welcome to the lead. how about this for question of the day? fani willis, what are you thinking? exactly parks trisha murphy. murphy is a top opinion writer for the atlanta journal constitution asking that of district attorney fani willis who has yesterday to deny that she has a special relationship with a special prosecutor she hired, the stunning scandal revealed in legal briefs in georgia. donald trump was at the first hearing today since the allegations were revealed. plus inside the iowa caucuses, exactly how does this very american, very bizarre process work and why does iowa opt for this versus the more popular and easy primary process where voters just line up and vote in the polls? leading this hour, what could be a worsening global crisis for president biden, iranian-backed houthi militants warning of retaliation against the u.s. and its allies for strikes against houthis in yemen last night. the white house insists these were self-defense strikes intended to
coalesund an alternative. i have more on the breaking christie news later tonight. while trump isolding his own fox hall appearance tonight. he watched in person as his lawyer made unlawful claims about why they think a president should have a license to kill the political rivals in america without being prosecuted. so as the headlines range from the start of the primaries to those brazen claims about assassination, right now, we have something special for you. we re beginning in a way with the weather. last year had some of the most extreme weather ever, driven, of course, by climate change. there were heat records broken. catastrophic flooding, tornadoes, wildfires, and then in the winter months, extreme snow events. indeed, there were 28 separate billion-dollar climate disasters breaking the previous record from about three years back. cold weather, as you may know, can be just as overwhelming and dangerous as a fire or a tornado. and nowadays, we have more videos showing
court. these are the most recent pictures. his motorcade travelled a short distance from one of his residences. that is his vehicle they are going into the car park underneath the courtroom there. we have heard from a spokesperson of donald trump in the last half hour. let s take a listen. the executive branch has the power to classify documents. the decision to classify documents. the decision to pursue charges against president trump while turning a blind eye to others is emblematic of the corruption that we have here. we are at a turning point in our nations history. the targeting, prosecution, of a leading political opponent, is the type of thing you see in dictatorships like cuba and venezuela. it is commonplace for viable candidates to be prosecuted, persecuted, and put into jail. what is being done to the president trump should terrify all citizens of this country. these are not the ideals that our democracy is founded upon. this is not our america. thank you. so what
over the last couple of hours in the middle east. middle east hamas says its deputy leader has been killed in an explosion in lebanon. hezbollah says his kidding will not go unanswered . saleh al arouri was deputy chairman of hamas s political bureau but is also known to have been deeply involved in its military affairs. hamas is designated a terrorist organisation by many western governments. this is the aftermath of the explosion thought to be hamas office in beirut. reports six people killed. local media have described this as an israeli drone attack. the bbc hasn t verified that. the israeli military has told the bbc that it will not comment on reports in the foreign media. the un has described the beirut strike as extremely worrying . a spokesperson for the un secretary general. we know that the secretary general urges all parties to exercise maximum restraint and take urgent steps to de escalate tensions in the region. i mean, he was very clear in mentioning that th