B.b.c. News I'm John Shea a court in Saudi Arabia has begun the trial of 11 people allegedly involved in the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi the prosecutor has asked for the death sentence for 5 of the accused Mr Khashoggi was killed when he visited the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul in October Frank Gardner reports in the Saudi capital Riyadh the opening hearing has been held in what promises to be one of the kingdom's highest profile trials 11 men have been accused of being involved with the murder of the Saudi journalist. They have not been named but the prosecution is calling for the death penalty for 5 of them the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin sole mom whom Western intelligence agencies suspect ordered the operation to silence one of his biggest critics is not amongst those accused and Saudi Arabia has denied his involvement the defendants had their lawyers present during the hearing and they've been granted more time to study the indictment against them the new Us Congress will be sworn in later today ushering in a new era of divided government under President Trump From Washington here's Laura Trevelyan Democrats will be in control of the new House of Representatives this will be the most diverse Congress in American history with Muslims Buddhist Asian Americans Native Americans Hispanics and African-Americans represented a record number of women have been elected to the house the 1st order of business is an attempt by Democrats to end the partial shutdown by introducing bills to reopen the government but without money for the president's border war with Mexico Senate Republicans have already said they won't consider it since the president will veto it without money phase wall and so the impasse continues. The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has defended its decision to block internet access during the 1st 4 days since the long delayed election took place there thought is took a pro opposition t.v. Station off air and blocked f.m. Radio broadcasts by Radio France International Luis to reports the minister of information and government spokesman long amending says only the Election Commission can announce election results and says Internet has been suspended to prevent the spread of unofficial results he did say however that the government would consider a request from civil society to restore Internet the minister warned journalists that they must abide by what he describes as the norms and rules of this country provisional results are officially expected on January 6th but there are growing doubts about whether the deadline will be met a leader of the yellow vests movement in France has denied trying to organize a protest on the Shans Elisa in Paris on Wednesday Eric drew a was arrested after posting a video on Facebook calling for people to gather as a way of shocking public opinion but his lawyer told the b.b.c. That Mr Dreher it was simply meeting friends to light candles in honor of the 10 people who died during the protests since mid November this is the latest world news from the b.b.c. The Spanish government has warms the monk in charge of general Franco's tomb that he will not be able to prevent the dictator's re burial elsewhere accusing Santiago Cantor of being obstructive it highlighted his past as a political candidate for a splinter group from General Franco's party the government was responding to the monks formal refusal to allow the exhumation of the remains from the Valley of the fallen mausoleum there Madrid. South Korea's spy agency says the North Korean ambassador to Italy has disappeared Jo song Gill and his wife are reportedly seeking asylum having last been seen leaving their embassy in Rome in November Here's the Rebecca in Seoul United's Mint comes amid unconfirmed reports that Mr Jewel was asking the Italian authorities for protection in order to seek asylum in a 3rd country a defection by one of North Korea's elite could prove to be a huge embarrassment for leader Kim Jong Il And according to some in Seoul Mr Chalker may have been more than simply an ambassador his father and father in law I thought to be former diplomats and high ranking Workers' Party officials Pyongyang considers defectors traitors to the country and there can be severe consequences for any family members left behind the president of Sudan Cher has marked the country's independence anniversary with a speech highlighting his government's achievements despite continuing protests in many towns and cities addressing workers' unions he blames the economic crisis on the loss of oil revenue since the secession of South Sudan worsened by the impact of u.s. Economic sanctions and antiterrorism tribunals in Afghanistan has sentenced a man to death for the murder of a b.b.c. Journalist in the eastern province of course last year 2 other men were sentenced to prison terms char who worked as B.B.C.'s past 2 service was shot dead on his way home the identity of his murderous hasn't been made public and the motive is unclear the a.b.c. News. Hello welcome to News Hour from the b.b.c. World Service it comes to you live from London I'm Reza Iqbal. We begin today with a new milestone for the world China has successfully landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon this is the 1st time this has happened state media in Beijing confirmed that the Chang who for probe to touchdown in the unexplored South Pole 8 can base in the largest oldest and deepest crater on the moon's surface the mission's chief engineer she Jan Fang told Chinese television it was a highly successful landing. On the deficit and the whole process of the probes powered descent and landing is the single most essential part of our overall Chang'an for Tarzan and it has laid a foundation for the craft to land road and explore later according to all the data sent back the whole landing process was normal and the probe stood straight and steady after landing. I've been speaking to Bryony whole gun who is an assistant professor of planetary geology at University in Indiana in the United States why landing on the far side of the moon is so difficult we've always landed on the near side in the past all of our robotic and human missions going back to the Apollo program of always landed on the near side and that's mainly because you know we have a direct line of sight to the near side from the earth so communications are very simple on the far side you don't have that it's always facing away from the earth and so in order to communicate with the far side you have to have some sort of intermediary satellite or something and that's the really new saying that chunky for mission has done is used to relay satellites to communicate between the lander and the communication center back on Earth Ok so when they say when the China National Space Administration says that this has opened a new chapter in humanity as exploration of the moon then also breast nosie in any way this is a big big deal it really is yeah we've never landed on the far side it's a completely it's a scientifically new environment one we've never visited the whole planetary community is very excited by this new landing Ok so tell us tell us a little bit about the the geology all of the fossil. Well the far side it looks very different from the near side we actually didn't even know what it looked like until the very early lunar exploration sent satellites around the far side of the moon in the 19 $160.00 s. And what these satellites saw was that the far side is completely light so and it's why it's bright it's very rugged it's covered in these huge craters including the South Pole it can Basin which is one of the biggest impact basins in the solar system even though we can't see it from the earth it takes up about a quarter of the surface of the moon and that's the basin that the chunky for mission has landed and we're really excited about that particular landing spot because this basin is so huge that we think it actually dug up part of the mantle of the moon when it impacted and put it onto the surface where we can actually investigate it in place Ok so what sorts of things is this probe. Going to be able to collect what sort of data is going to change what we know about the man. So it has a few geology instruments onboard so it has an instrument that can tell us about the mineralogy of the rocks that are present and a radar instrument that can tell us about the subsurface structure and you know how thick the broken up crust of the moon is there but actually one of the really neat things that this mission will do will be to conduct totally new brand new astronomical observations from the far side of the moon and that's because you know back here on Earth we have all these radio communications or reconstitute broadcasting we have a very thick eye on a spear and these things together serve to block a lot of very low frequency action all Mikkel emissions from stars in distant galaxy is that we haven't been able to observe before so this mission has multiple instruments that will help to investigate that kind of observation just very briefly it's possible to hate your excitement but I wonder if there is just said it'll envy that it wasn't the West that did this. First year is the NASA has actually considered a missions to the same similar area the south will they can based on a couple of times called the moon rise mission that hasn't yet funded it I know it's something that a lot of men are geologists would really love to see you know something we hope will happen eventually I was Bryony Hogan assistant professor of planetary geology at University in Indiana. The b.b.c. John Sudworth is in Beijing I asked him how big a deal it was for the prestige of China's space program of course as a success it's a huge deal in terms of prestige I mean China has been seen over recent years to be developing space technology for military purposes that's caused some concern it's harder of course to link the goals of this mission to that wider purpose but what we saw leading up to the launch this morning the official announcement finally came at 10 30 in the morning Beijing time but up until that point there was almost no coverage of this at all and I think that's a sign less about you know China's signaling of its position in the space race against its rivals if that's the right way to put it a more about the domestic signaling and perhaps it's a sign of a somewhat of a lack of confidence the fear of you know flagging this up getting people excited about it and then it failing was clearly part of the reasoning for for that sort of news silence but you know from 1030 the announcement came and from then on it's been covered pretty comprehensively by state media although interesting enough the main 7 o'clock news tonight put it way down the bulletin 16 minutes in or so after long items about you know normal sort of leadership movements and politics nonetheless you know a pretty important day for China and Chinese science and I mean you could argue that although China is a sort of late comer by decades if you like to space exploration it is quickly catching up how much do we actually know in the context of the silence that you're talking about secrecy of the new technology that the Chinese space agency has developed. What is it it's been signaling some of the ambitions almost all of them focused actually on the moon I mean China clearly sees that as the right place to start to build its space program after this one will come a mission to collect mineral samples from the moon surface there's a lot of talk here about the possibility one day of being able to to mine commercially for minerals on the moon and this exploration of that South Pole 8 can basin area is clearly likely to give the scientists a clue as to what the potential for that might actually be and beyond that there's talk of even setting up a lunar base capable of human habitation say pretty ambitious stuff China's also building a space station that will begin operation around the same time as the International Space Station falls out of its useful life and China will be the only likely therefore to be the only nation with an operating space station so these ambitions are pretty big in budget treaty it is still way way behind NASA best estimates suggest spending something like a 10th of what NASA is spending on space exploration so it is catching up fast but the gap is still pretty big. China Correspondent John sudras If your peers reformist prime minister has told the b.b.c. They'll be no turning back on historic changes in his country Prime Minister Ahmed heads Africa's fastest growing economy and is implementing deep reforms at breakneck speed he's $42.00 a former soldier and 9 months ago was elected to lead a policy that had suppressed dissent for decades are Africa at a focal keen reports. The prime minister has just arrived here at German extatic welcoming as you have heard what was really striking about watching the crowd there was how everybody just wants to measure how much touch of babies were held at all the traditionally you know sort of political scenario was played out but there was something deeper than that really happy with what I saw in the face of all these people was told. We're driving into the town of Jenin now on each side of the narrow streets here crowded with people hundreds of cameras to welcome Mr. Ahmed with motion but not moved into a giant auditorium a small a medical center and some other graduation prime minister I was addressing them and he's just sat. In the sense don't worry about the conference that took the lives of our company in the middle there is a good reference in the 2nd World War and rather country is now illustrating so I said I gave an economic success for that he told the truth you have to have a government mark to make the process of reform and that's not true it's everybody's job to have. Up for teaching these articles this Egil although the homage emerge from the autocratic leading polish and he has astonished the world with the pace of his reforms in just 9 months he's freed political Chris has ended a long running conflict with neighboring Iraq appointed women to the posts of Chief Justice and president. After half the cabinet positions were supporters of my party and I was also imprisoned so that you can the tax I was a political prisoner before being forced into exile in America. Abbie Ahmed invited her home to run the country's election commission thousands like if not millions of people paid to see this kind of change in this country to see the softening to have like a former opposition leader former dissidents to lead an institution where significant independence of Lacson you know time is a lot. But there are immense challenges if your view has more than 80 different ethnic groups clashes between some have led to the displacement of nearly 3000000 people among them hundreds of thousands of children like these ethnic Somalis displaced in the recent upsurge of fighting with their own neighbors. It is here to the far north in the province of to great across a landscape of mountains and valleys filled with hay making foreigners but the most serious stirrings are being felt against the new dispensation. The to Gran's used to dominate the army and government but many senior figures have been arrested and accused of human rights abuses and corruption under the old authoritarian regime although a minority of just 6 percent they've proved formidable fighters in the past. Is a prominent to Graham politician you cannot take chances in this country because what we are talking about is the difference between transforming the entire nation and spreading disaster and that's not much of a choice for the moment really. Like many reformers before him I'll be Ahmed is finding that the most dangerous moment for any autocracy is when it starts to change he's heavily guarded as he makes his way around the country but I did manage to get close to him as he toured the town of Prime Minister finally came from the state can I just briefly ask yourself Are you the man tonight did you ever have a closer. Look at all that. It was a day for the racing there's more questioning journalists but I did catch up with the prime minister again the consummate politician he greeted me with a traditional kiss to the cheek and this invitation he came to the international community to come if you're really doing these. Youth and he's going to lead me on the promise of you to do this and there will be no turning back on your family right on down. But just watching the Prime Minister's helicopter take off and it's circling around I'm leaving Gemma what are the closing impressions of her following him all day but also traveling around Ethiopia over the past week well it's a sense of a country that's in a process of truly dynamic change. But also shadowed the shadow of ethnic difference of to. Vision which has been here long before we came to power which if you cannot find a way to resolve threatens to overturn this entire process of the film. And that report from Ethiopia was by our Africa editor Fergal Keane You're listening to News Hour. Still to come into the program the very 1st Netflix production in Polish called 983 imagines what might have happened if communism had prevailed in Europe and a totalitarian regime was established in Poland the director of national Holland has experienced communism firsthand she says the ideas in the series appeals to her we are living in the what when the some of the stop Yes quite popular it is because in reality say zinc so quickly is the phantasy of the pop culture is out this abating where it's going to go. To Stay with us for that interview the b.b.c. News headlines this hour 11 people have gone on trial in Saudi Arabia accused of being involved in the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul and the opposition Democratic Party takes charge of the u.s. House of Representatives in a few hours time pledging to end a government shutdown that's lasted for almost 2 weeks. This is a bar with news our life from the b.b.c. In London. There are big changes in Washington d.c. As of today Democrats officially take control of the House of Representatives off to winning an extra 40 seats in November as midterm elections this comes as the partial government shutdown of a president trumps demand for a border wall funding and 13th day so huge power for the Democrats but what will they do with it the B.B.C.'s Anthony's Eka is in Washington well the 1st thing they're going to do is be able to stop the Republican legislative agenda in its tracks that means Republicans and Donald Trump aren't going to be able to do any more tax reform doa health care repeal no major overhaul of the immigration system no big entitlement Social Security reforms now whether Democrats can actually enact their legislative agenda remember the Republicans still hold the Senate they still have the presidency the House could possibly pass government ethics reform changes to voting rights gun control climate change all these things they want to do but the reality is it's probably going to be partisan gridlock for the next 2 years the big thing that they will have however is oversight power of the Trump administration for the 1st time in these 2 years they're going to have control of committees of the House of Representatives be able to issue subpoenas to look into his business background look into possible lection meddling his ties to foreign governments everything that was essentially stymied by Republicans for 2 years is now on the table and they are definitely up for that challenge on the I mean there's no questioning that absolutely I they've been itching for this for 2 years now and they they finally have some skin in the game we had unified Republican control of all of the levers of power here in Washington d.c. For the past 2 years essentially Democrats who are doing their best to throw sand in the year now they have control of one of those here the House of Representatives generally it tends to work on a purely a majority basis the speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is going to have considerable power to determine the legislative agenda and that. Chamber and they're going to use it they're essentially going to try to lay the framework for a 2020 campaign saying we deserve the presidency back we deserve the Senate back and then these are the sorts of things we can enact they want a track record they can run on how many just very briefly what impact is the shutdown having Well we have about 800000 federal workers across the country who are either working for no pay or not working at all national parks are closing the Federal Communications Commission is going to be shuddering soon here in Washington d.c. There are museums that are all closing that people can't get to it's having a real impact impacted on people's lives because they can if they're leaving paycheck to paycheck or working day to day. The Anthonys occur in Washington President Trump has said that he would welcome a shutdown if he didn't get adequate funding for the Border War Democrats have not have no interest in facilitating that So how is this shutdown going to end the question I put to Mark short he was director of legislative affairs for President Trump and oversaw the White House's handling of the last major government shutdown in January of last year I think shutdown doesn't usually play beneficially to either side politically so it's not something really to embrace I think the only way out of this particular shutdown though is if the deal becomes larger because essentially the budget for the u.s. Government is about a trillion dollars And what we're arguing over is a small fraction of that and a difference between one and a half $1000000000.50 for the border wall so you basically have 2 sides entrenched politically and neither side believing that they can give in so I think the only way out is if the deal becomes larger meaning that perhaps Democrats be more willing to give funding for border security if Republicans gave up something that Democrats want that's not on the table now so it should be won't well such as a resolution to the dock recipients those who are children of adults who came the United States a legally butter but have been abiding by the wall here and working and to make sure that they go and get legalized that something outside of the appropriations process the finance of the government that could be added that perhaps would be a way out but I think that it's probably going to be a shutdown that last for an extended period of time because Anthony just said your correspondent this is an entire government shutdown it's just a partial shutdown it doesn't mean to make it smaller for those 800000 people but many people in America will not even see the impact the shutdown show but I mean it it clearly is becoming a war of words as well between Nancy Pelosi and President Trump I mean. He's questioning the the language that he's using about trying to justify getting that extra $45000000000.00 funding for the for that war you know he's talking about people who are coming over potential terrorists and so on and she's continued to say well this is actually just a Law Well I think one thing that I'm an iteration should have done would be to go would be to have had the Border security people have asked for the security measure to make the argument instead it's become personalized as you just said is Donald Trump's wall when in fact what the president has advocated for is a plan that was preceded him in the administration it's a plan that Customs and Border Patrol United States have asked for in the previous administration but it's now become personalized and so therefore it makes it political between Nancy Pelosi involved shop as opposed to the career officials a Custom Border Patrol set here is where we actually need enhanced border security shows so in the context that you've just outlined it's quite possible that there's no reason why Nancy Pelosi who is now again very very powerful would want to give any ground over this issue now only that I think in many ways she's paralyzed because the new constituency that she has is a more liberal constituency that does not want to see your give any ground to the president and if she did it could perhaps jeopardize her standing as the new speaker of the house so in many ways I'll use it not that she doesn't want to but politically she would be jeopardized if she did is there any possibility given what we have seen of President Trump over the last 2 years that he wants to finesse the way in which he operates in order to be less polarizing less divisive of a figure because clearly the politics is now more polarized than ever the way the government is going to function is going to be much more difficult is there any possibility that he might change you know I don't see the president changing but I do think there are several policies he could agree with Democrats on balance Trump is not a traditional conservative and there are men in areas such as infrastructure funding to United States or. Or drug pricing that he actually agrees more of the Democrats' plans so if if politics are moved aside there actually would be legislation that could move in a by arson fashion but I don't see really the tenor of the tone changing do you think that the president is doing a good job I think the president has delivered on a lot of the campaign promises he made I think our economy is has certainly turned around in the United States I think from a national security perspective a stronger So yes I think that the president has many accomplishments the American people can be proud of but the crises say that they he has many accomplishments what about the very radical shift in the political discourse many many people have criticized him including inside the Republican policy for the way in which he talks about America about his opponents and the way in which he talks generally I think there's no doubt that the course this is something that many people or are not comfortable with but I Are you comfortable with it I think there's certainly a tone that in many would would not be carful with but I also believe that the Course is American politics it's something that was coming for some time you know the words I think that Donald Trump in many ways was a reaction to the years of the Obama presidency and the America people were anxious for something different I don't think that created this I think it's something that had been evolving in American politics and he was the the answer to it. I was speaking that's who he was director of legislative affairs for President Trump and oversaw the White House's handling of the last major government shutdown in January of last year just entre Mind you that if you ever fail to listen to our programs live on and you can always download our podcast is updated twice a day b.b.c. News Hour is what you need to put into search engines of your choice you can subscribe to the feed which means you need never be without us and if you'd like to tell us what you think about the program at b.b.c. News Hour is the programs to handle at resit ball is mine if you want to speak to me directly You're listening to News Hour. Distribution of the b.b.c. News Hour in the u.s. a Supported by Babel a European made language learning program babble teaches practical conversation in Italian Russian Swedish and other languages available in the App Store per online it be a b b e l dot com And by Newman offering a personalized weight loss program that uses psychology and small goals to change habits to help lose the weight and keep it off for good learn more at n o m dot com. I'm Lisa to sorrow it's. Co-founder of Epicentral co-working and the president of the Comm foundation I've been a member of care c.c. For over 10 years I would encourage anyone who listens to care c.c. To also become a member you know if you listen you certainly must find the programming valuable I think that we all listen here c.c. To keep up to date on what's going on in our world and sometimes it's our world that's really close to us and sometimes it's our world it's much bigger joy 91.5 k. Or C.C.'s care c c dot org. Coming up on News Hour in the next 30 minutes do the big falls in Apple's stock price signal it can no longer rely on the i Phone to drive profits also South Korea's spy agency says North Korea's ambassador to Italy is missing amid reports he is seeking asylum and Japan's battle to cope with an increasingly aging population. B.b.c. News I'm John Shea 11 people are being tried in Saudi Arabia over the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi Mr Khashoggi a prominent us based critic of the Saudi government was killed 3 months ago in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in Turkey the new u.s. Congress will be sworn in today ushering in a new era of divided government the Democrats will begin by introducing bills to try to end the partial shutdown of the government but President Trump has said he'll veto the legislation unless it includes funding for his border war with Mexico China is celebrating becoming the 1st nation to land a spacecraft on the far side of the moon the Chinese space agency said it had opened a new chapter in lunar exploration shares in the technology giant Apple have fallen nearly 9 percent at the start of trading in the United States the drop came a day after the company announced that it was expecting lower earnings than its earlier forecast the economic slowdown in China has been blamed for the last angry youths have attacked a church in Garner's capital after its pastor predicted the possible death of one of the country's most prominent Muslim figures an organ windows and chairs were damaged when the youths stormed the Reverend Isaac also Ben Post church in a crop the Spanish government has warms the monk in charge of general Franco's tomb that he will not be able to prevent that dictators read burial elsewhere the government was responding to the monks refusal to allow the exhumation of the remains from a Muslim Nima Dritte. And an antiterrorism tribunals in Afghanistan has sentenced a man to death for the murder of a b.b.c. Journalist in the eastern province of Khowst 2 other men were sentenced to prison terms much char who worked for the B.B.C.'s past 2 service was shot dead last April the identity of his murderers hasn't been made public. And that's the latest b.b.c. News. Welcome back to New sound coming up next North Korea's ambassador to Italy has gone missing but 1st Apple Inc The i Phone maker has rattled investors with news that its sales have been slowing a fact it blames on economic weakness in China anticipated revenue of about $84000000000.00 resulted in a share price which sunk more than 7 percent and he bought so is a senior writer for the Web site Digital Trends What does he think is behind the company's revised forecasts its changes in the smartphone market in general well why not just in China not just in the u.s. And not just Europe the smartphone world is changing and that's going to mean fewer fines and fewer fines in general being sold everywhere and why is that is it just because they're better and they last longer so people don't need to upgrade in the way that perhaps we did in the early days of the apple small phone in particular Yeah that's absolutely correct finds it just got so much better over the last year year and a half and poor this year perhaps disappointed a little bit with fewer reasons to upgrade to their phones and their phones are also considerably more expensive than other devices that do just as much well most equally as well those who aren't too for an upgrade just hold on to their phones for long because they're never really good and what about the issue with with batteries which was a problem in the initial models Yeah but this is another reason that people are upgrading which is where Apple is losing money internationally rather than in China because they offer the cheap battery upgrade so your phone which is still probably perfectly capable of working just has poor battery life so when they offer a cheap battery replacement then you spend that money instead of a 1000 pounds on the phone when that final then go on to last and. Couple is Polis of the problem that they all too heavily dependent on the the revenue stream from phones as opposed to other products possibly the high i Phone and pretty much any if I stop yourselves is connected to the Internet is then the conduit for everything else does a whole lot of money for services Apple music through i Tunes through the App Store through everything else that it said was independently of the device that's where it makes its money that's right keeps you as a customer so it needs you to finally fines for it to make money through its services so yes it has to rely on people buying i Phones continue by you know all this money from services Ok so I mean the prediction that the revenue all of about $84000000000.00 has made it a best is nervous but I mean that's still a considerable amount of money and it is still a huge company yes very much very much made people are still buying i Phones It's not everyone stopped they might be has leveled out and that might be a good indicator that Apple really needs to give us a really desirable lifetime next time around but this is still a company here is I think a lot of money with some very very desirable products those on the books and I was speaking to you from Digital Trends don't come home. You're listening to News Hour from the b.b.c. One message. A senior North Korean diplomat in Italy is reputed reportedly seeking asylum in a 3rd country South Korea's spy agency has confirmed Joe song Jill the North has North deputy ambassador in Rome has disappeared high profile defections are rare as the consequences for their family still living in North Korea are fought to be severe. But Chico Pardo is a North Korea watcher and associate professor at Kings College in London what more do we know about this case what we do know is that the West recalled back to Pyongyang and when the time came to go home he claim asylum we think that his claim asylum in Italy even though this is not confirmed and he hasn't been seen since November of last year so a couple of months or a month or so where he hasn't been seen I mentioned in the introduction the these sorts of defections already because people are often concerned about family back in North Korea this man has family in North Korea does he do we know that well we know his wife is living with him in Italy it is not confirmed whether he has kids or not but we should consider that at the very least he's very likely to have his parents cousins or cetera et cetera and the way North Korea operates these people who are back in North Korea are going to be in trouble and so it I mean it isn't the 1st time we know that because it's not the 1st time that a senior North Korean diplomat has defected it is not the 1st time the latest case that we know of was here in London when we saw another high profile defector from from from the embassy to join Ho who is now living in South Korea has made a name for himself but it is true that if we go back in time you don't see these cases very often with without 5 or 6 confirmed cases over the past couple of decades so this is a rare occurrence actually Ok And in terms of diplomatic relations with European countries where did European countries stand in terms of how close they are in diploma. Times I think this is quite interesting because of the past few months you have seen North Korea trying to reach out a little bit more to the European Union and different European countries you have seen diplomats from from these countries trying to reconnect morrow pencil for example the amount of they were given a speech in in Berlin which he hadn't done well since he was appointed 600 years ago so what we have seen he said not to reaching out on the other hand we look at European countries you see how they won this diplomatic process to succeed they have been very clear that the thing aid should be increased to North Korea they're willing to remove their own autonomous sanctions that they have if North Korea moves towards a nuclear station so this comes out on a war time in which the European Union European countries on the one hand and North Korea on the other hand were actually trying to prove relations indeed I just wonder we should probably remind the audience about the severity of the consequences for family back home I mean this is not an administration that would look kindly on this kind of thing what might happen to those people well at the very least that is likely the some of them will be sent to concentration camps or labor camps a however you want to call them in which they will have to endure card labor some of them not be executed with one of these with a case or not but this could actually happen and some of them are executed and at the very least you could assume that any position of power his family might have hold back in feeling honest obviously gone now I was remote on Pacheco Pato North Korea watch and associate professor at King's College in London. The world's population currently stands at 7200000000 by the end of the century it could grow to more than 10000000000 However in much of the developed world population may already have peaked in many parts of Europe fertility rates are already far below replacement level those countries now face a completely different problem more and more old people and fewer and fewer young people how are they going to cope when a quarter or even a 3rd of the population are over the age of 65 or one country is already in that situation Japan our Tokyo correspondent Robert Winfield Hayes has been to see how Japan is dealing with being the oldest country in the world huge. Deep in the mountains of central Japan the morning peace is about to be shattered. Was. A little truck is winding its way up along Valley Road at its wheel a 65 year old Utica and oh beside his wife sucky go and on the roof a speaker is bearing out an old face of the world was the. Year. The endo's pull up in the village square within minutes the little truck is transformed into a mobile supermarket they are many others in on a genocide and may I ask the head of so as and those son drove his truck up into the village playing that music a few minutes ago 4 old ladies walked out of their houses 2 of them with their backs almost bent double according to run those and the youngest person in this village is 72 years old but I got the right. Most of the young have now left these rural valleys for better paid work in the city now only the old remain for them the and those mobile shop is a lifeline so you like a social service checking on everybody the mayor put in. I think a number could be legit would be more deserted without Ask coming here did the villagers are what we call shopping live. Really doing their own was done we are lucky to people here who've known them for over 30 years so we want to do what we can to help them all over Japan there are more and more villages like this one by 204040 percent of Japan's total population will be pensioners no other country in the world has ever experienced this before it's not just a question of how they're going to pay to look after all these old people it's who is going to do the caring and I want to come out and I go about them and for them the plan. In a quiet street on the northern outskirts of Tokyo York or so is doing her morning rounds Yoko is a care manager for the local ward today she's come to check on a pensioner who recently lost his wife. How. The old man insists he's fine Japan can afford care managers like Yoko because it has a well funded care system since 2000 everyone over the age of 40 here has been obliged to pay into it but it is already under huge strain the problem is it was designed when Japan's pensioners made up around a 5th of the population now they are more than a quarter soon it will be a 3rd and then there is the issue of dementia Japan's leading expert on old aged care told me dementia is now a pandemic and it is spreading across the developed world there are already $5000000.00. And dimentia suffer as in Japan by 2025 that will rise to 7000000 Japan is at the leading edge of the world's demographic transition where it goes other countries will soon follow but even here no one is quite sure how this is going to work. Rebut Winfield Hayes reporting from Japan now if you are listening to News Hour yesterday you will have heard the astonishing story of 2 women who breached the centuries old bastions of religion culture and political prejudices by doing what the Supreme Court said was legal for them to do to enter a shrine in the southern Indian state of Carolyn the Scheiber murder temple until the Supreme Court said they could back in September menstruating women between the ages of $10.50 deemed unclean have been denied access to the Temple since that event the women have gone into hiding and have police protection violent protests have paralyzed the state which is run by the communist party I've been speaking to street her on pin I state president in Kerala for the Hindu nationalist b j p Party that's the national ruling party I asked him 1st what he made of the women entering the temple they were illiterate all the laws in that they sit for a model and they created all this Ok you say that a law has been violated India's Supreme Court overturned the ban which allowed women into this temple which law is being violated the law that they have to bring God the men being your starts over but what this going that we live is so bring about never stayed up till 11 you know it's not quite 14000000 a real quick Asians are fired by the it is sections of the source 80 religious very proud of that and how better their wonder will make the Global get allies the ruling wake up once but there are these 2 people they are going to steadily just believe that this way they want to destroy this a bit of a let them but I just want to ask you why you think that allowing women into this temple would destroy it that there's a Hindu temple that they're really says that this ripped up that brick gun flipped off so liberty so that this White. These are low but there are subtle is fiction for the lid is. Off in between their mantra 50 and their one book the basic concept of God in that it's not true sir it is written in law that women should not be allowed into the temple we've interviewed somebody who has studied the shabby mandala temple and she says that this is just a custom that has been evolved by men that this is not written in the Hindu scriptures that women of menstruating age should not be allowed into the temple this is something that men have conceived that is only at this company there is not this commission but as a subset. But there are 13 with us but really each Yes but the reason but so the restriction is pretty considerable Just explain to me what your issue is with women who are menstruating Why is it that they should not be allowed into the temple you see the little sister not the problem even if that is the problem. That one day men's us a minstrel. There is no harm in that that is not the problem here the problem is that the main they feel that they will. Use appears a little comic Atlas a liberty you know people they are the victims they would be sort of the things the way it is that this way we are supporting that course but these women who want to go into the temple are also devote they want to worship at the shrine and they have not been allowed to because they are being told they are unclean do you think that these women around clean the not ladies from the government to give believe this are willing to come to that then will I deposit look in the Lord is there not purpose because there are. Like Mr Like I never can I just can I just say to you that you say. That 90 percent of Hindu women in Carolina or devotees do not want to go into the temple why then were $4000000.00 women prepared to join hands to protest in order to be allowed to go into the temple will be Lucy but. It's a belief nobody could legally. Already cynic's it since but that is that we live that we believe is the basis for literally. On the but in my law this custom existing that if September is indeed Bill even the male that wrote the local And that's not discrimination I was speaking there to St Pillai who is the state president of the posse in Karen of the b j p is the ruling Hindu nationalists posse to tell us what you think about what you hear on our program b.b.c. News Hour is the programmes Twitter handle is mine don't go away you are listening to the b.b.c. World Service this is News Hour. Distribution of the b.b.c. News Hour in the Us supported by Emma the e-mail marketing platform that helps you create and send personalized email campaigns that reach your audience and also has a professional services team that can provide email strategy and create customized templates more and more at my Emma dot com and babble a language app or 2 just real life conversations in a new language like Spanish French or German dabbles 10 to 15 minute lessons available in the App Store per online at Babble dot com. A reminder of our top story here on News out China has successfully landed a robotic probe on the far side of the moon the 1st ever such mission planetary geologist Briony Horgan told us that there is still much to learn about the region where the craft landed the far side is completely alight so and that's why it's bright it's very rugged it's covered in these huge craters including the South Pole it can Basin which is one of the biggest impact basins in the solar system but we're really excited about that particular when expired because this basin is so huge that we think it actually dug up part of the mantle of the moon when it in cracked it and put it onto the surface where we can actually investigate it in place. One of the headline 11 people have gone on trial in Saudi Arabia accused of being involved in the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. This is rising. From the b.b.c. In London. And we take for granted that all of the 2 big ideological ideas of the 19th and 20th century it's communism that failed and capitalism that prevailed imagine then if that were not true that's the premise of the very 1st original Polish drama commissioned by Netflix it's called 983 and from the vantage point of 2003 it focuses on authoritarian single party rule in Poland and how it continues to deal with those who attempted its overthrow in 1983 by people regarded as terrorists the director is the Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland who is old enough to remember communism and indeed was imprisoned for opposing it I began by asking her what drew her to this production 1st what appealed to us the fact that it will be fair as Polish originally from Netflix because you know it is doing something which will be in the same time attractive and that there's a stand that will for Polish audience and for the global audience but what I like about the premise we are living in the what when the some kind of to stop us are quite popular it is because the reality is say isn't so quickly the fantasy of the pop culture is this a baiting kind of girl I wonder to what extent you've also encountered people who are saying well yes of course it is a dystopian story line but there are definite parallels to be made with the reality of contemporary Poland with the ruling Law and Justice Party and the authoritarianism the we are seeing in Poland today well you know when the city was conceived law and justice wasn't that the power in Poland yet the main question is what is part of the security of the free and the feelings that the freedom is all very great this is. Turnaround not only contemporary Poland but also in the United States and in several other west. What do you think about that as somebody who has experienced the reality of authoritarianism and communism well for me and my generation it is that the Freedom is the main thing at that it is the best condition for the man and for the society sense of the nation but it is less and less in this way but the next generation's Poland the current government tries to dismantle the terrorist for example the drugs that are coming from all the relations and it's not so interested in the subject The problem is that like freedom our democracy was losing its come so what we need to give the call up meaning to the new generation of people and we have to ask ourselves what kind of the SEPs was creating among people that they are ready to throw away the biggest achievement of humanity like. A plan to liberate democracy is not working if the people feel that they are not represented I was very interested to read that you said that because you understood the logic of communism it informed the way in which you were successful in Hollywood and that working for a big studio was not that dissimilar to working within a communist structure I wonder if you can explain what you meant by bad. Flex in which police still manage analysis but there isn't a place the executive. Was not either logical it was practical means in late coming is the main reason why. Farces who have been making are not making decisions was the fear to both their positions so natural tendency was that if I will go the decision which is risky I can be punished so my natural tendency is the sight on things which have. To be accepted by every public and exactly the same mechanism that is going on in the pick circus because you know making movies is risky business so the game you have to play with this bold it is to convince them that they are safe even if they are making. And when we are watching them like and so the action to make sense is that they became the victims of this world because you know except of big blockbuster they are practically producing nothing I am watching now that movies for Academy Award and American movies extremely weak and this weakness of the creative ideas is coming from the fear the fear to take the risks to take the challenge. Fascinating insights from the Polish film director Agnieszka Holland. Now just before we say goodbye let's turn to Saudi Arabia and the latest in the murder of the journalist 11 people accused of being involved in the murder. Of his murder in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul have appeared in court for the 1st time prosecutors are seeking the death penalty of 5 of the defendants the latest I've been speaking to our Arab affairs editor Alan Johnston Oktober the 2nd Jamal her Shoji entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul never to reemerge and here we are just 3 months on and already the trial is underway as you say 11 men in the dark we don't know their names they haven't been formally released so we don't know exactly what they're charged with either but as you said 5 of them face a possible death penalty the lives of 5 men a stake here we understand the court has asked for evidence from the Turkish authorities but not yet received or remember the Turks are asked for the accused in this case to be extradited to Turkey and try there but it pretty quickly became clear that the Saudis would have absolutely none of this they're keeping this under their control so we see this trial unfolding in Riyadh today getting under way and of course there has been an awful lot of talk about the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Solomon and his involvement with the Saudis have always said that he had nothing to do with it a great lack of transparency from the outset here remember 1st the Saudis said that Mr who shortly left the embassy that they were worried because he was missing gradually a fuller account came out but not a complete account we still don't know where Mr Hu show Jesus remains are the Saudis say that all this. As the work of rogue agents on an unauthorized mission they absolutely as you say deny that the Crown Prince Mohammed bin some man was in any way involved in ordering this but of course suspicions remain in power who figures in the u.s. Senate suspect the crown prince was indeed involved as they say he denies it I was a Arab affairs editor Alan Johnston bringing us to the end of this edition of thanks for your company this past October next time for me. You're listening to the b.b.c. World news on k. Or c c To southern Colorado's n.p.r. Station broadcast sun 91.5 f.m. From our studios in Colorado Springs Colorado you can also hear cares you see in the following communities 88.5 f.m. In West Cliff and Gardner 89 point one f.m. In La Hunter 89.9 f.m. In Lyman 90 point one f.m. In Manitou Springs 91.7 f.m. And Trinidad and Raton New Mexico 94 point one f.m. In Walsenburg unlove Fida 95.5 f.m. In Lake George and Hartsell 95.7 f.m. In saliva universe to end Villa Grove and 105.7 f.m. In Canyon City for questions or comments please call 719-473-4801 during regular business hours you can always become a member of k. Or c c by going to k. Or c c dot au or g.e. And making your financial contributions safely on line. Hello welcome to this is the b.b.c. World Service I'm Ben James and at this time every week day we sit here in the b.b.c. News room for a couple of hours and take you through the stories of the moments around the world the popular ones online the ones that need some explanation and we get some of the journalists working in this room involved in helping us do that also some of the people at the heart of the stories we're covering and I've already been on the fighting to a man on a beach in the Netherlands where crowds of people are sifting through Deborah shipping containers that fell overboard that's one of our most read stories on b.b.c. Nice online and on the subject of the Chinese space probe landing on the far side of the moon the 1st such landing you have been hearing a lot about that if you've been listening to the b.b.c. Through the day what does it mean to a Chinese student who's about to embark on an engineering career I've been speaking to one will play that conversation as well and in this news bulletin you'll hear some of the key details on that story. B.b.c. News I'm John Shea prosecutors in Saudi Arabia are calling for the death penalty for 5 of the 11 men.