the move follows the announcement by unrwa that it had sacked a number of staff and is investigating the accusations. a jury in new york orders donald trump to pay $83 million in damages to the writer e jean carroll. mr trump says he will appeal against the order. now on bbc news, the travel show. america's northwest is a place like no other. i am on a journey from seattle up through the last frontier — alaska. forget what you think

you know about america, because up here, life is wild. oh, yeah, wow! wow, wow, wow! it's exhilarating. you're enjoying this, aren't you? yes, iam. i can tell on your face! and it's changing. the ice is probably thinning four orfive metres per year. here, nature has had a huge impact. twice a day the whole neighbourhood flooded. every single day. so i'm travelling across to the north—western extremity of the united states, meeting people enriched by and adapting to the natural world around them. to discover how this remarkable corner of the world is shaped by nature.

the emerald city. rain city. jet city. seattle is a place of many things. it's grungy, techy, and a bit sticky. this eccentric outlier of the united states demands your attention. up here where fewer choose to venture, this city has been adapting and reinventing. today, technology is its lifeblood. but when the indigenous tribes first settled here, it was the abundance of nature which provided.

it's quite surprising to think, walking around this city, back when it had its first non—native settlers in the 1850s, much of what we now know to be seattle was basically just forest. a huge lumber industry started, but it's not the only aspect of nature that drew people to settle here. seattle was built on the shores of the puget sound waters, an inlet from the pacific and part of the salish sea, from where local fishermen would bring in their catch for the market. they shout. pike place market is one of the oldest farmer's markets in the us. i've been told that they're going to get me to do some of this,

as well, but they're throwing it really far. how are you doing? good, mate, how are you? good. we'll get you dressed up here to catch a fish. let's do it, let's do it, i'm ready. the fishmongers here began throwing fish around the market to make it quicker to get the orders across the counter. and it has become a famous tradition. it has your name on it, look at that! oh, wow! jason scott has been a fishmonger all his working life. you have to say tt, test toss. tt. for craig. tt for craig. yep, just like this. tt for craig! i was meant to throw that! you try it. you have to throw and then you have to catch it. tt. get close, get close. 0k. aim for his head! he's not confident. who thinks i'm going to be able to do it? yeah! you guys gotta cheer louder, all right? tt for craig! cheering. wow!

watch out! good job. cheers. applause. today nature draws people to this area from around the world. and it's changing. i have come to nearby sanjuan island tojoin a whale watching tour. oh, it is beautiful out here, and i've been told there's so much other incredible wildlife out here. i really want to see a whale, but to be honest, i'd take seeing any of it. kelly klein is the boat's

on—board naturalist. kelly, what should i expect to see today? we have killer whales here year—round. so any month of the year you can spot killer whales here. humpbacks come here occasionally. and then, yeah, great whales, minke whales — you never really know what you're going to find. and i hear it is actually getting a little bit easier to spot because the numbers are going up? yeah, yeah, for sure. humpbacks in particular, we saw an amazing rebound in their population once we banned whaling internationally. so in 1966, 95% of their population was population was gone. wow. they were critically endangered and now they are officially off the endangered species list. and the numbers, whilst they have been creeping up, recently they have shot up. yes, absolutely. i think 201! we started to see an amazing rebound in the population, in particular here in the salish sea. so they have almost every year increased. and killer whale sightings have reached record numbers, too.

according to the orca behavior institute, 2023 marked the ninth year out of the last ten where numbers have increased here. i think this is going to be our first opportunity to see something. if you look over in the distance, you can see loads of other boats just like this one. and they have all sort of stopped, which, to me, can only mean one thing — they have found something in the water. and i can't wait to see what it is. ok, so we have all these boats over here, and you have a huge smile on yourface. what's happening? so we just got word and i actually just caught a couple of glimpses, the killer whales are pretty active right now because they are hunting a steller sea lion. no way! yeah, it's the largest species of sea lion in the world, so when they take them down it's quite the spectacular fight because they do fight back. so we have killer whales here. yes. how many? i think in total there's ten killer whales.

ten killer whales here. and they are hunting a sea lion. yes, a steller sea lion. how often does this happen? is this like a normal event on one of these trips? not really. i have never seen an active steller sea lion hunt. well, that's going to be new for two of us. it's very special, yes, yes! amazing. it's really exciting. i can see it! well, i can see something moving underwater. there is definitely a blow thatjust came up. yeah, they're blowing right there. oh my gosh! this is really special. we have two separate families in here travelling together. are they working together? oh, yes, definitely. they have amazing synchronicity.

they are very well co—ordinated. they are pack hunters, so they all work together. everybody gets a little bite. five — five of them in a row there, did you see? they are extremely matriarchal. so the oldest female is the leader. so mum is in charge, making sure that everybody gets fed. it sounds a lot like my family. yeah! there is a lot of parallels between us human beings and killer whales, for sure. this is pretty special. i mean, i know i'm pretty excitable and most things i find brilliant, but this is something that... how many people will have seen something like this? ten killer whales taking on one sea lion, and i have front row seats.

incredible. go on, sea lion! i'm rooting for you! but the natural world has influenced this area much more than just as a habitat for wildlife and a draw for tourists. i'd heard that it had actually changed the foundations of seattle. so to find out how, we need to go down there. hey, mike! hey. tour guide mike daugherty works for beneath the streets, which helps to reveal the city's hidden past. come on, this way. i'm ready for this, mike. xcool is it everything you dreamed of and more? i genuinely feel like this could be some sort of weird setting for, like, a horror play, know what i mean? yeah, it is. so what we're looking at here...

amazing. we are on the old sidewalk level here. we're outside of the first floor — the first floor, not the basement — of the sherman building. we are literally under the sidewalk. that's the new sidewalk, people are walking over top of us right now. yeah. and we are surrounded by a giant wall. there is a huge retaining wall that goes entirely around this block. this wall is six feet thick. there are dozens of these walls in this neighbourhood. that's a small one. why did people go to so much effort to create this? it's pretty ridiculous but when seattle was founded, it was just a logging town, right. that's what we were doing here for years. this neighbourhood is the original neighbourhood. the old mill was down the street. and this entire neighbourhood was built at sea level, across the street from a 600—foot—deep harbour. now, you are going to have a problem at high tide. twice a day, the whole neighbourhood flooded. they had one thing in mind — get the logs down the hill, out to the mill and into the water, and ship them down to san francisco.

the solution to the flooding came after the great fire of 1889 destroyed much of the city. they began rebuilding a level higher, creating walls around existing buildings to support the new raised sidewalks. they built a giant retaining wall around every block in the neighbourhood. butjust imagine that. so, while they are doing this — because it is taking a while — then you come out of the first floor of the building, stand on the sidewalk, i can't walk across the street now, there is a wall in front of me. butjust imagine that. there is a wall in front of me. now the road is up there. what a hugejob. the road is up there. totally. so is this the only part of this or is there more? no, dozens of these, all over the neighbourhood. come on, let's go see some more. all right, man, cool. i am well up for that. watch your step on the pavers. the vast project involved removing

earth from the higher areas of the city to then raise it down at sea level. eventually, shop owners abandoned their old ground floors to move up a level, leaving some of seattle with a not—entirely—forgotten underground world. there's no rats in here? no, not any more. rats are the thing i am scared of the most. there were legal businesses down here in the 1970s. there was a hair salon down there. there was a flower shop around the corner. lots of different places. they are all gone now. i don't think i would come here for a hair cut but it is good to know. they are out of business now. it is massive. this one, look at the space of this. yeah, its huge. how much of this was there? how far and wide does this go across the city? there are dozens and dozens and dozens of these spaces. the entire neighbourhood is like swiss cheese. every single... there are over 20 square blocks of underground. a block is maybe a quarter mile long or something like that, maybe. wow. maybe a little less.

but every single block is surrounded in this entire neighbourhood. every sidewalk you walk on in this neighbourhood is hollow underneath. i bet there's some stories from here. good, but also some not so good. people started having illegal businesses in the underground. there were opium dens, gambling dens, prostitution. what was that? that's water, isn't it, in the pipes? he'sjumpy! i told you, i hate rats, man! there's no rats down here. yeah, 0k, fine. you're safe with me. yeah, yeah, yeah. so a lot of seedy stuff happening. people lived down here. people moved and live down here. there is room, they could do it now. i would not move down here. i wanted to do it when i first got the job and they told me they would try to get people!

clearly there is a lot under the surface as well. amazing. let's have a pint. in the years since the underground was developed, a lot has changed for seattle, and one of its most iconic features today is the space needle. it has recently undergone a $100 million makeover, including the world's first rotating glass floor. ok, i can do this. it was built in the 1960s for the world's fair, when all eyes were on an up—and—coming global city. seattle is a place that has undergone multiple transformations. it's been called a boom and bust city and arguably, its biggest boom came about as a result of the natural world again, which revolutionised the place with the gold rush. at the turn of the 19th century, the population in this place doubled

in just ten years as it billed itself as the gateway to the goldfields up north in canada and alaska. it's the biggest state in the union, bigger than texas and california combined. and just like those early gold prospectors, myjourney takes me 1,000 miles north of seattle to alaska's state capitaljuneau. but with just around 30,000 residents, it still feels like a town not vastly changed from its gold rush roots. i think he's coming right now — is this him? so, i have come to meet local hobbyist gold prospector ray to get a little dose of the gold fever which is still here, if you know where to look. ray? good morning! are you qasa?

yeah! you want to see some gold today? glad to meet you, thank you. let's go! welcome to juneau, alaska! you are a long way away from home. man, tell me about it! so, where are the goldmines here? well, they're actually everywhere in this town and this mountain you see directly in front of us was the alaska juneau mine. back in its day, that was the third—largest low—grade ore gold mine in all of america. alaska became a destination for prospectors after the mid 1800s. by the 1890s, the klondike gold rush took hold with 100,000 people streaming up through canada and some heading on up to alaska. 0ften walking for over a year, carrying supplies on their backs,

many never made it. and those who did certainly left their mark, tearing through the environment while also creating new communities. so, how much gold is there still out there? 0h... there is over 100 tons of gold still left in this mountain. you're joking. no, seriously. are you exaggerating just for me? no, i'm not. do you still have those professional goldminers here injuneau? yeah, we still have goldminers right here in town. i mean, the gold's here, the treasure's here and the drive to look it's always here. this must have been such a busy place back in the day. yep. full of excitement, full of positivity, full of hope that people would find gold, find treasure and have a brilliant life. isn't it? it is everybody�*s dream. it has darn sure been my dream for a long time. maybe today is the day. do you think we will be able

to find some gold today? i think so. let's go. i will see you in a minute, then. yeah, i'll park. let's do this. i am feeling really excited about this — i won't lie. this is like... imagine back in the day the excitement that people would've had, going out in alaska, injuneau, every single day thinking, "today is the day. today is the day that i am going to find some gold, today is the day i'm going to find my fortune, change my life completely around." do i think that's going to happen to me today? let's be honest, no. but it is great to sort of play that role and actually have a bit of fun with it. so, i'm really looking forward to it. ray, come here. what is this? this is a floating drag. it is basically like

running a vacuum cleaner. yeah. we are separating the gold from the sand. you can see it coming through. yeah, yeah, yeah. it's not that hard to do. can i have a go? absolutely, come on over here. let's do this. it looks quite low—tech. is this a diy thing? it's a diy thing, definitely. by the way, if i find, like, 15 grams of gold, do i have to share it with you? yeah! really? well, yeah, i ain't going to give it all to you. hey, broke greedy goldminer! 0k. yeah, yeah, yeah. to be fair, i'd better share it with you, you are my ride home! yeah, because i tell you,

it's going to be a long swim! i'm not swimming in this! 0h, i'm not swimming in this! oh, come on! so, dredging done, it's time for the moment of truth. now we're coming down to the money time. it all starts and ends with a gold pan, and you've got to learn how to do it. so, what i am doing is shaking it like this. gold being the heaviest, i am hoping it will fall in this bottom corner, that bottom corner, 0k? the more you shake it, the more chance the gold will vibrate all the way to the bottom. because it is heaviest? it is the heaviest, yes. you let the water come in just like the tide and when it goes out, it'll pull the material with it. see it? once you start seeing it turned darker, the water starting to sparkle... sparkle, sparkle! there's a big piece there. then you can shake it all down

to the bottom again. oh, look at that! ray laughs. you seen it. yeah, yeah, yeah. 0h, nice! that is a lot. we got some gold! ray chuckles. how about that? how about that, my friend! that is genuinely one of the best things that i have ever done. take some dirt, have some hope, add a bit of perseverance, get some gold. what a way to experience alaska! next time on myjourney... oh, yes! here we go! ..i find alaska to be a state deeply entwined with nature. knowing the land and cultivating

it is a really big part of the indigenous cultures here. with a people forced to face the consequences of being... there it goes, there it goes. ..on the front lines of the world's changing climate... glaciers across alaska are one of the largest contributor to global sea level rise. a wild wilderness of american folklore... yeah, this is real off—road! woo—hoo! ..that continues to be shaped by nature. you have to harmonise with it. this is the way life is. hello there. we ended the week something cooler and fresher, but with a good deal of sunshine. the weekend will see more sunshine, and for many parts of the country

it is going to be dry. the winds will strengthen again through the weekend, but blow in some higher temperatures. now, we've seen these weather fronts chasing away and following on from that, the winds coming in from the south—west ahead of that weather from there, which is hanging front there, which is hanging on in the far north of scotland. and this is where we'll see most of the cloud and rain heading into saturday. later in the day, the odd spot of rain could return back to northern ireland and western scotland. otherwise, it's going to be dry, there'll be some sunshine, a little bit breezy. sunshine could be quite hazy, especially in the morning with a fair bit of high cloud around. but those temperatures will be higher than what we had on friday, so around nine or ten degrees typically. now there is a weather frontjust hanging around here in the atlantic that eventually will topple into the north west. but ahead of that, we're picking up a stronger southerly wind and that's going to lift the temperatures for the second half of the weekend. this is how we picture the day. we start off quite cloudy actually, particularly across western areas. may well be some low cloud around western hills and coast.

the cloud should break up. the rest of the sunshine will be in the east and then that weather front will bring this rain towards northern ireland, particularly the north—west of scotland by the end of the afternoon. but ahead of that, those temperatures, 12—13, could make 1a degrees around the moray firth, perhaps the north coast of northern ireland ahead of that rain. that rain then just tumbles down across scotland and northern ireland and slowly moves into england and wales for the start of next week. this rain could be quite heavy for a while i suspect, and with colder air returning to the north, for a while, there could be some snow over the scottish hills before it tends to dry up here. that rain moves into northern england and wales, but through the midlands, east anglia and the south—east it may well stay dry, and there'll be some sunshine and some warmth as well, 1a, maybe 15 degrees. we do have that colder air towards the north—west of the uk. and these weather fronts will continue to push their way very slowly eastwards overnight and into a tuesday. but most of the rain will be drawn away. so it'sjust light and patchy rain that arrives across east anglia in the southeast. quite cloudy for a while

across england and wales, but we are going to see more sunshine and drier weather for scotland and northern ireland. eventually, that will push its way into parts of england and wales during the afternoon, but it will drag down something a little bit cooler. top temperatures in the south—east around 12 degrees. once that weather system is out of the way, we're going to find this one here coming in from the atlantic together with some stronger winds into scotland and northern ireland. those winds could touch gale force, perhaps. and that band of rain will push slowly down into northern england and north wales. behind it, something a bit colder and maybe a few wintry showers in the far north of scotland, but across more southern parts of england and wales, and again, the midlands, it may well be dry with some sunshine. those temperatures are likely to be a fairly mild 11 or 12 degrees. now, let's look further ahead, and we've got that colder air to start with in the north, milder conditions in the south. and later on in the week, we may well find that warmer air pushing northwards again on a stronger south—westerly wind, but only briefly. north—westerly winds will follow, by the end of next week into the weekend, and that will bring something a bit colder.

so we've got that weather front bringing some rain. the weather front works its way northwards with those stronger winds, bringing the milder air, and then the cold front moves down across the country. this is where we see the wind direction changing again and more wintry showers, particularly, i think, over the hills of scotland by the end of next week and into the weekend. bye for now.

live from london. this is bbc news. a houthi missile strikes a british—linked oil tanker off the coast of yemen. the uk government threatens retaliation. the ukjoins countries suspending funding for a un agency in gaza — after israel accuses some staff of involvement in the 7th of october attack.

donald trump says he'll appeal against a court order to pay $83 million in damages to a woman he defamed. queen camilla says king charles is "doing well" after visiting him in hospital after he underwent treatment for an enlarged prostate. hello. welcome to the programme. the uk hasjoined the us, australia, italy and canada in suspending funding to the un relief and works agency for palestine refugees — also known as unrwa. israel has accused some unrwa staff of being involved in the seventh of october attacks, in which hamas fighters killed about 1,200 people. unrwa's head said a full investigation into the allegations is being carried out — and anyone found to have been involved will be held accountable. this latest news comes as pressure is mounting on the israeli government to change its conduct in its war with hamas, after the international court ofjustice ruled that israel must do everything possible to prevent genocide there. here's our middle east correspondent mark lowen.