this is bbc news. i'm maxine mawhinney. the headlines at two. theresa may will not say whether she knew about a failed trident missile test when mps were voting to renew the weapons system. i have absolute faith in our trident missiles. when i made that speech in the house of commons, what we were talking about was whether or not we should renew our trident. the prime minister confirms she will be the first world leader to meet president trump when they hold talks on friday. millions took to the streets in protest against the new president, but the white house accuses the media of dishonestly reporting numbers attending his inauguration. the gambia's defeated leader, yahya jammeh, flies into exile, 22 years after taking control of the west african state in a coup. world tennis number one andy murray crashes out of the australian open after a shock defeat in the fourth round. and coming up in half an hour, what the residents of melania trump's hometown in slovenia make of america's

first lady in politics europe. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the prime minister, theresa may, says she has "absolute faith" in the trident nuclear missile system, despite claims that an unarmed test firing veered off—course. it's claimed an unarmed rocket fired from hms vengeance in the atlantic ocean shot off in the direction of the united states last year. but on the bbc‘s andrew marr programme this morning, mrs may declined to answer if she'd been made aware of the incident before a crucial vote on the future of the trident programme in parliament, as daniel boettcher reports. this is what the launch of a trident missile looks like.

lastjune, the royal navy carried out what it calls a routine unarmed test launch from hms vengeance. but according to the sunday times, it went wrong. the paper says the submarine was about 200 miles off the coast of florida. it was due to fire the missile 5,600 miles to a location off the west coast of africa. instead, the paper says it may have veered off in the wrong direction. that was just weeks before a vote in parliament to renew britain's ageing vanguard submarines. today, the prime minister was asked four times if she had known about the alleged incident when she had made a statement on trident to mps lastjuly. the issue we were talking about in the house of commons was a very serious issue. it was about whether or not we should renew trident, whether we should look to the future and have a replacement trident. that is what we were talking about in the house of commons. that is what the house of commons voted for. i believe in defending our country. jeremy corbyn voted against it. he doesn't want to defend our country with an independent

nuclear deterrent. prime minister, did you know? there are tests that take place all the time for our nuclear deterrence. what we were talking about was the future. the paper says there had been four previous trident tests since 2000. in the past, the mod has issued a press release and video of successful tests. this time, it did not. the labour leaderjeremy corbyn has accused the prime minister of not telling the public about the alleged misfiring. i think this failure is something that ought to pause everyone for a moment and just think what happened. we understand the prime minister chose not to inform parliament about this and it has come out through the media some months later. it is a pretty catastrophic error when a missile goes in the wrong direction. while the ministry of defence says the test launch was a success for the crew and the boat,

it has not denied the report that the missile itself might have veered off course. but it does say the capability and effectiveness of the trident missile is unquestionable. daniel boettcher, bbc news. joining me is our news correspondent. has there been any more reaction? trident has always been controversial, so this poses strong questions for the prime minister. as we saw in that report, she was asked four times if she knew about it. she did not give a yes or no answer. but these questions, i do not think, will go away because we have had quite a lot of reaction to this. people want to know if she knew about it and if so, why did she not tell parliament? and also, crucially, it came at a time just before the debate and the vote on renewal of trident missiles on the clyde. kevinjones, amongst the

reaction, a former liver—mac mp and former defence minister, he has called for an enquiry into this. so people do want answers and are wondering why so many months later, they do not know about this. it is not just they do not know about this. it is notjust in westminster that there will be an issue, this also affects holyrood and the scottish government. nicola sturgeon has been very vocal, she has not wanted to have nuclear weapons on the clyde. she has in the past said that a renewal of trident would be a possible trigger to take scotland closer to a second independence referendum. she was one person who tweeted about this this morning, saying, this is a hugely serious issue was not she said there should bea issue was not she said there should be a full disclosure of what happened, who knew what and when,

and why the house of commons was not told. so she is echoing the opinion of many many others. but we have also had other reaction, antinuclear campaigners, the cnd perhaps not surprisingly, they were camped out at faslane for many years, they have long fought to get rid of nuclear weapons on the clyde and they said, this is a serious failure and they are saying, as others are, it would have impacted on the parliamentary debate on trident replacement. they are questioning the government's commitment to spending what will be billions of pounds to replace the four current nuclear submarines, one of the ones which was involved in the incident near florida. the mod and downing street responded to this prior to the interview with theresa may this morning and what they said

is, they were clear, they said we do not provide any further details on submarine operations, for obvious national security reasons. they have said that the capability and effectiveness of the trident missile, should we ever need to employ it, is unquestionable. but the reaction that we have had today suggests that these questions to the prime minister are not going to go away prime minister are not going to go r prime minister are not going to go away very easily. what ultimately do they want at the end of the enquiry they want at the end of the enquiry they are calling for? nobody has mentioned action at this stage. i think people come for a lot of people, a lot of politicians, the first time they saw this was on the front page of a newspaper this morning, and they are just wondering why they did not know about this. they want to know if the prime minister knew about it, why they did not know, they are calling for this to be discussed in parliament, and i

think the date of this was crucial, it happened prior to the vote in parliament for the renewal of trident and many who would have been against it are saying that the vote could have been very different if they had had that knowledge. just briefly, how does this fall for theresa may, is this difficult for her? it looks like a difficult one, it is hard to know at this stage how things will play her. she obviously has a lot of other issues to deal with at this stage, with brexit, she is going to visit donald trump, so there will be other issues that will be discussed this week, but these are nuclear weapons and as i said, very controversial, so for one to be possibly misfired, that does seem to bea possibly misfired, that does seem to be a very serious issue for the prime minister. the prime minister has also confirmed she'll visit america to meet president trump on friday, the first world leader to meet him since his inauguration. mrs may said britain's "special relationship" with the us would allow her to speak up, to say she disagrees with some

of president trump's opinions. here's our political correspondent, susanna mendonca. britain is looking to rekindle old alliances with a brand—new american president. the special relationship between the uk and the us has been strong for many years. we will have opportunities to talk about our possible future trading relationship but also some other well‘s challenges we will face, like defeating terrorism, the conflict in syria. comparisons will be drawn to another female british prime minister who forged a close relationship with a populist us president. ronald reagan and margaret thatcher were united in their free trade names margaret thatcher were united in theirfree trade names in margaret thatcher were united in their free trade names in the 1980s and it has been reported that donald trump has already referred to theresa may as his maggie. but no previous us president has been so

unpopular with so many. in particular, with women, who turned out in the hundreds of thousands to protest against him in america yesterday and in cities including london. mrs may would not be drawn on whether she plans to challenge mr trump on the things he has said about women. i think the biggest statement that will be made about the role of women is the fact that i will be there as a female prime minister, prime minister of the uk, talking to him directly about the interests we share. no longer back of the queue on trade, mrs may's focus in her talks with mr trump will be around building a future trade deal with the us after britain leaves the eu. he and people around him have also spoken about the importance of also spoken about the importance of a trained arrangement with the uk and that something they are looking to talk to us about at an early

stage. i would expect to be able to talk to him about that alongside the other issues i will be discussing with him in washington. other issues i will be discussing with him in washingtonm other issues i will be discussing with him in washington. if the inauguration speech is anything to go by, mrtrump inauguration speech is anything to go by, mr trump is more focused on protectionism than free—trade, insisting he will put america first. so critics say the government should be cautious about putting us trade ahead of any eu deal. no trade agreement with america can replace much what we will potentially lose on our owfi much what we will potentially lose on our own doorstep. as brexit negotiations loom, mrs may will know she needs trade options elsewhere and this week's meeting with the us president is a first in that direction. the new president saw more than 1.5 million people take to the streets to dennis tueart against him. some protests continued late into such, as this one in san francisco. but mr trump and his team have focused instead on the media's coverage of his inauguration. despite this footage that showed smaller crowds than previous years, the white house has said there have been recognised watching the ceremony. the new white

house press secretary sean spicer used his first briefing to accuse the american media of selling division. these attempts to lessen the abuse isn't with the inauguration are shameful and wrong will stop the president was also at the cia today, greeted by a raucous overflow crowd of some 400 plus cia employees. there were over 1000 requests employees. there were over 1000 req u ests to employees. there were over 1000 requests to attend, prompting the president a note he would have to come back to greet the rest. the employees were ecstatic he is the new commander—in—chief and he delivered a powerful and important message. he told them he has and they were grateful for that. they gave him a five—minute standing ovation at the end and a display of their patriotism and their enthusiasm for his presidency. i would also note it is a shame that the cia did not have a cia director to be with him today when he visited because the democrats have chosen to stall the nomination of mike pompeo

and playing politics with national security. that is what you should be writing and covering, that this instead of selling division about tweets and false narratives. the president is committed to unifying oui’ president is committed to unifying our country and that was the focus of the inaugural address. this kind of the inaugural address. this kind of dishonesty in the media, the challenging to bring our nation together is making it more difficult. there has been talk about holding donald trump accountable and it is something that goes to waste, we will hold the press accountable as well. the american people deserve better and as long as he serves as the message for this incredible movement, he will take his message directly to the american people where his focus will always be. jane 0'brien is in washington. quite astonishing, i don't think i have ever seen anything like that from the briefing room. not on the first official press briefing, no, but we

know that his relationship with the american media in particular is highly contentious. we saw this throughout the campaign, he criticised the media incessantly, and sean spicer was saying he will ta ke and sean spicer was saying he will take his message directly to the people, that is what he has been doing. he tweets constantly. but i think that a lot of the issue over the press appearing to criticise the size of the turnout on the inauguration day, making comparisons with 2009 when barack 0bama was inaugurated and indeed yesterday's march, which sean spicer refused to talk about, i think goes to something that is really bothering donald trump, and that is the perception that he feels many americans have that some of his presidency is not legitimate, part of this stems from the allegations of this stems from the allegations of russian interference with the election process, and part of it is that there is a huge opposition in this country to him, he has a

divided nation to deal with, and he does not like it, he wants people to rally around him, and they are not. how is the press dealing with it, then? the press is doing what it a lwa ys then? the press is doing what it always does, saying that it is reporting facts, it is true that on friday of the crowds were much smaller than they were yesterday during the women's march, that did not just take place during the women's march, that did notjust take place in washington, data base in 670 places around the world. the turnout was indisputably enormous. “— world. the turnout was indisputably enormous. —— they took place in 670 places. but i think the whole notion of holding donald trump accountable, i think the press will have to find a way of dealing with the fact that this is a president who tweets, who says pretty much what comes into his head, and this is a new world, because in previous presidencies, anything that a president says is analysed and passed down to its bare

components and i think that congress, the press and the american people are having to get used to a very different way of communications from their leader. of course, meeting foreign leaders will be next on his agenda and theresa may is arriving on friday, how is that playing at? i do not think anybody has rarely noticed yet, to be perfectly honest. this is an enormous issue in britain but i think in america at the moment, there are so many other things topping the agenda, not least sean spicer talking about the fact that democrats are holding up the confirmation process of his key cabinet picks. he is going into office and he does not have half his cabinet in place. that is not a good start. so obviously, that is a huge area of concern. but most americans it is all about health care, how they will pay for health care insurance, will it be repealed and replaced, and if so what with? these

are the issues dominating. but when theresa may arrives, there will be a recognition that the special relationship is there and in town. you think so? how will she deal with some of the issues we are hearing in the papers today, such as the women's issue? well, her response to thatis women's issue? well, her response to that is that she is by virtue of the fa ct that is that she is by virtue of the fact she is a woman, presents the issue to donald trump just buy her mere presence. but i think it is also worth noting that a lot of what donald trump says about women, the demeaning language he uses about women, contradicts the women he has around him. his daughter is a key adviser, he listens to her. his campaign manager was the first woman to head a campaign that led to the election of a new president. so, there is a real contradiction in how

he talks about women very publicly, very demeaning way, and the way he treats women who he respects and admires ina treats women who he respects and admires in a professional capacity. so, how theresa may tackles that, whether it will be an issue, we do not know yet. jane o'brien in washington. and from monday, here on the bbc news channel, we have a new programme covering donald trump's first acts as president, the brexit effect and much more. that's 100 days with katty kay in washington and christian fraser in london at 7pm. the headlines on bbc news. theresa may will not say whether she knew about a failed trident missile test when mps were voting to renew the weapons system. the prime minister has confirmed she will be the first world leader to meet president trump when they hold talks on friday. and the white house accuses the american media of dishonestly reporting the size of the crowds at

friday's inauguration. voting has begun in france in the socialist party's primary to decide the nomination for the presidential election in april. six men and a woman are taking part. they include the former prime minister, manuel valls, but not the unpopular current president, francois hollande. 0ur correspondent hugh scohfield is in paris. so, set the scene. these socialist party, which would normally expect to go into a presidential election has one of the main contenders, but which is in this instance extremely demoralised and fighting for its life. there is a very small chance of any other contenders in today's election actually the presidential race which does not mean that today is not important, but it is kind of symbolic of the whole disarray which has overcome the french left in the

last couple of years since it became apparent that francois hollande's presidency was going to be a failure, which i think everyone believes it has been, he himself is not running for re—election, which you would normally expect to do, and asa you would normally expect to do, and as a result we have this open field in the socialist party, these seven candidates vying to get the nomination, but all of them knowing that even if they do get it, the chances of actually getting to the presidency are very slim, because on the left, there are other contenders who are outside the socialist party who are outside the socialist party who are outside the socialist party who are more popular than the socialist party nominees. we have a far left candidate who is a very charismatic vigour, then in the ce ntre—left charismatic vigour, then in the centre—left emanuel macron, who is surging ahead in the polls. so it is a very fractured left for this election, in a race which is a three horse race with the right and the far right being the other main

contenders. what about the public, what sense are you getting that people won't? well, the sense is quite clearly that they do not particularly wa nt quite clearly that they do not particularly want the socialists to be back in power. there is quite clearly a moment which the national front is hoping to capitalise on, the victory of donald trump and the inauguration speech from him, this is all manner from heaven for marine le pen, on whom all eyes are fixed as we move into the presidential campaign. buti as we move into the presidential campaign. but i think we all felt like always have to make it clear that her chances of winning, still remain very small indeed. the comparison i would make is with the communist party in france in the 19605 communist party in france in the 1960s and 70s, which was up at similar levels, it was a hugely important player on the political

scene but had no chance of ever getting into power because they would always be a big majority against them. —— their word. a police officer who was left severely brain damaged in a motorcycle crash last year has died, after his family won a legal battle to withdraw life support. paul briggs, who was 43, was hit by a dangerous driver while working for merseyside police. his widow, lindsey, said she was "devastated" by her husband's death, but relieved his suffering had ended. a survey suggests that delays in assessing patients' needs are worsening the problems hospitals have in discharging patients. healthwatch england, which champions patients, says many local authorities are failing to get the job done within the recommended six weeks. emma forde reports. nhs england says, at the end of november last year, nearly 7,000 hospital beds were occupied by patients who should have been discharged. it says one in three remained in hospital because of delays in assessment, and care packages not being in place. healthwatch england has investigated how widespread delays in social care assessments are, both

in the community and in hospitals. the longest reported delay in the community was nearly two years. it said that data from local authorities on waiting times for assessments was incredibly patchy. not only that, it also found assessment reviews, which according to the care act should be done every 12 months to assess changing needs, simply aren't being done. the department of health said it was investing £900 million of additional funding into adult social care over the next two years, and will continue to challenge local authorities that fail to carry out timely assessments. emma forde, bbc news. a charity says health officials in england are doing too little to encourage women to have smear tests. jo's cervical cancer trust says that over the past five years, there has been a 3% drop in the number of women having the checks, and that more than a million women did not respond to the invitation last year. it also found that embarrassment about the procedure

was putting people off. smitha mundasad reports. a smear of lipstick to encourage women not to ignore their smear tests. they are offered to women aged 25 to 64, to help prevent cervical cancer. last yea r‘s campaign drew celebrity support, from the model cara delevingne to reality star lauren pope, and the charity behind it says this year their message has never been more important. at the moment, in england, for example, the number of women who attend cervical screening is at a 19—year low. that is hugely concerning, because if it carries on, we are going to see more women diagnosed, we are sadly going to see more women passing away, and we just don't want that to happen. the charity's latest survey suggests half of women aged 25 to 29 have put off getting a smear test. the reasons — more than a quarter said they were too embarrassed, a similar numbersaid they were worried about pain, and almost one in ten said they had never had the test at all.

nhs england says it is particularly worried about the fall in young women getting smears in the last few years, because that has been linked to a rise in women under 35 getting cervical cancer. it says it is working on projects to encourage more young women to take up the tests. smitha mundasad, bbc news. the former president of the gambia, yahya jammeh, has flown into exile, 22 years after taking control of the west african state in a coup. he sparked a political crisis when he refused to accept the outcome of the country's election. jammeh finally agreed to hand over power to the winner after the leaders of neighbouring countries threatened military action. 0ur correspondent thomas fessy is in banju. he said that life is gradually getting back to normal following the departure of mrjammeh. the president left last night, he is

now in equatorial guinea, we understand, with his family, and certainly, life is picking up here after three days of the sort of total shutdown, shops, banks, after three days of the sort of totalshutdown, shops, banks, gas stations was their work, everything was closed, in fear of violence, people were staying home, troops we re people were staying home, troops were sent in to threaten to remove mrjammeh by force, but in the end, mrjammeh by force, but in the end, mrjammeh by force, but in the end, mrjammeh left, he was left with no option from west african leaders, who basically gave him an ultimatum, either he was walking out of the statehouse, or he would be removed by force. the african union, the regional bloc and the united nations haveissued regional bloc and the united nations have issued declarations saying that they would work to ensure there is no witchhunt of the former

supporters and they have also said that —— said that mrjammeh was going to be, should be able to attend to the gambia at the time of his choosing. it is not clear yet the exact terms of the agreement under which mrjammeh has left the country, but certainly people here are now preparing for the return of the new president. andy murray is out of the australian open, after a shock defeat by a player ranked 50 in the world. the world number one lost his fourth round match to germany's mischa zverev in four sets. this is the first time since 2004 that both top seeds have been knocked out of a grand slam before the quarterfinals. obviously a tough match, it was a long one. hard conditions, it was hot out there. zverev came out with great stuff. he plays a game style that not many players play these days. he played extremely well,

especially the end of the match. he came up with some great stuff, really good volleys and pick—ups, reflexes, you know, he was really good. he deserved to win. a tough one to lose. do you just have to take the rough with the smooth as a tennis player, are you quite good at moving on from defeats like this? well, i would say nowadays, when i was younger it would have been tougher, disappointing, lost today for sure, tough one, but one of the biggest events and i wanted to do better. but yes, i have other things in my life now, so i'm disappointed to

lose but i had a great end to last year. get a bit of time off now, little break. try to learn from it. try and understand what i could have done a little bit better and improve, and then come back and try again. disappointed andy murray. now let's have a look at the weather. here is mattiello. good afternoon. it will be a battle between cold continental air and mild atlantic air. at the moment, calls wherever you are. we have some sunshine at the moment but it is a different story not too far away in worcestershire. the malvern hills and a rather gloomy skies. the cloud breaking up in northern ireland. a little sleet and snow in the

short—term in parts of east yorkshire and east lincolnshire. ice will become the issue tonight. " very solid temperatures will be different in one place to the next. you also notice on the chart, is a bigger issue tomorrow morning. the midlands and the south east in particular. some of that will linger into the afternoon but most of it will clear the way and the mourning cloa k will clear the way and the mourning cloak will break up to leave a sunny afternoon compared to today. —— morning cloud. hello. this is bbc news. the headlines at 2.30pm: theresa may won't say whether she knew about a failed trident missile test when mps were voting to renew the weapons system. i have absolute faith in our trident missiles.