we believe we're closer than we've ever been so we're hopeful, but there is still work to be done and nothing is done until it's all done, so we're going to keep working on this. our security correspondent frank gardner has more details on the process of reaching an agreement. is a deal to release the hostages getting close? well, it certainly sounds like it but we have been here before. and this is incredibly tough for the families, the relatives, who been marched up this hill before and marched down again with enormous disappointment, so it's not done until it's done. but i have managed to speak to some of the parties involved in this negotiation, indirectly, and they are more optimistic than they have been before, that in the coming days there could well be a release of dozens of israeli hostages in a single batch followed by further batches and in return there would be pauses in the fighting of a few hours for each day for a number of days, 3—4, five days, something like that, and also fuel being allowed into gaza. but the problems, the things that have been holding this up, at this stage, are really more about practicalities and logistics of it. what do we mean by that? the negotiations are taking place in doha, in qatar, in the gulf. but you've got to the messages from there back to gaza where the military commanders are of course fighting a war, so they're mostly underground in tunnels, in hiding, knowing their communications are almost certainly being monitored by the israelis, and so it takes time to get those messages received and approved, agreed with, and then you've got a second logistical problem which is that if you cast your mind back to that horrific day on 7 october when all those villagers were taken at gunpoint from southern israel into gaza, hamas and their associates scattered them out, they basically farmed them out in different locations because they thought suddenly the israeli special forces would come after them, so they are being held in different locations, not all being held by hamas, some being held by different group called palestinian islamichhad, some of them may even be in private houses under lock and key. almost certainly most are underground in tunnels. so they've to be gathered up and collected. the good news is — or the good encouraging sign — is that the head of the international committee of the red cross is on his way or is already there or close to getting to doha, and that means the red cross has a good chance of being involved in these releases, just as they were with the previous hostages who came out. so it's looking more encouraging but it's not there yet. while negotiations continue, there's still heavy fighting around the al—shifa hospital in gaza city. 28 premature babies were evacuated from there and taken to egpyt. the world health organization says 12 of them were flown into cairo for further treatment. the hamas run health ministry says 259 sick and wounded people remain stranded at al—shifa. and the who says there could be many more babies in need of in—depth care very soon. 5,500 women will give birth in the next month. 15% of them will need a caesarean section. 25% of their children will be born preterm. that's thousands of babies. that's not 31, 29 or 38. that's literally thousands of babies will be born. separately, the who's chief said he is appalled by an attack on gaza's indonesian hospital. the hamas run health ministry says 12 people were killed. israel says its troops came under fire from within the hospital and that it directly targeted enemy fire, but did not fire shells towards the hospital. the director of gaza's indonesian hospital has told the bbc there is still intermittent shooting being heard at the site. our senior international correspondent orla guerin reports from jerusalem with more on the situation on the ground. alive, against the odds — premature babies rescued from al—shifa hospital. parents cluster around before they are transferred from gaza. this man seems to be identifying his son. nour has just been reunited with her twin girls. translation: i didn't know anything - about their condition. today, i saw them for the first time since the day they were born. thank god, i have been reassured that they are fine. then they are wrapped up for the journey across the border — faces of the war in gaza whose suffering caught the attention of the world. in egypt, specialists standing by with a waiting incubator. still desperately vulnerable, but now safe from harm... ..unlike about a million other children who remain trapped in gaza. in israel, families of those held in gaza are daring to hope there will be a deal to free at least some of them. this was the moment on 7 october when the hostage ordeal began. here, women being dragged away by hamas, barefoot and in terror. gil dickman�*s cousin was among them. so this is my cousin, carmel, 39 years old. she's an occupational therapist. she loves travelling, she loves music, she's a wonderful aunt. carmel gat is being held along with her sister—in—law, yarden, whose 3—year—old keeps asking when she is coming home. hamas doesn't give us any signs of life. we don't even know whether yarden and carmel, my cousin and her sister—in—law, are alive or not. the same goes for about a0 israeli children being held hostage — among them, babies. the children are expected to be freed if there is a deal, along with some women. gil knows his loved ones may not get out now. some of them are going to come before the others. and i understand that some of them are going to come before carmel and yarden. i believe if they're there, they also understand it and they want the children to come back before them. for israelis, a deal may bring dozens of hostages home. for palestinians, a few days�* respite from israeli bombings. orla guerin, bbc news, jerusalem. latin america's mainstream media has used different terms to describe argentina's newly—elected president javier milei — from "ultra—rightist and "libertarian" to "anarcho—liberal" — but they left little doubt that his decisive election victory signals a dramatic change of political course for the south american nation. milei won the election with close to 56% in the decisive run—off, ahead of his left—wing rival sergio massa, with 44%. milei's victory comes amid a deep economic crisis in argentina with inflation standing at over 140% and two in five argentinians, or a0%, live in poverty. mr milei promised drastic changes if elected including ditching the local currency for the us dollar and "blowing up" the central bank in order to prevent it from printing more money, which he argues is driving inflation. our south america correspondent katy watson has more. i think will be interesting to see what kind of president javier milei will be, will he be brash with these unorthodox proposals or will he have to turn them down because he's not going to have a huge amount of support in congress? he's going t ohave to work with other parties, other politicians to get proposals through, and at the same time the country is in a massive economic crisis and he is going to have to be very aware that he won't be making the situation even worse than many millions of argentinians who have so much hope on his presidency and the change he has talked about bringing about. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. the uk covid inquiry has been told borisjohnson was clearly bamboozled by the science. that's according to the government's former chief scientific adviser, sir patrick vallance. he also wrote in his diary that mrjohnson was a weak, indecisive pm. our health editor hugh pym was listening to patrick vallance�*s evidence and spoke to sophie raworth. in the late autumn of 2020, as lockdown was looking more and more inevitable, so patrick's diaries referred to a shambolic day at that time when the prime minister was arguing for, "letting it rip", and there would have to be more casualties because people had, "had a good innings". dominic cummings had, as well in vallance�*s diary, said that rishi sunak had also agreed that it was ok to let people die. of course, mr sunak and mrjohnson will give their own evidence to the inquiry. borisjohnson, rishi sunak and the former health secretary, matt hancock, will all appear at the inquiry before christmas. you're live with bbc news. devastating flash flooding in the horn of africa has killed ovre 100 people and caused extensive damage to homes and infrastructure. the united nations says more than three million people were affected between september and mid—november and more than 700,000 people have been displaced. kenya, somalia, uganda, burundi, and ethiopia are the worst hit countries. it's the latest in a series weather events to hit the horn of africa region which has just emerged from the most severe drought on record. flooded roads have now made access to fresh produce difficult for residents, as one local explains. translation: the price of a lot of produce has gone up - because there is not enough in the market. a kilo of tomatoes is now going for 200 shillings. that is like 1.31 us dollars. we cannot access the produce in the farms because the roads are inaccessible. i spoke with william spindler, who is the global spokesperson for the un's high commission for refugees. thank you forjoining us. we're seeing once—in—a—century flooding after the worst drought that has been seen. what is the situation on the ground? the situation is really worrying because there is a deepening humanitarian crisis in the horn of africa, hitting countries like kenya, somalia and ethiopia, where thousands of people who were already displaced by conflict and drought are now on the move again, because of these floods that have devastated many parts of these countries, and affected hundreds of thousands of people, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight to their suffering. you say there are about three quarters of a million people who've been displaced, they're on the move. where can they go to seek shelter? well, many of them are moving to higher ground, but some of them are just sheltering under trees because their houses have been destroyed or severely damaged by the floods. unfortunately, some people have also drowned in the flash floods, and rivers have burst their banks, and they have also caused a lot of damage, and there are rescue efforts, the authorities in kenya for instance have used helicopters to rescue some people, but in the refugee camp for instance, which hosts somali refugees who left their country because of conflict and insecurity, many of these families are now displaced again, and just seeking shelter wherever they can. in some cases staying in schools, which is going to affect schoolchildren, who will not be able to go to school because schools are being used to shelter displaced families. the situation is horrific. it is really troubling, and we are appealing for more humanitarian aid to help these people. as you say, the humanitarian crisis is deepening and the death toll, we understand, is likely to rise again. just what is needed, what sort of specific humanitarian aid are you looking for? the main needs are for emergency shelter, clean water, tents, blankets, jerry cans, hygiene kits, just the basic things so people can have a better quality of life and just have the basic supplies. medicine also is needed because of grave concern that after the floods there will be the spread of infectious diseases including cholera. so we need to act quickly, as the impact of these floods is going to be long lasting. many people have lost their livelihoods, a lot of livestock has died, a lot of agricultural land has been submerged by the flood, so we are worried a lot of people won't have enough food. the drought has already caused a devastating impact on people's livelihoods but now these floods are going to create even more hardship. given everything going on elsewhere in the world, is the international community giving enough focus to this humanitarian crisis, do you think? i'm afraid not. the needs are multiplying. there are several humanitarian crises in the world today, the situation in sudan, the situation in syria, in yemen, in many parts of the world that are suffering from needs, and there is a proliferation of crises, and of course the response from the international community is not keeping pace with the needs. so we are really worried that many people will suffer because of the lack of adequate humanitarian response to the needs. as you say, the long—term impact is likely to be quite severe as well. yes, as we know, these floods come in the wake of drought that had already affected communities and caused a lot of hardship and displacement as well. so we are afraid the resilience and the capacity of people to adapt to the changes has been pushed to the limit, and without great humanitarian effort, we are afraid we will see more people die. thank you very much forjoining me with that update. william spindler, unhcr global spokesperson. thank you. more than 200 people have been jailed for a total of more than 2,200 years, in one of the italy's biggest anti—mafia trials for years. the case was brought to target one of the world's most dangerous criminal organisations, the calabrian n'drangheta. sofia bettiza has more. this is the culmination of a huge trial, which lasted nearly three years, against the italian mafia group known as n'drangheta. now, over more than 200 people have been convicted after an italian court heard thousands of hours of testimonies, including from former mafia members. and the fact that informants decided to testify was crucial here. it is very rare for anybody to come forward because the n'drangheta is based on family ties and connections. now, the witnesses shed new light on how the n'drangheta operates, from using ambulances to transport drugs to hiding weapons in churches, and they also described the brutality of the n'drangheta. basically, anybody who tried to oppose them was threatened and they would find dead puppies, goats or dolphin heads — dolphin heads — dumped on their doorstep. now, the n'drangheta is based in southern italy and is made up of approximately 150 italian families and their associates. but this goes far beyond italy. the n'drangheta is now operating in more than a0 countries and they have become one of the most powerful criminal networks in the world. they are involved in all sorts of criminal activities hundreds of employees at openai, the creator of chat gpt, have called on the board of the ai company to resign after the shock dismissal of former boss sam altman. microsoft hired mr altman on monday. microsoft is a close partner of the company and has invested billions of dollars in openai. i spoke with ashley gold, tech reporter at axios. it has indeed be an extremely chaotic past 72 hours or so for openai, and all of us tech reporters. openai has had a for—profit arm and a nonprofit arm. the nonprofit arm — which is where the board sits — is ultimately who has held all the control over what happens at openai. who works there, who's in charge, whether sam altman is kept as ceo. they've been worried about safety, whether these ai models are going too far. they've been worried that the technology is developing too fast without proper guardrails, whether from within the company or within the government. and this is still reporting — it is not entirely confirmed by the board themselves yet — but those fears came to a head and they thought that sam altman was sort of the face of the company moving too fast without the proper guardrails. so they ousted him very unceremoniously, and there was immediate pushback. the people who work at openai absolutely love sam altman. they have so much loyalty to this man. he has such a great reputation in silicon valley among all the places he's worked. that swift pushback has resulted in a chaotic past couple of days where we still are not even totally sure where things stand with openai and microsoft as we speak. indeed, reuters are reporting tonight that the board has approached the google—backed anthropic about a potential merger. what impact would that have on the technology? the impact is that there would be a little less competition. so there's a couple of tech companies who are really leading in al right now, especially this generative ai, this more forward—looking technology. with google backing anthropic, openai, amazon doing its own thing, and of course you have what meta is doing as well — as these companies start to merge, there's not going to be quite enough competition. and that's competition on both the products and how innovative they are, and how far we can take ai — and alsojust competing on whether they're safe and effective for human beings. so that could lead to more consolidation and concentration. we see reporting that altman has joined microsoft. his co—founder, greg brockman, has joined as well. it seems, according to various points on x, formerly twitter, that hundreds of the staff have also at least been approached by microsoft, if they haven't already signed on. does this mean that openai as we know it, may, in fact, cease to exist and there'll be a new unit, essentially, within microsoft? one would think, if all these reports hold true and all those hundreds of employees — i think it was up to over 700 last time i checked — go to microsoft, then yes, that might be true. but i want to really be clear here — everything is still in flux. you have the ceo of microsoft doing multiple media interviews just this evening saying he'd be ok with sam altman going back to openai and not technically being employed by microsoft. what happens now is stilljust completely unwritten. and the employees have called for the remaining three directors of openai to resign. how likely is that, given what you've been saying there about the concerns, the regulation? honestly, it could happen. sometimes — a couple of things the board has said — if they think the mission of openai has been lost — the board says the mission has always been responsible ai that helps humanity and isn'tjust for profit — if they can't succeed in their mission, they've said they're ok with destroying themselves. potentially, yeah, i could see them resigning. the singer, shakira, has settled a multi—million euro tax evasion case, agreeing to pay a fine of more than 7 million euros to spanish authorities. the singer was about to go on trial in barcelona, charged with defrauding spain of more than 1a million euros in tax. prosecutors had wanted to jail herfor up to eight years, if she'd been found guilty. our reporter in madrid, guy hedgecoe, gave us the details of the settlement. prosecutors in this case said that, during the period of 2012 to 2014, shakira had been spending enough time in spain for her to be a resident of the country. and that she was spending at least six months of each year here in spain — and therefore she should be liable to pay taxes on her earnings for that period. until now, shakira had insisted that was not the case — that during that period, she was travelling around the world performing and recording. however, as the trial started, she admitted that she had, in fact, been a resident of spain and was, indeed, liable to pay taxes here for that period. and so the deal she reached with prosecutors was that she was given a three—year suspended jail sentence and she was also fined around 7 million euro — that's a bit more than $7 million. this meant that the trial goes no further, and also means that an array of witnesses who had been called to testify in this case would not have to do so. they had included hairdressers, stylists, and even a former zumba instructor of shakira, all of whom had been expected to testify. that won't happen. before we go, presidentjoe biden turned 81 on monday. he celebrated by continuing a white house tradition that's a few years younger than he is — the 76th national thanksgiving turkey ceremony. i hereby part the liberty and bell! cheering two lucky birds received a presidential pardon ahead of thanksgiving on thursday. liberty and bell will retire to a farm in minnesota, with their new lease on life. an early happy thanksgiving to them. that's it from washington for the moment. i am caitriona perry. do stay with us on bbc news. goodbye. hello. the weather's fairly quiet at the moment — typical autumn weather, really. towards the end of the week, possibly a little dose of winter on the way. but let's concentrate on the here and now. so tuesday, a rather cloudy day across england and wales, but across scotland and northern ireland, i think, some sunshine on the way. now, the satellite picture shows that we're sort of in between weather systems. we have got thicker cloud on the way. that will be in place across the country on wednesday, but before that happens, this area of high pressure nosing across the country, and that means that the morning will have been sunny across scotland and northern ireland and also quite chilly, whereas we've got the thicker cloud across the bulk of england and wales, with temperatures between 7 and 10 celsius. so, later on in the morning, i think it stays fairly cloudy across east anglia, parts of the midlands and the south. some showers, too. you can see that breeze off the north sea, but sunshine developing across many parts of northern england and wales. the opposite is true across scotland and northern ireland. after that crisp, sunny start, thicker cloud moving in, and perhaps some spots of rain. and then, take a look at wednesday — really thick cloud across the northern half of the uk, a stronger breeze and also some outbreaks of rain, but the temperatures will be a little bit higher. this is relatively mild atlantic air, so in some spots, up to about 1k degrees, for example, in belfast, and then thursday, and into friday, we see some big changes going on in the air. this cold front is expected to sweep southwards across the uk, opening up the doors to stronger winds and colder air, sweeping in from the northern climes, all the way from the norwegian sea, and, yes, that does mean that we'll see some wintry showers, particularly across the scottish hills. now, thursday isn't going to be too chilly — i think temperatures will quickly, later on in the day, drop, in the north, but i think in the south, we're still talking about 13 or so. by friday, after the passage of that cold front, you can see a northwesterly or northerly wind, some wintry showers there across the scottish hills, but also a lot of crisp sunshine, and with that colder air, temperatures only around 4 degrees in the lowlands of scotland, maybe about 8 or 9 in the south. bye—bye. voice—over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk from washington, dc. i'm stephen sackur. how complete is donald trump's takeover of the republican party? now, that is a question which will hang over the coming year's presidential election and the multiple trials of the former president. can republicans seriously back a presidential candidate who is in the dock and facing the real possibility ofjailtime? well, my guest today here on capitol hill is one of mr trump's most loyal congressional supporters, republican congressman mark alford. what motivates those who are all—in for donald trump? congressman mark alford, welcome to hardtalk. what motivates those who are all—in for donald trump? congressman mark alford, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. congressman, your party, the republican party,