i'm helena humphrey. good to have you with us. the uk government has confirmed that a british citizen is among those killed in the attack in new orleans on new year's day. he's been named as 31—year—old edward pettifer from chelsea in london. the coroner said he died of injuries caused by blunt force. his family issued a statement, saying they were: an american college football player, an aspiring nurse, and a mother of a four—year old are among the other people who were killed when a car mowed down party—goers in the city's french quarter. 1a people died and dozens were injured. authorities say the man behind the attack — shamsud—dinjabbar — placed explosive devices near the area before driving a truck into the crowd. the fbi says the army veteran acted alone and had declared his support for the group calling itself islamic state.

in videos he made before the deadly attack, the 42—year—old talked about killing his family as well. the white house says presidentjoe biden will visit the city on monday. one of the first funerals of the 1a victims has taken place. kareem badawi, an 18—year—old, was in the city celebrating with friends. tom bateman has the latest. allahu akbar. an american community brought together in grief, seeking strength in prayer. allahu akbar. one of the 1a families left shattered on new year's day, now among the first saying the goodbye no parent ever should. kareem badawi was just 18, a college student from this louisiana city of baton rouge. he left that night with a simple goodbye,

a promise to be careful, and went to celebrate in new orleans. his family's future now emptied of their shining star by a single act of hate. his father, belal, told me they went to the city to search for him. we all just couldn't believe and live with it and we couldn't just understand why this happened, you know, that somebody took our loved one. he is my little son, my little son, and, you know the little son, just, like, the most beautiful that we love in the house, so kareem was just so close to us and we all got touched, you know, by him, not with us any more. kareem had graduated from school last summer. described as a smart, popular kid, he loved football, a rock on his high school team and close to his older brother, omar. a couple of days ago as well, we were talking about how we were getting old and stuff, and how, like, a few

years — i'm 21 now — in just a few years, when he graduates college, i'll be 2a, 25, we were talking about that, and obviously that's not the case no more, anything like that. that's the last few memories i have of him, the last few conversations. this attack leaves a trail of communities devastated — the new year spent in mourning, having to let go of the ones they loved. tom bateman, bbc news, baton rouge, louisiana. donald trump is set to be sentenced in a criminal case less than two weeks before he returns to the white house. he was found guilty of covering up hush money payments to an adult film performer. ajudge in new york has set a date for 10 january, but says he doesn't intend to send the president—elect to prison. our north america correspondent nada tawfik has more on what the judge had to say. the judge ultimately said that he believes the most viable option to finalise this

case but also to leave open the ability for donald trump to appeal moving forward is that he favours a sentence of unconditional release. essentially, that means that he plans to sentence donald trump with no punishment, so no jail time, no probation. and so it really signals that he wants this conviction to stand, he talked a lot in this ruling about the sanctity of a jury verdict, that being the bedrock of the nation's judicial system and the sanctity of that, and also the fact that he needs to make sure that the citizenry has confidence in the rule of law and nobody is above the law. equally, it shows that he understands the complexity here, given that donald trump will become president. so, judgejuan merchan saying he won't dismiss this case, that presidential immunity does not extend to a president—elect and that donald trump will have to be sentenced, but that he intends to issue no punishment in this case. earlier, i spoke to a former us federal

prosecutor sarah krissoff and asked if its usual to see a case like this closed with no punishment. it is pretty unusual but there's a provision in the penal code that allows for this. it's an unconditional discharge, no prison time, no fine, no probationary sentence, but it allows a conviction to stand. so, there is this existing code that allows the judge to do this. it's a real option, he has signalled very strongly this is what he intends to do. and i think it allows him to preserve the conviction but also, you know, allow the —

avoid the drama of a sentence that would include prison time, or some sort of fine, or other thing the president would certainly challenge. i wonder then why you think he may be considering this option? you mention avoiding that drama. because there had been because there had been another option floated, another option floated, that was the case made that was the case made by district attorney by district attorney alan bragg, the sentencing alan bragg, the sentencing could be postponed, suppose could be postponed, suppose to 2029, when donald trump to 2029, when donald trump is out of the white house. is out of the white house. why do you think the judge why do you think the judge is leaning the other way? is leaning the other way? alvin bragg did propose a few alvin bragg did propose a few options the judge rejected options the judge rejected here. here. what this does is it allows what this does is it allows for an element of finality. for an element of finality. it doesn'tjust pause the case, it doesn'tjust pause the case, it allows for finality. it allows for finality. so trump can pursue any so trump can pursue any appeals he may have, appeals he may have, what he has not already what he has not already pursued, but it allows pursued, but it allows the conviction to stand. the conviction to stand. it achieves both of those it achieves both of those things at the same time and it things at the same time and it preserves the jury verdict, preserves the jury verdict, thatjudge merchan went thatjudge merchan went on and on in his decision. on and on in his decision. it's a well reasoned decision it's a well reasoned decision about the importance about the importance of preserving that decision, preserving the jury's decision of preserving that decision, preserving the jury's decision here. here. you know, it really underscores the importance you know, it really underscores the importance of the jury process. of the jury process.

he did make those comments with regard to the sanctity

or we don't know what's going to happen for a number of years. cos we have got another case that's paused right now, that's the georgia case, two other cases that donald trump was facing have already been dismissed. what do you think this means then for the future of that georgia case over alleged attempts to block the 2020 election results there? the future of that case is not so bright. we know with fani willis being disqualified, that case has a lot of baggage. it's very unlikely to go forward. this new york conviction is really sort of all i think that's really left in the table and judge merchan is doing whatever he can to make sure the conviction stands. if all of this then comes to pass the way we've just been describing, what do you think ultimately this tells us about how successful donald trump's legal team

and donald trump's legal tactics have been? it's interesting, judge merchan did chide his legal team pretty significantly, he said it was full of propaganda and exaggeration, they really weren't making legal arguments any more. so he was not happy about that. but all in all, his team has been really effective. i mean, they were looking at these four criminal cases, they have delayed and raised every argument imaginable in all of them. and between sort of their legal tactics and the election in the middle of this, they have managed to make most of these things go away. most of these cases go away, and for the new york case really, the consequences of that conviction would be very minimal.

republican congressman mike johnson is re—elected as speaker of the us house of representatives. he will lead the 119th us congress, sworn in friday with the smallest republican majority in nearly a century. because of that narrow majority, mrjohnson could only afford to lose one republican vote for the speakership. he fell short in a first round of voting when three republicans chose members other thanjohnson. but after a closed door meeting, two switched their vote tojohnson, leading to this moment on the house floor. 218 votes were needed to for mrjohnson to —— the honourable mike 218 votes were needed to for mrjohnson to 218 is the number he received.( some hard—right republicans, unhappy with johnson's leadership, threatened to prolong the process. but in his acceptance speech, mrjohnson pledged to unite the party around what he called

president—elect donald trump's "common sense agenda". afterfour years of high inflation, we have a big agenda, we have a lot to do, and we can do it in a bipartisan fashion. we can fight high inflation. and we must. we will give relief to americans and we will extend the trump tax cuts. what we're proposing now is just simply, as president trump likes to say, a return to common sense, and he's exactly right. that message resonated across the country. i am very thankful personally that this body is filled with men and women who are committed to that change, to return to common sense. we can do this together. we should. it is our responsibility to do so. trump supported johnson's bid to remain house speaker. he congratulated johnson in a post online, calling it an "unprecedented vote of confidence". on the house floor, the top democrat, minority leader hakeem jeffries congratulated speakerjohnson, acknowledged donald trump's election win, and drew a contrast with the election denialism from 2020. one should love america when you win and when you lose.

that's the patriotic thing to do and that's the america that house democrats will fight hard to preserve, because we love this country. america is bigger than any one campaign, any one election or any one individual. our us media partner cbs confirms reports that president biden has informally notified congress of a proposed $8 billion arms deal with israel. according to the news website axios, the deal includes munitions for fighterjets and attack helicopters alongside artillery shells. in the last two days, more than 110 palestinians — including children — have been killed in intense israeli attacks across gaza. one of the areas targeted, al—mawasi in central gaza, was previously declared a humanitarian safe zone. the israeli military

said it had hit around a0 hamas targets. apple will pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit which accused its voice assistant siri of listening in on private conversations without permission. the complaint alleged that the firm shared the data with third parties, also without the consent of its users. apple says it did not do anything wrong. claimants who are based in the us could be paid up to $20 for each siri—enabled device they owned from 2014 to 2019. the us surgeon general has proposed that alcoholic drinks should carry warnings about the risks of cancer. vivek murthy said that alcohol is the third most common preventable cause of cancer after tobacco and obesity and is responsible for 20,000 deaths each year in the united states. at present, alcoholic drinks only carry warnings against drinking during pregnancy, or while operating machinery or driving. share prices of us—listed alcoholic beverage companies fell up to 4% at this news. some people interviewed in new york were sceptical that warning labels

would be effective. i disagree with the extra input and expense of trying to label things like that. we're adults. you need to be 21 to drink. you should able to to know. good to tell the consumer the risks. let them make their decision. i think a lot of things can cause cancer. and it doesn't stop people from partaking and enjoying these things. putting a label on every alcoholic bottle seems a bit far—fetched for me. it may make people stop and take a second thought about it. in that respect, it may help a little bit. earlier, i spoke to elizabeth kovacs, who is the director of the alcohol research programme at the university of colorado's school of medicine. to begin with, if you would mind, talk us through this research that links alcohol to seven different types of cancer. ~ . , ., cancer. what exactly are the

risks here? _ cancer. what exactly are the risks here? so, _ cancer. what exactly are the risks here? so, as— cancer. what exactly are the risks here? so, as you - risks here? so, as you mentioned. _ there's seven different types of cancer that are associated with alcohol. and 16% of all breast cancer cases have been attributed to alcohol. alcohol is not a required source of energy for most human beings. so, what is the great benefit of allowing it to be legalised and readily available? i do want to also ask — i think many people will be watching this who perhaps drink moderately and they wonder, do you have to be a heavy drinker to face these risks? or could it apply to anyone who drinks alcohol? it would probably apply to anyone who drinks alcohol on a regular basis. having a glass of champagne on a wedding or new year's eve is not considered a continuous consumption protocol. but people who drink one or two drinks a day could possibly be at risk. in the united states,

there are alcohol suggested limits that may be would probably need to be curtailed. in the uk, it's a little bit different. i believe in the uk both men and women are — consuming 1a drinks per week, two per night, is acceptable. in america, that is appropriate for men but not for women. women, the suggested level of alcohol consumption is seven drinks a week, one per night. for older people over the age of 65, its three drinks or less per week. so the amount of alcohol that people are consuming is in excess of what is possibly suggested for limited risk. and there's lifestyle risks, weight, diet, exercise and alcohol consumption are all part of it. the suggestion from the surgeon—general is to have warning labels on alcoholic drinks similar to what we see

with cigarette packets. how effective do you think it could be? i think it could be very effective. most people at least in the us don't think about this. and don't think about — as you mentioned earlier — the three major causes of preventable cancer, tobacco, obesity and alcohol. and we know that adding warning labels to cigarettes has decreased cigarette consumption. what would make you think it wouldn't decrease alcohol consumption? i wonder why we haven't heard these kind of messages around alcohol before. some of the messaging can be quite conflicting. many of us could remember a time we were told a glass of red could even be good for heart health. this is all confusing. part of it is the new knowledge gained over the last 30 years since that first alcohol danger

label was put on for pregnancy and unborn children, as well as machinery. that was in 1988. we're light years ahead of that in terms of our knowledge of how alcohol affects the body now. we know for breast cancer, most breast cancer patients believe that they need believe that they need to have a family history to have a family history of breast cancer when in of breast cancer when in reality it's about 30% reality it's about 30% of the women with breast cancer of the women with breast cancer have a family history, have a family history, yet we give a mammogram yet we give a mammogram to the whole population. to the whole population. so, there are so many other so, there are so many other risk factors that need to be risk factor for having cancer. risk factors that need to be discussed with discussed with patients as well. patients as well. and i think bringing this down and i think bringing this down to the level of something to the level of something that's understandable, that's understandable, we know a lot about genetics we know a lot about genetics and it would be the genetic and it would be the genetic

risk factor for having cancer. can i also ask you about the help that will be needed if there's labels to help people who may not consider themselves to be heavy drinkers but may consume alcohol

let's turn to some other important news around the world. germany's foreign minister is warning syria's new leaders not to establish an islamist government after bashar al—assad was forced from power last month. annalena baerbock is visiting the syrian capital damascus alongside her french counterpart. they met syria's de facto leader ahmad al—sharaa and visited the notorious saydnaya prison where opponents of the assad regime were tortured and killed. it's the highest—level visit by western powers since the rebel group hayat tahrir al—sham, seized power. air pollution monitors say hanoi in vietnam is currently the most polluted city in the world. the city has been covered in thick smog over recent weeks. it is caused by a combination of atmospheric conditions and increased emissions, as more fuel is burnt

for heating during the colder winter months. the government says it will encourage greater use of electric vehicles, to help address the problem. us presidentjoe biden has blocked the takeover of us steel by a largerjapanese firm as part of his campaign promise to keepjobs in the us. mr biden cited national security concerns while rejecting a bid by nippon steel. he said us ownership is important to keep the country's steel industry and supply chains strong. australia's northern territory is home to more than 100,000 saltwater crocodiles living in the wild — the largest population anywhere in the world. although croc attacks are rare, last year saw the area's first fatal incident since 2018 — reigniting the debate over culling. our australia correspondent katy watson reports from darwin. splashing one of the world's

most feared predators, this is a dream job for kelly and david, removing saltwater crocodiles that have come too close to the city. every week they're out in the water, securing the salties, as they're known here, and getting them on board safely. one little slip—up with these guys normally ends with broken jaws or something like that, you know? onto the next trap. there's 2a in this harbour that's used for fishing and even by some brave swimmers. some people may think why do you catch crocodiles. just let them be. it's ourjob to try to keep people as safe as we can. we're not going to capture every crocodile, but the more we take out of the harbour, the less risk there's going to be an encounter between crocodiles and people. whoa, that's a big tail. one of the crocodiles flipped its tail and they're pretty strong.

and my seat happened to be next to their head. these will be culled, because if released, there's a high chance they'll return to the harbour. this is part of a ten—year plan to manage the 100,000 crocs that live in the wild here. they recently upped the numbers they can remove. for a species once hunted to extinction, it's a huge turnaround. we've done what very few people can do, take a very serious predator and rebuild their numbers back to what they were historically. and then manage them in such a way that the public is prepared to put up with them. # don't hunt by yourself if you're fishing with a spear # always make sure that someone else is near # and there's an education programme that other countries are borrowing. police are searching for a child from a remote northern territory community, reportedly attacked by a crocodile. but every time someone dies, it reignites debate about crocs living alongside people. croc farms were introduced to stop illegal poaching and famous fashion labels have bought stakes in them.

tourism is a money spinner too. there's a real push for aboriginal communities to benefit. it's in remote areas that many crocodiles live alongside people, so they're a huge part of the culture. we conserved area animal that actually kills people. we need to provide benefits to aboriginal people for them to live with crocs. we have a commercial outcome, a job outcome, we need to make sure that aboriginal people are the primary beneficiaries of the industry. sacred totems and valuable villains, looking after these salties is a delicate balancing act. katy watson, bbc news, in darwen. the 17—year—old british darts sensation luke littler is the youngest ever player

to win the world championship. he beat the three—time world champion michael van gerwen comfortably — seven sets to three. littler won £500,000 at the tournament in london. the british prime minister sir keir starmer said it was an inspirational performance under immense pressure. you're watching bbc news. from all of us in washington, dc have a very good day. goodbye for now. hello. if you have travel plans this weekend, it's probably worth keeping an eye on the weather forecast because wintry weather could cause some quite significant disruption. met office amber warnings have been issued for snow and ice during the weekend, particularly covering parts of wales, the midlands and up into northern england as we head through saturday night and on into sunday. so what's going on? well, cold air has set in across the uk, this cold arctic air sitting in place. and then from the southwest, some milder air tries to make a move. and along the boundary between the two, we have this weather front. as this weather front moves into the cold air,

well, it is that that will generate some significant snow for some of us, but also some rain down towards the south as things turn milder. saturday morning, though, starting with some fog, especially down towards the south — freezing fog after a cold night. and after that foggy start, with cloud rolling in from the south, i think across some southern parts, it will be quite a grey day. more sunshine for northern england, northern ireland and scotland, although there will be some wintry showers. in fact, some more widespread wet and wintry weather moving across the northern isles. temperatures really struggling. in aberdeen, it may not get above freezing through the afternoon. even further south, highs of three, four, five degrees. but as we head through saturday evening, that wet weather moves into the southwest of england, maybe some snow over higher ground, but that snow developing more widely as our weather system moves into wales, the midlands. over some of the highest ground here, we could see 30cm of snow, maybe up to 40cm eventually across the high ground of the pennines — that snowfall moving its way into northern england. but notice what happens down to the south by the end

of the night. 12 degrees there in plymouth for sunday morning, some much milder air to the south. and so some of what falls from the sky will be turning back to rain across parts of wales, the midlands. that could give ice for a time. further snow, particularly across high ground in northern england, but maybe to low levels for a time. some snow into southern and eastern scotland, perhaps just clipping into the south—east of northern ireland. some big temperature contrasts on sunday afternoon — cold in the north, much milder further south. but that mild air in the south is not going to last. as we head into the new week, it is going to turn cold again. we should see a fair bit of sunshine, but we do continue to have the chance for some wintry showers. bye for now.

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. welcome to one of the most breathtaking and extraordinary places on earth. i'm in antarctica... ..on a journey across the coldest, the windiest... ..and surely one of the world's most awe—inspiring continents. i'm sharing the experience

with 400 passengers on an expedition cruise ship. in the second part of my journey, i'll be meeting the scientists performing vital research to protect this region's vast ecosystem. there's the calf, yeah. nice. we know that the pregnancy rates are high, the population is increasing, and we're also seeing more calves in the water. woo! i'm taking the chilliest dip of my life... woohoo! ..and camping out on the ice. we're going to be here, like, i tomorrow morning still putting a tent up at this rate. as more and more people embark on these adventures, what can we learn about this, the most pristine place on the planet? we're sailing into an area famous for humpback whale