hello. you're watching bbc world news. i'm adnan nawaz. our top story this hour: donald trump makes one of the most significant decisions of his presidency. he has nominated neil gorsuch to fill the vacancy on the us supreme court. judge gorsuch has outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind, tremendous discipline, and has earned bipartisan support. the mainstream conservative, formerly a federal appealsjudge, will become one of the youngest to serve on the supreme court, if he's confirmed by the senate. welcome to the programme. our other main stories this hour: saudi arabia says it looks forward to working with president trump's "pro—oil and gas" administration. we have an exclusive interview with the saudi oil minister. growing concern about the escalating violence in eastern ukraine. the un warns of a "dangerous deterioration."

i'm sally bundock. the business news. seven is the magic numberfor apple. the tech giant reverses its sales slump thanks to its latest iphone reporting its highest quarterly revenue ever. a growing transatlantic divide. the president of the european council says the new government in washington is one of the biggest threats facing europe. 12 days into his newjob, president trump has made one of the most significant decisions of his four year term. he's fulfilled another major campaign promise and nominated a conservative judge to fill the vacancy on the us supreme court. 49—year—old neil gorsuch is the youngest nominee to the supreme court in a quarter of a century, a the position that's for life. david willis reports from washington. in the hands of this man, even an

appointment to the top caught in the land has the feel of a reality tv show. today i am keeping another promise to the american people by nominating judge neil gorsuch. donald trump had brought the top two contenders for thejob to donald trump had brought the top two contenders for the job to washington in order to keep his prime time tv audience guessing, only to tell this federal appeals courtjudge you are hired. neil gorsuch has outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind, tremendous discipline, and has earned ipad is in support. at 49, he is the youngest nominee to the court in nearly a quarter of a century. his appointment is for life. in nearly a quarter of a century. his appointment is for lifeli pledge that if i am concerned i will do all my powers permit to be a faithful servant of the constitutional laws of this great

country. neil gorsuch's conservative ideology is closely aligned to the man he has been nominated to replace, just as antonin scalia who died just last year. —— justice. neil gorsuch is a gift to those who voted donald trump. his conservative views could tip the balance of the supreme court on such key issues such as abortion, voting rights, and religious equality. democrats vowed to fight his confirmation in the senate as a crowd grew outside the court in protest of the nominee's views on issues such as women's rights. he is not fair-minded or independent. he will be bad for women, for religious communities and the lgbt community. donald trump only named neil gorsuch after senate republicans refused to nominate any nomination from barack obama, insisting that the appointment wait

until after the election in stead. judge neil gorsuch's appointment followed days of chaos at airports following donald trump's ban on immigrants from several muslim majority nations, as well as a flurry of lawsuits and protest claiming that his executive order was unconstitutional. this may prove an early test of the president. bbc news, washington. eric ham is a us political analyst and author. hejoins me from now from washington. thank you forjoining us on bbc world news. shall we leave aside the two extremities of the parties's how well this nomination be received in the middle? this nominee will be overwhelmingly received actually buy it all facets of the republican party. —— by all. he has overwhelming support from

republicans and democrats. he is seen as republicans and democrats. he is seen as a republicans and democrats. he is seen as a constitutionalistjust like justice scalia seen as a constitutionalistjust likejustice scalia us. his views on right to live issues are a boon to the republican party. for donald trump, this... what this will do is that this will get him a lot of good will win republican party people, especially in light of the muslim ban, which he and the party have taken a lot of flak for in the last few days. if he is an constitutionalist, is the american constitution open to a certain interpretationit an organic living body that can change over time? some of the executive orders donald trump haveissued of the executive orders donald trump have issued over the last week, some of them could end up being decided by the supreme court. that is

absolutely correct. and i am sure that will be an issue. that gets to one of the ironies of this nominee, at some point we could see him actually having to rule on a number of donald trump's executive orders, especially the most recent one on the muslim ban, and, of course, it remains to be seen what donald trump in the republicans will do on the affordable care act which president obama got through in the house and the senate and became law. these issues he could very well take a stand on. and what he does is, we will definitely change the make—up of the court, especially when it comes to right to life issues. that is where you will see many progressives, women's rights groups, you will see them begin to take notice and try as best they can to defeat this nominee. because he could the someone that could

overturn, with the rest of the rights of members on the court, he could potentially overturn roe v wade. do we know anything by the process through which she was nominated? do we know is donald trump's advises would have gone to him and sat with him in an office and said, issue a, b, c, how do you feel about this? —— advisors. would they have asked him those specific questions to get a reading on him? if you remember, when donald trump first announced he was running for president and there was a lot of concern, especially in the republican party, about his political ideologies, one of the things he did to try to assuage the

party was he put out this list of jurors who he would like to see nominated to the supreme court. incidentally, when he put out his first list, neil gorsuch was not on that list. but then he put up a second list with neil gorsuch and neil gorsuch's name continued to rise on that list. and so while i do not think there have been conversations between donald trump and judge gorsuch, what we can ascertain is that donald trump obviously has been speaking to republicans and two people in republicans and two people in republican circles who actually think very highly ofjudge gorsuch. —— to. that is why you are seeing this take place. also, more importantly, he has received enormous bipartisan support. i ensure donald trump and his team will be thinking this is an individual who could get through a

very ugly nomination fight. individual who could get through a very ugly nomination fightm individual who could get through a very ugly nomination fight. it is a lwa ys very ugly nomination fight. it is always enlightening to have you on the programme. thank you very much indeed. thank you very much. the start of donald trump's presidency is proving to be fiercely controversial. his decision to build a wall on the mexican border and the order to temporarily ban muslims from certain countries has led to protests in the us and many western european capitals. but it's not the same story everywhere. our chief international correspondent, lyse doucet, is in the capital riyadh, where she has been speaking to the saudi oil minister, khalid al—falih. i look forward to confirmation of, you know, the secretaries, governor perry, someone i am looking forward to working with. the energy secretary. yet. he is a great person and he is pro—oil and gas. we share

and he is pro—oil and gas. we share a few things. we both came from texas and n. i am looking forward to co—ordinating with him on energy policies. we will make sure we understand what we in saudi arabia stand for. rex tillerson of exon must be well—known by you, personally and professionally. yet. rex tillerson is one of the highest qualified executives i have ever dealt with. he is a statesman by nature. i watched dealt with. he is a statesman by nature. iwatched him dealt with. he is a statesman by nature. i watched him with admiration as he led exon mobile to become the most respected oil and gas company in the world. and i am sure he will take his experience, his wisdom, to his new position as secretary of state. saudi arabia has many friends in the administration. donald trump of course did business here. even closed deals during the

election campaign. you mentioned others are known well. at a time when many muslim countries are worried about the relationship with the united states, you are confident going forward with the relationship? the relationship with saudi arabia is very, very strong. and i think at the end of the day, whether it is economic, people to people, geostrategic. we cannot afford not to work together in concert to confront the challenges that are facing the world. lyse doucet with saudi arabia's oil minister. let's round—up some of the other main stories: the leader of france's far—right party, marine le pen, says she won't repay more than 300 euro to the european parliament, which claims she's misused the funds. the money was used to pay an assistant whose work should have been in the parliament. 300,000 euros, sorry. instead, the assistant spent most of her time working in the national front‘s headquarters.

later this wednesday, british members of parliament are expected to give initial approval to legislation to begin the process of leaving the european union. the bill is expected to pass its first test, in spite of a revolt by some members of oppositions parties. those parties will try to push through a series of amendments next week, as the bill is scrutinised in more detail. thousands of people have joined protests in romania after the government pushed through an emergency decree decriminalising petty corruption by officials. ministers also want to pardon thousands of prisoners convicted of offences in which the financial damage was valued at less than $50,000. six teenagers found dead in a garden hut in the german state of bavaria were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning, according to local police. the five young men and a woman, all aged 18 or 19, were found on sunday by the landowner whose son and daughter were among the victims. the deaths plunged the community in the town of arnstein into mourning. and sally is here with all the business news. world business report will feature

oil but you have apple as your story. after three quarters in a row of falling revenues, apple has delivered a turn around. high demand for the iphone 7 boosted the tech giant, and it reported its highest ever quarterly revenues. in the last three months of the year, the firm sold 78.3 million, iphones, that's a 5% rise compared to a year before. but it's results weren't all good. sales in china fell almost 12% cent tojust over $16 billion. china has proved to be a difficult market with many homegrown rivals that are much cheaper. we will be talking to our technology

correspondent based in san francisco. i will talk to him in world business report. does the new us administration pose the same category of threat to the european union as radical islam? that is the startling claim made by the president of the european council donald tusk. in a letter to eu leaders, he told them to "use the change in the trade strategy of the us to the eu's advantage," saying washington's protectionist outlook was a chance to look elsewhere forfree trade deals. meanwhile, president trump's top trade adviser says germany is using a "grossly undervalued" euro to "exploit" the us and its eu partners. germany's angela merkel has rejected the suggestion, saying it has always encouraged the european central bank to be independent. we will be getting an expert view on

the spat emerging between the us and the spat emerging between the us and the eu. it has been an interesting year. apple and other companies coming out with results. the un security council is worried about the dangerous deterioration in ukraine. government troops and russian backed rebels have been fighting for the past three days, with both sides blaming each other for the conflict. thousands of people have been left without electricity and water in freezing temperatures. ukraine's easterly region knew hardship before the bombs. now there is an ugly persistence to europe's forgotten war and even when the soundtrack of fighting swells, surreal normality persists, as well as resilience. translation: it's like a constant every night.

we can't sleep. we go to work, ride the bus and there is shooting all around. but even for avdiivka, a city with a valuable industrial prize, which had already seen many battles, today felt like a new, uncertain chapter. you can see people just milling about, going about their every day business here while gunfire, mortars, artillery, just a short distance from here, you can hear it there, in the industrial area on the edge of this small city. there's been a violent stalemate in eastern ukraine for two years. in that time, i've rarely witnessed such a presence from the ukrainian military. by an apartment block which overlooks the front—line and where anna still lives, with her neighbour's children. it's eight degrees below freezing inside. "living here is really scary", she tells us. "i see no solution to this madness." but as they prepare for more

casualties at the hospitals, in this battle against a russian—backed enemy, they know presidents putin and trump are talking about reconciliation and no—one knows what that means for the volatility here in eastern ukraine. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: a british mission heads to antarctica to search for missing meteorites. it hopes to unlock the secrets of the solar system. the centre—right candidate in the french presidential elections, francois fillon, is facing fresh questions over a salary paid to his wife from public funds. a french newspaper claims penelope fillon received almost twice the payment earlier alleged for her role as parliamentary assistant, with no evidence of her actually doing the job. the couple deny wrongdoing.

nearly 50,000 gay and bisexual men have been given a posthumous pardon for indecency offences which no longer exist. the legal change, which is known as turing's law, after the second world war codebreaker alan turing, has come into effect in england and wales. the czech foreign ministry says hackers have stolen thousands of emails from its servers, although it says no confidential material has been compromised. however, local media say there are unconfirmed reports that the emails included sensitive information on the country's nato and eu allies. more on all of these stories on our website. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: donald trump has nominated 49—year—old neil gorsuch to fill the vacancy on the us supreme court.

the mainstream conservative, formerly a federal appeals court judge, will become one of the youngest to serve on the supreme court, if his nomination is confirmed by the senate. a leading official at interpol has told the bbc that more funding is needed to try to prevent the trafficking of chimpanzees. 24 hours ago, we brought you the results of a year—long investigation that exposed an international network smuggling baby chimps to wealthy buyers in the gulf states and asia. now in the second of his special reports from ivory coast, our science editor david shukman looks at the way this illegal trade is conducted. a baby chimpanzee, hungry, but safe. he's just been liberated from wildlife traffickers. poachers had killed his family, now he's at a zoo in ivory coast and the keepers have named him nemleyjunior. baby chimps are on sale on the black market, as they're wanted as pets, until they become too strong and are either killed or dumped. 0ur investigations led us to a dealer, who was filmed spelling out his prices in dollars.

0ur undercover reporter went to his house and saw him holding the baby chimp. we were in a street nearby. we briefed interpol and the ivory coast police and they moved in. the dealer was arrested and the baby chimp was freed. but he has been through a series of traumatic experiences and may take time to recover. he may have seen his family wiped out in front of his eyes and we know that the statistics suggest that for every one that makes it, up to ten don't and the family is killed. i don't know. physically he doesn't look too bad, from what i've seen, but mentally these things can be very profound. after the police operation, the baby chimp was taken first

to the interpol office. he clambered towards the only people he knew — the men who had been holding him captive. the man faces charges relating to wildlife trafficking, so does his uncle, mohammed. their mobile phones are goldmines of information about links between the poachers in the jungles, corrupt officials and buyers in the asias and the gulf, all evading the international treaty protecting wildlife through cites, an act recognised in the ivory coast. translation: the traffickers are becoming more and more brazen and sophisticated. so we, acting in the name of cites, have to be ahead of the game to be able to stop them.

his voice? perfect. you've got him. but when it comes to wildlife crime, the international police effort is focused on saving elephants and rhinos, not chimpanzees. without the funding we can't do anything, but what we are trying to become is more intelligence led, we look at what the threats are and what law enforcement needs to address in order to maintain a level of security. so primates, unfortunately — our information holdings aren't as strong as they could be. back in west africa, the chimp clings to a keeper. baby chimps need contact. he is given a first look at other chimpanzees. maybe he will live with them, or be found a home in a sanctuary. he is doing well after everything he has been through. many others aren't so lucky. it's a mystery that's puzzled scientists for years.

most of the world's meteorites have been found in antarctica and while many are made of rock, very few of those discovered are made of iron. scientists are convinced there are many more iron meteorites out there and now a team from the uk is off to antarctica to try to find them. 0ur science correspondent rebecca morelle reports. the great wilderness of antarctica is a prime space rock hunting ground. but despite extensive searches, one kind of meteorite made from iron is surprisingly scarce. now, though, a new hunt is soon to begin. scientists at the university of manchester are developing high—tech metal detectors based on landmine technology to track down the meteorites. antarctica's missing iron meteorites have been a mystery for years, but now scientists think they've cracked it. the idea is that there are lots there, but they're buried

in the ice. and as the ice sheet flows, so do the meteorites. but when they hit this mountain range, they're forced upwards. meteorites made of rock, the most common kind, do come all the way to the surface. but a meteorite made of iron, like this, conducts heat from the sun, so it melts the ice below and sinks back down. scientists think these missing meteorites are sitting only 30 centimetres, one foot, below the surface, just waiting to be dug up. this beautiful, large iron meteorite here is really what we're after. iron meteorites are particularly valuable to science. the iron meteorites provide us with this snapshot into the earliest part when the planets were first forming, so they tell us how early planets were formed, a number of early planets. that's really exciting because it can provide us with an indication of what our early solar system looked like back then. scientists will start testing the technology by the end of the year. the mission to antarctica will be a gamble, but the team hopes it's one that will pay off.

the secrets of our solar system could lie just beneath the ice. rebecca morrelle, bbc news. a number of crops have been ruined in bolivia by lucas. 0fficials a number of crops have been ruined in bolivia by lucas. officials are trying to fumigate the area, but in some parts in thai farmers have lost their crops and locals have even eaten their way through watermelons. the last locust invasion was more than 25 years ago, but farmers say this time it is far worse. plenty more on our top story at bbc.com/news. 49—year—old neil gorsuch has taken the nomination from donald trump to leave the us supreme court. theoretically the senate could block the nomination, but it is thought it will eventually

happen. world business report is next. the weather is very ugly outside right now. we've had rain all through the evening and overnight and rain at times expected on wednesday as well. there will be some sunshine, but take a brolly in case, because rain may arrive almost at any time. over the next few days storms track from the us, across the atlantic in our direction. it looks like friday could be the day when it may turn quite nasty, especially across south—western areas of the uk. for now it's a mild start to wednesday. there is some rain around, you can see where it is. western areas through the morning will probably brighten up. some sunshine in central parts of the uk. notice that by the time we get to the middle of the afternoon a little bit more rain moves into south—western parts of england.

these areas, from central, southern england, through the west midlands and into the north—west of england, some sunshine. further east, cloudy, misty and murky. again, bits and pieces of rain. the weather is a real mess on wednesday. it's almost anywhere, these blobs of rain. so be prepared with your brolly, but expect a bit of sun too. through wednesday evening and into thursday yet more rain. this here, this rain, is the beginning of some very unsettled weather that is heading our way on wednesday and into thursday. this is thursday. a huge area of low pressure. it one could be a player as well. but on thursday this big low will send gale force winds across many western areas of the uk, impacting ireland as well. very mild, rain at times. then there's another low we're watching. so that's the one on thursday. and this one, thursday night and into friday, almost like a baby low, but it is nasty. a lot of uncertainty as to where the winds may go. there's one track, this blue one, maybe takes it into france, then there's the possibility that the storm will swing further

northwards and affect south—western areas. this is more likely. the colours are just differentiating between them. this is the swathe of worse wind. the thinking is that by friday, at this stage, and it may change, it's south—western areas that get the worst on friday. this is bbc world news. the headlines: donald trump has delivered on a major election campaign promise and nominated a conservativejudge to fill the vacancy on the us supreme court. neil gorsuch, from the denver federal appeals court, is 49. if confirmed by the senate, he could sit for decades. president trump said judge gorsuch had impeccable qualifications, and would strictly uphold the constitution. the un security council says it's concerned about the "dangerous deterioration" in eastern ukraine and called for a halt to the violence. at least 13 people have been killed since sunday, the largest number for several months. ukraine says a humanitarian

crisis is looming. the head of france's far—right national front party, marine le pen, says she will not pay back $320,000 to the european