a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: president obama reduces the sentence of former us soldier chelsea manning, jailed for leaking classified documents. britain's prime minister spells out her goals for brexit. the uk will leave the european single market, but seek new trade agreements and aim to control immigration. china's president defends globalisation and insists there will be no winners in a trade war between washington and beijing. and the president of gambia declares a state of emergency, just days before he's due to leave office. hello. president obama has commuted the sentence of chelsea manning, the american soldier, formerly bradley manning, who was found guilty of providing us intelligence documents to wikileaks and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

she has served seven years. it's a high profile and controversial move just days before mr obama leaves office. the bbc‘s rajini vaidyanathan, who covered the original trial, has the story. chelsea manning was responsible for one of the largest leaks of government secrets in american history. born bradley manning, it was while serving in iraq that the low ranking private hacked government databases, hacking 700,000 classified documents tojulian assange‘s wikileaks organisation. that included this classified video showing us forces machine—gun iraqi civilians they mistook for insurgents. and also 250,000 diplomatic cables from across the globe and nearly 500,000 military records, which detailed american military tactics and revealed the names

of afghan informants. but the main outcome was that it caused huge embarrassment to us diplomats by making public their private thoughts. it was a very unfortunate and damaging actions. . .action that were taken that put at risk individuals and relationships. manning supporters said she was a whistleblower, not a traitor. but bradley manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison. during the court martial, manning's lawyers said their client struggled with gender identity disorder. shortly after the trial, bradley announced she would be known as chelsea and live as a woman. she was held at a male prison in kansas and successfully lobbied the us army for hormone therapy.

she also tried to take her life on two occasions. the campaign for chelsea manning's pardon began the day she was convicted in 2013. now president obama has made it one of his final acts in office, a decision that will please as much as it will anger. anotherfigure given clemency by president obama is the puerto rican nationalist 0scar lopez rivera. he belonged to a group which campaigned for independence from the united states and which claimed responsibility for more than 100 bombings in several american cities during the 1970s and ‘80s. after months of waiting, britain got some clarity today on what exit from the european union will actually mean and it's going to be the option known as brexit max. prime minister theresa may set out 12 key objectives she hopes her negotiators will secure, as they negotiate the uk's withdrawal. she hopes her negotiators

will secure, as they negotiate the uk's withdrawal. key among them, that the uk will leave the european single market but still seek a free trade deal with it. sterling rose on the news but the plan has also been criticised. the bbc‘s andy moore reports. it was billed as the most important speech of her term in office. it was certainly the clearest exposition yet of what britain wants from brexit. not partial membership of the european union, associated membership of the european union or anything that leaves us half in, half out. i want to be clear. what i am proposing can't mean membership of the single market. but, she said, britain would push for the freest possible trade with european countries and other nations around the world. for the first time, mrs may confirmed that the british parliament would get to vote on the final deal at the end of the negotiations. sitting in the audience were some of the ambassadors to the uk. mrs may emphasised she didn't want to undermine the eu,

but she also warned against those who wanted to see the uk punished for voting to leave. while i am sure a positive agreement can be reached, i am equally clear that no deal for britain is better than a bad dealfor britain. the opposition labour party said mrs may wanted to leave the single market, yet still have access to it. that, they said, was like having your cake and eating it, and they warned against her negotiating position. throughout the speech there seemed to be an implied threat that somewhere along the line if all the optimism of a deal with the european union didn't work we will move into a low tax corporate taxation, bargain—based economy on the offshores of europe. and that implication of a warning was picked up by the european parliament's chief negotiator on brexit. i don't think we will make a lot of progress if this has to happen under threats, because... so saying, 0k...

or if our european counterparts don't accept it are we going to make britain a free zone or tax haven? i don't think that's very helpful. it creates an illusion. an illusion that you can go out of the single market, that you can go out of the customs union and that you can cherry pick. that you can still have a number of advantages. and i think that will not happen. the german foreign minister said at least the british position was now much clearer, a sentiment echoed in the irish parliament. i welcome the statement today in that it brings clarity in a number of areas. this is the start of the process now. europe is now going to have to respond to the statement made by the prime minister today. and that response is onlyjust beginning. the tough negotiations will take many years. president xi jinping has told

a gathering of elites from across the world that china wants to be a champion of free trade and stability. he made no direct reference to donald trump, but his comments are in stark contrast to mr trump's ‘america first‘ vision. at the world economic forum meeting in davos, the chinese leader warned against a trade war with the us, saying there would be no winners. 0ur economics editor kamal ahmed has this report. he arrived with full security detail, the president of china, here to speak to an eager and global audience, political and business leaders. mr xi didn't actually mention president—elect donald j trump. he didn't need to. the message was clear. translation: pursuing protectionism is just like locking oneself in a dark room. while wind and rain may be kept outside, so are light and air. no—one will emerge as a winner in a trade war. he also said that countries should redouble their commitment

to the paris climate change agreement, which mr trump has threatened to quit. translation: all signatories should stick to it, instead of walking away from it, as this is a responsibility we must assume for future generations. the debate about globalisation is truly a "through the looking glass" moment, the leader of the world's largest communist party here at the home of capitalism, arguing for free trade and open borders, at the same time as donald trump is saying that he doesn't like free trade, and is accusing china of raping america with cheap imports. president xi jinping said he didn't want a trade war, but he sounds like he might be preparing for one. after the tough words of the president—elect, today a slightly softer tone from america. i think the chinese and americans have a common cause,

and we have to have a very strong bilateral relationship. i also believe that the united states and the new administration does not want to have a trade war. president xi is determined to lead the push for greater free trade, as the us turns inwards. the tense relationship between these two economic superpowers will define the global economy's performance over the next decade. the president of the gambia has declared a state of emergency. he refused to accept defeat in last month's election. some holiday companies have begun flying tourists home. the buses are crammed and so the suitcases. these people are among the thousands abandoning their home in gambia's capital, fearing for their safety. as we count the

passengers, staff are struggling with demand. translation: we have been overwhelmed. we have 35 minibuses losing .net leaving every day, that's not including the big buses. despite that there were still passengers waiting for a seat. while many choose to flee, this man insists he is going nowhere, just days before he was supposed to leave office. president one has declared a 90 day state of emergency and warned against any threats to public order. last month he conceded defeat in the elections and agree to stand down after 22 years elections and agree to stand down after 22 yea rs in elections and agree to stand down after 22 years in power. the man who beat him was supposed to be sworn in on thursday. the result prompted celebrations on the country's streets, but within days the

president and old the election, citing flaws with the vote. despite international pressure he is refusing to step aside and the stand—off has now prompted travel companies to fly tourists out of the country. the uk foreign office is the latest to warn people not to travel to the gambia, claiming: on the road out of the capital stands the stadium where the president—elect is due to be sworn in on thursday. there is little evidence of any preparations being made and little hope for those calling for a peaceful transition of power. in other news: the nigerian military says that one of its air force jets has accidentally killed and injured many civilians at a refugee camp in the northeast of the country. the international aid agency, medecin sans frontiers, says at least 50 people have been killed and more

than 50 injured. a study of babies born in south korea, but adopted by dutch speakers and raised in the netherlands, suggests language skills acquired in the first months of life are never lost. researchers believe adopted children who think they've forgotten their birth language do actually retain information. they say the findings underline the importance of talking to babies. there's been more trouble at a jail in northern brazil, where 26 inmates died in a riot at the weekend. police tried on sunday to quell the violence at the alcacuz prison in the city of natal, but large numbers of prisoners are now loose in the grounds. 0fficials blame the disturbances on warring drug gangs. vladimir putin has dismissed allegations that russia had gathered compromising material on donald trump, as total nonsense. ina in a curious statement which saw him using on the issue of russian prostitutes, the russian president said the leaked information

which appeared last week in the us media was an obvious fake. translation: first of all he is a grown—up man. translation: first of all he is a grown-up man. secondly, he is a person who has been organising beauty contests for many years, who communicated with the most beautiful women in the world. you know, i can hardly imagine that he went to the hotel to meet with our girls of reduced social responsibility. undoubtedly my girls are the best of the world, of course, but i doubt mr trump took this bait. and people who order such fakes, which are now being spread against a new president of the united states, they fabricate them and use them in the political race, they are worse than prostitutes. they do not have any moral limits. stay with us on bbc news. out with the old, in with the new. why the world's biggest fish market is moving and why some are not happy about it.

the people of saigon have just heard there is to be a ceasefire. the reaction of american servicemen was predictable. i'm going home! demonstrators waiting for mike gatting and his rebel cricket team were attacked with teargas and set upon by police dogs. anti—apartheid campaigners say they will carry on the protests throughout the tour. they called him the butcher of lyon. klaus altmann is being held on a fraud charge in bolivia but the west germans want to extradite him for crimes committed in wartime france. there he was the gestapo chief klaus barbie. millions came to bathe as close as possible to this spot, a tide of humanity which is believed by officials to have broken all records. this is bbc news.

my name's mike embley. the latest headlines: president obama has commuted most of the remaining prison sentence of chelsea manning, who was behind one of america's biggest ever leaks of classified information. britain's prime minister, theresa may, has been spelling out her strategic goals for the uk's exit from the european union. more now on our top story: david weinstein is a former federal prosecutor, now a defence lawyer with his own practice in miami. good to talk to you. what do you make of this? to some, chelsea manning is a traitor. the house speaker paul ryan said this commutation is treachery. more than 100,000 people signed the white house calling for her release. 100,000 people signed the white house calling for her releaselj think house calling for her release.” think it was the right decision. you have to look at what happened, the information she released. and more

over her acceptance of responsibility for what she had done, and the fact that they never found her guilty of aiding an enemy. yes, she released information that did compromise us interests both domestic lee and abroad but you have to put her punishment compare to others similarly situated —— domestically. she has been injail close to seven years now, which is severe compare close to seven years now, which is severe com pa re two close to seven years now, which is severe compare two sentences are those received, which were far less. asa those received, which were far less. as a formerfederal those received, which were far less. as a former federal prosecutor, do you think she should have been jailed at all? she exposed some acts which clearly should have been exposed. apart from that, she embarrass a lot of politicians by making it clear, revealing what they thought about each other, was that fair, let alone the 35 years she might have served ? fair, let alone the 35 years she might have served? it wasn't worth 35 years and looking at the sentences avoided, like people like

petraeus, general cartwright, who we re petraeus, general cartwright, who were looking at a couple of three yea rs, were looking at a couple of three years, this is too harsh and punishment. with petraeus, he bargained his sentence down to a misdemeanour in no time. cartright was looking at a couple of years. he was looking at a couple of years. he was just part and as well and when phase anyjail time. you have to strike a balance between punishment for what was done and sending a message. but you have to balance it against too city a sentence. will it impact on the case of another whistleblower, dead snowden?“ impact on the case of another whistleblower, dead snowden? if he came in and became part of the process “— came in and became part of the process —— too sever a sentence. remember, he has fled, he has no vehicle to pardon a sentence. will it weigh heavily with negotiating a

sentence? that is something we can see. do you have any sense of what president obama is up to? he has prosecuted more people under the espionage act than any other us president, but here he is granting more pardons and commutations than the last 12 presidents combined? pa rt the last 12 presidents combined? part of it goes to his sentence of fairness and decency. the message that went across to people who have been convicted, and who he is giving a pardon to, is one that shows fairness in the system. yes, there should be punishment, but the punishment should be just and commence “— punishment should be just and commence —— commensurate with what the act was. and to show that the system works and doesn't overly punish people who have either been found guilty or who have accepted responsibility for what they have done. thank you. you are welcome. always a pleasure. another possible sign

of changing times, russia's president putin has invited members of donald trump's team to peace talks on syria next week. russia and turkey, not the us, are driving the agenda at the summit in kazakhstan. it's just a month since the syrian regime, with russian backing, took full control of aleppo, the country's second largest city. the bbc‘sjeremy bowen sent this from what remains of the great mosque of aleppo. the battle for aleppo was the most divisive of the war so far. it is syria's big city, it is the key to the north of the country. and both sides were prepared to destroy it to possess it. the cost has been very high, in blood and in damage to a city that can trace its history back 50 centuries. this is the great mosque in aleppo, the admired mosque, which dates back to the 700s. it has been used as a military position and there's heavy damage. it is a un heritage site,

now it is covered in sandbags, bullet holes. you can see how much fighting went on here. over in that corner stood the famous minaret. it was destroyed in april of 2013. at the time there were lots of reports saying it was done by regime shelling by people, but representatives to the syrian government say it was done by the rebels who blew it up. this is one of the sides of the mosque. you can see it was used as an entrance and an exit. a lot of damage around here. a lot of bullet holes. a lot of evidence of shellfire. and the fact that it was used as a military position is very clear. you can see this from the line of oil drums. they were used to shield

people inside you. —— they were used to shield people inside here. and if you look at the ceiling, it is absolutely gutted with shrapnel marks, which means there were big explosions here right inside the mosque. you can see the damage. the damage done to these really important religious, cultural, historic sites is tragic. way more tragic is the fact that so many people who used to pray in this mosque, who would shop in the streets, they are now dead. in terms of progress of the war, capturing aleppo was the vital moment for the regime and its allies, the russians and iranians, the lebanese and hezbollah, because for the first time president assad's camp can sense victory. the war is in a new phase, it isn't over. from the point of view of the regime in damascus, this is the strongest they have been since it started. australia's transport minister has

said he is willing to restart the search for flight mh370 if new information comes to light. but until then the underwater effort is being suspended. the malaysia airlines plane went missing, with 239 on board, in march 2014. it was flying from kuala lumpur. debris has been retrieved, but not the boeing 777 itself. it's an extraordinary aviation mystery, as it stands today. i am hopeful that we'll have a breakthrough in the future. we need to prepare ourselves for the sad and tragic reality that in the foreseeable future we may not find mh370, but that doesn't rule out future endeavours, orfuture breakthroughs in terms of data and technology, that help us solve this extraordinaire puzzle. tokyo's legendary tsukiji fish market is the biggest in the world. it supplies the city's finest sushi restaurants, as well as the general public. but it is set to be closed down

and moved to a bigger, more modern site, causing regret for some. the bbc‘s rupert wingfield—hayes has been taking a look. it's five o'clock in the morning inside the world's biggest fish market and the tuna auctions are under way. this is the first auction of 2017 and the prices are likely to be high. this will be the last new year auction held in tsukiji perhaps ever, because this market's supposed to close, and over here, if you come over here, you can see, you can see through here, these are the really big ones, these are the fish that are 200—250 kilos, these are the ones that might reach record prices — that current record for one fish here, us $1.7 million. tsukiji market is like no other, vast and chaotic. on a good day, 60,000 people bustle through this maze

of alleys and shops. but soon, all of this will be gone, the buildings demolished, the land sold to developers. toichiro iida's family have been trading tuna since the days of the shogun. in tsukiji, i'm third—generation, and we are doing this business for 170 years almost, so, what we feel is we built this place, i mean, the tsukiji, not built by someone. actually, we make history in this place. but why do we have to move from here? moving is not the only worry. the meat from this 200 kilo monster will go to the top sushi restaurants in nearby ginza. but fish like this are getting hard to find. in the pacific and atlantic, stocks of bluefin tuna has fallen by more than 90%. the frozen one is 1000 or less each day, and a fresh one is like 300, 200, something, 100 less, so the number of fish is decreased, so we don't have enough

fish to sell, actually. do you worry about the future of the industry? yes. maybe, maybe it is going to be like the whale, could be. this new year, the top bid went for this 210 kilo bluefin, $632,000 us. critics say publicity stunts like this ignore the fact that these fish are now endangered species. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news at the tsukiji market in tokyo. thank you very much for watching, come again. hello there.

hopefully you like your weather cloudy, if not it will be disappointing, with clout on the way and rather misty conditions at times as we have seen recently across the north—west midlands. in fact i think as we start wednesday morning there will be some fog patches notjust over the hills, especially the pennines, but also across lower areas, the vale of york, patches towards south—east england, for most it would be desperately cold with frost free weather for many but it isa frost free weather for many but it is a different story for the south—east of england. there is a sharp frost forming and i think through the first part of wednesday morning temperatures as low as minus six degrees, so certainly a morning for scraping the car windscreen. it will be a glorious start to the day with barely a cloud in the sky. 0ne or two fog patches. away from the south—east corner from the rest of women and wales a lot of cloud to start the day and the closer to the

wea k start the day and the closer to the weak weather front means you are likely to see rain or drizzle. north wales, cheshire, merseyside, or likely to start off on a download. northern ireland and scotland has a cloudy start. rates in the cloud for eastern scotland. it will be a chilly start to the day with patches of frost. three wednesday the front is staying slow—moving. not much change. it will become dryjust about everywhere through the afternoon. it is cloudy here. for northern ireland and western scotla nd northern ireland and western scotland i hold out the prospect of some breaks in the cloud but overall a cloudy picture. the best of the sunshine for south—east england but here it will be chilly. 0n through wednesday night if anything the clear skies tend further across eastern counties, so that is whether frost will be. further north, largely frost free, relatively mild. that takes us into thursday and guess what the forecast is, more cloud. that will be thick enough for occasional spot of rain, especially when scotland, west england, dry

weather otherwise. for the south of england, the best chance of seeing some decent sunshine. temperatures similar, between 7—10 degrees. and we have more of the same to come on friday and into the weekend. the next time we see significant changes in the weather is into the early pa rt in the weather is into the early part of next week. that's your forecast. the latest headlines from bbc news. my name is mike embley: president obama has commuted the prison sentence of chelsea manning, the american soldier jailed for 35 years for leaking vast numbers of classified documents. manning is now due to be released in may. the transgender soldier served in iraq, and was formerly known as bradley manning. britain's prime minister has given more details of her government's plans to leave the eu. theresa may warned that no deal was better than a bad deal. she told eu leaders that it would be an act of calamitous self—harm to impose a punitive settlement on the uk to deter others from leaving. china's president, xijinping, has told the world economic forum in davos that his country wants

to be a champion of free trade and stability. in his speech he made no direct reference to us president—elect donald trump, but warned against a trade war with america, saying there would be no winners. now on bbc news, panorama. was donald trump helped into the white house by vladimir putin? this is clearly the most serious blow to our democratic system since water gate. a spy on the run, honey traps, cyberwar. the kremlin has form. russia do this like bread and butter. trump denies everything and blames the cia. that is something that nazi germany would do and did do. we ask what does the trump/putin bromance mean for us. it is not going to be business as usual. and what happens if the two leaders fall out.

they're behind us.