this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at two: huge crowds join funeral processions in iraq, for iran's top military commander killed by a us drone strike. president trump says it was to stop a war not start one. suleimani as been perpetrating acts of terror to destabilise the middle east for the last 20 years. what the united states did yesterday should have been done long ago. here the foreign office hardens its travel warnings to britons for both iran and iraq. fears that high winds and temperatures will push australia's bushfires towards heavily populated areas — thousands of reserve troops are deployed. the fires that have raged in south—eastern australia will be affected by these winds, they will

be fanned by this, making a dangerous situation even more perilous. labour backbenchers lisa nandy and jess phillips join the contest to become the party's next leader. sir rod stewart is charged by police, after allegedly punching a security guard in the chest in florida on new year's eve. and in half an hour, we'll be brining you a special programme, as razia iqbal speaks to us supreme courtjustice ruth bader ginsburg. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. thousands of people have gathered on the streets of baghdad for the funeral procession, of iran's most powerful military leader who was killed by a us drone strike.

president trump said he ordered the attack on general qasem suleimani, to stop a war, not start one. the foreign office has warned against all travel to iraq and all but essential travel to iran. charlotte gallagher reports. a funeral procession for qasem suleimani in baghdad. a man despised by many, but a matter to others. crowds shout, death to america, and america is the enemy of god. others waved flags belonging to militia groups backed by iran. the military commander was killed in a us air strike on thursday in the iraqi capital. suleimani was one of the most powerful men in iran, arguably second only to the supreme leader. he helped prop up the syrian regime, thought the islamic state group and effectively led militia groups in iraq.

the iranian president visits suleimani's family, a sign of the general‘s status in the country. he tells them the americans made a mistake, a strategic mistake. they will see more difficult days are awaiting them. suleimani's body will be taken back to iran for the funeral and days of mourning. officials will want to show the world how much he mattered, it's expected the supreme leader will lead the funeral prayers. he was planning a very major attack and we got him. the man who ordered the air strike, president trump, was cheered by supporters last night. the us hasn't released any details about what qasem suleimani was allegedly planning. the foreign secretary dominic rob and his predecessor are urging restraint, but haven't criticised mr trump as mike actions. i don't believe for a moment that he does

want a war and i am sure he has calculated what the response is likely to be. but if he is going to be effective there needs to be a more consistent long—term approach. iran has sworn revenge but is yet to act. anything that increases the chance of a direct confrontation between the us and iran is what many fear. charlotte gallagher, bbc news. lina sinjab is our middle east correspondent — shejoins us now from beirut. we are all talking about the implications of this attack. importantly, implications of this attack. importa ntly, the implications of this attack. importantly, the regional implications, so where are we on that? how far is the one's reach across the region? iran has a strong influence and presence in the region. certainly in iraq, syria and here in lebanon they have lots of allies and they have proxies sheer militia fighters that are taking orders from them, certainly the case with hezbolla here in lebanon. as much as they have much of followers

and supporters in the region while mourning the killing of qasem suleimani who was very influential and orchestrated the operations in the regions, but others see this as qasem suleimani and iran responsible for destabilising the region and he is responsible for the death of hundreds, especially inside syria and iraq. there are different views on the killing of qasem suleimani in the region, there are lots of speculations but a lot of concerns as well. a lot has been made as to why the us would strike in iraq when it was an ally. what were the toast between iraq and iran? iraq and iran have strong ties and they are stronger than the iraqi american ties. the iranians have a presence, strong ties. the iranians have a presence, strong presence ties. the iranians have a presence, strong presence in iran. they have

many shi'ite militias who are in charge in iraq and they are also the ones who are mapping the political scene and the military scene inside iraq. many iraqis, especially among the youth, see iran controlling iraq com pletely the youth, see iran controlling iraq completely and that is why we have seen completely and that is why we have seen protests taking to the streets in the past couple of months, quinn against the government, corrupt government but also criticising iran and don't want iranian influence and control over their country any more. this group of people we have seen celebrating the of qasem suleimani, however the other group who is in close relationship with iran, they are the ones who have the weapons, they control in the city, so far iran has more say in iraq rather than the americans. we have had warnings already from iran. a commander based in the southern

province has hinted at possible targets currently lie within the strait of hormuz. what sort of implications does that have?m strait of hormuz. what sort of implications does that have? it is not only this, there are lots of speculations about targets all over the region against american interest but not only american interest, american allies's interest and that includes the golf and israel. we don't have any idea about what type of reaction the iranians will do or when they are going to do it. we know from following the foreign policy of iran that they think a lot and prepare a lot to take the right action at the right time. that will serve their strategic interest and at this moment with this big blow to the iranians security by targeting the iranians security by targeting the second top leader in the country, they are definitely planning on hitting hard. just to finish off, we are talking a lot

about the region itself but why does what is happening in the middle east now matter globally? this is a region that has been in turmoil for decades and it affected the whole world in different ways because of different countries have different interest in the region, but certainly for the americans who have thousands of troops based in the region, where you have also the oil, the lodges will result in the region, it is certainly affecting the world's interest and economy as well, so more turmoil in the region will not be serving anyone's interest around the world. thank you very much. australia is deploying 3,000 defence force reservists to help the nation tackle the worsening bushfire crisis. dozens of fires are now burning across several states, and strong winds and very hot temperatures are intensifying the danger, with fears the fires could spread to more densely populated areas over

the weekend. at least 23 people have died since september. from nowra, new south wales, phil mercer reports. australia feels like a country on a war footing. as the bushfire crisis intensifies, thousands of military reservists are being deployed as well as transport aircraft and more helicopters. the navy has already been evacuating hundreds of people stranded in the town of mallacoota in victoria. more lives have been lost. the latest fatalities came on kangaroo island in south australia, where two people were trapped in a car overrun by flames. dozens of homes are thought to have been destroyed. temperatures have soared above a0 degrees and gale force winds have fanned the flames. wild conditions have made a dangerous day even worse, turning the sky an ominous shade of red.

the wind change has just come in and this hill near nowra, in new south wales, has been transformed by a southerly wind change. we can feel the dust and the ash that has been whipped up by these very strong winds and this is what the authorities have been so very worried about. it's the wind that is the real enemy to the firefighting effort. today we have had very high temperatures and now we're having this ferocious wind. the dust is being whipped up from the land and the fires that have raged in south—eastern australia will be affected by these winds, they will be fanned by this, making a dangerous situation even more perilous. hundreds of fires continue to rage across south—eastern australia. a senior member of the new south wales state government has compared the fires to an atomic bomb.

phil mercer, bbc news, nowra, new south wales. the fires are burning over a wide area along australia's eastern seaboard. another of our correspondents, shaimaa khalil, is in ulla—dulla, another of the areas under threat. the winds picked up quite strongly here in the town, bringing this huge plume of smoke over and you can feel some ash in the air as well. people in this holiday park have abandoned their cabins and have come to the beach to seek refuge. some have said they are responding to messages from they are responding to messages from the police and fire services. others are hosting their cabins, just to be prepared. people they say they are relatively safe but feel anxious, they don't know what will happen next and that has been the challenge. these fires are so unpredictable and nobody knows where they will hit next and how hard that

will be. over a thousand residents and tourists who had been stranded on a beach by bushfires in mallacoota, southeastern australia have landed near melbourne after a 20—hour journey on two ships. they arrived on the naval ships at the port of hastings. they were then transferred in buses to two relief centres. we couldn't go west, we couldn't go east. in the end we couldn't go anywhere so our only option was to go down to the foreshore and sit it out and at one stage, we had 25 fire trucks with us. sorry. we sat there and waited. we sat and waited. it was just horrible. and waited. we sat and waited. it wasjust horrible. mallacoota is known for its biodiversity. to see birds you would never associate with death on the beach, magpies and kookaburras and lorikeets and ducks

and herons, it is laid out on that beach for kilometres. the leadership of this country has a lot to answer for. we know this exists, we know this country has been ravaged by drought and now fire. water is drying up and the government seems to be doing very little about it. in south australia, two people have died on kangaroo island, a popular holiday spot not farfrom adelaide. about a quarter of the total area has been destroyed. the island houses an important national park and is home to many unique wildlife species, as sarah legge — professor of wildlife conservation at the australian national university in canberra explains. kangaroo island is one of australia's largest islands, it is the third largest after tasmania and melbourne. it is a wildlife paradise. some of the feral animals

never reached kangaroo island. so the density of native species is very high and it has some endemic species and subspecies. these fires have affected the majority of the national park on the island so the western quarter, mostly bad. a lot of the native wildlife on kangaroo island will be under a lot of pressure. the impact of these fires on the natural resources and wildlife is immense. there are a couple of threatened species that have been brought to the brink as a consequence of this. there is a little, very small marsupial carnivore that lives on kangaroo island. what is happening here is quite symptomatic of what is happening right across the east and south east coast. it is a massive

catastrophe. the met police have launched their first murder investigation of the year — after a man was stabbed to death in north london, on friday evening. the victim, in his 30s, was pronounced dead at the scene. no arrests have been made and inquiries continue. two prominent labour backbenchers have joined the contest to become the party's next leader. the wigan mp, lisa nandy, and jess phillips, who represents birmingham yardley, both said they wanted to restore trust in labour and win back voters in its traditional strongholds. this takes the total contenders to four, with others expected in the next few days. with me now is our political correspondentjohn owen. they were expected, these two names. what have they been saying? to fairly high—profile figures to have confirmed they will be standing for the labour leadership in the last 2a hours. they joined the

the labour leadership in the last 2a hours. theyjoined the shadow foreign secretary emily thornberry and clive lewis to bring the total number of confirmed candidates to four. in terms of the pitches we are expecting, jess phillips is somebody who has been something of a critic ofjeremy corbyn but has a reputation of an independent minded, campaigning mp. she want to present herself as somebody who can offer a fresh break from the current leadership, some new thinking. she will present herself as the new blood that possibly labour needs to confront its current dilemma. she will also want to make very clear to the membership that she is someone determined to take the fight to the conservatives, particularly in the north of england. lisa nandy is someone north of england. lisa nandy is someone who will emphasise the need for labour to regain trust in those so—called labour heartlands, those areas, particularly in the north of england where labour underperformed quite dramatically in the recent

election, resulting in a lot of conservative gains. she also emphasised the need for reconciliation inside the party. speaking on the bbc earlier today, she spoke about the need for unity. the last few years have been riven by division and they have been a very difficult to use for every single activist, member, councillor and memberof parliament single activist, member, councillor and member of parliament in the party. i am someone who comes from the left of the party, i work with child refugees and homeless teenagers before i came to parliament. they worked for an mp on the left of the party as a housing caseworker but i see the strength in all of our traditions across the party. no one person has the monopoly on wisdom. one slightly odd thing about the way this contest is operating so far is that the two people who are presumed to be out in front is the most likely candidates to succeed jeremy corbyn have not as yet formally declared their intention to stand, but we do expect the shadow brexit secretary guest

and the shadow business secretary elon bailey, to announce their candidacy in the coming days. police in florida have charged sir rod stewart with battery —— after he was accused of punching a security guard on new year's eve. the rock star is reported to have been trying to get into a private event, at a hotel in palm beach, when the incident happened. the government's being urged to take urgent steps to tackle the rising threat of the synthetic opioid, fentanyl, which is up to 50 times stronger than heroin. a new report says the number of fentanyl—linked deaths in the uk rose from eight in 2008 to 135 in 2017. the headlines on bbc news: huge crowds join funeral processions in iraq, for iran's top military commander killed by a us drone strike. president trump says it was to stop

a war not start one. fears that high winds and temperatures will push australia's bushfires towards heavily populated areas — thousands of reserve troops are deployed. labour backbenchers lisa nandy and jess phillips join the contest to become the party's next leader. more now on our top story — the death of iran's most powerful military leader major—general qassem soleimani — who was killed by a us air strike. the un secretary general, antonio guterres, has warned the world can't afford another war in the region — amid fears the latest government offensive, in the syrian province idlib could lead to another humanitarian catastrophe. more than 235,000 people have been displaced in the past three weeks. the syrian regime has been advancing into the province in stages.

pushing up from the south in what appears to be an effort to capture strategic motorways. residents are fleeing north, to the border with turkey and other barbara plett usher reports. the bombs have been falling relentlessly. this is a particularly brutal offensive in serial‘s long war. “— brutal offensive in serial‘s long war. —— serial. regime forces are pounding the last stronghold of the armed opposition. the insist that targeting is the most extremists who lead the rebels about making your effort to suppress a billion ‘s. striking homes, hospitals, markets, women, children. nine—year—old

fatima survived the bombing of her home. so did her 11—year—old sister who was also trapped in the rubble. rescue workers try to free her leg but a secondary explosion sent them ducking for cover. eventually they pulled her to safety. the girl ‘s mother died in the attack. a new tide of people has fled the government's advance, emptying towns and villages in southern italy. many had already been uprooted by fighting in other parts of syria. for some this is the fifth even tenth time on the road. and it is the worst time of year, especially for those who haven't found refuge with relatives. camps near serial‘s border with turkey are overcrowded, already filled from those displaced. conditions were bad and will probably get worse. we became homeless. we are left with the

clothes on our back. we can't do anything. we have no money, no heating, we have nothing. across the border, turkey used to be a refuge for serial‘s hemlis but it says it can't afford to take any more. abdul arrived in istanbul more than three yea rs arrived in istanbul more than three years ago. he works for the position radio station broadcasting into rebel held areas. translation: his family were among those among intensive bombing. they have found a safe place for now in northern syria. when you think you will see yourfamily again? syria. when you think you will see your family again? never? syria. when you think you will see yourfamily again? never? not forat least ten years, he says. there certainly won't be a quick end to the misery because the syrian regime has vowed not to stop until it reta kes the has vowed not to stop until it retakes the entire rebel province.

china has sacked the head of its hong kong liaison office, wang zhimin, after almost seven months of violent clashes between police and pro—democracy demonstrators. the liaison office has been criticised in mainland china, for misjudging the political situation in the territory. the replacement will be a former party secretary in shanxi province in the north. the televison medium derek acorah has died at the age of 69. he was best known for appearing on the show most haunted. his wife, gwen, said he'd been in intensive care following a brief illness. there are calls for a review of surrogacy laws — to allow a child's intended parents to be recognised as such — at the time of their birth. currently, parents have to apply to the courts for a child to be legally recognised as their own, which often doesn't happen. bbc scotland's carole erskine reports.

really cute. for laura and stephen, penelope is their medical baby. ten years ago, laura was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia. she manages her illness with daily chemotherapy tablets, but knew she always wanted a family. in 2016, she began trying for her own child. when i was first diagnosed and i went to hospital, i had a list of questions i wanted to ask. you know, am i going to die? am i going to lose my hair, will i be able to have children? and the cancer increased and increased quite rapidly and when i went to hospital, a nurse she said to me, "if you did get pregnant, and the cancer continued to increase, it could get to five or six months into the pregnancy and we would have to decide whether we save your life or save the baby's." and that was the most devastating blow. i felt really, really useless, and that cancer had not only taken a kind of chunk of my life, because obviously it plays

on your mind that what is my life expectancy going to be? but that it had played with my chance of having a family. and, yeah, thankfully there was someone there to help with that. that someone was her sister—in—law, jayne. i am blessed to have a family and i know what the feeling is like to have your child and i wanted that for my brother and sister—in—law and we would do anything, as we have done, to make it happen for them. i don't see her as my child. i think if i had had issues and had the baby blues or post—natal depression then, as we talked with the counsellor, then maybe surrogacy may not have been a good option for me, but i have had no problems before. penelope's special book of herjourney. i think we always felt it was important to do so that we could write down everything we were feeling

and all of the steps we had gone through so that when she is old enough, maybe five years old or so, we would be able to tell her how she came into the world. baby penelope jayne tessa was born on november 23 after being conceived by ivf on the nhs. penelope is biologically ours so i had to go through ivf and have my eggs removed. jayne had to have injections herself as well, so there were two of us going through that and for me, to watch jayne having to go through that and know it is for us as well was really tough to take. we had a lot of ups and downs. it is not easy at all. it did not work the first time, there was a lot of upset and actually, at the point whenjayne came to tell us that she was actually pregnant, i think i had given up hope. i really thought it was not going to happen. jayne arrived at our door with a positive pregnancy test and it was just the most incredible moment of my life. in the eyes of the law, jayne is penelope's mum and laura and stephen can apply to change this

when she is six weeks old and officially become recognised as a parents. for them all, the long journey to get to here has been worth it, and it means laura has more reasons than ever to stay positive about her own health. it gives me something to live for, more than ever now, so i am determined to just carry on and stay as healthy as i can for her. it has honestly been the most wonderful, wonderful thing, so i am eternally grateful forjayne, sorry... but we all love her, so... you know... she is special. yeah. a portrait of the queen and her three heirs to the throne, has been released to mark the start of the new decade. the photograph, which was taken the week before christmas shows the prince of wales, the duke of cambridge and prince george, standing alongside her majesty at buckingham palace. it is the second official

portrait of the four generations of royals together. a two—year—old boy has been freed by firefighters, after getting his head stuck in a toilet seat. flynn edwards pulled the portable training seat over his head at his home in cornwall. fire crews managed to cut the seat off — before giving flynn a tour of their engine. they came over, they were absolutely lovely, i couldn't thank them enough. they had a go at pulling it off and then eventually, used some small tools to actually break it and cut it off. and then, you had a little tour in the fire engine, didn't you? he had a little tour in the fire engine which he loved. the climate change campaigner,

greta thunberg, changed her name to "sharon" on twitter in honour of a celebrity game show contestant who appeared to have no idea who she was. the casualty actress, amanda henderson, was appearing on celebrity mastermind when she was asked to name the famous activist. the 2000 book is a collection of speeches by the climate change activists? sharon. greta thunberg. well this was how the climate change activist responded last night(oov) clearly seeing the funny side of the story. she's since changed her name back for her 3.9 million followers on twitter to the more predictable greta thunberg. now time for the weather. good afternoon. we have had a lot of cloud in some parts of the uk so far

today. that has broken up a little bit in places to give a little bit of sunshine. this is how it looked in county durham early on with some sunny skies overhead. through the best of the afternoon, the eastern side of the uk. brightening up a little bit across the south—west as well. further north and west, decal thick enough to produce the odd spot of drizzle. temperatures between seven and 10 degrees. tonight we will bring in more cloud from the west, still producing the odd spot of rain. slightly more persistent into northern scotland but for eastern scotland, where we do see some clear breaks, temperatures will get quite close to freezing. four and 9 degrees. tomorrow, i get a lot of cloud but that should break up for some to give a little bit of sunshine. still outbreaks of rain in the of scotland. eyes of 12 degrees.