this is bbc news. the headlines at 11. the british red cross hasjoined senior doctors in warning of a crisis in nhs accident and emergency departments in england. a former american army soldier has been arrested after five people were shot dead at fort lauderdale airport in florida. the megafires ravaging north american forests. how wildfires are becoming increasingly common and destructive. also in the next hour... the spiralling cost of repairing potholes in england and wales. councils predict the repair bill could reach £14 billion within two years. and in half an hour, dateline london will look at the future of the european union and how far russia is steering events in the middle east. good morning and welcome to bbc news.

the british red cross is warning of a "humanitarian crisis" in nhs hospitals in england and is demanding the government allocates more money to improve social care. dozens of a&e departments were forced to divert ambulances to other hospitals last week. the royal college of emergency medicine says the system is on its knees but the department of health says it's investing more money to improve services. dan johnson reports. winter pressure on accident and emergency — nothing new, but the red cross now says the strain on hospitals in england amounts to a humanitarian crisis. the charity claims social—care cuts mean patients are sent home without the right support, so then they end up back in a&e. red cross volunteers support nhs staff and say they've seen patients sent home without clothes, some who don't receive the care they need to get washed, even some who've fallen and not been found for days. a&e staff recognise the problems too. i think the pressures on the nhs, and especially in emergency care,

are particularly intense at the moment. but what is more concerning is the number of patients who have been managed within four hours, and then the delays to admission into the hospital bed base, which unfortunately are very, very significant, and our staff are working under some pretty intolerable conditions at times trying to manage. and sometimes they just can't manage. figures from nhs england show that overflowing a&e departments had to close their doors to new patients more than 140 times over the last month. compare that with the same month in 2015 — it's up more than 60%. the suspicion is that it's a combination of the cuts that we've seen in social care, in community services run by the nhs, and very heavy pressure in general practice. so is the strain on the nhs costing lives? the death of two patients on emergency trolleys at worcestershire royal hospital are being investigated.

one of them had waited 35 hours for a bed. the department of health says it's providing billions more every year to ease pressure. nhs england says plans are in place to deal with the extra demand. beds are actually not quite as full as they work this time last year, but everyone in the health service knows things could get worse before they get better. dan johnson, bbc news. i'm joined now by professor keith willett. he's the national director for acute episodes of care to nhs england. this has been described by the red cross as a humanitarian crisis. how would you characterise it?” cross as a humanitarian crisis. how would you characterise it? i have great respect for the red cross as a caring organisation and we have worked with them over recent winters funding and supporting them with their excellent service at home and ambulance services but on the

international scale of a humanitarian crisis i do not think the nhs is at that point. we have had strong criticism from other people, like the nuffield trust and others, and it appears we go through this every winter and it is particularly bad this winter. and clearly demand is at the highest level ever but also our planning is probably more comprehensive now than it has ever been. in many ways this isa it has ever been. in many ways this is a level of pressure we have not seen before and the workload that the nhs is being asked to shoulder in terms of medical treatment and personal care is very high. there are several reasons. it is winter, many more people have the breathing and heart problems, but we know it is also very difficult at the moment and social care and community services cannot react fast enough to free up beds to keep up the flow through hospitals. the fundamental problem is moving patients through

hospital. the only needs to be in hospital. the only needs to be in hospital receiving specialist care and after that they are much better placed in the community and we need to focus on that and that's why i think the red cross as a caring organisation really have identified this. the public can help as well. in winter there are many things the public can do to try to avoid coming to a&e unless it is essential for emergency or urgent conditions. there are opportunities to form 111, eve ryo ne there are opportunities to form 111, everyone has there are opportunities to form 111, eve ryo ne has a ccess there are opportunities to form 111, everyone has access to a 24—hour out of practice service. and medical advice can be offered in places on the high street. many people will agree that the bottleneck appears to bea agree that the bottleneck appears to be a failure to reform social care. do you think the government is interested in reforming social care?

i have heard the same complaints for ten years. many commentators have said it is the same problem but the government needs to answer that question. in the nhs we work with the budget we are given by the elected government and we will do everything we can for emergency care. our staff are amazing and some of them working in difficult conditions. some patients will suffer delays and perhaps will not be managed in ideal environments. suffer delays and perhaps will not be managed in ideal environmentsm summary, be managed in ideal environmentsm summary, is it your view that more money for the nhs in this case is not actually the answer, nor is reorganisation within the nhs but it is something outside the nhs which you are the victim of? we have to do

many things, transform or modernise the way the nhs works, and move more ca re into the way the nhs works, and move more care into the community where it is more appropriate, particularly for the elderly. many commentators have said if there is more money to be had then it should be directed at social care in the community and that will help the nhs more than anything else at the moment. police in the us state of florida are holding a suspected gunman in custody after five people were killed and eight injured in a shooting at fort lauderdale airport. the suspect has been named as esteban santiago, a former soldier. his motive isn't yet known. santiago is said to have taken a gun out of a bag in the baggage area, after flying in from alaska. gary o'donoghue reports from fort lauderdale. it is a familiar scene at airports the world over, but the baggage claim hall at the fort lauderdale airport turned into a place of death and mayhem, as a lone gunman opened fire on those waiting to collect their luggage. passengers scattered for cover,

hitting the ground, and reports say the assailant had time to reload before opening fire once again, as attempts were made to attend to the wounded. once he was done with ammunition, he threw the gun down, and i was about ten feet away from him. he basically threw the gun onto the ground and laid on the ground face down, spreadeagled. some initial reports, quickly discounted, spoke of another young man, spreading panic among passengers. the gunman has been named as 26—year—old esteban santiago. reports say he was carrying a military id and had a weapon in his checked baggage, which is legal in the united states. one family member said he had been receiving psychological treatment after leaving the national guard last year. this cowardly, heinous act resulted in the deaths of five people.

there were eight more people injured by way of gunshot, that were transported to local hospitals. there were at least 30—a0 more people who went to hospital for various injuries. in his first reaction to the shooting, president obama said he was heartbroken for the families. these kinds of tragedies have happened too often during the eight years that i've been president. the pain, the grief, the shock. the disruption at fort lauderdale went on long into the night with some travellers stuck on the tarmac for more than eight hours. the fbi says it is ruling nothing out, including terrorism. but the agency has confirmed it had prior contact with santiago in november, when he was referred for a mental health assessment. the ease with which he was able to transport and use a weapon in an airport will raise serious concerns about public safety. and gary gave us this update a short while ago.

it is legal to transport a firearm written your checked —— in your checked baggage in the usa. there are restrictions. you must declare it to the airline when you arrive and it has to be locked inside a ha rd and it has to be locked inside a hard case and unloaded. you can carry ammunition with it. that means once you carry ammunition with it. that means once you get to the baggage claim at the other end you can get it and it seems what happened here is esteban santiago did get his semiautomatic out of his case, go back into the baggage hall and start shooting pretty indiscriminately. i think it will raise questions even here. these shootings are not infrequent, as we know, in the usa, and there will be calls for gun control and there will be pushed back from the gun lobby. it is a familiar dance.

but i think people will wonder, look, we have all this security in place when we go into the airport, should it be so easy for someone to get it out of their bag at the other end and still be in the airport and be able to cause this much death and mayhem? the us department of homeland security says it will increase protection of the country's voting machines and data bases, to guard against cyber attacks. it's in response to a report by intelligence officials which, for the first time, directly accuses president putin of trying to boost donald trump's election bid. catrina renton reports. the report from american intelligence claims russia's president, vladimir putin, personally ordered what it called an influence campaign to help donald trump's chances of winning the american presidency. it said the goals were to denigrate his opponent hillary clinton and harm her credibility. the conclusion, the kremlin developed a

clear preference for donald trump. the president—elect had earlier described the russian hacking claims as a political witch—hunt by his opponents. at trump tower, he met america's top intelligence officials for a classified briefing. they claim russia's actions included hacking into the e—mail accounts of the democratic national committee and top democrats, and using intermediaries such as wikileaks to release the information. russia has previously denied this, and wikileaks founderjulian assange has said before that moscow was not the source. a former cia director who resigned from donald trump's transition team gave his view. it depends how you phrase it. russia was involved works supportable as a proposition —— looks supportable because they were able to come up with the identities of the intermediaries between the russian government and the people who did some hacking, they did not have that before and that, i think,

was one thing that got a lot of people's attention, including mine. after the briefing, mr trump did not single out russia. in a statement he said... and the incoming vice president says the us will strengthen cyber defences. the president—elect has made it very clear that we're going to take aggressive action in the early days of our new administration to combat cyber attacks and protect the security of the american people from this type of intrusion in the future. donald trump said he had tremendous respect for the work and service done by those in the us intelligence community. but with two weeks to go until he moves into the white house, questions remain over how they will all work together to keep america safe. catriona renton, bbc news.

with me is tim stevens, a lecturer in global security wildfires in north america are getting bigger, more frequent and more destructive, according to official us government statistics. scientists say a warming climate combined with a century of fire suppression by the people who settled the west has produced the perfect conditions for so—called megafires. our north america correspondent james cook reports from the colorado rockies. welcome to the furnace. across large swathes of north america, this is the new terrifying normal. in the united states last year, there were more than 60,000 wildfires, and the trend is towards bigger and more destructive blazes. huge fires are transforming the landscape of the united states. here in the foothills of the rockies, a blaze burned through here 20 years ago, and still it looks like this. no longer dense forest, but essentially prairie. the buffalo creek blaze was one of several so—called mega fires

here in colorado which destroyed homes, polluted water supplies, and left locals lucky enough to escape fearful for the future. it is terrifying. it's devastating, the destruction, it's traumatic. it brings into focus very quickly that there's something wrong here. so what is wrong? scientists say rising temperatures and years of drought are partly to blame, and so too is a century of firefighting by the settlers of the west, who interrupted the natural rhythm of regular fires so they could preserve life and precious timber. the results — thicker forest, more fuel to burn, and often devastation. we are caught in this vicious circle. forests need fire — fire is as natural to a forest as sunshine and rain. no—one ever lost a job for fighting a fire. as a fire manager or a policy maker, the far more difficult decision is to allow a fire to burn, to manage a fire for its resource benefit.

but sometimes you think that needs to happen? oh, absolutely. the lead agency for wildfires, the us forest service, is caught in a trap — it can't find enough money for its programmes to thin out woodland and prevent fire, because more than half its budget is being spent on firefighting. its boss says that has got to change. it's essential that we find a different way to be able to fund fire suppression in this country, and simply to be able to recognise that 1—2% of these fires that start every year need to be considered a natural disaster, not unlike floods are, like hurricanes are, like windstorms are. for a time, some people thought they had tamed the wild west — nature is proving them wrong. james cook, bbc news, in the colorado rockies. the headlines on bbc news.

the british red cross hasjoined senior doctors in warning of a crisis in nhs accident and emergency departments in england. a former american army soldier has been arrested after five people were shot dead at fort lauderdale airport in florida. a survey suggests the cost of repairing potholes in england and wales could reach 14 billion pounds. last—ditch talks aimed at averting a strike by london underground workers have got underway at the conciliation service acas. members of the transport salaried staffs association and the rail, maritime and transport union are due to walk out for 2h hours from 6pm on sunday, causing travel chaos for millions of passengers during rush hour on monday. both unions are attending the talks. the dispute is about staffing levels and ticket office closures. the repair bill to fix the country's potholes could soon reach £14 billion. that's according to councils in england and wales who say the government should pay for the repairs from fuel duty.

the government says it's already putting £250 million into fixing the problem, but the local government association says that's not enough, as duncan kennedy reports. the shot of the wheels and the judder to the spine. we have all been in, around and over potholes. councils fix 2 million potholes every year. that is about 12,000 for every local authority in england and wales. but it never seems to be enough. now, the councils claim the repair bill could soon reach £14 billion. hard—pressed councils, who are mending, you know, a pothole every five seconds in this country, just cannot get to the core of the problem, which is actually many of our roads arejust being patched now. they need to be fully repaired. the councils say the government must do more to help, and suggest increasing fuel duty

by a couple of pence a litre, a figure they say the public would support. last year, the government announced a £250 million pothole repairfund to help 100 councils fixed 4 million potholes. this is just this isjust one road in southampton which has many potholes. but it is not just the cost of which has many potholes. but it is notjust the cost of repairing potholes that seems to be on the increase. today's report also finds the time taken to repair them is on the time taken to repair them is on the rise, going up from ten years in 2006 to 14 years today. devon thinks it might have one solution. it is the first county to recruit members of the public to fill the holes, creating what they call a community of road wardens. devon county council tell us they haven't got the funds to do it and so there are two ways of looking at that, you could say, or k, that is a shame, or let's do something about it. potholes

pockmarked roads everywhere and midwinter is the worst time for damage. national and local governments agree there is a problem that no one, it seems, has the bottomless pit of money required to freely fix them. —— really. here's a photograph to put everything into perspective. a view of planet earth and the moon taken from nasa's most powerful telescope orbiting mars. to be precise, the high resolution imaging science experiment camera on nasa's mars reconnaissance orbiter. the red feature in the middle of the image of the earth is australia. a young fan of the coldstream guards now has a memento from his birthday visit to windsor castle. marshall scott was celebrating his fourth birthday at the castle, dressed as a miniature guardsman, when one of the guards surprised him by posing for a photo alongside the youngster. the video was shared online by charanpreet singh, by one of the guards involved. sport now and a full round up

from the bbc sport centre. it will be a special fa cup reunion, today for one of the members of the treble—winning manchester united team of 1999. martin allen's non league eastleigh make the trip to his former team, brentford, of the championship. bolton hope to upset their old boss sam allardyce as he returns with new side crystal palace, while one of the members of the treble—winning manchester united team, of 1999. former netherlands centre half jaap stam is now the manager of championship side reading, who go to old trafford hunting for a giant killing this lunchtime. as a player, there is nothing better than to play over there, in a stadium like that in front of so many fans. and we know, as well, we have our own fans over there as well.

the five non—league teams left all have a fair chance of getting into round four, with sutton and barrow at home, eastleigh and lincoln both have tough away trips to championship sides, while the lowest team left stourbridge are at league 2 wycombe. there are some potentially tricky away trips for premier league sides crystal palace, southampton, and arsenal, who are at simon grayson's preston. you have one of the best teams in europe coming, a manager who has graced the premier league for over 20 years, the original invincible is against the modern—day invincible is, so it is a fantastic occasion, it will sell out here, third round of the fa cup, there is always a shock and surprise, hopefully that will be the case on saturday night. sir andy murray will play world number two novak djokovic in the final of the qatar open today. murray beat czech tomas berdych, in straight sets in their semifinal, to reach his fourth final in doha. the win was murray's 28th in a row on the atp tour, and another title and victory over his main rival would be the ideal preparation for the australian open that starts a week on monday.

playing at the end of last year, the ultimate goal is to find the best way to win the match. maybe at the beginning of the year you are focusing a little bit more on yourself, and how you are playing, and how you want to play, moving into the aussie open, rather than just solely focusing on the outcome. this afternoon, sir mo farah is in action at the edinburgh cross country. the four time olympic champion, who insists he's happy just to be called mo, was surprisingly beaten into second place last year. he's using the event as part of his preparation for the track world championships in london later this year and admits he'll have his work cut out against some cross country specialists this afternoon. it is going to be tough. they will try and hunt me down and beat me as quick as possible. but that is what makes cross—country

exciting. i am not going to come out there and go. i will fight for it, but it suits certain athletes better, and it is going to be tough. i think it might be, in my opinion. and cricket to finish, and the next time australia play a home test it will be against england in the ashes in november and they signed off their current series in style with a 220—run win against pakistan to complete a 3—0 series whitewash. the tourists started the day on 55—1 in sydney and needed to bat out day five to save the third test. but they lasted just 64 overs before being bowled out for 244. josh hazlewood and stephen o'keefe took three wickets each. it was a 12th successive test defeat in australia for misbah—ul—haq's side. that's all sport for now. now the weather with helen willett. this morning has been a rather grey

affairs for many. some thick fog around, mainly hill fog but because the winds are so light we have seen fog at lower levels as well. it has been quite nasty as well through the likes of the severn valley towards bristol. some drizzle towards bristol. some drizzle towards bristol and the south—west. these wonderful weather pictures have come in this morning showing us fog and drizzle. the drizzle is because of a weather front across southern parts of england which will gradually peter out today. elsewhere, the mist and fog is reluctant to clear because of low cloud. in contrast to yesterday, temperatures are higher. it does not feel that much warmer because you're sitting under a cloud most of the time. northern ireland and scotland have the best chance of some sunshine, for andrew and the east of the grampians. there could bea east of the grampians. there could be a few spots of drizzle for

northwest scotland later. more breeze tonight. with cloud overnight temperatures will not fall very low. on sunday, another grey start. some fog patches again which will be slow to clear. but it will be more dry, dry in the south. perhaps some more brightness in the north. if you're going to their fa cup third round it looks cloudy. perhaps the north—east of scotla nd looks cloudy. perhaps the north—east of scotland and north—eastern england will have the best breaks in the cloud. temperatures 8—10. south—westerly winds coming off the atlantic. we did have colder air, so freezing rain for the low countries today. —20 in moscow. on monday,

everything changes, high—pressure moves away and wet weather comes through for all of us. low pressure to the north, strong winds, potential for something more severe in the northwest. hello and welcome to dateline london. two stories in today's programme — two stories likely to dominate the year ahead. first, the future of the european union as britain prepares to press the brexit button. and secondly, how far president putin and russia are steering events in the middle east and elsewhere, with donald trump perhaps in the passenger seat. my guests today are: greg katz of associated press. annalisa piras, who is an italian film maker. lyse doucet, who is the bbc‘s chief international correspondent. michael gove of the times, and who is also a conservative mp. good to see you all. britain's top diplomat in the european union, sir ivan rogers, quit this week amid the continuing political row about britain being unprepared for brexit. but with italy's banks in trouble,

the greek crisis unresolved, elections in germany and france in 2017 and in italy by 2018, plus fears about the euro, how much of a mess is the european union and more importantly the eurozone actually in? michael? over the course of this year the attention will focus on german elections and french elections and dutch elections particularly and three countries there will be strong populist challenges. i believe gert builders in the netherlands will top the poll, but i suspect the other parties, for the first time in the netherlands, will save the person who topped the poll should not be in government. in france i suspect marine le pen will make it to the run—off and run the other candidates very close. in germany the germany the