this one is dropping fire retardant right on top of the fire there in a desperate bid to stop these flames. us special counseljack smith who led federal investigations into donald trump has resigned from thejustice department. and: uk chancellor rachel reeves announces trade agreements worth 600 million during a visit to china — but is criticised for the timing of her trip. hello, i'm carl nasman. we begin with the wildfires in los angeles where the death toll has risen to 16. more evacuation orders have been issued as crews continue to battle multiple wildfires. the largest blaze

is now bearing down on a new area — the wealthy neighbourhood of brentwood. these are live pictures from los angeles right now. in addition to the 16 deaths, around a dozen others are missing. police dogs are helping the search for victims while control efforts are now being supported by firefighters from mexico, canada and seven neighbouring us states. as the new firefighters arrived, california governor gavin newsom expressed his gratitude. this is what friends do. this is what relationships - this is what friends do. ti 3 is what relationships are all about. friends in need, being there for one another. we want to be there for the people of in mexico in times of need, in disasters, and we are incredibly humbled and grateful that the president was willing

to send the crew you see behind me. they will be out in the lines in the next 2a, 36 hours, and we are very grateful. there've been dramatic scenes of aircraft dropping thousands of gallons of not only water but fire retardant on the hills in an attempt to put out the blazes. more than 12,000 homes and other buildings have been destroyed. now there are fears that the fierce winds that fanned the flames are likely to pick up again and continue for several more days. there are still four active fires — as two blazes were fully contained earlier today. the hurst and kenneth fires are now more than 75% contained, with the eaton fire, hitting the north of the city, only 15% contained. high winds and other dry conditions have been working against firefighters battling the palisades fire —

the largest of blazes. five days on, it's still only 11% contained — and is on track to become the most destructive in california history. 0ur correspondentjohn sudworth has more now on the firefighting efforts. we're standing overlooking mandeville canyon — this is the scene of the latest intense battle to control these fires. you can see the helicopters going in with their payloads of water, thousands of gallons been dropped every run. they've been doing this all through the night last night, then again all through the day today. there's another one coming over here, just wave after wave, throwing everything they've got at the fires in the hope, of course, of trying to stop it reaching those houses down there, the houses here on the ridge, and further into the city of los angeles. at the moment, the weather has been on their side. the last couple of days have been relatively calm but the forecast is for the winds to start picking up again.

in fact, you might be able to see that has already begun to happen, and that is a real challenge. it was those strong santa ana winds at the beginning of this week that fuelled this crisis in the first place, and real concern to try to get as much of this fire controlled before those winds come back again. los angeles, as you can see, is a city still in crisis with this fight far from over. the second largest fire — the eaton fire — has burned more than 1a,000 acres around the neighbourhood of altadena. 0ur correspondent helena humphrey is on the ground there. with so many communities destroyed and evacuation orders still in place, you have to look around areas like this one to get clues as to people's story, how they got out when the fires came through here. as you can see here, for example, didn't even have time to flee in their cars but some of them completely burned out, and just the dichotomy of others that are

relatively unscathed. and as you go through areas like this one here in altadena, what you'll see on the landscape time and time again is chimneys like this, essentially gravestones, really, of where these houses once stood. and of course, with people now in shelters, staying with family, of course, they've got nothing to come back to, you startjust to get to indications as to who might have lived here. in this home, for example, perhaps you can just make out behind me here, that twisted metal of what appears to have been a home personal gym. that is at some of the destruction that we are seeing in these areas. of course as firefighters continue to battle those blazes... i've been speaking to california state senator ben allen. he represents the 24th district which includes the pacific palisades and brentwood. we've seen activity today

focus around brentwood. what are you hearing and what is the risk right now to people that live there? i just got off the phone with a good friend of mine who is a firefighter. hejust came down from the mountain. the fire is tough up there. the winds, as you mentioned, are picking up again. there was a lull and relatively low humidity right now. we are certainly concerned. that being said, we're hitting with everyone does everything we had. we have a lot more firefighters in the area and planes. the winds are not so bad that we can't continue these aerial drops you've been looking at. i think they're feeling cautiously optimistic but it's a heck of a fight and the conditions are not great, but they have a lot of resources. a lot of firefighters all around and they are just giving it everything they've got. it really does have a lot to do with the conditions there. the wind speeds we saw earlier in the week how strong those really were.

just walk us through, how concerning it would be if in the next hour or so we see the wind speeds pick up to 50 or 60 mph once again? yeah, that would be very problematic. part of why the fire was so devastating in the palisades back on tuesday night is because of the speed. the wind speeds at that time were over 90 mph. wow. theyjust rammed through the neighbourhood. i've been there a couple of times in the last couple of days and it is extraordinary to see the damage and the destruction that it wrought. what is interesting is because it was so ferocious to but also so fast, it's part of the reason why structures didn't get burned — it was the speed. the fire moved through so quickly, it destroyed everything it touched but of course it didn't touch everything. these are still going to be heavy winds tonight, though not as bad as they were on tuesday, and again, we have a lot more assets in place now and we've dropped a lot more retardant and water so i'm just hopeful that that will make a big

difference in saving those communities up there. we're looking at pictures right now of a fire that is continuing to burn in another area that you represent, around topanga, around pacific palisades. those have obviously been areas that really were hit so hard stop what have you been hearing from people that have been affected by the blazes there? oh, gosh, i spoke at a service last night for a local community, localtemple that had got together to pray together and be together and it was just so devastating — hundreds of people showed up and nearly all of them were at least evacuated and nearly a third to a half of them have lost their homes, and to see the looks in their eyes, you know, families, they woke up on tuesday morning, a normal day, getting ready for work, going to school and many of them left to go weren't allowed back in and then their houses were gone. it is just — this is an area that is not used to this kind of fire, not used to this kind of destruction and it's nearly all gone now. at least certain

neighbourhoods there. it's just so devastating for the community. it's a community i know really, really well because i have so many friends that lost their homes, it's been just so heartbreaking. and, you know, we've heard these tensions over cuts to the firefighting budget. we know there was some warning alerts that went out of the wrong people in the region. we've heard stories of course of there just not being enough water to meet the demands of firefighters — have you been hearing any of those frustrations from anyone in your area, the people you have been speaking with? of course. mary much. i am aware of every single one of those issues. —— very much. like so many, there is absolute reason to be angry and frustrated and then there is also a reason why things went the way they did and i'm happy to talk about any of those issues if you like. ijust wanted to get your response. we've seen so much commentary from people like elon musk, even the president—elect donald trump. we should say a lot of it is potentially

misinformation or at least misinformed stop what would you say to those who are spreading that kind of message right now while these firefighting efforts are taking place? yeah, it is not helpful. let's be honest. there's going to be so much time for accountability for all of the people in charge and i'm not — i don't think any politician could ever try to excuse themselves from accountability and that's going to be — this is a massive catastrophe. there's going to be a lot of attention driven to this issue for a long time right now but we need to focus on writing this fire and taking care of the people who are in the zone, making sure everybody�*s safe. that is where the focus is. i will say, many of the claims that have been amplified, even by very high profile people, have been false at worst, misleading at best. but of course, there are some things to be discussed and quite frankly debated and people would be frustrated about it. it is true, they did cut the fire budget from the fire chief and the city of los angeles is really insolvent.

it's not a strong financial position. it's part of why they did that. we need to have a discussion. why is that? it's a lot of massive legal pay—outs for all sorts of different things. and the mayor was trying her best to manage a very difficult budget and made this decision that in retrospect looks like a real mistake. that's a discussion i think we need to have coming out of this fire. but i will say that some of the rumours that have been out there are absolutely misleading and the focus really needs to be on fighting this fire and getting all the resources we can get to fight this fire. it's about partisanship right now, there are lots of republicans up on that hill, there are lots of democrats up on this hill. these americans, fellow human beings and their lives deserved to be saved. special counseljack smith has resigned from thejustice department after overseeing two federal investigations into president—elect donald trump. jack smith filed his final report on his criminal investigations into trump onjanuary 7 — but it's release has been temporarily blocked. smith's resignation came in a court filing submitted

on friday — which urged to not further bar the release of the report. here's our north america correspondent merlyn thomas. special counseljack smith has a resigned after completing two investigations into the president—elect donald trump. those two cases were about, one, mr trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents, and number two, his alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat against president biden. both of those criminal cases have been shelved and that's because of a justice department policy that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted. but — the report still could be released. this has been a long protracted battle with lots of back and forths. but the bottom line is that a portion of these reports could still be released, and yet mr trump's legal team could still ask the supreme court to intervene and to delay and block the release of the reports. so, we are still watching to see what will happen with that.

but mr smith has been a thorn in the president—elect�*s side for a long time now. mr trump called him deranged several times and he also vowed to fire him as soon as he went into the oval office, and he even suggested he might go after him in some form of retribution. either way, even though mr trump may have won the legal battles, there still may be a final momentous clash as to whether the public gets to read any of mr smith's findings. joining me live now to discuss this is formerfederal prosecutor annemarie mcavoy. jack smith stepping down is not a surprise, but what do you make of the way he did it? this was buried in a footnote in some court documents. yes, everybody knew he was going to resign anyway but it wasn't —— it was an odd way to do it. i guess he kind of wanted to get out of the

office, or is quietly hit as he could. but it is surprising to see it be done in an actual footnote. see it be done in an actual footnote-— see it be done in an actual footnote. ., , ., , ., ., footnote. now might be as good a time as any — footnote. now might be as good a time as any to _ footnote. now might be as good a time as any to look _ footnote. now might be as good a time as any to look back- footnote. now might be as good a time as any to look back at - a time as any to look back at these last couple of years and jack smith's legacy. what kind of legacy do you think this will be? in a lot of ways these were high—profile cases, trying a former and then future president and in a way, he kind of stayed out of the spotlight during that whole period, didn't he? he during that whole period, didn't he?— didn't he? he did, it was certainly _ didn't he? he did, it was certainly more _ didn't he? he did, it was certainly more about - didn't he? he did, it was certainly more about thej didn't he? he did, it was - certainly more about the cases than the person actually doing the prosecuting. jack smith was very successful at doing that, keeping it about the facts in the case. it certainly is going to be interesting to look back on, as you havejust to be interesting to look back on, as you have just said, to be interesting to look back on, as you havejust said, and historians, i'm sure, will pour over these cases the years to come, given it was certainly the first time ever cases were brought against a presidential candidate in here, we had so many of them, and as it's

turned out, it appears they've all basically gone bust. while he was sentenced yesterday, there was no actual penalty imposed upon him, no fines, no jailtime, nothing. in the new york state case, the georgia case is floundering with the da, fani willis, being told that basically she is being removed from the case by the courts and there is a big question as to whether that case will move on at all. and certainly jack case will move on at all. and certainlyjack smith, both case will move on at all. and certainly jack smith, both of his cases which he clearly had high hopes for, both of which he had to himself actually have them dismissed.— them dismissed. classified documents _ them dismissed. classified documents case _ them dismissed. classified documents case was - them dismissed. classified - documents case was dismissed but against donald trump only. there are two codefendants in that case. do you get the sense it could still go ahead with the codefendants there? it could potentially but the reality is that it won't. the

whole argument also about whether to release the report or not, all of that — once the trump administration comes in and takes over onjanuary 20, they will then have full control over what the department ofjustice stars so i will be very surprised if the jump i will be very surprised if the jump department ofjustice does not immediately withdraw the rest of that case against the other two defendants where it is still pending. in other two defendants where it is still pending.— is still pending. in the end do ou is still pending. in the end do you think _ is still pending. in the end do you think that _ is still pending. in the end do you think that jack _ is still pending. in the end do you think that jack smith - is still pending. in the end do you think that jack smith was j you think that jack smith was the right choice to prosecute these cases? he the right choice to prosecute these cases?— the right choice to prosecute these cases? he certainly was very zealous _ these cases? he certainly was very zealous in _ these cases? he certainly was very zealous in going - these cases? he certainly was very zealous in going forward. j very zealous in going forward. he came up with very unique ways to use the law to try to support these cases. he clearly worked hard on them, put a lot of time and effort into them so i think without question if you're looking for a prosecutor to try a case, he was about as

— he put in as much effort as he possibly could. i think the bigger question, really, is whether it made sense to bring these cases in the first place. when we look at the handling of the documents, the reality is that they looked at biden's handling of documents and said, well, yeah, he did wrong, too, but he is really too senile for us to even prosecute so if you are not going against one, why would you go against the other? and they were real questions as to the viability of those claims and of course the other question, really the big question, really the big question, was the timing and the effect that it had in the elections and the reality is it seems to have backfired and gotten people essentially even more upset about the status quo and helped him undoubtedly when office. �* ., and helped him undoubtedly when office. �* . a �* and helped him undoubtedly when office. �* . a ~ ., office. annemarie mcavoy, great to talk to you. — office. annemarie mcavoy, great to talk to you, an _ office. annemarie mcavoy, great to talk to you, an interesting - to talk to you, an interesting development here, just fading

light into the sunset as jack smith withdraws from the public seat. thanks forjoining us to share your insights.— seat. thanks forjoining us to share your insights. rachel reeves has insisted her visit to china is in the uk's national interest after reaching new trade agreements in beijing. the chancellor's visit, however, has been overshadowed by criticism as the uk struggles to bring the up the value of the pound, while borrowing costs have reached a 16—year high. rachel reeves says the new deals will bring £600 million back into the uk economy over the next five years and help grow british businesses. she may be here to do business... oh, my goodness, it's so light, isn't it? ..but she's facing criticism that she is fleeing heavy economic burdens at home. at the british—made brompton bike shop in beijing, she defended her visit. growth is the number one mission of this government to make our country better off and that's why i'm in china, to unlock tangible benefits

for british businesses, exporting and trading around the world. this is a major relationship reset — the first meeting between a uk chancellor and her chinese counterpart in seven years. china's economy is too tantalising to turn down amid the uk's economic woes. the us and eu have imposed huge tariffs on these electric vehicles, but the uk has not. it will please beijing if london does not follow donald trump's lead. but the chancellor will know there are risks that come with this new partnership. rachel reeves keeps using the word "pragmatic." what she says she's trying to do is to balance the uk's economic needs with its security concerns, but that brings up some serious issues, because china will bristle at the mention of any human rights concerns, at the mention of allegations that it's supporting russia's war in ukraine and allegations that it's spying on the uk.

it seems the meetings went well. the total value of what we have agreed today is worth £600 million over the next five years for the uk economy. the uk imports more than twice as many goods from china than it sends here. this relationship is not one of economic equals, but the chancellor for now is betting on beijing in the hope it will eventually make britain better off. laura bicker, bbc news, beijing. there have been celebrations in parts of sudan — after the army captured the eastern city of wad madani from the paramilitary rapid support forces. the leader of the rsf acknowledged the loss, but vowed to continue fighting the sudanese army until victory, even if it took another 20 years. the rsf militia, which has controlled the city for the past year, has been accused of widespread human rights abuses — and just this week, the us officially designated its actions as a genocide.

since sudan's civil war began, tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 11 million have been displaced. the un says the war has created the world's worst famine. for more on this i spoke to youssef taha of bbc world service. tell us more about the significance of this victory we're hearing about by the sudanese army. this is very significant because the rapid support forces have been holding wad madani for over a year. so this is a very major defeat for them, and that was reflected in general hemedti, mohamed hamdan dagalo, also known as hemedti, in his tone and his rambling audio message. usually he makes video messages but this one was audio and he was very angry in it and used some colourful language to describe his opponent, general burhan — the leader of the sudanese army. he said that, yes, it's a loss

butjust a loss of one battle rather than losing the war and he said that he is prepared with his forces to continue fighting. they have now been fighting for about 21 months. it started in april two years ago. he said it's 20 months now but he's prepared to fight for another 21 years, as he put it, until the tables are turned and that they win this war and put general burhan on trial. what about for the people themselves? we heard there about celebrations on the streets after this victory, and as we mentioned, the rsf has been accused of these human rights abuses in the area too. well, they deny committing any abuses as general hemedti said earlier in his recording. and he said that they have not killed anyone, they would only kill people, as he put it, after a trial ruling, but no trials have taken place until after this war ends. but, the celebrations have taken place in various parts of sudan

and even outside sudan itself as well, and some have been chanting "wad madani's back", "wad madani is free" and also "0ne army, one country". and this, of course, is inspired by the fact that general dagalo and general burhan, the leader of the army, have been actually power—sharing previously but they fell out, so the two were leading the transitional government that was formed after the removal of long—term president 0mar al—bashir in 2019, but then was an incident in 2022 in march when an army officer shot dead at close quarters one of the protesters and that was a trigger for general dagalo to seize upon and fell out with his boss and this started this civil war. let's turn to some other important news around the world.

the israeli military says four of its soldiers have been killed and six others injured in the north of gaza. they're said to have come underfire and been hit by an explosive device in the town of beit hanoun, an area where israel has recently intensified its offensive. earlier gaza's hamas—run health ministry said 32 palestinians were killed in israeli strikes over the past two days. german authorities say an oil tanker that belongs to russia's shadow fleet is stuck in the baltic sea. these pictures show german tugboats dragging the tanker to safe waters after it lost power and steering. germany believes russia uses the vessel — which is carrying about a hundred thousand tons of oil — to avoid sanctions. joe biden has awarded the presidential medal of freedom — america's highest civilian honour — to pope francis. president biden was unable to give the award in person, cancelling a trip to the vatican to focus on the response to the california wildfires. in the citation accompanying the medal, the white house described francis as the people's pope, commanding people to fight for peace and protect the planet.

before we go — a reminder of our top story — those wildfires raging in los angeles. we can show you live images of the scene. as night is falling, you get a sense of exactly where the fires are burning, whether hot spots are and whether hot spots are and whether embers could potentially spread to other areas of the city. of course we now know in about the last hour the death toll has risen to 16 people. about a dozen others are still unaccounted for, dogs have been brought in to try to locate more victims in those fires. you can see the efforts continue to try to control the blazes, put out the fires, but they are now still threatening some areas of los angeles, brentwood a1. the goal is to keep them from spreading further. more on that story coming up on bbc news. hello there. this really cold spell of weather is coming to an end

in the next few days but we still have some cold, frosty and icy conditions this weekend. it was particularly cold in the midlands, where the fog lingered, and we have some fog in eastern england and also in northern ireland overnight. and these are the temperatures early on sunday morning, so a widespread frost. those temperatures not quite as low as they have been over the past few nights, mind you — that's because there's a bit more cloud around that's pushing its way through the midlands into eastern england, the mist and fog lifting. sunny spells developing in england and wales. the fog lifting in northern ireland. as the cloud comes in, the winds pick up and that cloud will push its way into scotland, bringing a little rain into the far northwest. but for many eastern parts of scotland, northern england, down through the midlands towards the southeast, it's still a cold day, butjust not quite as cold as it has been just recently. the really cold air that's been trapped underneath that high pressure — that's getting squeezed to a certain extent, allowing these weather fronts to topple down from the northwest to bring a bit of rain. but more significantly, we're picking up a stronger wind coming in from the atlantic this time, and that's lifting the temperatures. early on monday, quite a contrast in the uk —

a very mild start for scotland and northern ireland but still cold enough for some frost towards the southeast. here, the winds are a bit lighter. we may have some sunshine around on monday. elsewhere, that wind is picking up, blowing in the cloud. a bit of rain moves through scotland, northern ireland, into northern parts of england and north wales. a little bit of rain follows on from that as well. but it's the change in the wind direction and the strengthening of this south—to—southwesterly wind that is tending to lift the temperatures. it's still quite chilly, perhaps, on monday across large parts of england and wales, where temperatures are going to be five, six degrees perhaps. but it is much milderfurther north — 12 or 13 in scotland and northern ireland. as we head into tuesday, we're still close to high pressure in the south, where it's a bit chillier. but elsewhere, the winds coming in from the atlantic bringing in a lot of dry weather, but a lot of cloud and we're continuing to see those temperatures rising — perhaps getting into double figures across parts of england and wales. again, 12 or 13 further north. and the highest temperatures over the week ahead are likely

to be in scotland and northern ireland. still a bit chilly across the far south of england and wales at night, with a risk of frost, but otherwise we've got a breezy air, cloudy air and temperatures are rising. 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. i'm hazel martin, a journalist living in glasgow. ever since my teens, i've been a social drinker. earlier this year, i received a life—changing diagnosis and i've been told i need to stop drinking completely. i want to understand how and why this has happened to me, and ask whether alcohol industry marketing has helped turn young women like me into binge drinkers.

it's the alcohol company's job to identify new markets and market very aggressively to women. with alcohol deaths at their highest since records began, i want to reveal the situation in the uk's hospitals... the current kind of tsunami of liver disease that we're seeing, our health services are not going to be able to cope. ..and meet those who almost paid the ultimate price. i was told that i had lessl than 36 hours left to live. at the time, i was living my best version of my life. - where i ended - was at death's door. as a fit and active 31—year—old, i just assumed everything was fine. does it suit you to do us live later? about 9:a5? excellent. i'd worked hard to develop

in my career as a bbc journalist. i had a fun and hectic social life as a student and in my twenties... what does a pig say? 0ink, oink! ..and then i became a new mum to a beautiful wee girl. i had a young child. i was absolutely exhausted — and no wonder. but even so, i made an appointment with my gp and i went in for some blood tests. i had no idea this meeting would be such a major turning point. there is actually a little screen of bloods that gps do quite often called tired all the time. tatt we call it. but one of the tests in that screen is liver function. and that was the one that was abnormal in your case. in a healthy person, this figure should be less than a0. mine was 213. i thought, so let's get you up to the hospital and get the proper imaging done, see what's really going on here. in february, i came here

to the new victoria hospital in glasgow, where the test results revealed a shocking