donald trump condemns the firing of a ballistic missile by north korea into the sea of japan. commons speaker, john bercow, insists he's impartial, after a video emerges of him talking about his vote in the eu referendum. labour's deputy leader, tom watson, says the party's leadership is "settled for this parliament". a group of retired bishops accuse church of england leaders of suppressing the views of gay christians. also in the next hour — pilot whales in new zealand make their way back on course. more than 200 — stranded on a beach — are re—floated and returned to sea. and — on bbc news here in half hour — dateline london asks if russian intervention in libya is another tactical victory for putin? good morning and

welcome to bbc news. the japanese prime minister shinzo abe, has described the launch of a ballistic missile by north korea, as "absolutely intolerable". it's the first such launch since donald trump took office as us president. he says america is 100 per cent behind japan. the missile was fired from an air base in north pyongan province — and flew about 500 kilometres east into the sea of japan. the us military, which tracked the rocket, says it believes it was a medium or intermediate range missile. bill hayton reports. this significance of this test will depend upon what kind of missile was used. the successful launch of this would be a step forward for north korea's home—grown missile programme coming after seven failures last year. however, if it's the tried

and tested technology of the nodong or scud types, it will not symbolise any significant development. but just important is the timing of the test. one of the aspects is the timing. kim jong—un has not been testing because of the crisis going on in south korea over the south korean president being impeached. he doesn't want to influence the people in south korea to support a conservative replacement but i think he is also anxious to take some action against the trump administration and coming up in march, there will be a major exercise in south korea and he will very much not like that and so i think he is reacting to several things going on at the same time. warnings of grave consequences. translation: our military is prepared to respond to north korean provocation that threatens our security

in south korea. we sternly warn that if the kimjong—un regime does not stop, the regime will destroy itself in the near future. and the japanese leader hinted at the possibility of further diplomatic sanctions. translation: this is intolerable, the most recent mmissile launch. north korea must comply with the un security council guidelines. the white house said it would consider the full range of options including new sanctions, increased military deployments and calls on china to do more to influence the north but president trump was not giving much away. i just want everybody to understand and fully know

that the united states of america stands behind japan, its great ally, 100%. thank you. president trump has talked tough on north korea and now faces a test of will. the speaker of the house of commons, john bercow, has insisted that his impartiality has not been compromised after a video emerged showing him commenting on political issues. the uk parliament website states that "spea kers must be politically impartial." mr bercow is already facing calls to stand down after saying last week that he would veto a parliamentary address by president donald trump. the latest comments, published in the sunday telegraph, were made at an address to students at reading university three days earlier. this may not be popular with some people in this audience, personally, i voted to remain. i thought it was better to stay in the european union than not, partly for economic reasons,

part of being within a trading bloc, and partly because we are in a big power bloc and because it is better to be part of a bigger power bloc in the world. earlier i spoke to the conservative mpjames duddridge, who has called for a motion of no confidence in speaker bercow. i asked him what he thought of these latest comments. i am incredibly surprised that the speaker now has expressed views on a number of the issues, and brexit, an immigration, and state visits, and diplomacy. he is incapable of them chairing debates in the house of commons now and must go. but speaking to the bbc this morning, the commons leader david liddington, defended mr bercow. i think had this been before the referendum, that yes, i would have had concerns. i mean, he said what he said, every member of parliament's responsible for what they say. what i can say is, i had more than six years for europe minister under david cameron,

and in that time i neverfound the speaker was shy of calling lots of people who were critical of the eu to ask me difficult questions. labour's deputy leader, tom watson, says the party's leadership is "settled for this parliament". speaking to the bbc this morning, mr watson downplayed reports that labour is using focus groups to test out the popularity of alternative candidates tojeremy corbyn. it wasn't road testing leadership candidates. there was a range of shadow cabinet members that were so—called road—tested, and this is what we do in a normal run of parliamentary political consultations. i'm just slightly relieved they weren't road testing me on the document that was leaked to the newspaper. let's look a little bit at the polling forjeremy corbyn, because we have to come to the elephant in the room a little bit. there is the favourability ratings. there's theresa may, way up there, and jeremy corbyn

down here on minus a0. among the group most likely to vote, over 65s, he's now on —113. catastrophic ratings. doesn't there come a point when it is your duty, in the labour party, to speak out? look, jeremy knows what he has to do to win an election, and he will make that decision. but let me say to you here, andrew, this is not the time for a leadership election in the labour party. i do understand that. he got a second mandate from our members last year. he is now the established leader of the labour party. it is his duty to lead the official opposition through a period through a period of unprecedented economic uncertainty and he will be tested in that. he has worked like a trojan, he has worked very hard, he has done everything he could think of doing and it's still not working. how do you explain those figures? he has to explain those. he has to improve on them. he's well aware of that, but it's not for me to judge him on a tv show like this.

are you talking privately to him about this? i talk to him every day about a whole range of issues, and i talk to him about what i think we need to do to win the general election, as you'd imagine any deputy leader would. do you talk about the depth of the hole? i don't refer to in those terms but i do talk about the issues i think labour needs to address if we're going narrow that poll gap. our political correspondent susanna mendonca is here. is trying to play down the difficulties that labour is facing. you saw those dire poll ratings. we are hearing that there are getting further script to look at future potential readers. you heard him denying it was about testing future leaders. it is just something that they do as part of

the process of seeing how people within the shadow cabinet are playing with the public. i thought it was quite interesting about that focus group, is that the leader, jeremy corbyn, was described by members of the focus group, we understand, is being fed up and boring. part of the challenge for him is that his public persona is perhaps not what it should be for the leader of the opposition and thatis the leader of the opposition and that is part of the reason why labour are having these poorer poll ratings. a couple of names were thrown in there. there's quite young female members of the shadow cabinet. tippett potentially for future most senior posts. labour trying to detract from that being about succession but it is a difficult time for them. they came out of the brexit that were recently huge division within labour and they have got these by—elections coming up have got these by—elections coming up where it is not certain that labour will manage to hold on. and tom watson is saying there that the leadership has been settled for

this parliament. but if we do get closer to the next election and things are still looking pretty dreadful, surely then there may be some sort of moves againstjeremy corbyn. if you listen to what was said earlier, they said even if they lose the by—elections that are coming up ina week the by—elections that are coming up in a week or so, that'sjeremy corbyn would still remain as leader because he has that huge mandate from the labour grassroots members. but there are those within labour who will be looking certainly a year from now, if the polls are still not looking great, we'll be looking at what they need to do beyond that. and tom watson making the point also in his interview that they need to have a clear policy on immigration. one of the huge issues where labour is not connecting with its core base. thank you very much indeed for joining us. thank you very much indeed forjoining us. more than 200 pilot whales that were stranded on a beach in new zealand have re—floated themselves and swum away. conservation experts say these

arriving wells may still turn back to the beach. weary volunteers form a human chain to help guide the remaining few whales out to sea with the help of a high tide. just joy, complete happiness that they are in the water floating. and they look like they are going out, so we're obviously make sure that they don't come back. this time, rescuers are buoyed by the success of saving most of this pod. it's been a pretty full—on couple of days, to be honest. on the remote coastline of golden bay, it had been a exhausting case of deja—vu, after a second pod of about 200 pilot whales had become stranded just days after a group of more than 400 had accidentally beached themselves.

the incident was new zealand's largest known whale stranding since 1985 and the third largest on record. of the pod which became stranded on thursday, around 300 died before rescuers could reach them. in the latest pod to get stuck on farewell spit, 20 whales in a bad condition needed to be put down to stop those refloated from coming back to shore. i'm unhappy but that is the job. it needs to be done, just to stop those other ones coming in. conservationists aren't certain why beaching happens. one theory is that the shallow waters confuse the whales. golden bay's shoreline, now a mass whale graveyard, as officials try to determine the best way to dispose of the carcasses. the surviving whales have been tagged, and we can only hope they won't get stuck again in the murky waters of farewell spit, which is proving to be one of new zealand's greatest hazards for the pilot whale.

the news that north korea has fired a ballistic missile into the sea of japan. the launch was the first since president tom was invented. john nilsson—wright is a senior fellow at the foreign affairs think tank chatham house. he joins us from paris. not welcome in the region and not altogether surprising. it is part of the north korean playbook to test an incoming president. usually three or four weeks after they have assumed office. we saw this in 2013 and also in 2009. so we should not be too surprised by this but there is no doubt, as we've seen with a public statement from the president and the japanese prime minister, that it is

creating a great deal of concern. and we have had those very robust comments from presidents trump but what do you think the response will be beyond that? he was quite muted in his response. by he was quite muted in his response. by comparison to what he could've said. he did not reinforce the relations with south korea and did not even mentioned north korea except signalling his intent to stand shoulder to shoulder with japan. we saw under his predecessor a tightening of economic sanctions against north korea and one possibility is that you might think of expanding theirs to encompass third parties. secondary sanctions that would go after chinese banks, for example, that would provide some of the financial services. that would be a very provocative step. china has said it would support the international sections through the united nations and the evidence suggests that china is wary of doing

too much forfear of suggests that china is wary of doing too much for fear of provoking resume collapse in north korea. i think comp will want to consider all these options. —— presidential trump. i think you will need to be cautious before rushing to adopt those measures. his comments towards japan were particularly warm given that he was much more guarded during his campaign. absolutely. there has been a lot of worry in japan absolutely. there has been a lot of worry injapan and south korea that the united states will be a fairweather friend so long before this action by the north koreans and the preparations of the visit to washington that was a lot of talk about needing to shore up the alliance relationship, reinforcing america's commitment. this is a test andi america's commitment. this is a test and i don't think president trump really had any choice but to

underline the importance of that. the challenge going forward will be a quarter native response on the pa rt a quarter native response on the part of the americans and the south koreans and the japanese. south koreans and the japanese. south korea is in the midst of critical gridlock with the impeachment scandal. there is talk about potential progressive candidate who might be the frontrunner in the next election. a candidate who would then develop a more accommodating position towards austria. there are potential tensions, if you like, between the us and some of us are lies that could be exploited by north korea. in the end, when we look at this particular missile which landed in the sea, it does not seem to have been a particularly sophisticated missile. no, it is not, fortunately, a real game changer. last year we saw a flurry of north korean missile launchers and sombre relaunches and the world of course is legitimately very worried this will be a gradual process of enhancing the north's strategic abilities to appoint that, at some point, was in the next two or three years, the north could predict would nuclear device on the

scene. this could strike at us territory. we not there yet but there is no doubt that the ambition ultimately is to get to that position. thank you very much indeed. thank you forjoining us from paris. thank you forjoining us from paris. the headlines on bbc news: north korea has fired a ballistic missile into the sea ofjapan. the launch is the first since president trump was elected. the speaker of the house of commons, john bercow, is facing renewed criticism after a video has emerged of him declaring that he voted remain in the eu referendum. labour's deputy leader, tom watson, has said the party's leadership is "settled for this parliament". sport now. and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre. here's richard. thank you. england head coach eddiejones said his team's grit and determination was the difference

against wales in the six nations. england came back from behind to snatch a dramatic 21—16 victory in cardiff. with england trailing by two points going into the last five minutes, winger elliot daly burst through the welsh backline, going over in the corner to score the decisive try. they defended really well and you have got to look at the facts. we had five starting players out so it shows the depth of our squad and it shows the depth of our squad and it shows how the players are developing. we looking forward to a week's training in central london next week and we will try to do a different things with the boys. then preparation against italy because we wa nt to preparation against italy because we want to put them to the challenge. i thought it was an outstanding test match. i thought it was high octane, bedsides looked to play rugby and it was outstanding. unfortunately

england know how to win. they get overtheirline. england know how to win. they get over their line. they've got a lot of confidence at the moment in the la st of confidence at the moment in the last five minutes we lacked was a bit of composure. last five minutes we lacked was a bit of composure. ireland scored nine tries in their 63—10 demolition of italy in rome. cj stander and ulster winger craig gilroy both scored a hatrick of tries forjoe schmidt's team. scotland play france this afternoon looking to make it two wins from two after their impressive display against ireland last weekend. they haven't won in paris though since 1999 and know that the side they face this year will be desperate for a win after their defeat to england in their opening match. they will be hurting from the weekend so they will want to beat us, obviously. you know how tough it is going to be in they've got a lot of big boys so that i will have a lot of them coming at me which is pa rt lot of them coming at me which is part of the support. our boys are ready for the game and know whatjob they will have to do as well. we know how tough a game it is going to be but we are ready for it, i think.

there's full coverage of france v scotland from 2.15 on bbc1 and commentary on bbc radio 5 sports extra. plenty of coverage too via the red button and on the bbc sport website. just a reminder that ireland take on italy in the women's six nations at 1pm this afternoon. there are two games in the premier league today. champions leicester city are at swansea city later with both teams facing the threat of relegation. before that, leaders chelsea are away at burnley as they look to increase the gap at the top to 12 points. we have nine points and we're very close to the title. it is a great mistake to think that. there are 1a games to play and there are, i repeat, five teams and with chelsea, six teams that can fight to the end to win the title. i don't get the feeling the manager

is looking at any particular one style. i think he's saying, we need to bea style. i think he's saying, we need to be a team that can operate in different ways and i quite like that. that is howl different ways and i quite like that. that is how i would want my team to operate. rather than one style can we be flexible and adaptable for what is needed to win adaptable for what is needed to win a game? it makes it a big challenge and that is when we are ready for. rangers go into their fifth round scottish cup game with greenock morton later with under—20 coach graeme murty in temporary charge. there's an edinburgh derby in the early kick off, with hearts hosting hibernian. celtic scored six against inverness callie thistle yesterday to reach the quarter finals. mikael lustig put celtic ahead before moussa dembele scored three — it's now hat—tricks in back—to—back games for the young french striker. kieran tierney added a fifth, then captain scott brown rounded off the rout in injury time. england's danny willett blew a three shot overnight lead and eventually had to settle for share of fifth place in the maybank championship in malaysia. last years us masters champion had five bogies and finished with a 1—over par final round 73. the tournament was won by paraguay‘s fabrizio zanotti, who carded a stunning final

round 63, to win by a shot from america's david lipsky. now before we go have a look at these pictures... they're from the opening round of the air race world championship in abu dhabi. the objective is to navigate an aerial racetrack featuring air—filled pylons in the fastest possible time, incurring as few penalties as possible. you have to say it's quite a breathtaking spectacle. martin sonka of the czech republic won the opening round. that's all sport for now. i'll have more in the next hour. fourteen retired bishops have written an open letter to church of england leaders accusing them of failing to fully reflect the views of gay christians in an official report on the church's position on homosexuality. last month, the church announced it did not support gay marriage. the decision will be debated at the general synod later this week. helena lee reports. last month, the church of england decided its position on the divisive issue of sexuality.

it followed three years of so—called shared conversations, and stated that "marriage should only be between a man and a woman." the church said all potential clergy, gay and straight, should be asked about their sexual conduct and their lifestyle. but 1a retired bishops have today expressed their concern that the views of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender members have been ignored. in an unusual move, they have written an open letter to the church of england, a group led by the former bishop of worcester. they entered those negotiations knowing that they would have to reveal themselves, in a circumstance that might carry a price in terms of their life and their career, their ministry, what was offered to them, how they were regarded. and they nonetheless did that. and they feel that what has come out here is a betrayal in the specific sense that their voice is not heard.

the church of england said the shared conversations were not changing people's views, but recognising jesus in people with whom the participants disagreed. the divisive debate over sexuality will continue, and the church's governing general synod will meet next week in london. helena, bbc news. a pilot has been removed from a plane after her erratic behaviour alarmed passengers. the united airlines pilot, who wasn't in uniform at the time, was escorted off the flight as it prepared to depart from austin bound for san francisco. a spokesman for the airline said he wasn't sure why the pilot was allowed on the aircraft in plane clothes. the flight took off after about a two hours delay with a new pilot. this is what one of the passengers had to say. the captain was late, then she shows up like a civilian and asked us to take a vote, to see whether we should have her change into her uniform.

she started off by saying that she had not voted for either trump or clinton, because they're a bunch of liars. the stars of the silver screen will be out in force on the red carpet at london's royal albert hall for the annual british academy film awards tonight. the modern day musical, la la land leads the field with eleven nominations, sci—fi drama, ‘arrival‘ and the thriller ‘nocturnal animals' both have nine each. our arts editor, will gompertz has been taking a look at the contenders. welcome to la la land. the musical homage to hollywood, which leads the way with 11 bafta nominations. including one for the director, damien chazelle, and its two leads, emma stone as a wannabe actress and ryan gosling as an aspiring jazz pianist. hi. susan, god! he'll be up againstjake gyllenhaal in the best actor category for his performance in nocturnal animals, as

for which the film's director, the fashion designer tom ford, is also nominated. andrew garfield is among the best actor contenders for his role as an heroic pacifist in hacksaw ridge. but he'll have to see off the hotly tipped casey affleck, who is nominated for his portrayal of a broken man in manchester by the sea. she sings off key meryl streep is in the frame once again, this time for her performance as the delusional florence fosterjenkins, for which she has a best actress nomination. it is a hotly contested category, with natalie portman the one to beat for playing the title role in jackie, which tracks jackie kennedy's reaction to her husband's assassination. my kids have got to start school tomorrow. i've got but 12 quid in my purse. a relatively unknown british actress, hayley squires, is short listed in the best supporting actress category for her role in the gritty film i, daniel blake, made by film veteran ken loach, who gets a best director nod. it's not easy for me to admit that

i've been standing in the same place for 18 years! well i've been standing with you! i've been right here with you, troy! fences, the august wilson play about america in the 19505, adapted and directed by denzel washington, sees his co—star viola davis get a best supporting actress nod. nicole kidman will compete with her for that bafta, having been nominated for her role as a compassionate mother in lion, with dev patel playing her adopted son, for which he gets a supporting actor short listing. and who is you? nobody. i found him yesterday. as does mahershala ali, for his sensitive performance as a drug dealer with a heart in moonlight. but it is likely to be la la land's year, on a night which could have an added dimension of the possibility of politically poignant acceptance speeches. we'll have to see. what we do know is stephen fry will host proceedings once again, the duke and duchess of cambridge will be in attendance and mel brooks will be honoured with

a bafta fellowship. value of and we'll bejoining jane hill and the film criticjason solomons on the baftas red carpet from five fifteen this afternoon and for a special results programme on the awards themselves from 9.30pm this evening on bbc news. it has been a pretty chilly weekend but nick is here to tell as if that is how it is going to continue. only a little while longer. temperatures will be coming up all of us. it is feeling every bit as good today. in that east of the wind which is even stronger compared with yesterday, there is only limited sunshine at their full. west is there is only limited sunshine at theirfull. west is best there is only limited sunshine at their full. west is best for that but especially to north—west scotla nd but especially to north—west scotland doing the best gain in terms of sunny blue skies, just as as the readerjust today. in by the rest of the uk some patchy rain, sleet and snow around. mostly in the peak district and pennine area. over the next few hours snow over the highest ground drifting in the wind

so some of the highest routes may well be affected by that. temperatures may be a degree or so higher compared with yesterday but again that wind is stronger. further that pace of rain, sleet and snow around overnight. at the end overnight that is confined to parts of eastern scotland and the far north—east of infant. elsewhere it is turning dry. temperatures close to freezing. patchy frost but that will be more into the parts of north—west scotland. tomorrow is a sunnier picture to sunnier and western parts of the uk. these are still cloudy and down to eat in scotland, a bitter pill is not to be found here. really gusty winds are especially across western parts of wales. 60 or 70 especially across western parts of wales. 60 or70 mph especially across western parts of wales. 60 or 70 mph gusts are possible. double temperature figures are arriving in the south. it will be milder later in the week, more about that in half an hour. hello, this is bbc news

with carole walker. the headlines at 11.30am: north korea fires a ballistic missile into the sea ofjapan — the first such test since donald trump became us president. mr trump has assured japan's prime minister shinzo abe that "america stands behind, its great ally, 100%". the commons speaker, john bercow, insists his impartiality hasn't been