president trump will attend a national service breakfast before meeting with the republican congressional leadership to discuss furthering his policy agenda. studio: the ceasefire between israel and hamas holds into a third day — with a further exchange of hostages and prisoners expected at the weekend. a deeply personal legal battle for prince harry against the publishers of the sun newspaper begins today. welcome to bbc news now. 66 people are dead after a fire erupted at a hotel in a popular turkish ski resort in the central province of bolu. overnight, the fire swiftly engulfed the 12—storey grand kartal hotel, which is clad with wood.

at first ten people were reported dead, but in the past few minutes, turkey's interior minister has confirmed 66 people are now dead and 51 injured. the governor told reporters the freezing conditions outside meant it took more than an hour for fire engines to arrive. emre temel from the bbc turkish servicejoins me in the studio earlier for the latest. the for the latest. interior minister said the pain the interior minister said the pain of turkey is great today, and the scale of this is so huge. do we know what happened? we do not know how it started but there are inspections going on, but we might have an idea about how it spread this quickly. the turkish chamber of architects and engineers inspected the photos and they said the hotel is missing sprinklers which was mandatory since 2008, and they say it might have enabled the fire to spread faster than it should. the hotel is also clad in wood? and it started after midnight, it was half past three local

time, so a lot of the hotel guests were asleep, so from the video coming from there, they tried to leave the building, and the authorities say at least two people died trying to jump least two people died trying to jump from the building. trier? jump from the building. very busy time — jump from the building. very busy time of _ jump from the building. very busy time of the _ jump from the building. very busy time of the year. - jump from the building. very busy time of the year. it - jump from the building. very busy time of the year. it is i busy time of the year. it is the turkish school holidays? it is the turkish school holidays. the hotel was at half capacity so it could have been much worse if it had been fully booked. worse if it had been fully booked-— worse if it had been fully booked. ~ , ., ~ worse if it had been fully booked. , ., booked. why did it take so long for the fire _ booked. why did it take so long for the fire crews _ booked. why did it take so long for the fire crews to _ booked. why did it take so long for the fire crews to reach - booked. why did it take so long for the fire crews to reach the l for the fire crews to reach the hotel quite the hotel is built on a cliff, the fire crew were only able — on a cliff, the fire crew were only able to _ on a cliff, the fire crew were only able to extinguish - on a cliff, the fire crew were only able to extinguish from two sites and it is not an easy place to reach for them, so this is the reason why it took so long. this is the reason why it took so lonu. ,., this is the reason why it took so lonu. ,. ., ., so long. the bad weather and the road conditions _ so long. the bad weather and the road conditions clearly . the road conditions clearly making things worse as well.

how long did it take to put the fire out? ., , ., fire out? hours, until morning. there were _ fire out? hours, until morning. there were still _ fire out? hours, until morning. there were still two _ fire out? hours, until morning. there were still two floors - there were still two floors inaccessible when they started, and we know there will be a prosecution now, for people detained including the business owner of the hotel, —— for people. i think there will be more people in this prosecution because the turkish tourism minister said this hotel got a fire safety certificate last year, so it was deemed safe by authorities, so now those authorities, so now those authorities will be questioned about how they gave the certification.— about how they gave the certification. , , . ., certification. given the scale, and how many _ certification. given the scale, and how many people - certification. given the scale, and how many people have . certification. given the scale, i and how many people have been killed and those who are injured, what kind of reaction has there been in turkey? a sense of shock? but maybe also growing anger?—

growing anger? because it is such a new _ growing anger? because it is such a new developing - growing anger? because it is| such a new developing story, growing anger? because it is i such a new developing story, it is mostly grief right now but in the following days there will be calls for prosecution as well. ., will be calls for prosecution as well. . ., ., , as well. thanks for “oining us. these as well. thanks for “oining us. these t as well. thanks for “oining us. these are the h as well. thanks forjoining us. these are the daytime - as well. thanks forjoining us. | these are the daytime pictures from this fire which we know has killed 66 people, 51 others injured. 12—storey building, and some terrible stories emerging of people tying their bed sheets together and trying to escape out of the top floor windows to reach safety. returning to our other top story and donald trump has started his second presidency by signing a series of sweeping executive orders. sitting behind his desk in the oval office, mr trump declared a national emergency on the us—mexico border, designated drug cartels as terrorist organisations, and withdrew the us from the world health organisation.

mr trump has also pardoned more than 1,500 of his supporters who stormed the us capitol four years ago, when they tried to overturn his 2020 election defeat. the senior democrat, nancy pelosi, has called the decision "shameful". i am joined by my colleague catriona perry in washington. you are on a freezing rooftop in washington. how are you? another morning, and other freezing rooftop in washington, and today is much colder than yesterday, sojust and today is much colder than yesterday, so just as well of the events were not taking place, it is —12 degrees at the moment. washington, dcjust waking up to the new world order under president trump, and as he promised he was incredibly busy and active on his first day in office, signing around 26 executive actions, one of those revoked 78 executive actions that have been signed by president biden, so president trump very much

set about doing what he said he would, rolling back much of what the biden administration had put into place, and as you mentioned, hardening the 6th of january individuals —— hardening. and also putting in place a number of actions relating to immigration and some to do with people who reckon the federal government, as well, —— who work in the federal government. everyone has now got to return to work and he plans to pull the us out of the world health organization as you plan to do in his first term of office and also pulling the us out of the paris climate accord which he did in his first term of office, and plenty more besides. let's have a look at what he did yesterday and last night. this is a report from our correspondent.

president trump is back down to business and always in front of a crowd. he signed executive orders, including pardoning nearly all the trump supporters who stormed the capital four years ago. many were convicted of trying to overthrow the us government. he started rolling back biden—era policies, pulling out of the paris climate change deal and the world health organization. could you imagine biden doing this? i don't think so. cheering it has been a long road back to power for donald trump. he has overcome two impeachment trials, several criminal indictments and an assassination attempt. it seems only a hat can hold him back. he described his win as a divine intervention. just a few months ago in a beautiful pennsylvania field an assassin's bullet ripped through my ear, but i felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason. i was saved by god to make

america great again. as well as god it appears he has the world's richest men by his side. the so—called tech bros were guests at his inauguration. one of them caused controversy. many on his own social media site x accused elon musk of throwing a nazi salute. my heart goes out to you. four years after he was evicted from the white house, donald trump is back inside. he has long portrayed america as a country with huge problems only he can solve, but now is the time for him to prove it. approximately 1,500 for a pardon. donald trump's sweeping pardons of convicted criminals is a campaign promise fulfilled, but it is also a reminder ofjust how radical this presidency is likely to be once again. nomia iqbal, bbc news, washington.

i want to talk about some of the decisions he made yesterday. in terms of the pardons for those who were involved in the riots on capitol hill, a decision for a blanket pardon, what is your response to that? no doubt there were people wrongly held and wrongly convicted, and the january six committee that was put together hastily by nancy pelosi, a democrat, and really disavowed to republicans who wanted to question the witnesses and bring forth evidence that nancy pelosi did not want in the committee, we have still not got the truth out of that committee, so one of our members, one of them is almost redoing this investigation and finding out the truth behind

the january six event that happened here four years ago. until we get to the truth we cannot heal as a nation. that is what we are going to do. this is a healing measure by donald trump to make sure that those who were wrongly convicted and wrongly held are back with their families. we have got to start looking forward, this is a new chapter, a golden era of america and i'm so proud to be part of it. stare so proud to be part of it. are ou so proud to be part of it. are you fully _ so proud to be part of it. are you fully in _ so proud to be part of it. are you fully in favour _ so proud to be part of it. are you fully in favour of - so proud to be part of it. are you fully in favour of this blanket pardon from president trump? it blanket pardon from president trum - ? , ., blanket pardon from president trum? , ., , blanket pardon from president trum? , ., , ., ., trump? it is not up to me as to whether i — trump? it is not up to me as to whether i agree _ trump? it is not up to me as to whether i agree or— trump? it is not up to me as to whether i agree or not, - trump? it is not up to me as to whether i agree or not, it - trump? it is not up to me as to whether i agree or not, it is - whether i agree or not, it is the decision of the president, the decision of the president, the separation of powers, the executive has the power to do that. ., ,., �* executive has the power to do that. ., �* ., that. the reason i'm asking the question. _ that. the reason i'm asking the question. sorry _ that. the reason i'm asking the question, sorry for _ question, sorry for interrupting, two weeks ago you appeared on an american tv network saying they should not be a blanket pardon and that some of those individuals committed crimes on federal property. mr; committed crimes on federal --roe . ., property. my personal feeling is that those _

property. my personal feeling is that those who _ property. my personal feeling is that those who did - property. my personal feeling is that those who did commit| is that those who did commit crimes, justice should be served, but i'm not the president, and donald trump won a mandate in america on the 5th of november, so he has the power to pardon who he chooses to help move the nation forward and heal the nation and that is what he has done. he sat behind a desk yesterday, 46 executive orders, and this clemency was part of that. that is the way we are moving forward. when you are in your car, the view out the front window is a lot larger than the view out of the rear view mirror over the boot of the car, and we have got to make sure that we are looking forward, going forward as a nation to make america great again so we can help other nations as well.— again so we can help other nations as well. you sit on the house appropriations - nations as well. you sit on the i house appropriations committee and one of the first big tasks facing donald trump and how he will have to work with congress

is agreeing a budget and we know funding for the government will run out in the middle of march, so do you see a deal being done and what kind of role will president trump have? i'm very positive, and it is a very complex legislative process we have to go through called reconciliation, through a budget deal, and we can move our legislation and funding over to the senate where we need a simple majority to pass a budget resolution and reconciliation package. the first step is the president coming up with his top line numberfor the budget, number for the budget, president biden numberfor the budget, president biden was always late in doing that, and that through the system into chaos, and we could not get our work done. therefore we had to come up with a continuing resolution because the president and chuck schumer, the former majority leader in the senate, wanted to create cray —— chaos where they could have this omnibus bill,

but we are not doing that any more. we are getting back to regular work where the president will release his budget and then the 12 appropriation committees will do theirjob to get back to regular order so we do not have to have a continuing resolution.- to have a continuing resolution. ~ , ., resolution. we will see how it -la s resolution. we will see how it plays out _ resolution. we will see how it plays out in — resolution. we will see how it plays out in the _ resolution. we will see how it plays out in the weeks - resolution. we will see how it plays out in the weeks and i plays out in the weeks and months ahead. there isjust plays out in the weeks and months ahead. there is just a slim majority a course in the house so interesting times ahead either way. congressman, thanks forjoining us.— thanks for “oining us. thank ou. i thanks forjoining us. thank you- i want _ thanks forjoining us. thank you. i want to _ thanks forjoining us. thank you. i want to bring - thanks forjoining us. thank you. i want to bring in - thanks forjoining us. thank you. i want to bring in the l you. i want to bring in the former uk _ you. i want to bring in the former uk ambassador i you. i want to bring in the former uk ambassador to | you. i want to bring in the - former uk ambassador to the us in washington and also former uk ambassador to turkey. thanks forjoining us. sir peter, you are here to talk about the new trump administration but i want to ask you about the other big story, because you are based in turkey and i believe you even stayed in this hotel in bolu

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