live from washington, this is bbc news. deadly wildfires continue to rage across los angeles. 11 people have been killed and more than 150,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate. hello, i'm carl nasman. welcome to the programme. taking you straight to a press conference happening as we speak in

this very, very difficult time. we still have fire resources coming in from all over the country to be able to help deal with this major disaster and sorrow, we want to be able to keep it as safe as we possibly can. the measures we've put it forward is with an eye to doing that and so again, thank you and thank you to all of you for helping get our message out. i will take any questions but limited to our role here from the lapd, the law enforcement function. no questions?

inaudible. i function. no questions? inaudible.— function. no questions? inaudible. ., ,, ., inaudible. i cannot speak for the sheriff- — inaudible. i cannot speak for the sheriff. we _ inaudible. i cannot speak for the sheriff. we have - inaudible. i cannot speak for the sheriff. we have had. . . ? i the sheriff. we have had...? inaudible.— the sheriff. we have had...? inaudible. ~ ., ., inaudible. we have had some arrests but _ inaudible. we have had some arrests but not _ inaudible. we have had some arrests but not for _ inaudible. we have had some arrests but not for looting - arrests but not for looting within the fire areas. in the city of los angeles. the sheriff reported last night that there were i think probably almost two dozen arrests. no questions? thank you, all. we appreciate it. the head of the — you, all. we appreciate it. the head of the los _ you, all. we appreciate it. the head of the los angeles police department there updating us on the latest in terms of the security situation there. we know of course in some areas where those wildfires have damaged neighbourhoods that there are some curfews in place. even the national guard has been called in to try to get some order there as they have been some reports of looting but you can see here live images now in los angeles, those fires clearly still burning. many of them are not

yet under control. firefighters have been working really to try to contain what has been burning across los angeles for four days. again, these are some of the latest images we are getting in. forecasters are saying they are expecting the high winds in the coming days that could stoke an already perilous situation. 11 people known to have died, thousands of homes and buildings ever destroyed, damaged or are at risk. some impactful pictures there. we know several of the fire still burning, about five of them, fire crews have made omitted progress in terms of containing them. the biggest, the palisades fire, which was completely out of control just yesterday is now about 8% contained. ethan fire in the altadena neighbourhood is about 3% contained. —— the iten fire. still something with that region is struggling, even as far ———— eaton. even as night

falls. a fourth gruelling day holding the line in the face of la's inferno as tens of thousands of acres continue to burn. right, you guys on radio? we'll meet you up at tcc? some communities have taken the disaster response into their own hands. love you, bro! in topanga canyon, with fires burning all around, a group of locals calling themselves the heat hawks have sprung into action. initially, everyone felt a bit abandoned, but i understand why. we have a very tight community that's very connected and so, the local knowledge is really essential. well, these guys are just taking a look around the neighbourhood to see if they can see any spot fires orjust anything they can help with, using whatever resources they can get their hands on — water supplies, fire extinguishers. the emergency services are just so stretched that people

like this want to do what they can. we don't have any left anyway. there's more coming. check at the library. despite an evacuation order, here, some residents are staying as long as they can to try to protect properties. there's just not enough people, not enough crews, you know, enough people. i think they're in demand. i think budgets have been cut. —— what i think is there undermanned. i think budgets have been cut. around 10,000 buildings have been destroyed across the city but every now and then, by some miracle, one has been spared. there's been anger at city leaders over the fire response. now, pledges are being made that la will rebuild. with so many homes and businesses lost, we are already putting plans in place to make sure that we aggressively rebuild. i don't believe that there is anything that angelenos cannot do if we stand together. the risk of crime poses a new threat. security has been stepped up in abandoned neighbourhoods and curfews are now being enforced. you cannot be in these affected areas.

if you are, you are subject to arrest. that is important. we're not doing this to inconvenience anybody, we're doing it to protect the structures, the houses that people have left because we ordered them to leave and i want them to feel confident that we are doing everything we can to secure that. along the pacific coast highway is the exclusive la suburb of malibu. this once embodied the californian dream. home to some of the most expensive real estate in america. now, ashes. at least ten people have now died, and it's warned the death toll is expected to increase. despite days of hard work, it's up here in the hills where the fires are still raging. this once embodied the californian dream. home to some of the most expensive real estate in —— and with the winds picking up once again,

there's real fears about its spread. and they're facing an uphill battle to try to contain it. with a red flag warning for strong winds at the weekend, it's now a race to try to limit the danger. emma vardy reporting. earlier, we heard from our correspondent helena humphrey, who's on the ground in altadena. what's the latest where you are? the warning from president biden is a grim one — the number of fatalities is growing and he said that it is likely to grow further. that's because local authorities here on the ground say that they haven't yet been able to reach the hardest—hit areas — which is pretty difficult to wrap your head around, really, when you just take a look at the level of destruction behind me here. this is altadena. this was the methodist church. and when we were taking a look inside, tentatively walking amid this destruction, there is nothing inside that resembles a church anymore — not a single pew to be found. and it's a similar situation over in this direction as well.

this was a neighbouring church, also razed to the ground. earlier today, we also saw thejewish centre had burnt down, another church in town also now rubble. and when you speak to people here, what they will tell you is some of them are people of faith and they are relying on that faith right now to get through this disastrous situation, but they don't have anywhere they can come for comfort, norfor shelter right now. just a little bit further up the road, i was speaking only on their own instincts. they didn't receive any official warnings so instead, they bundled their two young kids and their two dogs into the back of the car in the dead of night and just got out and thank goodness they did because the level of destruction there was just horrifying. and the mother was telling me that the reason she wanted to bring her children back was to try and explain to them that their home, that place of safety, had gone. how do you get little children to understand that? and those kids as well, they were explaining to me

what happened on that night. take a listen to what they told me. so, it was really terrifying when we got out and i — my cousin was in an uber and she said when she was at the plane, she saw people throwing up because she saw — because everybody was, like, seeing the fire down the mountain and that — and i remember that was called the eaton fire. like, it was going really fast. um, i wanted to go to our hotel, to go — that's where my mum's work is and then um, that, um, um, uh — the fire was getting really close here and at 5am, there was a french teacher — like, he woke up at 5am, the fire woked him up,

it was so close, so he ran out of the house and then, he went somewhere else and then, suddenly, then our house fired and then itjust burned and stuff. that was sad. i'm so sorry. you managed to find just one of your toys, didn't you? can you show me? what did you find here? so, i found this. and this. and my brother found this. i'm so sorry. that is all that remains of... they had so many toys that were out here. . there's — that little| trash can thing over there was overflowing with toys and everything'sjust gone. - it's heartbreaking. i wasjust thinking when we were leaving, they were like, you know, if i'm bringing their toys. i'm like, "there's no space for toys. "we just gotta go." so i grabbed pillows to — just in case we had to sleep in the car — because i didn't know — and, you know, luckily my husband went and bought them a new toy and they were happy about that. i did grab one toy for each

of them, so at least they have a sense of comfort and some sort of enjoyment. sure. but right now, they — i don't think they understand the concept of their home no longer being there. just so heartbreaking to speak to that family. in terms of the situation with regards to the fires right now, in the palisades fire, we're looking at about 8% contagion, so some progress. here at the eaton fire, 3% contagion, and you can see the winds have died down slightly. and families like that one we werejust speaking to and everybody in these communities are just hoping, some of them are praying, that it stays that way and that there aren't these risks of a second wave of fires — forecasters saying it could still be a possibility. as scary as it must be for everybody involved, you would hate to think what kids there are going through as well. helena, there is a nighttime curfew that has now been imposed in some areas — walk us through some of the concerns around safety

there. there is, and one of those curfews will be in place here as well, also in the pacific palisades neighbourhood. around 12 arrests have been made for people who were looking to profit from the chaos. the county authorities say that anybody found doing so will feel the full weight of the law but certainly, there is an anxiety there about that as well. you know, we've been out and about and people have been coming back to their houses, trying to just find the odd few belongings, but they've also been just looking around, making sure, you know, who is coming into neighbourhoods. the national guard's also deployed on that front because the worst, worst thing you could see in a tragedy like this one, of course, is people profiting from the utter devastation. we've also been speaking with people who live in the area — like hollywood publicist harlan boll, who lost his home to the eaton fires. fortu nately for fortunately for me, i started picking up some things. my

house was a pretty popular house was a pretty popular house in the neighbourhood. it had a lot of hollywood memorabilia for bob hope, carol channing, jerry herman, angela lansbury and a number of others, and they often use the houses their own homes for the media to say that at home with. .. media to say that at home with... they did not want to use their own homes they would use their own homes they would use minds of the neighbours always joked about it was the celebrity home. i think it was very lucky. i started getting things out early. i lost a lot of the memorabilia but i managed to get a great deal out. ifelt for managed to get a great deal out. i felt for my neighbours who held out may too long. and some of them only got out with the shirts on their backs. i headed out with four pairs of pants, three shirts and three shoes. my next—door neighbour's houseis shoes. my next—door neighbour's house is completely intact. absolutely nothing wrong with

it and yet, every other house on the block is gone. it's hard to explain. i'm happy for them. it'sjust everything — macro it is levelled. there is no resemblance whatsoever of anything identifiable. existing, except the fireplace. i'm really proud of my neighbours because they have all grouped together, supporting each other, calling each other. 0ur supporting each other, calling each other. our church, which was only three blocks away, was completely levelled. every church but one on a block of churches just disappeared. we are having services this sunday in the afternoon. again, i'm one of the lucky ones because fortunate to say this way but last year, one of my clients passed away and they asked me if i would like to use mum's house as it is furnished and it

has everything i need and my priority was to get my life back on track. if you have to do is focus on what is in front of you. if you expand your vision, you just — you lose it, you start crying, thinking about what you lost. this focused on taking care of what needs to be taken care of. donald trump has avoided prison or a fine after being found guilty of 3a counts of falsifying business records in connection to hush money paid to an adult film actress. while he's avoided any major penalty, the sentence means he'll be the first us president to serve as a convicted felon ten days before he returns to the white house. 0ur north america editor sarah smith reports from new york. donald trump, you are before the court for sentencing... being allowed to appear virtually on a video screen from florida was special treatment for donald trump, granted as he is just ten days away from becoming president again. he knew the sentence would be as lenient as possible but still fought hard, all the way to the supreme court, to avoid this moment.

the prosecution said his behaviour during the trial had made the crimes more serious. this defendant has caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system and has placed officers of the court in harm's way. the defendant sees himself as above the law and he won't accept responsibility for his actions. the president—elect again repeated his claims that he was deliberately targeted by political opponents. it has been a political witch—hunt. it was done to damage my reputation so that i would lose the election and obviously, that didn't work. and i won in — got the largest number of votes by far of any republican candidate in history. the judge was in a unique, unprecedented condition, caught between imposing punishment and respecting the office of the president. the only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgment of conviction without encroaching upon the highest office in the land is

an unconditional discharge, which the new york state legislature has determined is a lawful and permissible sentence for the crime of falsifying business records in the first degree. donald trump was facing three other criminal cases. two have been dismissed and the third has stalled indefinitely, now that he has been re—elected president. and in office, he will have complete legal immunity for everything he does that's considered an official act. sarah smith, bbc news, new york. there are reports that meta's ceo mark zuckerberg has met donald trump at mar—a—lago in florida in the last few hours. the president—elect has praised the social media company's recent decision to scrap fact—checkers but on friday, the move was questioned by the united nations. its human rights chief volker turk said that "allowing "hate speech and harmful content online has real world "consequences" and that "regulating such content is not censorship". this evening, president biden criticised meta's move to end fact—checking.

the idea that, you know, a billionaire can buy something and say by the way, from this point on, we're not going to fact check anything. and you know, when you have millions of people reading, going online, reading this stuff, it is — anyway... i think it is — i think it's really shameful. meta is also ending its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, according to an internal memo to employees. it's the latest in a series of actions by meta cheered by conservative groups, who have threatened to sue companies over diversity programs. meta is one of several major corporations to reverse dei schemes before donald trump takes office, alongside mcdonald's, walmart, and amazon. tesla chief elon musk and right—wing activists have — without evidence — blamed inclusion programs for hindering the response to raging wildfires in los angeles. joining me live is sam biddle, the senior technology reporter at the intercept — a progressive investigative

news outlet. he wrote an article which uncovered meta allowing users to post derogatory remarks on their platforms. great to have you. walk us through what you have uncovered here. when it comes to meta's new policies around policing hate speech and how it may change the kind of content we might see across these platforms. might see across these platform-— might see across these latforms. ,, ~ platforms. sure. so meta's founder and _ platforms. sure. so meta's founder and ceo _ platforms. sure. so meta's founder and ceo mark- platforms. sure. so meta's- founder and ceo mark zuckerberg and his new political policy chiefjoel kaplan have couched this policy change as one intended to expand the amount of political and civic discourse that uses can engage in on facebook, instagram, threads, all of the company's platforms. the internal materials i obtained include a long list of different hypothetical examples of user speech that is now permitted

under the revised rules, and what this reveals is that the policy does not seem to be aimed at so much allowing for lively or descending political views but denigrating, dehumanising, slurring different ethnic, religious, racial groups — which is a form of speech but is not really in line with how the company had publicly characterised it. i think what a lot of users of x, formerly twitter, saw the changes implemented by elon musk, the new algorithm, less fact checking, it was visible, you could tell that was different content popping up than what they was before. what kind of impact do you think we could see on facebook or instagram now that the company has, you know, not only may be loose and its content moderation but, of course, it also act —— axed its fact checking department altogether.

the examples i reported stand up the examples i reported stand up clearly. users will now be cleared to make overtly racist statements aimed at marginalised vulnerable groups. you can make blanket statements of stereotypes, stating that certain races are prone to criminality or terrorism or are dirty, you could say that immigrants are all scum or worse than vomit, you could say certain races are better than each other. this is all stuff thatis each other. this is all stuff that is pretty boxed in two hate speech or, you know, racist rhetoric so it's now been given the official green light by meta so and i naturally would imagine there would be a whole lot more of that. ~ ., ., ,. would be a whole lot more of that. ~ ., ., , ., ~' would be a whole lot more of that. ~ ., ., , ., 4' ., that. what do you think led to this? a broader _ that. what do you think led to this? a broader policy - that. what do you think led to this? a broader policy shift i that. what do you think led to this? a broader policy shift by meta, we also heard it eliminated its diversity policies. what we know about what is going on there and what mark zuckerberg may be up to? i

think it is not a coincidence that the examples given, so many of them are aimed at both immigrants and transgender people who have both, in the us, become major targets for donald trump and the maga aligned republican party. the next four years, the election, the run—up to the election showed will be rife with this kind of evil rhetoric aimed at migrants, trans people, the lgbtqi broader community and this move i think a of pre—empts the political and cultural shift that is about to come with the inauguration of trump in his second term. you know, there will be that sort of hateful rhetoric coming from the highest office in the united states and by some of the most powerful and visible lawmakers in the us, so i think this gives them a pretty wide berth to express those views

without risking penalty on the largest and most influential social networks in the world. before i let you go, about one minute left, i think we saw in the first administration a lot of these tech companies really stepping up their fact checking in away almost in the face of the trump administration the first time around. how do you frame the other way that the tech industry is responding to donald trump 2.0?— tech industry is responding to donald trump 2.0? these things are not poww— donald trump 2.0? these things are not popular any _ donald trump 2.0? these things are not popular any more. - donald trump 2.0? these things | are not popular any more. trump was, in his first term, divisive. you know, reviled by the centre—left. these fact checking programmes were largely a response to that. and how that part of the country is very much out of power and the programmes that were implemented to appease them are just simply politically unpopular and a company like

meta, just like its rivals in big tech go where the political currents go and they are going away from things like the el initiatives and fact checking and hate speech protections —— dei. it is about following where the power goes. sam biddle, senior technology reporter at the intercept. thank you for your time, appreciated. the united states has increased its reward for information leading to the arrest of venezuela's president nicolas maduro to $25 million. the announcement came as mr maduro was sworn in for a third six—year term as president. venezuela's political opposition condemned his inauguration as a coup. it insists its candidate, edmundo gonzalez, was the real winner of last year's election. he has accused maduro of crowning himself a dictator and urged the military to ignore his orders. the us and the european union each recognise gonzalez as president—elect. the us has also offered a $25 million reward for information leading to arrest of venezuela's interior minister diosdado cabello and a $15 million reward for defence minister vladimir padrino. let's turn to some other important news around

the world. the israeli military says it has struck a power station and two ports on the red sea controlled by the houthis in yemen. it said the attacks were in response to dozens of houthi missile and drone attacks against israel. the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said the strikes fulfilled a promise that the iranian—backed houthis would pay a heavy price. the united states has announced sweeping sanctions against russia's energy sector days beforejoe biden leaves the white house. the targets include two major oil companies, dozens of traders and smaller firms, and more than 100 and 80 ships. the treasury secretary janet yellen said the measures would hit a key source of funding for russia's war against ukraine. uk chancellor of the exchequer rachel reeves is in china, where she will meet the country's finance minister. her visit to beijing will explore trade and investment opportunities in a bid to achieve the government's goal of growing the uk economy to boost living standards. conservative mps said reeves had "fled to china" as borrowing costs hit a 16—year high, but the government has defended her trip.

i'm carl nasman in washington but before we go a reminder of our top story and we can show live images of los angeles as firefighters continue to battle those widespread wildfires, many still not contained and we will follow that story of course right here on bbc news. hello there. well, temperatures struggling to get much past freezing by day and once again, it is the coldest night of the winter so far. now, lots of lying snow, particularly for the northern half of the uk and there could be some issues with snow melt over the next few days or so as the air turns gradually milder from the north and the west. lots of flood warnings still in place. not too much rain falling out of the sky. it is going to be mostly dry but other issues will include icy stretches and freezing fog. but this is the temperature anomaly map as we head through the next few days, so you can see marked in blue here on the map — this is where it's colder than average at the moment. then, it turns milder, warmer across northern ireland

scotland into sunday. eventually, the milder air will push further southwards and eastwards for the start of next week, but it's a slow process. and as we head through saturday, this cloud gradually pushes further eastwards, freezing fog patches across many parts of england and wales slow to lift and clear, reducing visibility on our roads. bit a patchy light rain and drizzle into parts of western scotland with the wind picking up for some irish sea coasts, but some sunshine later on in the day for northern ireland. sunny skies, too, with the colder air further east but again, temperatures for many won't make it much past low single figures. and it stays cold, too, on saturday night into sunday. perhaps not quite as cold as on friday night but temperatures still well below freezing for many, particularly towards the eastern half of the uk. for these western coasts, it is turning milder. and if we just take a look at the pressure chart, you can see the high pressure gradually retreats further eastwards, taking the colder air with it, just allowing these weather fronts to introduce milder conditions across northern ireland and again for scotland this time on sunday, where temperatures will start to pick up. watch out for that snow melt, though, of course.

so, the winds pick up towards these irish sea coasts. there will be some outbreaks of rain pushing across the western isles into western scotland. further south, this is where we'll see the best of the sunshine and temperatures here won't make it much past four or five celsius, but ten in western scotland, in northern ireland and towards south west england, too. and that milder air will eventually win out, pushing further southwards and eastwards as we head through monday and tuesday. so, if we take a look at our outlook for our capital cities, then you can see that by the time we get to tuesday, we're back up into double figures across the board. mostly dry in the south. some rain, though, at times further north. bye— bye.

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. this is work. my loo. can we have a look? yeah, that's all right. yeah. this is you, obviously. yeah, it was one of my drawings. i also wrote on the door because i only wanted people with serious disabilities to be using this loo,

and have the wonderful benefit of my drawing. so that's their bonus. and then, also, i drew the cat here. my wild bit of graffiti. yeah, and then, this is the tears area here. what are tears? tracey emin artist residency. so this is the communal area and the kitchen. so are these the studio spaces? these are the studios. you didn't have to have gone to art school before,