welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm monica miller. the headlines... a dutch court sentences two russians and one ukrainian to life in prison for shooting down a malaysia airlines plane, killing almost 300 people. when you look at the world, all these tragedies happen, but this one was part of me, part of my life, and it'll stay there forever. the bbc hears details of alleged atrocities by russian soldiers before they left the liberated region of kherson in ukraine. uk's finance minister says families will face real challenges ahead with further spending cuts and higher taxes on the horizon. and the end of an era in american politics — speaker nancy pelosi won't seek

re—election to lead the democrats in the us house of representatives. live from our studio in singapore... this is bbc news. it's newsday. it's seven in the morning in singapore and midnight in the hague, where a court has found three men guilty of murdering 298 people after shooting down a malaysian airlines plane over ukraine in 2014. the men — two russians and a ukrainian — were tried in absentia and given life sentences. the court said the missile that took down flight mh17 was supplied by russia's military, and fired from territory controlled by kremlin—backed militia. moscow denies any involvement. our correspondent in amsterdam, anna holligan, has been at the trial and sent this report. he speaks dutch

the judges ruled that the three men had set out to bring down a plane, even though they had intended to shoot down a military, not a civilian aircraft. the court found the surface—to—air missile was supplied by a russian military brigade and fired from territory controlled by russian—backed separatists. for the relatives of the epicentre of this disaster, this long—awaited judgment day brought mixed emotions. when you listened to what was said in there, what was your feeling? it was grief, anger, relief, anger, grief. when you look at the world, all these tragedies happen, but this one was part of me, part of my life, and it'll stay there forever, so... the families here have been waiting eight years for this verdict, and the sentiment among so many of them is that their loved ones were among the first casualties of a conflict

which is still raging today. this verdict is a reminder that russia's military presence in ukraine started long before this year's full—scale invasion. many of the victims' families feel this is a vindication of their sentiment, but if the world had taken a tougher stance against russia eight years ago, that invasion and the geopolitical instability that followed could have been avoided. 0k! among them, this girl's father. he cherishes the memories of his only child and her documents recovered intact from the crash site. it is extremely important to me. that feeling ofjustice to be done gives a good feeling and gives, i hope, gives us some peace about this subject. while this judgment can't heal the pain and it's unlikely to result in anyone serving life for taking those 298 lives, it has established the truth and has

kept the victims' memories alive. anna holligan, bbc news, schiphol. russian state media has responded to the mh17 ruling, saying the court had shown a lack of impartiality and that its decision was politically motivated. russia's for in ministry said it wanted to study this very carefully before it issues an official statement, but the russian state media, they haven't waited before commenting, and no surprises here. the state media and russia have condemned the outcome of this trial. using the kind of arguments we've been hearing a lot from russia, basically, since the 2014. in other words, accusing the court of

russophobia, complaining that russia wasn't part of the investigation and basically trying to dismiss the whole process as illegitimate. after what was a painstaking international investigation into this disaster and a two year trial, i think these russian arguments will convince few people. i think they are aimed principally at a domestic audience to sow doubt in the minds of the russian public. two of the three men who were convicted of murder today were russian citizens. they were not in court, they are at large, and i think there's virtually no prospect of moscow handing them over to serve their sentences.— their sentences. steve rosenberg there. relatives of victims of flight mh17 are convinced the current conflict in ukraine could have been avoided if the world had taken a harder line with russia eight years ago. today's verdict comes as investigators in the recently—liberated ukrainian region of kherson discover 63 bodies

scarred with signs of torture. russia has denied its forces have been committing atrocities. 0ur correspondentjames waterhouse has been speaking to people who were held by russian forces in the southern city for most of this year. and just a warning, his report contains details you may find distressing. it's only once russia leaves... ..that you get a sense of what they have done. what allegedly happened here is a picture of brutality. this used to be a police station in kherson. after russian forces took control, officials say it became a torture chamber. angella, a tvjournalist, spent 31 days there. translation: on the third floor, people, men were beaten. -

0n the first floor, we heard that it was electrocution. when a person is being tortured with electricity, you hear it. it is a peculiar sound. after hearing what angella has been through, you get a really vivid glimpse of what this place must have been like. there is still the smell of burning in the air, but the silence is almost deafening, and each one of these rooms has its own story and all of them come out over time. she shared cell number six with four other women. what she didn't know... ..was that her boyfriend was there, too. translation: there were some people who were electrocuted. _ it was horrible. one guy was brought to the cell after interrogation. his tongue was black.

it was so swollen, he couldn't put it back in his mouth. in kherson, daily life runs alongside grim discoveries. a mass grave was found here. elsewhere in the city, the bodies of 63 civilians were also found. they all, say investigators, show signs of being tortured. "there were more than 3,000 crimes committed throughout occupation," the chief investigator tells us. "90% of them are war crimes, including rape, torture and murder." as the evidence mounts, so do moscow's denials of targeting civilians, but when russia retreats, it leaves a now familiar footprint. james waterhouse, bbc news, kherson.

fresh russian strikes have hit cities across ukraine. they're the latest in a wave of attacks that have crippled the country's energy plants as winter sets in. 0ur correspondent catherine byaruhanga has the latest from kyiv. this is the second time in less than a week that russia has carried out nationwide attacks on ukraine. moscow has conducted a series of missile strikes on this country following military setbacks. the most recent being in the southern city of kherson. the prime minister said today's strikes a targeted energy infrastructure and production plants. 70 shells are said to have landed around the city of nikopol in eastern ukraine. temperatures are dropping here in kyiv, and residents

are braced for the worst to come. the united nations is warning that there could be a serious humanitarian crisis here in ukraine during the winter because millions face constant power cuts. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. lawyers for the american basketball star, brittney griner, have confirmed that she's been taken to a penal colony in the mordovia region of russia, about 500 kilometres east of moscow. she was arrested at moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil and was jailed in august for nine years on drugs charges. there have been efforts by the united states to try to secure her release, possibly in a prisoner swap deal involving the russian arms dealer, viktor bout. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, has told the apec summit that the release of thousands of prisoners by the burmese military government is a rare bright spot. but he cautioned there was no sign yet myanmar was interested in engaging

with the international community. the amnesty marking myanmar�*s national day the uk finance minister, jeremy hunt, has announced tax rises and spending cuts — to bolster an economy that he says has already entered recession. two months on from a disastrous mini budget that dented britain's economic credibility, mr hunt outlined a $65 billion package to reduce government borrowing. this includes additional windfall taxes on oil and gas firms. 0ur political editor chris mason reports. it's not even eight weeks since we reflected on the last chancellor's big moment, which sent the markets into turmoil

and brought down the prime minister. 55 days on, under the same governing party, and a colossal change of direction. now it'sjeremy hunt's turn. i now call the chancellor of- the exchequer to make a statement. jeremy hunt. in the face of unprecedented global headwinds, families, pensioners, businesses, teachers, nurses and many others are worried about the future. so, today, we deliver a plan to tackle the cost of living crisis and rebuild our economy. 0ur priorities are stability, growth and public services. the picture is bleak. the government's independent analysts say living standards are falling by the largest amount for 70 years. price rises will ease, but the economy is shrinking. they confirm that our actions today help inflation to fall sharply

from the middle of next year. they also judge that the uk, like other countries, is now in recession. and tax is going up. i have tried to be fair by following two broad principles. firstly, we ask those with more to contribute more. and secondly, we avoid the tax rises that damage growth. although my decisions today do lead to a substantial tax increase, we have not raised headline rates of taxation. but they have frozen the levels at which we pay various taxes, meaning, over time, we end up paying much more. and the best paid will be paying a higher rate of income tax. so, what about government spending? there will be less of it overall than had been thought, but listen to this on schools in england. because we want school standards to continue to rise for every single child, we are going to do more than protect the schools budget.

we will increase it. we're going to increase it. and on the health service in england... i will increase the nhs budget in each of the next two years by £3.3 billion. on both health and education, there'll be an equivalent option for an increase for scotland, wales and northern ireland. the state pension will keep pace with the rise in prices, as will all benefits in england, scotland and wales. mr hunt's concluding claim about his plans was this. it shows you don't need to choose either a strong economy or good public services. with conservatives, and only with conservatives, you get both, and i commend this statement to the house. the opposition parties here responded with derision. the mess we are in is the result of 12 weeks of conservative chaos, but also 12 years of conservative economic failure.

growth, dismal. investment, down. wages, squeezed. public services, crumbling. these difficult choices _ are of nothing compared to what many of our constituents face. the tories spent the summer- squabbling in a leadership contest when they should have been preparing for this difficult winter ahead. - we're talking about 1.2 billion additional for wales. that actually doesn't touch the sides of what the welsh government themselves have predicted with the sort of cuts they will need to make, in real terms, they will be around about £4 billion short in three years' time. tell me what you've been doing here. at a school in south london this afternoon, i had the chance to askjeremy hunt the questions you might want answering. chancellor, what do you say to people tonight who are facing the biggest drop in living standards since the 1950s? these are real challenges for families up and down the country. i'm not pretending these aren't going to be difficult times, but there is a plan,

there is hope, and if we follow this but there's a plan, there's hope, and if we follow this plan, if we stick with it, we can get through to the other side, make the recession shallower than it might otherwise have been, and give hope to families that we can get back to more normality. in truth, though, you've ducked the difficult decisions until after the next election, when you might be gone. well, i've been accused of many things, but ducking difficult decisions... postponing some of them. a conservative chancellor standing up in the house of commons and saying there will be £25 billion of tax increases, that is facing up to difficult decisions, but it's facing up to them in a balanced way that recognises that, for the next 18 months, we are going to be in recession. can we ever trust a conservative politician again who talks about being keen on low taxes, because we have the highest tax burden for nearly 80 years? 0nly conservatives understand that successful economies need to be lightly taxed if they are going to be dynamic and innovative.

you say that, and yet they keep going up. yes, because we have a very exceptional situation. we had a once—in—a—century pandemic. we had the fuel price hikes caused by vladimir putin. you are a tax—raising chancellor presiding over a recession and government spending not what you hoped it would be. do you have any hope of winning the next election? conservatives win elections when they are trusted with the economy, they're trusted with the economy, and what you've seen today is a conservative chancellor outlining a very difficult path that gets us through this crisis. a grim picture which many will conclude feels more grim courtesy of today's announcements. but the government wants to try to convince you it's still not as bad as it might have been without their decisions today. chris mason, bbc news. at westminster. nancy pelosi says

she will not seek reelection to relieve the democrats. —— two lead. benazir bhutto has claimed victory in pakistan's general election and she's asked pakistan's president to name her as prime minister. jackson's been released on bail of $3 million after turning himself in to police in santa barbara. it was the biggest demonstration so far of the first growing european antinuclear movement. the south african government has announced that it's opening - the country's remaining whites—only beaches to people of all races. - this will lead to a black majority government in this country and the destruction of the white civilisation. part of the centuries—old windsor castle, one of the queen's residences, has been consumed

by fire for much of a day. 150 firemen have been battling the blaze, which has caused millions of pounds worth of damage. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm monica miller in singapore. 0ur headlines... a dutch court sentences two russians and one ukrainian to life in prison for shooting down a malaysia airlines plane — killing almost 300 people. and the bbc hears details of alleged atrocities by russian soldiers before they left the liberated region of kherson in ukraine. it's been more than a week since polls closed in the us midterms — and we now know the result. the republicans will take control

of the house of representatives. the seat that handed them the majority was california's 27, with the republican incumbent mike garcia re—elected. it means they have passed the 218 threshold. although our partners cbs project the republicans majority the republicans' majority will be five at most. but, a win is a win. and that means there will be a new speaker — most likely kevin mccarthy. it also marks the end of an era. with the passing of the gavel, democrat nancy pelosi — now 82 — today announced she is standing down. my friends, no matter what title you all have _ my friends, no matter what title you all have bestowed upon me — speaker, leader. _ all have bestowed upon me — speaker, leader. whip— all have bestowed upon me — speaker, leader. whip - — all have bestowed upon me — speaker, leader, whip — there is no greater official_ leader, whip — there is no greater official honour for me than to speak for the _ official honour for me than to speak for the people of san francisco. this i_ for the people of san francisco. this i will— for the people of san francisco. this i will continue to do as a member_ this i will continue to do as a member of the house, speaking of the people _ member of the house, speaking of the people of— member of the house, speaking of the people of san francisco, serving the great _ people of san francisco, serving the great state — people of san francisco, serving the great state of california and defending our constitution. and with

.reat defending our constitution. and with great confidence in our caucus, i will not — great confidence in our caucus, i will not seek reelection to democratic leadership in the next congress — democratic leadership in the next congress. for me, the hours come from _ congress. for me, the hours come from a _ congress. for me, the hours come from a new— congress. for me, the hours come from a new generation to lead the democratic process that i so deeply respect, _ democratic process that i so deeply respect, and i'm grateful that so many— respect, and i'm grateful that so many are — respect, and i'm grateful that so many are ready and willing to show this awesome responsibility. here's our north america correspondent anthony zurcher on how democrats are celebrating nancy pelosi but are also looking to the next generation for their next leader. that's something that nancy pelosi, a point she made in her speech, that it was time to hand over leadership among house democrats to another generation. you have to remember, not only is nancy pelosi in her 805, but the next two ranking democrats in the house are also in their 805. both of them say they're going to step down and allow the younger generation to take over, and i think that's been something that has been long—awaited among the younger democrats who have been itching for a chance to lead. nancy pelosi has been in power now among the democrats for decades.

it is a testament to her ability as house speaker, and ability that is going to make her one of the towering historic figures among the history of the house of representatives. her ability to corral the votes of democrats in the chamber, no matter what the legislation was, she had an incredible sense of how to convince members of from caucus to vote on her bills even when the margins were very narrow. after member, for the past two years, democrats have only had you have to remember, for the past two years, democrats have only had a house majority by a handful of votes and yet, they were able to, say, ask that massive environment and health spending billjust a few months ago. she has been singular and her ability to keep her party members in mind by doing more about the members, members in line by doing more about the members, more about the districts and more about what motivates them. she's done the legwork that allows her to have that ability to keep control of the chamber. let's ta ke let's take a look at some other stories. malaysians will be heading

to the polls on saturday, and the votes will determine which party gets a new five—year mandate to govern the nation. analysts are predicting a very tight race, with no certainty of a clear winner. more than 21 million people are registered to vote in this year's snap election, after the government lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. we'll be speaking to an analyst on the upcoming election later on newsday. an italian court has acquitted former prime minister silvio berlusconi of bribing a witness in a 2013 underage prostitution case. mr berlusconi was charged with allegedly paying an italian singer more than 150,000 euros to lie in a previous trial where he was accused of paying to have sex with an underage nightclub dancer. at least 21 people have died after a fire broke out in a residential building in the densely populated jabaliya refugee camp in the gaza strip. i's thought the blaze

began with a gas leak it's thought the blaze began with a gas leak while a party was happening. gaza's interior ministry said an initial investigation revealed that large amounts of gasoline had been stored at the site. ticketmaster has come under heavy criticism after demand for taylor swift concert tickets crashed its website. the company had been selling seats to the singer's us tour, but sold out so swiftly the general public never even had a chance to buy them. ticketmaster cancelled the public sale on thursday, citing "extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory". music correspondent mark savage has more. fans had been given this to early access codes so they could get tickets before the general public. they got a good deal, but when they log on, some of them were put in queues of thousands of two people — some that i saw waited for more than

eight hours— and the tickets were already gone or kicked out of the system. ticketmaster itself delayed some of the sales for shows on the west coast of america so that people on the east coast could get their tickets and the system could cope with the demand. but it certainly seems like it buckled under the weight of all the people who have been waiting to see taylor swift for the first time since 2018. not forgetting that in that time, she's put out six albums, so there forgetting that in that time, she's put out six albums, .i this ere forgetting that in that time, she's put out six albums, .i this erl day tour huge demand to see this 52 day tour that starts in march. now to the japanese mountain resort of hakone, where visitors have literally bathing in red wine. despite its rising cost, japanese wine lovers stepped into a pool of this year's french beaujolais nouveau. 0ne bottle of the french wine costs 31 us dollars — that's twice as much as it did last year. so, why bathe in it ? advocates of vinotherapy say it can help you get rid of spots, cellulite and even wrinkles. but others say the alcohol just

dries out your skin! that's it for me. bye for now. hello. very unsettled spell of november weather is set to continue for some of us. there's some fairly heavy rain and the forecast. further south and towards the southwest, things are drying out through the day on friday, so it's going to be a day of mixed fortunes. not much for southern england, wales, northern ireland, but take a look at scotland — that is where we are going to see the most persistent rainfall. could be up to 150 mm perhaps over the

cairngorms. through the early hours of friday morning, bill a pretty 5°99y of friday morning, bill a pretty soggy scene in the north and east of scotland. through the day on friday, there is that persistent rain driven in by these easterly winds across parts of scotland, drifting its way well �*s words. elsewhere, a few showers around, but tending to peter out. it's not quite as warm as it has been — temperatures generally around 9—12. we've got more cloud and rain sitting in the east, so overnight temperatures around about 4-6, but overnight temperatures around about 4—6, but further west, overnight temperatures around about 4—6, but furtherwest, looking overnight temperatures around about 4—6, but further west, looking at a touch of frost for parts of northern ireland. through the day on saturday, the next front will move its way in from the west. we still got that front in the east as well, so something of a frontal sandwich. another area of cloud and rain from

the west, and in between, there will be some sunshine and some drier weather on the cards. it's going to be a little cooler than it has done recently with temperatures only around 7—9, perhaps around 12 down towards the southwest. it pushes its way east across the uk and it's followed by scattered showers. so, perhaps a mild slowly clearing eastwards... could even be a little bit of snow on top of the mountains in scotland. top temperatures around 6-11 in scotland. top temperatures around 6—11 degrees. bye for now.

hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are baroness ros altmann, who's the former pensions minister under david cameron's conservative government, and kevin schofield, the political editor at huffpost uk. tomorrow's front pages, starting with, the autumn statement dominates the front pages. the daily telegraph's take: "the rhetoric of osbborne,

with the policies of gordon brown."