welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is ben bland. our top stories: donald trump hits back at a prominent civil rights politician who refuses to recognise the result of the presidential election. struggling through freezing temperatures: aid agencies say thousands of migrants in europe need more help. success for spacex, as it launches its first rocket since an explosion in september. hello. donald trump has prompted the outrage of politicians and entertainers after criticising john lewis, a well—respected civil rights campaigner and democratic congressman, who questioned his election victory. mr lewis is the last surviving speaker from the 1963 march

on washington, addressed by martin luther king, whose birthday will be celebrated on monday. sarah corker reports. another day, and another row on twitter for president—elect donald trump. he sparked outrage after criticising veteran civil rights campaigner john lewis, who questioned his election victory. democratic representative mr lewis, of georgia, said he didn't see mr trump as a legitimate president. mr lewis told the nbc‘s meet the press: that prompted an angry response from mr trump, tweeting: his comments came as civil rights activists in washington kicked off

a week of anti—trump protests, ahead of the inauguration. we won't be trumped! the reverend al sharpton called on all politicians to support equality. we come not to appeal to donald trump. because he's made it clear what his policies are, and what his nominations are. we come to say to the democrats in the senate and in the house, and then to the moderate republicans, to get some backbone. get some guts. and, in a separate development, broadway starjennifer holliday said she is pulling out of a concert celebrating the inauguration, this after her gay and lesbian fans described the forthcoming

performance as a betrayal. rehearsals for the inauguration are in full swing, but few big names have agreed to perform for mr trump, and friday's ceremony looks to be dominated by military bands, rather than a—listers. earlier, i asked andra gillespie, a political scientist at atlanta's emory university, who lives in the district that john lewis represents, whether mr trump's comments about the congressman are accurate. i'm very proud to havejohn lewis as my representative. he is a living legend of the civil rights movement. i've gotten a chance to meet him, he is a lovely person. and i'm very proud to live in the district. and i can attest that while atlanta, like many places, has its problems, it's a lovely place to live. my neighbourhood is not horrible. my neighbourhood, which is gentrifying, is still majority—black. and even when president—elect trump characterised black neighbourhoods

as being extremely dysfunctional, i can't say that my neighbourhood is dysfunctional, though i won't say that it's perfect. so i think many people will take offence to some of the comments that president—elect trump made, even if they wouldn't have, you know, called president trump illegitimate in the way that congressman lewis did. that being said, ifjohn lewis challenges and questions the legitimacy of a democratic election, through which mr trump has been elected president, would he not expect some sort of backlash from mr trump? well, i think there are different ways that someone could expect backlash in that question. i think someone can question the strategy of making that kind of statement. one might expect that there would be some type of blowback, perhaps criticism along partisan lines, from members of the party. but i don't think one should expect that a soon—to—be president would start lashing out at people personally via social media.

now, we know that president—elect trump has done this, and this is not the first time this has happened. but there is still this question of decorum and civility, and also a recognition that a president of the united states occupies a very important position, one where every word, including every idle word, could have national and international importance. and so, if president—elect trump continues with this strategy, we will have to figure out after noon on 20th january what the impact of these twitter outbursts will be. i think there are some who are concerned that these actions could actually have grave consequences, and could actually cause more trouble than they do in terms of actually helping to address a situation, or even to defend president trump's honour, legacy, you know, the programme he is trying to put forward. we'll have more on congressman lewis and his memories of marching

with martin luther king a little later in the programme. about 100 people are feared to have drowned off the libyan coast after their boat sank on their way to europe. the italian coastguard and aid officials say eight bodies have been recovered. after hours of searching only four survivors have been rescued. it is thought about 110 people were on board. the search operation is continuing in darkness and in poor weather and sea conditions. serbia has defended its response to the extreme cold weather that has claimed dozens of migrants‘ lives. the minister responsible, ivan miskovic, told bbc news that many have refused shelters, fearing they would be deported. 15,000 people are living in tents as far south as greece, including the islands of lesbos and samos. aid agencies warn they are at risk of freezing to death. but it's in the balkans where the situation is far more

urgent, as simonjones reports. the cold snap is tightening its grip, claiming more than 65 lives across europe, causing traffic chaos, power cuts and travel delays. this is sarajevo. the balkans have been particularly ha rd—hit. temperatures have been as low as —15 for several days. there is major concern about the plight of refugees, particularly in serbia. some are being sheltered in reception centres. but 1,200 are living in a derelict warehouse in belgrade, according to the unhcr. it's very cold, and we are just making fire. but still we can keep warm ourselves. we need to have certainty, but we don't like to stay here. we're trying to leave this country and go to european countries, but we are stuck because of the borders. there are calls for governments across europe to do more. it will only take one more snowstorm, or another cold snap, and we're going to see some children, you know, in a very dire situation.

children are particularly prone to respiratory illnesses at a time like this. we do not want to see this happen. it's about saving lives, not about red tape and keeping to bureaucratic arrangements, at the moment. river traffic along the danube, one of europe's main waterways, has largely been suspended in eastern europe, due to the ice. and the warning is that more bad weather is on the way. ivan miskovic, the serbian minister, responsible for looking after the migrants, told the bbc his government is doing its best. the conditions in those informal sites, the people living here are grappling with harsh conditions, freezing temperatures for the past ten days. so this is completely inadequate place for anybody. we had a campaign to persuade them to go to the centres, to be accommodated in heated rooms, to prove provided with three meals

a day, healthcare. but unfortunately what we have managed so far is to persuade 400 people to be accommodated in our centres. the state of serbia is doing everything we can to provide shelter for these people, and we are providing enough shelter. but they are persisting to refuse to be accommodated in official centres. somehow they are distrustful towards us, because they are afraid of deportation. in reality, there is not a single real reason for them not to be outside of the official centres provided by the state of serbia. in other news: turkey and russia have decided to invite the united states to peace talks on syria. the negotiations are due to be held this month in the kazakh capital asta na.

but the turkish foreign minister said turkey remained opposed to the inclusion of the syrian kurdish militant group the ypg. iraqi state television says government forces have taken control of the university of mosul. but military officials say some clashes are still continuing. the battle for the strategically important site began on friday. it's been one of the main bases of the so called islamic state group. the political crisis in the gambia has been centre—stage at a summit of african heads of state. adama barrow, who beat yahya jammeh in last month's presidential election, was referred to as the gambian president at the meeting. the president of mali has urged mrjammeh, who refuses to step down, to leave office to prevent a blood bath in the gambia. four months after one of its rockets blew up on take—off, spacex has launched a falcon 9 rocket from a launchpad in california.

there were cheers as the first stage touched down successfully on a barge moored in the pacific, nine minutes after launch. richard forrest reports. on a clear california morning, the spacex rocket company resumed flights, with its falcon 9 blasting into the blue sky. it was launched from the vandenberg air force base, carrying ten spacecraft for one of its main customers, iridium. it now has 70 planned missions, worth more than $70 billion, including for nasa, who will again use it to fly cargo for the international space station. falcon 9 performance is nominal, as we head down—range over the pacific ocean. just minutes after the launch, the first stage of the rocket landed successfully on a platform in the pacific, prompting huge applause at mission control. spacex founder and entrepreneur elon musk tweeted. .. and, an hour and 15 minutes after the launch, the mission was complete, with the iridium

payload safely in orbit. it was also different last september, for one of its rockets exploded on a launchpad in florida. falcon 9 was about to go through a routine engine ignition test when fire ripped through it, destroying both the rocket and a $200 million satellite it was due to carry into orbit two days later. the investigators believe the explosion was caused by a design problem with the helium pressure tanks. but, after this latest successful launch, spacex has a busy 2017 ahead, with 27 launches planned. earlier, keith cowing, editor of nasa watch explained why this was such a significant moment. space x has been pushing the

envelope since the day they started and as such there is a lot of scrutiny on their failure is more than their successes. every time they have a setback everyone wonders if they will bounce back and so far they have. earlier in the space age things blew up a lot and we got used to that and we were happy when they we re to that and we were happy when they were successful, now it is the other way round. but with space x we are looking at a consumer product. these things, it is like an iphone or something. when the end goes wrong there is a bug and they fix it. it was designed to be maintained that way and everytime they encounter a problem they seem to be better at fixing the problems and they do so fast and improve the vehicle at the same time. so after the successful launch, what does it mean for the company space x in terms of what they can now do? can they now achieve? first of all the rocket works fine again, but they've got a very ambitious schedule ahead of them. they will be launching almost

every two weeks. 0n them. they will be launching almost every two weeks. on top of that i think they will debut their ability to launch from launchpad 39a, florida. that is one of the places where we sent missions to the moon. so this launched today says a p pa re ntly so this launched today says apparently everything is fixed and they will move ahead rather ambitiously. and of course this sort of project is expensive, it is fraught with risk. what they've got the added pressure of time because they've got rivals snapping at their heels, trying to overtake them, haven't they? yeah and in the private sector you've got google and apple competing with each other, they seem to produce better products and it drops the costs. if there a lot of pressure? yeah. so far it seems to be working in a productive way. i suppose their aim is to make

touristic space travel a norm for us. touristic space travel a norm for us. how far off the think they are from doing that? the word tourism... let's just say, elon musk is looking at two things. he wants company that makes money for his investors, which is on the way of doing, but second of all he has a bigger vision of larger more reusable rockets that could take people first international space station, which he will apparently be able to do towards the end of next year, but more ambitiously they are looking to go to sending many more people to mars. you have to drive down the cost of launching rockets, so that's indebted in everything he does. —— embedded. he didn't need to recover that first stage today. launching the satellites provided him a profit. but to get that rocket back and reuse it is part of the bigger plan. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: why these russians definitely believe four legs

are good and two are bad, when trying to get through the snow. day one of operation desert storm to force the iraqis out of kuwait has seen the most intense air attacks since the second world war. tobacco is america's oldest industry, and it's one of its biggest, but the industry is nervous of this report. this may tend to make people want to stop smoking cigarettes. there is not a street that is unaffected. huge parts of kobe were simply demolished as buildings crashed into one another. this woman said she'd been given no help and no advice by the authorities. she stood outside the ruins of her business. tens of thousands of black children in south africa have taken advantage of laws, passed by the country's new multiracial government, and enrolled at formerly white schools. tonight sees the 9,610th performance of her long—running play, the mousetrap. when they heard about her death

today, the management considered whether to cancel tonight's performance, but agatha christie would have been the last person to want such a thing. this is bbc news, i'm ben bland. the latest headlines: donald trump sparks outrage after criticising a veteran civil rights campaigner who questioned his election victory. aid agencies warn that thousands of migrants in the balkans risk freezing to death in tents and temporary shelters. the palestinian president, mahmoud abbas, has warned that moving the us embassy in israel tojerusalem would deal a huge blow to remaining hopes for middle east peace. his comments came ahead of a major summit in paris on sunday, seen as one of the last chances to save the so—called two—state solution to the israeli—palestinian conflict. 0ur middle east correspondent yolande knell reports from jerusalem. jerusalem is meant to be a shared capital for israelis and palestinians. living peacefully,

side—by—side, in two nations. that is how many see the two—state solution to the conflict. but today, israel controls most of the west bank and eastjerusalem, which the palestinians want for their state. and over 600,000 israeli settlers live in these areas, captured in the 1967 war. the settlement‘s mayor represents an influential settler organisation. we are going further away from the two—state solution. i think the palestinians were given an option to set the palestinian state, and we know today for a fact the palestinian authorities are completely corrupt, completely bankrupt. but many in the international community say that settlement expansion is also what is undermining a two—state solution. the issue of the settlement, compromises were made in the past, and unfortunately none of these

attempts have brought peace up until now. but there are new international efforts to push for peace, and a palestinian state to neighbour israel. it is all happening just before donald trump takes office. could this be the site of his us embassy in jerusalem? he is promising to move his ambassador from tel aviv. many israelis welcome the idea, because it recognises a united jerusalem as their capital. but palestinians believe it will kill the two—state solution. they say their presence in the city is already threatened. so first of all, i'm considered a permanent resident, and not a citizen, as any israeli jew living injerusalem. since 1967, more than 111,000 residency cards were revoked by israeli authorities, and the main purpose is to minimise the number of palestinians living injerusalem, and to ensure a jewish majority.

how do you think the next us president, donald trump, could change things? trump's move of the embassy would be in violation of international law, but it would also be legitimising israel's occupation of eastjerusalem, by recognising israel's exclusive sovereignty over jerusalem. recent opinion polls suggest most israelis and palestinians do still support the idea of two states, but only by very narrow margins. on both sides, there are fears that chances for a peace deal are fading. yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem. russian thrill—seekers living in the shadow of the ural mountains have invented a new extreme winter sport. horseboarding is like snowboarding, but with a four—legged feel. andy beatt reports. it gets pretty cold here in this region of russia,

15,000 kilometres east of moscow. winter brings a five—month freeze, and plenty of snow. but a lack of steep slopes has left the skiiers feeling a little flat. riding to the rescue of those with a need for speed, a stallion called vulcan. having tried to achieve the same effect with a car, a motorbike and a snowmobile, it was horsepower that fully opened up the area's forests and frozen lakes. translation: i want something new all the time. it's like a drug. when you try one thing, and then you want more and more. we can't find any nearby mountains bigger than here, and we can't change that. but we can change the pulling force.

horseboarding pioneers insist four legs is far more fun than traditional skiing, but don't plan to commercialise their innovation just yet. as we reported earlier, us congressman john lewis is the last surviving speaker from the march on washington in 1963. the then—student activist turned civil rights leader spoke on the steps of the lincoln memorial just before dr martin luther king jr delivered his famous "i have a dream" speech. in 2013, marking the 50th anniversary of the speech, he spoke to the bbc about how he was inspired by dr king. when i was growing up, we would go downtown, and we'd see those signs that said coloured waiting—room. wightman, coloured men, white women, coloured women. we'd go to the theatre and all of us children had to go upstairs to the back. and i

would come home and asked my mother and my father, my grandparents, wire. they would say that is the way it is. don't get in the way, don't get in trouble. when i first heard martin luther king jr, get in trouble. when i first heard martin luther kinng, it inspired me, it moved me. this man spoke to my soul. i think in some strange way he was saying to me, you can do something. you can make a contribution. i wanted to go and attend troy state college. it was a school that had never admitted black students. so i wrote a letter to martin luther king jr, students. so i wrote a letter to martin luther kinng, and students. so i wrote a letter to martin luther king jr, and told students. so i wrote a letter to martin luther kinng, and told him i needed his help. he wrote me back and sent me a round—trip greyhound bus ticket. so in march of 1958, by this time i am 18 years old, and i saw martin luther king jr standing behind a desk. i was so scared. and doctor king spoke up and said i do

jon lewis? are you the boy from troy? and from that day only started calling me the boy troy. we became friends. the first arrest of me occurred in nashville. i was sitting there in an orderly, peaceful, non—violent fashion, waiting to be served, and a waitress put up a sign that the lunch counter saying the counter is closed. and we continue to just counter is closed. and we continue tojust sit counter is closed. and we continue to just sit and wait. i was beaten, arrested and ta ken to just sit and wait. i was beaten, arrested and taken to jail. when i was arrested, i felt so free, i felt so was arrested, i felt so free, i felt so liberated. you arrest me, you beat me, me injail, but what else can you do to me? you kill me, at doctor king said it was better to diea doctor king said it was better to die a physical death than to die a spiritual or psychological death. 0n

the morning of august 20 eight, 1963, when it was my time to speak, looking out over that crowd, i saw hundreds and thousands of young people, fresh from the jails of the south, fresh from the struggle, the front line there. and when it was my turn to speak, i spoke. i did my best. when the march was all over, when doctor king had finished speaking, we all were invited to come down to the white house and to meet with president kennedy. he was like a proud father. he said you did a good job, you did a good job. and when he got to doctor martin luther king when he got to doctor martin luther kinng., he said and you had a dream. you are ready, we were prepared to go back to the american south fight the good fight, and to never, ever give up. south fight the good fight, and to never, ever give up. -- to fight the good fight. hello there, good morning.

we are turning things milder from the west overnight tonight and into tomorrow. but, before the milder air gets to all, there is still snow on the leading edge of this weather system, at least for a time, on the eastern side of scotland and the north—east of england. but for many places it is just a wet night. with the air coming in from the west, we are going to get temperatures up to 8—9 in western parts. still pretty chilly further east and still a chance of wintry weather to be had in parts of yorkshire in the morning. and that drifts down through lincolnshire, on into east anglia and the south—east as well. just be aware there could be some slippery conditions and ice on the roads first thing in the morning. it is wet in london and cold, four or five degrees. but those temperatures do creep up further west. eight or nine to start the day in cornwall, devon, much of wales too, but with a lot of cloud and some rain.

some of the cloud in northern england is low, so quite a grey look to things. eight or so degrees in the north—west of england. and into northern ireland, 9—10 degrees to start the day. relatively mild, but cloudy with outbreaks of rain. a lot of low cloud and outbreaks of rain in scotland. relatively mild out west, eight or nine degrees, but still quite chilly further east, in particular the north—east, 11—5 degrees. the north—east of england, chilly for some, 3—4 degrees in the hull area. through the morning, wintry weather slowly fizzles out from east anglia, so most of us will be pretty cloudy. sunshine will be in short supply on sunday afternoon. but there will be a fair bit of cloud, and some rain to be had as well. quite a dull and damp day, really. temperatures into double figures for many western areas, ten degrees or so here, but some eastern areas still quite chilly, maybe only two degrees in norwich. quite a raw feel to things. and then as we go through the evening, we keep the line of rain from the isle of wight, through the midlands, up into wales and northern england, scotland too. and that line of rain is still with us as we get into monday.

chilly to the east of that. but relatively mild towards the west of it. monday afternoon, again out west temperatures into double figures. the south—eastern corner likely to see the lowest temperatures, 5—7 here on monday afternoon. and monday afternoon, on into tuesday, high pressure is in charge of our weather. it will keep it pretty quiet for most areas. patchy rain out west and most of any rain will be in the north—west, where it will be relatively mild in comparison to what we will see in the south—east. for tuesday and wednesday, it will stay pretty chilly in the south—eastern corner. a risk of frost, there may be some morning fog to contend with as well. further north and west, milder, but with cloud and rain at times. the latest headlines from bbc news. ahead of his inauguration — donald trump has provoked outrage in the united states by criticising a veteran civil rights campaigner. mr trump took to twitter afterjohn lewis — who's a democratic member of congress — questioned the legitimacy of the president—elect‘s win. serbia has defended its response

to the extreme cold weather that has claimed dozens of migrants' lives. the minister responsible told bbc news that many have refused shelters, fearing they would be deported. aid agencies warn many across europe are at risk of freezing to death. four months after one of its rockets blew up on take—off, spacex, has launched a falcon 9 rocket from a launchpad in california. after putting ten satellites in orbit — engineers cheered as the first stage touched down successfully on a barge moored in the pacific, nine minutes after launch.