for talks on security. the visit comes days after his meeting with us officials. live from our studio in singapore — this is bbc news. it's newsday. five american citizens who were jailed for years in one of iran's most notorious prisons, are finally on their way home to the united states after they were freed as part of a complex financial arrangement. the four men and one woman, who also hold iranian passports, were flown out of tehran to doha, in qatar. their release was contingent on the transfer of $6 billion in iranian funds, money that iran earned from selling oil to south korea. our chief international

correspondent lyse doucet reports. the first steps to freedom. finally, leaving iran. two hours later, touching down in doha, imagine the emotion inside this plane, and opening the door on a new life, five former prisoners. relief and joy palpable as they embraced american and qatari officials. the success of months of indirect talks here between arch enemies, iran and america. these are three of the freed prisoners. two others did not want their identity is revealed. 67—year—old, arrested five years ago, in a crackdown on environmental activists. the 58—year—old, a businessman

arrested in 2020, also on charges of spying. and 51—year—old siamak namazi, who spent the longest in the notorious evin prison. he issued this statement today... the we spoke to one of his relatives who also spent time in evin prison. it is a joyful day but knowing siamak namazi and his strong personality and his values, i'm sure that he will try to come out of this trauma as soon as possible so he can dedicate his time elsewhere. freeman, arm in arm, and he then took a call

—— free men, arm in arm, and he then took a call from the top diplomat in america who has vowed to stop this hostagetaking. we will take steps every day to make this practice more and more difficult, and more and more of a burden on those countries that engage in it. this is such an extraordinary moment in this extraordinary setting, and a painful personal ordeal for americans who became bargaining chips in iran's wrangling with the west and they could only secure their freedom through this very political deal which is highly complex and deeply controversial. iran's leaders see this as a victory, it is why critics of the deal including leading us republicans say it will only encourage iran to take more hostages. the islamic republic, suffering under crippling sanctions, and unprecedented protests, sees the foreigners in this prison as one of its few levers

to put pressure on the west. live now to bahman kalbasi, from the bbc persion service, thank you very much for coming here and newsday. both countries are looking at this as a win of sorts, what kind of reaction has there been in iran? well, the iranian government has mixed feelings about these deals. —— iranian public. most important them in the juxtaposition of it but the fact that rather thousands of protesters and activists are in jail and have no prospect for freedom and then the reality that many of them are sceptical that many of them are sceptical that the money that is being made available with a lot of strings attached could eventually benefit the economy in iran and ordinary people who

are suffering under these economic conditions whether it be the mismanagement of the government, mass corruption in the system as well as the sanctions. so the feeling obviously for these families among many people as one of happiness seen them finally reunited in the case of some after eight years. the reality is that this is not a fate that a lot of iranians who are in prison for simply protesting and opposing the regime in iran could have easily, and many of them deprived of very basic rights and freedoms. so it's very much a mixed feeling and mixed reaction to it. there are some iranian americans who are very critical of biden administration for doing this and they see it as giving too much away to the iranian

regime, but there are others who at the same time argue that bringing these americans home should have been a priority and they are glad the ordeal is over. , . , they are glad the ordeal is over. , ., , ., , over. tell us a bit more but the $6 billion _ over. tell us a bit more but the $6 billion in _ over. tell us a bit more but the $6 billion in funds - over. tell us a bit more but the $6 billion in funds that| the $6 billion in funds that have been secured. he touched upon it but ijust want a few more details. that was an important part of the mediation efforts wasnt it? as the biden administration x repeat over and over again, this belong to a ron, so it's not as if united states taxpayers have foot the bill and paid iranians some sort of ransom. but there were also in bank accounts that they could potentially use to buy humanitarian goods even before this deal, and iran had similar money in the indian banks and other countries that bought oil from it and deposited the price of the oil in these bank accounts. they could use it to buy goods from india, for

instance. and they did use it to buy imports from india and other countries. so in theory, they could have done it from south korea, but they had managed to do it for many complicated banking reasons and the south korean policy is, what ever it was, it is now more available to them but only to purchase food, agriculture products and medical devices. it is very much still within the eye and view of the american treasury department and qatari banks that they will monitor that this is not used for anything else other than these non—sanctioned goods for humanitarian use. we believe that they are. thank you very much for your perspective. the bbc persian service giving us the latest on that. the other big strain making headlines still in the

uk, sunak london's metropolitan police has confirmed it's received a report of an alleged sexual assault in 2003, and is in contact with the woman, following media investigations into claims made against the british comedian, russell brand. four women have accused him of sexual assault and emotional abuse, allegations he denies. one of them, who was sixteen at the time, has told the bbc that brand said people close to him discussed how to keep the fact she was so young, out of the public eye. his current uk live tour has now been postponed, and he's been dropped by his publisher. here's our media correspondent, david sillito. i can pretend to be nice for a little bit... russell brand. on this weekend's dispatches programme he was accused of rape and multiple counts of sexual assault. i'll sleep on the sofa... the comedian now faces further allegations. more women have come forward. the metropolitan police say a complaint has been made to them of a sexual assault in 2003. russell brand says it's

all untrue, and suggests a "mainstream media" plot. what i seriously refute are these very, very serious criminal allegations. also, it's worth mentioning that there are witnesses whose evidence directly contradicts the narratives that these two mainstream media outlets are trying to construct, apparently, in what seems to me to be a coordinated attack. a suggestion that one of the women interviewed by dispatches says is simply insulting. it's laughable that he would even imply that this is some kind of mainstream media conspiracy. called "alice" on the programme, she says she was assaulted by him during a relationship that began when she was 16. today, on woman's hour, she described how she was picked up by a car she says that brand had ordered through the bbc. you believe a bbc car picked you up from school to take l you somewhere to meet him? it was back to his house.

and you know that - because of the way that you had seen these cars, that is your— understanding of it? yes, because i had used one of their cars previously, that he had told me just to tell the driver where to take me. yeah, i take an awful lot of precautions. what i do is i make absolutely sure that it is a woman, and then go for it! the bbc is looking into the allegations. indeed, a host of other media organisations are also investigating because there have long been rumours. the investigating team were far from the first to look at brand. the difficulty with stories like this is that they are i so hard and so many news. outlets have tried to do this story in the past and failed. no, is this andrew sachs' answerphone? well, jonathan, this is unconventional. i'll blurt something out. don't blurt something out! he's been courting controversy throughout his career. when the bbc parted company with him in 2008 over sexually offensive answerphone messages. i do apologise for these terrible attacks,

andrew sachs... there have been other stories in the papers about his conduct in the studio. his career is a showreel of moments that cross boundaries. things was getting a bit fruity out there. all right, liz? thank you. well... it's been really... don't be nervous. it starts in august, i in abu dhabi, right? you're ovulating! i'm ovulating? oh, my god. oh, wow. i but when we caught up today with his former agent there was, he says, over those years, nothing untoward to report. i've never had any complaints about him, other than turning up late, that kind of thing. however, for alice, she has memories that some people close to brand did have concerns about her being 16. they said it wasn't a good look for him and for his career. there was some kind

of discussions, "well, maybe we can say she's your goddaughter." and now, with further allegations emerging, a statement from his promoters, saying, the remaining shows on his current tour have been postponed. a big story that we are looking ahead to it, china's top diplomat wang yi is visiting russia for security talks, as moscow continues seeking support for its war on ukraine. china's top diplomat is in moscow to discuss security issues with his russian counterpart. russia is increasingly isolated following its invasion of ukraine last year, and as western sanctions and travel bans bite, it's seeking closer ties with its neighbours to the east. wang yi's visit comes on the heels of his meeting with the us national security advisor at the weekend. i'm joined now by raffaello pantucci, a senior fellow at rsis, a think tank in

singapore. thank you very much for your time here on bbc. what do you think the two leaders would be talking about? i think it is very clear that the time issue that the meeting is about is talking about the wear in ukraine and talking about how it is proceeding and what russia is wanting to see happen and how china would like the situation to be resolved. i think also probably they are going to be teeing up with what appears to be a visit by president putin to china at some point in the nearfuture, exactly when, exactly for what is not clear, but it does seem as though there has been some messaging for some time that mr putin will visit beijing. i'm also certain that the topic of the united states and the current geopolitical clash that both countries find themselves stuck in with the us will be somewhat at the top of the

agenda. after the north korean leader's visit, now wang yi, is there a sense that vladimir putin is trying to cement an anti—western bloc? i think it's been very clear for some time that there has been an effort by both moscow and beijing in some ways to try to foster what appears to be a block, mostly focused on trying to create a web of alliances against the united states, but it's worth noting that this is driven by different motivations from a russian perspective, it is very clearly focused on the fact that they are locked in his conflict on ukraine. what we can see in the let the russian conversation is very much an effort to try to help the russian army continue to be supply in order to continue that conflict, think that was a major driver of the discussion with the north korean leader, or to try to mitigate some of the sanctions issues that the russians have faced as a result of that sort of heavy economic clampdown that they faced from europe and the united states and other key allies around the

world like japan. reading from a chinese perspective, there has been a much wider effort over the past few years, rarely commit to demonstrate that there is a different kind of world order out there, it isn't necessarily the one that is defined by the same institutions, but traditionally dominated world order since really the end of the second world war. so that effort is something we can see running through a lot of the threads of chinese diplomacy and conversations around the world. so to some degree there is this idea of a kind of block mentality being created but it's being done in very different ways and different reasons. at a time when china and the us are seen to be trying to repair relations, we've seen us officials visiting china, wang yi just metjake sullivan, is beijing going to be conscious of how far it can go in its proximity to moscow without facing a backlash from the west? i think there is some acceptance from beijing that russia is clearly their key important strategic partner in the world stage. i think the

attempt to try to draw some sort of line is read the more something that they would stay focused when we talk about the war in ukraine with the united states in many ways, with the european union in many ways where they can see that within europe this being a big problem. they seek confrontation with the united states has a much bigger geopolitical confrontation that spans into all sorts of directions and isn't necessarily entirely defined by its relationship with russia. they would see the relationship with russia as one facet of the international diplomacy and international diplomacy and international relations. an important one in the confrontation against the west, but not necessarily the kind of defining one in the same way that i would suspect from moscow's perspective in many ways this is the defining issue that moscow faces on the world stage. mil that moscow faces on the world sta . e. �* ., ., stage. all right we have to leave it there. _ stage. all right we have to leave it there. thank - stage. all right we have to leave it there. thank you | stage. all right we have to i leave it there. thank you very much for your thoughts your time. thank you. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's now take a look at some other stories making news here in the uk.

detectives believe they have discovered the remains of a couple — whose daughter has been charged with their murder. essex police was called to an address in pump hill, chelmsford, after 35—year—old virginia mccullough appeared in court, charged with killing her parents at some point between 2018 and 2023. people in england aged 65 and over are being urged to get a top—up covid booster vaccine. an increasing number of people are attending hospital with the virus — but while hospital numbers are up, intensive care admissions are low. the rollout�*s been brought forward as a precaution against a highly—mutated ew covid variant. the cost of renting a home in the uk rose by i2% in the year to august — that's according to estate agency hamptons. the group says it's the highest rise since it started its survey in 2014. the uptick in the past

12 months is greater than the increase experienced over the four years to 2019. you're live with bbc news. the canadian prime minister justin trudeau says his security agencies are investigating credible allegations that indian government agents were involved in the murder of a canadian sikh activist.(ff gfx) hardeep singh nijjar was shot dead outside a temple in british columbia injune. mr trudeau told parliament he was determined to hold the perpetrators to account. shortly after that statement, the canadian foreign minister said a senior indian diplomat had been expelled from ottawa. earlier, trudeau told parliament that he had �*deep concerns' over india's involvement in the canadian citizen's death. any involvement of a foreign government in the caring —— any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of the canadian citizen on canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.

it is contrary to the fundamental rules by which free, open and democratic societies conduct themselves. as you would expect, we have been working closely and coordinating with our allies on this very serious matter. in the strongest possible terms, i continue to urge the government of india to cooperate with canada to get to the bottom of this matter. 0ur south asia editor anbarasan ethirajan has been looking at the story. issue with the indian prime minister during the group 20 meeting that was held in new delhi earlier this month. they raised this issue and now the trade minister of canada postponed a visit to india in october. so there was some indication

that the tensions were escalating between the two countries. the accusations by the canadian government by prime minister justin trudeau is quite extraordinary because he was talking about that killing of canadian citizens on canadian soil seen as a violation of sovereignty. so this is likely to have another reaction from new delhi now. according to canadian media, an sentience diplomat has been expelled, asked to leave the country. you can expect the indian government to do the same when they wake up in the morning. now, it is very early morning. it shows how the issue of the diaspora sihk community, they live predominantly in the northern sentience state of punjab. they have a large community outside of india living in canada and the issue, a section of them supporting a separated state for the sikh in india. that has been a source of your ten for india and canada for a while. india has in the past has

accused canada of not doing enough to quell what it called "anti—india activities of extremist elements", referring to the rise of the sikh separatist movement on canadian soil. what does this latest allegation do to already frosty relations? we can expect a tit—for—tat reaction from india and we already saw that even when mr trudeau was in a group 20 meeting, he was not given that much due importance and the sentience media was talking about how he was ignored by the indian government because of what india says our anti—indian activities by the sikh separatist groups in canada. they were referring to attacks in ottawa and also they have been several processions held by sikh separatist groups in canada. so the sentience government brands many of these group leaders as terrorists and urges canada to take action against these people. but canada says many of these activities are coming under freedom of expression,

but they do say that of the indian diplomatic missions will be protected. now, these are quite extraordinary allegations made by the canadian prime minister. we don't see very often in sentience diplomat getting expelled from a western country. so the reaction is going to be quite strong when new delhi wakes up in a few hours' time. there've been big protests in eastern libya against the government, after the collapse of two dams during a storm, triggered catastrophic floods. the united nations has now revised its estimate of the number of confirmed deaths to around 4000, with at least 5000 still missing. 0ur correspondent anna foster, has more from the worst affected port city of derna, where the mayor's house appears to have been burned down by angry protestors. anger and blame in derna, after a week of struggle for its flood survivors, they raised their voices.

this group gathered at the landmark mosque to protest. and then, as night fell, there were videos that seemed to show the mayor's home set on fire. and derna is paying a terrible price. children, women, my mother. my mother. my brother. my sister, all dead. but they are not living here, they are living in the next street. this is a bad situation, we don't know, we don't need food, we don't need clothes, we need... where will i live?! we joined turkish recovery teams in this sealed off zone, to see their work. this is one of the streets that has been painstakingly cleared of victims, more than 500 in this area alone, but it

still such is a small part of the devastation and you can see there is still so much more to do. these buildings were overcome with water, 20—30 metres deep. bodies have been found as high as six floors up. when the floods came, it was a split second decision for people living here. would they be safer to stay, or escape? in a school not far away, this woman knows she made the right choice, she brought herfive children here before their home was swept away. and it saved their lives. my son is asking me, "mum, where is my neighbour, "where are my friends?" water takes us away. every time he is asking me, i cannot answer.

i answer him, "they are gone with theirfamily." he says, "no, mum, they are dead, i hear it. there are no lessons in this school. for now, the lives of this city's children are on pause. anna foster, bbc news, derna. that's all for now — stay with bbc news. hello there. it's definitely been a gear change with the weather story in recent days, an autumnal flavour to our weather. we'll certainly see threatening looking skies for the remainder of the week, and some of the rain at times really quite heavy. so here's the next batch, pushing in off the atlantic — just look how many isobars there are on the chart. the winds a feature, and some of that rain really quite heavy. so, to start with, on tuesday, the wettest of the weather moving out of northern ireland across southern scotland, northern england, and wales, and we'll see this frontal system moving its way south

and north throughout the day. now, it never really gets all the way across central and southern england, so here, some brighter skies into the afternoon, still pretty windy. gusts of winds ao—asmph in places, maybe close to 60mph in exposed west—facing coast, and the heaviest of the rain across northwest england, the scottish borders, and northern ireland. the far north of scotland, bright, as well — not quite as windy here, but it will be noticeably fresher. top temperatures here around 13—15 celsius. we mightjust see 20 celsius further south if we get a little bit of afternoon brightness. now, as we move out of tuesday into wednesday, there's another area of low pressure, and this one has the remnants, a little bit of energy from ex—hurricane lee in there. so this one, again, will mean business — a lot of heavy rain, sweeping its way steadily eastwards. don't forget the brighter greens, denoting the intensity of that rain, and the winds,

again, a feature 50—60mph not out of the question, particularly close to the centre of the low, and far west of scotland. top temperatures again, 14—21 celsius the high. so, as we move out of wednesday, there's more to come — and it's all because the jet stream at the moment has sunk that little bit further south, it's intensified and centred across the uk. now we all know by now, it's the jet stream, this ribbon of fast—moving air high up in the atmosphere that drives in areas of low pressure. and if it's centred across the uk, then it'll continue to push further areas of low in our direction. just look what's waiting in the wings as we head through the weekend. so, be prepared for some showers or longer spells of rain, the winds remaining a feature. a brief window of finer weather potentially on saturday. take care.

no end in sight: a strike affecting some of america's largest car makers enters its fourth day, with little sign of progress toward a deal. plus: indonesia has big plans for its ev industry, and one family conglomerate is getting in on the action by electrifying jakarta's buses. hello, and welcome to

asia business report. i'm arunoday mukharji. we begin with day four of a strike that's affecting some of america's largest car makers. negotations between the united auto workers and the detroit three auto—makers are ongoing. 12,700 uaw workers havejoined the industrial action affecting general motors, ford, and stellantis. on monday, the uaw held talks with stellantis, though no deal was reached. it had scheduled a new round of talks with ford for later in the day. earlier, i spoke to the asia editor of automotive news, hans griemel, and he told me what's at stake for the sector and for the us economy. well, i mean it's a very dicey situation for the us. it's a huge sector of the economy that is at play here, and there's no common ground yet found between the labour and the management.

the labour is