this is the briefing, i'm samantha simmonds. our top story: the united states denies it plans to withdraw troops from iraq despite a general‘s letter that appears to suggest it. huge crowds gather in iran to mourn general soleimani who is about to be buried in his home town. his killing in an american drone strike has raised tensions to boiling point. more hot windy weather to come, as australia's prime minister promises more than $1 billion to fight the bushfires. a british teenager convicted of lying about being raped in cyprus is due to be sentenced today. and testing out the top tech trends at this year's consumer electronics show in las vegas.

a warm welcome to the programme, briefing you on all you need to know in global news, business and sport. as a plant based pork substitute is launched by one of the leading alternative meat producers, we're asking are you moving away from meat in favour of plant based products and if so, why? get in touch — just use #bbcthebriefing. large crowds have gathered in the iranian city of kerman for the burial of general soleimani, the military commander killed in a us drone strike last week. so this is the scene live in kerman where thousands of people

are on the streets ahead of his burial. many of the mourners are carrying his photos and some are waving red flags which in the shia tradition symbolises a readiness for battle. the general‘s funeral procession has travelled across the country over the last few days before arriving in his home town. he will be buried in a martyrs ceremony in the next hour or so. we'll be speaking live to one of our correspondents later in the show but first gareth barlow reports on the events of the past 2a hours. helicopters fly over baghdad as the united states insists its forces will remain in iraq. washington has been forced to deny that this draft letter written by a senior us army general suggests american troops are withdrawing from the country. in it, the brigadeer general writes:

iraqi mps have called on american troops to leave and us government officials acknowledge the letter is genuine, but it says it explains the us is moving troops out of the capital to provide protection elsewhere and isn't withdrawing. the defence secretary mark esper said the letter was inconsistent with us policy. with regard to the letter which i've read once, i can tell you the voracity of the letter, i can tell you what i read. that letter is inconsistent with where we are right now. the clamour for clarity comes amid the fallout from america's killing of iran's top military commander as he

visited the iraqi capital. qasem soleimani was the man on the ground in the middle east. tehran has vowed severe revenge for his death and has withdrawn from the 2015 nuclear accord. tensions are at historic highs and there is little clarity over what is going to happen next. one more piece of news on this. the trump administration has denied iran's foreign minister a visa to visit the united nations in new york later this week. mohammad javad zarif, seen here on a previous visit, had been expected to speak to the security council about the assassination of general soleimani powerful leaders. there's been no official comment yet from either side but washington has previously said it can deny access to the un for security, terrorism and foreign

policy reasons. rain and cooler temperatures are providing a short reprieve for exhausted firefighters across australia, but there is more hot and windy weather to come. and there are fears that large fires near the borders of each state could merge into one giant "mega blaze." after strong criticism of his response to the disaster, prime minister scott morrison has now promised more than $1 billion to aid recovery. lucy hockings sent this from wandandian, in new south wales. driving cubic empty mile after mile of charred art forest. we have just had some local vires, volunteer fireman pull up to have a chat with us. fireman pull up to have a chat with us. it alters the story of the local

town. ideas of a massive fire came through here and at one point they we re through here and at one point they were fighting a fire on four different fronts and they managed to save a lot of the little town. so you are hearing tragic stories in australia but little nuggets of the firefighters have had some success as well which is so good for morale. the cool weather is a psychological boost as well, to give them some respite from the heat in the wind. give people a sense they can recharge because you are right, in the coming days the next few days, that hot, windy weather is set to return. the sense of people being in limbo here is very strong because they know that with the hot but the, they know that with the hot but the, the fires are really going to start again and that's a massive concern right across this part of australia. let's speak now with our correspondent phil mercer who is in sydney. in the coming days i think, friday is looking like a pretty hot day here in south—eastern australia,

very high temperatures forecast for south australia, victoria, and new south australia, victoria, and new south wales. so was looking at friday, saturday, the next days of concerns for firefighters. although there is very long by season that began back in the state of queensland in september, we've seen spikes in fire activity. we have a day or two of extreme or catastrophic fire conditions. those conditions give way to cooler, milder weather but the pattern is, those hot dangerous conditions return so that is what we are lucky to see this week. we had very dangerous conditions on saturday, last saturday, so we've now got a lull and we are expecting a spike again towards the end of the week. so this via crisis continues and some more nervous and dangerous times ahead. the premises got forest has come under huge pressure and criticism for his response. he has now announced $1 billion in aid. as

a body going to go? —— where is that money going to go? he's going to help farmers restock their properties, roads, infrastructure, you have to remember that for example phone and internet services have been down —— damaged along with power supplies. the rebuilding effort will be absolutely enormous. were not quite sure of the economic cost of this disaster to australia, we might not know that for many, many months. what we do know the state of new south wales for example, were dozens of fires continued to burn, about 1600 homes have been lost since the crisis began. about 25 people have been killed. so there is, in australia, huge financial cost to the fires, a huge financial cost to the fires, a huge physical cost, we know that about 6 million hectares of land have been scorched and a huge emotional cost to, communities have been terrorised by the fires and the

prime minister scott morrison doing what he can in the face of criticism of his leadership to try to chart a way forward. a british teenager convicted of lying about being raped by a group of israeli men in cyprus is due to be sentenced today. the 19—year—old was found guilty of causing public nuisance after retracting her original statement alleging she'd been attacked in a hotel on the island. anna holligan sent this report from the resort of ayia napa. the teenager could be down for a year and find one and a half thousand pounds after a judge rejected her pleas that she was gang raped. he only retracted her statement after she was denied access to a lawyer and interpreter and placed under intense police pressure. local media has reported the separate president is planning to pardon her if she receives a prison sentence, but if it is a

suspended sentence orjustify in, the 19—year—old could be on a flight home today. the foreign office has expressed serious concern about the separate authority's handling of this case. the foreign secretary urges the country to do the right thing. the teenager travelled to the head mystic holiday resort in search ofa summer head mystic holiday resort in search of a summer job head mystic holiday resort in search of a summerjob before university. she had her passport confiscated and was forced to remain on the island for the trail. if her appeal in cyprus is rejected, lawyers say they plan to take a case to the european court of human rights. let's brief you on some of the other stories making the news: the south korean president, moonjae—in, has said there is "desperate need" to find practical ways to improve ties with north korea, urging its leader kim jong—un to return to the negotiating table. in a new year's address, mr moon said he was willing to meet mr kim at any time. talks between the french government and unions will restart today in a bid to end the country's longest transport strike in decades.

workers have been striking over an overhaul the the pension system which they say will force millions of people to retire later than they thought. other professions including lawyers, nurses and physiotherapists will alsojoin in the industrial action in a day of mass walkouts on thursday. the hollywood film producer harvey weinstein‘s been charged with sexual assault in los angeles, on the same day he appeared in court in new york to face separate claims. he denies the allegations. the price of gold closed at nearly 7—year high on monday as fears over growing tensions between iran and america led investors to pile into the traditional safe haven. so what does this flight away from risk tell us about how the markets re seeing world events right now? jane foley from rabobank joins me now. welcome to you. good morning. gold, festival scene as a safe haven. what

does the seven—year high tales about how the markets are reacting to geopolitics was back festival was on the seven—year high yesterday but already in the asian session this morning we have seen markets a little bit braver. with the movement out of gold, gold, of those highs and all, of those highs as well. this is because the market is beginning to guess that neither side, neither the us not you run really wa nts side, neither the us not you run really wants to go into full—blown war. so some of the movement into safe havens as a red started to dissipate but this is a very sensitive situation, we will have to see how this evolves and suddenly gold is still very well supported. why is it? why is it so save in times of uncertainty? this isn't just a question and it goes back hundreds if not thousands of years was up competitive property, gold can be carried around and this billy historically why it is such a safe

haven was a bit has intrinsic value, you can see it. i would argue that over the last 30 years, its value has been eroded never go back to the first gulf war, gold didn't hold its gains. and many people said why would you buy gold when you have a negative yield manager got a paper storage, you gotta pay for insurance, when you can buy government debt? last year a lot of government debt? last year a lot of government debt? last year a lot of government debt became negative yielding. and i think that has meant that gold again it has been reinvented. interesting stuff, we will talk to you a little bit later. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: a big juventus win in the italian serie a, thanks to a hat trick by cristiano ronaldo. the japanese people are in mourning following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects

when it was announced he was dead. good grief! after half a century of delighting fans around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quits. the singer paul simon starts his tour of south africa tomorrow in spite of protests and violence from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa until majority rule is established. teams were trying to scoop up lumps of oil as france recognises it faces an ecological crisis. three weeks ago, the authorities confidently assured these areas that oil from the broken tanker erika would head out to sea. it didn't. the world's tallest skyscraper opens later today. the burj dubai has easily overtaken its nearest rivals. you're watching the briefing. our headlines:

more hot windy weather to come, as australia's prime minister promises more than a billion dollars to fight the bushfires. large crowds have gathered in the iranian city of kerman for the burial of general soleimani — the military commander killed in a us drone strike last week. lets stay with that now. live now to lebanon and our correspondent lina sinjab, in beirut. after travelling through the country for several days, including the k run, where there were prayers at the funeral in the iranian capital at times, his voice cracking with emotion. thousands of people on the streets there. the pictures look like there were many thousands of

people on the streets, mirroring what we have seen over the past few days as qasem soleimani's body has travelled throughout iran and finally to his hometown for his burial. this is a moment of mobilising support and showing defiance, these are thousands of people that flooded into the streets morning a man they have seen as a hero, a man who they have seen as enforcing their presence in the region and enforcing iran as a pivotal strong player in the region. celebrated at home, throughout the majority of the shia community but seen majority of the shia community but seen as a war majority of the shia community but seen as a war criminal by many others. he is seen as responsible for the instability in the region, controlling and syria, lebanon, and iraq for the killing of hundreds of

civilians and certainly in syria he is someone who orchestrated the policy of staff to surrender where hundreds of thousands of civilians we re hundreds of thousands of civilians were besieged in the cities and towns inside syria. so as much as he is seen as a national hero in acro three and iran want to send a message to the world that they are defiant and standing behind him and will retaliate, many others see him as someone will retaliate, many others see him as someone who caused troubles in the region and has gone away now. qasem soleimani's daughter has warned the us that it faced a dark day, echoing what we have heard from the iranian government officials over the past few days. meanwhile, the world waits for the response. is there any sense now within the region of what could come with yellow it depends on who you talk to and who you hear about the statements. certainly, the supporters of iran, the shia militias in the region, hezbollah in

lebanon, they are all vowing to retaliate strongly, and they are even calling on us troops to be cleared from the region. we have certainly seen this coming out from the iraqi parliament, we have seen lots of threats coming from different shia militias, in fact some rockets fell into the most fortified green zone close to american bases where anti— isis coalition are based. so there is a huge threat but also there are responses coming from the us with even escalating threats that the us will target iranians sites including iranian cultural sites. it is a really tense time with high tension. the us denied a visa for the iranian foreign minister who was expected to go to the un meeting this week, so it isa go to the un meeting this week, so it is a really intense time stopping other players in the world like france, britain, and germany are

calling for deescalation and self restraint but it is hard to see how both sides are going to respond, especially if iran retaliated or even used proxy militias or cyber attacks against the us or us asset. officials and iran that is the funeral passed through the capital iran there were more than a million people on the streets, we don't know if that is accurate but there were certainly many many people there. now it's time to get all the latest from the bbc sports centre. hello, i'm tulsen tollett and this is your tuesday sport briefing where we start with the footballing news that cristiano ronaldo scored his first serie a hat—trick asjuventus were 4—0 winners over cagliari. the portuguese picked up his third with less than ten minutes remaining for a 56th career hatrick after a neat pass from douglas costa who'd just come on as a replacement

while inter stay top thanks to a 3—1 win over napoli in the late game. the final game of the english fa cup third round also took place on monday with 13 time winners arsenal progressing thanks to a 1—0 win at home to leeds united. the games only goal didn't arrive until 10 minutes after half time with reiss nelson the recipient of a bit of luck as he bundled home the ball from close range alexandre lacazette was lucky to escape a card of any colour with 15 minutes remaining despite var getting involved but it's arsenal who progress to the last 32 where they'll travel to fellow premier league side bournemouth i tried to give them advice to try to tell them exactly what we were going to face, and after 32 minutes we decided to win. they may look like a small team, when we change our attitude and desire and change a few things that halftime in our organisation, we were completely different.

manchester united manager ole gunnar solskjaer says neighbours city have "raised the bar" under pep guardiola. the two sides meet in the league cup semi—final first leg later. solskjaer says city's form in recent years has given his side "something to aim for". derby games are always hard to predict, united beat city 2—1 in the league last month, producing one of the best performances of solskjaer‘s time as manager. sometimes you surprise yourself, in these big games, and you don't train in between, there is no way you can train in between, so it is about mental preparation, get the good treatment in behind with the physios and stuff, and hopefullyjust remember what we did well last time as well and what we must do a. —— must do better.

south africa will need to chase a test record a38 to win the second test against england on tuesday. the tourists smashed their way to a big lead on day four in cape town with dom sibley reaching his maiden test century. he eventually went on to make 133 not out as england declared their second innings on 391 for 8. in response south africa made 126 for 2, needing a further 312 to win. the los angeles lakers are looking led by le bronjames are looking unstoppable ahead of their game against the new york knicks later. their 106 to 99 victory over the detroit pistons on sunday was their 5th win in a row and james is one of the big reasons. he had 21 points, 1a rebounds and 11 assists in his ninth triple—double this season. to the atp cup in australia now where france's benoit paire had to overcome both his opponent and his emotions in brisbane. paire reached boiling point when he lost a second set tie—break to serbia's dusan lajovic. he looked composed as he walked back to his chair before taking his frustration out on his racket.

he also threw two water bottles onto the court at the change of ends. paire went on to win the match in 3 sets, but serbia won the tie 2—1 to make it through to the quarter—finals. you can get all the latest sports news at our website, that's bbc.com/sport. but from me tulsen tollett and the rest of the team that's your tuesday sport briefing. how much tech can you take? thousands of new products are being launched and demoed at the giant ces expo in las vegas this week. everything from artificial intelligence, 5g, 8k, surveillance tech, and robotics are set to be among this year's buzzwords. we start with the latest in tv tech. lara lewington from the bbc‘s click programme has more. the edges on this tv are so thin, it's been described as almost bevelless.

in fact, 99% of what you are looking at there is just screen. so, these tvs are due to be released in a few months time. i know there hasn't been oppressed but on them yet, but no doubt it is going to be pretty high. why would people be so desperate to have a tv with a bevel so small? consumers have been asking us for bigger and bigger tvs, and that's what we've been offering, and now we are removing that black bevel around the tv so the image goes all the way up to the very edge, giving you an amazing, immersive experience. but is there not a bit of a risk that with the tvs having less protection of the edges, that people could bump into them and cause some damage? most people hang their tvs on the wall, and if they don't do it, they put it on one of our stands and they are quite well protected. but if you are struggling to understand why anybody would actually care that the frame is a little bit smaller, then at least this one has something very different about it. this tv not only works horizontally like a normal tv, but also, vertically. take a look at this.

it can mirror a smartphone and that doesn't need to be a samsung device, it is also compatible with apple. the idea is that some people are consuming so much content online on social media, they may actually want it to be represented on the screens they use in their homes. still think it's better the old way. just before we go, let's return to iran and those pictures from the funeral and kerman. state tv have broadcast live images of thousands of people in the streets, many of them dressed in black. qasem soleimani was seen as the country's

second most powerful figure. soleimani was seen as the country's second most powerfulfigure. qasem soleimani was a national hero. more on that shortly. hello. we've got multiple areas of low pressure to deal with across the uk in the coming days. monday's rain has cleared eastwards, but waiting in the wings is our next atlantic system, and this is going to bring severe gales across scotland and northern england through tuesday, heavy rain as well. that's only part of the story, because they're also drawing up some very mild air. temperatures quite widely around the mid teens, perhaps even higher across the eastern side of scotland. but it's the strength of the wind that we're most concerned about through tuesday. severe gales for scotland and northern england. we have a yellow warning from the met office in place, some disruption is possible. a very wet and windy start across scotland, outbreaks of rain clearing

from northern ireland through the morning. some of that rain getting into northern england, perhaps in north wales and south—west england through the afternoon, but quite patchy here. generally, the further south and east you are, a dry if rather cloudy day. but it's a windy day across the board. the strongest winds across scotland and northern england where quite widely they'll touch 60, 70, maybe even 75 miles an hour for some northern and western coasts of scotland. turning drier through the afternoon across northern ireland, but quite windy, strong gusts across northern england, 30—a0mph gusts across central southern england and wales, so not so extreme here. but certainly a windy day for all of us, and then through tuesday evening, a band of cloud just slides its way southwards with some patchy rain, turning clearer and colder further north, but with some wintry showers starting to pile into scotland. and we'll start to notice this temperature difference from the north to the south of the country first thing on wednesday, still very mild across the south, but turning colder across the north, and still very windy across northern scotland on wednesday. elsewhere, the winds will tend to ease away, and for many, we'll start the day mainly dry, some spells of sunshine, cloud across south—east england starting to pull away. wintry showers across scotland, some snow down to 200 around metres,

and then cloud and rain starting to move into wales and south—west england through the afternoon. holding onto the milder conditions across much of the england and wales, but again, back into single figures further north. now, into thursday, it's a very messy picture. multiple areas of low pressure pushing across the uk. briefly on friday, things start to turn drier as this ridge of high pressure builds. won't be long before wetter, windier weather returns. but for the end of the week, some rain at first, the winds will ease down and briefly drier and colder on friday. bye— bye.

this is the business briefing. i'm samantha simmonds. ghosn may be gone but he's certainly not forgotten as japan presses lebanon to return the fugitive ex—nissan boss. and testing out the top tech trends at this year's consumer electronics show in las vegas with everything from rotating tv‘s to robots on display. and on the markets, asian shares rebounded on tuesdayas investors‘