narrator: funding for this presentation is made possible by... woman: babbel, a language app that teaches al life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian and more. babbel's 10 to 15 minute lessons are available as an app or online. re information on babbel.com. narrator: funding was also provided by... the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation. pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. woman: and now, bbc world news.

our top stories. e message to australians in north melbourne as firefighters back off of the out-of-control fires amid scorching temperatures. the former renault boss has left japan where he has been under use arrest. a man accused of stopping five people during nukkah in new york is charged with federal ha crimes. his family says he suffers from mental illness. and we speak to good return berg about life as a teenage activist and challenges ahead. greta: we climate experts are being listened to. that does not mean that what we are saying has translated into acon. ♪

>> hello and welcome to bbc world news. firefighters in australia are facing another day of eioreme cond as the nation battles one of its worst ever brushfire disasters. the authorities are focusing their efforts today on the south of south wales. hundreds and thousands of residents and tourists are stranded on the beach. in a moment, we will be joined by a local journalist in that region to tell us more detail. first, let's get a report from our correspondent in sydney. >> this is what scorching temperatures,ds strong winand thunderstorms haveone to vast areas of the state of victoria. with blazes rapidly expanding and firefighters rushing to control them. as the tempetures soar to the mid-40's and the winds change

direction, some fires were too fast and too big to contain. officials said the wind driven ames were racing towards the coast and had moved faster than predicted. >> what we have seen up until today is 70 new fires in the state. more than 20 of those are growing fast at the moment. we have got a long way to go. we are ohry partwaygh the day in terms of the fire risk for the state and our communities. >> the east region is a popular tourist destination. and it has seen the worst of the fires. thousands of holidays mak and residents forced to evacuate earlier in the day, trying beat thisre-db -- the speedyze brin the air. >> decided to leave the family farm. it takes something to get 30 of us anywhere.

we were all safe for the day. >> it is hot andindy. there is a lot of smoke about and a lot of fes still going. staying here until it is all over i think. >> in new south wales, a firefighter died battling the blaze. others were taken to hospital with burns. this as or another heatwave.lf in sydney, just hours ahead of new year's eve, the city's renowned celebrations have sparked a debate. temperatures are expected to rise above0 degrees celsius in parts of new south wales for tuesday. already, there are nearly 100 fire is across the state wit the biggest ones surrounding sydney. this is why thessue of fireworks has been so controversial this year. nearly 300,000 people signed a petition saying it is just not the right thing to do given the bushfire crisis. while other areas and towns around the city have canceled there is, the famous sydney new

year's eve fireworks are going ahead as planned. with weather conditions set to worsen throughout the country's ho dry summer, australia heads into the new year under relentless fire threats. >>nk tto her. tewe will turn to the sf victoriaow. jaredhitaker is a reporter. great to happy with us. thank you for joining us. are you able to shed any more light on some of the detls we were hearing about the people thereed you a beach >> yes, i can. have recently been speaking to people in the area a bit aconcernedthe easternmost point of victoria, which is the southeastern state of australia. they are expecting a cool change. unfortunately, that is likely to bring a change in wind direction expecting to push the fire to the town at about 2:00 this mornnow.

they create their own weather pattern because they are so hot. thisreated a dry lightning storm,he which prevented change from coming through. that arrived this morning, which then proceeded to push the fire. we recently, just when he minutes ago, were on the phone with a resident. he said the people decided to go off i the town, which is a sign the fi arrived. and the people would gather at the town beach, where we estimate there could be 3000 or 40 people there. my goodness. 3000 or 4000. how or can those people be rescued? > the report we received -- >> the report we received last night from a journalist there was the last line of defense would be to surround the peop with fire trucks and create a wall ofes water which wasned

to protect them. we wereold they got most of the people out but have not gotten confirmation of that. just waiting for the latest upte, the nupdate from the authorities. >> 'm also curious how communication is working. some reports i was reading is the fires cut the wires out there, telepho wires, internet cess. can you describe that situation? >> it really varies from area to area. the big area we are talking about is roughly the size of belgium. in there, we are able to speak to people via mobile telephone. they had their batteries on their lags legs -- last legs and about to run out. in other areas, it is different. we know in other aas that homes haveeen lost.

we are unaware of the impact yer because theighters themselves have been fighting fires and have not had a chance to take stock and assess how bad it is. >> that ishat i'm thinking is i'm hearing you talk. is there a central command that has a clear picture of exactly hewhat is happening across country? >> there are regional commands. at the moment, there is incident control center, which is designed and coordinatg the response to three or four major fire teams. they are deploying the resources as they sortf see fit or to get the maximum benefit in terms of protecting property and lives, which i the main goal of the fire service. dayest they were pulled out from battling fires in the bush. because it was too dangerous, and also to redeploy closer to towns after tt order to evaluate on sunday local time. >> thank you so much.

a lot of information there speaking to u in the past hour, there have been reports of unconfirmed the oust head of renault has arrived in lebanon. now apparently in violation of his bail inapan. he was charged with corruption. local media are reporting he arrived on a private jet. with me is our business reporter. great to have you with us. i begandi r through this. hearing one report here and ere various newspapers. how do you understand what happened? >> he arrived by private jet. the firstuestion one has to ask is why? he is generally described as being brazilian born. obously, the chair of renault, nissan, mitsubishi nissan, the

partnership. brazilian born. he is actually banese. his parents are lebanese. he has a pair of lebanese interests. it is not an impossible place for him to end up. what the arrangement has been with the japanese come at the moment he is facing charges of serious financial misconduct. has a deal been done? has he broken his bl? he was on bail. we don't know. >> and for people who were not following this story at the time, explain his significance. >> he is not quite the wonder kidca but a titan of th industry. he turned around their south africa business. when renault bought 40% of nissan, he wand to turn around that company, which he did withc markabless. he introduced the nissan leaf.

if you heard of any electric vehicles, you heard of tesla. this is the biggest selling electric car in the world. and then he spearheaded them to take a share in mitsubishi as well. that is why he has the three companies under his hat, until he was charged with natural misconduct. he had the companies under his wing but then things started to go wrong around 2018 and he was arrested with these charges. being that he wa under reporting his pay. t the second thinghe was misusing company assets. those are the t things he was ced with. he was in ja for something ke 109 days. and then he came out, was put on bail,al but h charged the japanese government and regulators for a conspiracy against him. that is the point at which we are at. > this will develop. >> we will find out more the next few hours. >> thank you for bnging ushap to date on story.

let's look at some of the days other news now. e iraqi prime minister said u.s. airstrikes or what he called iqi air forces were a violation of sovereignty. at least 25 members of the militia was dead. it was in retaliation for attacks on bases used by american tops. a chinese scientist who claimed he created the worl's first gene edited babies has been jailed for three years and find more than $400,000. it was condemned as unethical when announced last year. he said he was time to make two babies or twins immune to the hiv virus. dense sog hpt across parts of northern and western india and is being blamed on cold weonher combined with pollu conditions have led to disruption on the roots and il. hundreds of flights have been canceled. the north of the country, including the capital, is

axperiencing one of its coldest spells in well oveentury. l fedeosecutors in new york have filed hate crimeai charges t a man accused of stopping five people at a hanukkah party on saturday. th claim the suspect kept journals referencing hitler. we have more details about this case. >> the family is speaking through their lawyer, representing the man accused of entering a rabbis home overd te weekend opping five people. he has been saying that his kind suffers from mental illness and hospitalization and that is what is behind the attack. yothat beingaid, i listen to the authorities, they take a different view. have the governor, andrew cuomo, who basically wants tougher sanctions on what he describes as domestic terrorism. now you have federal prosecutors

ntially charging him wit hate crime. basically they filed five charges today in the southern district of new york accusing him of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs involving the attempt to kill and use a dangerous weapon. this is in addition to state charges, which he pleaded not guilty to on sunday. >> talk to us a little bit about ce, to put itok p in context for our global viewers. >> yes. it is nortof new york city where i am right now. there has been a growing hasidic counity there, orthodox jewish community. and there has been some tensn between th community and the other residents there. some of it is overdevelopment. some of it is over taxes. it has inflamed tensions. as caution about whether or not this was part of the rise we are seeing in anti-semitic havior in that part of t world, where the community is concerned about safety.

this being sd, this is a gentleman who lived about 20 milesrom rockford county. a suburban area. and he aegedly, according to investigators,ad been researching places where there were jewish pray houses. he was looking at places in staten island, in w jery. and we are still trying to understand more of the motivation. but a journal that investigats recovered seems to be shedding some light in which he madees refereo hitler and israelites. this is something investigators will be pouring over and going over in detail to try aas rtain his motivation. >> thanks. stick with uon bbc worldews. still to come, bolivia expel sickos ambassador and his spanish diplomats, claiming interference with the country's

internal affairs. ♪ >> the most ambitious financial and political change of or has goneer undweight with the introduction of the euro. >> tomorrow, we are going to use when he we picked up in belgium today andhen we will in france. has to be the way to go. ♪ >> george harrison is recovering in hospital after beinged sta at his home. ie 33-year-old man from liverpoolbeing interviewed by police officers and facing attempted murder. >> i thinkt was good. >> just good? >> no,antastic. >> that is better. ♪

>> this is bbc world news. the lainst hea. authorities in melbourne, has told residents to shelter indoors as the fires are closing in on the city, telling them it is now too late to leave. reports say the former boss o renault nissan has lef japan where he has bn under house arrest, arriving in lebanon. bolivia.n to the new government has ordered the mexican ambassadornd his diplomats to leave the country. mexico gave asylum tidthe former prt after he was outed last month. bolivia says that spinach ficials triedo extract in aid of morales who had taken refuge in the embassy. accusations that madrid strongly denies.

someone in mexico citye descrid lationship is broken. >> let's start at the beginning if you would lik reslenation of mo he came here after that to mexico city where he was granted asylum by the mexican government. ngthated the government in berkeley dusk in bolivia -- inolivia. specifically they accuse the xican embassy of housing and giving refuge to a number of srales's ministers who they should face charges ranging from sedition to terrorism. so that really is the kernel of how this situation unfolded. around those embassy buildings and the ambassador's residence, a number of police were posted. there was a ramping up of their presence. that caused mexico to protest what w happening outside of the embassy buildings. now we see this has slid even further the relationship with the declaiming of the persona non grata of the mexican

ambassador. >> ok. c if bolivia and mexico were notplicated enough, let's bring spain into the picture as well. aeeing the spanish government declared three vian diplomats persona n grata in this tit-for-tat move as some people are calling it. describe the significance of that particular aspect. >> yes, that's surprising in a sense. i would have thought tult bolivians really want to extend this any further than a bilateral dispute between them and mexico, but it is now .inging in other countri as you say, spain in this instance. apwhatned was a group of spanish diplomats went to the mexicann embassy priill be to hold talks with the morales inside withwere the mexicans. and the government in boliv t ys those wn up were masked and armed and it was threateng. that seems a non-situation. madrid denies that -- that seems

an odd situation. madrid denies that. who we believe is hard to say. what we do have is a real diplomatic mess now involving the three nations. as you say, madrid has reacted th the measure of throwing out three bolivian diplomats who were in the country. yeah, i think a long way to go before any kind of normalcy, diplomatic normality is restored between the various nations. >> thanks to will grant. let's turn to a 19-year-old british woman who has been found guilty in cyprus by a court of lying about being red. our europe correspondent kevin connolly has the story. >> when these legal proceedings began, the young british woman at the hrt of the case was the victim with claims of rape.

she came to court today to be found guilty of making a false statement, for what some say was an imaginary crime. her lawyer says the police investigation and the process were flawed. >>e we beli that there have been many vlations in the procedure. the rights of a fair trial have been violated. we are planning to appeal the decision to the supreme court. hoping that they will find justice. at least from the supreme court. >> these are the young is really tourists who originally faced accusations that they raped the young woman. they were freed and allowed to flye h after retracting the allegation. she said she onl changed her story abt the young men because she was put under huge pressure by police, questioning her when she was vulnerae. her defense team likely to base

their appe o how she was questioned for eight hrs without access to a lawyer and coerced into a grieving that her claims were false. women's rights activists outside the court argue at the young women was a victim, not a criminal. some war scars showingips stitched together. a reminder that they say women's voices are not being heard. they say this case is not over. >> we are here to show our support an solidarity to the victim of this process. >> the young woman who has now been convicted is not allowed to leave cyprus since july and will be sentenced on january 7. it could be jail for a year. kevin connolly, bbc news. >> a 16-year-old campaigner,rg greta thun, has she wants to go back to school as soon as she

can. she has been speaking to the bbc at the end of the year in whicsh became known around the world for spearheading a youth movement for action. we went to stockholm to meet her. >> she is the girl who regalvanized chito go on strike from school and people of all ages to mch, pushing for re actionrm to control a wag world. it is a mission that has taken greta thunbergld around the w becoming a distinctive but also divisive figure. greta: i have r notlly grasped what has happened during this last year. i am being listened to. we, climate experts are being listened to. but that does not mean that wint we are s is translated into action. >> she ske at the recen u.n. climate talks in mrid, part of the system in which countries make promises for carbon

emissions. she wants the british government to make sure it succeeds. greta: since the cop 25 failed, thatt puts 26 into a differ lit. we and they must do everything they can to ensure it does not fail. >> it was outside the swedish parliament in stockholm that greta's activism began as she sat within a sign s"school strike for climate." >> when she decided to do this, we said clearly that we would not support it. if you are going to do this, you are going >> why did you say that? >>ell, obviously we thought it was a bad idea, putting herself out there with all the hate on social you would not want that as a parent. >>reta was 12 when she was diagnosed with asperger's. she has since suffered from depression. her father says her activism has transformed her. >> i can see greta is very

happy. i saw what she was before. she did not speak to a single person. she would only eat and her own home. she changed. she could do things she could never have done before. now, she is just like an other. you think she is not an ordinary person nowse beche is famous and all these things, but shes an ordinary child to me. shis happy. >> som of the most prominent advocates on the planet see her as extraordinary, a person who brought urgency to the climate debate. >> wall are. is now time. you put it there. it is a very powerful one. you have made it an argument.

she is still only 16, and her high-profile has meant scrutiny and criticism. some see her as unrealistic, a teenager who ought to be in school. son tha can agree. greta: i hope i don't have to be a climate activist anymore. i am really looking forward to going back to sool and to just be like a normal teenager. of course, this is not a normal situation. we must all do things that we may not feel comfortable doing. we need to step out of our comfort zones. >> gta thunberg speaking to the bbc's michelle hussein. get in touch with the team on twitter. i'm also on inst i would love to hear from you. thanks for watching. ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation is made possible by... man: babbel, an online program developed by language specialists teaching spanish, french and more.

narrator: funding was also provid by... the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation. npursuing solutor america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. be more, pbs.

captioning sponsored by newshour pronsduct, llc >>'mchifrin: good evening, i nick schifrin. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight, under attack: violence in a rabbi's home and a texas church, spark fears over the safety of sacred aces. then, targeting iran. after the u.s. strikes an iranian-backed militia in iraq and syria, we examine the frerican rategy in the region. >> schi: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪