this is bbc news, i'm nicholas owen. the headlines at 8:00pm: president trump says he'll strengthen links with allies in the pacific region following north korea's latest missile launch. the house of commons speaker, john bercow, insists he's impartial — no matter how he voted in the eu referendum. labour's deputy leader, tom watson, denies the party has been considering possible successors tojeremy corbyn. a group of retired bishops accuses church of england leaders of suppressing the views of gay christians. also in the next hour — hollywood royaltyjoin british royalty at this year's baftas. they've braved the winter weather to attend the biggest awards night for uk film at the royal albert hall. and in half an hour we'll be high in the french alps and the travel show will be looking for love on the west coast of ireland in 30 minutes time. good evening and

welcome to bbc news. america and japan have strongly condemned north korea for test—firing a ballistic missile — the first such launch since donald trump entered the white house. japan's prime minister shinzo abe said it was "intolerable," while mr trump said the us would back japan 100%. the missile flew for about 300 miles, eventually falling into the sea of japan. this report from our tokyo correspondent rupert wingfield—hayes contains some flash photography. this is the launch of a musudan ballistic missile, the same type that was fired from north korea into the sea of japan earlier this morning. today's launch was almost certainly timed so that north korea's dictator, kim jong—un, could crash a weekend party taking place on the other side of the world. president donald trump

and japan's prime minister, shinzo abe, have been spending the weekend golfing in florida. mr abe was not amused by the north korean intrusion. translation: north korea's recent missile launch is absolutely intolerable. north korea must fully comply with the relevant united nations security council resolutions. in his response, president trump seemed less certain. even neglecting to condemn the north korean launch. thank you very much, mr prime minister. i just want everybody to understand and fully know that the united states of america stands behind japan, its great ally, 100%. thank you. kim jong—un recently promised to test a much more powerful intercontinental missile. president trump has vowed that will not happen,

but it's not clear how he intends to stop it. north korea already has short—range missiles capable of hitting south korea, and medium—range missiles capable of hitting japan. the musudan is an intermediate range missile, which may be able to hit us bases in guam. the ultimate goal is a so—called icbm, able to hit parts of the united states and australia. for more than 20 years, the outside world has been trying to stop north korea, with tighter and tighter sanctions. but it has been a complete failure. the border with china remains open, and trade is flourishing. the us and its allies will now move to tighten sanctions further, and accelerate the deployment of new anti—missile systems in south korea and japan, but no one seems to have any idea how to stop north korea from becoming a fully fledged nuclear missile armed state.

rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in tokyo. graham hutchings from the oxford analytica think tank has written extensively on china and the asia pacific rim. he told me it's difficult to see how president trump or anyone else can successfully move the situation on, at least in the short term. and i think a fair conjecture that president trump doesn't know quite what to do yet — after all, the administration has hardly bedded down. very noticeable, however, notable that new defence ministerjames mattis went to seoul as his first foreign visit last week and spoke powerfully about the need to do something about north korea. then went on to japan. and now we have in the middle of the party that is currently underway in florida with the japanese prime minister and the us president, we have this move by north korea. sanctions have achieved zero, as your report suggested. there's a little bit of head room still for other measures, perhaps squeezing the financial system of the dollar system, insofar

as that benefits north korea, but it doesn't look as though that is going to deliver what's required here. what are north korea's basic motives here, do you think? well, survival. and if there's one thing the north korean state has done rather well, it's survived. i couldn't say it has prospered, although the economy does seem to be in better shape as far as we can tell, than it has been for several years, but its survival is very remarkable. it goes back to the late 1940s. it has lost principal allies. it's had famine, it's had succession problems and various other issues. it wants to continue to survive, it wants respect. it wants living space in the international arena and it believes that its pursuit of nuclear capacity capability is the way to achieve that. and what about china's role in all this? again, bearing in mind we have this new president, mr trump, who has said various things about china. where does it put them? china does not much like what has

been happening in pyongyang, i'm sure, ever since kimjong—un took over there. it's conspicuous because either he hasn't been invited, or he has declined to go. he hasn't made the customary visit to china. customary in the sense that his predecessors did. china, however, does not want to see the collapse of that state. it has a lot vested in that. it has a lot ested in the security and stability it has a lot vested in the security and stability of the korean peninsular. it's going to be rather careful and cautious. it will be happy to open up a conversation with the new president of the united states to see what could be done, but i think mr trump would be well advised not to expect too much, certainly in the short term. and we'll find out how this story, and many others, are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:30 and 11:30pm this evening in the papers. 0ur guestsjoining me tonight are tony grew — the parliamentary journalist —

and caroline frost — entertainment editor of the huffington post. the speaker of the house of commons, john bercow, insists he remains impartial in performing his duties, despite saying he voted remain in the eu referendum. the revelation has led to repeated calls for him to stand down, as our political correspondent chris mason reports. the speaker, a role with a history dating back to at least the 14th century. order, order. sitting between the political parties, chairing debates, but, for the second time in a week, it'sjohn bercow‘s opinions that have generated attention. talking to students at the university of reading he said eu migration had been a good thing. and added... this may not be popular with some people in this audience, personally i voted to remain. i thought it was better to stay the european union than not. mr bercow had already irritated some

by accusing president trump of racism and sexism. i would not wish to issue an invitation to president trump. some mps loved that, but his critics are repeating he must be replaced. i'm incredibly surprised that the speaker now has expressed views on any number of issues, on brexit, on immigration, on state visits, on diplomacy. he is incapable of impartially chairing debates in the house of commons now and must go. an ally of the speaker told me he didn't speak out during the referendum campaign and is scrupulously fair when chairing debates. plenty of mps agree. i'm confident thatjohn bercow has the numbers and support across the parties to see off this attempt by a handful of crusty tories to unseat him. and those in government

remained supportive as well. i had more than six years of europe minister under david cameron, and in that time i never found the speaker was shy of calling lots of people who were critical of the eu to ask me difficult questions. the speaker'sjob description is clear. he is obliged to be politically impartial, but, for now at least, doesn't appear to be at much risk of being toppled. chris mason, bbc news. labour's deputy leader, tom watson, says the party's leadership is "settled for this parliament". speaking to the bbc this morning, mr watson played down reports that labour is using focus groups to test out the popularity of alternative candidates tojeremy corbyn. he said that this was "not the time" for another leadership election. earlier i spoke to our political correspondent chris mason about the reports. pretty much ever since he was first elected labour leader, the running theme has always been, how long will he last? there was a conclusion, if you like,

at the end of his first year in office that he would last a little longer, because, yes, he went back again and won easily in the labour leadership contest of last summer. things then went a little quiet because the assumption was that therefore he would be able to stay for as long as he chose to. what we've now got is a discussion that's been going on at westminster, both privately and then occasionally in public, about whether he may at some stage choose to stand down, rather than being toppled by an internal challenge. but as you say, tom watson appearing on the andrew marr show this morning, insisted that the second leadership election win for mr corbyn has cleared the issue and that he will stick around until after the next election. we've had a tough 18 months. we had a damaging second leadership election. so we've got an uphill struggle ahead. the polls aren't great for us, but i'm determined now that we've got the leadership settled for this parliament, that we can focus on developing a very positive, clear message to the british people in a general election.

we could hear in tom watson's tone there the position that labour finds itself in as a party, talking about an uphill struggle. looking at the opinion polls, and we should always insert the caveat that opinion polls so often recently have proven to be spectacularly wrong, but labour are a country mile behind in the opinion polls. the polls could still be very wrong and they would still be behind. enter ian lavery, who is a labour mp, who appeared on radio 5live this morning. he is their new campaigns coordinator. and he said something that didn't quite chime with what tom watson was saying. so, in the context of these upcoming by—elections in copeland in cumbria and in stoke—on—trent, he said the party was pretty confident, but he talked about the potential loss of either of those seats that labour has held pretty much forever, as potential hiccups, which is arguably to understate the significance of a labour loss for them there. he then said, and it's a very interesting quote, this. "there's plenty of leaders to pick

from if and whenjeremy decides of his own volition that it's not for him at the election. that isn't the case at this point in time." so he was floating publicly the idea thatjeremy corbyn could choose, as he says, of his own volition, that he might not want to fight an election. and that is to articulate something publicly that occasionally labour mps will float privately. and so, that's something to watch. this is a guy, by the way, who has been in post as the campaign coordinator for only 48 hours. it's not usually the kind of language you would use publicly to describe the potential shelf life of your boss. and any names, a few names are around. give us a couple if you can. the names that tend to float to the surface, angela rayner, rebecca long—bailey, two shadow cabinet ministers. they were the subject of some discussion in the sunday times today. it is the suggestion that there has been some internal succession planning going on,

and some focus groups, where the party assembles a group of typical voters and shows them videos of various people and says, what do you make of these people? labour have been pointedly saying that these focus groups were not about succession planning, it was normal, conventional party policy to do this kind of thing behind the scenes. clive lewis is the other name that is mentioned. he resigned from the shadow cabinet last week over those brexit votes in the commons. so, yes, yet again, the speculation about who might be the next leader of the labour party seems to be underway. protests in a suburb of paris turned violent overnight, at a demonstration in support of a young black man, allegedly raped by a police officer earlier this month. tear gas was fired to disperse the crowds during clashes, and 37 people were arrested. the alleged victim of the rape, a 22 year old social worker, has appealed for calm after several days of protests. one policeman has been charged with rape, and three others with assault, in connection with the attack. emergency crews at hamburg airport

in germany say they believe a "prankster" opened a pepper spray cartridge there — causing the airport to be evacuated and leaving more than fifty people needing hospital treatment. passengers complained of sore eyes and breathing difficulties. the authorities say they've ruled out terrorism. fourteen retired anglican bishops, have accused the church of ignoring the views of gay christians. in an open letter they said an official report into the church of england's position on homosexuality, didn't contain "authentic voices" from the gay and lesbian community. the letter comes ahead of meeting of the general synod, later this week, the body which approves church law. here's our religious affairs correspondent martin bashir. if the church of england was tempted

to believe that its recent report on same—sex marriage had settled the matter, then this letter is an indication that the issue is still tearing at the heart of church unity. the peace of the lord be a lwa ys unity. the peace of the lord be always with you. the letter says that the house of bishops report, which maintains that marriage is between a man and a woman, is not sufficiently inclusive. our perception is that while the pain of lg bt perception is that while the pain of lgbt people perception is that while the pain of lg bt people is perception is that while the pain of lgbt people is spoke about in your report, we do not hear its authentic voice. one of the signatories says that members of the lgbt community have been betrayed by the process. of the people that entered those conversations, knowing that they would have to reveal themselves in a circumstance in which that might carry a price, circumstance in which that might carrya price, in circumstance in which that might carry a price, in terms of their life and career, and they feel that what's come out here is a betrayal in the specific sense, that their

voice is not heard. for some attending morning worship in leeds, it's time for same—sex marriage to be allowed in church. the community of lg bt people be allowed in church. the community of lgbt people has not been fully heard. i think that's a terrible sadness in terms of the broad life of the church. so long ago people could change their mind about slavery, even though it was in the bible. why can't they realise that we are real people who have real relationships. but for evangelical christians, even those who might be same—sex attracted, the critical issueis same—sex attracted, the critical issue is not inclusiveness, but obd and is to scripture and tradition. the teaching of the bible is that we are all broken in different ways. all of us are broken in our sexuality in fact, whether it's homosexual or heterosexual. we'll have sexual desires we need to say no to forsake of our integrity as

christian disciples. the house of bishops has called for a change in tone and mutual respect. that will be put to the test on wednesday when members of general synod will debate the issue. what in brescia, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news: the white house has responded to north korea's latest ballistic missile test by vowing to stand by its allies in the region to deter what it called the menace of kim jong—un‘s regime. the speaker of the house of commons, john bercow, has insisted he remains impartial in performing his duties, despite saying 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 a full round—up from the bbc sport centre. chelsea have extended their lead at the top to ten points tonight,

but it's with last year's champions, leicester city, we start. a team seemingly in freefall after slipping to their fifth straight league defeat. a 2—0 loss at swansea leaves them one point above the relegation zone and fighting for survival, a season on from lifting the premier league title. hannah lupton reports. not much to smile about when faced with a relegation battle. claudio ranieri's leicester are one point above the bottom three and so are swansea, but they are revitalised since paul clement took charge. with so much riding on this game, it was all rather cagey. that was until alfie mawson managed to break free, the central defender showing his survival instincts. he has now scored more premier league goals this season than wayne rooney. when fighting at the bottom, timing your next move can be crucial. in first—half injury time swansea struck again, martin olsson hammered in his first

for the club, much to the delight ofjanuary's manager of the month. the champions have failed to score in the premier league in 2017. it took over an hour to register their first real chance. islam slimani's effort smothered by fabianski. leicester's turnaround in fortunes is baffling, not least for their owner. a huge victory for swansea and paul clement, but leicester haven't won in the league since new year's eve. this is a hangover they need to shift quickly. chelsea could've gone 12 points clear at the top. as it is, they were held to a 1—1 draw by burnley thanks to a fantastic free kick from robbie brady. chelsea extend their lead to ten points instead. rangers are into the last eight of the scottish cup after coming from behind to beat greenock morton. martyn waghorn won it for rangers in what was their first match following the departure of manager

mark warburton on friday. and scottish cup holders hibernian will face a fifth—round replay after a goalless d raw with edinburgh rivals, hearts. this weekend's six nations action culminated in defeat for scotland against france in paris. the scots hadn't won there since 1999, and that losing streak was extended to ten straight matches as they lost by 22—16. patrick gearey watched the action. welcome to france. land of the giants. home of a rugby team built around a 150 stone pack. when faced with such an obstacle, scotland decided the best option was to distract them and then sneak around. stuart hogg is an expert raider. in this battle, the french goliath had the slingshot in the form of fly—half camille lopez. with france now ahead, the battering ram set to work. with every charge, they knew the scottish wall would weaken. eventually somewhere a crack would appear. gael fickou spotted it, breathing space. the gap began to seal up once more, two penalties for finn russell,

whose aim was spot on. scotland were back within two at the break and gave chase early in the second half. tommy seymour took a punt, and his luck was in. so too was tim swinson. now a chance for two extra points. missed. finn russell's kick would have been emphatic in football but it was embarrassing in rugby. france took their chance, 16—16, less than 15 minutes left. the french urged to the line, they went to the brink, no drive. no escape for scotland. camille lopez knocked it over. in the land of the giants, scotland's task was simply too big. ireland's women have seized control of the women's six nations following a bonus point victory over italy. they won by 27 points to 3, hannah tyrrell scoring a superb solo try in stoppage time. that secured the bonus point, which means they top the table with two wins out of two, ahead of england who've also won both of their opening matches.

in the rest of the day's rugby, wasps moved five points clear at the top after a 35—35 draw with exeter. there was a total of ten tries scored, with exeter down to 1a men. in the pro12, treviso lost to leinster and connaught beat cardiff blues 19—13. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more in the next hour. more than 200 pilot whales stranded on a remote beach in new zealand are heading back out to sea with the help of a high tide. they were part of a second pod of whales beached at farewell spit on 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. justjoy, just complete happiness that they're in the water floating.

and they look like they are going out, so we're obviously making 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 whales had accidentally beached themselves. the incident was new zealand's la rgest—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. while, 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 pretty unhappy myself, but that is the job and 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 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. virginia langerberg, bbc news. the award—winning jazz and pop singer aljarreau has died in a los angeles hospitaljust days after announcing he was retiring due to exhaustion. he was 76. jarreau was acclaimed for his versatility, winning seven grammy awards across jazz, pop and r&b categories. thousands of operations are being

cancelled with highly—skilled surgeons left "kicking their heels" because of a shortage of hospital beds. that's the warning from the royal college of surgeons and the organisation that represents nhs trusts. in a joint letter to the sunday times, they argue that a lack of funding for health and social care in england is leading to what they call "a shocking waste" and damaging efforts to improve efficiency. nhs england says only 1% of operations are cancelled. our health correspondent dominic hughes has more. over the past few weeks, the bbc two documentary series, hospital, has demonstrated how a shortage of beds contributes to the pressure on the health service. this can lead to long waits for those needing to be admitted from accident and emergency departments, but also for those needing planned surgery. i sometimes feel that i spend as much energy on trying to organise and manage beds and the movement, the flow, of patients

within the hospital to allow us to do what we want to get on with, which is to operate. the programme showed how if beds are not available for patients to recover in safely, operations simply cannot go ahead. now the royal college of surgeons and the nhs body that represents nhs trusts says this is damaging efforts to improve productivity with surgeons left kicking their heels while they wait for beds to be made free. we are waiting for someone to let us do work. it is not good for the staff and it is not good for the patients and it is not good for the efficiency of the nhs. the latest figures from nhs england revealed more than 95% of beds were occupied last week, well above the 85% that is regarded as the safe limit. the problem is closely linked to delays in providing adequate care outside hospital, especially for frail and elderly patients once they are ready to be discharged. today, doctors and hospital

managers say fixing the nhs means fixing social care, and learning the lessons of an extraordinarily tough winter which is not over yet. dominic hughes, bbc news. the biggest awards night for british film, the baftas, is getting under way at the royal albert hall in london, with hundreds of fans queuing to see the contenders arrive on the red carpet. la la land leads the way with 11 nominations, and i, daniel blake has won the bafta for outstanding british film. file davis has been awarded the supporting actress bafta for her role in fences. —— viola davis. the duke and duchess of cambridge have also joined the stars at the ceremony. prince william will present the bafta fellowship, which is awarded annually to an individual in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film, television or games. british and hollywood film royalty

have been braving the london cold and making their way up the red carpet for this year's bafta ceremony. earlier our correspondent lizo mzimba spoke to some of the stars on the red carpet. we have jk we havejk rowling. you live on bbc news. fantastic beasts and where to find them, a nomination for outstanding british film. you must be thrilled about that as a writer and producer. yes, i'm genuinely over the moon, actually. it's amazing. even if we don't win, it's amazing. even if we don't win, it's a huge nomination to get. i'm really thrilled. do you have any reservations about returning to the wizard world you created with harry potter? of course. the expectation is massive. the bar is very high. the only reason to return was if you had a story you still really wanted to tell. and i did have. and it's been incredible, actually. i've loved it. preparations for the next movie coming along. have you cast a younger version

movie coming along. have you cast a younger version of dumbledore yet? we are doing that right now. dumbledore is my favourite character in the whole series. it's a massive thing and we are right in the middle of it. you have been outspoken on social media about a lot of things. how strongly do you feel about the political situation in the world at the moment? let'sjust say it's a very interesting time to be writing a franchise about the rise of a populist maniac. i'm joined a franchise about the rise of a populist maniac. i'mjoined by a franchise about the rise of a populist maniac. i'm joined by dev patel, best supporting actor nominee for the film lion. what an incredible true story. what was your action when you first read it?|j incredible true story. what was your action when you first read it? i got sent the news article. the fact these incredible events happen and a boy showed such adaptability, street smarts and resilience, it completely moved me and i was obsessed with it from that moment on. i was knocking on the screenwriter's door to get an audition. it's amazing to be on the carpet here having had that kind of force of reaction to it. what was

the trickiest accent for you, mastering the australian accent or getting under the emotional skin?|j would getting under the emotional skin?” would say both. i had to change the way i sound and look. and... wow, it's really going crazy! it really nourished me as a human being. it took me to places in the world i've never been to. i made a lifelong friend in our director, garth, and i can't tell you how much i love and respect him. thank you. people have love that story. emma stone, best actress nominee for la la land. the film has gone down so well. do you think part of the appeal is that people can relate to your character's struggle, her wish to better herself and move on in the world ? better herself and move on in the world? i'm not ever really sure what bits are the most resonant for people. it's different things