this is bbc news. us president elect donald trump prepares to select members of his future government. kamala harris concedes, urging supporters not to despair, whilst president biden is due to address the nation. lebanese health officials say at least 55 people were killed by israeli raids in the eastern baalbek—hermel region. and the bank of england cuts uk interest rates for a second time this year to 4.75%. more protests take place in israel following the sacking of defence minister yoav gallant. at a security summit, french president emmanuel macron says europe must "write its own history" and must not "delegate forever" its security to us. hello, i m geeta guru—murthy,

welcome to bbc news now. as the seismic political change in the us sinks in, we ask what will the next trump presidency look like— in both personnel and policy. mrtrump is said to be considering candidates for the topjobs in his administration — whilejoe biden is preparing to address the nation from the rose garden, in the next two hours. earlier, the president called donald trump and invited him for talks at the white house. with the latest here's jessica parker. kamala harris strode onto the stage smiling through a crushing defeat and insisting her cause will continue. on the campaign i would often say, when we fight, we win. but here's the thing. here is the thing. sometimes the fight takes a while. that doesn't mean we won't win. but the democratic party is on its way out

of the white house. presidentjoe biden will address the nation today as he prepares to hand over power to this man, donald trump, posing for what is not quite a family photo. there is tech billionaire elon musk, a major donor and promoter of donald trump. now touted for a role in the president elect�*s team. the future is going to be amazing. these stands are being put up for donald trump's inauguration injanuary, but when he lost the election four years ago he refused to concede defeat and his supporters stormed congress. this time the transfer of power looks set to be more routine and when donald trump does get the keys to the white house, he will really know his way around. it's a prospect that frightens his opponents but excites his supporters. what's so great about a trump win is everybody wins.

the economy is booming today, the stock market is up. all boats float. i mean, trump has a great game plan. from what he says, i hope he sticks to it and we will see a greater america. donald trump's white house return will make history. he will be the first convicted felon to serve as president after a jury found he'd falsified business records. but that and other criminal allegations didn't end his political career, far from it. this was his first inauguration, second time around, donald trump looks to be more powerful than ever. jessica parker, bbc news in washington, dc. earlier, our correspondent helena humphrey joined us from florida and mrtrump�*s mar—a—lago estate — and gave us the latest. he will be naming his cabinet,

we know that some names are swirling because we know he often records his loyalists to top positions, and some of the names people are looking at, elon musk, and in a tweet from tiffany trump, family photo, elon musk is pictured there and we know on the campaign trail donald trump said many times that he could name elon musk to his cabinet to cut down on government waste, although we're not sure exactly that would entail. another name that is widely circulating, robert f kennedyjunior, the former presidential candidate, he came out and throw his support behind donald trump. donald trump has said he can do what he wants when it comes to food and medicines, potentially naming him to the health agency. looking at his previous comments, he's a vaccine sceptic and has circulated conspiracy theories when it comes to hiv aids and has said

he may ban some vaccines. he would have to be approved by the senate. when it comes to issues like foreign conflicts, of course, some names are being looked at, mike pompeo, previously us secretary of state, he be named to defence, and then another name that is being spoken about, marco rubio, the florida senator, he has said he does not believe further aid should be provided to ukraine, something we have heard from trump supporters when we have spoken to them across the country, so just some of the names that are currently being spoken about right now. hilario deleon is the chairman of the republican party of milwaukee county, and catherine whiteford is the co—chair of the young republican national federation — they both gave us their view on what they expect from the next trump presidency. you know, i'm just really excited because i think that a lot of us weren't expecting for the outcome to be

such a resounding victory. but i'm really looking forward to making america healthy again, making america prosperous again. i think that a lot of young americans, um, were worried that the american dream was something that was out of reach or something that wasn't going to be something that they could also see that their parents were able to have. and so, i mean, for me, being somebody whojust got married last year, that's something that's been on my husband and is mind is trying to figure out, can we ever afford a home? the housing crisis has been absolutely terrible. um, the cost of living, obviously, the economy is the number one issue as a woman. immigration is also an issue because i think that a lot of us are worried, like, hey, can i even walk on the street safely? um, and worry about who's going to be on that street, potentially going to assault me or rape me. um, and so those are the types

of things that i think that everyone�*s kind of breathing a sigh of relief as far as that we have somebody who has talked very strongly about those issues and wanting to make a change. hilario, what are you hoping to see from trump when he comes into office? well, it's an exciting time right now. history is unfolding before our very eyes, and we're seeing right now, uh, gearing up with the transition team. we didn't have a transition team back in 2016, but now we have a transition team ready to interview and find the people that we need for this next administration, for president trump. we're excited to see, currently, world leaders are calling around the world congratulating president elect trump on his victory and gearing up to be prepared to take care of the issues on the world stage. as a county party chairman of one of the most important counties here in the united states and also that helped deliver the victory for president trump, we are hearing that people are breathing a sigh of relief.

can ijust ask you because i know that you are latino yourself, and there was surprise to a degree as to how well donald trump did with parts of the latino population. do you worry at all about his language on deportations, for example, or do you think there is support for strong action there? i think there's support for strong action for mass deportations. that's why we saw an increase of voter percentage, even here in the state of wisconsin, where president trump won 42% of hispanics. uh, definitely a major increase, uh, than the previous election. people are, uh, very frustrated and worried about the issues of the gangs such as ms—13, tren de aragua, that are out here in these communities. the cartels are bringing drugs into our country and working with citizens.

on the issues such as human trafficking, milwaukee is a hub. even though we're nowhere near the southern border, we're a hub for human trafficking. so when president trump talks about mass deportations, those are the people that we're going after. what do you understand yourself by? you know, actually what could happen with mass deportations? just briefly. i mean, we're going after these criminal gang members who are out here killing our citizens. but does that mean the police? does it mean the military? does it mean how do you think it's going to operate? the president can't. .. the president cannot deploy us troops on soil. we can use the national guard. we can use ice. we can use local law enforcement. we're going to refuse aid to or prevent sanctuary cities from happening. and so that's where local law enforcement, collaborating with groups like ice and others and other law enforcement agencies come into play so those are things that we'll probably see and this fear mongering of the president

sending people to kick doors open to break families up is just ridiculous. we didn't have that. thank you. let me just bring in catherine. you mentioned the economic side. inflation has been a key concern for voters. what are you expecting practically donald trump to be able to do, and how quickly do you want to see a turnaround? i think that we saw that when he was president the first time around back in 2016. i mean, we all saw more money in our pockets because we had lower taxes. um, and so that those are the types of things that i think are going to be seen fairly quickly. um, but also on the foreign policy side, i think that that's going to be helpful as well as far as gas prices going down. but but i think that foreign policy is something that also, i personally am very excited to see that we have a strong leader. peace through strength. i think that that's a very important thing. do you believe donald trump when he says he can end a war with ukraine, for example, within 2a hours? well, i think that it's pretty

clear, because putinjust said yesterday that he's open to negotiations to end the war in ukraine. and he said thatjust yesterday, and trump isn't even in office yet. so i think that that's a very likely possibility. nato secretary general, mark rutte, says he hopes that america's allies will be able to work together with president elect donald trump. he made this commentjust before a summit of european leaders who are discussing donald trump's victory and its impact on the security of the continent. mr rutter expressed particular concern over russia enlisting north korea's help in the war in ukraine. one of the things they are doing is delivering technology to north korea, which is now threatening the in the future, the mainland of the us, continental europe, but also our partners in the indo—pacific, japan, for example, and the republic of korea.

so these are really dangerous new developments, and we need to discuss that today. but i also look forward to sitting down with president trump and to navigate how collectively, we will make sure that we face this threat and that we keep our part of the world safe. the bank of england has cut interest rates, from 5% to 4.75%. it's the second cut this year. the governor of the bank of england, andrew bailey, said the cut — agreed by the bank's monetary policy committee — had been made possible because inflation had fallen below the government's 2% target. the chancellor, rachel reeves, said the cut would be welcome news for millions of families. and there'll be more on the cut in interest rates in the uk on business today at 1430 gmt. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

cheshire police have charged the mp, mike amesbury,

with common assault after video footage emerged appearing to show him punching a man in the street. mr amesbury, who's 55, and represents runcorn and helsby, will appear in court at a later date. he's been suspended from the parliamentary labour party. let's speak to our political correspondent hannah miller. my my amesbury was suspended from the labour party ten days ago after the video emerged showing him punching another man —— mike. the incident happened in the early hours of saturday morning, the 26th of october, now police say that the mp has been charged with common assault. at the time amesbury said he had felt threatened and today he described the incident as deeply regrettable, he said he is continuing to cooperate with police and cannot comment further given that this is an

ongoing investigation. the prime minister previously described the footage as shocking and he's not commenting today and the labour party have not responded to our request. amesbury has been the mp since 2017, the mp for runcorn he has had shadow ministry roles in opposition, and now he has been charged with common assault, although a court date has not been set. thanks forjoining us. let's head to germany now where a political crisis has erupted — and snap elections could be called as early as next month. the three—party coalition has collapsed after chancellor olaf scholz, sacked his finance minister. he said christian lindner, who leads the free democrats, had broken his trust too often, making serious government work impossible. three other ministers were also dismissed triggering a vote of confidence in olaf scholz�*s now minority administration.

our correspondent damian mcguinness is in berlin — he's been explaining the reasons behind this break down. really, it's about money. so you've got two different camps within this now collapsed coalition government. one is led by chancellor olaf scholz, his centre left social democrats and the greens. they say you need to spark the economy by taking on new debt to deal with the current crises, including russia's invasion of ukraine, and help industry and fulfil the transformation to green energy. but the free market liberals, who until yesterday were the third party in that three way coalition, believe ideologically that that's not the right way to go. and they want to cut taxes, they want to not take on new debt, and they want to cut welfare payments as well. so it's two opposing visions, really, of how you get an economy going. and for the past year, really we've seen arguments over that. and every time a new budget has had to be agreed upon,

there's been rows and there's been, you know, something that's really irritated voters. you can see that in poll numbers. and that really came to a head this week, and particularly last night when the last crisis meeting, it was clear that those differences were irreconcilable. and that's why olaf scholz decided to sack the finance minister, who he said was acting irresponsibly and not willing to compromise for the good of germany. but of course, you know, those on the right would say, well, actually, it's olaf scholz who's not doing enough because he is stuck to an old model of how to finance germany. so it's really two views of how to get the economy going. and i think that's what we're seeing now, effectively, election season is kicking off with those two competing views now competing for the attention of voters. the lebanese army says an israeli strike near an army checkpoint in the southern city of sidon has killed three people and wounded seven others — including four united nations peacekeepers. the strike targeted a car —

while it was passing the checkpoint — killing all three people inside. the injured un peacekeepers were also passing through the checkpoint at the time. meanwhile, the israeli military says 5 israeli soldiers were killed and 16 others wounded in combat in southern lebanon inrecent weeks. more protests have been taking place in israel following the sacking of defence minister yoav gallant. demonstrators took to the streets ofjerusalem last night, after riots and road closures around the cities of haifa and tel aviv on tuesday. the protesters called on prime minister benjamin netenyahu to resign, after he sacked mr gallant for what he called a "crisis of trust." the pair have had a tumultuous relationship ever since netanyahu first tried to sack gallant in march 2023 for opposing his plans to overhaul the judiciary. since then they've had strong disagreements on how to conduct the war in gaza. our correspondentjoe inwood is in jerusalem. so we have seen a couple of nights of protests now. the first night we saw riot police, we saw horses, they even used something called

skunk water, a smelly water, to try and disperse the crowds. and it shows you the strength of feeling amongst some here about the decision to remove yoav gallant as defence minister. the reason people feel so strongly about this is because in many ways he was seen as one of the last voices in the cabinet of benjamin netanyahu that really challenged him, that really presented a different view of things. the position of benjamin netanyahu was that trust had broken down and that is why he needed to go. but when the defence minister, former defence minister i should say, resigned, he painted a rather different picture. he said there were three key areas of disagreement between the two. number one was the need for a hostage deal. he said it would be painful for the country but it was a compromise that they could do. the second one is to do with conscription. in this country, all israelis have to serve in the armed forces but there are exemptions for members of the ultraorthodox community and that is something yoav gallant wanted to change, but something the prime minister was opposed to because his coalition government depends on the support of

ultraorthodox parties. and then finally there is the need for an inquiry into the events of october the 7th. it was those three points that proved irreconcilable between these two men and it's seen yoav gallant lose his job and it's now seen these protests and also a challenge in the courts. but the court today did decide that benjamin netanyahu was within the law to fire yoav gallant. interesting timing given this is the week of the us election, as everyone waits to see what change that will bring. yes, absolutely. this happened just a few hours before polls closed in america. we don't know if there was a connection or if it wasjust coincidence. something like this would be making front—page headlines around the world in any other time, but it was rather overshadowed by events in america. but there is a connection between them. potentially, the direction of travel it shows for israel's wars against hamas in gaza and hezbollah in lebanon.

and the feeling is that yoav gallant, although he was pro—war, to many he was seen as hawkish, in the context of this government he was seen as something of a moderating force. and the man who replaces him, israel katz, is seen as much more in line with benjamin netanyahu. now that, combined with the arrival of donald trump in the white house, someone who is seen as being very supportive of israel, has led some to think that this is going to give netanyahu more of a free reign in how he does things. it is worth pointing out there is another school of thought here and we really don't know which one of these is going to prove to be the case, but donald trump said in his speech declaring victory that he would end wars. there have been reports in authoritative newspapers here in israel saying that donald trump, when he met benjamin netanyahu in mar—a—lago injuly, that he had said to him he wanted to see the wars that israel was carrying out finished by the time he took office. now, that i think is onjanuary the 20th. and there is a school

of thought that it might be that the arrival of donald trump will actually hasten the end of this conflict. but it really is worth pointing out that as with anything with donald trump and foreign policy, we really are guessing. some other news now. we have pitches in california for continuing wildfires. thousand people have been under evacuation orders in southern california is the fast moving fires have engulfed homes and there is a red flag alert. describing the situation was particularly dangerous. thick smoke and flames there spread over thousands of acres with hundreds of firefighters. this is north—west of los angeles, and there have been some injuries and the governor

govern newsome said it has prompted evacuation orders for around 10,000 people and threatened to thousand 500 structures. the fai expanded yesterday after powerful wins —— the fire expanded yesterday after powerful winds. they have burned three times as much land as they did last year. australia could become the first country in the world to ban children under 16 from using social media. the prime minister, anthony albanese, says his government will introduce new legislation next week. katy watson sent this report. it's been called world first legislation, bold plans australia's government says will protect kids from the dangers of social media. new rules will mean accessing apps like instagram, facebook, tiktok and x will be off—limits

to anybody under 16. the details of the legislation haven't yet been debated. it is expected to be introduced to parliament this month. but there won't be any exemptions to the rules, not even with parental consent. there won't be any penalties for young people or their parents either. the government says the onus will be on social media platforms to show they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access. once the law is passed, it will be another 12 months until it comes into force, giving social media companies enough time to work out how to block access to under 16 is. this one is for the mums and the dads. social media is doing harm to our kids and i'm calling time on it. i've spoken to thousands of parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles. they, like me, i worried sick about the safety of our kids online.

and i want australian parents and families to note that the government has your back. while the proposal has cross—party support there is concern about how it will work in practice. there has also been criticism over the approach with some experts arguing that a ban just delays a child's exposure to social media, it doesn't teach them how to stay safe online. in the uk, labour mp said last month he wanted to see stricter in the uk, a labour mp said last month he wanted to see stricter controls on smartphones including a ban in schools. but previous attempts at restricting access, including in the eu, have faced backlash from tech firms. even so, plenty of countries will be looking to australia as a model to replicate. katy watson, bbc news, in sydney. these are pictures from washington as the preparations for the inauguration ceremony get under way. that will be for donald trump injanuary. all eyes now on who he appoints to his new administration. stay with us here on bbc news.

many parts of the uk, the weather will be pretty cloudy, and we're not going to change pretty much, but for some expect something a bit brighter, and this from yesterday shows a flat layer of cloud, being pushed over the brecon beacons down the other side, and warming up on the other side, side, and warming up on the otherside, mixing side, and warming up on the other side, mixing with slightly drier air, and the cloud breaking up, and the same sort of thing is happening today. the cloud cannot get over the mountains of northern scotland, so glorious sunshine here and a similar picture for and parts of cumbria and parts of cornwall as well. if the sunshine comes out it is feeling pretty pleasant with temperatures as high as 18 in northern scotland, 17 in western areas of wales, and if you are stuck under the cloud which most of us are, temperatures around 12, and the

weather feels quite cool, but occasionally spits of drizzle as well. overnight the cloud remains and the drizzle becomes more extensive and we also see a return of some mist and fog patches, especially over hills, and the temperatures drifting down to between eight and 11 but it could be very mild in some of the sheltered glens of scotland. friday, a similar story, pretty cloudy all day for most, drizzle giving way to dry weather conditions, but the cloud stubborn and reluctant to break, and to the north and west of higher ground it is here that we see the best of the sunshine, so probably northern scotland that will have the best prospects of seeing something a bit brighter. we start to see slow weather changes into the weekend, weak weather front approaching the west with thick cloud and a patch of light rain, better chance of breaks in the cloud for eastern scotland and north—east england, with temperatures ranging from around 12—16 where the sunshine comes out, it

should not feel too bad, and on sunday we have weather fronts across the uk brings deco cloud and outbreaks of rain and strong winds across scotland but at least that will have some breaks in the cloud to the east of higher ground. temperatures on sunday ranging from 13—16, and into next week, pretty unsettled, with rain or showers in the forecast. goodbye for now.

live from new york at the opening bell, this is business today. wall street looks set to continue its election rally, as the us prepares for the next four years under a new leadership. the bank of england cuts interest rates for the second time this year, but warns inflation is on the rise. here in the us, we're also expecting an interest rate cut later today. we'll take a look at how the election result may impact the fed's thinking. plus, as trump vows to put america first, its major trading partners fear another trade war may be looming. welcome to business today, live from new york. i'm ritika gupta. where us stocks continue on a post—election rally. more on the markets in a moment, but let's start in the uk, where the bank of england has cut interest rates for the second time this year. the bank cut interest rates

to 4.75%, a decision that was widely predicted, but warned inflation is likely