what wasn't was the hampshire yachtsmen who gave him a real run for his money. for three months alex thomson has battled everything the ocean's thrown at him, eaten only freeze dried noodles, and survived on as little as 20 minutes sleep every few hours. at stake was his lifelong obsession of becoming the first briton to win this race. dame ellen macarthur also came second in 2001. when you've been at sea for that long and you know you're not going to win the race, and you're absolutely exhausted i think that's pretty brutal. so hopefully he'll have a smile at the finish line but it will have been very, very tough for him. thomson set off from here, les sables—d'olonne, on 6th november heading out of this case down to the equator and into the south atlantic. he headed around antarctica, under the cape of good hope, and passed round australasia, crossed the south pacific where he passed point nemo, the furthest place from civilisation on earth before heading round cape horn, back up the atlantic and negotiating the equator once more. when he arrives back here at les sables early tomorrow morning he'll have notched up somewhere between 25,000 to 30,000 nautical miles.

for alex there have been good moments. it's a good day in the southern ocean and it's sunny. look at this! bad moments. i do wonder why i do it at times. and moments over christmas where his family worried he was going slightly mad. # jingle bells, alex sails, round the world he goes # his wife is simply desperate to get him home. ican't wait! i'm so excited about seeing him. yeah, i have spoken to him, i have been in contact but actually seeing him is just totally different. i can't wait. just two weeks into the race his boat got badly damaged, which hugely affected his speed. despite this, though, thomson still caught up to within 3a miles of the winner, and also smashed the world record for the greatest distance sailed solo in 2a hours. but what is perhaps better than a world record after three months at sea? his team have promised to have on hand a hot burger and a cold beer. natalie pirks, bbc news, vendee.

newsnight is about to begin on bbc two. here is mle. tonight we're live in washington on the eve of a seminal moment for america. there is a nervous excitement in this city, the streets are starting to fill up, but are they trump supporters who have travelled across the land, or trump protesters marching against this inexorable chapter of history? join me now on bbc two. that's newsnight with emily in washington. that's it. good evening. the dry, the settled weather will stay with us into the weekend — the high pressure will ensure that. but varieties of weather despite the high pressure, with the sunshine in the south, to the south of all the cloud it was a sparkling day after a very cold start. but of course after a mild start, where we're sitting under that weather front, it was a grey and murky day, some patchy rain and drizzle around. slightly less grey further north under the cloud in cumbria — you can see just a few rays of sunshine coming through.

where we keep the cloud through the night is where we'll see temperatures holding above freezing but you can see where the holes are. the north and the south primarily. it's the south where we've got the colder air at the moment so it's here we expect the harshest frost, but we'll still get down below freezing in northern scotland. where we see cloud breaks in the vale of york, it could be a tad chilly with some fog and we're seeing fog develop around parts of the midlands, east anglia and wales as well. but it's in the south, where the air is much colder, where we can expect temperatures again to get to six below freezing. much warmer in melbourne for the australian open taking place. during the day there, our night—time, so three in the morning. but hopefully that rain should have cleared away by the time andy murray comes onto court. that's the way we're hoping it will be. but it's blustery, though, very unsettled. in stark contrast, we're just cold and very settled. freezing fog could be an issue and in a few places quite patchy by nature. hopefully we'll see a few more breaks developing in the cloud across northern ireland through the coming day and again

in the north of scotland, where we had temperatures of 10 degrees during the day on thursday. but despite that chilly start, the sunshine sparkles again, it lifts the fog eventually and actually erodes the cloud further northwards, so more sunshine through friday for the midlands and for wales. hopefully brighter for northern ireland. similarly so with plenty of sunshine across northern scotland. still a bit drab in the northern isles with that weather front close by. and of course where we have our weather front across central areas, again, it'll be a murky and dank sort of day. that weather front doesn't go away over the weekend, so we can't forget it because it could give us some nuisance drizzle or even sleet and snowjust because it's cold enough, because over the weekend, more widespread night—time frost, a bit more sunshine by day, but if anything, temperatures will be a bit lower, as you can see, despite the sunshine, because we're pulling in that cold air, and very little changes into the early part of next week. you are watching bbc news. let's ta ke you are watching bbc news. let's take you straight to washington,

where they are close to the lincoln memorial, and that is the piano guys, and you'd be forgiven for not having heard of them, but they are taking part in a celebration for the impending inauguration of donald craig trump. this is —— donald jay trump. these guys are among the headline acts, as well as green day. pa rt headline acts, as well as green day. part of the reason they are having this at the moment is all trump and his inauguration team are attracting some a—list celebrities to take part in celebrations tomorrow. in fact, one hollywood broadway star, jennifer holliday, she's had to pull out after criticism from the lgb te community. we are possibly going to

get some words from the man himself, donald trump, in the next few minutes. we will try to bring you that. but in the meantime, as i say, you are watching the piano guys. serenading a few thousand people there, i suppose! serenading a few thousand people there, isuppose! with serenading a few thousand people there, i suppose! with me in the studio are our guests for the papers. with me are guardian columnist hugh muir, and dan bilefsky from the new york times. tomorrow's front pages. all the papers are dominated by the inauguration tomorrow, and as i try to explain, it's been a bit tricky for the president—elect to get some headline acts. hugh, his problem, certainly as far as the inauguration is concerned, is that he's not seen by some as the of person who should be head of state. but a lot of people do believe that his

presidency, when it begins, is not getting off on the right foot. well, who knows what we're going to get? and one can understand all of these stars who might have normally expected to be at and inauguration but have decided not to be there. it doesn't look great on your resume, doesn't look great on your resume, does it? serenading president trump. 0n does it? serenading president trump. on your does it? serenading president trump. 0n yourcv! does it? serenading president trump. on your cv! and canny a west was asked to be there but they said, no, they will have a traditional american event. just the tone of the presidency and the inclusivity of this presidency. they've been saying in a speech tomorrow he will talk about being a president for a united

america, but what we are seeing doesn't really seem to have got off ona doesn't really seem to have got off on a good fit. if those boys are the best he can do, he's not going to be a star—spangled president, i don't think. that's one way of putting it! but if this is his first inaugural, it will go down in the history books and kids will be poring over it in their history books over the next 40, 50, their history books over the next 40,50, 60 years, and if it is an inaugural that attempts to bring together those divides, then he will be seen as someone together those divides, then he will be seen as someone who is trying to change the dynamic of what his campaign and so far his transition has been about, which is that it still has been divisive. after he won the presidency he gave some conciliatory remarks. he tried to make peace with hillary. and then in the matter of a few days he was back

on twitter sending incendiary tweets, attacking his opponents, attacking hollywood and meryl streep, and on and on. so although he was able to behave and he'll and be presidential, it didn't take long for the old donald trump, the performer, the adversarial politician, to come to the forefront. people who know him say they would be very surprised if the office of the presidency taints him fiow. office of the presidency taints him now. if we go to the