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. donald trump is sentenced in his new york hush money case. he avoids jail but he'll become the first us president to serve as a convicted felon. and — the us supreme court appears poised to uphold a looming us ban on tiktok. hello, i'm carl nasman. firefighters are still battling to contain wildfires which have been raging across los angeles for four days. let's show you the latest pictures from the city. forecasters say more high winds are expected in the coming days, which could stoke an already perilous situation. at least 11 people are now known to have died and about 10,000 homes and buildings are either destroyed, damaged or at risk.

a night—time curfew is in effect in the worst—affected areas to protect abandoned homes from looting. there are five fires still burning — and fire crews have only made limited progress in containing them. the biggest fire, palisades, which was completely out of control yesterday — is now 8% contained. the california governor, gavin newsom, has ordered an investigation into the loss of water supply by some firefighters. he said it had probably hindered the effort to protect homes. the eaton fire, in the altadena neighbourhood, is just 3% contained. 0ur los angeles correspondent emma vardy reports. as we can see the helicopters continue to dropped there. the

way the wind is burning —— blowing in that particular area of los angeles. 0ur los angeles correspondent emma vardy reports. 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. what i think is they're 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. and with the winds picking up once again, there's realfears 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. 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 to a family who got out on tuesday night, relying 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 — you know, 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 that could still be a possibility. as scary as it must be for everybody involved, you'd hate to think

what kids there are going through as well. helena, there's 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. powerful winds and parched ground after months of no rain — it proved to be a deadly

combination in allowing the california fires to spread. it was confirmed friday that last year was the hottest ever recorded — temperatures 1.6 degrees higher than the pre—industrial average. european scientists have warned that the target of 1.5 degrees agreed in paris ten years ago — to avoid the worst affects of global warming — was in danger of being permanently breached. here's our climate editor, justin rowlatt. la in flames. it is like a vision from a dystopian sci—fi movie, but it is happening right now and it is exactly the kind of event climate scientists have been warning about for years. and remember this — the devastating floods in spain caused by exceptionally heavy rain in october. or this — the historic drought in the amazon basin which reduced river levels to a 120—year low. before the industrial revolution, so between 1850 and 1900,

average global temperatures were about 13.5 degrees celsius. now take a look at this. each line shows average daily air temperatures for every year since 1940. the redder the colour, the hotter the temperature. and just look how relentless the temperature rise has been, with last year, 2024, the hottest year ever recorded. and look at this. it was also the first calendar year in which average temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees above pre—industrial levels. experts say it represents a new climate era for our species. we're living in a climate that humanity hasn't experienced before. —— we're living in a climate that humanity hasn't experienced before. we can say with confidence when we look at ice core records, when we look at other data sets, that this is the warmest period for at least the last 100,000 years or so.

and when we look back at the ice core records, it's the highest concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere for the last 800,000 years or so. this year should be a bit cooler than the last two, say scientists, but 2025 is still expected to be one of the hottest years on record. and that shows why, as the fires in la continue, we should all be worried by the way our world is warming. justin rowlatt, bbc news. 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, , position — 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. justices on the us supreme court have heard arguments from tiktok�*s legal team as well as content creators just nine days before the app is set to be banned across the us.

the us government argues that without a sale, the app could be used by china as a tool for spying and political manipulation. tiktok says it's being unfairly targeted and that the measure violates free speech. representatives of the social media platform appeared before the court on friday in a last—ditch effort to overturn a ban. president—elect donald trump has also argued against a ban. one of the lawmakers co—authorting the bill is democratic representative raja krishnamoorthi. speaking to the bbc — he pushed back on the idea from the chinese communist party that banning tiktok is an assault on freedom of speech. none of the justices believe that bytedance, as a ccp—controlled company has first amendment rights. of course, its users have first amendment rights. however, there's no first amendment right to harm our national security, and that's why congress acted in the way it did, which is allow tiktok

to continue to survive but not under ccp control. because if ccp continues to control it, it will have access under its national security laws to the data of 170 million people. we know that it has repeatedly stolen tens of millions of americans�* records, data, including in the anthem, equifax and office of personnel management hacks, and it's only a matter of time before they did the same with tiktok and so, that's why congress acted. there's been a different reaction from tiktok influencers, including nadya 0kamoto. she's the cofounder of august, a period care lifestyle brand. i asked her what she makes of concerns about about national security.

they're frustrating to hear, especially as a content creator, where this platform has been such a powerful tool for positive change and even work around reproductive rights especially for me over the last two years i think it has been an extremely positive platform in my own experience. i'm not an expert on national security but i think that from a user point of view, there are millions of young americans who use this app to find community, to be able to express their fears. i don't think these privacy concerns are related to tiktok, we are a generation who has grown up on social media and i think in many ways from creating our first accounts, we know what we're getting into and i think that to have a blanket goodbye to tiktok is quite destabilising for the many, many users who use it on a daily basis. 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�*. a few hours ago, 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... ithink it is — i think it�*s really shameful. meta is also ending its diversity, equity and inclusion programmes 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 programmes. 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 programmes for hindering the response to raging wildfires in los angeles. for more on this i�*ve been speaking with sam biddle. he�*s a senior technology reporter at the intercept, a progressive investigative news outlet. he�*s been reporting on ways meta allows users to post derogatory remarks on their platforms. meta�*s founder and ceo mark zuckerberg and his new political policy chief joel 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 that 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 dissenting 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 there was different content popping up than what there 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 loosened its content moderation but, of course, it also axed

its fact checking department altogether. 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 that is pretty boxed in to 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. what do you think led to this? this is a broader policy shift by meta, we also heard there it also eliminated its diversity policies. what we know about what is going on there and what mark zuckerberg might 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 sort of pre—empts the political and cultural shift that�*s 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. 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 is urging the military to ignore maduro�*s orders. the us and the european union each recognise gonzalez as president—elect. here is the white house�*s response to the swearing in today. response to the swearing in toda . ~ . . response to the swearing in toda. . ., ., ., , ., today. once again demonstrated his camp leap — today. once again demonstrated his camp leap disregard - today. once again demonstrated his camp leap disregard to - his camp leap disregard to democratic norms and proceeded with his illegitimate inauguration. as president biden emphasised with president—elect edmundo gonzalez on monday, january six, we believe that it is

essential that the will of those venezuelan people is respected. in connection with our partners we have given nicolas maduro and his partners every opportunity to restore democracy, but they haven�*t. we can take you to the scene and some live images of the fires in la. you can get a sense of the scope of these fires that are still burning in the area stop as the camera zooms in, you can see the intensity of it. they really do seem to be burning out of control. you have seen at times it really pushes in and you can see how difficult other tasks the firefighters have in the region. this does appear to be a less area of los angeles. this is burning may be a few miles or so away from homes but it is still a very intense and very active seen there in los angeles, as many of those fires are pretty much burning out of control still. i�*m carl nasman in washington. stay with us. more coming up 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 and 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. how much should our past shape ourfuture? when is it time tojust rebuild? and what if those sorts of questions are asked on the scale of a nation? albania underwent such turbulence in the last century, and until very recently, travellers stayed away. but now they are here because this country is rebounding. between 19114 and 1985 albania was under one of the most repressive regimes in the world, led by the communist dictatorship of enver hoxha,