Prevela nt and harmful. Live from our studios in london and singapore, this is bbc world news. Its newsday. Its 8am in singapore, 1am here in london and 2am in brussels, where negotiators appear to be close to a dealfor britain to leave the european union. Now, isay appear, because despite the optimism nothing is certain. An agreement could be finalised at the eu summit in brussels later on thursday. That is the new deadline of sorts. But any deal would still need the approval of european leaders and the british parliament. The bbcs Laura Kuennsberg reports. Hes in a rush, a terrible rush. Keep working, he says. Eu leaders will be there in the afternoon, and the negotiators on both sides will have to give their verdict to their political masters. The big players in europe desperately want this all to come to a conclusion. Everyone understands english, but nobody understands england. Laughter. And these negotiations are taking part somewhere in this not very beautiful building. Can there be a new understanding, after so many confusions along the way . It matters most for the prime minister, who swept into office with a promise to fix this, his fate bound up with what happens next on brexit. And, just like theresa may, he has a party and parliament that is divided, brexiteers whose votes he needs. He must keep them all on board. Obviously, standing here, hoping to be able to vote for a deal which amounts to a brexit worth having. But as ive said elsewhere, you know, theres thousands of people counting on us to make sure this really is a brexit worth having. They have been in and out of number 10, just like earlier. The dup, johnsons Northern Irish allies. Well, were continuing the discussions, and no doubt well Say Something later on today. Who are nervous about what comes next, reluctant to give away too much in a compromise over customs, with worries about the union in the future. And, believe it or not, secrecy about the deal is so tight that even the cabinet dont really know whats next. Its all going marvellously. But, in the morning, it is the continents opinions that matter. France and germany would give any draft deal the same inspection. Can brexit happen soon, without too much disruption for them . I want to believe we are finalising it, the french president said. Well talk about it tomorrow. Angela merkel more convinced in recent days it can be done. But, to use the irritating but helpful old adage, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. The two sides seem closer tonight to a deal than they have been for months and months, but sources in the dup believe there still are gaps there, and if one thing goes wrong, it could all go wrong, horribly and fast. Good sentiments tonight do not mean signatures on a page tomorrow. And, if borisjohnson manages to clinch it and play the hero, in parliament, swathes of mps are ready to stand and fight. Laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. Lets take a look at some of the days other news pressure is mounting on President Trump over his decision to pull us troops out of the border area between syria and turkey. Its from the democrats and his own Republican Party in the house of representatives who voted overwhelmingly to condemn his decision. Then a white house meeting with Top Democrats ended with nancy pelosi and her team walking out. And a letter has emerged which mr trump warns the turkish president not to be a tough guy. Our north america correspondent peter bowes has more. This was a letter that he wrote to president erdogan on october the ninth, and bear in mind that was before the turks started to move into syria. And we all know about the phone call that was made at about that time, but this is the first time were seeing the letter. And illjust read you a couple of sections. It says dear mr president , lets work out a good deal you dont want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and i dont want to be responsible for destroying the turkish economy and i will. And it goes on to say, history will look upon you favourably if you get this done the right and humane way, it will look upon you forever as the devil if good things dont happen. Dont be a tough guy dont be a fool ill call you later. And this is a letter that has only just been released, already raising eyebrows for here for its, to say the least, rather undiplomatic language. Yeah, very interesting, very unusual language. Criticism coming in for donald trump from lots of quarters, and slightly surprisingly, republicans, as well. And there was a vote in congress on syria. Yes. Criticism coming at the president from all sides, including his own party. More than 100 republican members of the house of representatives joining the democrats to vote in favour of a resolution essentially condemning the president s actions and that now famous decision to take troops, us forces, out of syria. And it isntjust in the house, the senate, lindsey graham, who is generally a very close ally of the president , hasnt always been, but has been in recent months, criticising the president in extremely strong terms saying he is deluded, essentially, to say that the kurds are now in a better position. This gives the impression of a president really on the ropes, receiving a lot of criticism on this issue like no other issue that weve seen in recent months. Also making news today more than 300 people have been arrested globally following the takedown of the Worlds Largest dark web site. Named welcome to video, the website hosted more than 200,000 videos containing images of child sexual abuse. Arrests have taken place across 38 countries, with the sites owner, south koreanjong woo son facing nine fresh us indictments. Qatar has announced plans to completely scrap its restrictive migrant permit system thats long been criticised by human rights activists for being a form of modern slavery. The labour minister says qatar will also introduce a minimum wage from 2020. The kefala system required Migrant Workers to obtain exit permits in order to leave the counry, and blocked them from changing companies without their employers permission. Bulgarian police have identified 15 fans they suspect are responsible for subjecting black england players to racist abuse and arrested six of them. Englands euro 2020 qualifying match against bulgaria was stopped twice during the first half on monday following racist chanting by some supporters. Bulgarias football chief resigned on tuesday and european footballs governing body, uefa, has opened Disciplinary Proceedings against bulgaria. The International Olympic committee has announced plans to move the tokyo 2020 marathon and race walking events over 800 kilometres south of japans capital city, to sapporo. Well, athletes struggled in last months test event and organisers seem eager to avoid a repeat of what occurred at the recent world athletics championships in doha, qatar, where almost half the field failed to complete the womens marathon because of sweltering heat and humidity. The leader of one of hong kongs largest pro democracy groups jimmy sham has been taken to hospital after being attacked. Reports say a group of up to five men with hammers left him with head injuries. This came hours after chaotic scenes in hong kongs parliament forced its leader, carrie lam, to abandon her speech. It was the first full meeting of Parliament Since it was stormed by pro democracy demonstrators injuly. Joining me from hong kong is the former president of the legislative council, jasper tsang. Thank you so much forjoining us on newsday mr tsang. We were just mentioningjimmy newsday mr tsang. We were just mentioning jimmy sham being violently attacked in the hong kong area last night. Do you condemn the violence against the protesters . Definitely. Everyone is condemning the attack and everybody should be doing it. But in case the International Community is not aware, such acts of violence have become very common in hong kong in the last few months. All the citizens have been beaten up in the streets by rioters, again and again, so streets by rioters, again and again, so it is only because this time the victim is the leader of the protesters, so the attack has hit the headlines. But such acts have been happening in the past. You condemn the violence, but currently, the hong kong situation is in a mess. What must be done to fix the situation . Everybody has been asking that question in the last couple of months and nobodys got the answer yet. 0bviously months and nobodys got the answer yet. Obviously the current, we call it the political storm, is very complicated and it cannot be fixed by just complicated and it cannot be fixed byjust simple complicated and it cannot be fixed by just simple measures. Complicated and it cannot be fixed byjust simple measures. I believe the government has to communicate better with the people, including the protesters. 0bviously, deterring measures should be taken, but at the same time, consider literary measures are necessary as well conciliatory. What are those measures . Carrie lam said basically, not willing to give into the demands of the protesters, and the protesters are of the protesters, and the protesters a re not of the protesters, and the protesters are not willing to meet halfway regarding their demands . Well, there are actually many more demands made by the protesters. Carrie lam herself knows very well that the reason why the protests have exploded to such an enormous scale is because people, many hong kong people, are unhappy with the government for a number of reasons. It is not only the five demands made by the protesters. So, mr tsang, im sorry to jump by the protesters. So, mr tsang, im sorry tojump in here. Do you think the answer would be for ms carrie lam to step down and let someone else get hong kong out of this mess . Well. It is not even up to mr ms lam herself to decide because that position can only be appointed or dismissed by the Central Government. The Central Government would have to consider whether there is a better substitute before they can make any decision. So, ithink substitute before they can make any decision. So, i think the carrie is now committed, so to speak, to clearing up the mess she has created. But it looks like she is not helping out with the situation at the moment. The mess is getting even worse. Dont you forjoining us, jasper tsang. I would not say that. Thank you forjoining us from hong kong. Thank you. Thank you for joining hong kong. Thank you. Thank you forjoining us, jasper tsang. Youre watching newsday on the bbc. Still to come on the programme as the world solar challenge race nears the finishing line, we hearfrom one of the team leaders about the challenges of using the sun for fuel. Also on the programme how celebrities and politicians have become victms of the damaging use of deepfakes on the internet. Parts of San Francisco least affected by the earthquake are returning to life, but in the marina area where most of the damage was done, they are more conscious than ever of how much has been destroyed. In the 19 years since he was last here, hes gone from being a little known revolutionary to an experienced and successful diplomatic operator. It was a 20 pound bomb, which exploded on the fifth floor of the grand hotel, ripping a hole in the front of the building. This government will not weaken. Democracy will prevail. It fills me with humility and gratitude to know that i have been chosen as the recipient of this foremost of earthly honours. This catholic nation held its breath for the men they call the 33. And then, bells tolled nationwide to announce the first rescue, and chile let out an almighty roar. This is newsday on the bbc. Im rico hizon in singapore. Im lewis vaugthones in london. Our top stories frantic efforts are still underway to reach a last minute brexit deal on the eve of a eu summit in brussels. The us house of representatives has voted overwhelmingly to condemn President Trumps decision to withdraw American Forces for North Eastern syria. Lets take a look at some front pages from around the world. The South China Morning Post concentrates on the troubles in hong kong, reporting that china has slammed the us house of representatives for passing a bill in support of Anti Government protestors. The japan times looks at the aftermath of the most powerful typhoon to hit the country in decades, reporting that the cabinet is set to dip into reserves and approve hundreds of millions of yen of extra spending. This will go towards water and shelter. And finally, wine buffs should take a look at the business times. It says china is fast emerging as a front runner in wine circles, and is now the home of Award Winning tipples like big reds, and even sake. No wonder the likes of rothschild have been investing heavily in the region. Now, rico, what stories are sparking discussions online . Well, its a fashion show with a difference. This is a zero gravity version of a catwalk. Virgin galactic has unveiled its spacesuit designs for tourists to wear in 2020. Richard bransons company has suffered delays and setbacks in its bid to take paying customers into space, but it did manage to send a test passenger to the edge of space in february. Legislators in california have made it illegal to create or distribute so called deepfake images in the run up to an election. Deepfake technology can be used to manipulate images to make it look as if a person said or did something that never happened. Researchers say that there is an equally dangerous trend of using the technology in pornographic material. Megha mohan spoke to a victim of deepfake technology, the former disney actress bella thorne. At a party in beverly hills, the hollywood actress bella thorne is raising awareness of Mental Health for a generation growing up online. A recent worry is deepfake technology. She has seen her likeness used in hundreds of online, non consensual pornographic films. Deepfake videos are when someones image can be manipulated to generate convincing representations of acts that never happened. We need to be more vigilant with what we trust from the internet. This is an extreme form of deepfake, because, first of all, its real time. Yeah. And the second thing is that ijust need a single picture of that person. In seconds, Computer Scientist hao li can be anyone, from chinas president , xijinping, to Scarlett Joha nsson. Deepfake technology is becoming easier, and it is most commonly used for pornography. Actress bella thorne, who starred in films like blended, has seen a video of her crying over the death of her father cut into a pornographic film. And then im, like, saying, something, something, but i miss him. 0bviously my fathers dead. And then they put that together with a girl masturbating, and this videos going around, and everyone really is thinking that its actually me. I dont know how we regulate apps and things like that, because its not going to just be your favourite celebrity or your favourite this person or this person that you want to put in this app. Because you can do it to your best friend in school, if you decide you hate them so much. You can send it around to this person, you can do it to a famous politician, this or that. Its a concern shared by the former head of security at facebook, alex stamos. He worries the software may be widely used within the year to target non celebrities, the likes of you and me. The executives at these platforms have realised that the people whove been saying our tools are being used for harm are starting to win out, that they were right, and that there needs to be more investment. This is going to be another field where people are going to specialise, and spend years of their career trying to figure out how to stop it. Developers say, as the technology improves, deepfa kes will become more prevalent. In raising awareness, they hope to make us question the authenticity of what we view online. Megha mohan, bbc news. Earlier this week, we brought you a story on the world solar challenge, where students from around the world race cars theyve designed and built themselves across some of australias most remote terrain. There is one catch. The vehicles are powered almost entirely by the sun. The race started on sunday, with participants facing an almost 3,000 km journey from darwin in the Northern Territory to adelaide in south australia. They have passed through towns including tennant creek, Alice Springs and coober pedy, and after all that, it looks like today the Vattenfall Solar Team from the netherlands is poised to cross the finish line first. Their team leader, maud diepeveen, spoke to me from a road about 300 km north of adelaide. As you can imagine, the signal was a little bit unstable in the middle of the outback, but she was in high spirits. I am feeling really good right now. Weve worked super hard for the past four days to become the lead, to do everything today that weve worked for for more than a year, and to cross the finish line, hopefully first, is an amazing feeling. No chance for the belgian agoria team in overtaking nunax . Were going to try and keep them behind us. Its obviously going to get a lot more busy as we go into adelaide. There will be a lot more traffic. So it will really depend on what the traffic will be like, how much sun there will be. But were not planning on letting them overtake us, no, not at all. All right, you will not let them overtake you at all costs. But tell us about your nunax, the car, your solar car. What is it capable of doing . Nunax is built in a way that she doesntjust run on the sun, but she can also run on the wind. So, if we have sort of crosswind from the front of nuna, we can sail on the wind a little bit, because we made the wheel bearings like a sail. So we always hope for quite hard winds, so we not only use the sun, but also the wind to power our vehicle. And this race, assuming that you win it, is notjust any kind of race, it is a solar race. What is the bigger environmental message you are trying to send in this world solar challenge . Well, mainly what were trying to prove in this challenge is that we can drive 3,000 km through the outback of australia just powered by the sun. And all the teams that participate in this race want to prove that, and we want to show Big Companies that, if we are able to do so, they should take a step towards sustainability. And were also trying to teach kids that, with a car that is as cool as this one, they should really go into technical studies and try and figure out better ways to save our earth. And briefly, maud, how are you planning to celebrate if you win the race . How am i planning to celebrate . I am going to go into the fountain in adelaide, celebrate with my team, celebrate with everyone that worked super hard. Yeah, obviously, praise nuna, praise everyone. Im going to see my parents. Theres a lot of parents from the netherlands that had actually flown into adelaide to celebrate with us, so it will be really exciting to see everyone, yeah. The duke and duchess of cambridge have visited a melting glacier as part of their tour of pakistan, travelling to the mountains of the hindu kush to see for themselves the effect of Global Warming. 0ur royal correspondentjonny dymond is travelling with them and sent this report. Even for the royals, it is a rocky road up the hindu kush. William and catherine came here to see firsthand the impact of a warming planet the retreat of the glaciers that, across these mountains, serve nearly a quarter of humanity. When the glaciers melt, they send water tumbling down, flooding the region. And then, once theyre gone, there is nothing left for the rivers, the rivers that irrigate this hot, hard land. It is why the prince calls Global Warming an impending catastrophe. He came to learn, but also to sound the alarm. 1. 6 billion people rely on this water behind us. I mean, that is an enormous amount of people who bear in mind, a lot of people are now living urban lives. Its very hard to understand, living in an urban environment, where your water comes from and how precious the actual source of it all is. Blending in with the locals . Not quite, but a nice try. Applause william and catherine went to a remote village to learn about life outside the big cities. And they were sent back to the capital with dancing and smiles, and music ringing in theirears. Jonny dymond, bbc news, pakistan. You have been watching newsday. Im Lewis Vaughanjones in london. And im rico hizon in singapore. Stay with us. As the uk and eu inch closer to a brexit deal, a former us trade chief warns the uk should not expect special treatment from america. And before we go, take a look at this picture. Actressjennifer aniston now has a lot more friends, after her first post on her new Instagram Account attracted 5 million followers in just 12 hours. The photo, a reunion selfie of her with her friends co stars, has likely earned aniston a new world record for the fastest Instagram Account to reach 1 million followers, but this has yet to be verified. The record is currently held by the duke and duchess of sussex. Thats all for now. Stay with bbc world news. Hello, good morning. Wednesday started on a dull and damp note for many parts of the country. Once that rain cleared away, though, we did see some sunshine. A chance to dry off, though. Although a lot of the ground is still saturated, and there are a couple of flood warnings still out there. But following the sunshine, the clearer skies have meant its turned quite chilly, particularly for the eastern side of the uk. Where we had that cloud earlier on, weve now got the clearer skies, but looking out to the west, you can see that swirl of cloud there. Its producing showers or longer spells of rain. It marks the position of what is at the moment quite a deep area of low pressure. Thats drifting towards the uk, already arriving in western areas. Further east, though, with those clearer skies, temperatures may be low enough in eastern scotland to give us a touch of frost. Further west, it will be mild. But youve already got a few showers, the breeze is picking up. And we will see more and more showers arriving across the western side of the uk, blown in by some strong and blustery winds, which will also push the showers through the English Channel and then move them inland, into the south east of england and the midlands. But i think, for north east england and north east scotland, it should be largely dry. Should be some decent sunshine. A much better day in north east scotland than it was on wednesday. 13 15 degrees thats near normal for this time of the year. So through thursday, increasing numbers of showers. Those showers will continue through thursday evening and thursday night, some of them heavy, accompanied by some rather blustery winds, which will keep the temperatures a bit higher. It should be a milder night, typically 6 8 degrees. We may stay in double figures across more southern parts of england. More sunshine and showers to come on friday. A good deal of them around coastal areas to begin with, but well see them developing inland, and some fairly frequent showers getting blown in on the strongest of the winds in the south west of england and wales. 12 15 degrees, so those numbers at the moment not really changing a great deal. Lets head into the weekend, and remember, at the moment, low pressure is about here. But, as we move into the weekend, the low pressure is moving right across into the uk. Its not as deep an area of low pressure, but it will continue to bring sunshine and showers or longer spells of rain. Longer spells of rain certainly blown in across scotland. The bulk of the showers further south, around coastal areas, developing inland. And, with the low pressure right over england and wales, some slow moving heavy and thundery downpours possible. Quite windy and feeling cooler, i think, for northern scotland and for northern ireland. The highest temperatures in the south east of england. So a lot of showers to come on saturday. Through sunday, the showers become fewer. But, with that northerly breeze, it will turn cooler. For many of us, though, the start of next week should be dry with some sunshine. Im Lewis Vaughan jones, with bbc world news. Our top story a brexit deal hangs in the balance with negotiators are still hard at work in brussels. A finalised brexit deal has still to be secured, but officials are said to have agreed the basis of a new arrangement. Eu leaders are holding a summit on thursday. A letter from donald trump warning turkeys president erdogan not to be a tough guy emerges, as the us house of representatives votes overwhelmingly to condemn mr trumps decision to withdraw American Forces from syria. And this story is trending on bbc. Com actress, jennifer aniston, has taken instagram by storm, attracting a massive five million followers injust 12 hours with her first ever Instagram Post a reunion selfie with her friends co stars. Thats all. Stay with bbc world news