this is bbc world news. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: spain's prime minister says he hasn't got the british guarantees he wants on gibraltar, throwing doubt over sunday's summit to approve an eu brexit deal. translation: if there is no deal, it's obvious that what will happen is that the european council will most likely not take place. an official us report has warned about the devastating consequences of climate change for the united states, clashing sharply with president trump's stance on the issue. voting is underway in taiwan in local elections and several referenda, including one on same—sex marriage. these brainy bottle—nosed dolphins are showing scientists that teamwork comes easy. hello and welcome to bbc news.

the british prime minister theresa may will head to brussels later to attempt to finalise her brexit deal with eu leaders. she's hoping the plans will finally be approved at a summit on sunday. but spain's prime minister has threatened to derail the timetable if he doesn't get further reassurances over the status of gibraltar. here's our political correspondent, chris mason. roll up, roll rollup, rollup, roll up, roll up, the prime minister does not quite say, but you get the picture. the government is setting its stall out wherever you might hear, see, or read it. on the radio, on the television, and online, too. this is downing street ‘s twitter better. theresa may knows she has a hell of a pitch to pull off and is giving it a fair bit of wily. but for this weekend at least the focus is turning from westminster and

flooding the deal domestically and the prime minister hops over the channel instead to ensure that the eu is fully signed up to it. theresa may has for brussels later to meet two of the big people in the committee. the president of the commission, jean—claude juncker, and the european council president, donald tusk. but it is showtime tomorrow. leaders are gathering for the big brexit summit. but — but — spain once more reach us about gibraltar. and the what the spanish premise is threatening. —— prime minister. translation: regarding travolta, the me tell you, as is that the guarantees are not enough. therefore spain maintains its veto on the brexit deal. —— gibraltar. spain maintains its veto on the brexit deal. -- gibraltar. and that is not the end of it. northern ireland's democratic unionist is

sound like they're threatening to pull the plug if the prime minister's plan is not passed by mps. if this is not going to deliver on brexit, then of course that brings us back to the situation of looking at the confidence and supply. we are not there and we are not going to jump ahead until we see what happens. you might feel that this is quite enough about brexit, and you have had plenty. but it is about to get even louder still. chris mason, bbc news. a report from the us government says climate change is likely to cost hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century — shrinking the size of the us economy by 10 per cent if no action is taken. but the report clashes with president trump's own policies on the issue. he's repeatedly cast doubt on the fact that man—made climate change is real, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence. our correspondent, james cook, has this report. this, say many scientists,

is what climate change looks like. in recent years, california has seen bigger, deadlier and more destructive wildfires than ever before. during a cold snap in washington this week, president trump tweeted, "whatever happened to global warming?" now, his own government experts have answered the question. it is here, they say. its effects are serious, and without dramatic change, they will be catastrophic. already, says the report, more frequent and intense storms like hurricane harvey, which ravaged houston and texas, are destroying property and may damage critical infrastructure such as bridges, power plants and oil refineries. crop yields and labour productivity will decline. there will be a rise in the spread of tropical disease. the poorest americans will be ha rdest—hit. one of the things that's quite striking about the report, for example, is that we could see a future where the south—eastern parts of the united states experience forest fire seasons that look like what happens in the west right now. and the real harm of a forest fire is notjust the conflagration.

it's how people — whether they know how to respond to them. they know how to respond to them if they've been through these seasons again and again and again. that's something that people in the south—east haven't experienced before, so we know that it could potentially have even greater impact. the scientists say substantial and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions are essential, and they do report some progress. but president trump has taken a sharply different approach to his predecessor, barack obama, championing coal, oil and gas and rolling back environmental regulations. without major, urgent action, says the report, the impacts of climate change will soon cascade into every corner of american life. dr michael e mann is an american climatologist

and geophysicist and the author of several books on climate change — he said donald trump's approach needed to be tackled. well, it's literally the actions that we don't want him to take, right? because what trump has done from day one, as he has taken office, is first of all use the bully pulpit, use the office of the presidency, to attack the science and to undermine the public‘s faith in science, making silly statements about how a cold day on the east coast is supposedly invalidating 200 years of science, which is of course absurd. and at the same time his administration, which is staffed with fossil fuel industry lobbyists and climate change deniers, have been doing everything they can to dismantle the environmental protections that were put in place by the last administration, and by previous republican and democratic administrations. so the first thing is we need to stop donald trump's war on climate science and climate action, and we need to improve on the commitments that have already been made by the united states. the good news, by the way, is that we will likely meet our obligations under paris with or without donald trump, because of the progress that has

been made at the state level, at the local level, what our businesses are doing. but we need to go well beyond our paris commitment if we're going to stabilise greenhouse gas levels below catastrophic levels of warming. the un envoy to yemen, martin griffiths, has delivered an impassioned plea for peace in the embattled city of hodeidah — which is held by the houthi rebels. a government offensive has jeopardised the operation of the port — a vital lifeline for aid. on a visit to the area, mr griffiths pressed for the un to be given a leading role in running it. caroline rigby reports. from bombs and bullets to malnutrition and disease, described by the un as the world's worst man—made humanitarian crisis,

this conflict has left a nation on the verge of famine. half of children, 47%, so approximately half, are chronically malnourished. health facilities are functioning at approximately only 50%, versus 90% in 2013. one fifth of the districts have no doctors any more. in recent weeks, fighting in yemen has focused on hodeidah, as government forces tried to seize the area from houthi rebels. but its harbour acts as a vital lifeline in the devastating war, and this recent defensive has threatened food aid for people in yemen close to starvation. visiting the city on friday, united nations envoy martin griffiths described hodeidah as the centre of gravity in this conflict and called for the un to take a leading role in running the port. it needs to be done

quickly by discussing it with all the parties. and we believe that such a role will preserve the essential humanitarian pipeline that starts here and serves the people of yemen. war has raged in yemen for three and a half years between the saudi led military coalition and iranian backed houthi rebels. international efforts to bring to an end the conflict were once again dashed this week when fierce fighting flared up. but both sides do now appear open, at least, to the possibility of further pistols, which the un hopes will return to sweden in december. caroline rigby, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news. china says the militant attack on its consulate in karachi will not deter it from investing in infrastructure projects in pakistan. no consular staff were hurt in the attack, but two pakistani police officers, two locals, and the three gunmen were killed. a separatist group, the balochistan liberation army,

which opposes chinese influence in pakistan, said it carried out the assault. workers at amazon's biggest logistics centre in spain are out on a three day strike, targeting the online retailer's black friday sales bonanza. the employees at the san fernando de henares facility near madrid have been demanding better wages and work conditions for several months. in a statement, amazon insisted its workers in spain have a competitive salary and complete package of benefits. more strikes are planned for the christmas period. hundreds of people have attended the funeral of the well—known syrian radio host and activist, raed fares, who was killed by gunmen in the rebel—held province of idlib. raed fares founded an independent radio station broadcasting from opposition—held areas. he was known for defying demands to stop playing music and to remove female broadcasters. he died along with a fellow activist, hammoud juneid ——juneid.

taiwan is voting on whether to become the first place in asia to legalise same—sex marriage. the issue has divided the island nation so the proposal is being put to the vote in a referendum. it's one of a number of contentious issues on the ballot paper our taiwan correspondent, cindy sui, has been to a polling station in taipei. she says there's considerable doubt about whether the measures will get passed. it is really hard to say because last year hopes were up with the highest court in taiwan, the constitutional court, past a ruling that said that same—sex marriage should be recognised and the court ordered the parliament to amend the current marriage law to make same—sex marriage legal. that got hopes up at the time that it would be the first place in asia to legalise same—sex marriage. since then religious groups have rallied a lot of support from the public, including parents, and they have gathered enough signatures to put several referendum initiatives

on the ballot. some of them will be banning same—sex marriage from being recognised under the current marriage law. and they would also restrict sexuality from being taught in elementary and junior high schools. some opinion polls have shown that, actually, most of the public will vote against legalisation. i have just spoken to one vote to say simply does not agree with having — changing the definition of marriage to that of two men ought to women. she believes the definition should stay as one man and one woman. these are also local elections. president tsai ing—wen is pro—independence. is this a test for her leadership? definitely. she has been in powerfor two and a half years and her party is definitely pro—independence. it has suffered bad relations with china. in the past two and a half yea rs, we've seen beijing increase military pressure, carrying out more military exercises around the island. as well as squeezing international space by preventing it from participating in international organisations. on top of that, it has cut back a number of tourists that it allows to come to taiwan. and that is the economy. so many of the voters in taiwan are quite about tensions rising and they might want to change, and that could hurt her party's

chances in the election. just quickly, a poll on the name of the country for the olympics? yes. colonies people believe that they should be a will to compete under their own name, not under chinese taipei, which is the name imposed on them because of china's pressure. one of the referendum initiatives is to actually let taiwan compete under the name taiwan, but beijing will be very unhappy that passes. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: we meet the british surgeon training medics in the conflict zone of gaza. president kennedy was shot down

and died almost immediately. the murder ofjohn kennedy is a disaster for the whole free world. he caught the imagination of the world. the first of a new generation of leaders. margaret thatcher is resigning as leader of the conservative party and prime minister. before leaving number 10 to see the queen, she told her cabinet, "it's a funny old world." angela merkel is germany's first woman chancellor, easily securing the majority she needed. attempts to fly a hot air balloon had to be abandoned after a few minutes, but nobody seemed to mind very much. as one local comic put it, "it's not hot air we need, it's hard cash." cuba has declared nine days of mourning following the death of fidel castro at the age of 90. castro developed close ties with the soviet union in the 1960s. it was an alliance that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war with the cuban missile crisis. this is bbc news, the latest headlines:

questions from spain over gibraltar‘s status throws doubt over sunday's meeting on britain's proposed eu—brexit deal. the trump administration has asked the us supreme court to review its policy of preventing some transgender people from serving in the military. the appeals court is already reviewing the decision of lower courts which have blocked the policy, but the administration wants the supreme court to fast track a definitive ruling. earlier i spoke to our correspondent peter bowes in los angeles — who explained how the proposed ban led to this point. well, yes. there have in fact been two proposals, and the original proposal, which would have been a blanket ban on transgender people serving in the military was essentially kicked out by the court. indeed, there are still some injunctions in force as they apply to that original scenario, which has since been modified, changed by the administration to include only those transgender people who suffer from a condition

known as gender dysphoria. now, gender dysphoria is when an individual feels a conflict between their biological sex, assigned at birth, and the gender that they feel they are. now, that doesn't necessarily include all transgender people, but it's a significant group, and it's that group of people that are now being targeted by this rewording of the initiative by the trump administration. so why is the trump administration now going to the supreme court? is this a test, in effect, for the supreme court? well, it's certainly a test for the supreme court. but it's also, i think, an attempt by the trump administration simply to get this done with, to fast—track this issue. the legal situation has actually become quite complicated, with a number of lower courts considering it, and i mentioned a number of injunctions still in force. this is an attempt to go to the highest court in the land, the supreme court, to get an overriding judgement

on this issue. and the reason for the fast track is that the administration clearly wants to get this done with before the end of the current term of the supreme court, which ends in the middle of next year. a leading british surgeon has told the bbc about his experiences training medics in gaza during times of conflict. according to the un, more than 5,000 people have suffered bullet wounds in gaza this year alone. many doctors have been aided byjohn wolfe, a retired surgeon from st mary's hospital in west london. our middle east correspondent, tom bateman, went to meet him. this is a conflict that has changed even more lives this year. thousands of palestinians in gaza have suffered all it wounds during protest at the perimeter fence with israel. it has put intense pressure

on gaza's hospitals. just open your fingers and go... in this makeshift classroom, alice simeon surgeons learn the painstaking work of repairing arteries and avoiding habitation. they practise on go's arteries, and learn from a british arterial surgeon, a world leader in his field —— go to's arteries —— goafs his field —— go to's arteries —— goat's arteries. israel defends the use of live ammunition, pointing to attacks against its troops, stirred up attacks against its troops, stirred up it says by gaza's militant leaders. this is another person being brought in as the protests at the fence continue. the problem is that each of these cases, as the numbers build up, require specialist surgical skills and a healthcare system surgical skills and a healthcare syste m rea dy surgical skills and a healthcare system ready under pressure, and

which lacks doctors. this volume of severe injuries is something that most countries never see. there are a lot of bullet wounds, as you know, there have been now over 5000 bullet went since the end of march. i was asked to come three years ago to try and improve the standards of arterial surgery in gaza and train up arterial surgery in gaza and train up people in arterial surgery here. there are not enough, certainly when there is conflict, there aren't enough arterial surgeons. john wolfe came to gaza with the international red cross. in surgery with palestinian man is, he passes on more than a0 years of experience. —— medics. that's good, now you are in business. learning from him is ahmed, who now leads a small team of arterial surgeons at this hospital. they have performed conflict operations on more than iao bullet

wounds since march top gunshot injury, in the left leg... took four hours of surgery to save this woman's leg. translation: ifelt like i was dying but they brought me back to life. i am truly grateful to the doctors. every friday more young people come back from the fence with severe injuries. training from a british surgeon has helped save limbs, but in gaza's overcrowded wards the risk of infection which could mean a reputation, still looms. more lives changed as this conflict continues. an indonesian teenager has been rescued after spending a9 days adrift at sea in a fishing raft. the bbc‘s indonesian service visited the young man — who is now safely back in his parent's home — to hear his incredible story of survival. the story of an indonesian teacher

who was rescued after being adrift at sea for a9 days. researchers in florida have shown that bottlenose dolphins can work together to perform and complete tasks. the dolphin research centre undertook a year—long project in collaboration with the university of western australia, and studied pairs of dolphins in the florida keys. gail maclellan tells us what they found. dolphins have long been regarded as the most intelligent of marine mammals. yay! and this study confirms their extraordinary abilities. researchers wanted to see if dolphins could actively co—operate with each other, notjust perform the same action in the same place and time. could they understand their partners role in the game? the game was the dolphins had to swim across the lagoon and press the button simultaneously, specifically within a i—second time window. to succeed, the two dolphins each had to press their button at same time, whether they had been sent across the together or with a delay —— whether they had been sent

across the lagoon together or with a delay in time of up to 20 seconds. the buttons were wired to a computer to record the actions and time difference. the dolphins didn't just succeed at this task, they were amazing at it so by the end, the difference in time between their button presses was just 370 milliseconds. that's about a third of the second and that kind of precision shows they didn'tjust co—operate, they actively co—ordinated in a super—precise way to synchronise their behaviours. when one dolphin was delayed, the other would wait so they could press the buttons together or the delayed dolphin would swim significantly faster than its partner to make up the difference, showing a sophisticated understanding of how to play the game. while it's not unusual for mammals to work cooperatively in the wild, these dolphins have shown that some understand how a partner's role combines with their own. researchers believe that this is an intellectual ability that dolphins apply to many different situations in the wild. just a reminder of our top story

before we go, there are questions from spain over gibraltar‘s status ahead of sunday's meeting on britain's eu brexit deal, with the spanish prime minister threatening to force the postponement of that summit. stay with us on bbc news. hello. the week ended on a pretty gloomy note for many, and i'm not expecting things to brighten up spectacularly through the weekend. yes, some of us will see sunshine but many more will be stuck with cloud, it will feel chilly and for some areas, a bit of rain in the forecast. the satellite shows quite a lot of cloud streaming towards southern areas, this cloud is ready bringing some heavy downpours of rain across the south—west of england, even the odd flash of lightning and thunder, and we keep potential for wet weather across the south—west but perhaps also across other southern counties of england as well as we go through saturday.

uncertainty about how far north that rain will get. it looks most likely that it will say to the south of the ma corridor. so if you are in the london area, the south midlands, you may see a little bit of rain, on balance it should stay just about dry, temperatures around nine degrees. some rain could fringe into south wales but for the midlands, north—west england, south—west scotland and for a time across northern ireland a chance of seeing breaks in the cloud and some sunny spells. for north—east england and the eastern side of scotland we will keep cloud and some showery rain and with that easterly breeze across the country, top temperatures no better than 7—10 degrees. some rain is likely to continue across southern counties of england across saturday evening, elsewhere dry weather, some rain in drizzle coming into eastern areas, we keep that easterly breeze feeding in cloud, the best of the clear skies in the west. if it does stay clear where you are there may be a touch of frost, most areas will stay frost free. for sunday high pressure in charge, but this frontal system threatens

to throw a bit of a spanner in the works across the south—east corner. uncertainty about this but clipping into kent and sussex, we could see a little bit of rain. it may come a touch further north and west, but for many sunday is largely dry. a lot of cloud in the east, the best of the brightness further west, but fairly chilly. on monday we keep our weather coming in from the east, not an especially strong breeze but a cool one bringing lots of cloud, patchy rain in the east, some sunshine to the west and those temperatures stuck in single digits for all of us. and then a bit of a change as we had deeper into the new week because high—pressure retreats and the low pressure in the atlantic starts to wind itself up, a lot of white lines, a lot of isobars on the chart, that means it will be windy and at times wet. so tuesday another cool day, turning wet and windy on wednesday but also turning a bit milder.

pride this is bbc news. the headlines: britain's prime minister theresa may is heading over to brussels later to try to drum up support for her eu—brexit deal. it comes ahead of an emergency eu summit to approve it on sunday. but spain's prime minister says without the guarantees he wants on gilbraltar, that may not happen. an official us report warns that climate change will cost america hundreds of billions of dollars and cause severe damage to people's health and way of life — all of which is at odds with president trump's stance on the issue. people in taiwan are voting in local elections and in several referenda, including one on the legalisation of same—sex marriage. the issue has divided the island despite the top court ruling in favour, giving parliament two years to amend laws or pass new ones.

in an unusually frank statement, one of britain's top police officers has admitted his force can't provide the public with anywhere near the level of service they require. cleveland police chief mike veale says budget cuts are too deep and have gone on for too long. earlier this week the bbc showed officers in hartlepool struggling