hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. more than 50 people have died in a stampede at the burial of the iranian military commander the us killed on friday. iran is still threatening to retaliate — america says that's not a good idea the united states is not seeking a war with iran but we are prepared to finish one. we are seeking a diplomatic solution, but first, they still are —— required diplomatic solution, but first, they stillare —— required iran diplomatic solution, but first, they still are —— required iran to de—escalate. a british teenager convicted of lying about being gang raped in cyprus is on her way back to the uk after being given a suspended sentence. we'll look at why the case is so controversial. we'll be looking at the human, environmental and economic impacts of the australian bushfires —

which have razed almost 2,000 homes, and killed at least 25 people and scientists have observed cosmic vibrations from unusual merger of two stars — their combined mass was three times larger than the sun. at least 50 people were killed in a stampede in the hometown of the assassinated iranian general qasem soleimani. his burial had to be delayed. this was the procession in kerman. hundresd of thousands of people have taken part in a series of funeral processions such as this across iran. general soleimani led iran's elite quds force, he was considered the second most powerful man in iran.

eyewitnesses told our colleagues in bbc persian that the streets were not wide enough to hold the number of people and, with other roads closed off, there was nowhere to escape to when the stampede began. he was killed by a us airstrike near baghdad airport on friday. 0ur middle east editorjeremy bowen is there for us. the united states killed a number of people, important personalities, both iraqi officials as well as iranian officials in a foreign territory, that's an act of wire. donein territory, that's an act of wire. done ina territory, that's an act of wire. done in a terrorist, cowardly

terrorist operation and iran will ta ke terrorist operation and iran will take appropriate response to that. de—escalation means the united states not taking further measures to stop threatening iran, to apologise to the iran information but the action by the united states has consequences. the killing of qasem suleimani will have consequences for the middle east, and also inside iran, especially for those who oppose the government. rana rahimpour from bbc persian explains. it's interesting that people in iran are very divided about the assassination of qasem soleimani, some say that how did the americans kill our iranian commander, no matter what problems we have in this country, he was a patriot, he was killed because he was defending our borders but there are others who say no he was a figurehead for iran's expansionist policies in the region and this is that price he had to pay forfollowing his policies. the number of people who have taken part in the funeral

is unexpectedly high. so many observers are surprised that a number of people who have taken part because it includes opposition figures and people who have been opponents of the authorities in iran and this is only eight weeks after widespread protests in the country that was violently cracked down according to reuters, 1500 people have been killed and still thousands of people are in prison. but, still many people joined the funeral but this does not mean that everybody is united. the problem is that now criticising anything that the authorities do is extremely difficult, it's never been easy, that's why there are many political activists in prison right now but i think it's probably harder than ever because any kind of criticism is now going to be interpreted as supporting the united states and because the us has killed qasem soleimani you quickly become a traitor, how are you taking sides with our enemy?

that escalates to baghdad and our middle eastern editor who is with us. middle eastern editor who is with us. iraq finds itself in the middle of this story between iran and the americans, what are the options the iraqi government has?” americans, what are the options the iraqi government has? i don't think they had that many options there in behind the powers more capable and stronger than they are. there is only a caretaker prime minister at the moment, that's because of the crisis that was going on the a0 base started which was over at the big antigovernment demonstrations also anti—iran demonstrations that were going on. those demonstrators are still there occupying a central part of the city and i was done talking to them today and they say they feel crushed between a rock and a hard place if you like but they would rather if those powerful countries of iran and the us would just leave them alone. of quest that's not going to happen. we know the

americans wanted to weaken iran's ability to control militias in iraq, is it your assessment that his death will make any difference to that? no, ithink will make any difference to that? no, i think if anything at the moment those pro—iranian relations are getting closer to tehran and equipping together and thinking what did they do next, i think that for the americans frankly is a lost cause. a lot of those militias grew up cause. a lot of those militias grew up fighting the americans and they found them on themselves on the same side as the us against the jihadists of islamic state but now they are flipping back to their roots and so yes, in terms of influencing what's going on, that's not the way the americans are going to do it. in fa ct americans are going to do it. in fact the americans aren't ready influencing what's happening here at all except through the act of that assassination and the threats that president trump has been making

since then. thank you. just over an hour ago, donald trump explained why he ordered that general soleimani be killed. asl as i said yesterday, was very interesting they are allowed to kill out interesting they are allowed to kill our people, they are allowed to maim out our people, they are allowed to maim our people, they are allowed to maim our people, they are allowed to blow up our people, they are allowed to blow up everything that we have and there's nothing that stops them and we are, according to various laws, supposed to be very careful with their cultural heritage and you know what, if that's what the law as, i like to obey the law but think of it, they kill our people, they blow up it, they kill our people, they blow up our people and we have to be very gentle with their cultural institutions but i'm 0k gentle with their cultural institutions but i'm ok with it. it's ok with me. i will say this, if iran does anything that they should not be doing they will be suffering the consequences very strongly. here's secretary of state mike pompeo being asked about what intelligence led

to the attack. not only had qasem soleimani done the things that we had recounted, hundreds of thousands of massacres in syria, enormous destruction of countries like lebanon and iraq where they have denied them sovereignty and the iranians have really denied people in those two countries what it is they want. sovereignty, independence of freedom, this is all qasem soleimani's handiwork. and then we would watch as he continued to terror campaign in the region, we know what happened at the end of last year, december ultimately leading to the death of an american so if you're looking for evidence you need to look no further than the days that led up to the strike that was taken against qasem soleimani. we have got lots of detail there from issues in the past. not a huge amount of detail on the imminent threat they say justify the assassination. here's the analysis of the bbc's security correspondent

frank gardner. he was a member of iran's state, he was not a fugitive from justice like 0sama bin laden, so this is a very different world that america has got itself into and i don't think it's thought through the ramifications of this. the saudis, for example, are really concerned, i went around the oil facilities in september and saw the damage that was done by iranian backed proxies who took out half its oil output injust a space of a few minutes. they could do that again. in the long term, this is going to cost the united states, this is going to probably play into a strategic advantage for iran because it's changed the dynamic, and put the iraqi government in a very difficult position. the pressure now from iranian backed shia militia in iraq who are the dominant upper

forces, they are far more powerful and influential than the americans in iraq. they will put a lot of pressure on iraq's leadership to kick the americans out. americans will not leave the gulf, they will stay in places like saudi, on the arab side of the golf but what little foothold they had in iraq and syria is going to be very difficult to hold onto now. the people rubbing their hands are going to be isis because it's notjust the fighting that they do that isis or the attacks it does in northern iraq or syria it's that big planning they have done from there to hit targets in europe and the united states and around the world so if they are left in peace without us air strikes without having to worry about, close us air support for operations on the ground, that gives them a breathing space to plan more terrorist attacks in europe and makes them a far more dangerous foe. we have heard from frank haslett in london, and us turn to anthony for their political dimension of days, he is in washington. the americans are saying there was an eminent threat but behind this action would have been a foreign policy calculation that is broader but what

is it, because a lot of analysts are saying this may have made the american position were might have been better. i think that definitely is the concern among many policymakers on both sides of the aisle here in washington and that was how much forethought went into this move. the administration has said that this was necessary in order to replenish the iranian regime for the embassy protests and other nefarious activities they had been taking but to say that there was a was not an imminent threat and there appears to be conflicting evidence presented by the administration or no evidence was entered by the administration to substantiate that. i think that leaves a lot of people here wondering how much thought was put into this move and what the endgame is. everyone thinks that there is going to be some sort of iranian response and if there is an iranian response and if there is an iranian response that send you kind of

threat so it's not exactly diffusing the situation. don't go anywhere, there is a couple other things i wa nt to there is a couple other things i want to tell everyone watching about. donald trump and his administration have been quite inconsistent in the last few days. after killing general soleimani donald trump tweeted this: @realdonaldtrump: "let this serve as a warning that if iran strikes some at a very high level & important to iran & the iranian culture, and those targets, and iran itself, will be hit very fast and very hard." attacking cultural sites is a war crime. and after mike pompeo said the us wasn't targeting cultural sites, president trump again insisted that they were. in the last hour president trump has said he wants to obey the law, where cultural sites are concerned. and mike pompeo had this to say: every target that's being reviewed, every effort that's being made will always be conducted inside the international laws of war.

i've seen it, i've worked on this project and i'm very confident of that. he is confidence but the president did repeatedly failed to do something that is outside of international law, your guess is as good as mine as to what the thinking is inside their trump administration on this. we also have this story. we also have this story. today reuters quoted a us official saying that america had denied iran's foreign minister a visa for a un summit in new york on thursday. they aren't allowed to do that, under the un headquarters agreement, the us is required to allow access to the un forforeign diplomats. this is what pompeo had to say on that. we will always comply with our obligation to do the un requirements in the headquarter agreement and we will do so in this particular insta nce will do so in this particular instance and more broadly every day. ambidexterity in the last 2a hours, base, a letter sent to the iraqi government in which the americans except they were making preparations

to re m ove except they were making preparations to remove their forces from iraq except they were making preparations to remove theirforces from iraq out of respect to the nation's sovereignty. about four or five hours later they told the iraqis we sentin hours later they told the iraqis we sent in error. the americans is that he was an unsigned draft and should not have been released. here is the us defence secretary a bit earlier. 0ur us defence secretary a bit earlier. our policy has not changed, we are not leaving iraq and a draft unsigned letter does not constitute a policy change and there is no signed letter to the best of my knowledge so they may be people trying to create confusion and we should focus on this much. what i said a few times now, or policy has not changed, we are in iraq and the idea to support iraqi forces and iraqi government become a strong, independent and prosperous country. they are doing a lot of explaining, aren't they anthony? no doubt. it's aren't they anthony? no doubt. it's a monumental mistake to have that laughter —— medical public and to even send it to the iraqi government if it was only a draft and there has

not been any reasonable explanation for how that sort of mistake could have been made but you hear how the secretary of defence spending several days now answering questions about the status of the us forces in iraq and we see that in the context of donald trump himself telling the parties that if the us did of iraq that they might impose sanctions on the iraqi government and they might try to get reimbursed for money that they spent building an airbase in iraq, all of this creates a very confusing seeing and donald trump himself has also criticised the war in iraq and said it was the biggest mistake in us foreign policy when he says something like that and then you get a letter saying the us once the pull—out of iraq, all of that is going to leave a lot of people scratching their heads and it might make the iraqi government even more interested in having the us troops eventually leave. does the existence of that letter even if it was not supposed to have been sent, does the

existence of it mean the americans are seriously considering it? that is entirely possible i might have to speculate on the reasons behind that and it could be the us military discovering audit spaces and dates but i decided to draft that letter because he was receiving direction from someone higher up in washington or it could have just been members of the military looking up what donald trump was saying and figuring that there was needs to draft that letter, one at the explanations i heard from the military is that i was talking about moving us troops within iraq and there was not any intend for it to be about a full us withdrawal although if you read the wording of eight at the certainly indicate that something has not been any kind of proper explanation going forward way that letter came from and that has prompted a lot of people to extrapolate the meaning from it and project their own views oi'i from it and project their own views on it. frankly if for the moment we will be working hard though we will

see you in 15 minutes' time. there is supposed to be an impeachment trialfor there is supposed to be an impeachment trial for donald trump in the coming weeks. in a few minutes on the programme able to turn to the story of great significance. a british teenager has been given a four—month suspended sentence after her controversial conviction for lying about gang—rape in cyprus. an indian court has set a date for the execution of four men convicted of raping and murdering a young woman on a bus in delhi in 2012. the rape of a 23 year old student prompted mass outrage across india. the executions are due to take place on january 22, although the men's lawyers have said they'll appeal. from mumbai, here's yogita limaye. the brutality with which she was raped shocked the country, thousands

came out on the streets and cities across india demanding better safety for women. and in response, the government was compelled to make stricter laws to deal with rape cases. her case concluded in 2013, that's when the men u are getting death sentences but six years on it's been going fairly different levels of the indian judicial system. and her parents filed a plea ina system. and her parents filed a plea in a batty court asking for the execution of the death sentences to be exit —— expedite that and that's when the court responded to today. this is 0utside source live from the bbc newsroom. 0ur lead story is: more than 50 people have died in a stampede at the burial of the iranian military commander the us killed on friday. iran is still threatening to retaliate for his death.

an arrest warrant's been issued in japan for the wife of the former nissan boss carlos ghosn. she's wanted on suspicion of perjury. carole ghosn is in lebanon, with her husband who fled japan last week while facing charges of financial crimes. bbc arabic. the swedish furniture giant ikea has agreed to pay a6 million dollars to the californian parents of a 2 year old who was killed in may 2017 — when a chest of drawers fell on him. the item, which weighs 70 pounds, had been recalled a year earlier over safety concerns after three other children were killed. a british teenager who was convicted of lying about being raped by a group of israeli men in cyprus last year has been given a four month suspended sentence. gavin lee was outside the court earlier. she'll be allowed to return to the uk immediately. while waiting for her family to come out they had said this morning they will try to get her back to the uk

and this is an international controversial case when her whole question of a right to fair trial was put in the spotlight. gavin said that attention is on the cypriot legal system — that's because the teenager says she only withdrew the rape allegation because she was heavily pressurised by police. here's her lawyer speaking earlier. we say there was a specific failure which led to a catastrophic situation with the victim finding herself as the accused being denied access to appropriate legal and medical care and a lawyer and translator were not provided during interrogation. the girl's laywer also said they'll be appealing to the supreme court of cyprus — and may end up taking the case to the european court of human rights. groups working for women's rights are taking a keen interest. susana pavlou is from the mediterranean institute of gender studies. sexual violence and rape are extremely underreported and they rarely get to the reports and they

have low conviction rates and this is precisely the case in cyprus but in cyprus in particular we don't have specialist support services for victims. the teenager claimed she was raped in a hotel room by a group of 12 is was raped in a hotel room by a group of12isa was raped in a hotel room by a group of 12 is a ready man, two of those men pictured here although they are covering their faces and they were arrested and did appear in court but when the guy was interviewed again and she made that retraction, the israelis were then allowed to fly home. the british teenager was later charged with public mischief while falsely accusing the grip of raping her and spent about a month in prison before her trial, a lawyer forfour prison before her trial, a lawyer for four of the as many men has also given his reaction. they are relieved and happy beverage and has been accepted and they are happy that you received a long and tough lesson under criminal acts. the story dates back to july and the the resort map of ayia napa

in the east of cyprus. the teenager claims she was raped in her hotel by a group of 12 israeli men. a group of israeli teenagers was arrested and appeared in court, but when the girl was interviewed again she signed a retraction. the israelis were allowed to return home. the british teenager was later charged with public mischief for falsely accusing the group of raping her — and spent about a month in prison before her trial. a lawyer for four of the israeli men also spoke earlier. the story has received so much global attention in part because of cyprus' popularity as a tourism destination. more than a million britons visited in 2018. the next largest number of visistors came from russia. far fewer israelis visited, but they still made up the third largest group. and these are pictures from earlier. these are people showing their support for the british girl outsisde the court in cyprus today. this is another demonstration supporting the girl, outside the cyprus embassy in tel aviv. and there was a demonstration supporting her in london too earlier. last week the british foreign 0ffice called the case "deeply distressing". here's caroline hawley on the diplomatic ramifications of the case. cyprus is a form uk colony as you heard it attracts huge numbers of british holiday—makers every year and there have been calls for a boycott. but it's also a country that has been forging closer ties with israel of late, it recently

signed a deal for a with israel of late, it recently signed a dealfor a pipeline and that has led some to question whether this could have had any bearing on the handling of the whole case and campaigners point out that a rape claim would potentially be a pr disasterfor a rape claim would potentially be a pr disaster for the holiday island. astronomers in the united states and europe say they have detected gravitational waves from the collision of two dead stars. now, i can try and explain why that matters. it's only the second time this kind of event has been detected. the scale of it — the combined mass of the stars was three times larger than the sun. bigger than anything of this type that's previously been detected. these stars are called neutron stars — this an artist's rendition of them merging. the discovery is part of a collaboration between the ligo observatories in the us and the virgo observatory in italy. and this is the observatory in louisiana that made this

discovery using laser detectors. well this is a simulation of two neutron stars colliding. the gravitational waves that are created was predicted by einstein's theory of general relativity. gravitational waves were first detected back 2015 — it was huge moment. confirmation that two black holes had merged — all be it 1.3 billion light—years from earth. (biv)that's as far as i can take it. here's jonathan amos. einstein had this amazing idea 100 yea rs einstein had this amazing idea 100 years ago that if you could accelerate a massive body you would distort the space and time and you could send ripples out across the cosmos, he thought about this in his theory of gravity and general relativity, he never thought we would have the technology to detect something like that. he thought regis would not be sensitive enough.

the great discovery breakthrough over the last ten years is that we can now detect the signal which is very faint. we do it with razor is, we shoot lasers down long inoculated tunnels and bounce them back and forth between different mirrors and let me the light we can tell something about what might have passed through that particular space, if gravitational waves pass through they will distort that line and we can tell all sorts of things about the source in doing that and in this case we can tell we have two dense stars, about 500 million light—years away from earth gradually he past each other around and around and then coming together in one and forming a black hole. that's at least what we think, it's a bit ofa that's at least what we think, it's a bit of a head scratch for a because the size that this event a slightly larger than what we had seen before, certainly in our own galaxy. scientists will have to think of it and think deeper about

it but we are watching gravitational waves as we go forward now and it is a whole new universe opening up to us a whole new universe opening up to us that we have not been able to see before. i will see you soon. we will take a look at some of our big white stories around the world and here in the uk we have not seen too many signs of winter weather over the recent weeks and in afghanistan there's been a different story with a zone of heavy snow moving across the city the last 2a hours and the kids are out enjoying the winter he lay there and this area of low pressure has brought snouts a couple continuing to work its way north east. it will bring more heavy snow to the northwest of india and western areas of nepal where over the mountains about 1500 metres elevation in the snow will be happy, could she have a metre in place is bringing risk of avalanche is enclosing some of the mountain passes as well. a bit of snow across

the eastern face of the us thanks to this area of low pressure, the smell using quickly on wednesday and a range of high—pressure follows the colder air. it will feel chilly along the eastern areas with the snow easing away, still a bit my snow easing away, still a bit my snow took come across canada and temperature as being below freezing. the amount of accumulating snow pretty small. the outlook over the next few days it stays pretty cold and gets much colder in montreal, maximum temperature is —10 on thursday before things get more chilli on the weekend. this area of cloud across the peninsula has been bringing some heavy falls of rain here and wet and windy weather as well moving its way across japan indeed during wednesday we could see gusts of 100 kph or so but that system is easing away followed by showers and cooler air following. temperature is 5 degrees in seoul through thursday afternoon. a lot of that media temperature has been rightly so on those wildfires which

are continuing, not a great deal of rain in the forecast here, this area of cloud across the night as —— northwest is a cyclone that made la ndfall northwest is a cyclone that made landfall during the course of tuesday. torrential rain from this could see 200 mm of rain falling in place is bringing some fighting but across the areas that desperately need their wings to put out the fires it's largely dried but there will be if few isolated showers. three you up we have seen unsettled weather across the southeast we had heavy outbreaks of rain. and it stays unsettled here or there will be more snow in the mountains. about 1000 metres elevation, good news for the turkish ski resorts. we have a massive cold front stretching from russia today north of france. along this is only mostly cloudy skies with drizzle and messed as well and ultimately cold air will be working in behind that and we will see some of that cooler air getting in across the north of the uk to a wednesday with a mixture of semi spells and

showers and cloudy in the south but relatively mild on wednesday.

hello, i'm ros atkins, this is 0utside source. more than 50 people have died in a stampede at the burial of the iranian military commander the us killed on friday. iran is still threatening to retaliate — america says that's not a good idea the united states is not seeking a war with iran, but we are prepared to finish one. we are seeking a diplomatic solution, but first, this will require iran to de—escalate. a british teenager convicted of lying about being gang raped in cyprus last summer is given a suspended sentence. we'll look at why the case is so controversial. there have been chaotic scenes at venezuela's national assembly. the opposition leader, juan guaido, has been sworn—in as speaker. to do so, he needed to break into the national assembly building. and we'll be looking at the human, environmental and economic impacts

of the australian bushfires. the us killing of iran's general soleimani comes as donald trump is facing an impeachment trial in the us senate. last month, he became only the third us president to be impeached. the lower house, the house of congress, voted in favour of two charges — that the president had abused his power and obstructed congress. both were connected to mr trump's pressuring of ukraine to investigate into his democratic political rival, joe biden. now one big outstanding issue is who the democrats would like to give testimony at the trial.

one man on their list is trump's former national security adviser, john bolton. on monday issuing this statement... mr bolton was fired by mr trump in september. already, mr bolton's former aides have testified that he was deeply concerned by trump's actions relating to ukraine. donald trump has been tweeting a lot general soleimani and his impeachment trial — a lot. here he is, the tweets not up there, but he's highlighted comments by senior republicans, saying there is no urgency to the whole impeachment process because there's no case, and evidently donald trump agrees with that. this is also interesting for congressman mark meadows — sorry, representative mark meadows, who trump retweeted. .. the

representative mark meadows, who trump retweeted... the point being, the previous actions of general soleimani justify his death. anthony zurcher is in washington. before christmas we were talking about various issues to be sorted out before a date could be set, particularly around the rules of engagement, if you like. have they been sorted out? know, there have perhaps been some negotiations but no final agreement reached between democrats and republicans in congress. the big debate that democrats wanted was guarantees that people could be called, witnesses could be called to testify during the senate impeachment trial. and there's been no agreement to that. democrats would love to see someone likejohn bolton democrats would love to see someone like john bolton be democrats would love to see someone likejohn bolton be called into testify because they believe he might have some interesting information to share. but mitch mcconnell, the senate republican leader, today announced that he has sufficient republican votes in the

senate to set the rules however he sees fit, and the rules he wants to set would be making no agreement or formal rule that inch, or witnesses could be introduced, proceeding with opening statements and in determining witnesses on a case—by—case basis. 53 republicans out of 100 in the senate, if his caucus sticks together in votes together, they can do whatever they wa nt together, they can do whatever they want as far as how to run this senate impeachment trial. and it looks like he has the vote, so it is in his interest it seems to make this run smoothly and get it over with quickly, and with donald trump being allowed to stay in office. but if republicans continue to set rules that the democrats don't like, might there be a scenario where the democrats choose not to go ahead or the republicans may force this issue anyway? that's what everyone is waiting for her around here, for nancy pelosi and that house democrats to decide what they want to do with the articles of

impeachment. the reason the trial has not yet been scheduled or begun yet is because nancy pelosi has held onto those articles of impeachment and have not formally turned them over to the senate. and one of the reasons why she decided to do this was to put pressure on congressional senate republicans to come to some sort of an agreement. that has not been the case so far, it doesn't seem like it will be the case anytime soon, so she will have to decide whether to hand it over and see where the chips fall, or hold onto them. i think it will be increasingly difficult to just sit on articles of impeachment indefinitely. anthony, thank you very much for taking us through it. a major cyber attack on the foreign exchange firm travelex on new year's eve has forced the firm to revert to pen and paper. the attack took down websites across 30 countries — this is what greeted customers.

there was nothing planned about this. travelex also provides services for other firms, such as sainsbury's bank, which put this up on its website. it's because of the same incident. a ransomware gang called sodinokibi told the bbc it was responsible. 0ur cyber security correspondent joe tidy explained. they very slowly and quietly take over computer systems, download all the valuable information. and when they're ready at the time of their choosing, they'll push a button which will encrypt everything, and they'll demand payment from the company or organisation of x amount — hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars in bit coin or they will delete or sell all the data. we've been speaking to the hackers on one of the websites that they operate, and they have confirmed it to us that this is a gang that call themselves revil. we don't know much about them but they claim to have carried out this attack. they have told me that they have had access to travelex's systems for six months before they carried out the attack, press the button

and encrypted everything. and they are saying that they've got seven days, travelex, to pay $6 million us, or they will sell everything. rachel aldigheri runs the uk's data and marketing association. she said travelex needs to be more open with its customers. they are explaining in more detail what is happened, and on others it simply says there is an error. they need to have that consistency across their social media their e—mail, and becoming a caning with customers and offering them a recourse, a phone line, anything to ask for advice and help. it's not just about the anything to ask for advice and help. it's notjust about the potential fines they could face, but about building long—term trust and looking to the reputation, which obviously can to the reputation, which obviously ca n affect to the reputation, which obviously can affect them financially long—term, as well. there are transatlantic tensions between the us and france over a tax paris is levying on digital giants like google, apple, facebook,

and amazon that came into effect on 1january. here's samira hussain. sorry, carry on. iwas sorry, carry on. i was going to say that it went into effect on one january, but we are now seeing that france in the united states have entered into a bit of a two week reprieve. so what's happening is the two sides will try and negotiate, because when france initiated this 396 because when france initiated this 3% tax on some of these digital companies, the united states said it would just tax everything that is coming in from france into the united states. and donald trump even suggested there could be a tax of 100% on some of these goods. so this retaliatory action by the united states is certainly not something that the two sides want, so now they are going to try and come to some sort of agreement about this. just a

sort of agreement about this. just a sort stop in new york today, thank you for your help there. venezuela's opposition leader, juan guaido, has been sworn—in as speaker — but to get to his post he needed to break into the national assembly building. take a look at these pictures. the national armed forces initially blocked him from entering parliament, but mr guaido and another 100 opposition lawmakers broke through the cordon. on sunday, mr guaido was successfully barred from entering the building to attend a vote to re—elect him but his supporters in the national assembly held a rival vote outside to re—elect him. and this is mr guaido being sworn in once they fought their way through. the speaker is elected once a year. this year, the vote took on greater significance because mr guaido's claim to the interim presidency rests on his position as speaker. mr guaido declared himself interim president shortly after he was elected to the post last year. he'd argued that because the 2018

presidential election that returned president nicolas maduro to power had been widely been denounced as rigged, the presidency was vacant. the constitution says the national assembly speaker should take power in these cases. more than 50 countries have since recognised him as venezuela's legitimate leader. 0ur correspondent in caracas, guillermo moreno, who gave the order to block his entrance. while it is hard to say, but we had some clues coming in from how the situation has been managed by the security forces. we know that on sunday, the national guard, which is the military security core dependent on the defence minister, tried to prevent — blocked juan guaido while

he was trying to get into parliament, for a new term is congress president. we also know that the government side that the... has been able to appear on state tv, which is something that was com pletely which is something that was completely impossible to do forjuan guaido for more than a year as the national president. we have also seen today some government supporters outside the parliament building harassing and shouting at mr guaido building harassing and shouting at mrguaido and building harassing and shouting at mr guaido and his team, trying to enter the facilities. so this provides us with the idea that the government was interested in keeping mr guaido outside the national assembly and set up a new session of the parliament with a new president

who is disputed by the opposition, as well as experts who claim that his proclamation was legal. still to come: we'll look at the growing cost of australia's bushfires crisis. almost 2,000 houses have been destroyed — and more than 20 lives lost. researchers have found that training for — and then running — your first marathon can add years to your life by reducing your blood pressure, as well as taking four years off the age of your arteries. this morning, the bbc's sophie raworth put on her trainers and went to find out more. a new year brings new resolutions, and for many people in london's hyde park today, that means getting fit. but the idea of running a marathon — 26.2 miles — fills many with fear. ifind running really hard,

it's not easy for me. i prefer to go down to the gym and lift weights. that's easy, but, hopefully, the smaller i get, the easier it will become. if i were to do like a half marathon, marathon, think i would need months and months of practice. in fact, researchers now say marathon running can add years to your life. they studied more than 100 first—time runners at the london marathon and found it rejuvenated their arteries. it was those older, more sedentary individuals, potentially with higher blood pressure at baseline, that seemed to derive the most benefit. so those with the most to gain seemed to get the most benefit, that's an important finding. i only took up marathon running in my early a05. before that, i did almost no exercise at all. a decade later, i'm faster and fitter than i've ever been. jackie millet started running even later than i did, she was 57 when a cancer scare prompted her to take exercise for the first time. ten years later, she's addicted. at first, it's very difficult. i started running on a treadmill, and it took a long time for me to have the confidence to go outside and run. and once i did, i never looked back.

it's fantastic. jackie is extreme. she has run 200 marathons in the past ten years, but she goes to show that age is no barrier, and the body can often achieve far more than you ever thought possible. this is 0utside source, live from the bbc newsroom. 0ur lead story is... more than 50 people have died in a stampede at the burial of the iranian military commander the us killed on friday. australia's bushfires have now burnt through eight billion hectares of land since september. smoke can now be seen 12,000 kilometres away in argentina and chile.

this is the smoke blanketing santiago. smoke can be seen across the city. the world wildlife foundation says up to a billion animals may have been killed. almost 2,000 homes have been destroyed — at least 2a people have been died. among them are three volunteer firefighters. this is the funeral of andrew 0'dwyer, who was killed in december. and this is his daughter being given herfather's helmet and service medal at the ceremony. thousands of firefighters are involved in trying to contain this crisis — and while milder weather is helping at the moment, hot dry conditions will soon return. new south wales in the south—east is worse affected. let's begin withjonathan head, who's in one small town there. i'm now in the town of wingello. the fire service here has been

unbelievably busy over the weekend, trying to save this town. the fire that struck this place roared in from back there. the firefighters here put up an epic battle, one they describe in almost apocalyptic terms as his fire roaring through with a massive cloud of ash, the sky completely red. adn the firefighters here described battling on all fronts to try to save the town. it is a town of around a00 people, and they thought they would lose the entire town. the fire came up here and leapt over the road, and you can see the ground over there is completely scorched, going towards the railway line. and that's where the firefighters say they stopped it from going further over and getting more homes. people have come back to this town now, the weather is cooler now, there are some fires a distance away and some smoke. but they can come back and look at their homes, and they describe the feeling almost of elation that nobody was hurt or killed, and that they didn't lose more homes.

this is one of so many communities in australia now that are really reeling from these fires and assessing the damage that they've suffered — worrying of course too hot season has just started, and they may get more fiery weather to come. from there to wandandian in rural new south wales. lucy hockings is there. temperatures have been cooler here. a little bit of rain has fallen across the state and victoria, which has really taking the pressure off people. but it does feel like we are all in a state of limbo, particularly the residents who live here because the intense heat and wind is set to return here in the coming days. and there is the constant, constant smoke and air pollution that's been really bad across the state, particularly in the capital of australia, where they gave out free masks to people today to try and cope with the pollution, as well as in melbourne.

this a human distaster and an environmental disaster. the world wildlife fund says... this is lucy hockings with some of those involved in rescuing animals. in here, we have a baby mountain brushtower possum. so he's had to be evacuated, as well, with us. he will be released into the wild. these guys are in care for a very long time. we will have him for close to a year. baby kangaroos and wombats are in care for about two years, so it's a long term commitment. it's going to take decades and decades for the bush to regenerate properly. you know, the impacts of the fire, beyond just what we see with the green leaves and all that stuff, there are impacts — on the soil and insects, and all that sort of stuff. year after year, you just see less and less frogs and those little

species that can handle big changes. —— can't handle big changes. so yeah, it's... it's really scary. u nfortu nately unfortunately this crisis is not going anywhere in the nearfuture. here's the latest assessment from the bushfire recovery agency. that's before we even begin to count the cost of outhouses, sheds, public places, schools. the heartbeat of some of these places. that's before you begin to even count the cost to business. to those who may not have lost their homes but don't have a place to turn up for work today. they're not sure how the next paycheque will arrive. the cost of this is unprecedented. i'm under no illusions of the size of the challenges ahead of us. many different images being used to show the scale of these fires. but be sure to check

what you're looking at. this has been shared a lot — with lots of people claiming it's a satellite image. it's not. it's a visualisation based on nasa data from the past month. where it glows are areas that have been affected by fires since december. so a stark image — but not a moment in time. the artist who made it calls it a "prettier—looking graph". that is quite different. it's also worth saying these are not the deadliest fires in australia's history. in 2009,173 people died in state of victoria. that fire was brought under control within weeks. these fires are already several months old. and the fire season has only just begun. now, as we've discussed many times on 0utside source, these fires have become intensely political — prime minister scott morrison is accused by critics of not doing enough about the crisis or about climate change.

there's political heat going elsewhere too. the green party is being accused of failing to support hazard—reduction burning during winter. this is when land where there's a high density of particularly dry scrub — referred to as fuel load — is deliberately burnt to reduce risk. the prime minister said recently... he went on to say people... here's one example from youtube of this allegation against the greens. just to show what is actually the cause of all those big fires. not climate change, just bad management from way up above in politicians — therefore, the greens. but here's the greens website —

the party says it supports hazard reduction burning where appropriate, and it says... if you want an assessment of whether the greens are getting in the way of the greens are getting in the way of theissue, the greens are getting in the way of the issue, here's victoria's fire chief on this issue. the reality is we've had fire down the landscape here that has had burns go right through it, and it hasn't slowed it up at all. and so, the argument is not supported that reduction burning on a large scale will fix all our problems. it should be treated as one part of an integrated approach. what's been really successful for us in these firefights is how we are actually working with communities before the fires go through. part of that will be fuel reduction burning, but we can put ploughs through, we can prepare communities before the fire goes through, which is actually giving us a lot more success than broad scale burning.

so yes, burning is important, but some of the hysteria that this will be the problem that — the solution to all our problems is reallyjust quite an emotional load of rubbish, to be honest. while some people are looking to what caused this blaze, those people who have lost homes are facing the question of how — and whether to — rebuild. and of course, they are desperate to know if insurance will come though. this is the government's treasurer on the number of claims so far. there's around 8,500 insurance claims, around $700 million in losses that have already been made. but many people affected by these fire may not be fully covered by insurance. here's courtney bembridge — an australian journalist with the 0s team — on that issue. it's difficult in these areas that have been either burned by fire before or are fire prone. insurance premiums are often very, very high. and also, you get the situation where many people are underinsured. so they may insure the cost of building their house,

but over time, that goes up. and also, the cost of construction after a fire is much higher than when you're first building the home. sometimes also, if people have a mortgage, they'll have to... the banks can kind of use the insurance pay—outs to pay off the mortgage, and then you have to get another mortgage, basically, to rebuild. so it's not as easy as people kind of getting the amount and starting to rebuild. often, this takes months and years to kind of get people back on their feet after an event like this. and often, they're out—of—pocket to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. so that perhaps is one of the reasons we are seeing lots of calls for donations to help australians. but some viewers might be thinking, "well, australia's a relatively wealthy country. why does it need donations from overseas to help take on this crisis?" is itjust about insurance? no. so a lot of it is about caring for these people who are displaced now. some people haven't lost their homes yet but they're waiting to see what happens with the fire, or their homes are in the path of the fire. so they've been taken to evacuation centres. they need to be fed, they need water, they need food.

all of that is run by volunteer organisations — not to mention the fact that these fires are actually being fought by mostly volunteers. those people need to be fed, they need to have water and they need resources. so all of that is funded by volunteer organisations, red cross. then you've also got wildlife. an unprecedented number of animals have been affected by this, and so all of those organisations are going in and getting, rescuing animals. some of those take years to rehabilitate because of the state of their burns, and so that takes a very long time to kind of get them back on their feet. the first port of call, obviously, is just fighting this fire, and because that is a volunteer organisation, they'll be focusing on that, but there are a wide range of causes as this thing stretches after months and years that will still need ongoing support, and that's where the dollars are going. and we will continue to bring you coverage from australia tomorrow. bye— bye. hello there. we're going to take a look at some of our bigger weather

stories around the world. and although here in the uk, we've not seen too many signs of winter weather over recent weeks, in kabul in afghanistan, it's been a different story, with a zone of heavy snow moving across the city over the last 2a hours. the kids have been out enjoying the wintry weather, and this area of low pressure that's brought snow to kabul is continuing to work its way northeastwards. it's going to bring more heavy snow, this time to the northwest of india and western areas of nepal, where, over the mountains, about 1,500 metres elevation, the snow's going to be heavy. could see half a metre in places, bringing a risk of avalanches and closing some of the mountain passes as well. we've also got a bit of snow across the eastern states of the us thanks to this area of low pressure. the snow, though, easing away very quickly on wednesday and a ridge of high pressure follows in the colder air. so it is going to be feeling chilly along these eastern areas, with the snow easing away. still a bit more snow to come across eastern areas of canada. temperatures staying below freezing here. but the amount of accumulating snow

— pretty small, really. now, the outlook over the next few days, it stays pretty cold. it gets much colder, actually, montreal. maximum temperature is —10 on thursday before things get less chilly through friday and the weekend. this area of cloud working across the korean peninsula's been bringing some very heavy falls of rain here and wet and windy weather as well moving its way across japan. indeed, during wednesday, we could see gusts of about 100 km an hour orso, 60 miles an hour or so, but that system is easing away, followed by showers, and cooler air following. temperatures just 5 degrees in seoul through thursday afternoon. now, for australia, although a lot of the media attention, of course, has been — rightly so — on those wildfires which are continuing, not a great deal of rain in the forecast here. this area of cloud across the northwest and western australia is actually a cyclone — cyclone blake — that made landfall during the course of tuesday. torrential rain from this. could see 200 mm of rain in places, bringing

with it some flooding. but across those areas that desperately need the rain to put out those fires, well, it's largely dry, although there will be a few isolated showers. for europe, meanwhile, we've seen some very unsettled weather across the southeast, with heavy outbreaks of rain for southern turkey — 80 mm in places. and it stays unsettled here. there will be more snow in the mountains, above 1,000 metres elevation. good news for the turkish ski resorts. but then across northern europe, we've got a massive cold front stretching all the way from northwest russia to the north of france. along this zone, we'll see cloudy skies, a bit of light rain and drizzle, a bit of mist as well. ultimately, colder air will be working in behind that front, and we are going to see some of that cooler air getting in across the north of the uk through wednesday. with it, a mixture of sunny spells and showers. still quite cloudy in the south, but relatively mild wednesday.

at least 50 people are killed in a crush in iran as huge numbers turn out for the burial of qasem soleimani. more than 200 were injured as they mourned the killing of iran's second most powerful man by the us. donald trump is unrepentant. he's been called a monster, and he was a monster. and he's no longer a monster, he's dead. and that's a good thing for a lot of countries. the president also insisted that the killing was lawful and that america won't hesitate to retaliate if attacked by iran. also tonight... the 19—year—old woman convicted of lying about being raped in cyprus flies home after her sentence is suspended.