a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's gavin grey. our top stories: keeping it in the family. jared kushner is to be appointed as a senior adviser when the incoming president enters the white house. and as he prepares to leave the white house, we look at obama's legacy as america's first african american president. europe's deep freeze. temperatures plummet and icy conditions bring misery to millions. and building brazil's mega—dams. we visit the amazon rainforest to assess the impact from one of the world's biggest civil engineering projects. hello and welcome. president—elect donald trump has

announced plans to hire his son—in—law as a senior adviser. jared kushner was part of donald trump's campaign team and helped propel him to the white house during the campaign. democrats immediately called for a review of the appointment, citing nepotism laws and potential conflicts. but members of mr trump's team have argued that a law barring officials from giving governmentjobs to relatives does not apply to white house positions. bill hayton reports. never centrestage but rarely far away, jared kushner was a key figure behind donald trump's election campaign and, since november, behind the transition team. while he's been strategizing in trump tower, lawyers have been working out how a relative of the president, with huge business interests, can work in the white house. mr kushner is expected to step down from his multi—billion dollar property company and put other legal

safeguards in place. he has been part of the trump family since marrying the president—elect‘s daughter, ivanka, seven years ago. a 50—year—old law bans federal officials from hiring relatives to work in state agencies but trump's team says the rule doesn't apply to the white house — that's likely to be contested. ivanka trump will be working in this white house. she won't take an official role, instead she'll focus on looking after the couple's three children, at their new washington home. mr kushner is part of a growing group of trump advisers. reince priebus, the outgoing chair of the republican party's national committee, will be chief of staff. steve bannon, once head of the right—wing news site, breitbart, will be chief strategist. trump's spokeswoman, kellyanne conway, will be white house counsellor. and now mr kushner has the vague title of senior white house adviser, working on trade in the middle east. some observers believe mr trump is playing divide and rule, forcing his inner circle to compete for attention. like so many things about the incoming administration,

exactly how it will work remains a mystery. bill hayton, bbc news meanwhile, the obama administration has blacklisted five prominent russians, just 11 days before mr obama leaves office. among them are chief federal investigator, alexander bastrykin, and two men wanted in the uk for the murder of russian dissident alexander litvinenko. the sanctions come at a time of worsening ties, including claims russia ran a cyber campaign to influence the us election. american officials say the sanctions are not related to the hacking but come under a 2012 law designed to punish human rights violators. on tuesday night, president obama will deliver his farewell address in the city of chicago. it's where he claimed victory eight years ago in an historic election which put the first african american in the white house. but as his second term comes to a close what will his legacy be? in the first of his special reports the bbc‘s north america editorjon sopel looks at the domestic issues

that have defined the president's time in office. cheering. it wasn't just the hope when barack obama came to office, it was the wild expectation, too. that the country's problems would be solved at a stroke, that the first african—american president would usher in a post—racial era. no more black america or white america, just the united states of america. but the lingering vestiges of that dream disappeared in the summer of 2014, in clouds of tear gas, in a nondescript suburb of st louis, missouri, called ferguson. an unarmed black man had been shot by a white police officer. it was a pattern that would become all too familiar. in charleston, south carolina, walter scott had been pulled over for a minor motoring offence. footage captures the white police officer who stopped him shooting him

in the back several times before he dies. gunfire. the policeman claimed self—defence. at his trial, which ended last month, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. the court, therefore, we must declare a mistrial... another symbol for the black community that things haven't changed. i think his legacy to him is more important right now, to paint a picture that he did a real good job in america. but most black folks are very disappointed, because we feel he could have done more. the issue of race and another of america's great intractable social problems, gun violence, came together in horrific effect inside this famous african—american church in charleston. a white supremacist who, with his string of drug convictions, should never have been able to purchase a gun, walked inside a bible study group and killed eight worshippers and the pastor in cold blood. barack obama had always seemed reluctant to define himself as a black president, preoccupied by racial issues, but after these shootings that changed, as he came to charleston and showed how he felt

the community's pain. singing: # amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved. ..# obama's two terms in office were punctuated by the crack of gunshots. radio: you've dialled 911, what's the location of your emergency? ...i think there's somebody shooting in here. then a series of random mass killings that started with the slaying of 20 children and six of their teachers at sandy hook elementary school. the president's famously cool demeanour was gone after this. every time i think about those kids, it gets me mad. and by the way, it happens on the streets of chicago every day.

i refuse to act as if this is the new normal. this is not something i can do by myself. such violence, such evil, is senseless. again and again he wanted tougher legislation on gun—control. but he failed, to his evident consternation when we sat down and spoke. if you ask me where has been the one area where i feel that i've been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the united states of america is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common sense gun safety laws. but there have been some legislative successes. millions more americans now have health insurance than was previously the case, although obamacare has created many losers, too. and the economy, which was flat on its back eight years ago, is starting to boom, and people are spending their money again. we have notjust come back stronger

from the great recession, we have actually built an economy that's the envy of the world. that is an important part of president obama's legacy. but it proved to be a voterless recovery where it mattered. they'll be no democrat succeeding him in the white house, and so, one of his final acts was to make a lastjourney to capitol hill, to urge his party's lawmakers to fight off republican attempts to dismantle obamacare, and the rest of his domestic legacy. look out for the american people. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. more than 30 people have died over the weekend as a cold snap from the arctic circle took hold in much of central and eastern europe. temperatures dropped to as little as —30 degree celsius. in kosovo, for example many, areas are without power.

this is the mirusha waterfall, a popular tourist attraction, you can see it's frozen over. in russia, temperatures are below —40 degrees celsius. two people have died in moscow, and nearly 200 people are in hospital suffering from severe hypothermia. and charities are concerned for refugees crossing the continent on foot or living in informal settlements. there are 2,000 of them in the serbian capital, belgrade, where temperatures have been down to —20. 0ur central europe correspondent, nick thorpe, has more. strange scenes in istanbul. the fourth consecutive day of snow here has closed the bosphorous to shipping and given the city's ferry operators alternative work. traffic on another major waterway, the danube, has also been suspended because of ice flows in serbia, romania, and bulgaria. in the major romanian port city of constanza, the black sea has frozen far out from the shore. most affected by the cold

are the poor in each country. the homeless and migrants have been particularly hard hit. in this abandoned belgrade warehouse, several hundred migrants and refugees have been living for months. these are the latest pictures from what was once called "the balkan route. " yeah, actually, the cold is too much and last night, we couldn't sleep, and all the people were around the fire and it was too cold. i think it was —16, —15 last night. until now, we are here because the situation is too bad and the snow is piling outside. there are 13 official refugee centres in serbia with around 7,000 temporary residents. hungary is only allowing in 100 a week. those near the top of the list wait here, in this informal camp at horgos, beside the fence.

hungarian police and soldiers patrol on the far side. meanwhile, in italy, there are christmas card scenes a little after the event. only a few years ago, such images were commonplace in january across europe, but after five years of global warming, many people had forgotten how hard a real winter can be. nick thorpe, bbc news to explain what's caused this icy blast, and for a look at the forecast, here's our weather presenter matt taylor. the current freeze stretches back to december. a pool of cold air developing across northern russia. last week, high—pressure developed to the west of europe, low pressure to the east, and we tapped into that reservoir of cold air and it worked its way all the way southwards towards the mediterranean. now, over the next few days, that pool of cold air is just trapped. we have lost that northerly flow. it slowly starts to ease out a little bit so if you look

at the temperatures, still on tuesday, we see the blues daytime temperatures widely below freezing but not as cold as it has been. as we go through the next few days, certainly into wednesday, across athens, back up to double figures. by thursday, northern parts — germany, poland and the baltic states — should temperatures creep above freezing once agsain but we are not quite yet done with the snow because areas of low pressure spinning across turkey, romania, bulgaria on tuesday will bring more snow and strong winds. another bout of snow across greece and bulgaria for wednesday. and as things turn a little bit milder, we could see a bit of snow for a time across the north too. in other news: the public funeral of the former iranian president, akbar hashemi rafsanjani, will begin injust under two hours‘ time, in teheran, with large crowds expected to attend. the supreme leader, ayatollah ali khamenei, will perform the ceremonial prayerfor the dead. ayatollah rafsa njani's funeral is expected to become a show of force by iran's reformists and moderates who looked to him for direction in recent years. he died of heart failure aged 82 on sunday. the opposition—dominated

venezuelan national assembly has passed a resolution accusing president nicolas maduro of dereliction of duty because of a failure to tackle a deep economic crisis. the symbolic move is aimed at pushing for an early election before mr maduro‘s term ends in 2019. his supporters have dismissed it as absurd. russia has called accusations by us intelligence agencies that it ran the gambian communication minister, sheriff bojang, says he has resigned his post in protest against the president's refusal to accept his defeat in last month's presidential election. yahya jammeh initially accepted the election results — but later reversed his decision. the communication minister says he's urging others to follow his example. stay with us on bbc news.

still to come: how to toss away your christmas tree and have fun in the process. german—style. the japanese people are in mourning, following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it was announced he was dead. good grief. after half a century of delighting fans around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quits. the singer paul simon starts his tour of south africa tomorrow, in spite of protests and violence from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa until majority rule is established. teams were trying to scoop up lumps of oil as france recognises it faces an ecological crisis. three weeks ago, the authorities confidently assured these areas that oil from the broken tanker erika would head out to sea. it didn't. the world's tallest skyscraper opens today.

the burj dubai has easily overtaken its nearest rivals. this is bbc news. i'm gavin grey. the latest headlines: jared kushner is to be appointed as a senior adviser to incoming president trump when his father—in—law enters the white house. a deep freeze across central and eastern europe brings misery to millions. brazil's government is defending its plan to build dozens of huge hydro—electric dams in the amazon. it argues the project will boost the economy, harness the country's natural resources and provide clean energy. environmentalists say the plan is a disaster for the amazon and will actually result in more deforestation and global warming. wyre davies has visited the first of the mega—dams, called belo monte, and reports on the potential impact. from the heart of the planet's greatest rainforest emerges one

of the world's biggest civil engineering projects. a monolithic monument to progress. the belo monte dam is brazil's answer to its growing energy needs. mired in controversy and allegations of corruption, the $18 billion dam partially blocks the xingu, a major amazon tributary and has flooded thousands of acres of rainforest. there's a human cost too. the local fishing industry has been decimated. thousands of riverside dwellers, or ribeirinhos, have lost their land and livelihoods, forced into a completely alien urban environment. we get angry, says this man, showing us his now worthless fishing licence. we see these corporations making millions from what used to be ours, he says, and we can't even use the river any more.

building the dam brought hundreds ofjobs to the riverside town of altamira but it also led to increasing deforestation and the permanent loss of many low—lying islands. supporters of hydropower admit mistakes were made. but say the rivers and their energy are there to be harnessed for the greater good of brazil. i will definitely defend the presence of hydro, a key technology in our portfolio. in the developed part of the world, almost 70% of the hydro potential has already been explored. in brazil, almost 70% of our hydro potential has not in explored yet. brazil says it wants to build at least 50 hydroelectric dams across the amazon. the government saying it is clean, sustainable energy, but the impact of so many of these structures on the world's greatest river

system, its environment and its people, will be immense. next in line for development, the tapajos — described as the most beautiful river in the amazon region and home to the munduruku indigenous peoples. a plan to build several dams along its length would transform this wide shallow river into it navigable water highway. but it would flood forests and islands used by the munduruku for centuries. tribal chiefs say they will resist any attempts to build dams on the river. translation: the government always comes here with its lies. there's not one place one of them has been built that has turned out good for locals and for our tribes. there is only misery and complaints. these tattooed warriors of the amazon are taking on powerful business and political interests that want to weaken environmental legislation and fast track the building of hydroelectric dams.

clean energy and the promise ofjobs versus the rights of indigenous tribes and whether to exploit or protect this fragile ecosystem. hundreds of people have fled their homes in california and nevada on monday as heavy rain, strong winds and lightning caused widespread flooding. rivers burst their banks and many schools were closed across the region. mudslides caused road closures including major highways and thousands of homes suffered power cuts. california and nevada have suffered back to back storms over the last week that are part of an "atmospheric river" weather system. thousands of mexicans have been marching in the capital against petrol price increases, which came into force on new year's day. the protest started shortly after president enrique pena nieto met union and business leaders to discuss how to soften the impact of the increases. within hours of the meeting protesters in mexico city had gathered to call for his resignation. similar protests have been taking place across the country in the last few days, occasionally

erupting into violence. the political crisis in northern ireland has deepened, with the resignation of sinn fein‘s martin mcguinness as deputy first minister, raising the prospect of new assembly elections just seven months after the last ones. the crisis was prompted mainly by the mishandling of a controversial energy scheme, which could cost hundreds of millions of pounds of public money. sinn feinn blamed the first minister, the dup's arlene foster, for the problems, and wanted her to step aside while an investigation took place. nicholas witchell reports from belfast. it was the most improbable of alliances, the party which was the political face of the provisional ira sitting down and working with the party of hardline unionism then led by the reverend ian paisley. yet for ten years the power—sharing government at stormont has brought peace stability to northern ireland. now it is on the brink of collapse and ostensibly it's all over heating scheme. martin mcguinness, the ira man who turned to politics and became deputy first minister, is in very poor health.

he's had enough of what he calls the arrogance of the democratic unionists. i have tendered my resignation effective from 5 o'clock today. so i believe today is the time to call a halt to the dup's arrogance. so, what is it that threatens to wreck a decade of political progress? it's something called the renewable heat incentive scheme. suffice it to say that it's likely to cost the northern ireland taxpayer £500 million more than expected. the minister who set up the scheme was arlene foster. she's now dup leader and first minister of northern ireland. tonight, via social media, she responded to mr mcguinness‘s departure. i am, of course, disappointed that martin mcguinness has chosen to take the position he has today. his actions have meant that, at precisely the time when we need our government to be active, we will have no government.

martin mcguinness‘s resignation quite possibly brings to an end the career of a man who was once a committed and active republican paramilitary. in the 1970s he was second in command of the ira in derry. can you say whether the bombing is likely to stop in the near future in response to any public demand? well, we will always take on the considerations and feelings of people of derry and these feelings will be passed on to our hq in dublin. but the man who helped to lead the ira to violence ultimately helped to bring northern ireland to peace. he recognised that there could never be a so—called military victory in northern ireland, and something that had seemed inconceivable became a reality — republicans and unionists found that they could work together. martin mcguinness and ian paisley got on so well they were nicknamed the ‘chuckle brothers‘. there have been disagreements on a number of issues. now the way forward is uncertain.

under the power—sharing system the first and deputy first ministers have to work together. if one resigns the other cannot continue. in effect, the political institutions have collapsed. for year after year many people here in northern ireland and elsewhere have marvelled at what political leaders here have achieved in the past decade. those achievements are in jeopardy now and it's not, as might have been expected, over a constitutional issue or a security crisis, it's over a heating scheme. political leaders here have overcome so many problems. but if they cannot find a solution to this in the next seven days, there will have to be elections to a new northern ireland assembly. nicholas witchell, bbc news, belfast. i hate to break it to you, but christmas is over. a problem many people face is how to get rid of their christmas tree. well, in a town in southern germany,

they may have found a novel solution. an athletic championship where you can throw them away, literally. the bbc‘s tim allman explains. in weidenthal, they were signing up to compete. a world championship no less, in throwing christmas trees. a complicated business where you can throw the tree as high as you can 01’ as far as you can. translation: the knutfest is an old tradition that originates from scandinavia. saint knut was the king of denmark. he was killed and was a matyr. in sweden, the knutfest and christmas tree throwing has a long tradition. we adapted it and are now throwing our own party. there are a number of different approaches.

some swing the tree round like a hammer, others pretend it's a javelin. yelling cheering the women's event was won by alexandra koepper, with a throw not far off 16 metres. cheering the best male throw, more than 23 metres, a new world record. not bad for an amateur. translation: yes, the current world record holder was a bit weak today and i took my chance despite the lack of training. but a lot of mulled wine. a smile, a wave, and a title to defend next year. tim allman, bbc news. at least they took the ferry off the top. this is bbc news. good morning.

there's certainly some chilly and wintry weather on the way but today, it will get that bit milder as we go through the day. lots of clouds spilling in from the west after what will be a cooler start than recent mornings. even a touch of frost and ice around in southern and eastern parts of england with clearer skies at the end of the night. start the day with sunshine, a much brighter day than we have seen for the past few. in the west, already patchy rain and drizzle and a bit of a breeze across devon and cornwell and west wales. a bit of rain pushing into northern england, mainly to the west of the pennines, going through the night. the further north we go, a blustery start and strong winds through the night in northern scotland. already here, the cloud is spilling in. western scotland and northern ireland, occasional rain. cloudy conditions with occasional rain and drizzle in the west, pushing its way eastward. winds strengthening throughout across the northern half of the county, gales in particular to the north—east. temperatures steadily on the rise. by the end of the day, into double figures in the west but a bit cooler further east. it sets us into a mild enough start

through the night with a bit of cloud but strong winds and severe gales spreading across the north of scotland through the night. the wind is picking up elsewhere as we go into wednesday morning. a weakening weather front works its way southwards. temperatures into double figures overnight in the far south. notice we are starting to open the door to arctic air. into wednesday, not only will it get colder but we will have strong winds to contend with. bear that in mind if you are on the move on wednesday. wind gusting 50—60 mph through parts of wales and northwards. frequent showers in the north and west turning into sleet and snow as the colder air digs in. slowly getting colder across the south but temperatures still holding up by the afternoon, 7—9. plenty of cloud and one or two rain showers. the big change comes into thursday. open the door to arctic air. this little feature, pushing in to the south as we go through the day. how far north that goes, it will be crucial as to

whether we see any snow into thursday across southern counties. at the moment, it will stay in the english channel, mainly rain, but maybe a bit of snow. frequent snow showers across northern and western parts of the country, giving coverage to some places. eastern areas, dry and brighter. one or two flurries. for all, the wind will be noticeable, makeing it feel subzero, a real arctic blast with a bitter wind chill. the cold winds continue into friday. again, we will see snow flurries work their way southwards. at this stage, we have to be careful of severe gales down the north sea. here we can see some rough seas around the coast as well. bye for now. the us president—elect, donald trump is to appoint his son—in—law, jared kushner, as a senior white house adviser. democrats immediately called for a review of the appointment. mr trump's team argued that a law barring governmentjobs being given to relatives does not apply to white house positions. more than 30 people have died as a cold snap from the arctic circle takes hold in central and eastern europe. temperatures dropped to as little

as minus 30 degree celsius. charities are concerned for refugees crossing the continent on foot or living in informal settlements. brazil's government is defending its plan to build dozens of huge hydro—electric dams. it argues the project will boost the economy and provide clean energy. environmentalists say the plan is a disaster for the amazon and will actually result in more deforestation and global warming. now it's time for hardtalk.