and a major airport reopens after snow shut the runways. and the brutalist baby reindeer, show gun and a media top the golden globes list. the uk prime minister has defended his record on tackling grooming gangs operating in the uk. after operating in the uk. scathing criticism from tech after scathing criticism from tech billionaire elon musk, and he called on opposition parties for a national inquiry into the issue. sir keir starmer accuse the far right are spreading poison, lies and misinformation because they were desperate for misinformation. our political correspondent damian grammaticas has more. he is the world's richest man,

with the ear of the us president, now disrupting politics here, too. elon musk has attacked sir keir starmer, calling him a national embarrassment he should be in prison, claiming he was complicit in crimes committed by grooming gangs responsible for child sexual abuse. and musk attacked the safeguarding ministerjess phillips, saying her behaviour had been utterly disgusting, she was a rape genocide apologist, should also be in prison. the prime minister clearly felt he could no longer ignore the interventions and waded in today, defending his record as director of public prosecutions, saying he was the first to tackle the gangs head on. that is why i reopened cases that had been closed, and supposedly finished. i brought the first major prosecution of an asian grooming gang in the particular case in rochdale, but it was the first of its kind, there were many that then followed that format. we changed, or i changed, the whole prosecution approach. rochdale was just one town of many.

over several decades, thousands of young girls were groomed and abused by gangs. many of the men involved of pakistani descent. nervousness about inflaming racial tensions meant some cases were not investigated. the controversy over grooming gangs, and what government, police and others failed to do, goes back many years. elon musk�*s interventions are helping whip it up anew, and now others have waded in. kemi badenoch and the conservatives said there should be a new national public inquiry. nigel farage has said he supports that too. elon musk will in a few days become part of the american administration, so he has an important international role. some of his language has been completely unacceptable, the fact that some politicians in this country are under greater protection as a consequence is also unacceptable. but in many ways, that is a distraction. the spotlight should be on the failure of this government to have a nationwide inquiry into these grooming gangs. there was an independent

inquiry set up a decade ago which spent seven years investigating abuse in england and wales. two and a half years ago, it produced 20 recommendations. its chair is now working with a new group, whose mission she says is not to call for new inquiries, but to advocate for the full implementation of the original recommendations. her group says the original inquiry, which heard from over 7500 victims and survivors, provided a clear road map for action. yet two years later, none of the recommendations have been fully implemented. jess phillips, who has a long record of protecting women and girls, was attacked by elon musk because she has recently said that in oldham a local inquiry would be better than a government led one. when the poison of the far right leads to serious threats tojess phillips and others, in my book a line has been crossed. he said conservatives had done nothing in government and labour would make it a crime not to report child sexual abuse if

you were aware of it. our political correspondent rob watson has been giving me more analysis on the pm's reaction. one doesn't often use the word impassioned and keir starmer side by side. but i mean, i think that was probably the most passionate he's been since becoming a prime minister. and i think very interesting that he used that line, that a line had been crossed in the treatment ofjess phillips, but also, of course, rather interesting that he tried not to make his defence of his government's role, the defence of handling of the rape gangs, by mentioning... by not mentioning mr musk personally, saying this wasn't about musk, it wasn't about america, that it was much more about british politics and british politicians, in particular those from the now opposition conservative party. surely, he said, they should come out and denounce attacks on ministers. surely they should favour the use of sort of evidence and facts in political debate, because if not, you are heading

down a slippery slope. so an extremely strong intervention, but one trying to be careful, obviously not wanting to, you know, to get into a fight, particularly with mr musk and therefore by proxy, a fight with donald trump, the incoming us president. yeah, because that is the issue, isn't it? i suppose down the road, when mr trump is back in the white house with mr musk alongside him, when sir keir is talking to the two of them, it could be kind of embarrassing. absolutely. but i think that's where you have to step back for a second, ben, and say we are in uncharted territory here. i mean, i can't remember, and i've been covering british politics and international politics for a very long time, a tech billionaire interfering in the politics of another country, of an ally of the united states. we heard similar charges just in the last few minutes from president macron of france saying that musk had done the same. so we're in uncharted territory. and then with this added complication that elon musk is clearly, certainly for the time being, very close

to president trump. so, absolutely, leaders like keir starmer are thinking, well, how do i do this? how do i deal with this? in his view mr musk has said something just outrageous, something that could promote violence in this country, but he wants to do it in such a way that at this point doesn't get him on the wrong side of donald trump, potentially. i mean, it'sjustan extraordinary moment we find ourselves in. the shadow home secretary chris topaz described sir keir starmer�*s commits today as disgraceful and said the prime minister was smearing people who are concerned about rape gangs as jumping who are concerned about rape gangs asjumping on who are concerned about rape gangs as jumping on a far right bandwagon rather than facing up to his own record —— the shadow home secretary chris philp. ed davey said mr musc�*s intervention was dangerous rhetoric and the us ambassador should be called in over the matter. and we will be hearing from the home secretary yvette

cooper, she will be making a statement in the house of commons, and if you're in the uk you will be able to watch that here on bbc news. now, let's turn to the middle east. israel says hamas has not given any details about the status of hostages it claims it's ready to release in the first phase of a potential deal. hamas has indicated that 3a hostages — including all the women, children, and elderly and sick captives it holds — could be freed. in recent days, negotiators from both sides have been holding indirect talks in qatar. our correspondent in jerusalem, emir nader, gave us the latest. we understand from mr benjamin netanyahu's office that the list of 3a names that hamas has shared with the media, including the bbc, is actually a list given by israel to mediators as early as july. a list given by israel to mediators as early asjuly. as you mention, on that list there are a number of elderly, young,

female soldiers, some children who are understood, who hamas has previously said were dead. the israeli side has asked for information on the, about the names on the list, has asked for information about their condition for each person, whether people are alive or not. hamas, we understand, has asked for time. a beginning, initial period of ceasefire in order to ascertain the status of the hostages that they have. now, the publication of the list has been seen as a form of pressure on prime minister netanyahu. his spokesman has said today that it is a form of psychological warfare by hamas. hamas just published on saturday a video of one of the hostages, a young female soldier. we can also see there's been pressure put on there's been pressure put on the palestinian side, for your

israeli strikes have continued throughout the weekend as negotiations have convinced. since friday 195 palestinians including women and children have been killed there, according to the local health officials there in the gaza strip. the israeli military has said they have struck over 100 targets, hamas targets in the gaza strip. but we don't know yet is if any progress is being made in the talks, there are a number of key sticking points including hamas wanting the removal of all israeli troops from the gaza strip and that the initial stage of the ceasefire would lead to a more permanent ceasefire. and of course in the background of all of this is the change of administration in the us government in two weeks�* time which might play out and affect the momentum and structure of the momentum and structure of the ceasefire talks. a short time ago i spoke to adam ma�*anit about his cousin —

who is being held hostage in gaza. tsachi idan was taken away by hamas gunmen from his home on october seventh. his eldest child, maayan — who had just turned 18 — was shot dead in the attack. adam told me more about his cousin. tsachi is my age, he is a father of four, one of whom, as you mention, was killed on october seven just after celebrating her 80th birthday. he is a family man, he loves his children dearly, he loves his children dearly, he loves his wife and his wider family, his wife and his wider family, his siblings, his mother, his cousins, and he is about football fan, he loves music, he is a member of a community of people who are very committed to peace and coexistence and who chose to live there and grow up there in that spirit, with strong links to the israeli arab communities around the area, the bedouin communities and as well as the palestinians in gaza. it�*s a

very peaceful, coexistent community and we want tsachi to come back home. i community and we want tsachi to come back home.— come back home. i know you and the family _ come back home. i know you and the family have _ come back home. i know you and the family have been _ the family have been campaigning for his release ever since he was taken captive, but are you any more optimistic now than you have been previously that he could been previously that he could be freed?— been previously that he could be freed? ~ ., , be freed? one thing we know is that the list — be freed? one thing we know is that the list being _ be freed? one thing we know is that the list being circulated - that the list being circulated now is not new. we have seen this list before from the collapsed july negotiations. we know the provenance of the list is likely from the israeli side, not the hamas site. the original list had a0 members. we know that since then, six of them have been taken off the list, one of them was rescued. an israeli citizen, bedouin arab, who was rescued by the idf. and the other five were killed. they were known to be near yahya sinwar, the former militant leader of the military wing of hamas, when he was, they were collateral. one of

them was found weighing just 36 kilograms. another�*s arm was blown off. all of them were executed by hamas. everyday the hostages remain in custody is a day their lives are in jeopardy and were desperate to have them home but we�*re not taking any of the news circulated recently as anything new. ourfamily have not been contacted, we�*ve not had official confirmation from any government source, any idf source. any update about the negotiations, as far as we�*re concerned, this isjust potential psychological warfare, either by... from whatever party, trying to put pressure on the israeli government, perhaps, we don�*t know, but there�*s nothing here that really gives us much soccer other than the hope that tsachi is still alive. —— that really gives as much succour. we gather there are direct talks in doha, obviously there

have been lots of talks before, indirect or otherwise, but do you think these latest talks might bear any fruit? we have been here _ might bear any fruit? we have been here before. _ might bear any fruit? we have been here before. it— might bear any fruit? we have been here before. it has- might bear any fruit? we have been here before. it has been| been here before. it has been an emotional roller—coaster for all the hostage families. we have had our hopes are raised and dashed on the rocks of despair every time. i don�*t see anything in this current round of news or report that really gives me much new information to hold onto. i don�*t have much faith in the qatari government, qatar government has notoriously been hosting the hamas politburo for many years, supporting hamas, so they�*re not exactly a neutral mediator, despite the fact that the uk has very close relationships with qatar i haven�*t seen much leveraged by our government back about that, with our relationship with qatar to put pressure to release the hostages. every one of the 100 hostages. every one of the 100 hostages known to be still held there are a humanitarian issue, they have been held for over a

year, their situation is dire. every day they continue to be held there lives are in jeopardy. we know that nine of those 100 hostages have connections to british relatives, they have british family here, one of whom is a british citizen, others like myself, my cousin tsachi, many of us here in sussex have family that are very concerned about their loved ones being held by hamas and we urge our government to do everything they can to put pressure on qatar to ensure our cosy relationship with qatar actually has some benefit us in the form of releasing the hostages now. adam talking to me a short time ago about his cousin, still being held hostage in gaza. around the world and across the uk this is bbc news.

more than 60 million americans are in the grip of a huge winter storm that could bring the heaviest snow —

and lowest temperatures — in a decade. several inches of snow have been dumped on eastern parts of the us. it�*s all part of a polar vortex sweeping down from the arctic. missouri, kansas and kentucky are among those declaring a state of emergency. ian lee from cbs news sent this from st louis, missouri. where i am standing right now we had about six hyphenated inches of snow, other parts of the state had over a foot, they have cancelled schools today, flights have also been cancelled, we have seen cars trying to bring these treacherous conditions, some getting stuck in these snow berms. i was speaking with the director of operations yesterday who operates the snow ploughs, he says they have 32 hundred lane miles of roads to

clear, that�*s equivalent of if you were to drive from seattle to me army, or if you were in europe, driving from london, of course you�*ve got to take the ferry and go to baghdad. so thatjust kind of shows you how much roads they have got clear today. they are telling folks today. they are telling folks to stay off the roads, they don�*t think they will have this really situated for the next couple of days, it will be cold here. but if you move further south to where we are at in southern missouri, southern illinois, they are dealing with a ice storms, ice has kicked down power lines and trees, 1