you are welcome. torrential rain hits parts of spain again, with thousands of residents forced from their homes. and hundreds of tourists facing chaos and delays on the indonesian holiday island of bali after volcanic ash made it too dangerous to fly. welcome to newsday, i'm steve lai. we begin in washington, where in the past few hours, we've seen a wave of key cabinet picks from president—elect donald trump. that includes florida republican congressman matt gaetz as his attorney general. mr trump says he's "a deeply gifted and tenacious attorney".

mr trump also 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. new election results show the president—elect�*s republican party is set for control over both chambers of congress. earlier, the president—elect returned to the oval office for a meeting with presidentjoe biden. they both promised a smooth transfer of power injanuary. congratulations. thank you very much. looking forward to have, like i said, a smooth transition and to do everything we can to make sure you're accommodated with what you need and we're going to get a chance to talk about some of that today. welcome. welcome back. thank you, very much. thank you, very much, and politics is tough. and it's in many cases not a very nice world. it is a nice world today and i appreciate it very much. a transition that is so smooth it will be as smooth

as it can get. i'm spoke with our north america correspondent rowan bridge in washington. i think what you saw today was the start of the process of the transition to the incoming president, you know, the physical manifestation of the outgoing president and incoming president meeting together and there is a sort of public show about that, to represent the peaceful transition of power between the two administrations but also this idea of bringing the nation together, this idea that after a acrimonious battle, both sides can come together and be civil afterwards. now, i think there is an element of show around all of that. it is no secret that donald trump and joe biden don't really like each other, but i think also beyond that element that we saw for the cameras, there were also then almost two hours of discussions between the two men and i suspect they then talked about more substantive issues off camera, the sort of national security

threats the country may face and so on, the sorts of issues that the incoming president needs to know about, but a level of secrecy where they would not be discussing them in public. and strengthening donald trump's hand for when he does take office, the republicans looked to have consolidated their grip in congress. yes, donald trump is perhaps at the zenith of his power, really, at the moment. he holds what they called the trifecta. effectively, donald trump's republican party controls all three elected wings of the us government, so they control the presidency, the lower house — the lower chamber of the house and the upper chamber, the senate, and that puts donald trump in a particular powerful position when it comes to trying get his legislation and agenda through and also what you have seen is the people who have been elected to that incoming congress are also people signed up to donald trump's sort of maga agenda. we've seen, the speaker of the house, mikejohnson has come out talking about how strongly he supports donald trump's agenda.

it may be only be that they have maybe four or five seat majority in the house, so that's going to be something that's going to be somewhat difficult to manage, but donald trump is in a very powerful position, at the moment. he has won the senate, the house, and the presidency, and the popular vote and that gives him an awful lot of sway over those members of congress on how they may vote over tough decisions that donald trump wants them to take. i was joined now by elana schor senior washington editor for semafor, a us news website. matt gaetz for attorney general is one. i asked her about him because he is controversial. matt gaetz, until he resigned from congress this evening was the subject of an ongoing house ethics

committee investigation, that's bipartisan from his own colleagues, regarding allegation of sexual misconduct, drug use and the list goes on. but now that gaetz has resigned following his nomination by trump, that investigation is effectively closed and will not issue a final report. it is a big twist and turn for colleagues who frankly had issues with matt gaetz that stemmed beyong the ethics investigation — he helped fire a house speaker last year from his own party. are there implications for the house majority with him stepping down and taking a cabinet position? there certainly are. as already observed, there's a small majority and one less vote means that house republicans will have to struggle to fund the government over the next few weeks, however there is a timeclock in florida. because gaetz resigned today, he will allow his seat to be filled pretty quickly and thus make it easier for donald trump to have more republican votes while continuing to potentially choose more cabinet members from congress if he likes. talk me through a bit of the process now that we know who trump intends to have in his cabinet, what happens next to be able

to fulfil those roles? the next step for gaetz and pete hegseth, the defense scretary pick, and all others who are senate confirmed, is submitting a ton of paperwork to the us senate which, once republicans take power early next year, and before donald is technically sworn in onjanuary 20, can start the confirmation process. that is not simple because of all those disclosures. nominees that get senat vetting have to submit a lot of information about their finances, nswer any number of detailed questions from senators that can get very, very personal. it would be quite interesting to see how matt gaetz and other nominees approach this. it is no surprise that donald trump floated the idea of recess appointments which would essentially ask the senate to go into break so he could push nominees through without confirmation hearings because then matt gaetz and others would not have to submit to this kind of scrutiny. it seems a bit like gaming the system perhaps. a lot of attention on elon musk and this department

of government efficiency. is there more clarity as to how that would work. it's not an actual department that exists. department is a probably bit of a misnomer because even a statement surrounding its creation noted that musk and ramaswamy would be doing their work outside of government. based on what we know, the best point of comparison would be what is known as the simpsons bowles commission, we're talking years in the past, a commission on a bipartisan basis, notably, which this would not be, which basically assessed the federal government and made recommendations to cut spending. it was funded by congress. folks in washington are generally assuming that it would be similar to that as opposed to an agency and congress would need to create an agency and again a lot of courtesy otherwise. and that is something donald trump would not want to go through.

what are you watching out for while were in the period before trump takes office? i'm watching frankly for how republican senators continued to digest some of these more boundary pushing and unconventional pics of donald trump. trump is really testing his party and it is a reasonable bet they will fall in line, i think because some of these pics are unconventional there is the assumption they might not get through but trump is coming in with clear majorities and a lot of people in the party willing to give him the benefit of the doubt so quite a surprise perhaps for the reception that someone even like matt gaetz might get. large parts of spain are being hit 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 affecting malaga and other parts of southern and eastern spain. 3,000 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 8 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 thing that night. 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. an israeli hostage has

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 7th. 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.

and that video has been of him giving a message to the israeli people and the government essentially saying 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 gaza 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.

we need to see real and extended pauses, and large areas of gaza. pauses and any fighting and in combat. so that the assistance can effectively get to people who need it. there are huge challenges in that regard but we have also seen real solutions. the polio vaccination campaign was the one thing that has been very successful in gaza, hundreds of thousands of children got polio vaccines. but critical to success in doing that was having extended pauses for days notjust having extended pauses for days not just ours as having extended pauses for days notjust ours as is the case right now to make sure everyone ringing assistance in can bring it in and distributed and have space to do that. hopes of a ceasefire between hezbollah and israel are fading, they shared via cross the border, the israel defence

minister said there will be no let up on strike. shortly after hezbollah confirmed it by ballistic missiles at the israeli army headquarters. these are live images from southern beirut you can see smoke and fire in the last hour a number of israeli strikes hit the area after israel sent evacuation warnings to parts of the city. 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. you're live with bbc news. to bali now, where most flights have resumed this morning after several airlines were forced to cancel flights due to dangerous ash clouds from a volcano near the popular indonesian holiday island. over the weekend the mount lewotobi laki—laki volcano unleashed a 9 kilometre ash column into the sky, one week after a major

eruption killed 10 people. for more on the situation on the ground, we spoke to sakshi mishra, a tourist who was stranded in bali after her flight back to india got cancelled. i asked her about what her experience was like when her flights were cancelled yesterday. it was really tough for us because we had booked an airline, which is a domestic airline, and they do not any staff on back office at this particular airport in bali so we could not get in touch with that air line, we were stranded at the airport for hours. the authorities at the airport also could not help us because they did not know who to contact so i had to get in touch with a friend who then had to contact the local domestic airline and they sort of booked us on a flight three days later because there is no available flights today or tomorrow so we are here for another three days. it sounds like it was quite chaotic. it was very chaotic. the airport was flooded with people just

sitting around waiting in line. it was just chaos. you have managed to secure a flight home but that is not for a few days so what happens now? now we have to find our own accommodation and right now, yesterday we managed to book us into a hotel, a airport hotel and we are here and now we have to look for another accommodation because all the hotels around the airport are all booked out because of all the delays that have happened. now flights are starting to take off but we could not manage to get a seat. what do you think you have learned from this experience? bali is a very popular tourist destination,

does it give you second thoughts about coming back? not really. of course, it is a beautiful country and i would want people to visit this country. it is just a natural disaster. just always get a travel insurance done in such situations. i mean, you cannot really do anything about it. it is a lovely country to come to, for sure. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. an appeals court in argentina has upheld former president cristina fernandez de kirchner�*s conviction for corruption. in 2022, she was found guilty of defrauding the state by awarding public contracts to a family friend. she was given a six year prison sentence and declared ineligible to hold elected office. ms fernandez can still appeal to the supreme court. residents of the self—declared independent republic of somaliland cast their ballots on wednesday in a presidential election that was delayed for two years. three candidates are vying for the presidency, including the incumbent, muse bihi abdi, who has held office for seven years. during that time

president bihi has pushed for international recognition but sparked controversy and conflict for delaying this election. as wildfires rip through the us state of newjersey, authorities have issued a drought warning. conditions there are the driest they've been in nearly 120 years. state leaders are now asking people to use less water. it may become a legal demand if conditions do not improve in the coming months. 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 st petersburg". "equipment st 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, but i've heard what his nickname was. his nickname was andruha. this animal was kind of easy, 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 andruha? died when a stick became lodged in his mouth. jonah fisher, bbc news. as we approach the holiday season, a quintessential song is making a come back. # feed the world... 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, bono and sting, alongside harry styles, ed sheeran and the sugababes. the original single in 1984 brought together artists to raise money to fight famine in ethiopia before we go, a mysterious diamond necklace with possible

links to marie antoinette has sold. it may be part of an infamous necklace she was accused of stealing. following her execution, the necklace fell into the ownership of a british aristocrat. thank you for your company. business today is up next. 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, its 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.

amd lays off 4% of its global staff as it focuses on al development. plus bitcoin�*s post—election rally shows no sign of slowing — we will take a look at what the trump administration could mean for the industry. welcome to business today.

chipmaker advanced micro devices plans to lay off about 4% of its global workforce, roughly 1000 jobs out of 26,000. the news comes as amd and other chipmakers like nvidia and intel are locked in a race to release newer, more powerful ai chips. we have more from new york. the generative ai craze has been powered by the nvidia graphics processing unit, or gpus, turning the chipmaker into the world's most valuable company. as the second biggest producer of gpus, amd is playing catch up, with these layoffs part of the efforts to position itself to take advantage of that al boom. in a statement, the company told the bbc... they would not say which areas

or which sectors of the company these layoffs would affect but as everyone gets more