this is bbc news. the headlines at 12: the former labour foreign secretary, david miliband, says his party is now at its weakest in 50 years after the copeland by—election defeat. jeremy corbyn insists his leadership is not to blame. iraqi forces have now entered parts of western mosul in what is expected to be a dangerous battle to remove so called islamic state from the city. the white house has excluded the bbc, the new york times and others from a media briefing. the block came just hours after president trump used a major speech to attack sections of the press. as you saw throughout the entire campaign, and even now, the fake news doesn't tell the truth. suicide bombers have attacked two security compounds in syria's third city of homs, killing dozens of people. some reports put the number of dead at more than a0. also coming up — the national trust receives an unexpected gift — the island that

inspired its creation. how virtual reality was used to create some of the most exciting effects in a star wars. that is in click, coming up at 1230. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the former labour foreign secretary david miliband, has said that the party is further from power than it has been at any time in the past 50 years. in an interview with the times newspaper, mr miliband said he was deeply concerned about labour's future underjeremy corbyn, after the party lost the copeland by—election to the conservatives. here's our political correspondent, chris mason. jeremy corbyn went to stoke yesterday to look and sound like a winner. his man had won the by—election there, activists were delighted, but labour's vote slid in stoke

and the party suffered a cumbrian humbling 140 miles north in copeland as the conservatives triumphed. enterfrom new york the man people in the labour party see as the best leader they never had, david miliband. he now runs a charity, the international rescue committee, and this is not the first time he has been a public doom monger about his party and jeremy corbyn. labour, he told the times, had now lost support among what he called its core base. but those loyal to the leader say it is not alljeremy corbyn‘s fault and add... i would actually like to talk about issues and what it is that makes a difference to people's lives and what makes a difference to people's lives is having the sort of government that will address the concerns of people that have some solutions.

this government does not and we need to make clear that we are the alternative and we have alternative solutions that will work. if you need to make it clear... the fault cannot be laid at the door of one individual. but plenty of other labour mps see what has happened as evidence of what they have always feared withjeremy corbyn, a painful drift towards irrelevance. don't expect them to try to get rid of mr corbyn now, though, because they know what happened when they tried that last time. he won again. with me is stephen bush, special correspondent at the new statesman. with me is our political correspondent, matt cole. so him saying something like this, i am surejeremy corbyn and his closest supporters will say it is the usual suspects trash talking the party under jeremy corbyn‘s leadership. i do not think he will

be too bothered. i think he will have expected this from david miliband. this was the man who was beaten by his own brother in the leadership contest, who then left politics. his history in the party was very close to tony blair's. so him saying something like this, i am surejeremy corbyn and his closest supporters will say it is the usual suspects trash talking the party under jeremy corbyn‘s leadership. tony blair came out criticising the party only a week ago. the former shadow chancellor had been pointing to these criticisms as being what went wrong in cold blood. they are now in a situation where even the core support of the party could be leaking. let's remember, for 80 years, copeland since its inception was a labour sea so this is by no means something to be underplayed. certainlyjeremy corbyn will point to the victory in stoke central, holding that seat, as some would say they should, that is also a labour stronghold, but that will have tempered some of the critics.

if they had lost both seats i think we could be in a very different conversation now, but it is interesting to note that those liberal critics are still mps have been perhaps less than forthcoming in calls forjeremy corbyn to go perhaps because they know that he will simply say, "no. i'm staying." with me is stephen bush, special correspondent at the new statesman. thanks for coming in. first of all, what do you make of this? well, as matt noted very perceptively, for a lot of labour mps, they have decided what they need to do is stay quiet and letjeremy what they need to do is stay quiet and let jeremy corbyn what they need to do is stay quiet and letjeremy corbyn succeed or fail in his own time. 0bviously, most of them think he will fail, but they think that tactic is working for them. for david miliband to come out and say he is awful, we are in which weakest position for 50 years, thatis which weakest position for 50 years, that is something most labour mps would agree with. in stoke, mostly in by—elections, it shows how the next election will go. so if you

assume that that happens to labour in stoke and copeland, which is what the historical trend would suggest, thatis the historical trend would suggest, that is very bad indeed. but they think that when someone like david miliband pops up and says he is full, it actually helps jeremy corbyn rather than hurts him, at least as far as the internal battle goes. so will they rally round him? yes, i think one of the think a lot of people underestimate is the average labour activist... it is a party family of solidarity. when the leader is attacked there is a rallying round of the labourfamily, even though there are lots of people in that family who have a great number of doubts about his leadership. and my instinct is that although i think that probably if you ask the majority of people the labour party, members, mps, do you think it is working well costumed --? think it is working well costumed ——7 they think it is working well costumed —— 7 they would think it is working well costumed ——7 they would say no. do you get rid of him? ——? they would say no. do you get rid of him? i think they would say no, he is our leader. so this kind of intervention is quite good news forjeremy corbyn. saying no to both

of those questions doesn't really make sense, does it? no, but people don't make sense. people say they would like their public services to be better but they want the taxes to be better but they want the taxes to be lower. you will contain multitudes and party activists are any different. the click of a skilled politician is to hold those things together and the difficulty for thejeremy things together and the difficulty for the jeremy corbyn things together and the difficulty for thejeremy corbyn sceptics as they haven't found anybody in the labour party who can somehow reconcile those two as you say contradictory aspects. but what about the aspiration to be the government, to be in power?|j about the aspiration to be the government, to be in power? i think the difficulty for labour is they are not on a trajectory to win the next election and they are major victory to go back via a considerable degree, but the difficulty with the leadership election is although people kind of thoughtjeremy election is although people kind of thought jeremy corbyn wood election is although people kind of thoughtjeremy corbyn wood went, they did not think 0wen smith would win either, but they thought they would feel uncomfortable. and until there is a labour politician who can plausibly say to the members, i am

someone plausibly say to the members, i am someone theresa may is scared of. i think they will continue to order their typical curry rather than going to the gym in a jeremy corbyn. either anyone rising to the ranks? there are some interesting young members. heidi alexander is worth watching. alison mcgovern. there is the old guard who are making things difficult for the critics ofjeremy corbyn but there is also an old guard are people who fail to beat jeremy corbyn and failed to win the last election, they are kind of bed blocking for a new generation, which i think is what is probably needed to come to if labour is going to get out of the mess. just one final thought, where do the unions figure in all this? the reason why the trade union leaders backed jeremy corbyn was twofold. 0ne, their members were with him. i am not sure of that has changed. the second was they wanted to move labour is likely to the left, not necessarily as far

left as jeremy corbyn is to the left, not necessarily as far left asjeremy corbyn is but to the left, not necessarily as far left as jeremy corbyn is but they wa nted left as jeremy corbyn is but they wanted to be still power players. in an odd way, the intervention by david miliband is usefulfor them because they will say we are not the sky, we are worried about the sky, maybe have something else. it is useful in terms of their internal politics and the one thing to watch— i don't thinkjeremy corbyn is at risk, but if i am wrong it is because interventions like this give the trade union leaders the space they want to gently ease him out without going back into the blairism of the past. several news organisations, including the bbc, have been barred from entering a press briefing at the white house. president trump's spokesman said the administration would "push back" against what it sees as false reporting. 0ur washington correspondent laura bicker reports. president trump has stepped up his battle with the media. a few days ago, i called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are. they are the enemy of the people. because they have no sources,

theyjust make ‘em up when there are none. he is angry at recent reports claiming his campaign aides had contact with russian intelligence officials. the new york times used anonymous sources for their story. this should not be allowed, he said. they shouldn't be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody‘s name. let their name be put out there. this latest tirade during a speech to a conservative conference was 15 minutes long, and just a few hours later, things changed at the white house. this is a usual briefing by the white house press secretary, all accredited media can attend. instead, a member of selected media groups were invited into sean spicer‘s office and others were barred, including the bbc. he was asked why. this ban saying cnn and others have been blocked from media briefings, are cnn and the new york times not in here right now because you are unhappy with their reporting? why are they not in here? because we had a pool and we expanded it and we added some

folks to come and cover. it is my decision to expand the pool. the president said, "we are going to do something about it," in reference to the stories that he says are false by the new york times and cnn and others. what is he talking about? we are going to aggressively push back. we are notjust going to sit back and let false narratives, false stories, inaccurate facts, get out there. the white house correspondents' association says it is protesting strongly and is encouraging those who were allowed in to share material. the bbc is also asking for clarification as to why it was barred. dozens of people have died, including the head of the military security branch after a suicide bombing in homs in syria. the attack targeted security service headquarters in the city. reports say that five militants attacked two heavily guarded districts. with me now from beirut is our arabic correspondent rami ruhayem. what can you tell us? well, it is

quite a stunning blow to the regime, given the sensitivity of the environment, as you mentioned. to intelligence headquarters, one military and another state security intelligence and from what we understand that two of the attackers at least managed to get inside and pull themselves up and there were also reports of gunmen who also managed to infiltrate at least the area and among the casualties are senior officers, senior intelligence officers. the attack was claimed by a group which used to be affiliated

with al quada which has now cut its ties with al quada at least publicly and also merged with several other groups and issued in their first statement a denunciation of the talks under way in geneva and said that the only way for any kind of transition is to overthrow the regime of the syrian president by force. and the fact that this was able to take place, what that this tell us about security, particularly in homs? well, it probably tells us that this group is not only capable on the battlefield but also capable of infiltrating areas held by the regime. perhaps it says that security in homs is not as tight as the regime would like it to be but at the same time, given the state of syria at the moment, given that the

country remains fragmented and full of different armed groups with different agendas, it will not be possible to end this kind of attack. homs in particular has seen many such attacks. the ones claimed for example by islamic state were mostly on civilian targets, but this one is on civilian targets, but this one is on to quite sensitive military targets and raises all sorts of questions about the capability of the regime's security forces. thank you. iman has been convicted in kansas of a racially attack. the killing dominated news bulletins in india and on social media. witnesses say a us navy veteran shouted, "get out of

my country." before opening fire. iraqi troops have entered western mosulfor the first time in their offensive to drive out so—called islamic state from the country's second city. west mosul is the last is stronghold in iraq. they're surrounded, along with an estimated three quarters of a million civilians. earlier i spoke to amy christian from 0xfam — who gave us a sense of the conditions in mosul. in the last few days, we have seen around 450—500 people leaving areas around the airport, south of mosul, seeking shelter in a safe place. they have left with very little things with them and they are traumatised and they are in need of lots of support. what sort of conditions are people living under? yesterday we visited a place where these a50 people arrived to and families there have taken people into their own houses. one man had taken a0 people into his house and was looking after them there. and the expectation of what is going

to happen with this offensive, are people frightened or worried? yes, people leaving their homes do not know what they are leaving their homes to. they do not know how long they will be displaced from their homes and towns and villages and want to get back to them as soon as possible. often when they do return home, they find their houses destroyed or damaged, so 0xfam is in places that have been retaken from isis, trying to rehabilitate the water plants and give aid and blankets to people who need it. what about your organisation, 0xfam, and the other agencies, what are you planning to do and planning to provide? at the moment, we are preparing to respond to a large influx of displaced families in the coming weeks. we have already been responding to a huge number of people who have been

displaced from mosul. around 190,000 people have been displaced since the offensive began in october. we have been supporting them in camps with water and sanitation, we have been giving out blankets, heating and solar lights and food as well to people. in terms of operating on the ground, how difficult is it and how difficult can it be when the fighting is so near? it is a real challenge for all of the agencies working here trying to help people. security is a big concern, but also just the changing context. we have to be able to respond to things when they happen and to be able to give aid to people when they needed. a syrian cameraman who worked on the oscar nominated documentary the white helmets has been blocked from travelling to los angeles to attend the ceremony on sunday. khaled khateeb was issued a visa to enter the usa.

officials say they have found some "derogatory information"about him. the documentary follows three of syria's white helmet rescue workers from their training in turkey to their work trying to save lives on the front line. the headlines on bbc news: the former foreign secretary, david miliband, has warned that labour is further from power than it has been at any time in the past 50 years. mr miliband was speaking after the party lost the copeland by—election to the conservatives. iraqi forces have continued to make progress in their battle to recapture the city of mosul, islamic state's last major stronghold in iraq. the white house has excluded several major news organisations, including some it has openly criticised, from a briefing held by president trump's spokesman. mr trump has been angered by what he's described as fake news items published by some media outlets. scottish labour are hosting

their annual conference in perth this weekend, but attention is focused on the london mayor saddiq khan who is due to address delegates later. this morning, he tweeted extracts of his speech in which he will say, "nationalism is as divisive as racism". but the comments have received a strong backlash on social media. 0ur political correpsondent nick eardley is at the conference in perth for us. before we get onto what has been happening, what has been the reaction to saddique khan's comments? well, the scottish labour leader is trying to find her answer to the scottish independence question so she is talking about a federal model where all the nations of the uk get more powers over their own affairs and she has brought many figures from across the labour party to speak this weekend, tom watson, the deputy leader is speaking at the

moment. this afternoon, she will be introduced by saddique khan, the london mayor. he is talking about a wide variety of nationalism is this afternoon, but a line that he has circulated already is one where he says that there is no difference between trying to divide between and dividing on the basis of background, race 01’ dividing on the basis of background, race or religion. now, as you say, that has attracted a very strong response from the snp and other independence falters. the first minister, nicola sturgeon, this morning tweeting that that is an insult to all of those got who support independence. 0ur arguments —— her argument is that an independent scotland would be inclusive and would not discriminate against people from elsewhere in the uk or indeed the wider world, so there is quite a storm brewing over whether or not saddique khan is actually equating scottish nationalism with some of the racism that he is also criticising or whether some of these words are being lost in translation. so lots of comments on social media, but

what has been said there this morning? tom watson is on his feet just now. he is talking about the idea that many people are suggesting a progressive alliance that may help the labour party get back into power in westminster. that would include bringing in support from people like the snp and the green party and the liberal democrats. he is rubbish and that idea and saying that we already have our own progressive alliance. he says the labour party is the progressive alliance. he's been talking about that federalism idea that kizzy dugdale —— kezia dugdale is so keen on. they will also host a constitutional convention where he wa nts constitutional convention where he wants various people from politics and also civic society across the uk to come together and talk about when the uk cleaves the eu, how powers are repatriated, whether they will go to westminster or whether they go to some of the devolved parliaments andindeed to some of the devolved parliaments and indeed to parts of england as well. for the moment, thank you. police in birmingham have released

cctv images of the moment a 17—year—old girl was hit and seriously injured by a car — which then fled the scene. the footage, which some viewers might find distressing, was released by west midlands police in the hope that someone will come forward with more information. the girl was walking with her mother on bromsgrove road at around 6.30pm on saturday 28th january when a car mounted the pavement. the teenager was taken to hospital in a serious condition and is said to be still recovering from her injuries. police want to trace the car, described as a dark coloured bmw 5 series. a third person has been arrested by detectives investigating the escape of a murdererfrom custody. a 25—year—old man from liverpool has been detained on suspicion of perverting the course ofjustice

in connection with the hunt for sean walmsley. two people detained on thursday have been released pending further inquiries. walmsley went on the run when two armed men confronted prison officers guarding him at aintree university hospital on tuesday. police have defended the decision to fire a taser at an unarmed blind man in greater manchester on thursday. officers at levenshulme train station mistook the man's cane for a gun. the a3—year—old man was unhurt and the police have apologised to him. it was a bit dark. he was probably quite worried, in a state of panic sort of thing. probably they were trying to stun him down. they had realised, from the ten or 15 metres i could make out, it was a mistaken identity. the united nations' climate chief has admitted that she's worried about the election of president trump — because of his threat to pull the us out of international agreements. but patricia espinosa says she is confident that worldwide action to tackle the issue

will continue, whatever mr trump does. she is travelling to the us this weekend and hopes to raise her concerns with senior officials. 0ur environment analyst, roger harrabin reports. donald trump will be the next president. much of america celebrated donald trump's election, but it was an environmentalists' nightmare, a president for fossil fuel, saying he would scrap rules on the industry and pull out of the un climate deal. the un's new climate chief was dismayed. i was very surprised. it felt like something was wrong. at the same time very quickly a reaffirmation of this is the more

reason why we need to continue. china's massive renewables programme was one sign of the world's determination to carry on tackling climate change. china says it will show leadership if the us does pull out of the un climate deal. but even the us itself has a boom in wind and solar power. the election of president trump is a setback for miss espinosa and the un, but she insists the momentum towards cutting emissions is now unstoppable. the only question, is it going fast enough? rallies have been held in south korea calling for the impeachment of the present to be sped up following a corruption enquiry. the cloud performed mexican waves in what has become a regular sight in the city. they voted in september to impeach the president, but the constitutional court is reviewing the legality of that decision. the

supporters of the president also held their own protest, weaving the korean flag whilst demanding that the impeachment be nullified. now it is time for the weather. it has certainly been a cloudy day for many parts of the country and there is the chance of more rain coming in from the north—west is well into cheshire where the club looks rather threatening. it is very mild here. colder in scotland, but here in the highlands earlier than we had some sunshine. sunshine comes behind this broad band of cloud here that has arrived with some rather gusty winds so far today. those winds will tend to lessen over the last few hours as the bands of rain continue to push their way south east across the uk. the rain will be heavier over the hills in the west. we have already had some heavy rain in cumbria. we will have heavier rain over some parts of wales. not much rain belt away from here. secondary band of rain coming away from northern ireland, way from scotland into the

northwest of england. this could be heavy, again over the hills of cumbria. we end the day with some bright skies across much of scotland and northern ireland as well. just one or two showers. the wind much lighterfor the one or two showers. the wind much lighter for the rugby at murrayfield, but for the game in the six nations in dublin it is likely to be wet and still windy as well. that band of rain will continue to push its way away across england and wales. when becoming light and patchy later on in the night, by which time we will see another band of rain arriving into northern ireland and the western fringes of scotland. most of us will be frost free but it will be touch and go for central and eastern scotland and north east england. many places will start cloudy on sunday. some brighter skies perhaps, but we have this band of rain moving down from the northwest. it struggles to away and that rain turns heavy as it pushes in across western parts of england and wales into the afternoon. turning colderfor scotla nd afternoon. turning colderfor scotland and northern ireland for

the rugby at twickenham, gusty winds likely to develop. some spots of rain. it should be a mild day but windy conditions especially around the western hills and coasts. the last of the milder gets pushed away on monday together with the last of the rain and then we have plenty of showers coming in behind. it will feel cold. six avenue and seven celsius maximum. the mild air gets pushed away for monks of next week and the wind changes direction and we have cold error and wintry showers. hello. this is bbc news. the headlines: the former labour foreign secretary david miliband has said the party is at its weakest for 50 years. jeremy corbyn's allies say negative interventions aren't helping the party. several major news organisations have been excluded from a briefing by president's trump's spokesman at the white house.

the bbc, cnn, and new york times were among those told they weren't invited. iraqi forces have now entered parts of western mosul in what is expected to be a dangerous battle to remove so called islamic state from iraq's second largest city. suicide bombers have attacked two security compounds in syria's third city of homs, killing dozens of people. some reports put the number of dead at more than a0. sport now and for a full round—up, from the bbc sport centre. good afternoon. claudio ranieri, has been at the leicester city training ground this morning to say his goodbyes to the players and staff. he was joined by the club's thai owners, who flew in by helicopter to help with the goodbyes, after they sacked the italian on thursday. speaking to the media afterwards, ranieri said he hoped that leicester could one day repeat their title success, but that it

i don't speak with anybody. just to say thank you to the fans. how do you feel? i feel good now. because