i'm sumi somaskanda. we begin with fast—moving developments on capitol hill. donald trump's newest cabinet pick. florida congressman matt gaetz has just announced he is resigning from congress. the news comes hours after mr trump tapped him to serve as attorney general. gaetz�*s resignation will leave republicans down by one seat in the house of representatives, though they are still projected to retain control with a slim majority following last week's election. republicans already flipped the senate, the upper chamber of congress — giving them control of two branches of government heading into donald trump's next term. republican senators on wednesday picked john thune as their leader — and mikejohnson is set to return as speaker of the house. in the past hour, johnson explained why matt gaetz has decided to step down — leading to a special eleciton before january.

he issued his resignation letter effective immediately of congress, that quite a surprise a little bit. i done congress. matt would have done us a great service by making a decision which he did. the news follows a flurry of other key cabinet picks from president—elect donald trump in the past few hours. mr trump plans to nominate florida republican senator marco rubio as secretary of state. and he tapped former democratic congresswoman tulsi gabbard as his director of

national intelligence. it is important to note these roles require senate approval. earlier, the president—elect returned to the oval office for a meeting with presidentjoe biden. it was for the first time since mr trump won back the white house. both men promised a smooth transfer of power injanuary. our north america editor, sarah smith has been tracking trump's return to washington and has the latest. a cordial handshake in front of a blazing fire. it's all very grown—up, as the 81—year—old president creates his 78—year—old successor. well, mr president—elect and former president... thank you. ..donald, congratulations. thank you. joe biden promises a smooth transition to the man who declined to invite him to the white house four years ago. thank you very much and politics is tough, and it's...in many cases, not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today, and i appreciate it very much. donald trump last left the white house in disgrace

four years ago, refusing to admit he had lost the election. and i just want to say goodbye, but hopefully it's not a long—term goodbye. we will see each other again. melania didn't come back with him today, nor is she expected to be moving into the house full—time. enjoying a victory lap, he met the congressional republicans who are now projected to win the house of representatives as well as the senate, a clean sweep that donald trump is taking credit for. well, thank you very much, this is a very nice gathering, isn't it nice to win? it's nice to win. it's always nice to win. the full—blown bromance between donald trump and elon musk has landed him the job of radically slashing spending and dramatically reducing the size of the government. in charge of defence, a fox news tv presenter who can't throw in axe. the drummer was lucky to not be seriously injured. the military establishment don't know what's about to hit them. well, first of all, you've got to fire, you know, you've got to fire the chairman ofjoint chiefs, obviously you've got to bring

in a new secretary of defence, any general that was involved, general, admiral that was involved in any of the dei woke bleep has got to go. for his secretary of state, mr trump has picked an old foe, senator marco rubio. they were trading insults eight years ago back when trump called him "little marco". the guy with the worst spray tan in america is attacking me for putting on make—up! applause donald trump likes to sue people, he should sue whoever did that to his face! but now rubio has been rewarded for his vocal support with thejob of america's top diplomat. because together with donald trump, we are going to make america notjust great, but greater than it has ever been before! well, i'm honoured to be here with my colleagues from... as attorney general, ultra maga representative matt gaetz can drop all federal charges against donald trump and lead investigations into political opponents. he will be in charge of a justice department

who investigated him for child sex trafficking but did not bring criminal charges. donald trump is planning a total takeover of the white house, making sweeping changes on every front, and he's bringing with him the people he believes will make that happen. sarah smith, bbc news, washington. one of the president—elect�*s key priorities during the campaign was the economy. for more on what we might see during his second term is tomas philipson, former acting chairman of the council of economic advisers during trump's first administration. i want to start with the appointments we have seen so far. susie wiles as chief of staff. what do you think that tells us about donald trump �*s nike plans to implement his economic policy in particular? there is a lot of discussion in the background but he is starting with his foreign policy and national security

team. i policy and national security team. ~ ., , , policy and national security team. ~, ., _ , , team. i think obviously this is a much more _ team. i think obviously this is a much more disciplined - team. i think obviously this is a much more disciplined and| a much more disciplined and quick effort than in 2016 when there was a huge surprise that he one essentially. we are only about eight days after the election and he is pumping up cabinet members. already this is obviously something that was liberated before the election and we have seen the fruits of that now coming out. probably the economic team will be rolled out fairly soon. if you look at the _ rolled out fairly soon. if you look at the core _ rolled out fairly soon. if you look at the core tenants - rolled out fairly soon. if you look at the core tenants of. look at the core tenants of donald trump's economic policy on the campaign trail went popular with tariffs. he talked about 20% of tax on all imports from all countries, to 60% rate for chinese goods. do you think we will see that implemented? if you look at the past, the way we use tariffs on the past it was minutes unpaid and negotiations. for example weaver in france with a wine tariff, big export for them.

when they were threatening with digital tax or tariffs on our technology companies in europe. that did not amount to anything. it was a threat used. we did the same in mexico regarding border security. it was a huge tariff but in mexico. some isjust negotiation i believe in terms of setting the tone but it is true europe, they are having higher tariffs on us than we have on europe. some of it is also trying to co—ordinate tariff policy that is more equal with reciprocity if other economies are willing to come down, the intent is to have us come down as well.— down, the intent is to have us come down as well. what about the relationship _ come down as well. what about the relationship with _ come down as well. what about the relationship with china - come down as well. what about the relationship with china in i the relationship with china in particular? donald trump floated a 50% tariff rate for chinese goods. do you think that as a negotiating tactic or something we could actually see? are you concerned about the prospect of a trade war with china? he

the prospect of a trade war with china?— the prospect of a trade war with china? . , , ., with china? he was the first to raise this _ with china? he was the first to raise this issue _ with china? he was the first to raise this issue in _ with china? he was the first to raise this issue in the - with china? he was the first to raise this issue in the us - with china? he was the first to raise this issue in the us that. raise this issue in the us that we had enormous problem with in china stealing our intellectual property and forcing technology transfer over there. they are treating us horribly and there are markets where as we are treating them very nicely. the world trade organisation are living in privileged status even though they are misbehaving at home. he was the first to raise that and now it is completely bipartisan issue and it is spreading to europe to initiate they are now accommodating. whether or not it is 60% or not, i don't know but that is different from the other countries we are talking about because there was both a military threat and regime bread that makes the chinese tariffs different. if bread that makes the chinese tariffs different.— tariffs different. if we talk about the _ tariffs different. if we talk about the prospect - tariffs different. if we talk about the prospect of - tariffs different. if we talk. about the prospect of tariffs, economists are concerned about the prospect of higher tariffs leading to higher consumer

prices in the us at a time when voters really did vote on inflation and affordability. what do you think we will see donald trump do to address that? . , , donald trump do to address that? . ' , , ., that? tariffs, there is a misperception - that? tariffs, there is a misperception because | that? tariffs, there is a - misperception because tariffs don't cause inflation, because higher prices and industries, when economists talk about inflation particular economy wide price increases, they can only be caused by fiscal spending policy on monetary policy that was very close to covid. it is not surprising you have inflation after that. important thing to remember is the republican platform is to lower domestic taxes on companies such as the corporate tax rate and increase tariffs, essentially tax on foreign companies. it is substitution from domestic taxes to foreign taxes and people don't

understand that, on the tariff itself. presumably the lowering of domestic taxes were lower prices even though they are in of tariffs on foreign companies might raise them but it is only one side the picture when you talk about the potential tariff increase. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news in the uk. the father of 10—year—old sara sharif who was found dead at her home in surrey has told a court that he now accepts full responsibility for her death. urfan sharif had denied killing her but today he told the court "she died because of me." but he insisted he did not intend to kill her. his daughter's body was found with dozens of injuries at the family's home in woking last year. the diy store homebase has collapsed into administration, putting 2,000 jobs at risk. its owner hilco had been looking to sell the struggling retailer, but has not managed to find an outright buyer. the owner of homeware chain the range is buying up to 70

stores and the brand name. more than 100 post office branches could potentially close, putting a thousand jobs at risk in a major restructuring of the business. the plans aim to put the business on a firmer financial footing. it comes as the long—running inquiry into the horizon it scandal heads into its final stages. we have more on all of the stories on our website. an israeli hostage appeared under duress in a video released on wednesday by palestinian islamichhad. the bbc does not broadcast videos of hostages but this image shows alexander trufanov, who was abducted from a kibbutz near the gaza strip. he was held in gaza with his girlfriend, sapir cohen, after hamas' attack on october 7. mr trufanov�*s mother has urged the israeli government and international community to make every effort

to free him and all the other abductees as "they don't have time". he's been held captive for 404 days and turns 29 this week. our correspondentjonathan beale has more from jerusalem. this is a video released by palestinian islamichhad of the group along with hamas they carried out the attacks over a year ago on october seven that killed more than 1000 israelis, 250 taken hostage, 100 of those still held in captivity. one of thoseis still held in captivity. one of those is this man and be video has been of him giving a message to the israeli people and the government essentially same conditions are very difficult, food, sanitary conditions very difficult, no soap. he says he does not want to see an israeli military operation carried out to rescue him, he wants a deal essentially and that is the view is family who responded to this video calling it horrific

and calling on the government to do a deal to get the hostages released. he also says at the end of this video he misses his friends and family and misses his freedom and he is appealing to israel do not forget us. what is the likelihood of a deal? it does not seem much chance at the moment while israel continues its military operations which has intensified in gaza particularly in the north. the humanitarian situation is pretty dire. lack of food inside guards at the moment. civilians obviously being killed as israel targets militants. the us has been putting pressure on them to do more. they say israel have taken important steps but as long as israel continues military operations, it is difficult to see a deal being done. the 30 day aid deadline has passed for israel, but the us says it will

continue to provide security assistance in its fight against hamas. as the deadline passed, israel announced it would open a new aid crossing into gaza. while israel says it has met most of the 16 demands from washington, aid agencies argue israel has failed completely and that the amount of aid entering gaza is at its lowest level in a year. speaking at the nato military alliance headquarters in brussels, secretary of state antony blinken said the us needs to see longer pauses of fighting in gaza. israel has accomplished the goals itself for itself. it was rightly determined to make sure, to the best of its ability, that october 7 could never happen again. to do that, it said it needed to dismantle the military organisation of hamas and to get the leadership that was responsible for october 7. it has done both of those things. the bbc has travelled to the demilitarised buffer zone between israel and syria, where the united nations has accused israel of violating

a 1974 ceasefire agreement between the two countries. the un's disengagement observer forceclaims that israeli trenches, vehicles and personnel have crossed into the demilitarised area in the past few months. israel denies those allegations, saying it's operating to boost defences on its territory. israeli military previously accused syria of daily breaches of the agreement. our middle east correspondent lucy williamson sent this report from the occupied golan heights. already fighting wars on two of its borders, israel has been quietly building trenches along its buffer zone with syria. un monitors here watch the demilitarised strip between the two countries 24 hours a day. they've invited us to their camp overlooking the fence to share what they've seen. all along this frontier, israel has been building new trenches and earth berms. we filmed this footage last month near the town of majdal

shams. and this a few miles further south. the buffer zone with syria begins some 50 metres inside this fence. most of israel's new construction doesn't cross into it, but the un says some has, describing it as severe violations. where the trenches have been dug, we evaluate that some part of the trench has penetrated. how many locations? approximately five. that's a guess. rough. i haven't been there. by how much are you being told? a couple of metres in each case. satellite footage shows new construction along large stretches of the frontier. the un says trenches have crossed into the demilitarised zone in several places, and that military vehicles and personnel have too. it says it has repeatedly protested to israel. israel's army says the trenches

are to protect against infiltration by iran—backed groups in syria, and do not break its ceasefire agreement. i can tell you that israeli officials have been communicating with the un, talking about these issues, and i can tell you idf is operating on israeli territory, making sure that a terror invasion is not possible, making sure we are defending our borders. a year of escalating conflict with iranian allies across the region has left its mark here. iran—backed groups in syria and iraq have been sending drones and missiles across this border. israeli forces have been shooting them down. israel is already fighting iranian allies across the region. but more than a year into this conflict, friction is also being felt along its quietest frontier. lucy williamson, bbc news, the occupied golan heights. elsewhere, hopes for a ceasefire between israel

and hezbollah are fading as the two exchanged heavy fire on wednesday across their shared border. israel's new defence minister said there will be no let up in the war against hezbollah as israeli forces launched a barrage of strikes targetting southern beirut. shortly after, hezbollah confirmed it fired ballistic missiles at israel's army headquarters. large parts of spain are being lashed with more torrential rain, just two weeks after more than 220 people died in flash flooding in valencia. it's the same weather system that is hitting malaga and other parts of southern and eastern spain. 3000 people were told to leave their homes in malaga. this map shows the areas worst affected. valencia which is still recovering from a year's worth of rain injust eight hours last month — may now be hit with several months of rainfall. from spain, here's nick beake: more misery heaped on spain. this was malaga today. streets submerged again and struggles to reach safety. this has been a brutal

time for the country, after it was gripped by the worst floods in generations. it's estimated 100,000 cars were destroyed a fortnight ago. that's nothing compared to the human cost. yesterday, we filmed as they searched for two brothers, who'd been swept away by the torrent. neighbours told us how the boys had been ripped from their dad's arms, after a truck had smashed open their house. today it was announced the bodies of five—year—old izan and three—year—old ruben had been found. their family said they had no words to convey their loss. this was paiporta two weeks ago today, where more than 60 people were killed, one of the communities worst hit. lourdes and her brother showed us how high the flood came in. the water then disappeared, but anger here is only rising.

translation: this is shameful. we feel abandoned. for four days we didn't see the army coming to help. we need more troops. translation: we feel locked in here. - there are no roads. this is horrible. we lost everything here in this town. everything. the loss has sparked a huge collective effort, while spain's politicians trade in a bitter blame game. for two weeks now, day in, day out, volunteers have been coming here to valencia from right across spain, each person playing their own small part. they've achieved a lot already, but just look at what they've still got to do here. this is a massive undertaking. amid all this, incredible stories are still emerging. the man at an english language

school who smashed open a door and one by one rescued four trapped children. we tracked down daniel, who relived the rescue for us. he's been hailed as the hero of paiporta. translation: there are a lot of people who did the same i many heroes like me, if you want to call us that. ifeel good because i feel the love of the people around here. i was the one who was filmed, but there were many, many other heroes. tonight, more downpours, more red alerts. more heroics may well be needed in the hours to come. nick beake, bbc news, valencia. we may finally have an answer as to whether a beluga whale really was trained as a russian spy. the white whale swam up to fishermen in norway wearing a suspicious harness five years ago. now a marine scientist who was working in russia at the time has told the bbc she's certain it escaped from a russian military facility. our environment correspondent jonah fisher reports. april 2019, a beluga whale wearing a harness approaches a fishing boat in norwegian waters. it appears to need help,

and the fishermen remove the harness and in the process reveal a startling detail. equipment, saint petersburg. equipment, saint petersburg, the buckle says. could the whale have come from russia? might it even have been trained to spy? freed from the harness, the tame beluga certainly enjoyed the attention, becoming a celebrity in the nearby harbour of hammerfest, where it was given the name hvaldimir. at one point, it even recovered a dropped mobile phone. but in the five years since then, no—one has got to the bottom of exactly what hvaldimir was up to...until now. i was one of the leading beluga scientists in russia.

dr olga shpak has told the new bbc documentary that she believes the whale fled russian military training. i can't fully disclose the contacts where i got this information from. i've heard what his nickname was. his nickname was andryukha. this animal was kind of easy to train in terms that it was inquisitive and active, but at the same time it had the character that it often did what he wanted to do. so it seemed like no—one was surprised that it actually just escaped. satellite images suggest whales are being kept alongside a russian submarine base. dr shpak told us they were most likely being used as guards, not spies. sadly, there is no happy ending. two months ago, the beluga's lifeless body was found floating off the coast of norway. so, had putin's russia caught up with the whale that got away?

in this case, it appears the answer is no. the norwegian authorities say hvaldimir, or should that be, andryukha, died when a stick became lodged in his mouth. jonah fisher, bbc news. several airlines have cancelled flights to and from bali due to dangerous ash clouds from a volcano near the indonesian qantas, jetstar and virgin australia told passengers of the disruptions on wednesday. they said the ash from mount lewotobi laki—laki made it unsafe to fly. the volcano spewed an ash column nine kilometres into the sky over the weekend, just a week after another major eruption killed 10 people. as we approach the holiday season, a quintessential song is making a comeback. band aid's �*do they know it's christmas?�* is releasing an "ultimate" version of the track to mark the song's 40th anniversary. it features voices of

the original singers as well as younger artists. the new version includes the late george michael, and bono and sting. alongside harry styles, ed sheeran and the sugababes. the original single was set up by bob geldof and midge ure in 1984. it brought together artists to raise money to fight famine in ethiopia. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there! big changes on the way later this weekend — more on that in a moment. yesterday, well, we had some sunshine around. more of it more widely actually, but not everywhere, of course, towards northern ireland, some western parts of scotland, much more cloud. and that's moving its way southwards at the moment. it's coming in around this area of high pressure, a couple of weak weather fronts on the scene, too — this one here bringing

a little rain southwards across england and wales. but because we've got more cloud around, it's not going to be as cold to start with on thursday morning. could be a few mist and fog patches, mind you, across southwest scotland and the northwest of england. those will lift, it'll cloud over in the northwest of england, turn more cloudy in western scotland, and we'll keep the cloud across northern ireland. elsewhere, there could be a bit of sunshine, but not as much sunshine as we had on wednesday. the cloud and any drizzle clearing southern england, and it should brighten up a bit in the afternoon. temperatures typically 11 or 12 degrees, maybe a bit higher than that in the far northwest, with the winds coming in from the atlantic around the top of that high pressure. that's going to get squeezed a bit, mind you, on friday, this weather front eventually bringing some rain towards the northwest of scotland by the end of the day. ahead of that, the southwesterly wind will be freshening, blowing in this cloud, a few spots of rain for western hills and coasts. further south, where the winds are lighter in south wales, the midlands and southern england, there could be some early mist and fog and then some sunshine around here. temperatures nine or ten

degrees perhaps, but milder further north, where we've got the stronger winds. and that rain that's in the north west of scotland will be pushing its way into england and wales on saturday again. it's quite light and patchy rain. and to the north the winds are picking up again, especially in northern scotland. and this is where we'll see the bulk of the showers getting blown in, and things are starting to get a little bit colder here across scotland, whereas further south temperatures still into double figures. so things are changing over the weekend. pressure is going to be dropping and we're going to find some weather fronts arriving and rain developing more widely on sunday. but what happens after that is the wind direction changes, the air coming, if anything, all the way down from the arctic, that colder air is pushing its way southwards. so a big change in the weather for the beginning of next week. it's going to be feeling a lot colder. daytime temperatures typically only six degrees. and i think overnight, we're going to have some frost around as well. and there could even be a bit of snow over some parts of scotland.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme.

against the background of rising nationalism, some french africans are leaving france for good. they're part of what's being called a silent exodus. this is theirjourney from france to africa, and a search for a place they feel they can call home.