resort fire that killed 76 people. our correspondent lina sinjab revisits a former assad's security service branch in syria, where she was repeatedly investigated and arrested under his regime. hello. in the us, donald trump has had a busy first full day of his presidency. he has been signing a flurry of executive actions. in the past few hours, president trump has announced the creation of a huge artificial intelligence project called stargate. it will see the private sector invest $500 billion in al infrastructure in the united states over the next four years. he said it would create about 100,000 jobs in the us. the initiative expands exisiting plans to build huge data centres. after signing many executive orders he has sought to justify his decision to pardon more than 1,500 supporters who stormed the us capitol building four years ago. mr trump described their punishments as ridiculous

and excessive. 0ur north america correspondent merlyn thomas reports on donald trump's first full day in office. nice to see you. some very familiar faces. president trump is back — and wants to make sure everyone knows. we had a great first term, but we're going to have an even better second term and i think we're going to do things that people will be shocked at. and many have been shocked at the presidential pardons so far. first, nearly all the january 6th rioters. and now to ross ulbricht, who founded a dark web marketplace. after signing a raft of executive orders on inauguration day, he used his first full day in office to announce what he called "the biggest ai project in history". stargate is a new us—based artificial—intelligence company formed by three technology giants. a new american company that will invest $500 billion, at least, in al infrastructure

in the united states and very, very quickly, moving very rapidly, creating over 100,000 american jobs almost immediately. the planned announcement turned into a more off—the—cuff press conference. are you open to elon buying tiktok? i would be if he wanted to buy it, yeah. i'd like larry to buy it, too. i have the right to make a deal. never — by the way, russia never would have gone into ukraine. i had a very strong understanding with putin. earlier that day, president trump attended an inaugural prayer service. 0ccasionally, clergy are subtle in their sermons to new presidents. but not this time. millions have put their trust in you. and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving god. in the name of our god, i ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country

who are scared now. but president trump wasn't impressed. what did you think of the service? - what did you think? did you like it? did you find it exciting? not too exciting, was it? i didn't think it was a good service, no. thank you very much. thank you, press. thank you very much. they could do much better. thank you. do you have a tiktok on your phone? - no, but i think i might put it there. on wednesday, the work continues, with further meetings and his first major tv interview since becoming president. merlyn thomas, bbc news, washington. immediately after taking office, president trump issued a swathe of executive orders on immigration and border security. they included measures such as ending birthright citizenship in the us and designating mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organisations.

some of the measures will be challenged in the courts while others — particularly ones aimed at closing legal pathways into the us and reducing entry on asylum — have already started to affect migrants waiting on the mexican side of the border. will grant reports from there. at the border, immediate implications and bitter tears over donald trump's arrival in office. around 30,000 people waiting in mexico to lodge an asylum request with the us authorities were told their coveted appointments were now cancelled. the door to the united states firmly closed. i will declare a national emergency at our southern border. with that, president trump can now deploy the military to the border and has launched what he calls the biggest deportation in american history. it will be a relief because our system here in san diego county is very burdened by this heavy weight of all these people coming in, and we're just not built for it.

the county is not made to be able to sustain this. mr trump said he'd been saved by god to make america great again. but the migrants at this church in tijuana don't see him as the messiah. everyone here has received threats or been attacked by drug cartels, and think his plans to halt asylum claims are unfair and unchristian. 17—year—old marcos, not his real name, was forced to join the ranks of a violent cartel or his family would have been killed. "i hope they look at the circumstances of every person on merit," he says, "and that mr trump's heart softens to help the people who truly need it." but pleas for compassion are unlikely to move the trump administration. troops could be at the border within days. for as much as donald trump's supporters welcome his tough new stance on immigration and border security, his executive orders raise as many questions as they answer. birthright citizenship,

for example, is enshrined in the us constitution, and the idea of reclassifying mexican cartels as terrorist organisations will require mexico's cooperation. poverty is mixed in with violence. activists, who offer arriving migrants a little food, water and legal advice, insist the trump administration must comply with its constitutional obligations. it's about creating a bogeyman for people to fear, and that then justifies the passage of policies and measures that completely eviscerate the asylum process and allow for human rights abuses to be committed without accountability or oversight mechanisms. donald trump always knew the keys to the white house lay in putting the biden administration's record on immigration in the spotlight. now, his inauguration signals a return to the harshest tactics — workplace raids, splitting up families and mass deportations. this nation of migrants planning a radical overhaul of who can come in and who can

stay. will grant, bbc news, on the us—mexico border. sunder katwala is director of british future, a thinktank describing itself as non—patisan. it looks at issues including migration. he gave this assessment of trump's return to the white house. i think donald trump won the election so wants to project that power and how dominant he is in american politics. he got 49.9% of the vote he got and he wants to say it is an enormous landslide, so a blitz of action, messages, executive orders. a very uncompromising approach to immigration. sending a powerful signal he is in charge. the challenge of turning it into reality is harder but he wants to run on an issue he thinks is important to his supporters. immediately there were

challenges from many states. the trump administration have dismissed it as a radical leftist attack on what they are trying to do. what stands out for you most as issues where he has made executive orders but perhaps they will not be a reality what he wants because of other factors? the legal challenge most likely to succeed against him is that he issued an order ending birthright citizenship, if you are born in america you are american. that is in the constitution and not in the power of the president. so many attorney generals have challenged that. where he has cancelled rights to come to america it will be easier to do that. his policy of saying action to deport over 10 million people that is a challenge of reality.

do, things he does not have the power to do, and the scale of what he promises, which is beyond the capacity of the government. i am interested in what you think about the effect in europe, over here in the uk. the effect on people looking at what donald trump is doing and how various countries and political parties will react and potentially try to emulate that. this is an issue everywhere. i think donald trump is focused on america. elon musk, his ally, is focused, saying make europe great again. and he wants the afd to win the election of immigration in germany. and interested in supporting nigel farage. there is an argument now about whether he is doing that but it is harder for them to translate the politics

across the atlantic. they have half of america on side in power and it is an popular american government. over here it will be a challenge for populist parties to say we need donald trump here. that is a message with a sixth people, quarter of people, but does not split britain down the middle like it does and most people think trump is a big risk for america. while people want control and management of immigration there is more balanced attitude here than the divided debate in america. thank you. let's take you live to these pictures in gaza. this is the scene in rafah. that is in the south and we are watching aid trucks. people returning to assess damage inside gaza from other parts of gaza. we have watched the trucks coming in and departing without cargo. there have been

scenes of looting with people taking sacks of flour and food, but the steady stream of lorries going in. almost 900 aid trucks entered on tuesday, the third day of ceasefire between israel and hamas. a senior un official saying there have been no apparent law and order issues so far. that latest stream of arrivals brings the three day total to almost 2500 trucks entering gaza and still they come. because the fighting and bombing has ceased, they are now coming in with less of a challenge to security and fewer controls on entry. the un said food aid, health care and repairing shelters are among priorities. this is as a continuing military operation is under way injenin in the occupied west bank. let's speak to our middle east correspondent yolande knell who's injerusalem for us.

0n on that operation in the west bank, what can you tell us? the palestinian _ bank, what can you tell us? tue palestinian ministry bank, what can you tell us? tte: palestinian ministry of health has been saying at least ten palestinians have been killed and 40 people injured since the start of the latest major offensive by the israeli military targeting jenin in the north of the west bank. sources told us there are many civilians who are casualties. we have heard reports that israeli troops shot at the entrance of a hospital injenin and made arrests. armoured bulldozers have been operating in that area, digging up the streets and the israeli military saying it is looking for explosive devices when we have seen operations like this before. jenin is somewhere that is known as a stronghold of palestinian armed groups and

the israeli military said it is a counterterrorism operation being carried out. we had hamas and islamicjihad responding to what is going on, calling on palestinians in the west bank to step up attacks against israeli forces. this is igniting fears that there could be bigger tensions in the west bankjust as the gaza ceasefire is taking hold. you have palestinian officials accusing the israeli government with the operation of trying to appease the israeli far right because of its opposition to the gaza ceasefire deal. palestinians in general complaining across the west bank about the fact there are increased restrictions imposed on them by the israeli military and it has become difficult to move around because of checkpoints, closure of major cities with people reporting they have been stuck

often for hours, sometimes forced to stay in places overnight because they cannot move around, and saying it is amounting to collective punishment. israel said it is worried about increased unrest in the west bank, particularly because of the fact you have these large palestinian prisoner releases going on with israel releasing people from its jails as part of the gaza ceasefire deal in exchange for israeli hostages held by hamas in gaza. ~ , ., israeli hostages held by hamas in gaza. ~ i. ., , in gaza. while you have spoken about the _ in gaza. while you have spoken about the west _ in gaza. while you have spoken about the west bank, - in gaza. while you have spoken about the west bank, we - in gaza. while you have spoken about the west bank, we are i about the west bank, we are watching pictures from rafah in the south of gaza with age lorries arriving. we have seen food aid piled on top of lorries and also fuel trucks going in and we are seeing people running after lares and pulling the sacks off the lorries and running away with them. tell us about any concerns about the prospect as

we see the ground of looting. first, underthe we see the ground of looting. first, under the terms of the deal agreed through the us and regional mediators between israel and hamas, we should see something like 600 lorries going into gaza every day including worst hit areas in the north. this surge in humanitarian aid has been taking place, exceeding expectations in the past couple of days. what un officials have said is that while they are seeing pictures of people taking advantage that this aid is arriving, taking where they can perhaps sacks of aid off the back of lorries, this is not something that is so significant compared to what we were seeing in recent months where you had armed criminal

gangs operating inside gaza, and they became the main obstacle to getting aid in and distributing it. the different agencies complained about the lack of law and order and the fact because israel had been targeting police inside gaza over the past year, saying they were linked to the hamas government, which of course they had said they would destroy hamas militarily and in terms governing capabilities in gaza, because police were targeted it added to the sense of lawlessness. now it seems with the amount of aid getting in, that threat of looting en masse has been removed and they say they are not worried about the fact people are taking opportunistically some of those sacks of aid for example, and they think because the surge of age should continue, that problem will be reduced. thank

very much- _ so many different kinds of cargo on top of those lorries as mention. we have seen some looting, sacks taken from the lorries and other lorries with gun men on top. and plenty of fuel containers going in, as well. a steady stream of lorries going in while now they do not face the threat of bombardment, fighting, that aid coming into gaza. we will keep you up—to—date with those pictures and the latest developments from gaza. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

the transitional government in syria has invited former officers who worked in the assad security services to surrender and join the new administration. for decades, the syrian regime ran an extensive surveillance of its citizens, monitoring opposition groups, members of civil society and journalists. tens of thousands of people have disappeared in the prison system and the fate of many is still unknown. when she was living in syria, our correspondent lina sinjab was also arrested and interrogated repeatedly. she went back to the security service branch where she was last investigated, looking for her files. so this is exactly where i entered. but they would keep me outside waiting, and i had to walk all the way without a phone, without an idea, without any contact with anyone internally, externally. and i would go up for investigation knowing that there are many

prisons down — many storeys underground. it was all set on fire by the regime before they ran away, i'm told. and every file i opened, it's like an accusation of terrorism, belonging to terrorist groups. you don't know where to start. there are hundreds or maybe thousands of files belonging to thousands of syrians. living through syria, we were told that every syrian has a mukhabarat reporting on him, like a security officer behind him, reporting on what he does. and now it seems that every syrian has a file here. i mean, we'rejust in one room in a big complex of buildings, in one of many security branches. and look at the files that are here. the smell is unbearable. it looks like it was crammed with prisoners here. and if you look at the walls, they've scrubbed many of their memories, names and... 0h. a calendar of their time here.

this is just one location, one detention centre out of tens across the country. thousands, tens of thousands of people disappeared here. and there are hundreds of families that are still waiting for answers on their beloved ones. the turkish president, recep tayyip erdogan, has declared a day of national mourning following a fire at a hotel in a ski resort, which killed at least 76 people. the fire ripped through the 12—storey hotel in the popular ski town. nine people have been detained by the authorities, including the hotel's owner. 0ur correspondent ezra yalcinap is at the ski resort of kartalkaya. tell us how bad things are. yes, today is a day of mourning in turkey and now we are at the

ski resort of kartalkaya in front of the hotel where the fire took place yesterday in the early hours. there are tens of rescue teams here currently in the building, looking for further evidence regarding what actually happened. they have been to each and every single room. they are gathering evidence, taking photographs, taking samples from the scene. and at the same time, there are funerals that will be taking place in a few hours in the city down below the mountain, as well as other cities across turkey. the flags are at half mast as you may see. all around the country today. and you can see that the remains of the tragedy are still visible on

the facade of the building. you can see behind me there are bed sheets tight end to end and dangling from a window. this is how some of the people managed to escape from the fire. but there were others not so fortunate. the death toll stands at 76. with tens of others getting injuries treated at hospitals. we also know that there are some bodies that are still needing to be identified. experts are matching the dna samples with the families who are still looking for loved ones. yesterday we were at one of the hospitals where the injured are getting treated and when the dead are being held. and we met a gentleman looking

for seven members of his family. he was still unable to find and exactly locate where exactly those people were. he knew they were dead but could not find them yet. he was desperately looking for them from one hospital to another so he could start the funeral process. president erdogan is expected to visit bolu, the city where the kartalkaya ski resort is and is expected to attend some of the funerals. it was the school holiday in turkey, a two—week school holiday. there are a lot of families with their children, their kids, enjoying the ski resort. and unfortunately met with the tragedy during their holiday. with the tragedy during their holida . . , ., , with the tragedy during their holida . . , . , . . holiday. that is a very tragic scene and — holiday. that is a very tragic scene and tragic _ holiday. that is a very tragic scene and tragic to - holiday. that is a very tragic scene and tragic to see - holiday. that is a very tragic scene and tragic to see the l holiday. that is a very tragic i scene and tragic to see the bed sheets coming out of the window

is still the people used to desperately try to escape the fire. the fire that killed at least 76 people. stay with us for more. hello. wednesday is going to be quite a quiet day weather—wise, albeit a rather murky one at times. however, by the end of the week, things will be a lot livelier. we have a named storm on the way. storm eowyn, already yellow warnings from the met office, the risk that some places could see gusts of wind of 90mph. but for the time being, certainly no strong winds. in fact, very few isobars on our pressure chart. so very light winds. that has allowed some mist and fog to form, some of that taking a while to clear. but across scotland, northern ireland, northern england, wales, the south west, through the afternoon we should see sunny spells and just the odd shower, whereas for central and eastern parts of england we'll hold on to more in the way of cloud, maybe a little bit of rain and

temperatures 5 to 8 degrees. so in spite of the light winds, it's going to feel fairly chilly. and it's going to turn cold again through the night, especially where we have some clear spells. we could see some mist and fog patches, some areas of cloud. temperatures dropping down to freezing, below freezing in places. but later in the night into the first part of thursday morning, we see a band of rain pushing into northern ireland, that will swing its way eastwards through the day. could well see some snow mixing in over high ground across some northern parts of scotland. it's going to be fairly breezy, but that is just the precursor to what is heading our way on friday. now, to find out where storm eowyn is forming, we have to look out into the atlantic and look up to the jet stream. the winds high in the atmosphere atjet stream level likely to exceed 250mph. so that extraordinarily strong jet stream providing the fuel, the energy to deepen this area of low pressure. this low will be deepening rapidly as it approaches our shores, and storm eowyn is likely to bring widespread

gales, outbreaks of rain, some snow across the north, but it is across these irish sea coasts where, at the moment, it looks most likely that we could see wind gusts of 80 to possibly 90mph, maybe even stronger than that in the most exposed spots. 0bviously, those winds could cause some damage and some significant disruption, and that does usher in a rather turbulent period of weather. there will be further spells of wind and rain in the days ahead.

this is bbc news, the headlines. president trump has announced a $500 billion private sector investment into private —— artificial intelligence infrastructure in the us. government borrowing in the uk has risen to £17.8 billion last month, the highest december figure forfour years. a figure for four years. a crackdown figure forfour years. a crackdown on figure for four years. a crackdown on benefits cheats, british government wants powers to recover money directly from fraudster�* bank accounts. and we will be speaking to one of the leading rewilding is in britain, releasing native creatures onto uk soil with

artificial permission. —— without official permission. the business news is dominated this morning with developments at the white house. president donald trump has unveiled major new investment in artificial intelligence by the private sector. the chief executives of open ai, oracle and the japanese investment fund softbank were with the president at the white house on tuesday afternoon to announce they will work together and raise hundreds of billions of dollars for building data centers for artificial intelligence across the us. called stargate, donald trump said the joint venture is a "declaration of confidence in america". michelle fleury has the details. for months, even years, 0penai, the maker of chatgpt,

has been raising finance to build the massive