hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. donald trump says: the us national intelligence chief called him to denounce the report as fake. that's not quite how director clapper described it. we'll get into that in a moment. meanwhile the confirmation hearings for the trump administration continue. today's featured the man nominated to be the new head of the cia. it is pretty clear, about what took place here, about russian involvement in efforts to hack information and to have an impact on american democracy. moscow has described the deployment of thousands of troops in poland as a threat to its national security. we've been following the cyprus reunification talks all week — the un says a deal is "very close". we'll be live in geneva. and eu wants new rules on how humans interact with robots.

many will be on line there is the hashtag, our e—mail and social media contacts hashtag, our e—mail and social media co nta cts a re hashtag, our e—mail and social media contacts are on the screen throughout the programme. the fall—out from leaked dossier — with allegations that russia has compromising personal material about donald trump — continues to demand our attention. mr trump says he's spoken to the us national intelligence chief. first, the dossier was produced by a private company and its circulation is not illegal. second, if that's how the call went, that's not how mr clapper described it. he earlier released a statement

saying us intelligence "has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable". he also rebuffed the idea us intelligence leaked the dossier. we're also learning more details about the man who wrote this dossier. his name is christopher steele. he runs a private intelligence firm called orbis. he's also a former uk intelligence agent who worked in moscow. the bbc understands he's now in hiding. gordon corera has more. the murky world of intelligence—gathering in moscow.

a secret dossier of allegations about trump and russia. all written by a former member of mi6. this is christopher steele, now at the centre of controversy. his house was unoccupied today. he's supposed to have told neighbours to look after his cats and he is said to be lying low, fearing for his safety. so what do we know about christopher steele? he's 52. in the 19905 he worked undercover for mi6 in moscow. after leaving, he founded a private intelligence company called orbis. last year he was commissioned by trump's opponents to look into the tycoon‘s russian connections. he ended up with 35 pages of allegations about his professional and personal life. orbis are based here.

there is no sign of chris steele. he is a man with contacts in moscow. but so far there has been no confirmation that the extraordinary allegations he dug up there are definitely true. thanks to his past as a spy, steele is unlikely to have been able to travel to moscow himself so instead will have relied on others to gather information. moscow's a difficult place to work in. the russians have a habit of secrecy and deception. the other complicating factor is money. if you're going to give someone money to tell you something, there is a strong possibility that they will tell you what you want to hear. alexander litvinenko, a former russian agent who fled to london, investigated powerful figures in moscow and was killed by radioactive poison, it's alleged on the orders of the kremlin. i believe it is dangerous, particularly

after the death of my husband, because when you just approach specific information, particularly when this information very close to powerful people, you might be in this line and you just easily might be killed. the russian dossier was not written for public consumption. but american spies have briefed its outlines to the man it's all about. its author never expected to be in the spotlight. but in the atmosphere of american politics today, secrets are no longer as safe as they were. senate confirmation hearings have continued in washington. those answering the questions have been nominated by donald trump to join his administration. mike pompeo is a republican congressman nominated for director of the cia. retired generaljames mattis is nominated for secretary of defence. rex tillerson is nominated for secretary of state —

he began his hearing on wednesday. he was up again. let's start with mike pompeo. here he is on allegations of russian hacking. it is pretty clear about what took place here, about russian involvement in efforts to hack information and to have an impact on american democracy, i am very clear about what that intelligence report says, and i have every expectation as we develop the facts i will relay those to the president, to the team round him and to you all, so we can have a robust discussion about how to ta ke have a robust discussion about how to take on an enormous threat from cyber, you have lived it. this is very real, it is growing, it is not new in that sense, but this was an aggressive action taken by the senior leadership inside russia and america has part of that obligation

to protect that information. p anthony zurcher is with us. how well will mr anthony zurcher is with us. how well wilertrump anthony zurcher is with us. how well will mr trump know anthony zurcher is with us. how well wilertrump know mr anthony zurcher is with us. how well will mr trump know mr pom owe. he doesn't know him really, he is a long time member of congress and donald trump didn't move in those circles. pom owe is more establishment. he wasn't an early supporter so when you see something like that you have to wonder, after hearing donald trump talk about how an asset to have a close relationship with vladimir putin, to see who the man who could be the next director of the cia come out and single russia out and endorse the intelligence community's findings that russia was behind hackings, they were aggressive in trying to meddle in us election, it

makes you think could will have be disagreement and conflict between donald trump and his senior national security advisers and how would that resolve itself. let us talk about the relationship between donald trump and the intelligence agencies. can some of the damage done by the comments be swept away when his choices of leaders come in? well, you saw a bit this morning with clapper, the current director of intelligence coming out with the state m e nts intelligence coming out with the statements saying that they weren't responsible for the leak, you could interpret that as an attempt to mend fences between donald trump and the intelligence community. donald trump tweeted out a thank you and that he felt vindicated, that earlier today, so, that might be a first step, but bringing in new leaders won't change the way the rank and file view donald trump. there are people

within the one whoty who feel aggrieved and upset that donald trump has questioned their effectiveness, their motivation, questioned whether they were responsible for undermining his presidential authority, they are not going to go anywhere in all likelihood, barring some major reform of the agencies, so they will have to make peace with fact donald trump is president or we could see more examples of this back—and—forth that will make it difficult for donald trump at times, to present first of all to rely on intelligence briefings from these people and also to site the intelligence agencies as evidence for whatever foreign policy he wants to pursue in a moment of crisis he will have to point to his intelligence agency, this is why i am agenting, that is a big question. don't go anywhere. this was the hearing attended by retired general james mattis. donald trump's pick for secretary of defence.

here he is talking about russia and nato. the most important thing is we recognise the reality of what we dealt with, with mr putin, and we recognise he is trying to break the north atlantic alliance, in that we ta ke north atlantic alliance, in that we take the steps, the integrated steps, diplomatic, economic, military and the alliance steps, the working with our allies to defend ourselves, where we must. let us go back to anthony zurcher. talk us through the practicalities, there was some discussion about whether the gap between the genre tiring from the military, and now taking up this post might be an issue, but doesn't seem like it is going to be. it requires special permission gran granted by congress in orderfor a retired general who has been out of the active service for less than seven years, to head the defense department, the senate had a vote on that and they overwhelmingly granted

that and they overwhelmingly granted that permission, the house also has to have a vote, as far as i know they have not had that vote but it seems pretty clear he is going to get that box checked and be able to be formally considered. thank you very much. we appreciate it. we will talk next week on outside source. this is the biggest us military operation in eastern europe since the end of the cold war. these are american troops, more than 80 us tanks and hundreds of armoured vehicles arriving in poland. they've moving there from germany. and will be based in zagan. from there they'll move out to estonia, latvia, lithuania, romania, bulgaria and hungary on a rotational basis. this is part of a nato deployment — it's designed to deter russian aggression.

moscow's certainly taking note. kremlin spokesman dmitry peskov told the bbc "we see it as a threat to us. it's an action that threatens our interests and our security. especially as it's a third country that is building up its military presence on our borders in europe. it isn't even a european country." here's the us brigade commander in poland. within the next few days, our soldiers will be showcasing their lethal abilitys as they begin to train on nearby gun range, to arrive at this point so swiftly, its proof when we work as a team, not only within the ranks of our tireless us army but as at lied nation, a team

of teams, no challenges is too large to overcome, no distance is too far to overcome, no distance is too far to cross, when the need arises. us russia relations are dominating the programme, it is not only the only stories we will cover. we will turn to south korea. the head of samsung has been questioned over allegations of corruption, in relation to this scandal that has engulfed the south korean president. investigators have announced 23 people and organisations could face prosecution over the hillsborough disaster. 96 fans were found to have been unlawfully killed at the fa cup semifinal in 1989. judith moritz gave us more details. more that 400 investigators have been running two separate criminal squireries into hillsborough. operation resolve, that is the

investigation which has looked at the planning and preparation for that day in 1989. the investigators running that inquiry have said today they have identified 15 people who can they consider to be criminal suspects. there is a second investigation, that has been run from the same building here in warrington by the independent police complaints commission. they have been looking at the aftermath and specifically, the alleged cover up which is said to have followed the disaster and the ipcc has said it has identified eight suspects. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story. donald trump has said that the us director of national intelligence has told him that reports that russia held compromising information about the president—elect were false. israel's military says it has uncovered a scam by hamas militants

to spy on its soldiers by hacking their mobile phones. members of the palestinian group found the soldiers online, then tried to strike up a friendship using the fake identities. dozens of soldiers were persuaded to install an application that controlled their phone cameras and microphones. from bcb arabic. america has acknowledged that 33 civ us investigators say special forces were hunting for taliban leaders, when they came under fire and called in air strikes. that's from bbc pashto. samsung's vice—chairman has been questioned by prosecutors as a suspect in south korea's political corruption scandal. the scandal has resulted in the impeachment of the country's president park geun—hye.

lee jae—yong apologised — sort of — when he arrived this morning. here's our seoul correspondent stephen evans. the central allegation is that lots of businesses including samsung gave millions of dollars to two funds controlled by the best friend of the president. they did that for favours. and in the case of samsung, the allegation is samsung gave $17 million to the funds, in return the country's pension fund voted through a change which the ruling family in samsung wanted. so you don't get any

closer to the elites of politics, the president, and the elites of business, the acting head of samsung. there is new evidence, we are told, and that is a tablet computerdowned by the friend of the president. —— owned. on that tablet computer the prosecutor believe there's is evidence that the president of this country, and the head of samsung had a meeting, only the two of them together, and they agreed on this deal. you give the money, and i'll get the votes for the change. now, it should be said very loudly that everybody involved. involved. those three people vociferously deny any wrongdoing, and certainly any criminality. they have all apologised but it is not for breaking the laws, it is for, in the case of the president, for example, for trusting people too much. in the case of the head of

samsung, he said basically, he has it should be said very loudly that everybody involved. those three people vociferously deny any wrongdoing, and certainly any criminality. they have all apologised but it is not for breaking the laws, it is for, in the case of the president, for example, for trusting people too much. in the case of the head of samsung, he said basically, he has given a bad impression, "i am very sorry about that." so apologies but not guilty pleas. we will talk to steve about that again. this is how fiat chrysler's stock closed on the milan stock exchange today — that's down 16%. that's because the company has been accused of not telling authorities about software regulating emissions in thousands of its vehicles. but before anyone jumps to conclusions — here's @nathanbomey quoting the company's ceo: what spot is fiat chrysler in? what

is going on? so, i mean it is very challenging for fiat chrysler because of the optics of all of it. with regards to what they are being accused of, the environmental protection agency says that guy yacht chrysler used software that may have allowed excess diesel emissions in more than 100,000 trucks and sports utility vehicles sold since 2014. so briefly, it seems like they could have been engaged in similar activities as vw, but what the head of fiat chrysler said, this isjust a case of misunderstanding, really, and that quy misunderstanding, really, and that guy yacht chrysler had been in touch with the epa for a long time, and had gone through many discussions with regards to how their emissions tests work. and how their cars are regulated, so fiat chrysler was very quick to defend themselves against these accusations by the epan further, to say any sort of

comparison between them, and vw was just outrageous. butjust so i understand this, this is an american story only at the moment? for the moment, right now, this is happening, they are in violation of environmental protection rules here in the united states, we have already heard that the new york attorney general is going to be looking into this. you know, the big thing about this, you know, is the optics of it all. coming on the heels of this massive fine we saw vw succumbing to. it is a tough time for fiat chrysler. thank you for that. these pictures show iran receiving its first western—built passenger plane in decades. it's happened because of the lifting of western sanctions last year that came with the iran nuclear deal.

the iranair fleet is among the oldest in the world — its planes have been kept going by parts being smuggled into the country. iran's making up for lost time — it's buying 100 planes from airbus and 80 from boeing. let us finish by going to hong kong, the hong kong toy fair to be precise. welcome to asia's largest toy show. it's a gaggle of sights, sounds, and of course, toys. some not yet available to the general public.

thousands of buyers, most wholesalers are here on the hunt for the next blockbuster. globally the industry was worth almost $190 billion last year and likely expand by 7%. all eyes are on smart toy, still a niche market with $4 billion of sales in 2016, but expected to nearly triple in four yea rs. so this is a great example of what a small toy is. it looks like a traditional play mat for kids, but it has got just traditional play mat for kids, but it has gotjust a little bit of something extra. yes, exactly. so with the device, you can scan any animals on the mat, and you can teach children how to spell. and it also has the animal sound on it so the children knows how the animal sounds. we have been making regular play mats for 13 years but it is tougher to make money so now we take

technology, we find that we can offer a hiring end product where children can learn from. so smart toys are normally embedded with a technology that responds to a device. and increasing iingly not just traditional toy mange errs entering the market. we started out making electronic parts, mainly for overseas manufacturers but this business is not growing. six years ago we found the educational toy industry has good prospects. so that is why we decided to make innovative toys. it is still a relatively small market, but high tech toys are growing in popularity. and soon it may be commonplace to sync your phone or tablet with a digital toy. lots of people were mentioning

barack obama and joe biden. barack obama has away warded joe biden the presidential medal of freedom. the highest civilian award in the us. it took him by surprise it seems. here is the moment. as one of his long—term colleagues in the senate. if you can't admirejoe biden as a person you have a problem. problem. he is as good a man as god created. so,joe, he is as good a man as god created. so, joe, for yourfaith he is as good a man as god created. so,joe, foryourfaith in he is as good a man as god created. so, joe, for yourfaith in your fellow americans, for your love of country, and for your lifetime of service that will endure through the generations, i would like to ask the military aide tojoin generations, i would like to ask the military aide to join us on stage. for the final time as president, i am pleased to award our nation's

highest civilian honour, the presidential medal of freedom. it did seem to take him by surprise, he has gathered himself, and he is talking now. i knew how honourable you were, i knew how descent you we re you were, i knew how descent you were from the couple of years you worked in the senate, i knew what you were capable of. but i never fully expected that you occupy the heart, from all of us. we will continue to watch that speech from joe biden maybe play you another clip later on. i will be back in a few minutes time on outside source. we will look at interesting weather

events round the worldment first off to eastern asia where we have areas of heavy rain to contend with. firstly, off the coast of vietnam, a chance this could form into a tropical storm but it is bringing intense downpours to coastal parts of vietnam. heavy rain in the southern philippines and central anaesthesia. further north a cold wind but mainly dry for south korea andjapan. on wind but mainly dry for south korea and japan. on to australia where we have an active monsoon season, so heavy showers, northern parts of western australia, warm in sydney. 36 degrees on friday before cooler conditions, new zealand is seeing a respite with drier and brighter weather and highs of 23 in auckland. across to north america we have a couple of areas of low pressure, the first no—of—ing to the south—east of canada. we have this area of low

pressure bringing hill snow to california, delivering these areas of low pressure, so there could be a risk of flooding in california, and significant snow for this year in nevada means an avalanche risk. central parts do look quieter. on to south america for friday. we will see some active showers building in parts of uruguay, paraguay and northern argentina, some thunderstorms for rio and sao paolo, they will last through the weekend. for europe, things are looking u nsettled. for europe, things are looking unsettled. we have a lot of isobars on the map so windy for central europe. low pressure moving south—east wards so heavy know in the alps. for the balkan, germany and poland. a lot of wintry weather, combined with the strong winds and the cold temperatures, so the weather across central europe could causing some disruption, particularly to fight flights as we head through friday and the weekend too. so that wintry weather is

really the theme closer to home. the outlook in the uk, things are going to be turning colder, we have got sleet, snow in the forecast as well as some icy conditions to contend with on untreated roads and pavements for instance, through the course of thursday, snow showers across western parts of the uk, snow clearing away initially but we have another band of rain, sleet and snow moving down the east coast. by friday morning that leaves us with a lot of ice round so take care if you are exciting to work, ice it should clear away and a brighter day by the time we get to friday. some sunshine, still some showers in eastern and western fringes of the uk, highs of two to six. more details for the week ahead withjohn hammond 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. just a week until he's inaugurated and donald trump continues to make headlines that he'd no doubt prefer not to. the former british spy who produced a dossier about mr trump's alleged behaviour while in russia has

gone into hiding. we've been following the cyprus reunification talks all week. today at talks in geneva, the un secretary general has said that a deal is very close. the eu is planning to draw up rules for how humans might get along with artificial intelligence or robots. and sports news — former england football manager graham taylor has died.