we'll have an update from canada, where torrential downpours caused widespread floods and mudslides in parts of british columbia. and a return to hogwarts. he was a drink harry potter trio reunite for a 20th anniversary special. —— the wizard harry potter trio. live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it's newsday. hello and hello and welcome hello and welcome to hello and welcome to the hello and welcome to the programme. the former yorkshire county cricketer azeem rafiq has given harrowing and, at times, emotional evidence describing the racist abuse he says he experienced at the club. he told mps that the way he was treated was "inhuman" and said he "felt isolated, humiliated at times." more than a year after he first spoke publicly about racism, the former off—spinner accused senior figures at the club of turning a blind eye to what was happening. a subsequent report by yorkshire confirmed that he'd suffered harassment, but no—one faced disciplinary action. our sports editor dan roan�*s report contains some details you may find offensive. how are you feeling, azeem? all right. his allegations have already plunged yorkshire cricket into crisis. today, azeem rafiq brought them to westminster, laying bare the ordeal he says he and other asian players were subjected to at his former club, including a racist term aimed at his pakistani heritage. there were comments such as, "you lot sit over there, near the toilets." "elephant washers." the word expletivel was used constantly. and there just seemed to be an acceptance in the institution from the leaders and no—one ever stamped it out. i felt isolated, humiliated at times. struggling to contain his emotions, rafiq went on to describe his experience at headingley after his son was stillborn in 2017. through that time, the treatment that i received from some of the club officials was inhuman. they weren't really bothered about the fact that i was at training one day and i get a phone call to say there's no heartbeat... rafiq claimed former team—mate gary ballance used the name "kevin" as a derogatory term to refer to any player of colour and that this was an open secret in the england dressing room. that another england star, alex hales, called his dog kevin because he was black. "a disgusting joke," rafiq called it. and what of yorkshire's england captain, joe root, who last week said he couldn't recall any racist behaviour at the club? he's never engaged in racist language. ido... i found it hurtful. rooty was involved, before he started playing for england, he was involved in a lot of the socialising nights out where i'm bein: called - but, again, itjust shows, and he might not remember it, but itjust shows how normal it was in that environment, in that institution. rafiq also asked about former england captain michael vaughan, who strongly denied the whistle—blower�*s claims, since corroborated by two other cricketers, that he made a racist remark to a group of asian players. he said this yesterday, actually, that his reputation is being "trashed unfairly." what's your reaction to that? i think it's important, on michael, that we don't make it all about michael. the simple... look, it was a long time ago, michael might not remember it, as i said about earlier, because it doesn't mean anything to him. rafiq also describing, in harrowing detail, an incident that occurred away from headingley early on in his career. my first instance of drinking, i actually got pinned down at my local cricket club and red wine got poured down my throat. how old were you? 15. 15 and a muslim? 15 years old. the racial harassment rafiq suffered at headingley has sparked a growing number of further allegations in cricket, at yorkshire and beyond. do you think it's institutional in cricket more widely? - yes, i do. there's a real problem here, notjust yorkshire, throughout the country. and i'm going to be the one that's going to speak about this. former yorkshire chairman roger hutton, who resigned in the wake of the scandal, conceded he feared the club was indeed institutionally racist, before cricket's governing body, the ecb, admitted their attempts to improve diversity in the game had some way to go. what we have struggled with is... ..is getting our first class game to wake up to the same extent, and that is the point, we are at that stage now where i think we are, if not already in an emergency, then we are approaching one. the ecb have been criticised for not doing more to support rafiq, and the man who runs the game had this message. we know we've let you down and we are going to fix this and we're going to fix it quickly and we're going to fix it fast, because the survival of our sport depends on it. but for the man at the centre of one of cricket's gravest ever scandals, the damage has already been done. can't even imagine, as a parent, hearing me speaking out, why i would ever want my kids to go anywhere near the game? and i don't, i don't want my son to go anywhere near cricket. do i believe i lost my career to racism? yes, i do. that must be a terrible feeling. horrible. yeah, horrible. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines today. the chinese communist party has released an important document that promotes president xijinping as one of the country's greatest modern leaders. the majority of the text — which looks back at the party's ioo—year history — is devoted to mr xi and his achievements. philippine president rodrigo duterte's daughter will be running mate of ferdinand marcoer in next year's presidential election, confirming weeks of speculation of an alliance between two powerfulfamilies. sara duterte carpio, who is seeking the vice presidency, announced in a video message her intent to run on the same ticket as ferdinand marcos. meanwhile, president duterte will seek election as a senator next year when his term in office ends. gas prices across europe have surged after the german authorities suspended the approval process for the controversial nord stream two pipeline under the baltic sea. they say certification of the project will only be considered once its operator has formed a company under german law. ajury in the us is considering its verdict in the case of the teenager kyle rittenhouse, who shot dead two men and injured another during racialjustice riots last year in kenosha, wisconsin. mr rittenhouse's lawyers say he acted in self—defence. the prosecution argue he behaved like an armed vigilante. india's pollution control authority has extended thejury the jury havertz hired for the day. —— have retired. india's pollution control authority has extended a partial lockdown in the capital delhi as it attempts to tackle the heavy smog enveloping the region. all schools and colleges, which have already been closed for over a week, will remain shut until further notice. all nonessential construction work has also been halted and office workers have been asked to spend half the week working from home. our south asia editor anbarasan ethirajan explained that people are now looking for a long term solution. they have been suggesting the word lockdown to contain pollution in the capital delhi, which is a city of nearly 20 million people. the emergency measures, announced by the government authority, came after the supreme court expressed a displeasure over the way authorities have been tackling the air pollution, because, in the last few days, a thick blanket of smog has engulfed the city, people are complaining of respiratory problems, hospitals talking about patients coming in with problems of respiratory problems and congestion, so the court is now reconvening in a few hours' time, on wednesday morning, and the government authorities have to go back to the court and tell them what actions they have taken, for example. around delhi, there are about 12 coal—powered fire plants, and only five of them will be allowed to operate. and nonessential road tracks will not be allowed to come into the city. so these are very desperate, last—minute measures, but what the people want is any long—term solution, because this has become very seasonal. in fact, just a few minutes before i'm on air, i checked the air quality. in some places, it was showing 455 on the air quality index, and sometimes it's 20 times more than what the world health organization deems as healthy. anbarasan, you say that it is seasonal, so what is behind this seasonal surge in pollution, besides construction activity and emissions from cars? the most important thing people point out, experts point out, is emissions from vehicles, and that's why the government says that cars and vans older than ten and 15 years of diesel and petrol, they should not be on the roads during this period. and delhi has more vehicles than in many other metro cities put together. and you have industrial belts around delhi. delhi is notjust a city alone, what you call this national capital region. it borders with the states like punjab, haryana, rajasthan and with uttar pradesh. and you have power plants around the city as well and the industry, and the construction activity... you have seen a huge amount of building works going on in delhi for the past 20 years. a number of bridges and buildings have come up, and new accommodations, new flats are coming up, complexes. those contributed to the pollution. and some even point to the farmers burning their crop residual at the end of the season, in states like punjab and haryana, and these are contributing to the factors. and that is why the supreme court is asking. this is really, really bad. we are going through a bad phase. even within sitting inside houses, we have to wear masks and we need to undertake any long—term solution. that is why it was quite unhappy with the government. anbarasan ethirajan there, keeping us up—to—date on the situation in delhi. migrants trying to cross the borderfrom belarus into poland have been targeted with tear gas and water cannons by polish security forces. polish police say seven officers have been injured in the clashes. poland has accused belarus of trying to push migrants across the border line in order to destabilise the eu, a charge belarus denies. 0ur correspondent steve rosenberg is at the border steve rosenberg has this report. first, they'd asked to be let in. now they were demanding. in belarus, the migrants have run out of patience. well, these are polish water cannons being employed, and that is because around midday, the migrants on the belarusian side of the border started throwing stones and rocks and branches, and all chaos has broken out. the polish forces have responded with water, but also with gas. it's quite difficult to breathe. we don't have a life here. four nights, five nights of not sleeping. my eyes... for two hours, the border crossing was like a battleground. the european union says belarus is using migrants as weapons, to destabilise europe. the belarusian soldiers stood and watched. they did nothing to stop the migrants who were storming the border. "why not?", i asked this officer. his reply, "no comment." and while water cannon fought off the attack on the eu's border, the young and the vulnerable took shelter. belarus may have engineered this crisis, but that doesn't change the fact that its people who are suffering. this is an actor from kurdistan. his brother sold his house so they could afford their tickets and visas to belarus. where do you go now? i don't know. to iraq, to europe, to that camp, to minsk, we don't know where we are going. we are like a bull in the stadium. belarus and poland — they kick us. when the violence was over, some of the migrants packed up and moved on. they'd come to belarus to try to get into the european union. now, its destination unknown. steve rosenberg, bbc news, belarus. if you want to get in touch with me on any of the stories you've seen on newsday so far, i'm on twitter, @bbckarishma. i'm looking forward to hearing from you. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: celebrating two decades of harry potter magic. we will let the latest on the 20th anniversary of the boy wizard. —— we will have. benazir bhutto has claimed victory in pakistan's general election, and she's asked pakistan's president to name her as prime minister. jackson's been released on bail of $3 million after turning himself in to police in santa barbara. it was the biggest demonstration so far of the fast—growing european antinuclear movement. the south african government i has announced that it's opening the country's remaining whites—only beaches i to people of all races. this will lead to a black—majority government in this country and the destruction of the white civilisation. part of the centuries—old windsor castle, one of the queen's residences, has been consumed by fire for much of the day. 150 firemen have been battling the blaze, which has caused millions of pounds worth of damage. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. 0ur headlines: former cricketer azeem rafiq gives shocking details of the racism he faced in english cricket, saying he was "constantly" subjected to the offensive language at yorkshire. schools and colleges in the indian capital delhi are ordered to remain closed in an attempt to tackle smog in the city. some other news from the uk. the terror suspect who was killed when a homemade device blew up in the back of a taxi in liverpool on sunday was a failed asylum seeker, who'd been refused permission to stay in the country. 32—year—old emad al swealmeen had his asylum claim rejected seven years ago. it's not clear whether the home office sought to remove him. our home affairs correspondent june kelly reports. at the women's hospital, while staff look after patients inside, outside, the police are continuing their work gathering any potential evidence. and liverpool is learning more about emad al swealmeen, who launched the attack on the city which had become his home. his final act here was captured on cctv. taxi driver david perry, so lucky to escape. counterterror police are examining whether the main charge on the device failed to explode, and this is why there was not further damage and more casualties. emad al swealmeen had converted from islam to christianity. an asylum seeker, he wanted to stay in the uk, but he was refused permission and wasn't allowed an appeal. he had been helped by a local charity. we support thousands of people each year. and so when somebody you've helped does something like that, it's really hard to try and deal with it, to try and understand why it's happened. and i think that's what we all have to do at the moment. we have to try and understand. we don't have a full picture. a property in rutland avenue in sefton park, recently rented by emad al swealmeen, has yielded important evidence according to police. they know more about the components which made up the device — how they were obtained and how it was assembled. was the homemade explosive tatp used? it's been the basis for a number of attacks, including the manchester arena bombing. since then, there have been even tighter restrictions on the sale of chemicals used to make tatp. suddenly, when we're coming back from work, the roads had been seized, and we can tell there's a blast. we could not stay here. we could not stay here, we were very shocked. today, the chief constable of merseyside came to see residents whose street has also been part of the police investigation. this incident�*s have a huge impact right across liverpool, merseyside and indeed the nation. but we wanted to come down and speak to the residents today, explain why they're going to see extra, extra uniformed presence. so just to provide reassurance to our communities. so the consequences of this attack may be in plain sight, but what people here and beyond want to know is what was the motivation behind it? june kelly, bbc news, liverpool. search teams equipped with diggers and dogs have started looking for people trapped in their cars, after a violent storm caused floods and mudslides across british columbia, in canada. there are reports that one person is dead and several people missing around vancouver. access to the city is severely restricted and the country's two biggest railways reported serious damage to the networks. the extreme weather comes after british columbia suffered record high temperatures over the summer, sparking wildfires. justin mcelroy is a reporter for the canadian broadcaster cbc. he told me more about what's the situation on sunday and monday, this region got as much rain in one day as it usually gets in about a month, and this is a pretty rainy part of the world, and so it created mudslides, flooding and a huge area of about 100 km wide each way, and that's displaced about 10,000 people, it's caused serious damage to several highways and it's meant that many people were stuck in their cars overnight. we're hearing word of fatalities in a couple places right now. it's the biggest weather even that we've seen in this area it's the biggest weather event that we've seen in this area for a flood in many decades, but it's just five months past an entire town burning down about 100 km from vancouver due to a heat dome that happened, so certainly a lot of tension at this point in time. yes, an extremely worrying time. just briefly, justin, how are rescue efforts going? so far, it seems to be going 0k. search and rescue crews and helicopters managed to get between two mudslides that trapped about 300 people in their cars overnight yesterday. however, there are reports now of fatalities in a different area, were mudslides happened on a different highway. and so far, we're awaiting more news there. but british columbia is full of mountain ranges and little valleys where roads go in and out, and so we're particularly vulnerable to these sort of mudslides. justin met ——justin —— justin mcelroy there, keeping us up—to—date with the situation on the ground in vancouver as a result of severe weather and flooding. i want to bring you a very different type of story now. there's exciting news for harry potter fans, as the original hogwarts wizarding trio reunite for a special 20th anniversary tv retrospective. yes, you heard it right. stars daniel radcliffe, emma watson and rupert grint are reuniting with other cast members to recount their adventures from two decades ago. can you believe it's been that long? but harry potter authorjk rowling will not be among those making a personal appearance on the show. the harry potter film franchise is one of the most successful film franchises of all time, with an estimated worth of over $25 billion. it has since developed to include theme park rides, spin off movies, numerous video games and a west end play. we can now speak to the entertainment journalist piya sinha—roy. she joins us from los angeles. it's great to have you on newsday, piya, and certainly to talk about something as special as this, i think it is fair to say. this film is very much led by people of my generation. i remember watching it in the cinema 20 years ago stub it is also a sort of rite of passage introducing it to my children, who are also massive pens of the series and the film. what you think has kept the classic appeal alive of the film and these characters?— appeal alive of the film and these characters? first of all, these characters? first of all, the stories — these characters? first of all, the stories are _ these characters? first of all, the stories are so _ these characters? first of all, the stories are so immersivel the stories are so immersive and so beautiful and so imaginative, and i think what was great about the firms, and i certainly member the very first one when it was being cast, because it wasjust first one when it was being cast, because it was just so exciting that these movies were coming to life and they were going to be filmed with british cast and that was incredible, so ijust remember the so i just remember the excitement so ijust remember the excitement around that. and thenit excitement around that. and then it brought to life the incredible stories and the world of harry potter, and that first movie just seemed magic, live on screen, so incredible, and i still love watching them. they are such a great holiday movies for me.— movies for me. yeah, absolutely, _ movies for me. yeah, absolutely, could - movies for me. yeah, absolutely, could not| movies for me. yeah, - absolutely, could not agree more, piya, and certainly top of our list on holiday films this christmas as well in our house. i wonder how many people today actually know that the much loved film and their characters the date indoor so much, they come from books? i think harry potter book sales, a lot of people do know, and it is parents like yourself. you said you grew up with the books and the movies and now you're passing that your children. for millennials, that is how we are passing those stories on. and these are such current books. they came out in the 90s, so unlike lord of the rings and franchises like that, this is present, and so there is still a huge amount of relevancy and connection, both with the books and the films that came out from them. and the films that came out from them-— and the films that came out from them. and 'ust briefly, pi a, from them. and 'ust briefly, nye. the h from them. and just briefly, piya, the screening - from them. and just briefly, i piya, the screening happening of the cast and the film maker, how excited are fans about that? i how excited are fans about that? 4' how excited are fans about that? ~ , ., , . that? i think usually excited. it is going — that? i think usually excited. it is going to _ that? i think usually excited. it is going to beat _ that? i think usually excited. it is going to beat wonderful| it is going to beat wonderful to see the main trio again and then having all that support cast come together, and these reunion specials are big rating business for hbo max, who are doing it. dated friends, fresh prince of bel air —- doing it. dated friends, fresh prince of bel air —— they did. yes indeed. prince of bel air -- they did. yes indeed.— yes indeed. piya sinha-roy, thank you — yes indeed. piya sinha-roy, thank you for _ yes indeed. piya sinha-roy, thank you forjoining - yes indeed. piya sinha-roy, thank you forjoining us - yes indeed. piya sinha-roy, thank you forjoining us on l thank you forjoining us on newsday for that story. i am afraid that is all the time we have for you on newsday this hour. thank you forjoining us. do stay with bbc news. wednesday morning will be a little bit colder compared to the last couple of mornings. and, indeed, by day, it'll feel a touch fresher, too. but overall, the next 2—3 days will remain above the average for the time of year. i want to show you the jet stream — and there is a dip in the jet stream at the moment across the uk, and you can see the blue colours — so that's the slightly colder atmosphere that's spread across the country into the early hours of wednesday. and, with the clearer skies, that means that, in many towns and cities, temperatures will be around five celsius or so, especially out towards the east and in central parts of the uk. even colder than that in aberdeen, barely above freezing. but that means a lot of bright and crisp weather in the morning, especially across central, eastern, and southern areas of the uk. not necessarily in western scotland and northern ireland, always a bit more cloud here and a chance of catching a shower. and you can see those temperatures actually not far off the average, just a fraction above. but look what happens on thursday — another change in the jet stream. now this time, the jet stream's way to the north of us, it's bulging northwards of the uk and allowing for a stream of really mild air to sweep in from the azores. so, mild south—westerlies across the uk, cloudy and damp in western and northern scotland — but where the skies clear, where the sun pops out for any lengthy period of time, temperatures will reach around 15—16, maybe even 17 celsius to the east of the highlands because of something called the foehn effect — you'll have to look that up, not enough time to explain it. but look where we are, nine celsius is the average this time of november — we are talking about 17 celsius, eight degrees above the average for the time of year. and the same pattern continues into friday, as well — east of the highlands, possibly 17, we could get 16 also east of the pennines, and widely around 111—15 celsius. and then, a reversal in the wind direction — you can see this time, rather than from the southwest, it's coming in straight from the north. now this looks pretty cold, doesn't it? well, it won't be that cold — it will be relatively speaking, but actually, we'll be going down from 15 to around nine celsius, which, of course, is about the average for the time of year, give or take. this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, as newsday continues — straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur. turn on the tv or go online, and it's not hard to find political content of all kinds, often delivered with all the nuance of a ten—tonne truck. rare is the tv show which offers commentary on the human condition, which is both entertaining and wildly popular. but it can be done, and my guest today knows it