industry. i tried a dopamine fast and a kind of sucked. that is the reporter ‘s verdict after trying this latest fad, this fad that has come from silicon valley. if you've not heard about it, we will explain all and i'll be explaining all withjoel who isa i'll be explaining all withjoel who is a partner and former director of the medications at the africa development bank. happy new year to you. we've got a lot of news to start the year. something that has surprised people a lot in the last few hours, the killing of an arabian commander. politico at the forefront of this, this article is looking at the question of this elimination of what they call a dangerous us foe, but at what cost? hello that's the thing,

and we have seen the way in which markets have already had to this action by oil prices spiking, and for me the key thing was what one us official said, i can't believe it. the immediate concern for me is what is the next step from a run? is this the beginning of a regional confederation. the markets are reacting to the fact that this is not just reacting to the fact that this is notjust tension between the united states and i ran which has been increasing over the last 18 to 2a months, but is this something that would bring in saudi arabia, that would bring in saudi arabia, that would bring in syria, iraq, and so many other countries, and of course the thing is, that another paper says, be sure i ran will react, and

i think your correspondent also alluded to the fact that there are expectations that there will be some reaction from iran. this will keep us on reaction from iran. this will keep us on tension for the next two days. i think you are absolutely right to be current and former officials as well as veteran iran observers have said that this killing is very much an escalator re—move far beyond what was expected, despite the fact that the pentagon is calling it a defensive action, lots of people out there with saying this was deliberate provocation. it wasn't just any other commander, it was the key commander who seems to have been behind a lot of the iranian actions within the region. there are very few who expect it to just be quietly taken away stopping the other thing to note which i thought was really interesting was the speed with which

iran immediately acknowledged that the commander had been killed, so i actually think that there was some preparations on the way for some form of reaction. now, what that is we don't know, and where it will be. that's the key point, is it protesters in iran or is it beyond the borders? and i think that is what many other thing going to be looking at that to see. absolutely, as you mentioned, i think a lot of people are going to be pulled into this whether they want to or not. let's talk about another story that has been escalating and has only made front page news internationally over the last few weeks, this awful situation in australia and the bushfires. the australian, which is a murdoch paper, covering it on the front page with a very... heartfelt picture there. that will go out to

lots of pa rents picture there. that will go out to lots of parents who will understand the trauma looking at that of a little girl, one—year—old daughter with a breathing mask on and talking about this exodus from australia. the boats have now been launched, the navy are in and the evacuation is under way, but the situation is expected to get worse over the next couple of days. that's right, the government has been saying, the prime minister in particular who actually received a very negative reaction when he tried to visit some of the people who have been affected by these fires, and it is expected to get worse. fires are not new to australia. we do see fires almost every year, but i think this time it is the extent, it's the scale that has been so very different, and it is notable because apparently in the australian it hasn't been the top

billing over the last few days but a p pa re ntly billing over the last few days but apparently this is the first time that you see it even in the australian newspaper. paper? yes, it has led on this story showing how deep it is and how widespread and this is a crisis that the country is facing. it certainly is, and a second picture there if you can see it ofa second picture there if you can see it of a toddler honouring his father who died, tribute to geoffrey keaton receiving a medal for bravery on behalf of his father a deeply sad and moving story and one i'm sure we will continue to cover. from the awful to the truly bizarre, this story that is in the financial times but also on the daily telegraph here, dominic cummings who is widely regarded as the most powerful non— elected official in the country seeking to transform a notoriously

risk averse institution, whitehall, with an invitation to weirdos and artist. what is this about? as you say, we are moving from the sad to the sublime. i think we do have a new government in the united kingdom and dominic cummings is the chief adviser to the prime minister, and ina adviser to the prime minister, and in a blog post yesterday he sought of put his ideas down saying that he believes there aren't kind of polities needed for the kind of transformation that borisjohnson wa nts to transformation that borisjohnson wants to bring to the uk, so in other words to the people in government are not equipped, so what he wants is those kind of people who are not from the usual, what he calls, he calls them the oxbridge humanities graduate. we need some true wildcards, artist, people who have never even been to university. so that's what he thinks that you need, fresh thinking, fresh ideas, and some would say, maybe not from

people like him, but that... with an oxbridge graduate prime minister.- thinks that you do need other kind of ideas to be able to help transform the united kingdom, and he says that will be aside from the economist, policy experts, but then he talks about we shall also need these weirdos and misfits with odd skills. i have to say, the unions have dismissed the talk, but as i said, these are some of the shall we say agenda setting that is coming in after last month's election in the united kingdom, so it may well be that... change is on the way. what kind of change? we don't know. but thatis kind of change? we don't know. but that is what this story is really focusing on. and with the long hours and zerojob focusing on. and with the long hours and zero job security i'm sure he will have them queueing around the corner. let's talk about this story

in the new york times about this partial ban on taping, a partial victory perhaps for industry groups, but also this move aimed at appeasing parents and the administration in the united states announcing new policies has to be as donald trump sitting on the fence here or is he telling the right line between two very crucial bits of the electorate? as i said, its election—year. so there are different audiences to try to please. what the truck government is trying to do here is that, yes there has been a call to ban vaping and the vaping product because some people say it is dangerous. he is trying to straddle this line between safety for you ngsters, trying to straddle this line between safety for youngsters, because actually it seems as if young people have been drawn in by the flavours you can get in vaping, so even those who did not smoke have turned to vaping because of the various

flavours you can get, strawberry, orange, and those. are what they are going to do is go back to two very basic flavours in the hope that youngsters who are being attracted to this are maybe not so attracted, but at the same time not kill the vaping industry and the vaping sector which has grown over the last five or six, the last ten years as we have been trying to move away from cigarette and tobacco in general. i'm afraid we're not going to be able to get through to our dopamine fast, this is not having any stimuli from e—mails to food to sex for 2h hours to try to reset the body and mind. 0h sex for 2h hours to try to reset the body and mind. oh dear! what a waste of time! although stories and more oui’ of time! although stories and more our website. stay with us here on bbc news,

so much more to come. hello there. for many we started the year on a cloudy but quiet note, didn't we? but it was all change by day two with rain, some of it heavy across scotland. not one weather front but two. it must be january — it's buy one get one free and it brought some heavy rain as it drifted its way steadily south and east. so much so that we had 40mm by 8pm at the end of the day on thursday in the highlands of scotland. all change as we move into friday's weather because it looks likely that today will be colder and there will be a little more in the way of sunshine around, and that is because those two weather fronts continue to drift their way south and east, and then they allow the door to open to the colder arctic air. the isobars always squeezing together and they always stay pretty windy in the northern isles, with galeforce gusts of winds here, but it's going to be a chilly old start in scotland first thing this morning, compare that to double—digits down into the south—east corner. unfortunately, that means that we keep cloud and outbreaks of rain here. hopefully by coffee time, certainly by lunchtime, that should have eased away. we will have more sunshine

coming through for friday, but it stays windy into the far north and that's going to drive in some showers on exposed north—west coast and those temperatures struggling a little. so despite the sunshine, highest values ofjust 6—9 degrees. moving out of friday into the start of the weekend and it looks likely that high pressure will build from the south and stay with us for saturday and sunday. at the same time, frontal systems drift across the high and that means more cloud here and more of a breeze, so sheltered eastern areas seeing the best of any brightness perhaps on saturday. more cloud further west and just a little bit of light, showery rain into the far north—west, with highest values on saturday of 7—10 degrees. it's almost a case of spot the difference as we move into sunday — still under the influence of high—pressure for most, still those weather fronts toppling across that high, introducing more cloud and rain, with more of a south—westerly feed, slightly less colder air across the country, and temperatures widely back into double figures — 9—11 degrees for many.

but that means that the high pressure is likely to drift its way off into the near continent, so for the start of the new working week, as everybody‘s starting to get back into a routine after christmas and new year period, there is some more rain to come in the forecast — wet and windy weather will arrive for monday into tuesday, so this is how it is looking — pretty unsettled. umbrellas close at hand, i'm afraid. take care.

good morning. welcome to breakfast with charlie stayt and sally nugent. our headlines today: the royal australian navy is evacuating around 1,000 people from a ring of fire on the victorian coast, with more extreme fire conditions forecast for the weekend. us forces kill the head of the iranian revolutionary guards‘ elite quds force with an airstrike in iraq. who was to blame for the blackout? millions of homes were left without power, and chaos was caused on the trains in the summer. the energy regulator will deliver its verdict on what went wrong and whether it should have been stopped. first illness, now injury hits the england cricket camp.