welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is duncan golestani. our top stories: the british prime minister criticises president trump saying he was wrong to re—tweet material from a far—right group. is he losing hisjob? the white house refuses to confirm whether donald trump still has confidence in his secretary of state, rex tillerson. the argentine navy abandons efforts to rescue the crew of a submarine that disappeared two weeks ago. and a large iceberg breaks off a glacier in southern chile. scientists say it's because of climate change. hello. the british prime minister theresa may has said she will never be afraid to criticise the us and point out when it gets something wrong.

during a trip tojordan, she repeated her condemnation of president trump's decision to re—tweet anti—muslim videos posted by a british far—right group. mr trump's actions have led to renewed calls from some mps for his planned state visit to britain to be cancelled. nick watt reports. over here there was powerful condemnation of the president in parliament. it is offensive to all decent british people. donald trump is now actively sowing seeds of hatred in our country. the president of the united states loves twitter and talks about fake news. he actually retweeted fake news. injordan, theresa may made no secret of her irritation. britain first is a hateful organisation and seeks to spread division and mistrust in our communities. i am very clear that re—tweeting

from britain first was the wrong thing to do. this row is all a far cry from the warm days of theresa may's first visit to the white house, when she followed the rule book of recent predecessors who hugged the us president close. she had hoped to harness president trump's enthusiasm for brexit, to accelerate a new trade deal with the us. that new era in the special relationship is meant to begin here, with the opening of the new us embassy by the river thames. and who was supposed to perform the opening ceremony? donald trump. but his visit across the pond is being delayed and delayed and delayed. battered and bruised, or living to fight another day? where does this row leave the special relationship? certainly it is bigger than any one day or any one fight. it has endured through however

many presidents on both sides and it is really built within our connections with each other as people and the values we share. over so very many years, the countries have stood firm against both far right extremism and jihadi extremism and will continue to do so. but we have to continue that special relationship through our institutions, through cooperation and not think it means actually pandering at the individual level to a president who is behaving in a way that is really damaging to our communities. with its commanding views over london, the new us embassy should be the perfect base to usher in a new era in the anglo—american special relationship. first of all, those riverside diplomats may have to work on a basic repairjob.

our correspondent, laura bicker, has the latest reaction from washington. there has been lots of attention paid to this here in the united states. i wouldn't exactly call it shock, because when it comes to this unpredictable president, there is one thing we do know. he is not one to let go of a perceived slight, even if it is from a close friend, a close international ally. when it comes to this tweet in itself, when you look at it, itjust tells us what we already know about what he described as his "modern—day presidential style." there is a large amount of outrage, there is a large amount of worry that this will cause an international rift between the united states and the united

kingdom. after all, theresa may was one of the first dignitaries to be invited to the white house. at one point the two of them were even seen holding hands, there appeared to be a close bond between them. has that bond now been broken? well, donald trump may be taking some kind of calculation, if there is a calculation in this at all — if it comes to a choice between showing strength to his supporters or kowtowing to an international ally, he is going to choose the former. laura, just stay with us for a moment while we bring in another story we are following this hour. that is that the white house has denied reports rex tillerson is set to be replaced by cia chief mike pompeo. we know the relationship tween the two has been bumpy for some time, but how did this feud develop? well, back injuly, rex tillerson is alleged to have referred to president trump as a moron following a meeting at the pentagon. he was asked about his comments byjournalists and did not deny the allegations. at the start of october, the president tweeted that mr tillerson should stop wasting his time on negotiating with north korean leader kim jong—un. later that same month,

after hearing of the moron comment, allegations trump publicly challenged his secretary of state to an iq test, saying, "i can tell you who is going to win." well, the press secretary for donald trump, sarah huckabee sanders, was asked about the issue earlier today, but told reporters there would be no reshuffle. when the president loses confidence in somebody they will no longer serve in the capacity they are in. the president was here today with the secretary of state. they engaged in a foreign leader visit. they are continuing to work together to close out what we have seen to be an incredible year. that was white house spokeswoman sarah huckabee sanders. returning to laura bicker in washington. is he safe or not, then? i think his position is becoming rather untenable, despite the public notice from both the state department and the white house that it's business as usual,

that the secretary of state will travel to europe in december. that is the announcement made today. i think he has been undermined on a number of occasions. as you have mentioned, those tweets by donald trump on north korea, and then there was that rift after rex tillerson allegedly described the president as a moron. the relationship seemed to fail to recover after that. donald trump was not happy with his performance at a press conference. the truth is that rex tillerson is not very popular within his own state department. he has concentrated on budget cuts and a number of roles remain unfilled. a replacement being touted is the current director of cia, mike pompeo. he is much more of a trump loyalist, a former hardline

republican, and it is thought perhaps that he might be a better fit when it comes to this trump administration. politically, would it be damaging for a president to lose the holder of such a high office so early into a presidential term? it is certainly highly unusual. in fact, it has been a number of years since a secretary of state has only lasted one year. i think somebody said it has been 20 presidents since this has happened. but when it comes to this trump administration, well, i think it's not entirely unusual. there have been a number of reshuffles, a number of resignations, as this white house tries to figure out its way forward. remember, donald trump was never a politician. they are trying to find their way in washington. so it has been a rocky start for the trump administration and this is part of it. laura bicker in washington.

don't forget, you can get more detail on our top stories on the website. there is full coverage of the rex tillerson dismissal reports, as well as all the latest on donald trump. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the north korean leader's half—brother, who was killed in malaysia in february, was carrying an antidote to the nerve agent that caused his death. it was in his backpack. a prosecution witness revealed this at the trial of the two women accused of kimjong—nam's murder suggesting mr kim knew he was a target, and the method of possible attack. zimbabwe's new president, emmerson mnangagwa, has named two senior military officers in his first cabinet. the army general who appeared on tv to announce that the military had taken control of the country from the former leader robert mugabe has been named as the new foreign affairs minister. some close allies of the former president have been dropped from the cabinet. pope francis has thanked bangladesh for its humanitarian response to muslim refugees fleeing myanmar, but again avoided using the term rohingya.

the pope was criticised for not using the term on his visit to myanmar. he did however say the situation was a grave crisis. pope francis will shortly lead an open—air mass for around 100,000 catholics in bangladesh. the argentine navy has abandoned efforts to rescue the crew of a submarine that disappeared two weeks ago with 44 people on board. a navy spokesman said a big search operation in the south atlantic was now officially closed. a number of vessels, including submarines, will continue searching for the wreck of the sanjuan. the bbc‘s daniel pardo has been following events from the capital buenos aires. it has been 15 days since the submarine went missing and as time went by argentina ran out of hope. it's been a huge task for the international rescue force to be able to look for this submarine. bear in mind that the submarine is believed to be one to three kilometres below sea level and with huge effort the submarine

that was brought from the us on wednesday could only go down 600 metres. so that shows that they were really looking for a needle in a haystack. so now it's very difficult to continue with this rescue operation, with the huge resources that implies, and knowing that it's impossible to find the crew alive. that's why the navy has decided to reduce the operation and keep looking, but only for the submarine. what we are going to see now is the political implications in argentina of this terrible tragedy. the president, mauricio macri, is likely to trigger reforms to the military, change some of the people who control the military and see how the military could be involved in different tasks, like the fight against terrorism and the fight against drug dealing. but today what we see here in argentina is that people are moved by the story that has become a huge tragedy, that divides the country. in bali, mount agung is predicted to erupt imminently.

a special panel injapan has agreed that the date of the emperor's planned abdication, the first by ajapanese monarch in more than two centuries, will be april 30, 2019. emperor akihito, who has had heart surgery and treatment for prostate cancer, said last year that he feared age might make it difficult to fulfil his duties. stay with us on bbc news. still to come, the view from above — one photographer takes to the skies it's quite clear that the worst victims of this disaster are the poor people living in the slums which have sprung up around the factory. i am feeling so helpless, that the childrens are dying in front of me and i can't do anything. charles manson is the mystical leader of the hippy cult suspected

of killing sharon tate and at least six other people in los angeles. at 11:00am this morning, just half a metre of rock separated britain from continental europe. it took the drills just a few moments to cut through the final obstacle. then philippe cozette, a minerfrom calais, was shaking hands with and exchanging flags with robert fagg, his opposite number from dover. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the british prime minister, theresa may, says president trump was wrong to retweet material from a british far—right group.

the white house press secretary has refused to confirm whether president trump still has confidence in his secretary of state, rex tillerson. the american music producer russell simmons has announced that he is leaving his fashion and production businesses, after a screenwriter claimed she was sexually assaulted by him 26 years ago. a short time ago, i got the latest from our correspondent peter bowes in los angeles. he is one of the biggest names in music, biggest names in the entertainment business, as you say. not only music, but the fashion industry, and film, as well, he has been involved in for decades. now a woman coming forward, jenny lumet. she's a screenwriter, she's the daughter of the screenwriter of the same name. she says she was abused by him several decades ago.

this was 1991, when she says that they had been to a restaurant together, and then went back to his apartment in new york, and that's where he forced himself on her. now, he has issued a statement, quite a lengthy statement, acknowledging that they met on that occasion, saying that he remembers the evening rather differently, but that she was intimidated by what happened, and significantly, he says he apologises. just to give you more details about what he says, he says, "while i've never been violent, i have been thoughtless and insensitive in some of my relationships, over many decades, and i sincerely and humbly apologise". peter, the account ofjenny lumet was quite harrowing, wasn't it, the one she supplied to a magazine? yes, it was harrowing, and it goes into quite a lot of detail. in fact, it should be said that this isn't the only allegation that he's facing.

another woman came forward to say that she was forced into a sexual act with him in the same year, 1991, when she was only 17 years old. now, he issued a statement regarding those allegations, saying that, as far as he was concerned, that that was a consensual situation. so he essentially denied the nature of the claim. nevertheless, two claims against him, and today announcing that he is essentially leaving his companies. he says, to use his words, he doesn't want to be a distraction, and that's why he's stepping down. one of the sticking points as britain leaves the european union is what happens to the uk's only land border with the eu, in northern ireland. the irish government and the eu want northern ireland to remain inside the european customs union and the single market. but that idea is deeply unpopular with many in northern ireland. our ireland correspondent chris buckler reports. on the island of ireland,

culture does not recognise borders, and neither do people. the uilleann pipes are one of the traditional sounds of this land, and in his workshop, that sits just a mile from where northern ireland meets the republic, martin gallen makes the pipes. he is closely watching the slow negotiations to try to carve out a deal that will see the uk leave the eu, and he fears it will mean a return of checks on the irish border. they're on about promising that there'd be no hardening of the border. but i honestly can't see how they're going to stand by that promise. neither the british government nor the european union wants a return of customs posts on the border bridges that connect ireland, north and south.

the eu says one way to ensure that is for northern ireland to stay inside the customs union and the single market, even if the rest of the uk leaves. it is an offer that has angered unionists, and their support is vital to the conservative government at westminster. if there is any hint that, in order to placate dublin and the eu, they're prepared to have northern ireland treated differently than the rest of the united kingdom, then they can't rely on our vote, because they have undertaken an agreement with us — our votes for their support for the union. that is a fear of a move towards a united ireland, and it would probably mean new checks for ships crossing the irish sea — effectively creating a border between two parts of the uk. but there could be benefits for northern ireland's troubled economy. this border business park was opened in 2013, using £6 million of public money. four years on, all 22 acres lie largely empty.

last month, one firm did finally sign up to take a site here. and others might be more likely to follow after brexit, if being based here meant you could trade either within the eu or as part of the uk. just as we have for our people, we can choose identity, whether it be british or irish, our products can be exactly the same. and, if we take this opportunity, we become probably one of the most attractive investment locations anywhere in the world. no—one wants new barriers in the cities and towns that sit all along this border, and the irish government are still prepared to stand in the path of trade talks to ensure that. this is a historic moment, and we are not going to allow the re—emergence of a physical border on this island. and the european union will support us on that, so there is going to be no need to use a veto. that does sound, though, that if you had to use a veto, you would be prepared to use it.

well, the eu side, in my view, will not progress phase two unless we make sufficient progress in all three areas. and it's the border that is the sticking point at this point? the border‘s the sticking point. ireland's uilleann pipes were once known as the union pipes, but no—one is sure of the consequences once this island is at the edge of two unions, both the eu and the uk. chris buckler, bbc news, at the irish border. a large iceberg has broken off the grey glacier in southern chile, and it is a pretty significant development. it hasn't happened since the early 1990s, and scientists say it is all because of climate change. laura westbrook explains. floating free, this is the latest fragment to break off the antarctic ice shelf. park rangers said it sounded like thunder when it broke away. the grey glacier, in chile's torres del paine national park,

is 350 metres long, and just as wide. the calving had been expected, but this was much bigger than scientists predicted, and they think they know why. translation: the retreat of the grey glacier is a process that has been constant, and accelerated in recent times, and is very likely to have to do with climate change. events like this in this location are rare. the last time this happened here was 20 years ago. but take a look at these satellite images. on the left is 2005, and on the right is this year. you can see just how much the glacier has receded, in blue, on the right. new records for temperatures are being set around the world. scientists say more warming will threaten ice sheets. and so, bit by bit, year by year, the level of the sea will continue to rise. pope francis is leading an open—air

mass for tens of thousands of people in bangladesh, as you can see from these live pictures. it is the first papal visit in more than 30 years in the country. you can see the large crowds therefore pope francis. roman catholics make up just 0.2% of the population in bangladesh, in recent yea rs, population in bangladesh, in recent years, they have been targeted by islamist. —— islamists. mount agung, in bali, is predicted to erupt at any moment. more than 100,000 people have been ordered to evacuate the area, and thousands of tourists are stranded. flights have resumed, but the airport may have to close again if the wind changes direction. our correspondent

rebecca henschke is there. the watching and waiting continues here for the tens of thousands of people who have left their homes on the slopes of mt agung. new shelters have been built here today for the people who are yet to evacuate from the danger zone. officials say it's still on high alert, in an extremely unpredictable situation. although, as you can see, the smoke and ash clouds now coming out of the crater are significantly less than a few days ago. but, again, this could change at any time. at the same time, life continues as normal here in bali. today an event, a music show for schoolchildren, who are all still wearing their surgical masks, they have them there ready in case of a volcanic eruption. this is to keep people entertained

as the waiting continues. the biggest cities in the united states are recognised by their iconic skylines, but for one photographer, the best view is from above. jeffrey milstein captures stunning images on helicopter rides across los angeles and new york. he spoke to us about his methods. i get into a zone when i'm photographing. the things that i like to look for are patterns and geometry. you might see things in a microscope sometimes that have some of the same patterns. i'm a pilot. i got my licence when i was 17. and that's actually when i first began photographing aerials and aeroplanes. i grew up in los angeles, moved to new york, and practised architecture. those are the two cities that i know and love. that times square photo

was shot after dark, when all the lights have come on. the light on the street is constantly changing, depending on what's on the screens. you see all the taxi cabs — i mean, they're almost like blood cells moving through arteries. and it's almost like information moving down the streets. disney is the only private entity in the united states that has its own no—fly zone. i found it was only to 3,000 feet. so i got the helicopter, and i brought some longer lenses with me. from above, you get to see it all, and how it's laid out. it's just so much fun, to go around in a helicopter with the door off, and it's kind of dreamlike. you are watching bbc news. stay with

us. hello. some of us during thursday night experiencing more snow showers. but, actually, as we go into friday morning, with less cold air moving in, the showers will return back to sleet or rain as we go through the morning. but still, early on, do bear in mind where we have had the showers overnight, there will be icy patches around through eastern parts of scotland and northern england. and still a scattering of showers through eastern parts of england as we go through the day. mostly falling as rain, quite a stiff breeze still. showers through the west of wales are now clearing away and more of us will be dry and see some sunshine. there'll be good sunny spells around during the afternoon, and the temperatures a little bit higher than they were during thursday. it's just not going to feel as cold or as wintry as it did. now, many places, of course, are dry, the best of the sunshine in england and wales.

and increasing cloud in northern ireland, an area of cloud and patchy rain working southwards through scotland. and behind that, one or two showers following on behind, and snow on the highest ground. now, as we go on into friday evening, friday night, we will keep the cloud heading southwards across the uk, and that will mean temperatures are not dropping as low. there will still be a touch of frost in cold spots across the south in particular on friday night. but by saturday morning, some temperatures are creeping up a few degrees. and, as we look at the big picture going into the weekend, we've had arctic air across the uk. high pressure to the west of us, but gets nudged southwards a little bit, and air with an atlantic influence coming across. that means it is less cold and temperatures are getting closer to average for this time of year with mild air coming in. it's taking a while to get into the south—eastern parts of england, and could still be quite chilly during saturday, but into sunday it will arrive. but it is coming, this atlantic air,

with a great deal of cloud around. there is patchy cloud and there will be sunny spells for eastern parts of england during saturday. so it's five degrees in norwich, but 10 degrees in stornoway, feeling the benefits of milder air. part two of the weekend, on sunday, again a lot of cloud around. that cloud thick enough in some spots to produce a little bit of patchy light rain, not amounting to too much. maybe some hazy sunny spells through the eastern uk and temperatures closer to average. the main story for the weekend is mild, less cold air coming m, but it comes with plenty of cloud. and whilst there will be dry weather around, the cloud will produce patchy light rain at times. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the british prime minister, theresa may, says that president trump was wrong to re—tweet material from a british far—right group. but she stressed the "special relationship" between britain and the us was "in both our nations‘ interests" and should continue. the white house has insisted that

rex tillerson remains the us secretary of state, despite rumours that he was being replaced. media reports suggested president trump was considering appointing the current cia director, mike pompeo, in his place. the argentine navy has given up attempts to save the 44 crew members of a submarine that went missing in the south atlantic. a spokesman said an international rescue operation, involving four—thousand people, had now officially ended but a smaller—scale search for the wreck would continue. now on bbc news, hardtalk.