this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 10. iranian mps chant "death to america!", as president trump warns the united states has a list of 52 targets that will be hit "very hard" if iran retaliates for the killing of its top military leader. royal navy warships are ordered to escort british—flagged vessels in the persian gulf and the prime minister is returning to the uk from his caribbean holiday. this is the scene live in the shi'ite holy city of mashhad in north—eastern iran where mourners have filled the streets. the australian bushfires claim their 24th life as a man dies helping defend a friend's property in new south wales. more than 2,000 homes have been destroyed. the costs of hs2 are "out of control" and its benefits overstated, according to the deputy

chair of its review panel. and we follow one woman as she meets the half—siblings she never knew she had. that's in my extended family in half an hour. hello. a very good morning to you. president trump says the united states has a list of 52 iranian sites which will be hit "very hard and very fast" if there is retaliation for the killing of qasem soleimani. iran's most senior military commander was assassinated on thursday in baghdad in an american air strike. mr trump said the targets were high level, and important to iranian culture. the british government has announced two royal navy warships will escort uk shipping in the persian gulf,

and the foreign secretary dominic raab will travel to washington for talks later this week. greg mckenzie has this report. as britain ramps up its security in the middle east, donald trump has threatened to hit 52 iranian targets should iran strike any american or us assets in retaliation for the killing of its revered general qasem soleimani, whose death the nation has vowed to avenge. the number 52 relates to the 52 american hostages who were taken after the embassy was seized in tehran in 1979 and they were held for 444 days. the president posted on twitter — "iran is talking very boldly about targetting certain usa assets." he goes on to say, "the us has identified 52 iranian sites, some at a very high level and important to iran and the iranian culture.

and those targets and iran itself will be hit very fast and very hard." trump added, "the usa wants no more threats." the tweets came hours after at least four rockets were fired towards baghdad's heavily fortified green zone last night, where the us and british embassies sit. no one was injured. in response to the iranian threats of revenge, the us has sent 3,000 more troops to the middle east and advised its citizens to leave iraq. british warships have been ordered to escort merchant shipping in the persian gulf. the foreign secretary dominic raab has confirmed he will travel to washington on thursday to meet the us secretary of state mike pompeo, but not before meeting his german and french counterparts in the week. downing street said the prime minister, who is due

to arrive back in the uk from his caribbean holiday today, would speak to other world leaders in the coming days. greg mckenzie, bbc news. hundreds of thousands of iranians have gathered in ahvaz where the body of the assassinated general, qasem soleimani, has arrived ahead of his burial on tuesday. the centre of the city is full, with people holding pictures of the general and beating their chests in mourning, as the hearse slowly makes its way through the vast crowds. the procession in ahvaz marks the beginning a three—day ceremony. the general‘s body will be moved to tehran on monday, before burial on tuesday in his south—eastern hometown of kerman. these live pictures are from the second most populous city in iran after the capital tehran, mashad. the cough and is expected there at around 1230 this afternoon and, from

there, it will be transported to tehran. it's not particularly bright and cheerful day, but there's plenty of people out marking the death of the general. 0ne of people out marking the death of the general. one of the criticism is often made it iran is able to turn on these parades and displays of public support whenever it wants to. the regime has always had that capacity, but there is no doubt, on a nationalist basis if nothing else, the killing of the countries top general was bound to provoke some kind of anger, whether or not people agree with the iranian regime or not, so those are the scenes in mashad in iran. 0ur chief international correspondent lyse doucette is following developments from kabul. these will be very symbolic, very emotional days across iran, where every day we heard updates to the plans for these funeral rites for qasem soleimani. more cities are being added, more symbolism is being added to send the very strong message

around the world, most of all to the white house in washington, how much qasem soleimani mattered, how much he is, in the eyes of the iranian regime, a national hero and martyr. his body, the remains left iraq after they had been personally met at the airport by the son of ayatollah sistani who is iraq's most important spiritual leader with millions and millions of followers. so ayatollah sistani was sending a very strong message about how much this mattered. there was also the remains of the iraqi militia commander abu mahdi al—muhandis who had also been received by ayatollah sistani's son. now the processions are beginning in iran, in southern provinces. we were told in a statement by the islamic revolutionary guard corps that that beginning in that province had been chosen

by qasem soleimani's family because it represented the sacred defence. in other words, a reference to the iran—iraq war in the 1980s, where qasem soleimani first made his name. kazakhstan also has a very significant arab ethnic minority and there were protests there in november. all that, of course, is forgotten today, at least in public, while iranian leaders tried to make this a moment for the country to come together. this morning, president trump has tweeted a fresh warning: "they attacked us and we hit back", he wrote. "if they attack again, which i would strongly advise them not to do, we will hit them harder than they have ever been hit before!" he went on to talk about recent us military spending on weapons, with the warning — "if iran attacks an american base, or any american, we will be sending some of that brand new beautiful equipment their way and without hesitation!" this morning the foreign secretary

dominic raab described the late general soleimani as a "regional menace" but said it was important to de—escalate tensions. the reality is iran has, a long period, being engaged in menacing destabilising activity partly through the work of general soleimani. we've also had the flouting of international law when it comes to the pursuit of the potential to acquire a nuclear weapon. we've seen appalling treatment of dual nationals, uk and others. the president of the us, the president of france, through the macron trump initiatives, have left the door open to a diplomatic route through this to a better place for iran. the leadership have decided not to take it. i think the important thing now is to de—escalate the tensions to try and restore some stability and make sure, whilst we are containing nefarious actions iran is undoubtedly taking, that that door to a diplomatic route out from the international code is there for iran, but it's ultimately got to be for the leadership in tehran to make that choice.

let's get the thoughts of the shadow foreign secretary, emily thornberry, whojoins me now. good morning. what do you make of this call for de—escalation because presumably in practical terms that's quite difficult to achieve? it's quite difficult to achieve? it's quite difficult to achieve. let's look at the truth of the situation. the truth is we have recently had essentially the head of the defence force of iran killed in iraq by the americans. there is a backdrop of president trump in the run—up to a selection saying he was going to tearup selection saying he was going to tear up the selection saying he was going to tearup the iranian selection saying he was going to tear up the iranian nuclear deal and the purpose just for viewers, tear up the iranian nuclear deal and the purposejust for viewers, new readers start here, the purpose of the deal was it was a ten year negotiation, the idea was to bring iran infrom negotiation, the idea was to bring iran in from the cold, it didn't achieve anything but it began the conversation and helped the more moderate elements in iranian terms

to get some ascendancy. there is a lwa ys to get some ascendancy. there is always in the hard—line theocratic which this general is one of them, who wanted to be isolated from the rest and be belligerent towards the west. that's how they get their power. what's happened is all attem pts power. what's happened is all atte m pts to power. what's happened is all attempts to try to engage iran has been ruined by donald trump. he's been ruined by donald trump. he's been on a path to war. i listened with particular interest to the chief of staff of coal in power who said to the americans, look, this is the same path we went down in the war to the same path we went down in the wartoa the same path we went down in the war to a rock, so i know the game because i played it and it was wrong for me to play at, it will be even worse with a run. the result of it will be ten — 15 times worse in terms of loss of life and costs and we have to stop. he's been warning for a couple of years. i have been warning. i raised in the current foreign with a previous and the one before that, borisjohnson, and when i raised it with him and said the

president is going to tear up the iranian nuclear deal, what are we going to do about it? he said i should pay a bit less time reading the newspapers and should be less worried. that kind of complacency and lack of attention to detail of course, in the uranium context also resulted in nothing as gary radcliffe's sentence been increased. this has been something which has been coming forfar too this has been something which has been coming for far too long and now they respond by saying the iranians must de—escalate against the backdrop of head of the defence force being killed and donald trump saying i'm not starting a war, trying to stop it, but saying is about to attack all these sites. equally against a backdrop of a series of attacks, 11 in all in iraq, by these iranian—backed militias, iran has been prodding prodding prodding and at some point this could happen. there has been tit—for—tat. there was the attack on the tankers, the iranian tank are

being held, so that was a low level sort of thing going on, but this is a completely different level. this isa a completely different level. this is a major lurch towards war. as i say, donald trump says he does not wa nt to say, donald trump says he does not want to war but talks about all these sites is going to attack. he is putting 3000 more troops in the area. we have our naval vehicles now deployed in that area. but, you know, my concern is we are going to get pulled into this. i mean, jeremy hunt talked about we might get embroiled in a war. we have interests in the area. we have special forces obviously in the area but also have people come armed forces, training up the iraqis for example, and they have very light r . example, and they have very light weaponry. they are vulnerable now. the pressure on the iraqis to tell the americans and the british to leave or indeed for them themselves to be attacked, is huge. and isn't just in iraq and iran, but in the

whole of the region and we weren't even told in advance of them doing this. they are supposed to be our allies. the us secretary of state mike pompeo said he is disappointed by the german french and british reaction. does that create an opportunity, because we are, after all, having a seat on the security council, permanent member, if france and britain were to jointly call for and britain were to jointly call for aun and britain were to jointly call for a un security council meeting?” agree with you and i've been saying this for the last 408i was that what we should do is have an emergency meeting of the security council, and we are not just meeting of the security council, and we are notjust there to be deputy oi’ we are notjust there to be deputy or to do some sort of donald trump mini me act, we should have our own voice, and we should be saying stop. there is a illegal activity on behalf of the iranians are frankly also on behalf of the americans and this is not the way to be. if you cast your mind back 17 years, to how the united nations responded to the potential of a war in iraq, it played much more of a leading role

but what happened to the united nations? we have a responsibility is one of the leading nations at the un to make sure that it is in play and the voice of the world is heard and we must also in britain make it absolutely clear that we will not be involved in a war, we will not get dragged into it, we say no, and we say no in the way harold wilson did in vietnam, we need to make this clear that we must not get dragged into it. we have learned a lesson evenif into it. we have learned a lesson even if donald trump has in from all the other middle eastern wars. it's a lwa ys the other middle eastern wars. it's always attractive to say saddam hussein was a terrible man that's taken out, and so it goes on, but without a plan, to where this takes us, what the consequences are, we have had chilcot, and hopefully have learned some lessons from it. you don't get involved and do not get involved in intervention if you have no idea where it's going to take you without a plan at the end of the day. this is reckless behaviour and we should not be backing it up. let

me ask about the labour leadership contest, getting quite crowded now, and we haven't got a full list yet and we haven't got a full list yet and an argument advanced by some of your rivals like lisa nandy for example, some of the other names we have seen, is that there was too much listening to people like you who supported remaining in the eu that messed up the message and it meant that people, particularly in the north of england like wakefield, rejected labour. can ijust say to you honestly, over the last day or so, my major preoccupation has been about a run and trying to stop the british getting embroiled with the americans and getting involved in the war. i think that's right and anybody who aspires to be labour leader will need to deal with issues like this and the fires in australia and the other things going on in the world. let me not to dock your

question. i personally think that, andi question. i personally think that, and i said at the time, in shadow cabinet, i wrote tojeremy and made it perfectly clear, as did most of the parliamentary liberal party that to have a general election on one issue would be wrong because if we wa nted issue would be wrong because if we wanted to find out what the british people thought about leaving or remaining in the european union or what we thought of borisjohnson steel, we should have had a referendum. in other words you shouldn't have acquiesced ? referendum. in other words you shouldn't have acquiesced? no, general election is on general issues and i think we went into that election without a clear message, accept that, but trying to change a subject impossible to do, and what we have allowed borisjohnson to do is wrap himself up in a lie that he can get brexit done by the end of january, which he will not be able to do. we have to negotiate an ongoing relationship with europe. we have given him powerfor the next five years and the best christmas present he could have wanted and, frankly, it was a mistake for us to do that and we should have got brexit done by way of a referendum on boris his steele and dunn, of

course, had a general election on everything. labour lost a large number of seats in the north of england, many seem to have not lost in your history except at the time in the late 1930s, can you really argue convincingly that you should replace one islington mp with another to send a message to that pa rt another to send a message to that part of the country? i actually come from guildford. might not help very much. i come from a large council estate in guildford and i understand, i learned a great deal from that, and i know about communities that are split between those who have and those who don't. and from my own experience of being brought up by a single parent and my mother having been on benefits for many years, i failed mother having been on benefits for many years, ifailed my 11 plus, went to a secondary modern, free school dinners etc etc, you know, i have an empathy and an understanding of the struggle that people have and what i have always known is that politicians learn from the public.

we continue to be educated by the public and we have to listen and nobody said that you know the mp from limehouse in the 1930s couldn't represent the whole of the country, clement attlee was an excellent prime minister. you just need to understand people. emily thornberry, thank you very much for talking to us. the number of people known to have been killed by the bushfires burning in australia has risen to 24. efforts are under way to help those who have had to leave their homes. australia's prime minister scott morrison is deploying military resources to help tackle the flames. ben shephard is from the new south wales rural fire servcie and joins me now. hello to you and thank you for breaking off to speak to us. i know you have got a lot on your plate. as you have got a lot on your plate. as you have got a lot on your plate. as you have had for months now. let me ask you, what little respite is being offered by the weather at the moment? is it making any difference? there is no doubt over the past 2a hours we've seen

there is no doubt over the past 2a houi’s we've seen a there is no doubt over the past 2a hours we've seen a bit of respite from the extraordinary temperatures we have had in the western parts of syd ney we have had in the western parts of sydney alone, temperatures of 48.9 degrees, and we saw the wind speed gusting up to 60 and 70 kilometres an hourand a gusting up to 60 and 70 kilometres an hour and a dramatic change in the wind late yesterday evening from the south and that push the fires in a whole new direction and we saw a further spread of the fires and it's likely at this point we saw 60 additional homes burned yesterday but more favourable conditions today and that looking to continue over the coming days towards the weekend where we are likely to see temperatures starting to push up into the high 30s again coupled with some strong westerly winds that really co m e some strong westerly winds that really come out of the centre of the nation and causes the driving of these fire conditions we have seen over the previous weeks and months. it's not that you are not used to dealing with bushfires but the scale of this must be unlike anything you've ever experienced in your professional career? yeah, across

new south wales alone we are dealing with more than 3.4 million hectares that has been burned with these fires and that brings the total to just over 4.2 million. typically on a fire season we could see just under 300,000 hectares, so this has been a fire season unlike no other. it's basically been going for more than 140 days, so it's been an incredibly long campaign, incredibly tiring, not just incredibly long campaign, incredibly tiring, notjust for incredibly long campaign, incredibly tiring, not just for firefighters but often the communities as well, that have been dealing with fires in and around their homes and their properties now, many for months on end. the issue is there really is no rainfall on the forecast at this stage the bureau of meteorology saying we could maybe see some relief in february. it could even be march. and what about maintaining your colleagues health and fitness?

you worry about their safety but just in terms of the gruelling continuance of this, day in, day out, with no sign of relief? maybe it will go into march? we are fortu nate it will go into march? we are fortunate in the royal fire service we have more than 70,000 volunteers. they continue to throw their hand up and help their local communities but the actual harvesting for us is trying to get them to take a day off, to try to take a stand down, because they know that while the fires are affecting the community, they want to be out there helping. firefighting in this state is a shared responsibility and the response by the community this year has been overwhelming to the point where they are actually now preparing their homes and getting ready for firefighting. that makes oui’ ready for firefighting. that makes ourjob much easier but importantly, as well come in many of these areas, as well come in many of these areas, a lot of people have left and if there is no fire truck or someone that, there is a high chance of

surviving so sending out that response to the community has been really great and this year where previously there is been attitude in the fact they did not want to do much and thought they could get round to it so that has been an extraordinary response by the community and it continues. whilst we are having respite this week we are likely to see a return of dangerous fire conditions by the end of the week. make the most of this little bit of downtime if you possibly can. thanks very much for speaking to us today. sport and for a full round up from the bbc sport centre. yes, hello to you. england's cricket is got the start they wanted against south africa in cape town on day three of the second test. james anderson got two early wickets, one with a first ball of the day, which saw south africa finish on 223 which gave england a 46 run lead but they have lost a wicket this morning with crawley falling for 25. if one, england, as they look to level the four match

series. fa cup third round we can today, another 11 ties including a liverpool derby and a chance for afc filed on the national league to try and kill sheffield united. yesterday, aaron wilbra ham and kill sheffield united. yesterday, aaron wilbraham scored an equaliser for rochdale. take a newcastle united to a replay. that wasn't the only comeback of the day. first time. at 40 years old, aaron wilbraham at first time. at 40 years old, aaron wilbra ham at mitre first time. at 40 years old, aaron wilbraham at mitre for the days of scoring against the premier league we re scoring against the premier league were behind him. but he did just that. steve bruce, cup win in his playing days abroad newcastle to rochdale, two division is beneath him, only victory on their minds, especially when they're £21 million striker gave them the lead. but the boys from the big league couldn't finish the opponent. abraham earned aside a money spinning replay at st

james's park. looking forward to it. with bristol city, scored a few yea rs with bristol city, scored a few years ago, so looking to do the same again. a similar story at vicarage road where watford threw away a three—goal lead at home to tranmere rovers. 46 league places between two divisions separate these two and no one could have predicted this comeback. two girls in 15 minutes reduced the gap to just one, and with time running out, tranmere were awarded a penalty. paul mullin, the hero. it's a special moment against the premier league side to get them up. after the gate side but if we do what we do today, mentality right, go toe to toe with them, we'll see where it takes us. what that meant the players and fans is clear. they fa cup would eventually remain truly alive for them and rochdale. what a game for them and that all the sport for no fault of new can of course get more most always including the

return of the women's super league from its winter break on the bbc sport website. garvin, thank you very much. sir keir starmer is the latest candidate to announce that he's standing in the labour leadership contest. writing in the sunday mirrror, the shadow brexit secretary says the party needs to "rebuild fast" to restore trust. he's the fifth person to put themselves forward after lisa nandy, emily thornberry, clive lewis and jess phillips. you may be right in suspecting they will be more before this contest even begins. 0ur political correspondent tony bonsignore is with me now. keir starmer starts as the favourite and the frontrunner. it's not always at the position you want to be in as at the position you want to be in as a candidate? yes, very often it's an unexpected candidate who winds these sorts of contests. keir starmer today, coming out all guns blazing, he was on andrew marr, but also his

article in the sunday mirror, a campaign video, two bits to the message, one about labour can't bury its head in the sand that needs to reconnect with voters but also interestingly keir starmer saying that also labour mustn't get rid of all those radical policies, social security reforms, those sorts of stuff, the green deal on climate change, more powerful trade unions, andi change, more powerful trade unions, and i think he would have two questions to answer. 0ne and i think he would have two questions to answer. one is effie is a bit to london and the labour party needs an outsider of the capital. anti—brexit, because he was very, very closely linked to labours active policy. here he is on andrew marr a short while ago on that labour brexit policy. people wanted clarity and leadership but i actually what was coming up on the doorstep and what the teams were telling me and my own experience was not so much people saying to me i don't like labour's position, but they had bought the idea that if you voted tory you would get brexit done and we didn't knock it down hard

enoughin and we didn't knock it down hard enough in the election. i'd have liked the opportunity to knock it down hard because that was what was coming back, people saying to us, this will get brexit done. we hadn't wrestled that phrase to the ground. keir starmer, not the only labour mp putting themselves forward over the last few days. we've had two backbenchers, just phillips and lisa nandy. emily thornberry, clive lewis, and also we are expecting rebecca long—bailey who is thought to bea rebecca long—bailey who is thought to be a favourite ofjoni corbin and the existing labour leadership. there will have to be some pruning before they get a leader. thank you very much. time now for a look at the weather. phil avery is at the map. hello. a fairly quiet weekend of weather continues apace for many parts of the british isles for the rest of today. still a weather front close by to the north of scotland, so thick cloud there, bits and pieces of rain on the rather more noticeable wind here than will be

the case elsewhere and the cloud are just thick enough across the high ground in western england and wales for the odd spot of rain not amounting to much. a relatively mild afternoon but not a great deal changes through the evening. perhaps the rain quits nursing past scotland overnight, and with a fairly com plete overnight, and with a fairly complete cloud cover, temperatures holding up, ten. i'll start to the new day on monday. a dry start to many. don't be fooled by that. northern ireland, scotland, the northern ireland, scotland, the north of england, increasingly later on in the afternoon, wales, the south—west and eventually into the midlands too, you all get to see the rain. it brightens up nicely behind it and you don't get to the rain the south—east until later in the day. goodbye.

hello, this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines... iranian mps chant "death to america!", as president trump warns the united states has a list of 52 targets that will be hit "very hard" if iran retaliates for the of its top military leader. royal navy warships are ordered to escort british—flagged vessels in the persian gulf and the prime minister is returning to the uk

from his caribbean holiday. the australian bushfires claim their 24th life — as a man dies helping defend a friend's property in new south wales. more than 2,000 homes have been destroyed. the costs of hs2 are "out of control" and its benefits overstated, according to the deputy chair of its review panel. now on bbc news, my very extended family. two years ago, julia, a high school student from ohio, received an email out of the blue that changed her life forever. julia, who was conceived by sperm donor, discovered she had a half—sister. but that was only the beginning. in this remarkable film, julia goes on a journey to explore what family means