Nonstop flights are available from most major airports. More information for your vacation planning is available at aruba. Com. And now, bbc world news. Rajini this is bbc world news america. Reporting from washington, i am rajini vaidyanathan. The democrats claim victory in alabama for the first time in 25 years. President trump backs the loser. Doug jones says his win marks a moment for unity. Senatorelect jones we have shown not just in the state of alabama, but we have shown the country the way we can be unified. Rajini secretary of state Rex Tillerson says he is ready to sit down for talks with north korea at any time. The white house disagrees, saying not until pyongyang improves its behavior. Crisis in congo. A humanitarian disaster as violence and Food Shortages ravish the country. At least 400,000 children are at risk of starvation. Rajini welcome to our viewers on Public Television in america and around the globe. Today the u. S. Woke up to a political earthquake. The deepred state of alabama turned democrat for the first time in decades. In one of the most watched senate races in recent memory. Doug jones beat roy moore, a controversial candidate who had been accused of Sexual Misconduct, including abusing a teenager. The results hasnt just shifted the Political Landscape in alabama, but across the country and here in washington, d. C. Nick bryant begins our coverage. Nick amidst all the noise and rage of american politics, it is worth remembering that elections are often decided in quiet suburbs. That was true in alabama, where moderate republicans did not turn out for their countrys partys radical, scandalhit candidate, and where many dont like donald trump either. It is a rejection of donald trump. Nick this lifelong republican yesterday went democrat. It was also a protest vote against the president. I do think donald trump has a problem in the republican suburbs. You dont know what is going to come out of his mouth next. You dont know whether we are going to go to war with north korea. You dont know whether hes going to insult a woman in congress. I think theyre very uncomfortable with that. Nick modernday democrats are not supposed to win in staunchly conservative states like alabama. It hasnt happened here in 25 years. No wonder the blizzard of confetti. Senatorelect jones alabama has been at a crossroads. It has been at a crossroads in the past, and unfortunately we usually taken the wrong fork. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, you took the right road. Nick losing republican candidate roy moore thought he was on his way to washington, but he was hit by allegations, which he denies, of Sexual Misconduct with teenage girls, and shunned by senior figures in the republican establishment. That is where the anger of his dejected supporters was directed. It is really sad what took place in this state tonight. Nick do you think he was betrayed by the republican establishment . Absolutely, no doubt about that. You cant always get what you want nick its true, you cant always get what you want, a lesson for donald trump, who strongly backed roy moore. President trump so get out and vote for roy moore. Do it. Do it. Nick this is a big black eye for the president and also a failure of the trump political playbook, to deny accusations of wrongdoing as fake news and attack accusers. With republican majority in the senate reduced to a single seat, it will be hard for the president to enact his stalled legislative agenda. The democrats hope this is indicative of an antitrump wave which will help them win capitol hill in next years congressional elections. This senate race doubled as a battle of the soul of the republican movement, and market marked by defeat for conservative insurgents against the party establishment. That, too, is a setback for donald trump and his unorthodox brand of politics. Nick bryant, bbc news, alabama. Rajini doug jones victory deals a blow to President Trump, who backed roy moore in the final weeks of the race. While mr. Trump sent a tweet of congratulations to doug jones, he added that republicans would have another shot at the seat very soon. That confidence is something that alabama congressman Bradley Byrne shares, although he admits there is still work to do. Rep. Byrne i dont think the election yesterday signifies anything. It was so incredibly unique. The Democrat Party really spent any money in alabama. Next year they will spend almost nothing in alabama, because it was a special election and they could focus all their money on that and they got the result because they did that. They will not have the money spread out all over the nation to do it in states like alabama next year. Im not worried about that. But in a more general sense, should we be concerned about being able to do better with africanamerican and Younger Voters . Absolutely. We need to do better. Doing better means we not only need to have a good substantive agenda, but we need to communicate a lot better. Rajini for more on the fallout of the race, i was joined a short time ago by Josh Kraushaar , Political Editor of national journal. You heard the congressman saying that the republicans need to do better. Where does this leave the soul of the Republican Party as everyone is talking about . Josh the soul is divided in the alabama election. We saw the revenge of the antitrump resistance. You saw record turnout from African Americans and black voters across the state, and suburban voters who typically vote republican swinging overwhelmingly to the democratic candidate in a safely republican state. That is the coalition that democrats are picking up across the country from alabama and virginia to more democratic states on the map. That is what is making democrats more optimistic that they could take back the house and after the alabama election have a chance to take back the senate. Rajini this race demonstrated the divide in the party that you just talked about them particularly because steve bannon, one of trumps key advisors, an antiestablishment figure, backed roy moore, and he is hoping to back other candidates in the midterms. Where does this leave the bannon strategy . Josh the civil war in the Republican Party is as ugly as it has ever been. Mitch mcconnell tried to do everything in his power to prevent roy moore from becoming the republican nominee, and you have steve bannon endorsing him and encouraging President Trump to campaign for him, and even though his candidate lost, he is trying to threaten other candidates on the map who have more moderate or pragmatic records. This is not going away and if it continues, republicans may not show up to the polls next november. Rajini the civil war, where does this leave the man at the top, President Trump . Josh President Trump has been on both sides of the fence. He endorsed appointed senator Luther Strange initially at the advice of mitch mcconnell, and then when Luther Strange lost in the runoff, he went with roy moore. Donald trump is still learning politics. He is still trying to figure out where he stands and he is all over the map. That is what creates chaos in washington. Trump sent out tweets and alienates potential allies and is all over the map in terms of who his friends and enemies are. Rajini arithmeticwise, it is not good for donald trump in terms of congress and policy reform. Josh right, if you want to get his agenda passed him he needs to maintain control of the house and keep the senate. The senate looked like it was pretty safe for republicans, no matter how tough an environment the environment would be in 2010, but no one saw alabama becoming a blue state. Rajini josh, im going to pause you there, because President Trump is not letting the fallout from alabama get in the way of tax reform agenda. Lets look at one of the promises he made earlier about tax reform. President trump today is a very important day and we want everybody to be covered accurately. Im excited to announce that if Congress Sends me a bill before christmas, the irs this is just out, this is breaking news has just confirmed that americans will see lower taxes and bigger paychecks beginning in february. Just 2 short months from now. Rajini josh, the president speaking earlier today. What are the odds of something happening before the end of the year on tax reform . Josh very likely. We only saw one republican senator defecting, and look, republicans need to pass something. They needed to accomplish some significant bit of policy. Tax reform does unite the establishment wing of the party with the trumpian wing of the party. Republicans know they will have a tough Midterm Election and they want to have their candidates running on an accomplishment in 2018. Rajini thanks for coming in. Josh thanks for having me. Rajini in other news from around the world, muslim countries have called on the world to recognize East Jerusalem as the palestinian capital, at the end of a summit in turkey of 50 islamic states which condemned President Trumps moved to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel. British Prime Minister theresa may suffered her first defeat in parliament over brexit. The eu withdrawal bill would force the government to cement the final brexit deal through parliamentary scrutiny. It was won by four votes. Firefighters battling wildfires in california are facing the return of powerful winds. Hundreds of buildings and homes have been destroyed with more than 1000 people forced to evacuate. The fires are some of the largest in the states history. And websters has chosen feminism as its word of the year. It says the number of searches for the word was up 70 from last year. With interest sparking a womens rights marches like this one in washington in january. Policyminism to foreign yesterday Rex Tillerson seemed to be holding out an olive branch to north korea, an offer of unconditional talks. Today, though, a very different message from the white house. According to reuters, a senior official says that now isnt the right time, and pyongyang needs to improve its behavior. Will talks happen or not . For more on this, my colleague katty kay spoke to ambassador former u. S. Ambassador to south korea, Christopher Hill. Katty we seem to be getting mixed messages from the white house secretary tillerson yesterday saying that talks can go ahead without preconditions, and then return the national word from the National SecurityCouncil Press person saying not so fast, they are not behaving well enough, we cannot talk to them yet. Which is it . Are we talking or not talking . Mr. Hill i suspect we are not talking. I was frankly rather surprised by secretary tillerson saying we would talk with no preconditions and he would be prepared to sit there and talk about the weather. It is not a question of preconditions. It is the question of what is the framework of the talks. When we have the sixparty talks, the framework was that all six parties including north korea agreed on the purpose of the talks, which was denuclearization. Today we have a situation where north korea does not agree to the nuclearization. Perhaps as we say in colorado, secretary tillerson got a little out on the edge of his skis. Katty yeah, the snow is falling. On the question of denuclearization, kim jongun has waited until he is in the position of being able to see himself as as the leader of a Nuclear State before he was ready to have any discussions. He is not going to give that up. Where realistically is there room for negotiations . Mr. Hill i think right now much of the negotiation needs to be in the United States and partners such as japan and south korea. The United States needs to work closely with china, not just to outsource the issue, but to cooperate on the issue. In terms of talking with the north koreans, perhaps there could be some formula about talks about talks, which is i think what secretary tillerson was hinting at. But it is pretty clear in this case and in previous cases that he does not check his signals very closely with the white house, and this is causing confusion. Katty i am sure you have seen the reports out of washington from north korea watchers that we are much closer to some kind of military action on the Korean Peninsula than most people are aware of. Would you put yourself in that position . Would you say that is right . Mr. Hill i do not. I think what we are closer to is a situation where north korea will have a deliverable nuclear weapon, will continue to point it at us in hopes that over time, the u. S. Commitment to south korea and, frankly, to japan will somehow lessen. And over time, the coupling of the u. S. To south korea will change and be decoupled. Is, from the north korean vantage point, it is a crisis they are not looking forward to today. They would like to get us all used to the idea that they have nuclear weapons, a process that i would hope would take a lot of time. During that time, the u. S. Would be less enthused about saying that an attack on south korea is an attack on the United States. Katty ambassador Christopher Hill, thank you for joining me. Rajini former u. S. Ambassador to south korea Christopher Hill speaking to my colleague katty kay earlier. You are watching bbc world news america. Still to come on tonights program, break taking pictures of the Northern Lights from the International Space station. A baby girl who was born with her heart outside her body has survived in what is thought to be the first case of its kind in the u. K. The baby can which is three weeks old, has undergone three operations to place her heart back inside her just. It follows a similar operation in texas. The exclusive report contains some graphic images. He she is a beautiful girl. Reporter their pride and joy this is penelope, astounding her parents and doctors with her progress. After three operations in three weeks, her heart is now back inside her chest. Penelopes parents say the moment she was born, they knew she was a fighter. She came out kicking and screaming. She got all the insurgents surgeons eyebrow, didnt she . Absolutely beautiful. If you saw where she was before to what they have done beyond amerco. Reporter the family knew from the first ultrasound that penelopes heart was outside her chest. You can clearly see the unusual position from which is due to the absence of a sternum. Babies in this condition are usually stillborn. But immediately she emerged during the cesarean section, doctors could see that penelopes heart was beating strongly. Three weeks on, her heart is back where it should be, covered with her own skin. Penelope is going to be here for some considerable time. The next step will be getting her to breathe without the help of a ventilator. Then in years to come, she faces more surgery to create a new sternum to protect her heart. She faces a long road ahead, but has already confounded predictions. Fergus walsh, bbc news, lester. Rajini in the summer of 2016, a conflict between president Joseph Kabilas government and traditional chiefs sparked a region ofin the kasai the democratic republic of the congo. It has sent 1. 5 Million People fleeing, many of them children. The u. N. Has declared the crisis in the drc is the highest level of emergency, putting the country on par with yemen, syria, and iraq. Africa editor fergal keane gained a rare access to the unfolding tragedy. A warning, some parts of his report are distressing. Fergal in a place so green, a land so fertile, we did not expect the tragedy that haunts this road. But a manmade hunger has enveloped kasai, stalking the youngest and the weakest. Nearly half a million children are at risk from severe malnutrition. At this nutrition center, we met a twoyearold, malnourished and sick with malaria with her mother. We walked for three months to get here. When i saw my daughter sick my heart was full of sadness. Fergal children make up the majority of the nearly 1. 5 Million People displaced here. It began in june last year after a local chief rebelled against the corrupt and brutal government. He was killed. In the terror that followed, both sides committed atrocities. A child with her leg hacked off. Another slashed with a machete. We were sleeping when they entered our place and asked them ask, who are all these people sleeping here . We can kill all the men who are here, and after killing them, we will tell our chief and show off about so many people we killed in this village. Fergal this 12yearold weeps for her murdered father. We met her and her brothers and sisters near the main city at a nutrition center. A nurse points to the swelling caused by malnutrition. By pressing the skin, you can assess the severity of the condition. Imagine walking on these legs. I love that children eat. I love to rehabilitate them. I love when they are healthy. When i see there is nothing left, it is bad. Fergal with the worst fighting over, people are returning to their villages. But they find homes burned, property looted. Little wonder these people were furious when they stopped us on the road. We ask you to help us. We lost our children. They were killed, and we fear to go to the bush. The children are starving. When we go to the bush to find food, we are killed. This soil on which we live is it the same soil where we buried our children. Fergal we paused on the road, and out of the wondering wilderness, stories came. Marie and david walked for 300 kilometers with their Young Children to escape violence. Marie is suffering from tuberculosis. We were starving. We have no food. We headed to the main road to look for food, but there was nobody, only dead bodies. We followed our sons pace, but his swollen feet stopped him from walking normally. He took two weeks to reach the city. But we found nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep. Fergal now they are walking home, hundreds of kilometers more. Then a young woman, weakened by disease, she is being taken home to die. Her name is charlotte, her mother explains. I cannot afford to pay for medical treatment. Our village was attacked and everything destroyed. Here, people pleaded for food. At this food distribution, only half rations were given out. The World Food Program is running out of money to feed the hungry, and is warning that many will die without international support. Weary of years of conflict in congo and preoccupied with other crises, the world seems immune to these pleas. There are 3 Million People needing food in kasai. Fergal is it fair to say that you are being asked to play god to decide who gets food and who doesnt, perhaps who lives and dies . Yes, and we are not ready to play that role. Fergal money that might have helped to provide nutrition and health care has been stolen by a corrupt elite, aided by foreign corporations. President Joseph Kabila smiles upon corrupt cronies who have looted billions. This is the heart of the matter, as i put it to the governor of kasai. As a government official, do you feel any sense of shame about the looting, the corruption that has helped to bring your people to this misery . You know, this concept of corruption cannot be challenged. It should not be tied too much to congo or africa, and use it to justify the absence of action. The most important thing is that when you give money, you get some guarantee that the money is used. Fergal food aid does get to the people, but the needs are vast, and the politics so unstable, so undermined by corruption, the new crises constantly threaten congo. This is the governmentrun hospital in the second city of the province. A threeyearold has just died. Fever, his mother explains. He died of fever. He died just now. This is kasai, where children are dying from preventable diseases, their bodies weakened by malnutrition. All of this is avoidable. Such suffering is not the natural condition of these people. It is manmade, that is the tragedy of congo. A distraught mother waits for news of her sick child. A lullaby, as tiny lungs fight to survive. Just some lives out of so many here hanging in the balance. Fergal keane, bbc news, kasai. Rajini some stories are very difficult to watch, like that report from fergal keane from the democratic republic of congo. Tomorrow, we will be showing you his second report on the victims of violence and what the u. N. Is doing about it. Before we go, some amazing pictures to show you from the International Space station of the Northern Lights, which are also known as aurora borealis. They were taken by an astronaut as he was flying across north america and canada. The aurora is a Natural Light show that occurs when electrically charged particles from the sun collide with adams adams in the earths atmosphere. You can find more on that story and the rest of the days news at our website. I am rajini vaidyanathan. Thanks for watching us here on bbc world news america. With the bbc news app, our vertical videos are designed to work around your lifestyle, so you can swipe your way through the news of the day and stay up to date with the latest headlines you can trust. Download now from selected app stores. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, and kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs. Planning a vacation escape that is relaxing, inviting, and exciting is a lot easier than you think. You can find it here in aruba. Families, couples, and friends can all find their escape on the island with warm, sunny days, cooling trade winds, and the crystal blue caribbean sea. Nonstop flights are available from most major airports. More information for your vacation planning is available at aruba. Com. Bbc world news was presented by kcet, los angeles. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc woodruff good evening. Im judy woodruff. On the newshour tonight a political earthquake. Doug jones becomes the first democrat to win a senate seat in alabama in 25 years. We break down the aftershocks from the upset. Then, the Deputy Attorney general stands by Robert Muellers investigation into russian meddling, as political bias is brought into question. And, as california battles one of the largest fires in the states history, a look at the scientific link between Climate Change and the growing fire threat. The area of the burns in any given year is up by over 300