welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore. i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines... evacuations in the dark, as large areas of ukraine are left without power following another wave of damaging missile strikes by russia against the country's energy infrastructure. rescuers in indonesia continue their efforts to find trapped survivors after monday's earthquake in west java. survivors after monday's many of the 271 people known

to have died were children. sheerjoy in tokyo afterjapan beat one of the pre—tournament favourites — germany — in the world cup in qatar. and americans prepare for thanksgiving for one of the biggest traditions in new york. live from our studio in singapore... this is bbc news. it's newsday. hello and welcome to the programme. we begin in ukraine — president zelensky has accused russia of crimes against humanity at a un security council meeting after strikes on key energy infrastructure. there were several explosions in the capital kyiv, after4 an air—raid alert was issued for the whole country. the western city of lviv was reported to be without power — it's now been mostly restored. and in the zaporizhzhia region, a newborn baby was killed when a rocket hit a maternity unit. moscow has recently increased its attacks

on ukrainian energy networks, but president zelensky said ukrainians would "get through it all and restore it all". our europe correspondent, jessica parker, reports from kyiv. this is hundreds of miles away from the front line, but here, this battle also costs lives. in a town just outside kyiv, people's homes and a nearby school felt the force of these strikes. just hours later, the fire's out, but the daylight�*s gone. evacuations in the dark. translation: we heard rockets flying and then . we heard a loud explosion, a colleague saw a red light. in our educational centre, windows and doors blew out, the ceiling fell. in these freezing temperatures, homes have been left without roofs, apartments

without windows, people without a place to live. translation: we are evacuating people from the building - that was damaged. those who need to sleep somewhere, we are taking them to a hotel where they can stay as long as they need. there will be food and heating there. that bus is just leaving, taking residents who can no longer stay in their homes — perhaps because of the damage, but also, there's no power here. the only reason we can see anything at the moment is because of the lights coming from the emergency vehicles, fire trucks and police cars. people here, there's a lot of activity, but they just pass you like shadows. here and in many places, the light of a torch may be all they have as today's strikes forced power stations to shut down. critical infrastructure again appears to have been moscow's target. if this is an effort to break the will of ukrainians, they help each other on,

but it's a painful struggle. "my windows and walls flew away," she says. "don't cry," says her grandson. "everything will be fixed, it will be better." this is driving through a capital city in the early evening, but look around. off the road, no lights. the country's energy system had already been attacked. now the race against winter to repair it became even harder. jessica parker, bbc news, in kyiv. staying with that story — almost 90% of neighbouring moldova was left without electricity following the strikes on ukraine. although the country wasn't directly hit, moldova's foreign minister said they have traditionally relied on ukraine and russia for energy, and are are unsure, because of the ongoing conflict, where their power will now come from. let's update you now

on the unfolding disaster in indonesia, where efforts are still under way to try to rescue any more survivors from monday's earthquake. the latest official figures say 271 people were killed — many of them children — and a0 are still missing. hundreds of others were injured. damaged roads and the vast size of the affected area are making it difficult to locate and help victims. the national disaster mitigation agency said on tuesday that 22,000 houses had been damaged, and that more than 58,000 people were displaced and have taken shelter in several locations in the region. i've been speaking to alex park, from the charity mercy relief — and he outlined the challenges organisations like his are facing. i think for us, whenever we are on the ground.

one of the biggest challenges we face is really the changing needs. whenever we evaluate what we want to do and how we want to support the communities affected, firstly, so many people are requiring food and water. for example, in cianjur right now, they are in need of urgent shelter. but we realise whenever we are on the ground, the changing needs are constant. when our partner tell us our people need food of water, whenever we leave the ground, we hear another has given food and water and now we need a shelter. so, i guess what we have to do as a disaster relief agency is to be nimble as possible and to be ready to change our mode of assistance and to be able to adapt to the changing needs on the ground. another challenge that we are also facing is also with the covid—i9

pandemic, truth be told, ourfund raising at first has gone down. our fundraising efforsthave gone down. it's affected the amount of families that get support. it also affects how much we can actually provide support to these communities. if our funds are limited, we can only give up to a couple. as you've talked about that duplication of efforts that sometimes comes into play when various aid agencies are trying to help, how do you navigate that? as you head out to cianjur, what are some of the key concerns for you and your colleagues when they're trying to help people who are most in need? i think the first thing that we have to do on the ground is actually find out what is

leading international ngo that has taken charge of relief in the area. other than that, how we work is really understanding the importance of pandering with a local ngo. as soon as we go as soon as we go on as soon as we go on the ground. we would immediately link up with local indonesian ngo because they have the knowledge of the community, they have the connections of the local government, they have the connections to the community leaders. these are important for us because. these are important for us because when we provide relief to the people who need it and the preventive

we want to make sure that the outskirts of the communities are also supported as well. the international ngo will typically cover the communities that have been shown on the news because there's plenty of media coverage, but there are definitely villages on the outskirts that have not been supported, so this is where we want to make sure everyone is really involved. that was alec parked there —— alex. still to come a bit later in the programme — the latest from the world cup in qatar, and a special report on online holiday scams which have cost unsuspecting people tens of thousands of dollars. but first, let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. israeli police say a 15—year—old boy was killed, and 14 other people wounded in two suspected bomb attacks at bus stops injerusalem on wednesday morning. no group has yet admitted responsibility, although palestinian groups have praised what they say was an operation. israel's prime minister yair lapid said it was

an attack that was different from what we have seen in recent years. president biden has condemned the shooting at a walmart supermarket in chesapeake, virginia on tuesday in which six people died. calling it another senseless attack, he said there would now be more tables with empty seats this thanksgiving holiday. four other people were wounded before the gunman turned his weapon on himself. police will not confirm staff reports that a manager at the store fired on co—workers. the uk's supreme court has ruled that the scottish government cannot hold an independence referendum without the consent of the uk government. scotland's first minister had wanted to hold a referendum next october, but the uk government has refused to allow it. the court ruled the power to call a referendum is reserved to the westminster government.

another perhaps unexpected result and another protest against fifa's ban on the 0nelove armbands, starting with the results, and wednesday saw the opening fixtures in groups e and f. morocco and croatia played out a goalless draw. and canada missed a penalty before losing 1—0 to belgium. but it was in group e that we saw the most eye—catching score lines. spain thrashed costa rica 7—0. and japan came from a goal down to beat germany 2—1. we always enjoy showing you the different reactions of the fans, so here are some celebrations in spain.

but in tokyo, you can see exactly what the result meant to the fans watching there — to be proving ibts to be provingibts a and

interesting world cup on and fir—fr 7" "if” anotherworld interesting world cup on and fir—fr 7" w, germany fr world interesting world cup on and fir—fr 7" �* the germany fr world interesting world cup on and fir—fr 7" �* the ger 21nyer world go by, nothing is to or to go by, nothing is to be taken for granted. saudi arabia beat argentina yesterday. the saudi found zone are quite close to us and you can hear them celebrating. japan beat germany as well. before kick—off, germany's team players covered their mouths in the team photograph in response to fifa not allowing seven captains of seven countries to where the one love armband. this was their stance, they wanted to make their voices heard by saying they weren't allowed to voice their position on their support for the lgbt cause. in a statement on twitter, they said...

what's interesting is if you look at the twitter sphere, the arabic suite or sphere, germany and japan are trending for their own reasons. it's almost like there is a parallel universe when it comes to how this world cup is seen in the arab world and the majority muslim world and the west. 0ne tweet says, "hunger, poverty, water shortages and you have only chosen this one as your cause." another one says "you come to us, you respect our religion, our culture, our norms and our laws." i think this is really emblematic of the tension that is the undercurrent of this tournament, that clash of how the world cup has seen in the west and here in the arab world.

for advocates, for activists, for players of those seven countries who wanted to wear the armband, this is about a human rights issues that they don't want to compromise on. for the host and all the spectators that have come for advocates, for activists, for players of those on thursday, the final eight teams play their first matches of the tournament. in group g, it's switzerland against cameroon, and brazil against serbia. and in group h, uruguay take on south korea, while portugal face ghana. much more on the world cup on the special section of our website. just log on to bbc.com/news or download the bbc app.

that is if you haven't done so already. if you want to get in touch with me, i'm on twitter — @bbckarishma. 0ut out of fashion. the designer who's said to have revived the gucci brand — alessandro michele — leaves after tensions with managers. president kennedy was shot down and died almost immediately. the murder ofjohn kennedy is a disaster for the whole free world. he caught the imagination of the world, the first of a new generation of leaders. margaret thatcher is resigning as leader of the conservative party and prime minister. before leaving number ten to see the queen, she told her cabinet, "it's a funny old world." angela merkel is germany's first woman chancellor, easily securing the majority she needed. attempts to fly a hot air -

balloon had to be abandoned after a few minutes, but nobody seemed to mind very much. j as one local comic put it, — it's not hot air- we need, it's hard cash. cuba has declared nine days of mourning following the death of fidel castro at the age of 90. castro developed close ties with the soviet union in the 1960s. it was an alliance that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war with the cuban missile crisis. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. 0ur headlines for you today... large areas of ukraine are left without power, after the country's military says russian missile strikes targeted energy infrastructure. rescuers in indonesia continue efforts to find survivors after monday's earthquake in west java. many of the 271 people known to have died were children.

if you've ever booked a holiday online, have you ever stopped to wonder how certain you are to get what you are paying for? the un's world tourism 0rganisation is warning that internet scams are becoming a systemic and global problem, costing people thousands of dollars. 0ur reporter rafael barifouse has been to meet some of the victims — brazilian women who seem to have been deliberately targeted. here's his report. adriani, a caregiver living in london and herfamily from brazil were left stranded at an airport in greece after learning how 4—star hotel booking was fake. adriani says that she lost

around $50,000 after buying this trip from this luxury travel agent from brazil. i investigated rafael bessa for almost a year. it started with one case, similar to adriani's, and then the stories kept coming in. his clients were mostly well—off women from high society. one way by promoting his services was by throwing one way he promoted his services was by throwing lavish pr parties. this woman attended one of those events. anna attended one of those events. ana attended one of those events. so, it was a nice event, but some of us didn't know we were being scammed.

so, i lost the money, the trip, the dream — everything. ana is one of 70 people who accuse rafael bessa of selling them travel services that didn't exist. together, they say they have lost more than $290,000. some have sued bessa in court or reported him to the police. bessa declined to give the bbc in interview, but he made these comments about the allegations. the un's world travel organisation told us that more should be done to protect consumers worldwide. the rights of tourists and consumers are not harmonised at the international level. un has developed an international code for the protection of tourists. it's the first attempt to regulate these issues and proposes principles and concrete actions that countries can already transpose into their national legislation. seven countries have adhered to the code so far, and more are planning to include it in their legislation. brazil is one of them. rafael barifouse, from bbc news, in sao paulo.

now to the world of fashion, and a big change at the luxury brand gucci, where the creative director alessandro michele is leaving after seven years. he was credited with bringing his flamboyant styles to the brand but there have been rumours of a growing rift with senior management. for more on this, i am joined now by our reporter yasmin khatun dewan. great to get you on the programme. just explain to us how big a figure alessandro michele is. absolutely. alessandro really transformed gucci as a brand. it had some difficulty following the departure of tom ford. following alessandro's arrival, the brand took on this maximalist style. he started as

a designer 20 years ago, but following his position of creative director, his vision inspired really flamboyant brands and the likes of harry styles, for instance. his book has really been defined by... �*s tenure also created wave in p0p �*s tenure also created wave in pop culture in general. i think a lot of that gucci's role can very much be credited to alessandro michele. 50. very much be credited to alessandro michele. so, what ha--ens alessandro michele. so, what happens next? _ alessandro michele. so, what happens next? no _ alessandro michele. so, what happens next? no successorl alessandro michele. so, what i happens next? no successor has been named. — happens next? no successor has been named, but— happens next? no successor has been named, but there - happens next? no successor has been named, but there is - happens next? no successor has been named, but there is a - been named, but there is a feeling that the brand are looking for a new direction to revive gucci once more. it's a wonder if they can do so successfully as they did with alessandro michele, but clearly looking for something new to reignite what he did with the

brand. the parent company for gucci saw huge profits at the start of michele's tenure, but that did die down somewhat, and that did die down somewhat, and that rift you mentioned there, michele did mention that in his statement. michele did mention that in his statement-— michele did mention that in his statement. i'm so sorry. it was fascinating. — statement. i'm so sorry. it was fascinating, but _ statement. i'm so sorry. it was fascinating, but sadly, - statement. i'm so sorry. it was fascinating, but sadly, that's i fascinating, but sadly, that's all the time we have. jasmine, thanks so much forjoining us on the programme. and, finally, americans are getting ready to celebrate thanksgiving, which of course takes one of the biggest traditions takes place in new york — the macy's parade, and laura trevelyan went to take a look. it's a bright, blue morning on the apple west side of manhattan and this unique american tradition is under way. the balloons are being inflated ahead of the macy's thanksgiving day parade. time for a bit of history here — there were no balloons in the very first parade back in 192a, and it was called the macy's christmas parade then, held on thanksgiving day

with the idea of showcasing the department store and encouraging everyone to go shopping ahead of christmas. the balloons made their parade debut in 1927, over the brainchild of a puppeteer who worked at macy's. these balloons are basically gigantic upside down puppets. the original ones were generic — birds and dragons — and they evolved into popular cartoon strip characters. and today, they're the stars of film and tv, used to really sell the parade to the public. a movie in 1916 featuring scenes from the parade created a worldwide audience for the balloons and the floats, and every year, there are new characters. so, we have bluey, an australian puppy, and stewart the minion, as well as the old favourites — spongebob, snoopy and the smurf. coming to see the balloons being inflated is a new york ritual, especially if you grew up on this block. i've been coming to see the balloon inflation

since i was a baby, i know i'm bringing my two kids to see it. since i was a baby, and now i'm bringing my two kids to see it. do you have a favourite balloon character that you're looking out for? yes, i do. and who's that? um, the minion. doesn't feel like thanksgiving unless we're here. the balloons are quintessentially american. each one is a celebrity in its own right, a spectacle, a symbol of popular culture which defined thanksgiving as much as turkey and family dinners. and, in a nation where we often find a lot to argue about, enjoying the balloons and the parade can even bring us together. in good news, the thanksgiving weather is looking sunny and clear in new york city with no high winds forecast, making the life of the balloon handler that much easier. laura trevelyan, bbc news,

manhattan. laura travail early and having a grand old time there with all of those balloons. i do envy her. that's all for now. stay with bbc world news. hello. there is no doubt it has been a soggy november so far. some places have already seen twice the amount of rain they would normally expect in the whole month. wednesday really added to those totals with this band of wet weather pushing northwards and eastwards. lots of heavy, thundery showers with squally, gusty winds following on behind, and all of those weather elements also feature in thursday's forecast. another frontal system pushing in from the atlantic, more heavy rain, more squally winds already showing its hand in the western side of northern ireland first thing. most other areas starting day dry, but this rain is on the move eastwards. it's moving pretty quickly, so it will be a short,

sharp burst of torrential rain and strong winds for northern ireland, southwest scotland — wind gusts widely 40—50 mph, maybe gusting up to 60—70 mph in exposed spots. the bright colours showing up there across wales, the southwest of england — a really squally band of rain, so as it pushes through, you'll notice the torrential rain, the very gusty winds, but then it clears to a mix of sunshine and heavy, perhaps thundery showers. highs of 9—13 degrees, northeast scotland, eastern england staying dry untilafter dark, but the rain will eventually work its way through. and overnight, into the start of friday, we will see further showers, particularly up towards the north and west, but more in the way of dry weather, some clear spells. temperatures generally 5, 6, 7 degrees — wouldn't surprise me at all if some places gotjust a little lower than that. but friday should be a somewhat drier day with some spells of sunshine. now, there will still be some showers around western coasts across northern ireland, northwest scotland. not many of those showers getting across into the east of the uk.

temperatures 9 degrees foraberdeen, maybe 1a there in cardiff, so quite mild for the time of year. that quieter friday is thanks to this ridge of high pressure, but this frontal system pushing in from the west will bring rain on saturday. eastern areas starting off dry and bright, but we'll see increasing amounts of cloud, and for the western side of the uk, outbreaks of rain splashing quite erratically northwards, perhaps some heavier rain into the southwest later on. but it will be mild, 10—14 degrees, very mild on saturday night, and then that rain may take a while to clear eastwards on sunday, but it will leave behind it some spells of sunshine. bye for now.

this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour as newsday continues,

straight after hardtalk.