in washington dc. this is the scene live in washington — # may be good lord with you now... devastating wildfires.

in to land in washington dc. from the us national transportation safety board. the cause of the collision. in more than 20 years. and aeroplanes flying in the area — one of of the crash — that's according to sources cited by the bbc�*s us partner, cbs news. our north america correspondent merlyn thomas has more from washington.

we're here to assure the american people this investigation. the victims from the passenger flight were from all over spencer lane, a 16—year—old figure skaterfrom rhode island, and his mother, christine lane, ability tojust go, whether he was in his from the adults running the club to the smallest

they alljust adored him. and vadim naumov were both coaches from the community and victims of the crash. 28—year—old sam lilley has been identified as one of one of the pilots of the american airlines flight. "my heart is breaking," he wrote in a facebook post. flight has since emerged. second, for your signature,

we have a presidential- memorandum... we don't care what race they are. and you know, you're talking about extremely complex things. and if they don't have a great brain, a great power of the brain, they're not going to be very good of national tragedy. for now, communities are grieving what is one merlyn thomas, bbc news, washington. can you the scene live at the fiiithefihflof atzreagan airport. the scene of crash, the potomac river, recovery efforts have where recovery efforts have caused because been caused because conditions are so hazardous. dark, freezing waters. that will

freezing waters. that 14.11!!— it freezing waters. theta-gill— it is resume, it is expected, possibly at they sessiélg at dagliaht; theg have ~ ~ , ~ 7 the flight data recovered the flight data recorders. the national transportation safety board it does have a lot of says it does have a lot of but they need some information, but they need some to verify that. a time to verify that. a preliminary report will be preliminarv renort will be , r in preliminary report will be in 30 days. the man tipped to be germany's next chancellor is due that he might again rely on votes from the far right. thousands have been protesting after friedrich merz who leads deutschland. mr merz argues change is needed. 100 years and more.

but we have to make sure that immigration to this country almost exclusively goes into the social security systems. in a rare intervention, the former cdu chancellor angela merkel said in a statement, "i think "it is wrong to no longer feel bound by this proposal our berlin correspondent damian mcguiness spoke to me earlier with the latest. it has been described as a historic moment in german as critics would describe it of the conservatives with the far right afd party.

the conservative government relying majority of parliament wants. but relying on the afd is seen as a taboo that of power, which goes back to germany's history, and its

the former chancellor, angela merkel, who was the leader of what we are seeing really is a huge row over this, and that row will only get bigger today. parliamentary motion. again the conservatives could want or look for together with the afd, lead the next government in just 3.5 weeks' time. in parliament and we

expect fiery date expect fiery debate here today. and what do the polls suggest ahead of that election? has a strong lead with around 30%. this firewall means is that it is you start on local council, then together to support something like a parliamentary motion.

the next elections. they are hoping they will get into government work with them. within this german coalition—building system breaking down. you have a very strong right wing, a it is at the very least clarity for voters this particular issue.

this is bbc news.

eight more hostages have been released under the gaza ceasefire deal — three of them israeli and five are thought to be still alive. crowds in the occupied west bank welcomed the release

that one of them will be an american citizen, but we don't have more clarity than that. a large number of palestinians who have been held in israeli jails released as well. you could see huge crowds thronging around them, it led to real anger here injerusalem, and also a pause to the release of those palestinian prisoners appears to be holding.

he told me many are still not able return to north. and gaza city. that are in khan yunis. they evacuated as well and settled in khan yunis. and they are not able to go with the ceasefire. there are a lot of them, there is a no—go zone still there. and there is a lot of neighbourhoods, which is totally destroyed. so the people who are going either to the some of them, even from our colleagues

who are working with us, went back and they didn't recognise their neighbourhoods. weeks since the ceasefire came into effect? is that making a significant difference? there is a slight difference now in the market. i mean, now there is no fear. as well in rafah. to settle back. they are moving their tents from the south to the north. were damaged or destroyed during this 15 months of war. through and the help that's there for the people in gaza? some medical aids now.

i mean, the health system has been totally hospitals, destroyed. so we are trying to scale our activities mainly in, in the north and gaza city. i mean, we are trying to support some i had news that it is standing, is totally destroyed,

it's about the community. i mean, there is no place. i mean, the streets are totally destroyed. the water lines, destroyed. it's really catastrophic. which will take a lot. aid has upended relief efforts around the world. and aids prevention — have been shut down,

on his first day in office, aid, directing the state department to review which programmes will continue to receive funding. james waterhouse reports now on the impact this will have on ukraine. the country's agricultural industry with the exports of grain, its energy sector, where engineers strikes power stations and thermal power plants

donald trump directly. like ukraine to become. but this is a worrying symptom for kyiv, where we're not long into this trump administration and that we're already seeing an unpredictability and unreliability, if you like, let us have a look at how this is impacting our correspondent in pakistan, azadeh moshiri, reports the united states funds health, energy, infrastructure conflict could come

under more pressure. and that pressure extends to schools. and the us was funding several education programmes. it hosts three million afghans, and the un says only 1.4 million are documented. that programme has also been frozen. by the united states because for many countries in this region, humanitarian aid is a lifeline. she asks me how she can afford daily life when that was already stretched thin. people were living off of one or two meals a day.

is or was the single largest donor in afghanistan, immediately and disastrously. shingai nyoka reports on the possible impact on south africa. the consensus here in southern africa is this region has been particularly hard hit by the hiv pandemic, but through foreign funding, in south africa, for example, about 5.5 million people receive free arvs and the us funds about a fifth of that programme.

will be affected. but there are concerns that areas such as also be affected and that will have an impact on the overall goals of rolling back now, the us has also said that zimbabwe should take care neglected that particular service. but the concern is that there's such short notice millions of people who rely on this medication. and rolling back investment that has been

different venues in los angeles for the benefit fireaid concert music: what about us by p!nk. from pink, lady gaga, billie eilish, and sting. at least 28 people died and more than 16,000 homes and businesses were destroyed in wildfires that broke out #we # we are rockets out that the star... # # maybe you don't like talkin�* too much about yourself # �*bout someone else # you're drunk?at a party or maybe it'sjust # that your car broke down # your phone's been off

for a couple months, # i know you, you're like this #... now, a concert like this is going to raise money in the millions. it's still relatively early days. and in terms of the rebuilding, the stage debris from what remains of people's homes. so the thought of actually rebuilding bricks and mortar, that is going to come in the months ahead. escalate as time goes on, but it's going to be a tremendous amount of money. and, as you say, a lot of attention on the rich

and i think money is desperately needed and make people safer. plenty more on that story and ,, the stories here all the stories covering here on bbc news and on the website app stop we, r; z a z: :?f,ft £5 app stop we will be and app stop we will be back the business with the day's top business stories. stay with us here on bbc news. hello. compared with some of

the rather turbulent weather that clearing, though, to leave some sunny spells, but a fair amount of cloud. as this ridge of high pressure builds in behind it. tending to clear away. for a good part of the day, and we will keep a fair bit across the southwest of england, wales, scotland not doing badly either, temperatures around 6—10 degrees. across central and eastern parts of england. and another zone of cloud

pushing in towards northern but where we do see some clear spells, temperatures will drop for some on saturday morning. now high pressure to the east of us, frontal systems trying so a lot of dry weather around on saturday, but a fair bit of cloud across the central and eastern parts of england, towards the west cloud will be rolling its way in as this but remember, that weather front will be running into this and so what will be left with for sunday is, yes, but nothing too significant.

and eastern england — we should see some spells of sunshine. eight, nine degrees will not feel too bad. as we look ahead to next week, a decent amount of dry decent spells of sunshine.

this is bbc news, the headlines... in washington dc. as the investigation begins, questions are being asked about the number of air traffic controllers who were on duty. divided by war, we speak to the ukrainian woman whose and why are scientists counting the calories of polar bears? 0ur science correspondent will have the answer. here's lukwesa. we start with apple, the latest of the us tech as the whole industry recovers from the release of the chinese