this is bbc news. scenes of celebration in the west bank, as 200 palestinians are released from israeli prisons. that prisoner release came after hamas releaed four female israeli soldiers. it's the second exchange under the gaza ceasefire deal. the four israeli women have been reunited with their families and are being checked by medical teams. their story is seen as inspiring the nation. it is an immense privilege to meet these four brave women and be part of their healing process which is part of the healing process of the entire israeli people. but — a delay in releasing another israeli hostage has prompted israel to halt the return of gazans to the region's bombed—out north. 13 foreign peacekeepers have now been killed in clashes with m—23 rebels in the east of the democratic republic of the congo.

and pete hegseth has been sworn in as the new us secretary of defence in a ceremony in washington. hello, i'm rich preston. there have been scenes ofjubiliation in israel and the west bank, after four female israeli soldiers held hostage by hamas were released, in exchange for around 200 palestinian prisoners detained by israel. the four women — three of them aged 20 and one of them 19 — were reunited with their parents at a reception point in southern israel. they were then taken by helicopter to hospital for medical assessments. meanwhile, crowds of palestinians turned out in the west bank to welcome two buses carrying detainees released from two israeli prisons. reports from egypt say 70 of the 200 prisoners have arrived in egypt — from where they'll travel on to neighbouring countries.

as part of the ceasefire deal, thousands of gaza residents were supposed to be allowed to return to the north of the strip today. but israel has so far prevented them crossing into the north until a female civilian hostage, arbel yehud, is released. israel says she should have been freed today. hamas says she will be released next week, and another armed palestinian group, islamichhad, has told the bbc it has given egyptian mediators proof she is still alive. first this report from our middle east correspondent lucy williamson. in a theatre of war, the theatre of victory. cheering. four israeli soldiers escorted by hamas to a specially—built stage. naama, liri, daniela and karina smiling for the cameras after 15 months in captivity, their freedom signed moments before.

in tel aviv�*s hostage square, tension broke into joy, then relief. the childhood friends of liri albag watched together as she was freed — a moment imagined many times. still unreal. when i saw liri's smile, when i saw liri's walking on her two legs, it's everything. it's everything. she's a hero. she's a fighter. and this moment, this couple of minutes, just show me how brave she is. there was joy for those crossing into gaza too today. prisoners released by israel in exchange. from inside the red cross vehicles, theirfirst glimpse of post—war gaza, and the people who still make it home.

raif al—fara's niece and nephew, running to meet him with their mother. "it's been 20 years," she said. "my brother, my heart." near gaza's coastal road today, families waited for israeli troops to leave. filmed by our cameraman there, israel doesn't allow outside journalists in to report independently. the promise that gazans could return to homes in the north delayed, as israel accused hamas of breaching the deal by not releasing civilian female hostage, arbel yehud. across the border, 15 months of waiting ended... ..in the relief of hugging a parent, holding a child. their love and thanks,

a reminder of 90 hostages still held in gaza. this is, for israel, the start of a long and precarious road home. lucy williamson, bbc news, tel aviv. 0ur correspondent nick beake was at hostages square in tel aviv where the families had gathered to celebrate their release. the big screen was the footage we all saw earlier of the four hostages being released and reunited with their families. a realfeeling ofjubilation today but a different message, the rally is getting under way in will last an hour or so but the central message is that the remaining hostages must not be forgotten. we have some of the families and friends of those still being detained, around 90 people and among them was michael levy who spoke

to us earlier on. his younger brother was kidnapped by hamas on october the 7th and this is what you told us about that day. he woke up at 6:20am along with his wife and left their two—year—old son at home with his grandparents and a few minutes before he called us from inside a bomb shelter, he ran into a bomb shelter. he was completely terrified and just repeated the sentence, you don't want to know what is going on here. and a few minutes after a group of terrorists arrived and started throwing grenades. they sprayed the bomb shelter with bullets and even fired an rpg into it and he was kidnapped. your sister—in—law was killed and your brother ta ken hostage. when you see what happened today, the greatjoy of the

four women being released, how does it leave you? i imagine conflicting emotions. very conflicted emotions because on the one hand you are happy because those families became my family. they became part of us, so i am happy almost as if it is my own family. but on the other hand, there are still 90 hostages back in gaza including my brother and you cannot just rest and hope for the best. you have to keep fighting to get them all released. your brother was one of the 33 hostages who were supposed to be released in this first phase of the ceasefire, so for you there is hope after 15 months of anguish. once again on one hand you have a lot of hope because you finally have an end date to this nightmare, but at the same

time we remember that we are dealing with monsters. hamas will do everything they can to make us suffer and to stop this deal with any kind of excuse. they did it before and our fear is that they will do it again so we cannotjust be calm and hope for the best. like i said, we have to keep going until he is here because i want to believe it is actually happening until i hug him with my own hands. you have been waiting for news and have come to speak to us this evening as we wait any moment for hamas to release this list of the remaining 26 hostages due for release in this first phase. hamas is supposed to be saying whether these people are alive or dead including your brother. an incredibly difficult moment for you.

i keep saying, it is like a reality that the devil himself invented. that's how we feel. part of an evil reality show that hamas is enjoying. as i said, they will do everything to make us suffer and i hope we will get this list soon and know who is alive and who is not, and hopefully we can put an end to it. your little nephew, just three and a half years old, his dad has been taken hostage and his mother killed. people probably want to know how is he doing at this moment? so most of the time he is a normal three and a half year old boy, he is happy and enjoying himself and doing things he is supposed to do. there are a lot of moments when he misses them.

whenever he sees a woman with long hair she asks her to pick him up because this is what his mum used to do. he keeps asking if his dad is really coming back. he cries when he sees parents coming to pick their kids from kindergarten. he misses them, he wants to be a normal kid. we heard about that sense of hope earlier on from michael levy but they hope somewhat dashed earlier when a civilian hostage who was expected to be released today was not. tell us more about that. yes, this is arbel yahud. she's a 29—year—old civilian. and in israel all this week, the media was speculating that she would be released. but last night, when hamas gave this list of four women to be freed, she was not on it. and a lot of people were asking why, because under this deal,

civilians are supposed to be released before soldiers, women before men. so that's how it works. but she wasn't on this list. and so what israel has said today is that hamas, through not releasing her today, is basically in breach of the deal here. and as a consequence, israel has stopped hundreds of thousands of people in gaza from returning to the north, back to their homes. they were expecting to do this today. they were getting ready to make thatjourney. but so far, israel has said they're not able to do that. now, we've heard from a hamas source tonight saying that, in fact, this civilian will be released next weekend and that the militant group has provided to mediators of this ceasefire arrangement a proof of life video. we don't know at this point whether that's enough to satisfy the israeli authorities and that they will say in the coming hours that they will let these hundreds of thousands of gazans travel north to see what remains of their homes.

so that's one thing to watch. and also, still, we're waiting for this list that hamas is due to provide of the remaining 26 hostages in this first phase of the deal. hamas supposed to be saying whether they were alive or dead. we don't know when that will come. and we don't know whether that status, that bleak status, alive or dead will be matched to individuals, to those individual names. so still the waiting for the families here, a lot of whom are here this evening, that goes on. the release of the israeli soldiers today prompted israel, under the gaza ceasefire deal, to release 200 palestinians it's been holding in detention. let's hearfrom one of them — this is rami al—nagar. he was arrested in 2015 and sentenced for membership of islamichhad, which israel and other countries including the uk and us list as a terrorist organisation. translation: to the izz l ad-din al-qassam brigade, not a single captive dreamt of becoming free.

and it is the biggest deal in the history of the palestinian nation. and it is thanks to god, and then to the izz ad—din al-qassam brigade. the brigade he mentions is also listed as a banned terrorist group by many countries. abdul rahman balush was another of those prisoners released today. he was sentenced for several offences, including possession of firearms, attempted murder, and contact with hostile groups. let's hearfrom his wife and his sister. translation: there is | a feeling of joy and pride on this day of victory. thank god that he has blessed us with this day after a very long wait and many years. it's a feeling of pride. 0fjoy, a feeling of victory despite all the pain. a moment when he could have been a martyr, but praise be to god who allowed us to see him. jon donnison was there for the release of those prisoners. pretty chaotic scenes, to be honest. outside a big sports complex in ramallah,

a few miles from the prison where many of those detainees were being held. and when the buses arrived, carrying, well, about 100, 110 prisoners who are going to be returning to their homes in the west bank, there was chaos, really. just the buses mobbed by those prisoners' families, their supporters. the prisoners emerged not looking in great shape, a lot of them, to be honest — pretty gaunt, a lot of them with shaven heads, long beards in their grey prison tracksuits, and they were hoisted onto the shoulders of their supporters to huge cheers, really. and you really get a sense of the division of opinion here. i mean, in israel, these men mostly are regarded as terrorists. here, they are really regarded as heroes for many people. jon, can you tell us a bit more about where these prisoners are going and why? yeah, so 200 in total were freed today.

as i say, roughly 110, 120 are coming back to the west bank or east jerusalem. they're the ones i saw here arriving today. another 70 have already moved to egypt. they've been deported there, and they're going to be transferred to neighbouring countries, including turkey and qatar, and a small number of prisoners, as well, as we saw in lucy's report earlier, arrived back in gaza. now, of those 200 prisoners, 121 were serving life sentences, some of them for multiple murder convictions, murder convictions, attempted murder in israeli courts, some on lesser sentences, some not even charged at all. the youngest prisoner to be freed today was just 16 years old, a 16—year—old boy. and the person who'd served the longest was actually jailed way back in 1986, so he's done some 39 years in prison. how much of a political win is this for hamas?

i think it's a win for hamas, especially here in the west bank. you know, basically, you cannot understate how big an issue prisoners is for palestinians here. almost every family will have a relative who at some time has been detained in an israeli prison. there are thousands of palestinian prisoners. that have been detained in the past 15 months since the war started on october seventh 2023. 1,000 or so more who've been detained from gaza. so those images today, of those prisoners being held aloft on people's shoulders, that is a win for hamas because it enables them to say, "look, we're getting these prisoners out. "we're the only legitimate resistance," as they would call it, "to israel's military occupation." and by comparison, their political rivals

in the west bank, fatah, who historically have been much more popular, well, they are seen as basically pretty ineffective. they've failed to improve people's lives economically. they've failed to end the occupation. and when you look at polling, since the war started in gaza, hamas's popularity there has faded with maybe people saying, look, hamas brought all this suffering on the people of gaza. but here in the west bank, it has surged. and those images today, they will see that prestige rise further, i think. that's really interesting, jon. we talked earlier on about the israeli soldiers who were released and how they were taken to hospital for medical checks. you mentioned the apparent condition of some of these palestinian prisoners. what facilities are available for them, for their health care, post—theirtime in israeli prisons? well, obviously there are hospitals, medical facilities in the west bank. actually, at the reception today, when they arrived, there were a lot of ambulances on standby.

but everyone i saw coming out of the buses walked out of the buses before they were being hoisted on their people's shoulders. i didn't see anyone getting medical treatment or certainly not being taken off in an ambulance. it was pretty striking, actually, how unhealthy they looked. even though they were smiling, they were very, very thin, very gaunt in the face. a lot of them looked like they'd lost quite a lot of weight while in prison. and with that shaven heads, which creates a very striking image in itself. there is much more on this story on the bbc news website and bbc news app. let's go to central africa and the worsening situation in the democratic republic of congo. six foreign peacekeepers — three malawian and three south african — have been killed in clashes

with m—23 rebels in the east of the democratic republic of the congo. thirteen foreign peacekeepers — from south africa, malawi and uruguay — have been killed in eastern congo while trying to push back an advance by m 23 rebels on the city of goma. the congolese government is withdrawing its diplomats from rwanda because of its backing for the rebels. rwandan diplomats have been told to leave the capital kinshasa. the un says it's pulling nonessential staff out of goma — and an emergency meeting of the security council which was originally set for monday, has been moved up to sunday due to the deteriorating security situation. pete hegseth has been sworn in as the new us secretary of defence — in a ceremony in washington. he took the oath of office hours after being confirmed to the position by the us senate — following a tie—breaking vote by vice presidentjd vance. his confirmation was rocked by misconduct allegations and concerns over a lack of experience. speaking at his swearing in, he vowed to put america first. and the three principles i talked about are what we will bring to that pentagon. restore the warrior ethos

in everything that we do, rebuild our military and re—establish deterrence. we don't want to fight wars. we want to deter them, as you said, and we want to end them responsibly. but if we need to fight them, we're going to bring overwhelming and decisive force to close with and destroy the enemy and bring our boys home. 0ur correspondent david willis — on how the voting went on. so close, that it took the tie—breaking vote of the vice president, jd vance, to edge donald trump's nominee over the line, after the senate was deadlocked 50—50. this is a republican—controlled senate so that was quite something. three key senators voting against the nomination of pete hegseth, following a gruelling nomination process in which pete hegseth faced criticism for allegations of womanising, heavy drinking and financial instability amongst other

things, and was called into question over comments he had made in the past about the fitness of women to serve in combat roles in the military. ultimately as i say it came down to that tie—breaking vote. just the second time in us history that a tie—breaker has been required to break the deadlock as far as a cabinet nominee is concerned. pete hegseth, a man mired in controversy, narrowly got through to leave the biggest department in the us federal administration, about 3 million employees, annual budget of around $850 billion. and it is a sign perhaps of the strength that donald trump wields over the republican party that despite the reservations of

many in that party senate wise as to the candidature of pete hegseth that he still managed to get the votes necessary, i'll be it in the end very tightly, to be confirmed in that position as the new us secretary of defence. and while i have you it is not the only confirmation and swearing and we are expecting. we are anticipating a new head of the department of homeland security potentially any minute now. that's right, kristi noem, and she is perhaps somebody who will be best remembered by many of our viewers for the stories that surrounded her when it emerged she had shot her pet dog, cricket, because she said he was on trainable. she will now lead the department of homeland security which is a key department given donald trump's decision to basically clear out a lot of illegal immigrants from this country.

kristi noem, the former governor of the state of south dakota, she was one of the first republican governors to send troops to the us border, a move that earned plaudits from many conservatives, and she would take up that key position, one that donald trump places great value on. david willis in dc. president trump has promised help for los angeles, as the city and its people try to recover from this month's wildfires. on friday he visited the area for the first time since he returned to office, to see the devastation for himself. having previously criticised the california governor, the president promised to work with him to fix the situation so that it would not happen again. let's speak to kaitlyn schallhorn, politics editor at the orange county register. very good to see you. do we

know what kind of aid california will be getting and when they might be getting it? i think that is the big question we are all wondering. as you mentioned president trump was here yesterday in california, just a few days into his new administration. he promised to fix everything los angeles needs after these devastating wildfires, but the question is about aid. there has been the possibility floated by president trump as well as the republican house speaker mikejohnson that well as the republican house speaker mike johnson that this aid speaker mikejohnson that this aid needs to come with some kind of conditions and strings. that would be pretty unprecedented historically in the united states. federal disaster relief aid has not come with any kind of conditions, so now trump has seen the devastation first hand he is going back to dc and next we will see what kind of conditions if any he would like to put on it. conditions if any he would like to put on it— to put on it. the politics here is a difficult _ to put on it. the politics here is a difficult one. _

to put on it. the politics here is a difficult one. president i is a difficult one. president trump and the federal agencies versus in many ways the california governor and his agencies and resources. is a sense of who is around the table at these conversations and what different roles these people play? and what different roles these peeple play?— and what different roles these --eole -la ? ., people play? governor newsome and president _ people play? governor newsome and president trump _ people play? governor newsome and president trump have - people play? governor newsome and president trump have long l and president trump have long feuded and that is no secret. they put aside some of that feud yesterday when the president was here and they met on the tarmac at the airport and shook hands and everything looked cordial. 0ne and shook hands and everything looked cordial. one key player in this conversation about aid and how it will shape up as the house republicans. there is not a consensus among house republicans about conditions on aid and many of the republicans who represent southern california districts say absolutely not, we don't want conditions. these are house republicans who trump does need to pass his legislative agenda.

they're going to need their help and we will have to watch what those lawmakers are doing and what they are saying. fiend and what they are saying. and as briefly as — and what they are saying. and as briefly as you _ and what they are saying. and as briefly as you can, - and what they are saying. and as briefly as you can, fires on one hand but now we understand the emergency has shifted to rain and floods. we the emergency has shifted to rain and floods.— rain and floods. we are expecting _ rain and floods. we are expecting rain - rain and floods. we are expecting rain this - rain and floods. we are - expecting rain this weekend as any time after a massive wildfire there is a possibility of modern flooding and that is what we are looking at and preparing for in a region that is already pretty devastated. really good to get your reporting. thank you so much forjoining us. stay with us here on bbc news. much more still to come including on our top story, the return of those israeli soldiers who were held hostage by hamas in exchange for 200 prisoners who were released, palestinian prisoners released by israel. much more still to come, do stick with us on bbc news.

hello. saturday was a day where the clean—up could begin from that incredibly powerful storm eowyn that battered parts of the uk and the republic of ireland on friday. a much calmer end to the day saturday. we had a fine sunset across southern areas. it was quite cold across northern portions of the uk on saturday, cold enough for some snow in the showers across high ground. now, eowyn is continuing to disintegrate just to the west of norway, but this is our next weather system that's coming in off the atlantic. and this is another named storm. it's been named by the spanish authorities as storm herminia, and it's going to be bringing wet and windy weather over the next few days, with rainfall totals building up, particularly across parts of wales, the midlands, and south west england, where we could see some localised flooding concerns as we head into the early part of the new week. now, at the moment we've got a little trough pushing eastwards, bringing rain, a bit of sleet and hill snow, mostly above 200 metres elevation across northern

england and scotland, could be a few centimetres actually in scotland and a risk of some icy surfaces wherever we see a frost. so, into sunday morning, actually most of us having a fairly decent start to the day. there will still be some showers and blustery conditions for conditions for northern scotland, and it won't be long before we see the rain and winds pick up across england, wales, and northern ireland. gusts through the irish sea coast reaching around 60 to 70 miles an hour. winds that strong could topple one or two trees, bringing some localised disruption, but it won't be on the same scale of disruption that eowyn brought on friday. that really was an exceptional system. monday, the same area of low pressure is with us. we've still got further outbreaks of rain and the wind is still blowing at the same kind of levels around coastal areas. it will be, i suppose, a fairly mild kind of day, but probably not feeling so, given the strength of those winds. by tuesday, a lot of the rain will start to work a little

bit further northwards, affecting parts of scotland by this stage. but the worst of the weather should clear through from wales and south west england. still a few showers left over, still breezy, but the worst of the wind, the worst of the rain should start to push away. temperatures ranging from around seven to ten degrees, so a few degrees above average for the time of year. now, looking later in the new week, it looks like the weather should tend to settle down as the week goes by and into the following weekend, it might be dry for most of us.

k this is bbc news, the headlines...

scenes of celebration in the west bank, as 200 palestinians are released from israeli prisons. that prisoner release came after hamas released four female israeli soldiers. it's the second exchange under the gaza ceasefire deal. 13 foreign peacekeepers have now been killed in clashes with m23 rebels in the east of the democratic republic of the congo. the un security council is to meet on sunday to discuss the crisis. here in the uk, thousands of homes and businesses are still without power, as storm eowyn causes chaos across the uk and ireland. and tonight is a special night for scots around the world as they gather to celebrate the life and work of their national bard, robert burns.

let's return to our top story this hour — four female israeli soldiers held hostage by hamas were released, in exchange for around 200 palestinian prisoners detained by israel. the four israeli women were freed in gaza city in a ceremony tightly controlled by hamas, before being later reunited with their families. 200 palestinian inmates then released from israeli prisons. reports from egypt say 70 of the 200 prisoners have arrived in egypt, from where they'll travel on to neighbouring countries. but permission for hundreds of thousands of gazans to begin returning to what's left of their homes in the north has been delayed until israel is satisfied that a remaining female civilian held hostage will be released. 0ur middle east regional editor sebastian usher has been monitoring the days events and gave us his assessment. the palestinian prisoners weren't being released by now this time last sunday so that has happened much more smoothly

and more difficult as well, because they were being sent to different places, some to the occupied west bank, some to gaza, a very small number, and the 70 who essentially are being sent into exile, who are not being allowed back because of the gravity of the crimes that they have been sentenced for by israel going to egypt, and from there they will go perhaps to qatar, to tunisia, sorry, to algeria or to turkey. so, i mean, the choreography of it was complex. hamas, as we were hearing from john there again, i mean, was very keen to put their best foot forward, shall we say. and from their perspective, they did. it certainly hasn't had a good impact in israel. i mean, the fact that the four hostages were brought up onto a platform there, paraded is the way that it would be seen, the way that hamas was vaunting its remaining power,

essentially by having fighters with their guns all around, has been greeted by israeli politicians with huge distaste, feeling that this is essentially hamas trying to make some kind of a capital out of the release of four young women who have been held for more than 15 months in extremely difficult conditions, obviously. well, i was going to ask you about that because we have heard from the families. have we heard much from benjamin netanyahu or his spokespeople? we've had benjamin netanyahu obviously issuing statements of happiness over what's happened. there was a clip of him, a video of about 2.5 minutes with the parents of one of the hostages talking to them, and, you know, very much speaking to them in terms of the emotions that he's feeling and that the israeli people are feeling. we've heard that from president herzog. we've had that from all

the politicians, even the far right politicians, itamar ben gvir and the finance minister smotrich, who were very much opposed to any ceasefire deal at this moment, feeling that it's far more important for hamas to be eradicated, as mr netanyahu has vowed, have issued again, as they did last week, their sense of pleasure and joy at what has happened. but in each case mingled with a sense that they feel that hamas, as i was saying a moment ago, has been making as much as they can of this and that that is something that they find unacceptable and a humiliation, one of them described it, as for israel. police in the netherlands are on hunt for thieves who broke into a museum overnight, allegedly using explosives, and stole priceless ancient artefacts. local police say there were multiple perpetrators and the heist was well—prepared. translation: we are deeply shocked by the events of last| night in our drents museum.

in its 170—year existence, such a major incident has never occurred. a number of objects have been stolen, including the masterpiece the helmet of cotofenesti from the fifth century bc. 0ur europe regional editor danny aeberhard has been following the story. about 3.45 in the morning local time, there was a big explosion at this small museum, the drents museum in assen in the north of netherlands, and multiple thieves then rushed in through broken windows and stole these four items. these are truly amazing items, as you can see. i mean that there, the helmet of cotofenesti, one of the masterpieces of romanian early art. and you saw and the pain of the museum of drents director there.

i mean, he said, it's not about the gold, this is about romania's cultural heritage. and that's obviously the prime value of these pieces. so it's really, really shocking. there has not been not been any arrests yet. the museum is closed for the weekend while police are investigating. they are going through cctv footage and things like that. but it's a very, very dramatic and significant theft. and we can see these images, as you mentioned there, of inside the museum. and you touched on this a bit earlier, but tell us more about what we know about what was stolen. well, three bracelets, gold spiral bracelets. they're from the dacian empire. the dacians lived before the the roman conquest. there were fights between the romans and the dacians. and they are all bc. those bracelets. the helmet there is almost 2500 years old. it was found in 1927. it was actually washed out

of a hillside and found by children who played with it for a while, and then apparently they used it as a bowl for waterfor animals. i'm not quite sure how, because the top of the helmet has got a hole in it, but they obviously plugged that up or it didn't have a hole when they found it, first of all. but it's extraordinary. it's got those very dramatic, high relief eyes which were meant to ward off evil spirits and protect the person who wore it in battle, and also mythological beasts like the sphinx. so it's an absolutely world class item. and the bracelets themselves were used in the royal treasury. they were more used for sort of monetary purposes, really, and they have an interesting history of their own. they've actually been stolen in the past. they were dug up by looters and sold and dispersed around europe and the us to collectors and the romanian government, they had a huge struggle to try to repatriate these items and in the end had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay compensation to the people, the collectors who had bought them,

not knowing that they had been originally stolen. well, danny, that was then. this is now. has there been a response from the romanian government regarding this incident? yeah, there has certainly has been. the president has been talking with the dutch government already, but the romanian ministry of culture has said all possible steps to recover the stolen items, which were on loan to the dutch museum for an exhibition that was actually due to come to an end tomorrow, are being taken, and he described them as some of the most important items of romanian heritage. and the director of the national history museum, so that's the place where the helmet was, was, was, was kept and normally displayed, said, he's called for their safe return. he said that's his only hope. and he says they're of such a striking distinctiveness that these items are impossible to sell. the fear, i guess, is that they could even be melted down.

here in the uk, hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses are still without power, a day after storm eowyn smashed its way across the uk and ireland. the met office has described it as probably the most powerful to hit in at least ten years. eowyn brought winds of more than 100 miles per hour to scotland and the entire island of ireland. at least one man was killed. sarah girvin reports. storm eowyn may be over, but the destruction left in its wake is unprecedented. in the republic of ireland, it was a once in a generation weather event. it claimed the life of 20—year—old kacper dudek, killed in county donegal when a tree fell on his car. around the country, a massive clean up operation is underway, but the repairs are expected to take some time. across the island of ireland, hundreds of thousands of homes are still without power. and while work is ongoing, there is a warning that it

might take up to ten days for everyone to get electricity back. this animal shelter has been left without heating. a lot of our puppies need a lot more care than the older dogs, medications, and wejust... like, this wee one's freezing at the minute. so we'd just be very keen to make sure that those puppies have electric. if not, we might need to consider getting foster homes for them. there were more than 2,000 road obstructions reported at the height of the storm in northern ireland. work is now under way here in belfast and across the country to remove damaged trees like this one. in scotland, damage to properties is still being assessed and storm eowyn has left tens of thousands without power. it was terrifying. it was. it was really bad. but everybody stayed in, stayed safe. travel services also remain severely disrupted. we're actually stranded here now until tomorrow

and hope we can get the train up to aberdeen. so we'll come back in the morning and just see how things are, but it is frustrating. 0h! oh, my god! some weather warnings remain in place for parts of england, scotland, wales and northern ireland. and while it is hoped the worst is over, recovery from storm eowyn is just beginning. sarah girvin, bbc news. on monday, the world will mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the nazi concentration camp of auschwitz—birkenau. every year, millions of people from around the world visit the site of the camp where at least 1.1 million people were murdered. among them are nearly 2,500 british teenagers who travelled with the holocaust educational trust, and havejust a day to visit poland and tour the museum. theirjob is to reflect on what they've learnt and educate others on their experiences. the bbc�*s emma—louise amanshia went with them.

i can't believe that this was allowed to happen. it really surprises you, the scale of it. they thought they were i going somewhere where they would survive. now you just have these empty suitcases, and each individual. suitcase has a story. these gates behind me mark the entrance to auschwitz, the largest concentration camp ever created by the nazis. jewish people from all over europe were brought here on trains during the holocaust. and around a million of those people were killed here by the nazis. i've joined 150 teenagers from the uk who have come to auschwitz—birkenau to find out more about the history of the holocaust. it was such a shocking event in human history, and just to be able to connect with the people who all had lives, they all had beliefs,

they all had aspirations in life. it's really important to important to connect with those people and understand what they had to face. are there any moments that really stood out to you? seeing all these movies and reading these books, it doesn't do itjustice in real life. seeing this place in real life, it's such an emotional connection. the old barracks, which used to house thousands of prisoners, have been carefully converted into exhibition spaces. each one is filled with stories, photographs and items belonging to people who were brought here by the nazis. this massive book gives visitors to auschwitz an idea of the scale. 4.6 millionjewish victims have their names recorded in this book, and those are just the names that historians know about. it reallyjust like surprises you of the scale of it. because when you just think of a number and you don't

really get the same feeling, but after seeing every single name printed out, it gives you like a feeling that you can't unfeel. it happened more recently than you would really think about it. i mean, there's people who are still alive, so it's also kind of like angering. and it'sjust a reminder to never have something like this happen again. seeing auschwitz in person because obviously i've, - i've learned about it, - i've watched films about it, i've got a complete sense . of heartache, and sympathy for all the survivors that went through this. - we are standing on a memorial built to remember the events that happened here. as the sun sets, a memorial service takes place on the old railway tracks. amen. just made me feel such a sense of not anguish, but it's like a bit of, oh my goodness, like, i can't believe that this was allowed to happen. it's been a big day. lots to take in. what is the main thing you want to tell people

when you go back to school? the holocaust is something to be remembered, but not because it's something distant in the past, but it's something we can use for our future to make this world a better place. it's been a busy first week back in office for president donald trump with a flurry of executive orders and issuing pardons for many of his nearly 1,600 supporters who were arrested for storming the us capitol in 2021. it's raised questions about the president's view of what happened that day and how american justice works. ros atkins reports. january 6th, 2021 looked like the end of donald trump's political career. over 1,500 of his supporters would be charged for actions including attempting to overthrow the government, assaulting police officers and obstructing the certification of the election result. but it was far from the end. and on the campaign trail, donald trump signalled he was considering pardoning those convicted. 0n precisely who, vice presidentjd vance said recently if you committed violence on that day, obviously

you shouldn't be pardoned. in many cases, that's exactly what's happened. 0n the day he returned to power, donald trump called the january 6th prisoners hostages, which they aren't. and here at the white house, he pardoned almost all of them. others had their sentences commuted, which means they'll be released but their convictions remain on the record. one of them is stuart rhodes, founder of the far right militia group the 0ath keepers. he received 18 years for trying to overthrow the government. another is jacob chansley, whose image became closely associated with the riot. i got the news from my lawyer when i was at the gym, and i walked outside and i screamed freedom at the top of my lungs, and then gave a good native american war cry.

then there's the former leader of the far—right group, the proud boys. henry enrique tarrio was serving 22 years, also for planning to overthrow the government. he's received a full pardon. and since his release, he's claimed they didn't care about the evidence, they cared about putting trump supporters in prison. well, now it's our turn, he said, adding the people who did this, they need to feel the heat, they need to be put behind bars. many others involved have been pardoned, too, and the outrage from some is palpable. 0ne police officer who was attacked on january the 6th says, "i have been betrayed by my country." the biggest police union, which endorsed trump during the election, said the pardon sent a dangerous message. and one legal analyst says that the move corrupts the rule of law and rewrites history. but to donald trump, the january 6th convictions are an example of how, in his eyes, the justice system isn't working and has been used to attack him and his supporters. 0njanuary 6th itself, we heard a similar message that america's democracy wasn't working. donald trump came here to the ellipse with the white house behind him.

and as the certification of his defeat loomed, he told supporters to peacefully and patriotically make their voices heard. he also said this. and we fight. we fight like hell. and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country any more. after the speech, the crowd, hundreds and hundreds strong, moved towards the capitol. as they walked, trump supporters shouted, "stop the steal!", echoing his false claim that the election had been stolen, a claim he has repeated since returning to the presidency. soon enough, the crowd would reach its destination and force its way into the capitol. the building they attacked is the building where, four years later, their man, donald trump, was again sworn in as president and where, hours before their pardons, he'd emphasised the importance of law and order, but only in certain circumstances, it seems. last year, donald trump was

convicted on 3a felony counts of falsifying business records. and the man who led us government investigations into him believes that if he hadn't been re—elected, the volume of evidence means donald trump would have been convicted of election interference, too. donald trump dismisses such claims. he argues all the cases against him were politically motivated, and for him, these january 6th pardons reinforce his message that the justice system can be political and unjust. it's a claim his critics fear will apply to him in his second term. according to npr, trump himself has made more than 100 threats to prosecute or punish perceived enemies. across the road from the capitol building is the supreme court, which recently gave presidents partial immunity from criminal prosecution. law and politics have always, to some degree, been intertwined in america. but on the day that power changed hands, we saw the extent to which that's now the case.

in december, joe biden pardoned his son, hunter, who was facing sentencing for two criminal cases. then, minutes before he left office, he pre—emptively pardoned a number of people, including other members of his family and members of the house committee that investigated january 6th. he referenced concern about politically motivated prosecutions. soon after, vice president jd vance was sworn in by brett kavanaugh, one of three appointees to the supreme court chosen by donald trump. later, the new president issued his january 6th pardons. after watching this play out, politico reported that both presidents on the same day stretched the pardon power to new, questionable frontiers in wildly different ways. the following day, ross ulbricht was also pardoned. he operated a dark web marketplace called silk road, and in 2015 was found guilty of charges including conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking. on this, donald trump posted,

"the scum that worked "to convict him were some of the same lunatics "who were involved in the modern day weaponisation of "government against me. "he was given two life sentences plus a0 years. "ridiculous," said the president. and on his return to power, there's one word that donald trump has been using a lot. and i will win for you. we are going to win like never before. right now, donald trump is winning. he's president. and his political success rests in part on a sense of grievance that america's institutions are against him and can't be trusted. but with each attack on the justice system, with each pardon, faith in the fairness of american justice is being tested and the distinction between law and politics becomes harder to make out. saturday night is burns night — across scotland many are gathering to celebrate the life and work of robert burns sitting down to haggis, neeps, and tatties.

and it's a tradition enjoyed by scots around the world, with burns suppers being organised from new york to norway, from sydney to spain. it's traditionally a very male—dominated event, but one group of women is trying to change that, not only to bring burns in line with perhaps more modern ideas of inclusivity, but also to acknowledge and celebrate burns's own relatively—feminist views. kerry burley is the president of sandyford burns club. i asked her how her celebrations were going so far. i don't know if you can hear the applause in the background, it's going beautifully, it must be said. we've got almost 300 people here this evening, they're currently enjoying the reply to the toast to the lassies. and it's been a wonderful evening so far. great music, great songs, great recitations and wonderful speeches. you mention the toast to the lassies there. traditionally, that's really the only part at which the women are able to get involved in the evening celebrations. how are you looking to change that? so, yes, the reply to the toast of the lassies. so, a gentleman initially

proposes and a woman replies. and, yes, traditionally the woman has rolled out for the reply. increasingly women, though, are starting to take centre stage a bit more. i myself delivered the immortal memory this evening, and we're hoping that that's going to be the case more. we're also hoping to get burns's message of equality, humanity and, believe it or not, feminism across to marginalised communities and people who wouldn't usually consider burns as a source of inspiration. so that's what we're doing here this evening. at my own supper next week, this is not my clubs burns supper, this is another burns supper, we have a top table full of women, we have a female piper, we have a female addressing the haggis. so we're trying to shift the paradigm a little bit and shake things up and show the boys that here come the girls. why is this important? because you mentioned burns's views there. he loved women. and depending on how you look at it, he had lots of children, lots of affairs. but he did also have some relatively feminist views for his time. why is it you're trying to do this? well, in 1792, burns wrote a treatise on the rights

of women prior to mary wollstonecraft writing, a treatise on the rights of women, which was utterly remarkable, and he was widely ridiculed for it. but it's very, very important not only for women but for other communities that burns is recognised. his message was one of humanity, equality, equity. and that is something thatjust hearing your previous article there in 2025, which is absolutely imperative that we all understand the intrinsic value of humanity, man, women, whatever. and finally take a look at this. lightning struck this british airways flight at the terminal in sao paulo in brazil. the plane was supposed to be heading to london but some minor repairs were needed, delaying take—off by six hours. stay with us here on bbc news. hello.

saturday was a day where the clean—up could begin from that incredibly powerful storm eowyn that battered parts of the uk and the republic of ireland on friday. a much calmer end to the day saturday. we had a fine sunset across southern areas. it was quite cold across northern portions of the uk on saturday, cold enough for some snow in the showers across high ground. now, eowyn is continuing to disintegrate just to the west of norway, but this is our next weather system that's coming in off the atlantic. and this is another named storm. it's been named by the spanish authorities as storm herminia, and it's going to be bringing wet and windy weather over the next few days, with rainfall totals building up, particularly across parts of wales, the midlands, and south west england, where we could see some localised flooding concerns as we head into the early part of the new week. now, at the moment we've got a little trough pushing eastwards, bringing rain, a bit of sleet and hill snow, mostly above 200 metres elevation across northern england and scotland,

could be a few centimetres actually in scotland and a risk of some icy surfaces wherever we see a frost. so, into sunday morning, actually most of us having a fairly decent start to the day. there will still be some showers and blustery conditions for conditions for northern scotland, and it won't be long before we see the rain and winds pick up across england, wales, and northern ireland. gusts through the irish sea coast reaching around 60 to 70 miles an hour. winds that strong could topple one or two trees, bringing some localised disruption, but it won't be on the same scale of disruption that eowyn brought on friday. that really was an exceptional system. monday, the same area of low pressure is with us. we've still got further outbreaks of rain and the wind is still blowing at the same kind of levels around coastal areas. it will be, i suppose, a fairly mild kind of day, but probably not feeling so, given the strength of those winds. by tuesday, a lot of the rain will start to work a little 1578 00:57:55,470 --> 00:57:5