you're watching beyond 100 days. prince harry says he and meghan intend to step back as senior members of the royal family. in a surprise announcement, the pair said their long—term goal is to become "financially independenffl the news comes as the dow with the us and iran on the brink of war, both sides stepped back. president trump says america has "big, powerful, as long as i'm president of the united states, iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. in the war of disinformation, iranian state television says the attack on us bases killed 80

americans, the white house says none died. also on the programme, the iranians say they have recovered a black box from the ukrainian passengerjet that crashed in tehran shortly after take off killing 176 people on board. and do you think they "saurus"? the t—rex love at the airport arrivals lounge. if only they had long enough arms. hello and welcome. i'm katty kay in washington and christian fraser is in london. the duke and duchess of sussex have anncounced in the last hour that they "intend to step back as ‘senior‘ members of the royal family and work to become financially independent" in a statement issued by the couple. to become financially independent" have just anno| they say that after many months of reflection they have decided to make a transition to carve out a progressive new role in this institution. the couple say they plan

to balance their life between the uk and the united states while continuing to support the queen. the statement goes on to say that they intend to raise their son, prince archie in the royal tradition while giving the family the space to focus on the next chapter. joining us now on the phone is our royal correspondent sarah campbell. effectively sarah, they are resigning from the firm. this is a huge surprise that the statement was published, just after half past six this evening and as you say the key phrase in their "we tend to step back as a senior members of the royal family and become financially independent while continuing to support her majesty the queen." what does that mean? it means that we need to find more details about what that means because this hasn't

happened before. let's just look that means because this hasn't happened before. let'sjust look at what has happened when meghan markle joined the royal family back in 2018 at the time when they got together, there was a huge amount of ambiguity with the royal foundation, there was a huge amount of ambiguity with the royalfoundation, the duke and duchess of cambridge. the benefits and procedures that they carry and megan could bring to the wider borealfamily carry and megan could bring to the wider boreal family and get here we are wider boreal family and get here we a re less wider boreal family and get here we are less than two years later and they're looking to as they say step back from the royal family. they're looking to as they say step back from the royalfamily. —— they're looking to as they say step back from the royal family. —— and meghan could bring to the royal family. 2018 was filled with highs and lows as far as the couple are concerned. the high is the birth of archie the new prince, they decided they didn't want to take a royal title for the sun, was not a clue of what was to come? that was in may of last year but then after that what

did we have? we had the news at the end of february, their successful tour southern africa, the news that they were going to take legal action against several british tabloid newspapers and in an accompanying statement, prince harry pulled no punches when he talks about his wife had been subject to a ruthless campaign by british newspapers. they then gave interviews to an itv programme, tom bradberry who is one of their closest confidantes and they spoke about the fact that harry was not willing to let what happened to his mother happened to his wife. megan spoke in the interview and talked about how stressful the amount of pressure, that she never thought when she joined the royal family fed there would be this amount of pressure. she simply was not prepared for it. it was a low time, they took their time off, but we found out when they were away in canada, that's where they were. they

had six weeks leaving time to my thinking time, family time in canada,it thinking time, family time in canada, it they came back yesterday, they talk about what a great break they talk about what a great break they had, they think the canadian people for their hospitality and we resumed it would be back to work. we heard there was when to be an engagement to do with rugby next week and then this has come out which completely changes the picture. and what doesn't actually mean in terms of their life now saying they want to slither time between the us and uk, is it possible for this couple to step away from the spotlight like this? it hasn't been done we don't know. we'll have to wait and find out. what does it mean that they intend to back out as senior members of the royalfamily? to back out as senior members of the royal family? does that mean they give up their royal highness title? we don't know, we will have to wait to find out. this needs to be clarified, and it looks that they will still work to be with a been

doing, aligning themselves with charities, patronage is, the queen, the commonwealth. they are looking to still try and do that but doing it in to still try and do that but doing itina to still try and do that but doing it in a different way than we have become used to. this is a big shock, surprise. i think there was a sense that they were happy at the situation in the moment but when harry released a statement last year was clear about that. —— was not happy. but we did not know how serious that was. whether this would become a permanent situation that they wanted to change the relationship between them in the royal family relationship between them in the royalfamily inquiry relationship between them in the royal family inquiry that is what they are intending to do. sarah campbell, think you very much for joining us. you look at all those pictures their christian when we we re pictures their christian when we were at the wedding remember someone such wasn't the winning that would happen within a space of a couple of yea rs, happen within a space of a couple of years , we happen within a space of a couple of years, we would've been very been very surprised. very surprised. i wonder how much notice the queen has had about a. there was talk around

the queen's speech that the photographs that were on the desk and of course quite visibly was the line of succession. use our prince philip and then use our prince charles and prince william and kate in prince george absent from the family spread was of course the duke and duchess of sussex. was that one of the reasons why she was focusing on those photographs knowing of course what had happened to prince andrew and what might be coming in the new year? i suppose people was accurate about that. interesting in the statement that they put on their instagram account that they clearly are professing several times in the short statement their loyalty to the crown and their commitment to the crown as well and to her majesty. let's move onto other news now because there has been a lot of it on the iran front. if the missiles fired overnight on the two us bases in iraq are the limits of iran's retaliation, for the death of general suleimani, then donald trump's gamble appears to have paid off. a bad guy has been removed from the battlefield, no americans have paid the price. but the longer term question is whether killing suleimani has made the region safer.

that's less clear. iran could still retaliate in other ways and this strike doesn't resolve its aggression in the region or the future of its nuclear ambitions. mr trump now says he wants diplomacy — but he is also promising immediate new sanctions. that won't go down well in tehran. from iraq, our middle east editor jeremy bowen sent this report. the iranians promised retaliation and delivered it not long after midnight. they warned the iraqi government that the missiles were coming. more than a dozen were launched. iraqi soldiers filmed some impacts. and they shouted warnings to each other. this was the huge pinellas on base in western iraq.

the americans also stationed there have been hunkering down expecting trouble since the assassination —— ain al—asad. in washington president trump believes he has got the better of iran, assessing its most effective general and writing out iran positive response. no americans we re iran positive response. no americans were harmed in last night's attack. by were harmed in last night's attack. by the iranian regime. we suffered no casualties, all of our soldiers are safe. iran appears to be standing down which is a good thing for all parties concerned and if every good thing for the world. for all parties concerned and if every good thing for the worldm iran, the crowd chanted "death to america" as the supreme leader ayatolla h america" as the supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei said they had not finished yet. translation: will not be issue of revenge is

something else. what happened last night wasjust something else. what happened last night was just a slap in the face. but it is another issue. the big objective he said was to drive the americans out of the middle east. the crowd shouting "god is greatest". in baghdad the morning didn't bring much reassurance for iraqis who don't want yet another war. the organisation put it —— based on a proem reign in militia gather to mourn the assassinations and condemned the us refusal to pull the troops out of iraq and stop you what they insist on... that means they forced everyone in iraq, eve ryo ne they forced everyone in iraq, everyone in iraq to go for resista nce everyone in iraq to go for resistance for military resistance against them. do you think now that the iranians have made this attack that it the iranians have made this attack thatitis the iranians have made this attack that it is the end of this chapter? they do more, the increase i think.

i think it's a message, not more. message to the americans? saying that we are serious. this is a long—term conflict. the biggest danger at the moment in the most u nsta ble pa rt danger at the moment in the most unstable part of the world. without a political dialogue and some kind of deal, the slide towards war will continue. jeremy bowen, bbc news, baghdad. go ahead christian. for more on the geopolitics of this and what iran might do next, we'rejoined by vali nasr, middle east scholar atjohns hopkins university and former senior adviser to obama's state department. good to have you with us. just looking at the pictures, the satellite images of the bases that we re satellite images of the bases that were headed, clearly they hit buildings where there were no casualties. is it fair to think that if they really wanted to kill american troops they would have done so? i think so. i american troops they would have done so? ithink so. ithink american troops they would have done

so? i think so. i think the absence of casualties is too conspicuous to be coincidental. i think iranians we re be coincidental. i think iranians were sending a message about the a ccu ra cy were sending a message about the a ccu ra cy of were sending a message about the accuracy of their missiles. after alljust as difficult accuracy of their missiles. after all just as difficult to accuracy of their missiles. after alljust as difficult to hit a particular target as it is to avoid a particular target. ithink particular target as it is to avoid a particular target. i think they wa nted a particular target. i think they wanted to say they have the capability and that they are doing something symbolic, and that if the us takes this as it is, then they both can step back from the edge. i think that is the grand message they sent. this is the very public message from to run once from irani and soil. but we don't know with general suleimani out is whether iran can control the proxies in the region, in syria, lebanon, iraq. some of them they can but some may be more difficult. in iraq, the more critical person that was killed was the iraqi militia commander. without him, even general suleimani would have been difficult in controlling

the 30 militias. way that us removed a very powerfulfigure the 30 militias. way that us removed a very powerful figure who was capable of asserting order on the militias in iraq and now it is not clear who will replace him and whether we will have chaos and more disorder among the militias. but i think with his brother —— with has blower neck, and others below general suleimani who are managing the day—to—day management of those bushes, they are still in place. president trump took a gamble that both president bush and president obama have chosen not to take. at the moment as the status quo is todayit the moment as the status quo is today it seems that gamble may have paid office of his he made the region safer? well, we don't know. the only way it would make the region safer is if he can use this moment to push for diplomacy with iran in an aggressive way. and i think the killing of suleimani actually has raised the bar for starting diplomacy, it is now more

difficult because the iranians have less political cover to actually come to the table. it is one thing to back away from the edge and not go to work. it's another thing to actually sit down and negotiate with the man thatjust assassinated a popular general and brought millions of people out for his funeral. yes this morning it looks like he avoided war and so it is a feel—good moment but we are not out of the woods yet it's and this is a long war. i think iran will buy this time, it may continue to harass the us, we may end up with another escalation but the ball is also in trump's court. once he going to do with this moment and how is he going to turn it for something better? very good context, thank you very much for that. so, no american casualties in the missiles strikes overnight. but let's show you the satellite images of the al asad air base — before and after the attack. you can see that missiles were landing within the perimeter and close to helicopters parked on the apron of the airfield. in fact some of these structures

appear to have been hit dead centre. we are told at least five structures were damaged in the attack on the base in the western anbar province. but given the pinpoint nature of the strikes, you have to ask whether targets on the base were chosen to avoid loss of life because the buildings hit were largely being used for storing aircraft parts. joining me now is former homeland security adviser, tom bossert. thanks for coming in. do you think the iranians decided to take this strike in order to save face but not to cause american loss of life in order not to escape the situation further? i think it is clear in its face not only from the targets selected but the messages they put out from three sources last night and their three very different sources. the irgc, the military but on the message and they reinforce they were doing it with the pm you, they were doing it with the pm you, the shia militia groups in iraq. and

by the... they put out a somewhere bogus message but they wanted to tamp down military escalation for some and we saw ronnie come up with a similar statement which was mostly sabre rattling but being intended to meant that this our intent to hit you but not have it as quite into further loss of five militarily. i would say one thing, the united states chose an air base when it decided to enforce the redline in syria. we did the same thing with oui’ syria. we did the same thing with our targeting selection there. we did not want to kill russians, we wa nted did not want to kill russians, we wanted to avoid an overt loss of syrian life and so we picked the same target. this is clear among target tea rs same target. this is clear among target tears in the military that they picked this on purpose was up i think there was another purpose though to demonstrate capability. we just decapitated the military. they wa nted just decapitated the military. they wanted to show they could strike directly, that's why they chose not to go through their proxy forces the way they normally would but they wa nted way they normally would but they wanted to demonstrate clearly to their angry populace that they could do something. let's see if they

still have to do something else, we don't know that yet. you know the deliberations in the white house and you worked in the trump administration, one thing surprising about this is that he doesn't want more engagement in the middle east, he's made it clear he does not want that and yet he stepped almost to the brink of a full on confrontation stop you what there is a paradox here and that he does not want to be in the middle east but markedly he doesn't want to be in iraq. and now he knows he doesn't want to become a nose bottoms of a longer stay there. i think he is frustrated. do you think this'll and with american forces seeing longer in iraq? the consensus is 3%. to appease people in iran, separate the iraqis and other regional partners from the americans and drive us out for some i think that would be perceived as a loss in america and president trump 110w loss in america and president trump now is likely going to just save face but also to maintain stability in the region have to stay there and we will see how that plays out. but he has a longer stay there if he

can't convince the iraqis would happen some point on the other side of the speech and that was the bit where he said that the uk, france and journey must break away for the nuclear deal. and today i am going to ask nato to be much more involved in the middle east process. yesterday we saw nato countries withdrawing from iraq and we all know relations between washington and european capitals at the moment are strained to say the least. yet, there is no love lost between the us administration under president trump and western europe. eastern europe has a different view here. western european leadership has long tried to maintain thejcpoa deal. they wa nt to to maintain thejcpoa deal. they want to make sure there is some commerce exchange between iran. i interpreted the president on cyprus marks today and into a source of the more productive way is that he got past the sunk cost and address the point of our last commentator, he needs somebody to engaged up a medically that he wants to continue de—escalation and there is no other choice and other borisjohnson is in

the helm, i think he is looking for the helm, i think he is looking for the british and french to lead the way. thank you very much for coming in. to pick up on the part about borisjohnson, boris johnson finally re—emerged today, blinking into the sunlight, blinking into the sunlight, after several days out of the spotlight. at his first appearance at prime mininster‘s questions he was asked byjeremy corbyn whether he had been keeping a low profile to avoid offending donald trump. but the prime minister strongly defended the actions of the americans. the us he said had been absolutely right to defend their citizens. and noone was going to lament the passing of general suleimani. the strict issue of legality is not for the uk to determine. it was not oui’ for the uk to determine. it was not our operation. but i think most reasonable people would accept that the united states has a right to protect its basis and its personnel. picking up on that last issue we we re picking up on that last issue we were discussing with tom, i wonder how number ten will look at this idea that nato is going to have to

invest more in the region, that they will have to walk away from jcpoa. we had a softer signalfrom will have to walk away from jcpoa. we had a softer signal from to will have to walk away from jcpoa. we had a softer signalfrom to run yesterday that they are prepared to stick to the commitments they made on the agreement so long as there are economic benefits for tehran was up are economic benefits for tehran was up yet, i'm not sure how much the strike on general suleimani has change the fundamentals where there it is over the nuclear deal or over iran's economic situation over iran and this is the thing america has been exercised about, what iran —— america has been excite about, meddling with other countries in the region and that is the longer—term issue. whether there is now some window for diplomacy, can you because of this reconfigure this sufficiently the equation on those things? i don't know. the question is how do you get from here to there? how you get from here from —— due to policy. the main event of the day for the prime minister though was his first meeting at number 10 with the new european commission president ursula von der leyen. mrjohnson said he would be

using the meeting to underline that forthcoming negotiations will be aimed at securing an "ambitious free trade agreement" with the eu, and not alignment. ahead of the meeting ms von de leyen spoke at the london school of economics. she said there are "tough talks ahead" in the negotiations. but she warned the uk it cannot expect free movement of goods and services without free movement of people. there would she stressed be a "more distant partnership" between the uk and the eu, in the future. mujtaba rahman is a former civil servant now managing director at the eurasia group. is this a getting to know you sort of meeting or to begets on the concrete out of it? nothing concrete. this was about resetting ties and play nice. there's a desire 110w ties and play nice. there's a desire now that we are leaving, the uk is leaving, to start phase two talks off any different foot. von de leyen stone at the —— her tone was... borisjohnson stone at the —— her tone was... boris johnson trying stone at the —— her tone was... borisjohnson trying to do the same thing. but i think underneath a nice

talk is a real difference between the substance of the trade negotiations. if you were to look at the negotiating stakes of the uk site and there were many in the first three years of this, they didn't really know the uk side what they wanted out of negotiation. so in the second part of the talks, surely they need to get something done quickly to set the tenor of the negotiation. i think that is right andi negotiation. i think that is right and i think the principles in this government are clear i think about the benefits, the perceived benefits of brexit and what they want to do. thatin of brexit and what they want to do. that in a word is divergence, they wa nt to that in a word is divergence, they want to do their own thing, govern the uk economy in a way that they see fit for different sectors. by the more you divert, the longer you have to negotiate, that is the rub. the impact will be on market access immediately. in the short—term that will create economic challenges and i think they are aware of that. but the direction in which they want to go and the question really is to

what extent does economic reality a reckoning if there are job losses, factory closures, is going to force a rethink at the top of government? that sunday we will have to wait and see probably in q3 to mccue for this year. miss von de leyen was tainted that she thought boris johnson year. miss von de leyen was tainted that she thought borisjohnson would have to extend the timetable. of course he doesn't want to. how are they doing the timetable, how prepared today at number ten quizzical i don't believe they are prepared office of the cabinet has not met once yet to discuss the policy in phase two. there's about seven months to do the deal. i don't think he will expend the period. seven months to do the deal. i don't think he will expend the periodm would go down badly with voters, and eurosceptic mps, i think he wants to put this negotiation to bed in the first year. we are looking at this yeari first year. we are looking at this year i think to negotiate something with your whatever that time allows. and i think von de leyen was clear that there will be a year and that it will not be particularly

ambitious and that will be the trade office. that means there is only a skinny deal negotiated. correct probably covering goods and then there is a question of whether or not uk can achieve zero tariff, zero quota if it will not remain aligned to eu standards both today but also in the future. but would transition to different sectors in critical sectors we can get a deal, do you transition for them? that will be difficult if they don't agree to extend the transition byjuly, if not in certain sectors will face a cliff edge at the end of the year. thanks for bringing us up to speed. greeting loved ones at the airport arrivals lounge has a real movie—like quality to it. for those of you re watching love actually over christmas — you'll remember that all too well. but this next clip is an airport reunion of even more epic proportions. wait for it. yes. you are watching a dinosaur reunion.

we have no idea why these people — these dinosaurs — did this. but you have got to love it. don't you? i don't think we even know which airport its at. maybe it is staged. but i really don't care. i love it. i think that my favourite bit is when he comes through wheeling his little trolley. because if you are a tear wrecks, you have to have a wheelie bag. i love it. can we show it again, it isjust wheelie bag. i love it. can we show it again, it is just so good, wheelie bag. i love it. can we show it again, it isjust so good, i think that is how we close out this half—hour. more dinosaur arrivals. let's do it again, there he is with his wheelie bag! you kind of miss that. that's fun. and the dinosaurs say goodbye to you for the moment. this is beyond 100 days from the bbc. coming up for viewers, the duke and duchess of sussex are stepping back its senior roles and we will discuss what that means. and the plane crash outside of term on the kilt all 170 people on board for

supper will be asking the head of the former —— of the faa how that is possible. still good evening. it has been a much colder, brighter day across the northern half of the uk. drier and brighter to start at least for the south but you can see the cloud has hung on, thickening for the afternoon and it is pushing ray northwards. you can see we got further lumps of cloud, rain to come, notjust rain but lively winds, gales potentially. quite dusty going with this rain. fairly nasty on the road and as it comes into the cold air further north, it will turn to snow over the hills of northern england, northern ireland and southern parts of scotland whilst maintaining that mild south. could have some ice issues as well as fog first thing in the north. if you wait till this, it will be miserable for the drive to work. that will take it's time to clear

away. chilli with a northeasterly here. elsewhere it gets dry for a time but not from them because we have more rain coming back to the south west later on. relatively mild here but you can see again scotland and northern ireland the whole day, and northern ireland the whole day, and northern england. the next area of low pressure and rain pushes eastwards during thursday night into friday with strong winds north of france and the channel islands but following a brief ridge of high pressure which means it will be a colder night again, more widely occult tonight is going to friday morning. but that bodes well for a decent day. there could be icy patches around following the rain and fog. but it looks like the main rain will hold off till later on for northern ireland and western scotland. not particularly warm but a nice dry, bright day for many parts for something the weekend. by the weekend we have the south—westerly is established ahead of that weather front that will establish themselves and that will bring with them more rain because that warm air off the atlantic holds

more moisture. some parts of scotland, and northern ireland, north—west england and north and wells could see in excess of 100 mm of rain from late friday until that weather front clears away into sunday. and you can see saturday is wet and windy, warnings out for both as you can see across the northern half of the country for some out there mostly try for the south but we will see some of that rain eventually reaching southern areas saturday night into sunday. behind it we get back behind the cold air, temporarily with wintry showers but againi temporarily with wintry showers but again i decent amount of dry weather the second part of the weekend. there are warnings enforced and on the website. —— again a decent amount of dry weather.

this is beyond 100 days from the bbc. coming up for viewers on the bbc news channel and bbc world news — the duke and duchess of sussex are stepping back as senior royals — we will discuss what that means. and a plane crash prince harry says

he and meghan will step back as senior members of the royal family. in a surprise announcement, the pair said they want to become "financially independent". president trump says iran appears to be standing down after it targeted air bases housing us forces in iraq in a televised address from the white house. coming up in the next half hour... the iranians say they've recovered a black box the duke and duchess of sussex are stepping back from their current position as senior royals and intend to become financially independent from the royal family. meghan and harry confirmed that as part of the transition, they plan to divide their time between the uk and north america — a move that was widely speculated about following their extended christmas break spent in canada. i'm joined by duncan larcombe, former royal editor of the sun newspaper and author of prince harry: the inside story. our royal correspondent was saying this had not been tried before but i was thinking back to other royals that have stepped back. there was henry viii, princess margaret try to keep a lower profile. it is not that easy. no, it is not. rememberthe

advocating crisis in the 1930s. that was an enormous development. i have to be honest, we are all in shock. there were rumours they might want to move abroad. it was mentioned last year. they might even consider africa. but for this to come so soon after they return from a six—week break in canada, to announce that effectively this is prince harry saying i quit, iam effectively this is prince harry saying i quit, i am stepping back, effectively this is prince harry saying i quit, iam stepping back, i am going to add my own money and i'm long longer going to be the people's prince. it is astonishing. he is a very popular member of the royal family and before he married patsy was the most popular member of the royalfamily was the most popular member of the royal family after coming back from his military too. then he gets married. let's face it, she has not had great press from the british tabloids. is there a danger that she gets blamed for this?” tabloids. is there a danger that she gets blamed for this? i think there is every possibility that people will speculate that harry's life has

changed dramatically since he famously married meghan markle in front of a tv audience of 2 billion people around the world. we have all signalled that harry is a fairly relu cta nt signalled that harry is a fairly reluctant member of the royal family. he has talked about his accident at birth. there have been times when he has spoken about the burden that he carries. but even thenl burden that he carries. but even then i think... when you write about prince harry, when you cover him, meet him, you know he is somebody you have to expect the unexpected. even saying that, i don't think anyone saw this genuinely coming. prince harry, i quit. i mean, that is astonishing. do you think this can work for them? if they have had a difficult time in the 19 months since i got married with the press, the attention, the media spotlight, do you think this is the kind of

move which can realistically help those difficulties? it will give legitimacy to their claims that they wa nt legitimacy to their claims that they want to be left alone, they don't wa nt want to be left alone, they don't want to be left alone, they don't want to be left alone, they don't want to be the focus of public attention as private individuals, they will be entitled to that level of privacy. what remains to be seen is whether or not, when things change within the structure of the royal family, and i change within the structure of the royalfamily, and i mean change within the structure of the royal family, and i mean the queen is 93 years old, she isn't going to carry on for ever, and prince charles, who was weighted since the age of four years old to become king, he would have been relying on prince harry in particular to connect the new king, when that day comes, to the younger generation and make a prince charles's rain on the throne a success. it is fair to say that this will have left senior

members of the royal family absolutely bamboozled and worried, frankly, about how the entire burden of the next generation after prince charles will fall on william and kate's shoulders. what does it mean to come financially independent? that is a good question. i don't know. does that mean harry is going to get a job? does it mean that meghan markle will go back to her role as an actress? it is possible. they are sacrificing upwards of £8 million a year by making this decision. obviously, there is a lot of money in the royal family. prince charles is incredibly wealthy in his own right. from what they are saying, it doesn't sound to us as though prince harry is purely going to rely on the bank of dad for the re st of to rely on the bank of dad for the rest of his life. presumably, he wants to get a job. it is uncharted territory. we simply do not know what on earth harry and megan are

planning to do next. 0k, thank you very much. plenty more to come in that story. very surprised. i like what he said, you can already see the headline, prince harry, i quit. that will probably be on the front pages tomorrow. we will see. now to the other major story coming out of iran. 176 people have died after a ukrainian passenger jet crashed, near the capital tehran. iranian authorities say, they've recovered the black boxes containing flight data but say they won't be releasing them to the us or the plane's manufacturer, boeing. the aircraft, which was bound for ukraine's capital, was a boeing 737—800 was built in 2016 and had its last scheduled maintenance on monday. among the victims were 82 iranians, 63 canadians, 11 ukrainians including all nine crew, 10 swedes, four afghans, three germans and three britons.

for more on what might have went wrong, i'm joined now by michael goldfard, former chief of staff to the federal aviation administration. thanks for coming in. there is a line from writers saying western intelligence agencies think that this could have been an engine overheating perhaps the cause this? would you make of that? i think that is pure speculation. if an engine overheated, planes are meant to five with more than one engine. the catastrophic nature of the loss of communications and what was recorded doesn't really speak to that. we don't know at all whether it is terrorism, mechanical or what might be the problem. one thing i will say about the black box, the so—called black box, the flight data recorder, would not come to the us. it would

go to the originating country, iran, and they would ask help from britain, france and the united states. the notion that boeing... as long as this takes, given the fact that max is so similar, all of that has to be worked out over time. the idea it could have been engine failure, if one engine failed, presumably the other one should kick in and ought to be able to land. these points have a problems with and contain engine failures. the casing would break off, like a case in philadelphia, and that would

cause a catastrophe. that is a possibility and this plane has a tendency to that that needs to be looked at. but there are many catastrophic failures with engines and it is so early to make those kind of judgments. i and it is so early to make those kind ofjudgments. i think the bad news for boeing, is it mechanical, how often are we going to be talking about boeing? let's get it together, boeing. maybe we are paying the price for lapses in safety over the la st price for lapses in safety over the last five or six years. the wire bundling that came out, the bundling in the tale of their backs, they had wire bundling that was to close that could cause a spark. they are also looking at the 737. that is incredible to me where an engineer would design something where those things are too close. just to be clear on the investigation, under international law the state of recurrence is iran so they do have a

role in the investigation but the design and manufacture is boeing. they also have a role but it is not going to be that easy because the two sides don't talk to each other so are we ever going to get to the bottom of this? let's remember other examples. egypt, we had different views between the egyptians, the state department... given what is happening between iran and the united states, given the lack of trust, it compounds the problem. we have iran, ukraine involved in this and then we perhaps have others to look at those black boxes. i think it is kind of a mess on that level. on an aviation safety level. terrorism is a whole other thing but the record that will tell whether something hit that point on the outside, whether it was something catastrophic internal brought it down. they don't think it was

terrorism or it was brought down by something else... lots of airlines avoiding that airspace, not to surprisingly. oil prices tumbled wednesday as donald trump signaled tensions with iran are easing, reducing fears of a deeper conflict between the two nations. past turmoil in the middle east has been a sure—fire way of sending oil prices sharply higher. but as the president pointed out, the balance of american oil reliance has shifted. we are now the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world. we are independent and we do not need middle east oil. joining us now from capitol hill is democratic congressman raja krishnamoorthi. he serves on the select committee for intelligence. there is a briefing today from the gang of six on the imminent threat and whether there was an imminent threat. what are you hearing as to

what the white house is setting out stimac we don't have enough intelligence with regard to that issue. that is one of the central questions. the white house asserted that killing suleimani was important for stopping an imminent threat. we neither have intelligence about the imminence of that threat nor do we have enough intelligence to say that threat would have been stopped, all that it threat would have been stopped, all thatitis threat would have been stopped, all that it is continuing to unfold as we speak. it is of course the gang of eight, the intelligence chiefs in front of congress today. the president today has extended the opportunity to talk but as we were saying earlier, the problem is they don't have diplomatic channels through iraq. they do that through the swiss. one guest said they expect the europeans to take a different role in this and to open a paypal. do you see a way to a

negotiation? i sure hope so because the current state of affairs is untenable. i the current state of affairs is untenable. lam the current state of affairs is untenable. i am glad that the president this morning decided not to take any further military action. in my humble opinion, he would not be authorised by congress to do so so be authorised by congress to do so so doing anything like that would be illegal. that being said, we are at a policy and let us ramp down tensions, let's calm the region down and let's figure out a way of working with partners and allies in the region, the uk, germany and others, to see if we can come back to the table eventually to have a comprehensive agreement that is durable and finally brings peace to the region. there was a lot of nervousness after mr suleimani was killed, about the risks it could pose. looking at where we are today, is it possible to make the case that

not only is mr suleimani been a eliminated, but also iran has been proved to be weaker than it was making out it was because it hasn't been able to retaliate significantly and it also backed away from conflict. in a sense, it was a gamble that mr trump took and does to have off. we don't know and the reason we don't know is because we don't the sufficient intelligence to determine that. secondly, we don't know whether it is because iran does not possess the capability to strike back that it decided not to exercise that capability. also, another thing that capability. also, another thing that should be noted is that the ayatollah made a point that they wanted to reject american forces from the region and secondly, they made it very clear that they cannot control the proxies. when they say that, it almost appears as a threat that, it almost appears as a threat

that those proxies might continue attacks. with regard to those two issues, i personally believe that the state of affairs is still tenuous and therefore we have to ta ke tenuous and therefore we have to take active steps to calm things down. we cannot have a war with iran. we can't have another endless war in the middle east. thank you very much forjoining us. the president in his speech today talked about nato stepping up. apparently he had spoken to the nato secretary this afternoon, asking him to get more involved. they agreed, according to the nato statement we have just had, that nato would contribute more to regional stability and would fight against international terrorism. we heard from the germans yesterday that they don't have much confidence in the us strategy in planning at the moment so it would be interesting to hear what members of the alliance actually think about that. yes, and

how they manage that if there is no nuclear deal any more. in the first of trump's statements following the killing of soleimani late last week, posted on twitter, he made reference to the iranian hostage crisis, when 52 us embassy officials and citizens were taken hostage in tehran in the days following the 1979 iranian revolution. the hostage standoff lasted 41m days. on saturday trump invoked the incident with a threat to respond to any forthcoming iranian strikes on americans or american assets by targetting 52 iranian sites. one of those former hostages — who later served as deputy assistant secretary of state for iran in obama's white house — is ambassadorjohn limbert. he joins us now from new york. thanks forjoining us. the degree to which the hostage crisis still dominates america and iran in their relationship, does it make it impossible for these two countries

to resume normal relations at some point? it makes it very hard. it is like a festering sore. it has never been healed. until it is, you are going to see statements like the re ce nt going to see statements like the recent statement of the president. as bizarre as that was, and as strange as i found it, it did have one positive side to it which is to remind people that incident occurred and it is still out there and has never been resolved. iranians, frankly, have not been helpful. every year on the 4th of november they have demonstrations in tehran to pretend that what they did was a good thing, a positive thing, and in fa ct wa s good thing, a positive thing, and in fact was shameful and extremely harmful to their own country and their own people. do you think the

president fully understand how tough a proposition it would be to go to war with a proposition it would be to go to warwith iran? a proposition it would be to go to war with iran? i think he does. actually, i think he does. if only for his own political reasons. he became president. he won the election in part on a promise that no more endless wars, no more feudal was in the middle east. he has backed off that. i think he sees his political future tied to keeping out of that war. combine that with his tendency to bluster, to threaten and to take this tough guy persona... at the end of the day, i have to give him credit. we are seeing pictures

from 1979. pictures of you when you we re from 1979. pictures of you when you were younger. oh, my god. how did you really feel when he invoked that 52? was it right to invoke the 52 in that way? to smash 52 cultural sites? no, i speak for myself, buti wanted no part of it. i did not want him using what happened to us as an excuse to blow up persepolis. what i said was, look, if you want to do this, don't bother yourself saying that you are doing it for my sake or for the sake of what happened in 1979. thank you very much indeed for your time. really good to hear your thoughts. thank you. my pleasure. he was visited by the current ayatollah

when he was being held hostage at the back in 1979. when he was being held hostage at the back in 1979. this is beyond 100 days. still to come... the cost of having children in the us has grown exponentially — childbirth alone is now thousands of dollars. we are going to find out what is driving up the price. we are going to find out what is driving up the price. staff at greggs are to receive a bonus of up to £300 each because of the success of the bakery chain. greggs said sales growth of more than 13 percent last year had been helped by its launch of its vegan sausage rolls. here's our consumer affairs correspondent coletta smith. when the january bills hit, £300 is not to be sniffed at. and it doesn't take anyone long to imagine what they would do with it. i think i would go out with the family, take them out for a really good meal. maybe get my car fixed something. i would put it towards my wedding fund. 300 quid? pay off debt!

today at greggs it has been an unexpected windfall for all staff. obviously, everyone was really happy. you just shouted, didn't you? screaming and shouting. iwas! 300 quid is not nothing, is it? everyone has been elated all morning. greggs is bucking the trend of a lot of food retailers. we have heard today that sainsbury‘s sales were down a little over the christmas period and morrisons have also seen a small bite out of their takings recently, while greggs have seen sales go up nearly 10% over the last year. so what are they doing right? greggs aren't doing anything revolutionary, but they have kept the menu simple and cheap and there are more than 2000 stores across the uk, so you don't have to go far to find one stop while they sell loads of these, it is actually these they make the most profit on. they are not the only company to be serving up bonuses, but stephen has worked in retailfor 12 years

and says he has never seen it for minimum wage workers. yeah, i think it is massive. i think everyonejust feels appreciated. even £20 is something. £300 is massive to some of these. i'm going to buy some new boxing boots. my girl will probably want something so it will go on the kids, probably. the bakery chain have already given an extra pay—out to shareholders and today's savvy publicity move means staff now have a taste of the profits. extortionate medical bills are no longer the preserve of americans who don't have good health insurance. a new study of 700,000 americans who do have healthcare plans — shows costs are rising fast — even for commonplace procedures like having a baby. on average, americans with health insurance can

today expect to fork out over $4,500 to give birth. and the sum has been rising. in 2008 a vaginal delivery cost less than $3,000 for insured parents and c—section was slightly more. but the most recent data from 2015 shows these costs increasing to over $4,300 and $5,200 each. and again — that's for parents who have health insurance. instead the study finds the higher bills come from higher deductibles — that's the amount you have to pay before your insurance kicks in. i'm joined now by olga khazan who covers health and science at the atlantic. at this procedure is getting more expensive? not necessarily. deductibles are rising. the number of people on high deductible plans are writing and also the amount that people have to pay. you might be out $5,000 before your insurance even putting a little bit of your health care. that sounds like a total scam. that's health insurance. i'm trying

to understand, is this a fault of the insurance company? it is the fault of the employee who doesn't wa nt to fault of the employee who doesn't want to pay? not necessarily. some employers give their employees several options for health insurance. you might get a ppo or a high deductible plan and you might signa high deductible plan and you might sign a port that plan but you might not know you were going to get pregnant and have a baby that year so you might sign up thinking it was 0k and then you get pregnant and you use that $5,000 you thought you were going to say. if you are a family, it is slightly easier to find that money, but the people who really supper at those who are having unplanned pregnancies. exactly, i heard from doctors that they see women who actually don't get the necessary follow—up care that they need, that they don't go to all the prenatal appointments, this really has a lot of ramifications because

women are trying to either save money to have that delivery of they are trying to recoup their medical expenses that they had from just their delivery. and this is related to the fact that america has very high rates of maternal mortality. thanks for coming in to join us. we we re thanks for coming in to join us. we were talking about dinosaurs at the airport and were talking about dinosaurs at the airportandi were talking about dinosaurs at the airport and i said i were talking about dinosaurs at the airportand i said i didn't were talking about dinosaurs at the airport and i said i didn't realise ididn't airport and i said i didn't realise i didn't know where the airport was. this is actually victoria international airport in british columbia, canada. that green dinosaur isa columbia, canada. that green dinosaur is a granny who turned up in that outfit who... her grandchildren are also in dinosaur outfits. unbeknown to them, granny, who got off the plane, she went and got into her kid. therefore, there we re got into her kid. therefore, there were three dinosaurs. that is very

nice. i will not be turning up to the airport in a dance outfit to meet my kids, sorry. it is not happening! see you tomorrow. it's been a much colder, brighter day in the north. drier and brighter to start further south but you can see the cloud has hung on. it has been taken in through the afternoon and pushing rain northwards and you can see we have got further than the cloud, rain to come. low pressure, rain, lively winds, gales, quite gusty going with this rain. fairly nasty on the roads. further north, it will turn to snow over the hills of northern england, northern ireland and southern parts of scotland. could have some ice issues as well as a potential for fog. if you wake up to this it will be pretty miserable for the drive to work. that will take its time to clear away. it will feel chilly with

the north easterly. elsewhere, winds died down, it gets drierfor a time but not for long because modelling comes back into the south west later. relatively mild here but a... the next area of low pressure pushes its way eastwards during thursday night into friday. strong winds in the channel islands. following a brief of... following high pressure so it will be a colder night. that bodes well for a decent day. icy patches could be around and a little bit of fog but it looks as though rain will hold on until later on. not particularly one but nice and bright for many parts. the weekend, south—westerly is established ahead of that weather front and they will bring yet more rain because that warm airof the

bring yet more rain because that warm air of the atlantic holds moisture. scotland, northern ireland, north—west england and wales could see in excess of 100 millimetres of rain. you can see, set a day looks wet and windy. there are warnings out for both. milder, mostly dry further south but we will see some of that rent beating southern areas through some direct —— saturday night into sunday. a decent amount of dry weather for the second part of the week on. there are warnings in force. they are on the website.

this is bbc news. the headlines at eight p:m.. the duke and duchess of side effects i to step back as senior members of the royal family, a decision made it they say after many months of reflection. in a statement, as abe plaintiff carve out a progressive in their intend to become financially independent. the middle east crisis, president trump gives his first public reaction since iran's missile strike the us air forces since iran's missile strike the us airforces in iraq. the moment the hips, the president said there were no casualties, and spelled out why he feels iran as a threat to the world. iran has been the