welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: london gatwick airport has shut down for a second day, as ongoing flights by illegal drones leave 100,000 passengers in limbo. we have on site the police, supported by the security services and the military, looking at every opportunity we have to disable this drone and get gatwick airport back open. us defence secretaryjim mattis says he will quit hisjob, hinting that his views aren't in line with president trump's. reunited with their rescuers, an emotional return for the thai boy footballers trapped in a cave last summer. the boys are here paying their respects to the statue of a man who lost his life trying to save them. five months ago, this was a sea of mud, there were rescuers everywhere, and no—one had any idea whether they would come out alive. and meet the "fortnite crackers", teenagers making a fortune by exploiting the world's most popular video game. hello.

british police are now considering shooting down the drones that have been causing chaos at london gatwick airport since wednesday evening. while thousands of would—be passengers wait in frustration, there have been at least 50 drone sightings in the past 2a hours. gatwick is staying closed overnight, but restrictions at other airports have been lifted, allowing more planes in and out of the uk. kim gittleson has the latest. it has been over 2a hours since a plane last landed here in gatwick airport. inside, scenes of chaos, as flight after flight was cancelled. now, thousands of stranded passengers are trying to make sense and adjust to a remarkable situation.

you know these things... well, not really. ‘cause, it's not weather, it's some idiot with a drone. it has come over your head! 0ver your head! the small device causing massive mayhem has yet to be found. was this it, in the sky? 20 british police units spent the day on a fruitless search, eventually even the army was called in. but, while officials have ruled out terrorism as a motive, they say this chaos are certainly isn't an accident. now, they are asking the public for their photos. someone may have an image of the drone. we don't yet know what type the drone is. and of course, in terms of our tactics and what we do operationally, that is really

significant for us. authorities say they don't know when flights will resume. already 760 flights have been cancelled, stranding 110,000 passengers. many of the flights have been diverted elsewhere, like charles de gaulle airport in paris. i was asleep, and i woke up and found out we were in paris. very upset that anyone would want to do this just to disrupt anyone going away for christmas. i'm just try to get home for christmas. the continued closure has exposed potential vulnerabilities at airports around the world, in addition to threatening further disruption on what would be the busiest travel day of the year. that is why tonight, here at gatwick, all eyes are trained on the sky, with thousands of holiday travel plans up in the air. kim gittleson, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news: a shutdown of the us government appears more likely, after the house of representatives passed a spending bill that included funding for president trump's wall on the border with mexico. democrats have insisted that it is a non—starter. it is unlikely the new bill will be approved by the senate. president putin has accused the british political establishment of disrespecting the public by not

wanting to implement the result of the brexit vote. at his end—of—year news conference, the russian president suggested democracy would be undermined if theresa may did not see brexit through. he also praised donald trump's move to withdraw us troops from syria. according to media reports in france, a fugitive french extremist linked to the men who attacked the charlie hebdo magazine offices in 2015 is now in the custody of french police. it is reported that peter cherif, also known as abu hamza, was arrested in djibouti earlier this week and is now awaiting extradition. a court in new york has refused to dismiss criminal charges against the disgraced hollywood producer harvey weinstein. he denies multiple allegations of sexual assault, and his lawyers argued that police had acted improperly. but the judge ruled there was ample evidence to proceed to trial. another member of president trump's cabinet is resigning. the defence secretary, jim mattis, is quitting, citing differences of opinion with the white house. his abrupt decision came the day

after mr trump announced he was withdrawing us troops from syria, a decision which general mattis is understood to have opposed. in his resignation letter, general mattis said the president had the right to have a defence chief whose views were more aligned with his own. mr trump said the general would leave hisjob in february. this was how a former us defence secretary reacted. i think he was upset with the fact that the president chose to send our troops, pending thanksgiving, to the border, and is keeping them there, some of them there. and i think this was just a straw too heavy for him to bear, namely to reject the recommendation about keeping a sufficient force to really defeat isis, as opposed to this false declaration that we won, they're defeated, and now it is, well, we're tired of fighting, somebody else‘s burden. i think that was just one bridge, one mile too far for him to walk. given his courage, his battle

experience, and his scholarship, he couldn't take it. us military and politicalfigures are unhappy with the decision. 0ur correspondent paul adams has been examining the evidence that it remains a threat. no, islamic state has not been defeated. i know what you're saying, look at all the territory they have lost. in 2014, the group controlled 10 million people in large of iraq and syria. then the world took notice and took action. is has been on the retreat ever since, squeezed into a finalfew on the retreat ever since, squeezed into a final few pockets of territory. us backed forces in syria are celebrating the defeat of isis them raqqa. so yes, the dream of a caliphate, an islamic state, that is over, but the group and still do damage. their leader is still out

there, despite numerous reports of his death. they may have killed the isis leader. it could be a big victory in the war on terror. his last recorded message was an august. he called on his followers to persevere despite their setbacks in iraq and syria. those followers, they are still listening, and there are probably still thousands of them. so expect to see more of this in the region. bomb attacks, killing and maiming large numbers of civilians. and it is notjust in iraq and syria. is has active franchisors in afghanistan, in libya, in egypt, and beyond. and yes, there will be more attacks in the west as well. now, we can't a lwa ys the west as well. now, we can't always say that the attacks were planned or commissioned by the group. that is not the point. the point is that the idle ideology alone is enough to inspire these attacks. in the ideology is very much alive. to understand why, just look at the places where it started. syria's civil war is not yet over. iraq is still divided as well. and

then there is ever a nelson with an interest in the region. america, russia, iran, turkey, all with their own different agendas. and you have split along sectarian lines, along ethnic lines, along regional lines, and as long as those rivalries exist, the middle east is going to remain deeply unstable place, fertile ground for those who don't mind mixing extreme violence with a narrow, mediaevalversion mind mixing extreme violence with a narrow, mediaeval version of its lamp. and remember, groups is, like it spread assessors, were able to cause mayhem without ever occupying any territory at all —— islam. and there is no reason to suppose it can't do that again. let's get more on this now. i'm joined now by retired lieutenant colonel daniel l davis, a senior fellow with the think tank defense priorities. good to talk to you, thank you very much for your time. i think it is fairto much for your time. i think it is fair to say you are generally a supporter of what the president is trying to do. his resignation letter, it is a pretty lister in leicester, isn't it? one white house

source has described it as a 21 gun fu to the president. what do you make of it? well, i think it is more likely evidence of the gentleman character of secretaryjim mattis, because he is a gentleman, he is a good man, he is a patriot, but i happen to disagree with some of his policies. and the fact of the matter is that, no matter what anyone wants to a cce pt is that, no matter what anyone wants to accept or not, president trump did win the election in 2016, and he wa nted did win the election in 2016, and he wanted very strongly, running on an antiforeign engagement kind of platform. and so no more foreign engagement, no more building, you know, ridges to make up for things that are working for other people, i'm sorry. but this is what they hired him to do, and so now that secretary mattis and a lot of the other people, they don't ever want to ever leave anywhere. and the fact is that the troops on the ground there actually don't help us keep us safe. that segment you just played there really underscored why that

is, because you have all these different actors in that region. you have the different ethnicities, the different religions, and those handful of american troops are absolutely not going to stop any of that. there is a raging civil war still going on there, and the us troops that are sitting there are not even a part of it. so they are not even a part of it. so they are not going to stop it, and therefore their withdrawal is not going to make it any worse, and secretary mattis was one of those that wants to keep it going, and he represents kind of a lot of use of americans who want to do the same thing. and doesn't worry you the only people who seem to welcome the decision other russian leadership, the turks, the iranians and presumably islamic state itself. the senate majority leader, loyalist, said that the point of the united states is to preserve post—world war ii alliances. we must learn that russia is not a friend. in effect the us has gone back on promises, hasn't it, made allies in combat. what do you say to the kurds had, who have been so strong as allies to the us,

fought so strongly against an islamic state? now turkey, which regards them as terrorists, is saying we are going to bomb them and buried in the trenches. well, there has never been any expectation and certainly no representations that the united states was signing up to be the permanent defender of assyrian democratic forces after isis was defeated in rucker. so while we had common cause with the kurds there, we were working together with them —— raqqa. and the expectation was always that at some point we were going to disengage and move on, because they were going to continue to stay there. it is important to point out that the united states isn't just. .. important to point out that the united states isn'tjust... that isis doesn't get some kind of break. they have the sdf that, they still have the russians, the syrians and the iranians, all of whom are against isis. so there is no let—up against isis. so there is no let—up against isis. so there is no let—up against isis. they are still going to be tracked by all those people. you concerned that the president is perhaps looking isolated there in the white house? he has had six high—profile departures in just the last few weeks, he has an interim

chief of staff, he has an interim attorney general. he doesn't pretend to bea attorney general. he doesn't pretend to be a statesman, he doesn't pretend to be that interested in foreign policy. he is certainly not a military man. he is a businessman with a string of failed businesses behind him and a bunch of lawsuits. well, i do actually worry about some of that. his instincts on foreign policy and the number of these things have been right. he is right on wanting to withdraw the troops there, because it doesn't help our country and it does put our troops at risk, for ways that don't even help our country. he is right with that. but i do think that you have a bit of a point where that in terms of how he communicates that strategy and how he executed and how he handles the people around him, that isa handles the people around him, that is a problem. because you can have good instincts, you can even have good instincts, you can even have good overall policy, but if you can't make it happen, if you can't make it happen and automated and work well with your allies and make sure you understand the difference between your friends and your adversaries, as you point out, that is also very valid, that is going to complicate even the good ideas you

may have. thank you for talking to us. may have. thank you for talking to us. certainly, thank you very much. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the texas police officers hailed as heroes after rescuing a man from a burning car. after eight months on the run, saddam hussein has been tracked down and captured by american forces. saddam hussein is finished because he killed our people, our women, our children. the signatures took only a few minutes, but they brought a formal end to 3.5 years of conflict, conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives. before an audience of world leaders, the presidents of bosnia, serbia and croatia put their names to the peace agreement. the romanian border was sealed and silent today. romania has cut itself off from the outside world in order to prevent the details of the presumed massacre in timisoara from leaking out.

from sex at the white house to a trial for his political life, the lewinsky affair tonight guaranteed bill clinton his place in history as only the second president ever to be impeached. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: one of the uk's busiest airports, london gatwick, remains shut down, as the army and police hunt the drone operators who have disrupted hundreds of commercial flights. us defense secretary jim mattis is to quit hisjob after president trump decided to withdraw us troops from syria. a man in texas is very lucky to be alive, although he was badly burned, after a crash east of houston. he was dragged out of his flaming vehicle by two officers who are now winning widespread praise for what they did. chambers county sheriff's office has released bodycam footage showing how the rescue unfolded. the bbc‘s freya cole has the story,

and just a warning, some viewers might find the following pictures upsetting. without a second of hesitation, a police officer sprints towards a burning vehicle in order to save a life. where, where, where? flames billow from the wreckage, causing thick smoke and intense heat, but despite precarious conditions, deputy braedon boznago finds the driver unconscious and trapped inside. sir? give me your arms. carlton, i need your help. it's too hot. his partner, deputy carlton carrington, arrivesjust in time. they battled growing flames and manage to drag the man through the car window, but the danger is not over. the lower half of the

driver's body is well alight and spreading fast. the quick thinking officers manage to pull the man to a nearby ditch filled with water to extinguish the flames. police checked with witnesses if there was anyone else inside the vehicle. is there anybody else? no, i didn't see anybody else. 0k. boss, let's try to get him over, away from the car, in case it goes. the victim has suffered more than 60% burns and is in a critical but stable condition. while his saviours downplayed their actions, saying they were just doing theirjob. freya cole, bbc news. respect to those officers. the short time ago i spoke to their boss, brian hawthorne. yes, they beverley heroes in my eyes, and i hope most everybody in texas, the united states and the world. they had no idea who they were going to save and he is alive today because they risk their lives. are they 0k, where they hurt?

thankfully, the only thing they really did was they singed the hair on their hands on their face and their eyebrows, but they were able to pull him out and to give you an idea of how intense the heat was, braedon bozango's bodycam actually melted, because of the heat of the fire. but theyjust get going. are they trained to do this kind of thing? well, i would like to tell you yes, but you just do not have the ability to change about. we train for active shooters, we train for family disturbances, we train for a lot of things, but we do not train for car fires so it is just true bravery and heroism to say this man's live. and how is the man they pulled out of the car? well, there is some rules and regulations in the state of texas, united states, so i cannot give a whole

lot of information, but i will tell you that he is alive and he is improving, but is still in a critical, stable condition. understood. just to be clear, was there a call to this incident or did theyjust happen to be driving down the highway and the go or get flagged down? no, they were called. we had two citizens, two ladies that watched the accident happen and they got out of their car ran over help them and they realised that they couldn't. they called 911, our emergency system, and the deputies just happened to be nearby and were able to respond and then what you see is exactly what happened. they pulled up and they sprang into action, and literally, i tell people all the time, you never know how you are going to react, and these two reacted with terrorism. you can see from the pictures, moments really mattered. any later, it would have been too late. there is no question in my mind and anybody else's mind,

that, if they had not pulled him out, he would have perished. a town in the north of thailand became the focus of attention around the world this summer, when 13 boys and their football coach got trapped in a cave, with what seemed like precious little chance of rescue. what followed, for the wild boar footballers and the people trying to save them, still seems pretty amazing. 0ur south east asia correspondent jonathan head has been back to the cave and the community around it. the boys are back. along with a new statue. this tribute to thai diver saman kunan, the sole fatality in an otherwise miraculous rescue, is also a reunion between the boys and their saviours. three of the foreign volunteers who helped to get them out of the caves are also here. well, this is such a contrast with what we saw here just five months ago. the boys are paying their respects to the statue of a man who lost his life trying to save them. five months ago, this was a sea of mud, there were rescuers

everywhere, and no—one had any idea whether they would come out alive. that extraordinary three—week operation has put this previously little—known site onto thailand's tourist map. from just a handful of visitors a day, it now gets thousands. drawn notjust by the boys' story, but also by their good fortune. it's become a lucky place, somewhere you buy a lottery ticket. so, all these lottery tickets, which one's the lucky number? "13", she says. "that's the number of the boys and their coach, who went into the caves." this man's pineapple field was flooded during the rescue by all the water pumped from the caves. these days, though, he is actually making more money by selling the oranges from his orchard. "0ur pineapple crop rotted", he explained. "we couldn't get in to harvest it because of all the vehicles back then", so he stopped farming

and volunteered to help the rescuers instead. the mini—tourist boom is proving something of a bonanza for this community. and rescuers, like vern unsworth, have become local celebrities. to be perfectly honest, i prefer a quieter life. i don't think you're going to get it though. i'm not the one for going out and seeking, you know, people treating me as a hero, and i'm nota hero, just — just in the right place at the right time, really. the lives of the boys have now returned to their old routines, though not quite as before. so use the body as a shield, 0k? can you show me that? this is a coaching session offered by manchester city. the most famous young footballers in the world are still getting plenty of international attention. jonathan head, bbc news, mae sai, in northern thailand. hackers as young as 14 are making

thousands of dollars a week as part of a global fraud, built around the wildly popular game fortnite. it recently launched its seventh season and now boasts more than 200 million players. but a bbc investigation has found hackers exploiting that popularity by selling details of players' private accounts in a thriving online marketplace. this from our cyber security reporterjoe tidy. since fortnite exploded onto the gaming scene, it's estimated to have made more than £1 billion. most of that has come from in—app purchases, as players scramble to update their free accounts with the latest accessories. and that's what makes these accounts both valuable and a target for hackers. they're stealing them in huge numbers and selling them online to an ever—growing and hungry marketplace, and all over social media victims are venting their frustration. this british hacker was 14

when he got into it. he started off after being hacked himself. he says he's mainly a middle—man now, selling on cracked accounts. he knows he's breaking the law, and says he wants to stop soon. this is how it works. crackers buy huge lists of usernames and passwords that have been stolen from previous data breaches. they use a tool to imput them into the fortnite login in bulk. when they get inside an account, they take it over. at this cyber security competition, young hackers are encouraged to put their skills to the test. 0rganisers say getting talented youngsters on a positive path is proving difficult. it's the ones that, you know, are carrying on that haven't been identified, who are perhaps not given this opportunity,

who are lured and tempted by a quick buck and get taken down this path. how good are you at fortnite? this prolific cracker agreed to talk. ah, that good. but only if we met in—game. he told me he knows what he's doing is illegal and he even admits to using his skills to carry out more serious cyber crime. there's a whole thing around no skins, they call it. the national crime agency says authorities around the world are watching though, and this is a serious offence. for instance, just the compromise of a fortnite account could come under section one of the computer misuse act, which is up to two years in prison. the nca wants games makers to do more to inform their communities that their activity is illegal.

epic, the company behind fortnite, hasn't commented on our investigation, but the game maker says it's working to improve security. it also encourages and rewards players who take steps to increase their account protection. with a new season of the game freshly launched, even more players will be signing up, and the hackers will continue to make a killing. joe tidy, bbc news. before we go, it's santa 0bama time. the former us president paid a surprise visit to a children's hospital in washington with a sack full of presents. he spoke to chidren and their families and thanked the staff for looking after all of them over the christmas holidays. much more any time on the bbc news website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i'm @bbc mike embley. thank you for watching. hello there.

on thursday, most of the showers were across western areas, many eastern areas did manage to dodge them and actually had a fine end to the day. but as we head on into this morning, certainly for the early hours, it's looking wetter and windier as the next frontal system pushes up from the south—west, bringing outbreaks of rain to england and wales, and as far north as northern ireland, perhaps the far south of scotland. very mild in the south as well to begin friday morning, all thanks to this mild plume tied in with this weather system. now, the weather front straddling central areas will tend to linger on throughout the day, so it looks like northern england, southern scotland, and northern ireland will hold on to cloud and outbreaks of rain, whereas for the rest of england and wales, skies will tend to brighten up into the afternoon, with some sunshine developing. apart from a few showers for scotland, there'll be some sunshine here as well. quite a divide in temperatures. south of that weather front, it's very mild across much of england and wales, 11 to maybe 14 degrees in london. to the north of it, temperatures nearer normal for the time of year. so that's how it's

looking through today. now, as we end the day, it looks like the winds picking up further across england and wales, gusting 40 to maybe 50 miles an hour for cornwall and devon, and across the english channel. you can see the isobars blowing in from the west. as we head on into saturday, we'll see this brief ridge of high—pressure, which will bring a fine day for most. this next weather system, though, will bring some rain to some of us for sunday. so this is the picture for saturday then. we've got fairly brisk westerly winds, a little bit lighter certainly than what we'll see through today. plenty of sunshine. a few showers across the north—west, pretty normal temperatures for the time of year, but again, quite mild across the south. now, it'll stay dry through saturday night, before this next weather system begins to push up from the south—west of england, bringing the next spell of wet and windy weather, again to the southern half of the country, as we move on into sunday, but it's going to be a fairly mild start once again to sunday, a few chilly spots further north. the rain will be quite heavy for a time as it pushes its way eastwards. so, into sunday afternoon, i think we should start to see a little bit of dry weather, although it'll stay quite cloudy with a few showers around. the best of the sunshine

for the northern half of the country. nearer normal temperatures in the north, again pretty mild in the south, 12s and 13s. this weather front may return northwards again as we head on in towards christmas eve, but as a big area of high pressure begins to build late on christmas eve and into christmas day, it looks like things will settle down. so many of us will have a dry day through christmas day, with maybe a little bit of sunshine. but only clear spells overnight christmas eve means we could start with some patchy frost and fog in places. however, for most, it's going to be mainly dry. this is bbc news. the headlines: police in britain say they are considering trying to shoot down a drone that has shut down one of the country's largest airports for more than 24 hours. the closure of gatwick has disrupted travel for more than 100,000 people. the airport's single runway remains closed. us defence secretary jim mattis is to quit hisjob

in the trump administration. his departure had been anticipated in parts of the us media after president trump decided to withdraw us troops from syria, despite opposition from international allies and members of the us military. china has rejected accusations by the united states and britain that it is involved in cyber hacking in at least a dozen countries. it comes after the us charged two chinese hackers with stealing data worldwide over more than a decade. beijing has urged washington to withdraw the accusation.