of running to represent alabama in the us senate have held their final rallies before a special election. it is the closest race in the state forfour it is the closest race in the state for four years. it is the closest race in the state forfour years. on it is the closest race in the state for four years. on tuesday, it is the closest race in the state forfouryears. on tuesday, it it is the closest race in the state forfour years. on tuesday, it will choose between roy moore, a former judge and doug jones, a former lawyer. roy moore is facing sexual abuse allegations. now it is time look at the stories that are making the headlines in media across the world. we begin with the independent, and on its front page is this picture of the man suspected of attempting to explode a bomb at new york's busiest bus station. the explosion injured five people, including the suspect, who has been identified by authorities as akayed ullah. the gulf news leads with russian president vladimir putin, who the paper says has ordered the partial withdrawal of russian troops from syria during a surprise visit to the country. the ft carries a warning from finance ministers from europe's five largest economies, saying the trump administration's republican tax cut plans would flout

international agreements and undermine worldwide trade. the online business independent says the uk will lose over 10,000 finance jobs to other european cities by day one of brexit, according to new research. of over 200 city firms surveyed, almost a third of banks, brokers and asset managers say they are considering plans to move staff to cities such as dublin, amsterdam and frankfurt. bloomberg online looks at crypto—currency bitcoin‘s debut on wall street, which according to the website hasn't ended the financial industry's scepticism. it says bitcoin‘s first day on the futures exchange had its supporters cheering, while many mainstream financial professionals remain unsure. and finally, the arab news announces that movie theatres are to reopen in saudi arabia in 2018, for the first time for over 35 years. so let's begin.

with me is james hughes, who is chief market analyst at axitrader, a brokerage firm. nice to see you. good morning. so once again much of the media trying to understand what happened in new york. another attack, but thankfully nothing like as damaging and as terrifying as it could have been. yes, of course, and that is the thing we have to be thankful for in this. but of course it still shows that these sorts of things are happening continuously. we are seeing this on a regular basis still, and despite all the work of emergency services in various different countries, this is still obviously a massive, massive threat. whether it be successful or u nsuccessful whether it be successful or unsuccessful terrorist attacks, i

mean, we don't want to see them at all and the fact is that even if you we re all and the fact is that even if you were around this, we talk about this being an unsuccessful terror attack, but to be anywhere near it, it must be life changing to be close to something like that. absolutely terrifying for those who were there, and right next to new york's busiest bus station, which is the world's busiest, i heard. it has many, many people passing through, especially at this time. thank goodness it was what they describe as an amateur level device which was not particularly effective. at from the point of view of authorities, i would imagine having closely followed on from the manhattan terrorist event where a truck driver ran into people, killing eight at the time, that was halloween night, i would imagine their vigilance right now is at it's absolute utmost. and windows new york is a high—profile city and has been a target before. and it heightens

everyone's fears of this, especially around the christmas period where eve ryo ne around the christmas period where everyone is incredibly busy everywhere. it is just another worry for the city. moving on to gulf news, its front page. vladimir putin shows up on monday in syria, an absolute surprise visit, and it would be a surprise, because it is somewhere that world leaders don't really just show up. somewhere that world leaders don't reallyjust show up. if anyone is going tojust turn reallyjust show up. if anyone is going to just turn up reallyjust show up. if anyone is going tojust turn up in syria it is vladimir putin. and he would be welcomed with open arms. what is interesting about this is that wedemire putin is talking about withdrawing some of the troops which are there in syria. we don't necessarily know that that means an end to conflict in that sort of area. we know that the russian side and the us side have been in conflict over just how and the us side have been in conflict overjust how much help either side are offering in that kind of area as well. so it is incredibly interesting that you just turns up there, visits an airbase.

he met with bashar al—assad as well. so it is an ongoing issue in syria. just because the news goes away from it does not mean that the conflict is not still going on. and this civil war started in 2011 and we are now in 2017. and you can see the devastation it has caused already but maybe a withdrawal of troops or a partial withdrawal is on the agenda. others on either side might say absolutely not, but looking at the financial times. europeans issue warning to trump on tax overhaul, philip hammond among the finance minister is writing to their cou nterpa rts minister is writing to their counterparts and saying hang on a second, your plans could flout international trade rules. second, your plans could flout internationaltrade rules. on the basis of what european leaders are saying is that its us companies the upper hand. and the whole point of this tax plan goes along with what

is the trump has always said, that he would put american interests first. and within the tax plan there are three orfour first. and within the tax plan there are three or four real key aspects that really do notjust put american companies first but penalise other european and other countries' companies doing business in america. so the issue that these european leaders have is the fact that they can say ok, you are making it more expensive to do business with european companies if you are an american —based firm. and there are three orfour different american —based firm. and there are three or four different versions which actually say that. so there is a kind of thinly veiled threat to say if you push ahead with this we have our own legislation to push through which will counteract what you are doing. so it is a bit of a war of words. as it often is at the moment. looking at this story, we wa nted moment. looking at this story, we wanted to get your reaction to this story about brexit. this is now a

report out from ey, based in london, looking at 10,000 cityjobs which could go. when i saw this ijust thought we get this on a regular basis. you know, these reports coming out warning us there will be a huge flight from the city of london. what is your experience? my experience is all of these kinds of surveys which come out tend to be very pie in the sky. they go out and say it if brexit was the absolute worst case scenario say it if brexit was the absolute worst case scenario that we expected it to be at the start, would you move staff and business away from london? and the answer of course is is yes you would, because we just... if you are putting out a pie in the sky situation where things are incredibly tough, then that has to bea incredibly tough, then that has to be a natural reaction. that is the a nswer to be a natural reaction. that is the answer to the question. but we have no idea, and ever since referendum day, nothing has changed until now. we have absolutely no idea what post

brexit written looks like. when you say nothing has changed, what you mean is in terms of your day—to—day operating in the city —— mean is in terms of your day—to—day operating in the city -- post mean is in terms of your day—to—day operating in the city —— post brexit britain. some companies will have a tough time a much better time, but your peers who you work with in the city, i their bags packed and they are ready to go? absolutely not, thatis are ready to go? absolutely not, that is not the case. london is still the financial centre of the world and will continue to be. we don't know, these moves in sterling and in the market that we have seen, they are all reactionary. we don't know what it means at the end of the day after brexit actually happens. talking about not knowing what it means, let's discuss bitcoin. the first 2a hours on wall street, it feeds the euphoria and the doubts. you are either a bitcoiner or you are not, you don't find anyone in

the middle. there is starting to be that situation where if you can't eat them, join them. have you got any? yes, because if you can't beat them, join them! are you just playing, or do you have a serious amount? no, just playing. if we look at how markets generally move, if something has absolutely enormous rise, and we are talking over 1000% this year, the sell off or the reaction to that tends to be just as aggressive. that is the only bit of caution i would have within this. there is no regulation in it, it is a bit of an unknown, but if things move fast one way, they tend to move fast the other way. thank you very much indeed for being with us on the briefing. well, it's no wonder the snow has been making the headlines the last couple of days. it has been exceptionally heavy across parts of england and wales. winter wonderland scenes like this

across parts of wales. it looks beautiful, but can be so disruptive, like the snow we saw across the south—east of england on monday. now, the wintry weather continues through the overnight period across eastern coastal areas, and to some extent as well across south—west wales, into cornwall and devon. elsewhere, it's going to be a bitterly cold night under clear skies. these are towns and city values. out in the countryside, and where there's lying snow, then easily minus—double—digit figures. we're going to see some freezing mist and fog, as well, to greet us for tuesday morning. so watch out for lying snow and ice, which could be quite widespread where we've got snow, and where there's been some snow melt during the course of monday. so some treacherous conditions out there on untreated roads and pavements, and on cycle routes. you can see a cold, frosty start across the board. a few wintry showers again across east anglia and these should generally ease away, same too across south—west wales and cornwall and devon. up into the midlands, into northern england, scotland, and to some extrent northern ireland, a very cold and crisp start, but at least dry and bright with plenty of sunshine. it's going to be a glorious day.

in fact, light winds, lots of sunshine, albeit very cold. you'll start to see a change, though, across the west, a weather front pushing into northern ireland, western scotland and across the far south—west lifting temperatures slowly, outbreaks of rain bumping into that cold air so we'll start to see some outbreaks of snow across the higher ground. you can see the temperatures rising in the south—west, but a very cold day in central and eastern areas. there's the change taking place on tuesday. this is the first of a succession of weather fronts which will move through, and then we'll see another one moving on wednesday, behind it colder air once again. that first weather front will eventually clear away from the south—east wednesday morning. a frost—free start for most places, a little bit of sunshine too, before that next weather system moves in. it looks like it'll bring heavy bursts of rain to england and wales. behind it, turns brighter but colder, with some wintry showers moving in, certainly some snow in parts of northern ireland and in towards scotland. double—figure values in the south, but colder in the north. on into thursday, we'll continue to see a little bit of rain across the south, plenty of showers, and quite windy across the board in the north and the west.

and a little bit colder, as well, and that cold air will start to pour southwards behind this area of low pressure. as it clears away eastwards, it will open the floodgates again to the arctic, so a much colder friday and into the weekend. hello, this is breakfast, with louise minchin and dan walker. big changes could be on the way to organ donor rules. in future, people may have to opt out of the transplant register in england. health chiefs say it will help save lives. good morning. it's tuesday, december 12. also this morning: four people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after three children died in a house fire in salford. it's offically been the coldest night of the year. temperatures plummeted to —13 in shropshire. and that leads us into