a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: nancy pelosi, i extend to you this gavel. a new challenge to donald trump's presidential authority. democrat nancy pelosi becomes house speaker and immediately throws down the gauntlet on the government shutdown. democrats will be offering the senate republican appropriations legislation to reopen government later today. a bill aimed to end the partial shutdown of the us government, caused by the row over funding mr trump's promised border wall, has passed the lower house of congress but will be vetoed by the president. kurds and local militia battle the so—called islamic state militants in eastern syria, but can they win without american airpower? we have an exclusive report. $75 billion have been wiped off the market value of apple since it warned sales will be worse than expected. asian stocks are reacting.

a breathalyser is being tested here in the uk. scientists hope it could detect early signs of cancer. a big clean—up operation is underway in the netherlands, after nearly 300 shipping containers fell off a cargo ship in a storm. hello. the lower chamber of the us congress, the house of representatives, now controlled by the democrats, has been voting to try to re—open parts of the us government, shut down by the row over funding for president trump's promised wall on the mexican border. but the legislation will be rejected by the republican—controlled senate and by president trump, because it contains no funding for mr trump's promised wall on the mexican border. the veteran democrat nancy pelosi has once again become the third most powerful politician in the united states, taking over as speaker of the house.

we'll hearfrom her in a moment. but first, the president, who insists that without a wall, there can be no border security. you can call it a barrier, you can call it whatever you want, but essentially we need protection in our country. we are going to make it good. the people of our country want it. i have never had so much support as i have in the last week over my stance for border security, for border control, and for, frankly, the wall or the barrier. i've never had anything like it in terms of calls coming in, in terms of people writing in and tweeting and doing whatever they have had to do. i've never had this much support. we have done some things which, as you know, have been very popular. nancy pelosi, back as the most powerful woman in american politics at the age of 78, after eight years in the political wilderness, also gave her views on the shutdown, the political impasse, and plans for a border wall. the fact is, a wall

is an immorality. it is not who we are as a nation. and this is not a wall between mexico and the united states that the president is creating here, it is a wall between reality and his constituents, his supporters. he does not want them to know what he's doing to medicare and medicaid and social security in his budget proposal. he does not want them knowing he is going to do to clean air and clean water and the rest in his department of interior and the epa. he does not want them to know how it's hurting them, so he keeps the subject on the wall. he's a master of diversion. we're trying to open up government, we are giving a mature way to do so, not in our language, but in the senate language. the new speaker of the house of

representatives. our correspondent david willis is in washington. he told me what we could expect to happen next. well, they are due back, the congressional leaders, at the white house in the morning, friday morning for another round of talks with the president. a similar meeting on wednesday, of course, ended in stalemate. and the democrats are now emboldened, of course, by taking control of the house of representatives and, you had in that clip, nancy pelosi reiterating her view that a wall along the us—mexico border, donald trump's pet project, of course, is immoral and in her view a waste of money. she was also accused the president of holding public service workers, federal workers, hostage over his pet project. and there are about 800,000 of those workers who are currently, of course, without pay. david, today saw the president make a rather unorthodox appearance in the white house briefing room. what was that about? it was rather strange.

we are not used to seeing president trump in the white house briefing room. he is normally given to making ad hoc comments as bill signings or while he is crossing the white house lawn on the way to air force one, for example, but today journalists got a very short amount of notice that there was a briefing about to take place. but then president trump appeared flanked by the members of the border patrolmen‘s union, he congratulated nancy pelosi, said he hoped he could work with her, and then went on to reiterate his demand for about $5 billion and said he would not be backing down on that issue. david willis for us there. syria isjust "sand and death," according to donald trump, as he defended his decision to withdraw american troops from the conflict there. yet the kurdish militia and arab tribes, known as the syrian democratic forces, battling the islamic state group in syria, warn this could result in disaster. they say it would allow the resurgence of a largely defeated is.

islamic state is clinging on near the town of hajin, in the east of syria, from where our middle east correspondent quentin sommerville has secured this exclusive footage of the recent fighting. his report contains distressing images. this is an empire in ruin, so—called islamic state is hanging by a thread. these are kurdish and arab fighters taking on the last of is. in hajin, their enemy is not giving up easily. 0ne truck bomb detonates. the men run outside. president trump says he will withdraw 2000 american troops from syria. these men will be left to fight alone. at the end of the street, on the building to the right,

the is flag still flies. a message comes in over their radios — another truck bomb is heading their way. the bad weather means american aircraft can't help them. these men are poorly equipped, with little armour. they've relied on us air power at almost every step of their advance. the flash of a rocket—propelled grenade and the fighting kicks off again. where do we go? surrounded, the sdf men have nowhere to go but they hold their ground. the battle ends with success for kurdish—led forces. hajin town is theirs, and they have stopped the truck bombs in their tracks. here, the body of the driver lies in the mud. he was just a boy, barely 12 years old. the more desperate is become,

the more they rely on child fighters. here we see another attack on hajin — from their perspective. an is commander orders his reluctant fighters to advance. there are as many as 8,000 is fighters still left in syria — a small army. with tens of thousands of supporters at the rear. this might look chaotic, but they are still a vicious and formidable force. the other brothers have left. "the weather is clearing up," they shout. "we will be exposed to air attacks pretty soon." so they retreat, leaving

the commander behind. this footage was recovered from his dead body. the power of american strikes can't be underestimated. without us support, the islamic state won't be defeated. is, which was facing a last battle for its territory, now simply has to wait for the americans to go home. 0ut there, the islamic state's leadership likely remains, including abu bakr al—baghdadi. and in the ruins, foreign hostages may still be alive and in is captivity, including at least one british man, according to western government and local sources. years of fighting and thousands of lives have been given to this war, and still it hasn't been won yet. quentin sommerville, bbc news. shares in the technology giant,

apple, fell by almost 10% today, wiping nearly $75 billion from its market value. it came after the company announced it was expecting lower earnings than previously forecast. the firm blamed a slowdown in sales in china, as well as the trade war between beijing and the united states. but some analysts say it's also because consumers are increasingly reluctant to upgrade their phones. our business editor simonjack reports. now, let's talk about iphone... it's arguably the most successful consumer product of all time. the launch of a new model is a global event and, so, therefore, is a surprise warning from the chief executive that sales are not on target. the value of the company slumped over $60 billion in seconds. this once trillion—dollar company has now lost a third of its value since october. so, what's going wrong? we've all got smartphones now

and they all work pretty well and there are a tonne of other smartphone makers out there. just a lot of competition. apple's high prices, very ambitious expectations for consumers to continue buying the next new, big, shiny thing are not quite being met. it's not just about these, the iphones. embedded in the apple boss's surprise message was a warning that could have implications for big companies, big employers all over the world, including here in the uk. the warning is this — everything is not going exactly according to plan in the world's second biggest economy, china. this manufacturing and exporting superpower had hoped to shift more towards an economy in which the spending of increasingly affluent chinese consumers would drive growth. if that plan bore fruit, then it would be great news for producers of consumer goods everywhere in the world, including in the uk, in the us and everywhere else. apple, jaguar, all kinds of other consumer goods and so on, would find an export market in china. unfortunately, in the last year

or so, they have backtracked, they've gone into reverse on that process of trying to unlock the chinese consumer. china is the biggest car market in the world now. in november, sales fell 20%, and jaguar land rover has already said a slump in china was a major reason for cutting over 1,000 jobs last year. this is all playing out against a us—china trade war, which is encouraging many chinese consumers to buy chinese products. i think the lesson we've learned already from the trade war that's happened so far is that nobody wins a trade war. the idea is to inflict more damage on your opponent than they can on you, and in this respect obviously apple's news tells us something about how american companies are being hurt by this conflict. china is not apple's only problem — convincing consumers they need ever flashier phones is right up there. but it won't be the last company to discover china is a tougher market than many hoped. simon jack, bbc news.

south korea's spy agency has confirmed that north korea's ambassador to italy has disappeared. jo song—gil and his wife are reportedly seeking asylum in a third country, but their whereabouts are unknown. laura bicker in seoul has more. jo song—gil was last seen leaving the north korean embassy in rome in late november with his wife. south korean officials have not seen or heard from him since. the italian authorities say they have received no application for asylum from a north korean ambassador or diplomat. this disappearance comes amid reports thatjo song—gil has actually asked italian authorities for protection while he seeks asylum from a third country. what we know aboutjo song—gil also is that he is said to be the son

and son—in—law of two elite officials in pyongyang — they were former ambassadors themselves and could have connections high up within the workers‘ party. these are the league in pyongyang. if he had defected, this would be embarrassing for kim jong—un. clearly more on that to come. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: with the democrats once again in charge of the house of representatives, can congress find a way to end the us government shutdown? the japanese people are in mourning following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it was announced he was dead. good grief. after half a century delighting fans around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quits. the singer paul simon starts his tour of south africa tomorrow, in spite of protests and violence

from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa until majority rule is established. teams were trying to scoop up lumps of oil as france recognises it faces an ecological crisis. three weeks ago, the authorities confidently assured these areas that oilfrom the broken tanker, erika, would head out to sea. it didn't. the world's tallest skyscraper opens today. the burj dubai has easily overtaken its nearest rivals. this is bbc world news — the latest headlines: nancy pelosi has taken over as speaker of the lower chamber

of the us congress, the house of representatives, now controlled by the democrats. it's triggered a new era of divided government under president trump. caitlin emma is budget & appropriations reporter at politico. i asked her whether she thought the democrats efforts could break the deadlock. the prospects don't look good at all. what the democrats are essentially voting on right now are bills to keep about a quarter of the federal government open, which is currently shut down, while keeping the department of homeland security funded at current levels through to february the eight. this package they are voting on right now as we are talking includes no new money from water wall funding, which president donald trump has been demanding. —— border wall. so it faces almost zero prospects of getting through a republican—controlled senate, and the president is not going to sign a bill like that. of course, the us system of government has checks and balances built into it. 0ne party is meant to frustrate another party. —— part is meant to frustrate another part. do you just see deadlock from here on, or is there a possibility for movement?

it looks like a deep—seated stalemate at this point. congressional leaders are going to the white house tomorrow. they were there on wednesday. there was no progress on wednesday. they are headed back to the white house tomorrow to see if there will be any movement on it, but i spoke to mark meadows, who is the leader of the freedom corp is here, and he is a confidant of president trump in congress, and he said that he foresees this dragging out for weeks. —— freedom caucus. he says it could possibly be the longest shutdown in american history. as a reminder, the entire government is not shut down, just a quarter of the government is shut down, and it still affects hundreds of thousands of federal employees. yes, hundreds of thousands of people not getting paid, although i gather there were indications today that they might get pay eventually.

and a deadlock as a whole will affect many more people. did you get a sense of what the country as a whole things about all this? it seems as though, from polling, it seems like there is little support for shutting down the government for a course like this. i saw a recent poll the other day which said about a quarter of the american public survey supported shutting down the government for the purposes of funding a border wall. and again, it is not even really clear what we are talking about when we say border wall. the president has varied between saying he wants a concrete wall versus a steel slatted barrier that you can see through. so it is all very fluid. but it all has to do with border security, and at the same time, like you said, hundreds of thousands of people are affected. many of them are performing dangerousjobs. they are at the front line of security, they are military veterans. a lot of them, about 400,000 people right now, are working without pay. there are definitely consequences to shutting down the government long—term. china has landed a spacecraft

on the far side of the moon. it's the first ever such landing — a milestone in space exploration. the probe has already sent back an image of the largest, deepest and oldest crater on the rugged, largely unexplored surface. china is racing to catch up with russia and the united states — aiming to become a major space power by 2030. 0ur science editor david shukman reports. haunting and barren, much of the surface of the moon has been well known for centuries. but this is the side we see from earth. by contrast, the far side is far more mysterious, with the deepest craters. and when nasa considered landing astronauts there back in the ‘60s, the idea was rejected as too risky. in this image, it's easier to see how different the two sides are, and no one really knows why. so the chinese lander, now on the far side, will analyse the rocks. scientists are hoping to learn how

the moon was formed, but some experts say this is more about china planting a flag. the fact that they chose to land on the far side of the moon is part of a chinese strategy to do things that haven't been done before, to garner the prestige that comes with it, because that prestige very often translates into geostrategic influence. this is one of a series of moon landings by china, and the big question amid all the national pride is, where will it lead? 0n the one hand, china is working on its own, the landing hushed up until it proved successful. no surprise, with the military dominating the space programme. 0n the other hand, one instrument on the lander is german. there is some collaboration, and the chinese say they want more of it. but we don't know if china's future missions will be more open, or whether the tendency to keep things secret will continue. i hope we do see china become more international, more globally focused

because space is too big and too ambitious to go it alone, and there's a lot of expertise. we've seen with recent missions coming from nasa and the european space agency that the most ambitious ones are the ones where they've collaborated and worked together. so where will you land? but some chinese scientists want to exploit the moon. back in 2013, this senior figure told me of plans to mine the moon for precious minerals. we'd like you to leave immediately. the last moments of apollo 17, the final american mission to the lunar surface back in 1972. at this rate, the next boots on the moon will be chinese. by golly, this time goes fast! scientists are testing a new breathalyser that could revolutionise how cancer is detected and diagnosed. it's designed to find early signs of the disease in molecules in breath. early diagnosis is often crucial to saving lives, but in england almost half of all cancers are diagnosed at a late stage.

one of the men behind the new breathalyser lost his wife to colon cancer, after a late diagnosis. she wasjust 36. 0ur health correspondent catherine burns reports from cambridge. i will just fit this over your face... this looks very simple, and it is — a breath test. but it's also highly sensitive. the idea is that patients breathe into it for ten minutes or so, and then their sample will be tested for chemical signs which could show cancerous cells. the revolutionary thing about this test is that it could apply notjust to one kind of cancer — you might think it is obvious for lung cancer, but potentially for all kinds of cancer. we could not only diagnose them earlier but put patients through much more effective treatment and completely turn the survival statistics around. rebecca is one of 1500 people who will help to test it. she's got a condition which means

she's got a higher chance of developing cancer, so every two years she has an endoscopy, a camera inserted down her throat. over the years i've had ten plus endoscopies and i get really worked up and anxious about it, so to have a breath test instead, it will take just 15 minutes, will be so much better and less stressful. endoscopies are invasive, like other cancer tests such as biopsies. others are simpler — scans and blood tests. but researchers hope this breathalyser could mean many patients avoiding them in the first place. the ultimate aim would be for this test to be done in gp surgeries so people would either be told that they do have a high chance of having a specific cancer and so be referred for more tests, or hopefully be given the all clear. cancer research uk says this trial could mean getting cancer diagnosed earlier, vital to increasing survival rates. the vast majority of bladder cancer patients will survive for at least one year if they are diagnosed early. and if diagnosis comes later,

at stage four, that drops to 33%. and in stomach cancer, an early diagnosis means a high chance of surviving for five years or more. but if it's not found until stage four, that falls dramatically to 5%. the trial for this breath test is at the earliest stages, but the team behind it say that, if it works, it could potentially help diagnose other diseases too. but that's a long way off. catherine burns, bbc news. a major cleanup is underway on islands off the north coast of the netherlands, where a cargo ship has shed 270 containers into the sea, spilling furniture, tvs, toys and toxic chemicals. kim gittleson has the story. this is exactly what you don't want to see if you are the owner of msc zoe, one of the world's largest cargo vessels. on tuesday night, rough waters caused hundreds of containers to tip like dominoes into the north sea. although the cargo fell overboard near the german

island of borkum, the tide carried many of the containers south—west including here to the dutch island of terschelling, where they have spilt their contents on shore, containing everything from flatscreen tvs to stray shoes, to most troubling of all, potentially dangerous chemicals. translation: what worries us most is plastic and styrofoam. styrofoa m cru m bles, so we are afraid it will bother us for some time. it mixes with the sand and gets under the sand, so it gets into the environment. it may be impossible to get rid of. now it is a race to clean up the mess, with hundreds of volunteers joining the effort. the company that owns the ship has said it takes the incident very eseriously, and it is looking into what happens, as well as working with authorities to contain the damage. kim gittelson, bbc news. hello there.

for most of us we're in the middle of what's been really quite a cloudy and cool run of weather. and we've got more of the same on friday as well, with only subtle changes in time for the weekend. the reason our weather's not changing a great deal at the moment is high pressure right over the uk. rain—bearing weather fronts that would bring any changes to the weather stalled out in the atlantic. for the early risers this morning, we have got cloud across most of scotland, northern ireland, northern england, north midlands, north wales, and for these areas, most areas will just stay above freezing. however, for eastern scotland, where we've got some cloud breaks and across wales, south—west england, the south—west midlands, it's here where we'll see a sharp frost. it will be a cold start to the day, temperatures below —5 in the coldest spots in wales. across the south—west we will have the best chance of breaks in the cloud. 0therwise most of the uk will be stuck under this sheet of cloud. if the clouds with you in the morning there's a good chance it will be with you all

through the day. the prospects of sunny spells greatest towards southern wales, south—west england, particularly around dorset, devon, and parts southern hampshire, maybe the isle of wight and across the eastern side of scotland. temperatures are still struggling somewhat, typically around 5—7 degrees celsius, with the mildest air in western scotland, highs of 9 degrees in stornoway. there will be little in the way change we head through friday evening and the night—time, it stays cloudy, again it willjust about stay frost free. into the weekend, we have the weather fronts around the northern side of our area of high pressure. because it's running into the high pressure it will be very weak. on saturday, again we are looking at extensive cloud across the uk, but probably some better prospects of seeing some sunshine across eastern scotland and towards east of the pennines that should break the cloud as well. the cloud will thicken for western scotland and we will probably see a little bit of light rain running in. there is a tendency on saturday

for temperatures to be a degree also higher, typically around 6 or seven degrees celsius for much of the country. on sunday, our weak fronts will be pushing southwards across england and wales. again, a lot of cloud. not a great deal of rain — perhaps the odd spot. for scotland and northern ireland, sunday should be a much sunnier day. temperature—wise we're looking at highs between 7 and 9 celsius. something milder towards the south—west. we could see a fair bit of low cloud over the hills, perhaps hill fog developing as well. it's a quiet spell of weather and it stays quiet well into next week too. that is your weather. goodbye for now. this is bbc news, the headlines: the veteran democrat nancy pelosi is once again the third—most powerful politician in the us, effectively leader of the opposition to president trump. she has taken over as speaker of the house of representatives. her party won control of the lower chamber in november's mid—term elections. a bill from the democrats aimed at ending the partial government shutdown, caused by the funding row

over mr trump's promised border wall, has passed the house but will be vetoed by the president. the kurdish militia and arab tribes, known as the syrian democratic forces, battling so—called islamic state militants in eastern syria, have warned their fight may be lost without american airstrikes. president trump plans to withdraw 2,000 us troops from syria. there's new volatility on global stock markets since apple warned its sales figures will be worse than expected. the nikkei fell by more than 3.5%. wall street closed down 2.8. now it's time for one of hardtalk‘s highlights of 2018. hundreds of billions of dollars is poured into cancer treatment