this is bbc news. i'm ben brown. the headlines at 9am: storm eleanor sweeps across the uk causing flooding, damage to homes and disruption to motorists following gusts of up to 100mph. more than 50,000 non—urgent nhs operations and procedures in england may be delayed until the end ofjanuary, due to winter pressures. patients who spend many hours on a trolley and these are often elderly patients, they are the sickest patients, they are the sickest patients in our department do much worse in the long—term. they are much more likely to have a poor outcome and even die as a result of their experience in the emergency department. my button's bigger than yours — donald trump warns kim jong—un the us has greater nuclear power than north korea. and in the next hour, the uk's first dedicated treatment centre for people with rare skin conditions opens in london. featuring curved furniture and ultra—violet free lighting,

patients say it could be life changing. and a chef receives death threats online after claims she deliberately prepared a non—vegan dish for a vegan customer. good morning and welcome to bbc news. storm eleanor has swept across the uk, causing flooding, damage to homes and disruption to motorists. gusts of up to 100mph were reported in the pennines and hundreds of homes across northern ireland, wales, the midlands and south west england are without power. jon donnison reports. as storm eleanor whipped in from the atlantic, the republic of ireland was the first to take a pounding.

in galway, there's been severe flooding. some, though, still prepared to take their chances. in the uk, the met office issued an amber weather warning for parts of the country. this is anglesey in wales. waves driven by winds gusting up to 80mph. horizontal hail was what greeted anyone foolish enough to brave blackpool's promenade. we've got a hell of a storm here... and in corby, the midlands, john wright recorded the moment his house was hit by hail. across the country more than 15,000 homes have been left without power, the bulk of them in northern ireland. 0n the m25 motorway, traffic was briefly brought to a standstill by a fallen tree. but the full extent of the damage will likely not emerge until later in the morning and forecasters are warning storm eleanor will continue to bring strong winds until the end of the day.

0ur ireland correspondent, chris page, is in our belfast newsroom. chris, what's the laritiest there where you are? it has been a battering and bruising night. it is still wet and windy out there, but the storm has passed. the peak of the storm has passed. the peak of the problems is more than 20,000 homes in northern ireland were without electricity, but engineers have been working to put that right and the figure is down to around 2,000. now, many roads still blocked because of fallen frees, mainly in rural areas, minor roads, the main routes that were blocked by trees have on the whole been cleared by now, but the police are saying that motorists travelling to work this morning or indeed going out throughout the day should allow more time for theirjourney as throughout the day should allow more time for their journey as the weather warning remains in place until late this afternoon. now, as

regards where the brunt of the damage was, well, it was mainly across the southern parts of northern ireland, counties fermanagh, armagh and down and the strongest wind was recorded on the cou nty strongest wind was recorded on the county down coast which is on the stretch of county down, the coast there that faces towards scotland and there a gust of 90mph was recorded. so very strong winds. most people seem to heed the advice of the authorities, they stayed indoors and secured anything around their house that could have been blowing around. clearly, with trees coming don't and debris flying around, well there was a risk to life and that's what the met office was warning about, but fortunately, no reports of any injuries as a result of storm eleanor. chris page for us this belfast. matt taylor from the bbc weather centre is here matt, just give us the picture. what's the latest? quite a ferocious night across the uk. 0ne what's the latest? quite a ferocious night across the uk. one good thing from storm eleanor, it was a night—time feature so the impacts

have been more limited given the amount of trees we have seen down. we have seen winds gusting up to 100mph across some parts of the country and the top of the pennines. winds in northern ireland, 90mph, but towards southern parts of wales, in around the likes of swansea and to the south of england, in dorset, we saw winds gusting over 80mph in one or two spots. so that's had a big impact through today as well. the winds are only part of the story. the other night we had a full moon. the tides are high. we have seen minorflooding moon. the tides are high. we have seen minor flooding across some western coasts as well which again, is still ongoing at the moment. quite a lot of hail in places? yes, it is as the storm departed, the centre of the storm was across northern ireland and that's tracked its way eastwards towards the north sea, but it has left a very showery air mass and we have seen hail and thunder and we have gusty winds today. england and wales in particular, winds gusting to 50mph

and 60mph. that could cause further disruption. but conditions overall compared to last night are improving. that's the picture looking ahead, easing off? the big story by the time we get to the weekend is that winter returns. some bitterly cold winds coming in from the north keeping us on our toes. bitterly cold winds coming in from the north keeping us on our toesm returns! i wasn't sure it went away! matt, thank you very much indeed. matt, thank you very much indeed. matt taylor there. nhs england has insisted there's no crisis in the health service, despite their decision to extend the postponement of all non—urgent operations and routine outpatient appointments until the beginning of next month. officials say they have taken early action to ease winter pressures and avoid last minute cancellations. but senior doctors say pressure has "escalated rapidly" over the festive period. it's estimated 55,000 patients could be affected. our health editor, hugh pym, has more ambulance siren.

there's always great pressure on the nhs in the new year. but the strains seem even bigger this year. two ambulance services in england, covering the north—east and east, are on the highest state of operational alert, asking families to use their own transport to bring patients into hospital where possible. the trust running scarborough and york hospitals said high numbers of patients and staff were under considerable pressure. i've worked in a number of different emergency departments around the country and that's the worst i've seen. ijust want to do a good job. i want to do the best i can for the patients that i'm seeing., but i'm not being given the resources to do thatjob properly. twitter carried reports from some staff at other hospitals. an emergency doctor in stoke said he personally apologised to local people for what he called third world conditions due to overcrowding. nhs england has told hospitals to postpone all non—urgent operations and outpatient appointments until the end of january, an escalation of temporary measures announced

just before christmas. in that time hospitals won't be penalised for putting patients in mixed sex wards. this is a planned response to a winter that we knew was going to be difficult and we are managing that in the way that we expected and we're taking early action. we're not waiting to have to respond to a problem. the authorities in scotland, wales and northern ireland have said they're facing higher demand from patients and more pressure on frontline services. with flu cases on the increase, the worry now is that a predicted outbreak may become a reality. earlier the bbc spoke to professor suzanne mason from the royal college of emergency medicine who warned that the situation in the nhs could put patients at risk. absolutely safety is being compromised. there's no doubt about that. when patients are in crowded emergency departments and staff cannot actually move between patients and provide the basic level of care that's required then safety is compromised. patients who spend many hours

on a trolley and these are often elderly patients, they are the sickest patients in our department, do much worse in the long—term. they're much more likely to have a poor outcome and even die as a result of their experience in the emergency department and that is a huge tragedy for us in our speciality and this is why we are so desperate to try and see things improve. i'm joined by our health correspondent nick triggle. nick, it all sounds very alarming. what's the root cause of what's going on in the health service right now? well, the start of the new year is always a very busy time for the nhst is always a very busy time for the nhs t community services are less available during the christmas period so there is a build up, but what hospitals are facing at the moment is they simply haven't got any spare beds. so, they have started to see an increase in the number of patients coming in and that's caused them real problems.

some people point to the long—term funding situation, the nhs is in the middle of the tightest financial squeeze in its history, but in the most squeeze in its history, but in the m ost rece nt squeeze in its history, but in the most recent weeks, what we have seen is this increase in the number of patients coming in and that's caused problems like the royal college of emergency medicine are describing. so this is an extension of an existing postponement of routine operations and procedures? yes. just before christmas, nhs england announced that in the first two weeks of the new year, non emergency operations, treatments and outpatient appointments would be cancelled, not all of them, butjust some of them to sort of ease the pressure on hospitals. yesterday, last night, they announced that would be extended until the end of january. the thinking being if you ta ke january. the thinking being if you take the less urgent cases out, it will give hospitals the time and space and free up staff to see the patients that are coming in and need urgent treatment. but some doctors

have said that is too little, too late because those operations and treatments would have been cancelled anyway, simply because hospitals are too full. the nhs, they are trying to avoid last minute cancellations, that's the idea for people with hip operations and that kind of thing? yes, it's a hip operations, it's minor knee treatments, and your general check—ups with hospital co nsulta nts. general check—ups with hospital consultants. cancer care for example is being prioritised and patients should be seen as normal. so, they're hoping the last minute cancellations don't take place, but much depends on how hospitals cope in the next week or so. nick, thank you very much. 0ur health correspondent with the latest. last month the palestinian president said us peace plans were unacceptable, a decision to

recognise jerusalem as unacceptable, a decision to recognisejerusalem as the capital of israel. mrtrump has again of israel. mr trump has again targeted north korea on twitter as peter bowes reports. another twitter tirade by donald trump. the president questions why the us should continue to provide aid to countries that show no respect in return and don't reciprocate. 0n the middle east, he tweets that the status ofjerusalem, which the us now recognises as the capital of israel, will no longer be part of future negotiations. "it's not only pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing, but also many other countries and others. as an example we pay the palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars a year and get no appreciation or respect. they don't even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with israel". the us ambassador to the united nations confirmed that us

aid to the palestinians was in jeopardy. we very much still want to have a peace process. nothing changes with that. the palestinians now have to show their will that they want to come to the table. as of now they are not coming to the table, but they ask for aid. we're not giving the aid. we're we're going to make sure they come to the table and we are going to move ahead with the peace process. in another tweet, the president turned his attentions back to north korea. apparently responding to a new year message from kim jong—un in which he said the country's nuclear weapons could reach anywhere in the us. mr trump tweets, "north korean leader kim jong—un just stated that the nuclear button is on his desk at all times. will someone interest his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that i too have a nuclear button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his and my button works." it marks a new tone and new level of rhetoric in the nuclear crisis with north korea.

meanwhile, in what appears to be a major diplomatic breakthrough, south korea says the north has restored a hotline between the two governments. it follows seoul's offer of direct negotiations with the north and a suggestion that the two sides meet at the highly contested border in january. north korea said the order had been given with a view to sending a contingent to the winter olympics, scheduled to take place next month in south korea. translation: to contact south korea regarding a right time for talks and sending a delegation to the winter 0lympics. by 0lympics. by upholding a des by the leadership, we will make close

contact with south korea in a sincere and faithful manner. we will discuss working level issues related to the dispatch of the winter 0lympic delegation. we can get the latest from our correspondent sophie long who is in seoul. i think we are the stage now where there could potentially be talks about talks happening potentially next week. at three o'clock pyongyang time we heard from the reunification ministry that that telephone line had been opened and the first telephone call in nearly two years between north and south korea had taken place. the call came from the north to the south. the only detail we have of the content of the call is that an officer answered, said hello and gave his name. the north side did the same.

we are told the telephone line was connected for 20 minutes. they checked the line and the signal and it seems like more words would have been exchanged but we have not heard what that is. on the ist of january kimjong un said he what that is. on the ist of january kim jong un said he would what that is. on the ist of january kimjong un said he would be open what that is. on the ist of january kim jong un said he would be open to dialogue with the south. 0n the south the government said they offered proposed high—level talks on tuesday of next week. 0vernight we waited for a response and that came today in the form of this hotline reopening. meanwhile, we have some more sabre rattling from donald trump in the white house on twitter saying his nuclear button is bigger and more powerful than kimjong un's. yes. this is donald trump's first response to kim jong un's speech that he gave on new year's day. that

speech had a normal defiant message to the united states saying he had completed his nuclear project. he had a button on his desk always. when donald trump was asked about this and he was still on his festive holiday, he said we will see, we will see. 0vernight we got a tweet saying his button was bigger and it worked. that is what is going on in the background. meanwhile, here, much more focus on these very small but significant steps towards a dialogue that could potentially take place next week. that is what we await now. if and when the talks do ta ke await now. if and when the talks do take place, the south has proposed that they do so on the 9th of january. that is a month ahead of the opening ceremony for the winter olympics which is taking place here in south korea. it is hoped pyeongchang —— pyongyang might send a delegation. there are hopes that this good ds de la et there are hopes that this good ds de laet tensions which are at the highest they have been for decades, not helped by the kind of tweet we had from donald trump today. many

thanks. the headlines on bbc news: storm eleanor sweeps across the uk — causing flooding, damage to homes and disruption to motorists following gusts of up to 100 miles an hour. nhs england insists there's no crisis in the health service as more than 50,000 non—urgent nhs operations may be delayed until the end of january, due to winter pressures. donald trump warns kim jong—un the us has greater nuclear strength than north korea. a man is due in court charged with murdering a woman whose body was discovered in a disused building in finsbury park in north london last week. 22 year old, iuliana tudos, went missing after visiting friends on christmas eve. 31—year—old kasim lewis will appear before magistrates in wimbledon later. a canadian man who was held hostage in afghanistan for five years by a taliban—linked insurgent group

has been arrested. 34—year—old joshua boyle is facing a total of 15 charges including assault and unlawful confinement. pakistani soldiers rescued mr boyle, his us wife caitlan coleman, and their children in october. local media say the offences are alleged to have taken place after his return to canada. a bus has crashed in peru killing at least 48 people. it happened on a dangerous stretch of road, north of the capital lima. witnesses say the driver lost control after the bus was hit by another vehicle. it then plummeted nearly 100 metres down a cliff. sarah corker reports. the blue bus landed upside down on a rocky beach next to the pacific ocean. more than 50 people were on board when it crashed. most of the pictures of the wreckage

are too disturbing to show. witnesses say the coach collided with another vehicle and then went over the edge of this cliff, plummeting more than 100 metres. it happened on the notorious devil's turn of the pasamayo road, 50 kilometres from the coach's final destination, lima. the rocky site is difficult for rescuers to reach. survivors were winched up by rope and some airlifted to local hospitals. translation: they told us the bus had fallen off the cliff here in pasamayo. it was an accident. we thought that my niece had left around that time in the bus. she went with her boyfriend. the two of them were in the same seat. the pacific ocean road is often listed among the world's most dangerous roads and, despite the sheer drops, it's largely unprotected by safety fences. police say the death toll is likely to rise. the uk's first dedicated treatment centre for people with rare genetic

diseases and skin conditions has opened in london. the centre at st thomas' hospital has been designed with the specialist needs of its patients' in mind — including curved furniture and ultra—violet free lighting to prevent damaging delicate skin. graham satchell has been to meet one patient who hopes the new unit will help to change his life for the better. st thomas' hospital in london. 24—year—old james dunn is heading to the new rare diseases centre. hello. i love that wall. james is here to get some news. 0k, ome on in, james. thank you. welcome. nice and spacious. a couple of weeks ago, a consultant found a cancerous lump in his left hand. so, last week, you came,

and we cut that out for you. i can tell you the good news is it is completely out. there is no cancer left. thank you. which is really great news. thank you! i was worried about that. thank you. i was really nervous. luckily, it hasn't spread, so it is fantastic. yeah. we will celebrate later. you wrap me that good. james has a life—shortening rare genetic skin condition called epidermolysis bullosa, or eb. it affects around 5,000 people in the uk. james's skin, as delicate as a butterfly‘s wing. my type of eb means i am missing the anchors and glue in between each layer of skin. i would say 80% of my body is covered in chronic wounds. i have to bandage all of the wounds. so, although you can only see my arms, i have this type

of bandage from my neck down, right to the bottom of my feet. it is hard. yeah... i can't explain it. it is like your body is burning, or i don't know. your dad is made up. says he is over the moon. the newly—opened centre brings together specialist services for rare conditions in one place for the first time. it will mean better conditions for patients like james and more collaboration between experts. i think there are reasons to be cheerful. whereas before we've just had medicines and trying to patch people up, now we've got opportunities to provide more effective treatments through gene therapy, or cell therapy, and hopefully, one day, a cure. in germany, nine—year—old hassan has had a highly—experimental treatment to successfully replace 80% of his skin. the new treatment will not work for everyone with eb,

but it may offer hope with a condition that is severely life—limiting. in the last 3—4 years, we've noticed a huge difference, from bandages to experimental treatments and research that's going on all around the world. thanks. take care, safe journey. thanks. james is going home. for all of the debilitating pain of his condition, he and his mum remain resolutely upbeat. we have a good life, don't we? yeah. you don't know what is around the corner. we keep fighting, don't we? yeah, keep fighting every day. james knows his time may be running out, but with the help from the new rare diseases centre and his remarkable spirit, there is always hope. graham satchell, bbc news. an irish footballer has scored his

first victory of the year by winning the lottery. kevin 0'connor found he had 1 million euros after his uncle bought him a ticket. he says he has no immediate plans on how to spend the money but his main focus on helping his team climb up the league. now for a look at some of the business stories around this morning — sebastian chrispin, our business reporter is here. in terms of christmas retailing results, we have some figures from next today? next is seen as a bellwether of the uk high street. it has just reported its sales in the two months leading up to christmas. it is good news. they said the full price sales went up by 1.5%, more than expected. what is interesting is where we see the shift of people

moving from buying things in store to buy things online. there are some quite striking figures. figures from online sales rose by 13% during that period, but at the same time, the number of people shopping in stores fell by 6%. quite a stark example of how people are migrating from shopping in store to shopping online. we have the secretary of state for international development, liam fox, he is in china at the moment. what is he up to? the idea of the trip is to talk about the future trading relationship between the uk and china. while britain is a member of the eu they cannot launch trade talks with other economies but the government is trying to lay the ground and make preparations for future trade deals when they eventually happen. ministers have spoken about the golden era between british chinese relations. the government has invested £25 billion to help british companies do

business in china. but here, what we are business in china. but here, what we a re really business in china. but here, what we are really seeing is the government trying to lay the ground and be in a position so it can take talks forward when it leaves the eu. so post brexit, hopes of more trade with china and asia in general, not just china? potentially. over the weekend there were reports that the uk wants tojoin weekend there were reports that the uk wants to join the trans—pacific partnership, this is an area with looser trade relationships based around the pacific. it was designed by president 0bama. lustig, president trump said the us was going to withdraw from those talks but the remaining 11 countries are hoping to progress those talks and they hope to reach an agreement by they hope to reach an agreement by the end of this year. there is no geographical restriction to the uk joining that agreement, even though it is thousands of miles away, and perhaps there are indications like countries like australia and new zealand might welcome britain to be pa rt zealand might welcome britain to be part of that but it is too early for britain to begin formal talks.

whether it is desirable or plausible remains to be seen. new year, new banking rules coming into force today. what is happening today. there is a new set of rules for the financial services coming from the eu. the eu tried to come up with a sweeping set of reforms which would tighten the sector and increase consumer protection. this is very expensive for financial services companies. some are worried about the costs of making these changes and the costs they will have to make to their business models and the uncertainty that some of the rules could bring in. we have also seen in the last couple of days some regulators in the uk and germany issuing reprieves to certain big financial companies. so big concerns for financial companies about these huge changes coming into force, but potentially we are seeing perhaps a

more safe financial sector for consumers. thank you. let's check out the latest weather conditions. matt taylor has those for us and storm eleanor causing havoc? it certainly is but there is good news, storm eleanor has pushed off into the north sea. it has left dusty conditions. showers in western scotland and northern ireland become more abundant into the afternoon. here, the winds pick up once again. the brightest and driest weather will be across the north of male in scotland today. into tonight we will see showers in some northern areas is for a time. frost will return but more wet weather back by tomorrow morning. southern parts of england, wales, the midlands and northern ireland as well. that could cause minor flooding ireland as well. that could cause minorflooding on the roads ireland as well. that could cause minor flooding on the roads with the ground so saturated at the moment.

gusty winds across the english channel coast but it will introduce sunnier weather and milder weather later on. a cold day in northern england, southern scotland and northern ireland. sleet and snow across higher ground as well. see you soon. hello. this is bbc news with ben brown. the headlines at 9.30am. thousands of homes are without power after storm eleanor lashes the uk donald trump boasts on twitter that his nuclear button is "much

bigger" and "more powerful" than north korea's. the amount of music streamed, downloaded, or bought in the uk in 2017 has risen at its fastest rate for nearly 20 years. now the sport with with hugh ferris. good morning, ben. pep guardiola claims the christmas schedule is going to "kill players" despite his manchester city team going 15 points clear at the top of the premier league. city beat watford in what was their tenth game in a month. and after their 18 match winning run in the league ended on new year's eve, it took just 39 seconds for raheem sterling to put city ahead at the etihad. an own goal and then sergio aguero's 16th of the season put them three up

q2? in england the show must go on and you have to play, but that's not normal guys, to play, but that's not normal guys, to play again in less than 48 hours. the big bosses should reflect. so we're going to kill the players. i don't know how many injuries there are in that period for all the teams, but for the big federations it doesn't matter because the show must go on. the players are not here. they don't think about the players and we have to start to think about the players. west brom also had two games in just over 48 hours and actually wanted to postpone last night's match at west ham who hadn't played since boxing day and perhaps unsurprisingly it was a late goal that won it for west ham. it came in the 94th minute from andy carroll, his second of the game.

they came from behind to win 2—1 at the london stadium. the two goals were his first of the season and take west ham out of the bottom three. ifi if i was alan pardew i would be disappointed with the way the premier league have set this up for them. i've got sympathy for them. we have to play in two days' time as well, but at least tottenham are playing the same day as us so it is the same for both clubs. i must give credit to west brom. you wouldn't think they played two days ago. we stood up to it and it was brill and out stood up to it and it was brill and our defence was resolute, even though they were literally hanging in the last 15 minutes. it's ridiculous to play this game. mason crane will make his england test debut in the final match of the ashes series which starts tonight in sydney. the tourists are hoping

for a consolation win after already losing the urn. paddy gearey looks ahead. there is a bit of sydney harbour side that's forever teesside. the harbour bridge engineered using steel largely from england, built by the english, made great in australia, as the locals would have it, much like cricket. england arrive in steadier shape than they might have. still no victory, but no whitewash either and the hope that the gap between these sides might be bridgeable. the draw in melbourne showed england could be competitive and avoid defeat, but they still haven't taken 20 aussie wickets in a match. change is in the air. with chris woakes injured and a test debut for mason crane who played for new south wales and whous middle name is sydney. maybe he's made for this place. the way he has con ducted himself throughout this trip and since he has been involved in oui’ and since he has been involved in our squad, he has been outstanding. for a young man to apply himself and

absorb himself in the environment as he has, is exactly what you're after. it's a really good chance for him to show everything what he's capable of, but i think on the surface he will be a really good option. australia's dilemma was whether to put pressure on the recovering heel of mitchell starc, they have decided to play him and if you were questioning their motivation, they will run this before every session of the test. beat england. beat england. this still matters. every opportunity we get to play on this ground, it's special and it's another ashes test match and the guys need no more motivation. it's a great opportunity to try and win this test match and win the series 4—0. ashes series take a long time coming around. england must wait two years to try and reclaim the urn and four yea rs to try and reclaim the urn and four years for another chance over here, but the aim for now is to turn the wheel just a but the aim for now is to turn the wheeljust a little in their direction. and, of course, you can follow

coverage of the sydney test match on bbc radio 5 live sports extra from 10.30pm this evening. eddiejones has said he wont be replacing dylan hartley as his england captain ahead of the six nations. hartley and his club northampton have had a disappointing season so far but the coach sez that's irrelevant and he certainly isn't intending to lighten the skipper‘s workload either. in terms of team meetings? he won't be with us. he has got a clear role at england and that's to be captain and to be the leader. he understands that and there is no reason why what happens at northampton, it's like, you come home, you come from your home and you have had a bad day, you know, the tiles are falling off the

bathroom, the rain is coming through the roof and than you have got to go and coach, that's yourjob and dill dyla n and coach, that's yourjob and dill dylan understands that. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more for you in the next hour. the united states says it plans to call an emergency session of the un security council to discuss the ongoing unrest in iran. 22 people have so far died in six days of anti—government demonstrations which were initially against price rises and corruption. but they later began to express wider anti—government sentiment, including protests over the strict islamic dress code by women, some of whom risked arrest by publicly removing their hijabs. tens of thousands of people are reported to be gathering for pro—government demonstrations today, after the government said it would organise counter—rallies. i'm joined now by rana rahimpour from bbc persian. rana, so we have seen lots of

antigovernment demonstrations across the country and now it seems the regime is fighting back with its own demonstrations? yes, the state television has been showing several cities in which pro—government rallies are happening right now. many of them are carrying flags. the iranian flag and posters of the supreme iranian flag and posters of the supreme leader. but we also have unconfirmed reports that many of the government employees have been told that they must take part in these rallies otherwise they would risk losing theirjobs. rallies otherwise they would risk losing their jobs. 0bviously rallies otherwise they would risk losing theirjobs. 0bviously because can't be there, it's very difficult to confirm these. we also heard that many streets that would wear these — where the pro—government rallies are happening right now, are closed to others. just because the government is worried that antigovernment protesters might get involved and they would chant against the government. so some evidence the

pro—government rallies are being orchestrated by the regime. what about the antigovernment rallies, we have seen so about the antigovernment rallies, we have seen so many about the antigovernment rallies, we have seen so many in the last few days. yes. have they continued? yes, they continued, not in the major cities. the authorities say in the major cities, things were calm last night, but we received footage that shows anti—riot police and many security forces in major squares of the bigger cities. but we have received reports of more protests, specially in the south of the country where many people have been deprived ofjobs and are living in a very difficult situation. so, yes, that did continue. it looked very violent. we are waiting to get official reports about the possible tolls of last night. and, as i was saying, most of the antigovernment demonstrations focussed on economic grievances really and living standards and so on, but also some

complaints about religious restrictions that people live under? yes, there is, it's quite complex and there is a number of reasons that people are angry and out on the streets, political freedom, that people are angry and out on the streets, politicalfreedom, social freedom and most importantly, as you say, it's the economy and i think the president has understood this. he mentioned it in his first reaction to the protests and he said that people don't only care about money and food, they want other freedoms and we have to try to give it to them. whether he will be able to do that, i think it's very unlikely. rana, thank you very much for being with us once again. let's return now to the us and president trump has once again targeted north korea on twitter, boasting that his has a bigger nuclear button than the north korean leader, kim jong—un. joining me is tom plant,

director of proliferation and nuclear policy at the defence and security focused think—tank, the royal united services institute more twitter diplomacy from president trump. yes, diplomacy is one thing you might call it. i suppose it's unfortunate that we have become used to trying to decipher us policy through the medium of interpreting president trump's tweets. he is correct that his nuclear deterrent is more powerful and presumably more reliable than north korea's, but the question is why does he feel the need to highlight this now?

especially after a new year statement from kim jong—un that seemed to highlight that his nuclear deterrent, as far as he was concerned, had been tested to the full. what this tweet seems to do to me is maybe provoke the north korean regime into changing that policy. me is maybe provoke the north korean regime into changing that policym comes at a time when we are seeing a glimmer of hope of day tonight. the re—establishment of this hot line and so on? yes, i'm not sure this tweet will affect that per se, but it does play into the wider risk, if you like, from the us and south korean end that their alliance might be put under strain by differing approaches and differing policy approaches and differing policy approaches and differing policy approaches and certainly different m essa 9 es approaches and certainly different messages and the risk that the north koreans might try and exploit that in some way to leverage as they have in the past, any difference between the two and with japan for that matter to secure concessions in some

kind of larger game that might lead up kind of larger game that might lead up to any kind of negotiation. kind of larger game that might lead up to any kind of negotiationlj mean, up to any kind of negotiation.” mean, it does sound like the playground, doesn't it, my nuclear button is bigger than yours. isn't that what really the theory of nuclear deterrence is, my nuclear stockpile is more powerful than yours and you can't countenance attacking me? in this case it is not attacking me? in this case it is not a great example of where the us nuclear deterrent is relevant. the north korean nuclear deterrent is predicated, if it works at all, to in its ability to impose a risk of damage which may not be total destruction, it may incorporate conventional attacks on the south, that would be unacceptable. and on the other side of the equation, the us ability to threaten north korea with destruction is not predicated

on its nuclear weapons, it is ways based on its military advantage. the issue of nuclear deterrence is more complicated. this is another thing thatis complicated. this is another thing that is wrong with this, we are running out of ways to describe president trump's tweeting of weapons is president trump's tweeting of weapons is wrong, president trump's tweeting of weapons is wrong, but it is irreleva nt weapons is wrong, but it is irrelevant in this context. the conventional military support to south korea, the us presence on the peninsula that provides a deterrent. good to talk to you. that's tom plant from the royal united services institute. five men from cambridge, and leicester and stockport and a woman from banbury have been arrested on suspicion of being members of the banned far—right group national action. that's west midlands telling us. action. that's west midlands telling us. six arrests action. that's west midlands telling us. six arrests were action. that's west midlands telling us. six arrests were carried out with the west midlands

counter—terrorism unit in conjunction with other counter terror units. a number of properties are being searched. the arrests were pre—planned and intelligence—led. no threat to the public‘s safety. that's from the west midlands police. five men and a woman from banbury arrested on suspicion of being members of the banned far—right group national action. more on that as it comes in to us. storm eleanor sweeps across the uk causing flooding, damage to homes and destruction to drivers were after gusts of up to 100 mph. nhs england insist there is no crisis in the health service as tens of thousands of nonurgent operations may be delayed until the end of january. donald trump boasts on twitter that his nuclear button is much bigger and more powerful than north korea's. a chef has received death threats

after boasting online that she'd deliberately prepared a non—vegan dish for a vegan customer at her restaurant. laura goodman said she'd "spiked" the woman's meal. she's since apologised and denied any animal products were involved. but trading standards officials have begun an investigation. giles latcham reports. police at carlini's in shropshire, responding to death threats made online against laura goodman, co—corner and head chef. in the early hours of sunday, she posted in a closed facebook group that she had just spiked a vegan and that a pious and unjudgemental judgmental vegan i spent all day cooking for has gone to bed still believing she is a vegan. there has been a storm online. 0urfiance and business partner is doing his best to quell it. we have got the possibility of demonstrations

outside the restaurants. we've had death threats. all i can say to those people that are active vegans and vegetarians is listen to our side of the story. nothing happened here. nobody had anything with meat in it. they say the spiked comments related to one of the vegan diners ordering a pizza with cheese on it, which laura prepared. but comments online includes "your behaviour as a chef towards vegans is sickening. disgusting behaviour on the part of your chef, possibly illegal. what if that vegan was allergic to animal products? this is fraud." i spoke briefly to laura goodman and she looked pale and exhausted. she said she was deeply sorry for the comments she'd posted, deeply distressed by the response to them. too distressed, she said, to appear on camera. a committed vegan from telford says it's a question of trust. your initial thought is, "oh, my goodness, will ever be able

to trust the restaurant again?" but also makes you worry for people who might have gone there who might have had an allergy or whatever, and may well suffer from some kind of symptom as a result of, you know, not being given what they thought they were having. food standards officials have begun an investigation. a new dish at the restaurant, humble pie. most victims of human trafficking are young women and girls but the true scale of human lives is thought to be greater than figures suggest. the issue is being highlighted in a new bbc one drama mcmafia through the character of a woman called ludmilla. you are watching bbc news. it is

nine minutes to ten. the amount of music bought, streamed or downloaded in britain rose at its fastest rate for nearly 20 years in 2017, with total consumption up by 9.5%. the bpi, which represents the british music industry, says 135 million albums were purchased or accessed with a particularly big jump in the number of songs streamed — 68.1billion — accounting for more than half of overall music consumption last year. 2018 marks the centenary of the end of the first world war. it is also 100 years since women over 30 in the uk got the right to vote. nationalist additions like the aria came into existence. all this week we are looking at some of the organisations developed during the era of great social change which

followed the first world war. tim muffett has been to meet 105—year—old diana gould. i was born may 23rd 1912. you were born before world war i broke out... yes. do you have any memories of life during world war i? i remember seeing our vicar on a push bike with a whistle because there was an air raid on. it foul and we were covered in glass, wood, not a scratch. i remember this huge zeppelin coming over shoreditch. never seen or heard anything like that before. how could it fly?

after the war, society must have felt very different i guess, because so many men didn't return? you just heard people died and he was killed... "where's bill, bert?" "harry got shot, but he's 0k". in the second world war, during the daytime, planes were obviously fighting up there, but i didn't take much notice. then i heard ba—ba—ba—ba—ba and there's these shots coming down the middle of the road as i was walking along. that was cheeky. when it first started, the national health service was fantastic. you'd just go to the hospital and you didn't have to pay. you were 50 when the beatles have their first single, in 1962. i used to think what a fuss they're making.

all right, so what, the beatles... fine. we got married injanuary 1936. we'd been friends for many years before we ever got married. 1978, ted had an aneurysm and just died. it really seemed the end of the world for me. and you carried the olympic torch, didn't you? and i was 100 at a time. it really was lovely. and having lived such an incredible, active life, what's your main words of advice? i have a very positive outlook on life. i get up and do the diabolo, i do 150 throw ups day. i don't walk about with a long face.

as long as i've got my family, which is the most important thing in my life... i'm lucky. what a wonderful lady. slightly younger than her, but not much, it is matt taylor with the weather forecast! with these early start i'm starting to feel that age! i'm sure some of you had a disturbed night's sleep which is understandable when you consider the gusts of storm eleanor. to the west of london at one stage we saw winds get over 70 mph. some

pretty lively storms worked their way is to it. with the full moon the other night we have seen some rough seas. still the risk of minor coastal flooding. wind strength overall a re coastal flooding. wind strength overall are starting to get that little bit lighter. the core of storm eleanor, that has now tracked its way off into the north sea, heading towards denmark, and as it goes, the winds all lighter, but we are goes, the winds all lighter, but we a re left goes, the winds all lighter, but we are left in a fairly blustery a mass, particularly across parts of southern and western england and wales. towards lunchtime we are expecting to see gusts of wind between 40 and 60 mph. that is possible to bring down a few branches and the odd tree here and there. temperatures around nine or 10 degrees as we hit lunchtime. a few showers around. brighter conditions developing in northern england. showers in northern ireland

and western scotland, set to become more abundant as we head into the afternoon. the north—east of male in scotla nd afternoon. the north—east of male in scotland is where the driest and calmest conditions are to be found today. there will be lots of dry weather elsewhere. some of you will get away with a largely dry afternoon. showers will rattle across on the strength of the wind. in scotland and northern ireland, showers will become heavier and more frequent. temperatures around seven to 11 degrees. 0vernight showers will fade away, winds will turn lighter and the risk of frost and ice for the north and east of england for a time. after a clear night, southern england and wales also into northern ireland is set to turn wet once again and milder weather will be pushing in. given that the ground is so saturated there could be a lot of surface water and spray around. southern areas will brighten up. the winds lighter further north. 0nce

areas will brighten up. the winds lighter further north. once the areas will brighten up. the winds lighterfurther north. once the rain pushes into northern england, southern scotland and some putts of northern ireland, it will sit there all day long —— some parts of northern ireland. we will see some sleet and snow across higher ground. quite a difference tomorrow. chilly conditions in the north with the outbreaks of rain, sleet and snow. i mild afternoon on the way. temperatures around 13 degrees. into friday, but the zone of cloud, sleet and snow will edge its way in. still windy across the south, turning colder across the north and as we finish the week and go into the weekend, there is some bitterly cold airon the way weekend, there is some bitterly cold air on the way with strong winds as well. winter is still with us. by for now. this is bbc news. i'm ben brown. the headlines at 10am: storm eleanor sweeps across the uk causing power cuts, flooding and damage to homes following gusts of up to 100mph. more than 50,000 non—urgent nhs operations and procedures in england

may be delayed until the end ofjanuary, due to winter pressures. patients who spend many hours on a trolley, and these are often elderly patients, they are the sickest patients in our department do much worse in the long—term. they're much more likely to have a poor outcome and even die as a result of their experience in the emergency department. donald trump warns kim jong—un the united states has greater nuclear power than north korea. last year was a record year for music consumption in britain for the third year in a row.