the border restrictions, illegal suppliers are offering discounts. that's a huge challenge. these are live pictures of lava continuing to spew from a volcano in spain. it has been ten days since it first began erupting. it has now reached

the sea, we understand, triggering plumes of vapour and gas as we can see. thousands of people have been evacuated, 650 homes as well. that is it from us. after what was a mostly dry and clear end to wednesday for most of us, the weather steps up a gear through thursday and into the weekend. with spells of rain, some strong winds, some drier, brighter interludes in between, but the culprit — no prizes for guessing — is low pressure. and this frontal system pushing in from the west is going to bring rain for many of us through the day ahead, with some quite brisk winds as well, particularly in western areas. gusts across western scotland for a time in excess of 50mph. through the day, we will see cloud, we will see outbreaks of showery rain on and off with some drier interludes. best chance of any sunshine across northeast scotland and maybe for a time in the far southeast of england. those are the average wind

speeds through the afternoon. gusts will be stronger than that. temperatures ranging from 13 degrees in aberdeen to 17 in cardiff and in plymouth. now, through thursday night, we will see more cloud, more showery rain, and then through the early hours of friday, it looks like we'll have a band of really heavy rain and potentially some quite squally winds that will start to work eastwards, but a much milder night in prospect, with temperatures for many places staying in double digits. so this band of heavy rain and strong winds will cross east anglia and the southeast through friday morning. behind that, england and wales will see some sunshine, but scotland and northern ireland seeing further outbreaks of rain, very windy, with gusts in excess of 50mph across parts of scotland particularly, and temperatures between 13 and 17 degrees. and then we get to the weekend and this frontal system running in from the west could spell trouble, could spell disruption for some, bringing some very heavy rain and then potentially spinning into a really deep area of low pressure drifting northwards across the uk, with the risk of gales, perhaps most especially across scotland,

and heavy rain affecting most areas at times. so saturday may start off dry for many of us, but it looks like we'll see some really very heavy and persistent rain working in from the southwest, maybe northern scotland staying just about dry. the winds picking up as well. and then through saturday night, that's when we're expecting an area of low pressure to develop. the detail may change between now and then, but we could see a bout of very strong winds drifting across scotland, some rain continuing here into sunday. sunshine and heavy showers further south and top temperatures to end the weekend between 12 and 17 degrees.

we will have the headlines at the top of the hour after this programme. hi, i'm larry madowo. thank you forjoining me here in washington, dc, for this very special edition of witness history. we will go back to some important moments in the past, from the civil rights era to the present day.

coming up — we will hear about the damning 1960s