this is bbc news. i'm ben brown. the headlines at 11. theresa may apologises for the postponement of thousands of operations because of winter pressures on the nhs in england president trump tries to silence his former chief strategist by banning a book about goings on in the trump whitehouse. the london taxi driver believed to have raped and assaulted more than a 100 women is to be freed after ten years injail. and on newsnight, you've heard of bitcoin, the digital currency that appears to conjure up money from nothing. but we'll look at the other wacky speculation going on in the world of cryptocurrencies. it's been called the dotcom boom on steriods. why is it so bedazzling to shareholders? good evening.

theresa may has apologised for the postponement of thousands of operations because of winter pressures. speaking on a visit to a hospital in surrey, the prime minister said she acknowledged the difficulty and frustration for patients. and new figures compiled by the bbc show that for the last six weeks more than 75,000 patients were left in ambulances for half an hour or more. that's one in every eight patients enduring a delay. and last week was the busiest for the nhs111 helpline since it began. it received more than four 180,000 calls. here's our health editor, hugh pym. we are in a queue with lots of other people who are clearly very sick. everybody‘s waiting to get in. we are in a queue with lots of other people who are clearly very sick.

a patient‘s eye view of the stress across the nhs. a queue of ambulances waiting to hand over patients at a hospital. leah was stuck for more than an hour in the ambulance with her mother, who was at that moment having a stroke. it's gobsmacking. it's gobsmacking and devastating. it feels like a sick feeling, like a sickening feeling, that this is how bad it is. 0ne chief executive even tweeted a picture of ambulances at his hospital, wigan infirmary, a lovely fleet of 1a parked outside the door, he said. handover delays at hospitals are not good news for patients and they stop ambulances getting back on the road again. the process at a&e units is supposed to take no more than 15 minutes. but the latest figures for england show a sharp increase in the numbers waiting more than 30 minutes. bbc analysis shows that across the system, since the end of november, one in eight have been held up more than half an hour. the north west and eastern regions saw some of the biggest numbers of long ambulance

waits at hospitals. some of the best performers were in london and the west of england. the prime minister was asked again about the response of the government and nhs england to the extreme pressure in many hospitals, postponing a months worth of non—urgent operations. i recognise that it's difficult if somebody is delayed on their admission to hospital or if somebody has an operation postponed. and we will hope to ensure that those operations can be reinstated as soon as possible. i know it's difficult, i know it's frustrating, i know it's disappointing for people, and i apologise. there was an apology, too, from the welsh health secretary to patients who had their operations cancelled, so emergency care could be prioritised. just wondered if you had any update for daddy. in northern ireland, meanwhile, karen's 86—year—old father, who had a chest infection and had to wait more than 26 hours for a hospital bed. there were people on the floor, there were people sitting on chairs. most of them were elderly. there's an elderly lady i remember very vividly slumped in the chair in her nightdress the whole night.

no one came near her. no one even put a blanket around her. it was really very distressing. there were police everywhere, there were people with blood pouring out of them. it was just like a battlefield. official figures now show that flu is adding to the strain on the nhs. in scotland there are more than double the number of cases compared with the same time the year before and there have been warnings about the flu impact in england. what we are seeing is a significant increase in this particular week from the last week in terms of the numbers of people being admitted to hospital and the numbers of people who are being admitted to intensive care. it is too soon to say how severe the flu season but it won't take much to add to the long waits and delays, as illustrated in these pictures, already evident across the nhs. a london taxi driver who's believed to have carried out more than 100

rapes and sexual assaults on his female passengers is to be freed after serving ten years injail. john worboys was convicted of 19 offences in 2009. now a parole board has approved his release with what it calls "stringent" licence conditions. some of his victims have told the bbc they are shocked and distressed that he is being freed and they haven't been told about it by the authorities. daniel sandford reports. for six years, john worboys cruised smart areas of london in his black cab, looking for women to drug and rape. when he was finally caught, thejudge said he'd serve a minimum of eight years in prison and said he wouldn't be released until he was no longer a threat to women. worboys would show young women he picked up in his cab large wads of cash, saying he'd recently won big at the casino. then he'd offer them champagne, which he'd spiked with sedatives, and rape them. the judge gave him what's known as an indeterminate sentence, under which, people are only freed once they're no

longer considered dangerous. but today, the bbc discovered that the parole board has decided worboys will be released this month under supervision after spending less than ten years in prison. i've spoken to one of my clients, who is absolutely horrified and really distressed, that nobody had the courtesy to inform her, so she's in the middle of cooking tea for her kids and she hears this on the radio, and feels absolutely sick to her stomach. the question does arise as to whether his real dangerousness has been considered, and the seriousness of his offences been properly taken into account. the organisation, rape crisis, said it was far too soon for worboys to be released. although police believed john worboys attacked over 100 women, he was only convicted of attacking 12. and only one of those convictions was for rape. and that's why his sentence was so short. all the same, under the indeterminate sentence rules,

the parole board will need to have assured themselves thatjohn worboys was no longer a risk as a sexual predator. daniel sandford, bbc news. the row between donald trump and his former top aide, steve bannon, has intensified, with lawyers for the president threatening legal action against mr bannon. it follows comments attributed to him in a controversial new book about the trump presidency, a book which mr trump's lawyers are trying to prevent being published. 0ur north america editor, jon sopel, is in washington for us tonight. some of the details in this book, the book president trump doesn't want us to see are certainly intriguing. hell hath no fury like a bannon scorned, it would seem. steve bannon, who was described as the brains behind donald trump, is now out in the washington cold after his extraordinary attack, the warm words of last summer but a distant memory. i like him, he's a good man. he is not a racist, i can tell you that.

he's a good person. he actually gets a very unfair press in that regard. but we will see what happens with mr bannon, but he's a good person, and i think the press treats him, frankly, very unfairly. but bannon was fired soon afterwards and has now had his revenge, rounding on the president's son and son—in—law over a meeting they had with a kremlin—linked lawyer at trump tower during the campaign, saying this. and that's provoked rage and fury in the white house, the president, issuing this unprecedented statement about a close colleague. today, at the white house, they‘ re lawyering up.

orders to stephen bannon to cease and desist, threats to the publisher, too. and the response from mr bannon last night? why, to declare his unfailing support for the president. and that brought this response from mr trump today. has steve bannon betrayed you, mr president? thank you very much. i don't know, he called me a great man last night, so, you know, he obviously changed his tune pretty quick. all right, thank you all very much. the white house is pushing back hard on the contents of this book, describing the author, michael wolff, as an unreliable witness and a fantasist. that, despite him being given unprecedented access to the workings of the west wing and recording hours and hours of conversations. and even if only 50%

of the book is accurate, it still paints a damning portrait of a white house that's dysfunctional and a president who's paranoid. no wonder donald trump is so angry. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. the environment secretary, michael gove, says subsidies to british farmers currently paid for by brussels will be guaranteed by the government until the 2022 general election, with a proposed transition period afterwards. farmers would then receive payments in exchange for taking steps to protect the environment such as planting woodland or boosting wildlife. our business editor, simonjack, reports. farming is perhaps the industry most closely entwined with the eu. for 45 years, those who work on this green and pleasant land have been regulated, protected, and paid by the eu. £3 billion a year in subsidies is paid out to farmers, determined by how much land they own. that will change, according to the environment secretary. and what i want to do is to move

away from the current method of subsidy, which doesn't really reward efficiency, towards a method of agricultural support which makes sure that good farmers have new markets for their products, and at the same time, that the natural environment is enhanced. under proposals announced today, the government would limit payments to the largest landowners. it would reward environmental protection measures, such as flood prevention, and support high standards in animal welfare. well, we're very pleased with the gove announcement today, because it provides a level of certainty for farming... david exwood farms 2,000 acres in west sussex. he's grateful the uk government is promising to cover current payments till 202a. it's really important, it gives us a chance to sort of adjust our businesses, really study the impact of brexit and plan accordingly. you know, farming's a really long—term business. the wheat i have in the ground, the cattle we have on the farm, many of them will not be sold until after we leave the eu,

so having a chance to plan ahead is really valuable to us. the government's offer seems ambitious, even speculative, given the next election is due in 2022. grain mountains, butter mountains, at times over the last 45 years the eu's common agricultural policy became associated with wasteful protectionism, but it also shielded farmers, including those in the uk, through bans or tariffs on products from outside the bloc. for example, cut—prices chickens treated with chlorine from the us are banned in the eu. some fear that, in a rush to make new powerful trade partners, uk farmers, standards and prices will be undercut. some farmers say, "well, if that happens, we'lljust have to lower our standards to compete." but that is a race to the bottom, and what will happen is, we will lose. ultimately, britain doesn't have the economies of scale to produce low—quality, low—welfare food more cheaply than other countries. there is, perhaps, no other sector

where opinion is so divided between those who think brexit will be the making of and those who think brexit will be the breaking of an industry. can you make an agricultural policy tailor—made for britain's economy and environment, or are you taking a massive gamble by stepping outside the fence of subsidies and protection? the farming landscape may change with brexit, but subsidies for farmers aren't going anywhere for six years. proof, perhaps, of how hard some habits are to break. simon jack, bbc news. the colmans' mustard factory in norwich is going to close. it's been made in the city for 160 years. 0wner unilever shares the site with britvic, which had already said it was closing its part of the site. the factory will shut at the end of 2019. pupils entering secondary school are ill—equipped to deal with the emotional demands of social media, according to the children's commissioner.

anne longfield says social media can quickly become an avalanche of pressure for children. she's calling for more education in primary schools and a greater awareness among pa rents. 0ur education correspondent, elaine dunkley, reports. for many young people, social media is at the centre of their lives. following, sharing and posting, part of growing up in a digital age. but for some children it's a steep and difficult learning curve. i made music, i posted it, i expressed how i felt so i got a lot of hate and backlash from that. james was 12 when he first started posting images of himself online. negative comments have had a huge impact on his self—esteem. i wasn't like the average boy who played football every lunchtime. i learnt to dance, i love to sing and act so i got a lot of backlash from that and loads of harsh comments in the section. how did that make you feel? trapped, alone. because i'm kind of like a confident person and i don't really

like to tell people stuff so i was kind of like suffering in silence for a long time. james is keen to share his experience and is now an anti—bullying campaigner. today's report, life in likes, highlights the way children use social media changes as they go from primary schools are secondary. from playing games on devices to often having their own phones. as their world expands, there is pressure to fit in. going into secondary school, you're surrounded by lots of new people you don't know and you want to impress them by showing on social media how great you are and how good a person you are. my mum checks my phone quite regularly, she checks my instagram and messages to see that i'm behaving myself. going from primary school to secondary school can be a huge