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 200 — stranded on a beach — are re—floated and returned to sea. and in half an hour, here on bbc news — click visits 500 years of robots at the science museum in london. good afternoon 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. the 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 commons speaker, john bercow, has insisted that his impartiality has not been compromised, after a video emerged of him declaring that he voted remain in the eu referendum. the 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 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 our 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 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? well, 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 it in those terms, but i do talk about the issues i think labour needs to address if we're going narrow that poll gap. earlier i spoke to our political correspondent susannah mendonca, and i asked her about those reports saying labour is conducting polls on the popularity of potential successors to jeremy corbyn. it's 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, that the leader, jeremy corbyn, was described by members of the focus group as being fed up and boring. so 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 that's part of the reason why labour are having these poor poll ratings. now, a couple of names were thrown in there. angela rayner, rebecca long—bailey, both quite young, female members of the shadow cabinet, tipped potentially for future more senior posts. and so labour, of course, trying to detract from that being about succession. but certainly for them it is a difficult time. they've just come out of the brexit vote, where we saw huge division within labour. they've got these by—elections coming up, where it's not certain that labour will manage to hold on. and tom watson 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? well, if you listen to what shami chakrabarti was saying earlier, she saying even if they lose the by—elections that are coming up in a week or so's time, that

jeremy 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 in a year from now, if the polls are still not looking great, will be looking at what they need to do beyond that. 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. 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 14 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. well, i'm joined via webcam now by canon jeremy pemberton, who's from the lesbian and gay christian movement. thank you forjoining us this morning. what do you make of this intervention? how significant do you think it is that these former bishops have decided to write this letter? i think it is very significant indeed. these are senior people who have leaded dieses use and understand what bishops go through and for them to interrupt been about this at a delicate momentjust before the general synod discusses the matter is extremely significant.

we have heard that report that said effectively that the church should not support gay marriage. is there any prospect of that being overturned? not immediately. the report is a very, very inadequate document. it is there to the voices of lgbt i people. we did take part in good faith in the shared conversations. we were told they were designed to help create good disagreement. of course we recognisejesus and people who do not agree with us, that is a starting point and not an end point, but the conversations have been written out of the document. they do not mention bisexual, transgender or intersex people at all in the document. they are to those people. so their death, they are blind and they do not speak with an honest voice because we know that within the house of bishops there are very significant disagreements and the document, frankly, has been written

for the house of bishops to try to help them manage their own dysfunction. it is not a document that will help the church of england go forward. you say that there are significant disagreements. as you know, there are many within the church you do not agree with your view and to have taken this view is expressed in that report that marriage should be between a man and a woman. i don't think we know how many people in the church of england don't agree with the position that i take. people in society are used now to seeing people of the same—sex married each other. and mostly based in to rejoice in that and that seems a popular accepted part of english life. now, the bishops of the church of england say there are about people who do not agree with this but they've done no research they don't not ask people in the pews what they think. mostly i think because they would be fighting to get the answer that they do not want. there are strong conservative lobbies who have been leaning on the bishops to come up with a report

like this. but it is completely inadequate. we're going to publish on tuesday morning alternative, positive proposals to take us out of the dead—end that the bishops have led us into. but you have said yourself that you do not think there is much prospect of getting this stance overturned in the immediate future. what are the options open to you? to try drugs we change this? because the report came out very clearly, saying that the church should not support gay marriage. it is interesting. the report came out saying they should not support equal marriage but it also was eased report that the bishops were not prepared to put forward as a proposition. they were only asking the general synod to take note of it. there is a significant campaign encouraging members of the general synod not to take note of this report and that would kill it dead and that is what needs to happen. we need better proposals and we're going to publish them on tuesday,

clear, definite but achievable proposals that do not require legislation in sinatra or anything like that to get us started on new path to valuing and honouring the lives, ministries and contributions of the lgbt members of the church of england. you said her device of this issue is. how damaging do you think it is for the church to have this argument going on about such an important issue? i think it is usually damaging. i almost every week news of people who have been christians and have left the church and given up the practice of their faith precisely because this issue is being handled in the way it is. they cannot stand the institutional homophobia of the church of england any more. it sticks. bishops have not understood that yet. it is really time they opened up their eyes and ears and listened and saw what was happening.

thank you very much indeed for talking to us. thank you. thank you. 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. 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 there and there will be wanting to beat us, obviously. they've got a lot of big boys i will probably have a lot of them coming at me which is part of the sport. our boys bedding the game and we know what job we're our boys bedding the game and we know whatjob we're going to have to do in backs as well. we now have topped 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 1 o'clock 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 be a team that can operate 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 a game? it makes it a big challenge but one we are ready for. champions leicester city are at swansea city later with both teams just one point above the relegation zone. they are a very good team because they move the ball quickly. there are some good players and they are in good condition and when we lose the ball they go back and make it static block. and then, for us, it

is very important to play with the brain and with every quality to make something good. brain and with every quality to make something good. there's an edinburgh derby in the early kick off in the fifth round of the scottish cup with hearts hosting hibernian. that match kicks off in around 15 minutes. rangers go into their game with greenock morton later with under—20 coach graeme murty in temporary charge following the departure of mark warburton. 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. more than 200 pilot whales stranded on a remote beach in new zealand, have now been helped back out to sea with the help of a high tide. they were part of a second pod of whales which had beached themselves at farewell spit on the country's south island, conservation officials say there's a chance the surviving whales may still turn back to the beach. just to warn you, you might find some of the scenes in this report by virginia langerberg distressing. 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. fourteen sailors have been rescued by a royal navy warship after their racing yacht was damaged in a storm in the atlantic ocean. hms dragon — a type 45 destroyer — diverted 500 miles to save 13 britons and one american on saturday afternoon. the sailors only suffered minor injuries but their 60—foot yacht lost its mast and rudder in the bad weather. a state of emergency has been declared in the greek city

of thessaloniki whilst a second world war bomb is being defused. 75,000 people have been evacuated as residents within a two kilometre radius are shipped to shelters. the bomb was discovered during building work on a petrol station. 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 plain 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, 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. 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 chilly weekend. nick will tell us about the prospects. north—west scotland is very best sunday sunshine. elsewhere today plenty of cloud. some patchy rain, sleet and snow around. the most significant area of wet area affected parts of northern england this afternoon. snow falling on top of the peak district and into the pennines. the highest levels are drifting in the quite strong wind as well which means, although temperatures are a do you agree or so temperatures are a do you agree or so higher committee yesterday, it is giving just as cold. further patchy rain, sleet and snow around tonight. it is that to eastern parts of scotla nd it is that to eastern parts of scotland and north—east england. elsewhere turning brian. temperatures close to freezing suggest a patchy frost but more especially into those clearer parts

of north—west scotland. for tomorrow, southern and western areas have a sunny day, a drier day. still cloudy though. still a bit of rain and hills now affecting parts of eastern scotland. a windy day for all but especially into western parts of wales with some gusts around 60 or 70 mild an hour possible. hello, this is bbc news with carole walker. the headlines at 12.30pm: 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%".