donald trump would like him to be us attorney—general. this is in the middle of his confirmation hearing. it's been going on for hours and hours, six—and—a—half to be precise. it has covered an extraordinary range of issues. we'll work through some of the most important ones in the next few minutes. there have been protests too. the hearing has been inrupted several times. that may be because mr sessions is seen as one of the most conservative members of the senate. some americans don't like the idea of him being their attorney—general. he's been questioned on a huge number of positions he holds on a variety of issues. let's work through some of those now. the bbc‘s anthony zirka is in washington. first of all, we've heard this extraordinary situation of mr sessions being quizzed on whether he's a racist or not. right, absolutely. the racism issue has been hanging over sessions' head since he was nominated. his nomination back in 1986 to be a federaljudge was derailed because he made racially insensitive comments and jokes and so insensitive comments and jokes and so now insensitive comments and jokes and so now people are looking at this as perhaps an opportunity to rehash those racism issues. actually that was brought out fairly early on in his opening statements. he condemned the kkk said he wasn't a racist, tried to tout his record on civil rights, on prosecuting ku klux klan member when he was a local state attorney and he had could quay with —— kcolloquay about how it was difficult to dole with the issues of racism and he may not have responded in the best way earlier in his career, but he's learned from his mistakes. they're trying to diffuse this. they knew this would be a key angle of criticism going forward. we've pulled out various clips from the hearing. we'll play them and get you to respond to them. this is senator sessions being asked about donald trump's idea a temporary ban on muslims entering the us.” donald trump's idea a temporary ban on muslims entering the us. i have no belief and do not support the idea that muslims as a religious group should be denied admission to the united states. we have great muslim citizens who've contributed in so many different ways and america, as i said in my remarks at the occasion that we discussed in committee, are great believers in religious freedom and the right of people to exercise their religious beliefs. that's not what donald trump was saying on the campaign trail. no, that's not what he was saying in december of 2015, at least. donald trump has modulated his position asjeff sessions noted, to not an all—out muslim ban, but intense scrutiny of people coming over from countries that have a history of terrorism relations, terrorism activity. though it was interesting thatjeff sessions did say that immigration officials can look at a person's religion to see if it's conducive to public safety. there's a little bit of wriggle room evenin there's a little bit of wriggle room even in the comments we heard today. let's talk about abortion. it's t was inevitable it came up. mr sessions described a landmark supreme court ruling as colossally erroneous. he was asked if that was still his view? . it is. i believe it violated the constitution and really attempted to set policy and not follow law. it is the law of the land. it has been so established and settled for quite a long time. it deserves respect and i would respect it and follow it. as such, should we expect mr trump to attempt a fundamental shift in america's position on abortion?” fundamental shift in america's position on abortion? i don't think so. position on abortion? i don't think so. i don't think donald trump, well, he's said different things during the campaign. he said women could be prosecuted for having abortions if it were illegal. other times he backed away from that. i don't think we'll see a fundamental shift. from jeff sessions and other people donald trump is appointed, we'll see attempts to chip away at the edges of abortion rights to limit the amount of time a woman can have an abortion from say 2a weeks of pregnancy down to 20 weeks of pregnancy, perhaps limiting different hospitals can perform abortions, what clinics, the requirements on clinics to be able to have abortions. there have been supreme court decisions in the past that have tried uphold the abortion rights. donald trump if he poise a supreme courtjustice who is as strongly against abortion rights, we could see those policies change as well. the next clip i've got and those of you justjoining us, we're running through some of the most significant moments as senator sessions goes through a hearing ahead of his being appointed as attorney—general. he was asked about an incident where mr trump was caught on tape boasting about grabbing women by the genitals. mr sessions said he wouldn't characterise that as sexual assault, previously. the confusion about the question was hypothetical. and it related to what was said on the tape. idid related to what was said on the tape. i did not remember at the time whether this was suggested to be an unaccepted, unwanted, it would certainly meet the definition. that's what the tapes said, then that would be — that's what the tapes said, then that would be - my question is grabbing a woman by a genitals without consent, is that sexual assault? yes. thank you. a range of difficult questions. nonetheless, you wouldn't bet against mr sessions becoming the attorney—general, would you? no, becoming the attorney—general, would you? no, i think it becoming the attorney—general, would you? no, ithink it would becoming the attorney—general, would you? no, i think it would be hard to bet against that, because everything that happened today, it looks like sessions' raurt support is —— republican party support is strong. it takes just 50 votes to confirm him. one democrat, of west virginia, has come out in support. it would have to be a pretty sizeable swing erosion of republican support for him not to be confirmed. there is no indication of that happening any time today. thank you very much. no doubt we'll talk tomorrow. that's one major story we've been covering in the news room. let's turn to another. let me show you some of the pictures coming in of the funeral of iran's former president. first of all, this is the country's supreme leader leading funeral prayers at tehran university. you can see iran's current president next to him. the coffin was carried out of the university campus with with his famous white cleric‘s turban on top. i'm sure you'll recognise that. then these were the extraordinary scenes outside, hundreds and hundreds of thousands, some people estimated up to two million people, came out to pay their respects. his body was buried next to the founder of the islamic republic. there was only one person to speak to about this, the bbc‘s lyse doucet. i attended the funeral, the last majorfuneral in i attended the funeral, the last major funeral in iran, i attended the funeral, the last majorfuneral in iran, in ayatollah khamenhi in 1989. this is the most significant death since then. it's been widely discussioned as a possible political turning point in iran. iwas possible political turning point in iran. i was going to ask you about that. it's a day of mourning, is it also a day of politics? very much so. also a day of politics? very much so. there's a lot of reporting about the fact that state television carrying extraordinary images live, some 2. 5 carrying extraordinary images live, some 2.5 million people are said to have turned out from right across the political spectrum. yet mixed in with the lamentation, opposition slogans went up into the crowds and the state television tried to reduce the state television tried to reduce the sounds, raise the sound of the chanting to somehow try to hide the fa ct chanting to somehow try to hide the fact that some of the opposition groups that were there were trying to dominate the sound from the crowds. everyone found their own moment in the crowds today. interesting reading the obituaries in the western press. a lot have warmed to him in recent years. he's a unique character who played a awe neeck role in iran. you hear the bitterness being expressed by some people who remember him in the early yea rs of people who remember him in the early years of the revolution. he's the man who is identified with the repressive rule, responsible, they say, for the deaths of many dissidents, deaths never resolved. in later years, particularly the younger generation and the middle classes warmed to him. they saw him asa classes warmed to him. they saw him as a man who had both the credentials and the cloud and the courage to speak out. he could speak truth to power and who is powerful in the islamic republic? the supreme leader. interests how he said we had our differences, but they were the last two big pillars of the revolution. i must take the opportunity to mesh together our two lead stories. huge political change in washington. political moments of great significance in tehran. how do you foresee those two cities, those two governments operating alongside each other? it's interesting because now everyone is looking at the legacy of barack obama. there are many things which he did not do. one of the things he did do was this landmark nuclear deal. in iran there is real unease about what's going to happen to the deal now with donald trump coming to power. and the fact that the reformists have lost their strong voice in that rafsanjani. they are worried they won't be able to manoeuvre in a very pole rised —— polarised system in the way they used. to they've lost one of their weapons. thanks very much. next, the centre of the earth. we know you find iron and nichol there. now japanese scientists think they know of a third element. this is an exciting science story. if you don't believe me, here's this report. the centre of the earth, this mysterious place. we know it's a ha rd ball mysterious place. we know it's a hard ball about 1200 kilometres across. we know it's mainly made of iron, about 85% by weight and nichol, about so % by weight, that leaves 5%. for decades scientists have been argue about what it might be. now they've done a really neat experiment. there are two ways to study the centre. see what happens to seismic waves as they pass through the earths. the other way is try and recreate the conditions of the centre of the earth in the lab. that's what this team injapan have done. they've subjected different elements to incredibly high temperatures and high pressure. they say the missing element is silicone. it's about 5%. can they be sure? no. but it looks quite good. some other scientists a few years ago suggested oxygen. this suggests more strongly it's silicone. why silicone? why is this important, if you're a chemist you like silicone, so it's cool. but it tells you about the formation of the earth, what was going on at that time. you don't need to justify finding out about the centre of the earth, it's interesting. how we learn about it, how does it inform how we behave? it tells us more about what happened when we started out. the solar system formed 4. 6 billion years ago. the earth then formed. rocks coming together. for a while molten rock, liquid moving around. gradually it cooled down and out of this hard crust on the outside, you got this centre. by working out what's in there can tell you much more about these processes. i think the best thing about this is actually what the centre would look like. because if it is alloys of nickel and iron and silicone, it would be cystals, spectacular, that we could never see but good to know they're probably there. rebecca always enthused but particularly so today. for more background on that story, find it from her and her colleagues online on the bbc news app. inafew on the bbc news app. in a few minutes, another remarkable science story, something different, showing us footage from ivory coast of chimpanzees making tools out of wood to access water. play that in a few motorbike minutes. —— few minutes. jeremy corbyn has said he isn't wedded to the idea of keeping freedom of movement. he was addressing supporters in peterborough. the labour leader pulled back from recommended a pay cap on top earners. in the 1920s, cap on top earners. in the 19205, jp cap on top earners. in the 1920s, jp morgan, the wall street banker, yes, jp morgan, the wall street banker limited salaries to 20 times that ofjunior employees. another advocate of pay ratios was david cameron. his government proposed a 20—1 pay ratio to limit sky high pay in the public sector. now all salaries higher than £150,000 must be signed off by the cabinet office. we'll go further, and extend that to any company that is awarded a government contract. this is not about limiting aspiration or penalising success. this is outsite source. the lead story is from washington. jeff sessions, the man picked to be the next us attorney—general, is six hours into his senate confirmation hearing. first to afghanistan. bbc pashto reports on a bombing in kabul. at least 30 people have been killed. the taliban has claimed responsibili no hope of the gambian political stalemate getting sorted out soon. the supreme court says it won't have enough judges until may to consider a petition from the president detailing why his defeat was not legitimate. french police are investigating whether kim kardashian's chauffeur was involved in her being held at gunpoint and robber in paris last october. millions of dollars worth of jewellery was stolen. the are looking into the theory that the chauffeur may have tipped—off the attackers. for the first time ever, researchers have filmed chimpanzees making and using tools to get access to collect water. the footage is from ivory coast. it's in this report from victoria gill. a life—saving skill. a mother and baby in ivory coast's comoe national park show some unique behaviour. it's the dry season, so to reach a water supply hidden deep within these tree holes, they are making and using tools. it's just another insight into the remarkable behaviour of our closest primate cousins. if you think they've got 90—95% the same dna as humans, they are very intelligent animals. we've seen it, working at chester zoo with these animals, the kind of things they can do. the different cultures of chimpanzees have learnt different tool use. so it's certainly not new to find chimpanzees using tools. the animals are already known to use sticks to fish for termites and to dip into beehives for honey, but the researchers were particularly impressed by how well crafted these drinking tools were. chimps selected and stripped long thin sticks and chewed the ends into very water—absorbent brushes. and for captive breeding programmes like this one, zoos have to understand these natural behaviours to keep the animals as mentally stimulated as possible. we give them small sticks. and then we give them an area where they keep honey, ready brek, that kind of thing. and they have to use their sticks, make them into a certain way so they can put the stick in the hole and get the food out. encouraging natural behaviours. it's all gone very quiet here at chester zoo because it's feeding time for the chimpanzees, and these are actually western chimpanzees, the same subspecies that was looked at in this piece of research. nimble fingered, very clever, toolmaking and tool—using, but sadly, critically endangered primates. in the wild, the population of these great apes continues to decline, largely because of poaching and the destruction of their forest habitat. findings like this showjust how much more we have to learn about chimpanzee culture. some news on the vw emmissions scandal. volkswagen has agreed a draft settlement with us authorities of $4.3 billion. let's bring in our correspondent in new york. a few questions here. there's been some preliminary deals, so what's different about this one? well, this one resolves yet another of the investigations and it's a key one, but i think the most striking thing about it is that volkswagen is expected to plead guilty to charges that include wire fraud, that it violated the clean air act. it's expected to plead guilty it to customs fraud. this is the result of several investigations into the manipulation of diesel emission tests. they began more than a year ago. the crucial thing for the company is that as much as possible, they're trying to resolve this criminal investigation, so they can move past the scandal that really has cast a shadow. remember right now, it's the detroit autoshow. it should be a golden moment to show off its wares and instead it's talking about this. this is a draft deal. what needs to happen for it to become a reel deal? -- real deal? it has to be approved by both sides. we're expecting volkswagen's board to meet possibly and approve it possibly as early as today, maybe tomorrow. that's the process. the key thing is if you compare this potential deal to recent ones involving general motors and toyota, general motors and toyota in cases of safety defects, neither of them had to plead guilty. they did pay large fines. but they didn't plead guilty. that's what makes this significant compared to those past ones. michelle, thank you. i have a report of yours that i'm going to play everyone watching about president obama's economic legacy. have a look. wall street is left reeling from some of the biggest blows... it's a nightmare for wall street... bankruptcies, bailouts and unemployment rate that peaked at 10% in 2009. when barack obama became president he and his team were confronting the total collapse of the financial system. 15 million americans were out of work, when he delivered his first state of the union address. people are out of work, they're hurting. they need our help. that is whyjobs must be our number one focus in 2010. perhaps his biggest achievement — stopping the recession from turning into another great depression. it started with the rescue of a symbol of us industrial might, the american car industry. something this investment banker remembers well. stephen ratner led obama's autoindustry recovery tea m. ratner led obama's autoindustry recovery team. it was a testament to president obama's impartiality that he made a decision that was unpopular, but was clearly in retrospect the right decision. if we had allowed those car companies to continue to liquidate, there would have been a loss of potentially a million jobs, have been a loss of potentially a millionjobs, in the have been a loss of potentially a million jobs, in the short run, have been a loss of potentially a millionjobs, in the short run, at have been a loss of potentially a million jobs, in the short run, at a time in the economy was lose soing manyjobs. time in the economy was lose soing many jobs. —— losing time in the economy was lose soing manyjobs. —— losing so manyjobs. an unprecedented amount of money was spent to stimulate the economy. nearly $4 million made its way here to the bronx community health centre, saving 15 jobs. to the bronx community health centre, saving 15jobs. not everyone was a fan of the stimulus plan. we were. we were great fans of it, because it allowed us to really enhance our mission. under president obama, a staggering 11 millionjobs have been created. while hiring has picked up, many of those positions are temporary or part—time, not the kind of work you can raise a family on. that's why many people i spoke to were gloomy. do you feel more hopeful than eight years ago or less ? hopeful than eight years ago or less? it's like so-so. prices are up and salaries remain the same. president obama hands over an economy near full employment, following the longest stretch ofjob growth in history. but many americans have forgotten what prosperity feels like, a challenge facing the incoming administration. let's shift from the us to the uk, because this is what's happening to the ftse 100 because this is what's happening to the ftse100 indevil —— index. it made history today. it's been going up made history today. it's been going up and up. it closed at a record high for a ninth day in a row, that's the longest streak ever and it's not unrelated to what's been happening to the value of the pound since the uk voted to leave the european union. that's the moment of brexit. but the pound has been making its way down since. a weaker pound is boosting the profits of many multinational companies, when they convert foreign earnings into pounds. that does the world of good for their share price. the uk tech sector got good news today. snap is behind snapchat. it announced its going to set up its international base in the uk. the point is that a lot of social media companies, like facebook and google have run into trouble over setting up tax bases in lower tax jurisdictions in europe and then diverting profits from other large markets into those jurisdictions diverting profits from other large markets into thosejurisdictions in order to minimise their tax bills. so snapping is not doing that. they're setting up in the uk and channelling their profits from the uk first of all, but also from other countries, where they don't have a major base, that includes australia and saudi arabia, and paying tax on them in the uk. now that tax bill at them in the uk. now that tax bill at the moment won't actually be very high because snapchat‘s revenues are not that high, at the moment. but it's expanding rapidly. it's taking on more advertising. so there will be more money coming in. that money will be going through the uk. let's not forget, the uk itself, as a major economy, has a relatively low corporation tax rate, 20% at the moment. it's going to fall to 17% by 2020. by doing this, snap inc is avoiding regulatory problems, the uk government and european commission clamping down on companies are aggressive tax policies. at the same it's basing itself in the uk where it has —— —— it's basing itself in the uk where it has -- -- it's basing itself in the uk. we have live feeds coming in from capitol hill in washington. various confirmation hearings continue ahead of donald trump becoming president on the 20th january. speak to you in a couple of minutes. severe flooding continues to grip the south of thailand. i know we've covered this already. we have seen more rainfall over the last 24 hours. you can see the storm clouds here across southern thailand. and the pictures we're getting back of this flooding just shows the com plete this flooding just shows the complete devastation brought on by these floods and the extent. we see whole communities under water, roads turned into rivers. the easiest way to get around, by boat. i have got some slightly better news for this pa rt some slightly better news for this part of the world. the reason we've had these storms, this area of low pressure has not moved. the atmosphere has been in balance. north—easterly monsoon winds balanced by the winds from the indian ocean. over the next few days, the north—easterly monsoon dies off in the south china see. we get northerly winds down. this destroys the storm. it will be dry in thailand by the weekend. in north america, we have more snow pushing across parts of ontario and quebec on wednesday. temperatures then taking a dive once again across seb traf canada. mine —— central canada, minus 19 asa traf canada. mine —— central canada, minus 19 as a maximum. bitter arctic airsurges minus 19 as a maximum. bitter arctic air surges further southwards. i like skiing, and these slopes look pretty good. do you know where it is? crete in the southern mediterranean, would you believe it? the air has been so cold we've had snow turning the islands white. we have more snowfall as well during tuesday, particularly focussed on bulgaria and western turkey. temperatures overnight well it's still bittering cold across central and eastern europe. we will see lows of minus8 and eastern europe. we will see lows of minus 8 to minus 12 celsius. through the next couple of nights, the severity of the cold just lessens a bit. it's not going to be warm. it will still be cold, but not as bitter as it has been. by friday, we're looking at temperatures probably into low minus single figs. —— figures. on wednesday watch out for snow across romania. that could cause transport disruption and snow coming down again across the greek islands. it will be mainly in the hills. there will be snow across denmark and germany. much of this will turn back to rain before this weather system is threw. it will stay as snow across the southern hills, the bavarian hills of southern germany. the prospect of transport disruption again. here in the uk, tomorrow we have a blustery day. up to 65mph. the eagle eyed amongst you will see plenty of showers, yes they will increasingly turn to snow. we could see some accumulations, particularly but not exclusively over the hills. really this is just the start of our cold snap. between wednesday and sunday, there is the ongoing threat of some snow. i'll leave jay to tell you more about that in half an hour. hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. let's look through some of the main stories here in the bbc newsroom. jeff sessions, the man who wants to become donald trump's attorney general — has been grilled by republicans and democrats in the us senate. it was a lengthy us senate hearing. he's rejected allegations of racial and accepted that same—sex marriage and the right to abortion were the law of the land. president obama has taken off from washington. he has headed to chicago, where he will make his farewell address mccormick convention centre. we will look at this ina convention centre. we will look at this in a moment. the world cup is getting bigger. it will go up to 48 teams by 2026. we'll hear reaction to that. and our technology reporter is going to look at how the