i'm sumi somaskanda. thanks for joining us. donald trump is about to make a speech. he selected from a political driver robert f kennedy selected from a political driver robert f kenneder to leave the department of health and human services. he made the announcement on his truth social platform. doug collins is his pick for us

solicitor general, john sauer. the most recent nominations come as a previous one faces backlash on capitol hill. both parties called for the release of a report on thursday into the former congressman matt gates. that's his nomination for attorney general. he was the subject of an investigation by the house into allegations of sexual trafficking and illicit drug use which he denies. jessica parker is standing by for us in florida. great to see you. give us an idea of what we can expect to see from donald trump in his address tonight. we have not really been told what he will say but i think you can expect for a number of signals that donald trump is going to be in very confident form. what i say that? you only to look at some of the pics you were outlining for his top team, this is clearly a man who thinks he can push through

contentious appointments to keep jobs contentious appointments to keepjobs and is contentious appointments to keep jobs and is willing to take the fight on and also talking to people around here because conservative activists have flooded to west palm beach trying to get into mar—a—lago for these key events, maybe to see the man himself. they are of course all celebrating the decisive win that he has had so i think he is likely to project the confidence tonight when he addresses supporters which of course it will clearly be a friendly crowd.— course it will clearly be a friendly crowd. we're looking at some pictures _ friendly crowd. we're looking at some pictures of - friendly crowd. we're looking at some pictures of the - friendly crowd. we're looking at some pictures of the gala l at some pictures of the gala happening. let's talk more about the nominations of course, if kennedyjunior was an opponent —— robert f kennedy. he dropped out and endorsed him. tell us more about this selection.- endorsed him. tell us more about this selection. yes, so, i think in _ about this selection. yes, so, i think in a — about this selection. yes, so, i think in a way _ about this selection. yes, so, i think in a way it's _ i think in a way it's surprising and not surprising. obvious that rfkjunior after obvious that rfk junior after he obvious that rfkjunior after he backed donald trump having dropped out of the race as you

say is going to get some kind of health role. it'd been clearly put about by of health role. it'd been clearly put about ber himself. maybe what's surprising bit he hasn't landed an advisory role, there was some talk he could be a health czar but he is going to be the health secretary, overseeing, —— over single important government agencies which is despite his reputation as a leading voice in vaccine scepticism which is despite him amplifying debunked conspiracy theories and health claims as well. clearly, it has not bothered donald trump. he is pushing profit if kennedy forward and —— pushing robert f kennedy forward and i think people will see him as man who once upon a time was somebody once upon a time was somebody on the fringe of politics and pushing them into the mainstream and he will be able to talk about his views on a variety of subjects and

remember he is an environmental lawyer and not least of course probably in the senate confirmation hearings as well so i think for those who are welcoming the appointment, they see him as a disruptor and, of course, donald trump has promised to try to disrupt the establishment as he sees it. just parker, thank you. for more perspective from the hill, i spoke to democratic congressman from maryland glenn ivey, who also serves on the house judiciary & ethics committee. i know you can't talk about what is in the ethics committee report on congressman gaetz. senator dick durbin, the outgoing chair of the judiciary committee, wants your committee to preserve and hand over relevant parts of their investigation. will that happen? well, i cannot get into those details and that is something that remains to be seen.

i believe a republican senator has also made a request that the documents be provided, but i think we will have to see how that plays out. i think sooner or later, there is going to be a reckoning that comes with that. they've got other sources where they can get a lot of the documents, like that affirmative justice, for example, that did the investigation. he is going to have to answer questions about that investigation, whether they get our report or some other source for the information. he is going to have to address it sooner or later. will your committee be meeting tomorrow as planned to discuss whether this report should be handed to the senate or not? we do have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow. i cannot get into the particulars of it at this time because it is a confidential process. but i think we willjust have to wait and see what the resolution is for those things and hopefully down the road i will be able to address that and other members of the committee will as well.

it sounds like you do think that parts of this report or parts of the investigation will somehow make it out into the public. you have served with matt gaetz on the judiciary committee. what do you think of his nomination to the attorney general? i was stunned, to be blunt, i think he is a smart person, but i don't know that he's ever had any prosecutorial experience. i don't even know if he's been a practising attorney. and i don't know if he's had the managerial experience that would prepare him to run an agency of 110,000 people. the department ofjustice, probably the largest law firm in the world, and it handles some of the most important investigations and prosecutions in the united states of america. we have been fighting gangs, fentanyl, all kinds of criminal activity across the board. we handle antitrust issues to the department ofjustice and other sophisticated types of civil cases, so, you know, there is no

room for that kind of learning curve here. i would hope that the senate would take a very hard look at his qualifications, and based on some of the things that i've heard senate republicans say already, i think that is going to be the case. what about the investigations into him? we know that the criminal investigations have not turned up anything. and we spoke to one of your colleagues in congress yesterday and he said, "look, none of these investigations "have turned up anything and this is someone who will "get rid of the rot at the department ofjustice." what do you think of that perspective? i think the investigations at the department ofjustice announced that they were dismissing the case is. —— cases. i don't know if that means if, quote, they didn't turn up anything, end quote, i think it means they don't know that they could prove a criminal charge in front of a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. it's a fairly high standard to reach but it doesn't mean

that nothing happened or there's nothing that should be considered. when you're picking someone to be the top law enforcement agent in the united states of america. so, as i said a moment ago, i think the files of that investigation, i'm sure the senate will reach out to the department ofjustice as well to get the documents that are in those cases. usually for this kind of level of a cabinet appointment, the fbi does a background check on those cases in any event, too, for the person's entire background, and they will be able to use that information too at the confirmation hearing process. i also want to ask you about this nomination for robert f kennedyjunior as secretary of health and human services. what do you think of that selection? you know, itjust keeps on coming, i guess. my view is that you don't want to give the car keys to people who never driven a car and that is what this is starting to look like. i don't think he's got any kind of background in medicine, public health.

i don't think he's got experience running an agency of that size. so, what you do kind of hope that, you know, when the president—elect trump is making these decisions he is giving some thought to people who can actually manage institutions of that size, giving importance and the magnitude of the mission that they have to serve the american people and very specific and critical ways. and i don't think that is reflected in this pick. one last question before we let you go. as a democrat, how do you see what donald trump is putting together for his cabinet? do you see any avenue for working together with republicans? oh, yeah. i mean, we are in the minority here in the house of representatives but i already work with republicans. i've got legislation that is co—sponsored by republicans. we are willing to work with them where we are not

compromising our principles and i'm sure that they feel that they don't want to compromise theirs. but there is common ground that can be reached and get the work done. 0k. that the american people need to get done. the selections so far are not on the right track. as we've just heard, some of mr gaetz�*s former colleagues on the hill were shocked by his nomination. but others welcomed it, including republican congressman from missouri mark alford. my colleague caitriona perry asked the congressman whether he thought matt gaetz was the best person for thejob. i think matt gaetz will be a very effective attorney general but, again, it's not my choice to make. this is the president's choice to make. we will stand behind it. matt gaetz will do a good job as attorney general to help weed out the deep state in the department ofjustice and the fbi. the bipartisan ethics committee has been investigating former

congressman gaetz for forbidden drug use, sexual misconduct, drawing out special privileges to friends, obstructing efforts to investigate his conduct. that report has been completed. should it be made public now at this time if he is potentially about to be the attorney general? it cannot be made public, according to the house rules. this is a private committee, the ethics committee, and for a good reason, investigates behind the scenes in private. the information is kept private for very good reason because you are dealing with the reputations of members of congress and there is a reason the department ofjustice dropped these charges against matt gaetz. matt gaetz has resigned the us house of representatives. that report was to be released, i believe tomorrow, and now it cannot be by our own rules in congress and by law because he is no longer a member of congress. moving on to other news. israel's military continues to hit densely populated areas in southern beirut. israeli aircraft lauched several raids on the suburb of dahiyeh on thursday morning, following evacuation orders in nearby neighbourhoods.

—— israeli aircraft launched several raids on the suburb of dahiyeh on thursday morning, following evacuation orders in nearby neighbourhoods. israel's military said it was targeting weapons facilities and military bases used by lebanese armed group hezbollah. it is the third day in a row that israel has attacked the lebanese capital. lebanon's health ministry says strikes killed 78 people across lebanon and wounded 122 others in the last 2a hours. the strikes come as hezbollah claimed a number missile attacks against israeli forces along the southern front on thursday. elsewhere, israel killed at least 15 people in air raids on two residential buildings in the syrian capital damascus on thursday — that's according to syrian state media. israel says it was aiming at command centres belonging to palestinian islamichhad. our correspondent hugo bachega sent this update from beirut. neighbourhood of damascus. —— one of the locations hit was in the mazeh neighbourhood of damascus. this is an upscale area of the city where security headquarters, embassies,

un offices are located. the other building hit was to the west of damascus. the israeli military said it had struck military targets and also infrastructure being used by the palestinian militant group islamichhad. we've seen that in the past year since the hamas attacks, israel has intensified its campaign against irani —— iranian—linked targets in syria, including palestinian factions and also the lebanese group hezbollah. here in lebanon, it was another day of israeli air strikes targeting beirut�*s southern suburbs. it was the third consecutive day of intense israeli attacks here in beirut. it could be part of an israeli strategy to put even more pressure on hezbollah. there has been intense international efforts to try to reach a ceasefire in this conflict and hezbollah has indicated it could accept a deal based on the un resolution 1701. this is the resolution that ended the conflict between hezbollah and israel in 2006. it requires hezbollah to remove its fighters

and weapons from areas near the border with israel. but one sticking point in this negotiation is that israel wants to have the right to act inside lebanon should any deal be violated. a demand that here has been seen as unacceptable and a violation of the country's sovereignty. a un committee has found that israel's practices and policies in gaza are "consistent with the characteristics "of genocide." a un special committee to investigate israeli practices said on thursday that israel is "using starvation as a weapon of war". half of gaza's 2.2 million population are facing imminent famine amid shortages of food and medicine. israel rejects allegations that it is collectively punishing palestinians and says its military raids aim to eliminate hamas. the united states says it disagrees with the un's findings. here's the state department spokesperson speaking to reporters. accusation of genocide

specifically in that un commission, those accusations are unfounded and also to the point that i was making about criticism of israel needing to be grounded in fact, the other point is that some of the metrics that were outlined by some of these humanitarian groups in their scorecard release the other day are inconsistent with what we are seeing on the ground. let's turn to some other important news around the world. the satirical news publication the onion is the new owner of infowa rs. that's the media organisation founded by the right—wing conspiracy theorist alex jones. the onion said the bid was secured with the backing of families of victims of the sandy hook elementary school shooting, who won a $1.5 billion lawsuit againstjones for spreading false rumours about the shooting. the lawsuit forced jones to put infowars up for auction. facebook�*s parent company meta has been fined about $840 million for breaking competition law. the european commission said the way the company linked facebook marketplace within the social media site gave it an unfair advantage over competitors.

meta says it plans to appeal against the decision, and that there is no evidence that its practices harmed competitors. early trends indicate that the coalition of new sri lankan president anura kumara dissanayake is leading in the snap parliamentary elections. his left—wing national people's power alliance is ahead in the counting of postal ballots from several constituencies. the alliance previously held only three seats. elected in september on a promise to combat corruption, a big majority would strengthen his power as the nation works to recover from a severe financial crisis. the opening of the asia pacific economic cooperation summit was met by protests earlier in peru's capital, lima. demonstrators clashed with riot police near the venue where asia—pacific leaders were preparing to kick off the first day of the apec summit. us presidentjoe biden and chinese president xi jinping are among the world leaders in attendance

as host, peruvian president dina boluarte, presides over the inauguration of a china—built mega port in her country. xi inaugurates south america's first chinese—funded port in peru. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. the health secretary is facing criticism over his interventions opposing a change in the law on assisted dying in england and wales. chris mason reports. should you be able to choose when you die? campaigners say yes, but it's a huge question. a month ago, wes streeting told a large, notionally private meeting of labour mps he would vote against a change, and he's said it repeatedly since. i don't think that palliative care, end of life care, is where it needs to be to give people a real choice. privately and publicly some labour figures bluntly think the health secretary should wind his neck in. and now another cabinet minister has chosen to speak out for the first time. i'll be voting for the bill. you know, i've always believed in giving people as much choice and control as possible and with all the right safeguards,

which this bill has. and you can get more on that story from chris mason on the bbc news website. you're live with bbc news. the number of casualties in sudan's civil war is far larger than previous estimates — that's according to a new study by the sudan research group at the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine. the study found more than 61,000 people died in sudan's khartoum state alone since the conflict began 18 months ago. that figure is more than three times the number of deaths estimated by the united nations for sudan as a whole. of those 61,000 deaths nearly half were killed in direct violence. the study found preventable disease and starvation is the leading cause of death.

a new study shows the number of people dying in the war is significantly higher than previously reported. can you tell us what you think the death toll is so much higher? thank you. it is clear from the study that we have a situation where data collection is very difficult on the ground, there is a lot of chaos occurring, and it is very tricky for local responders to be able to collect data. by themselves, the infrastructure has fallen away and trying to do monitoring and data collection can be targeted, to the highest penalty, including death, and so a study like this, by triangulated and sudanese population and others outside the country, to get idea of death that occurred since the beer that started in april 2023, probably has a better ability to get to the figure that has. we have seen the high casualty numbers for women and children.

why have they been that target in the conflict? i think — what's interesting about the study — it was 61,000 debts, and some are conflict related directly, but normally they are not targeted directly in those kind of violence although in hotspots where atrocity violence have occurred, women and children have been targeted. but where we have a centralised health system has fallen away, and there is inadequate health care — no vaccination programs, infant mortality is a strong feature — we start to see indirect causes of death due to health care, preventable disease claiming lives, as well as widespread hunger, which is a big problem.

red weather alerts were lifted for southern and eastern spain after 2a hours of heavy rain. malaga saw its worst downpours in 35 years that left roads submerged and forced schools to close. more than 200 people were killed by flash flooding in the valencia region two weeks ago. our correspondent steve knibbs reports. the rural town of benamargosa, about a0 minutes from malaga. hit by now all too familiar scenes. red warnings were issued but the destruction was unrelenting. the river itself burst its banks right in the heart of the village, as you can see behind me. they've been working — the emergency services, the locals — everyone's pulling together, working all the way through the nightjust trying to clear some of the roads in and out so people who've been trapped with the floodwaters, you know, so the emergency services can get in to see them. but everyone's houses, businesses just fully decimated. it's just so sad. malaga has bore the brunt of this latest storm with thousands evacuated, schools and businesses closed. some locals even struggled to get to safety. and there are more flash

flood warnings for today. valencia, though, is still by far the worst hit region. over 200 were killed just two weeks ago when a year's worth of rain fell in just one day. people here are still on high alert. translation: they have told us to go home because - of the storm. heavy rains are coming, so we should stay at home and in high areas if we can. with more rain forecast, the rescue efforts continue. emergency crews are still bringing people to safety in difficult conditions. and across the region, the clean—up operation is an almost unending task. even small amounts of rain here could add to the misery. there are many questions about why it's been so bad. experts say climate change is a huge factor. some flood warnings have been lifted today but the threat remains with more rain forecast. there has been loss of life, communities destroyed,

and it may not yet be over. steve knibbs, bbc news. scientists have discovered the largest coral ever recorded in a remote part of the pacific ocean. researchers believe the healthy mega coral close to the solomon islands could be more than 300 years old. i spoke to carol phua, coral reef rescue initiative manager at wwf australia. how exciting is this discovery? it's incredibly exciting. the left of us has known that the solomon islands have lots of incredible coral reefs and this discovery shows there is a lot to protect still in the solomon islands, and it is worth investing and supporting the conservation efforts ongoing in the region. take a step back and remind us why coral reefs are important. they are important for food security and also coastal protection. in the solomon islands, people are dependent on coral reefs. it is their primary

source of protein — we go to supermarkets, they depend on the reefs for forfood — and it provides protection, those islands are vulnerable to tsunamis, so having the reefs to protect the coastline is important. up to a billion people are directly dependent on reefs not only for food, but coastal protection as well. it comes as a time when we know climate change has caused severe damage to many reefs. how can this then be protected? thanks, sumi. even if we set the admission by the paris agreement, we stand to lose 70—90% of our reefs globally so protecting the 10%—30% that we know are less exposed to climate change is important. maintaining that ambition to reach and 1.5 or keeping the warming temperature to 1.5 is important. what we can do is reduce the non—climate threats to these reefs in solomon islands and other places, managing our waterways better and looking at how we do coastal

development. is there illegal logging, unsustainable agriculture? these are important traits that need to be addressed and make sure we not overfish in these reefs. reef fish are important to maintain the health of these coral reefs, and not overfishing on these reefs is an important step towards that as well. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. once again, morning fog could be an issue for some but the weather story is on the change as we head into the weekend. rain will arrive, and that is going to help lift some of that fog. but once the rain clears, it will also introduce something noticeably colder. the winds will be a feature with widespread frosts likely and an increasing risk of some of those showers turning wintry. more details on that injust a moment. but for the here and now, we're still under this influence of high pressure. there is a weather front

pushing into the northwest that's introduced more of a breeze, so fog—free here and a little milder. but further south across england and wales, one or two spots, low single figures, some of that fog dense in places. that will lift and that's where we'll likely see the best of the sunshine as we go through the day on friday. some drizzly rain into north wales and northwest england. more substantial rain starting to gradually push into the far northwest of scotland. scotland and northern ireland see temperatures peaking at 13 celsius. further south, a little bit cooler, but that's where we've got the sunshine. now, that cold front will continue to push its way steadily southwards, introducing colder air behind, so underneath that blanket of cloud will keep double digits first thing on saturday morning. colder to the north of it and still clear skies and colder to the south. but eventually, that frontal system, although not that much in the way of substantial rain, will gradually drift its way south into wales, down into the midlands. behind it, sunny spells and a few brisk showers

being driven along by that brisk northwesterly wind. eight or nine degrees here, 10—13 elsewhere. now, as we move out of saturday into sunday and monday, that's when we're likely to see the change. the colder air kicks in and on top of that, we've got weather fronts trying to squeeze in from the atlantic, so that cold air will push all the way steadily south. the fronts could give us a few headaches in terms of how much rain, sleet and snow we're going to see but one things for certain — we could have widespread frosts into next week under those clearer skies. but let's take a look at the forecast as we go through sunday and monday. sunday sees the rain clearing. somewhat colder conditions with the risk of some rain, sleet and snow for some.

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. lara: this week, a question — how do you switch to renewable energy when the sun's down for half the year? we go off grid in the arctic to find out. solar could be a very good thing for the summer part of the year, and then you would need something else for the rest of the year. is this me? i'm doing this? spencer: paul's checking out a new technology that - could make old diesel machinery cleaner and greener.