this is bbc news, the headlines... sir keir starmer defends his record prosecuting sexual abuse gangs, after attacks by elon musk and opposition conservative mps. hamas releases a list of hostages it says it could release in the first stage of a ceasefire deal. but israel says it hasn't seen the details. a huge winter storm hits the us with a state of emergency declared in several areas. canada's prime minister justin trudeau is to make a public statement soon following speculation he will shortly announce his resignation. now with all the latest sport, here's tanya.

hello from the bbc sport centre. nottingham forest can move level on points with second placed arsenal if they win at lowly wolves later. it's a return to his former club for nuno espirto santo and there's a lot of mutual respect between the two portuguese head coaches... the performances help, the players feel that they are confident, playing good, achieving good results, i know vitor pereira from a long time ago at the beginning of our careers. he had a very good careers. he had a very good career as a manager and he is showing at wolves. we expect a tough match against a good team because wolves are good squad. i know him from a long time... since the time he worked in portugal. he is doing... he and his staff is doing fantastic work. consistent work. quality work. it means that he is one

of the top coaches in england. japan's hideki matsuyama has set a new pga tour record for 72 holes with an incredible 35 under par to win the season—opening event at the sentry in hawaii. the former masters champion hit a final round 65 to beat the previous record of 3a under, set by cameron smith at the same course in 2022. matsuyama had to sink a birdie on the last hole to clinch the record. the detroit lions finished as the top seed in the nfc, while the tampa bay buccaneers and denver broncos grabbed the final two play—off spots on the final sunday of the nfl regular season. lions running backjahmyr gibbs scored four touchdowns as they thumped the minessota vikings 31—9. the win gives them a bye in week one and home advantage throughout the play—offs. .. this has been in the making for a while. you know, it takes a special group of guys, and i think it kind of had

to go through what we have been through over the last four years, this unit, and anyone who comes in, they fall in line, because that's what we are built around, our core. they really delivered for us today. the point makers, they could make plays when we needed it. and jerod mayo lasted just one season as new england patriots head coach after replacing the legendary bill belichick. the patriots finished their season with a victory over the buffalo bills, but won just four matches, losing 13. owner robert kraft said firing mayo was one of the hardest decisions he's ever made. south africa need to make just 58 runs to win the second test against pakistan in cape town. pakistan were bowled out for a78 in their second innings after south africa posted a huge first innings total of 615. shan masood top scored for the visitors with 145.

south africa are 38 for 0 having already won the first of the two match series. they need 26 runs to win. —— they need 19 runs to win. england's women are in australia for the ashes. batter danni wyatt—hodge says the team are easing themselves into the tour with a warm up game this week before the one day series starts at the weekend. we are going to take confidence from what happened in that ashes but we are starting a new ashes obviously, it's in their conditions, as well. so, yeah, we all know how good the aussies are, they are a quality team full of world—class players but we are really looking forward to the big challenge ahead. spare a thought for mark williams... the three—time world snooker champion required oxygen during the interval of a match at an exhibition event in tibet. it was the altitude which was the issue, as lhasa — where he was playing — is located nearly 12,000 feet above sea level. the welshman posted this picture on social media reassuring his followers

saying: "i'm fine, i'm not sick." and that's all the sport for now. we are going to show you a picture coming from a badly affected area of flooding in the uk. in leicester. we are going to show you more on the weather in the states in this half hour, i don't have the camera is going to zoom in on it again but we have just had rather extraordinary pictures of someone being towed along on a water—ski by a road. so, we are not obviously seen that right now but someone trying to make a silver lining out of the situation there, i guess. but rutland in leicestershire has been declared a major incident according to the fire brigade, who say they have had more than 200 calls this morning to rescue people from stranded

vehicles and flooded homes. 17 people rescued so far. you can see the extent of the flooding into fields and so forth from these live pictures coming to us. there is a qr code on the screens for the viewers in the uk if you want to get right up to date with the bbc on what is happening. ben rachel will be in the studio with me shortly to talk about the snow in the states as well. let's just keep with these pictures are for a few moments. you can see some vehicles moving on the roads but unfortunately, we don't have that rather extraordinary image of someone being pulled along by a car on water skis but that is the latest that we are hearing from the fire service in rutland and leicestershire. the fire brigade they are urging locals to take these flood warning seriously and take steps to prepare themselves, including turning off electricity, gas,

and water and of course, checking all the flood alerts. the assistant chief fire and rescue officer saying that the flooding poses a serious risk to lives and property. the control crews are working for aloud to assist those at the moment to keep people safe. that is being listed and a major incident. we will keep you right up to date with that as we get more information about the situation there. just about the situation there. just a reminder of that qr code on your screens for use in the uk where you can get more information. british mps are set to debate a motion aimed at putting pressure on the uk government to release tens of billions of pounds in frozen russian assets to help the ukrainian war effort. president zelensky was handed a $50 billion loan from the g7 last year. this will be repaid from the interest earned from frozen kremlin assets. but, there are calls to go even further in finding a way to use

around $300 billion of funds from the russian central bank that are mainly stuck in european banking systems, starting with £25 billion held in british accounts. the uk government says that it's already acted in the correct legal framework. let's speak to sir bill browder, a leading campaigner to expose russian corruption and human rights abuses. bill, thank you forjoining us on bbc news. just to be absolutely clear about what is happening. as we mentioned in the introduction, number of western countries, including, have used russian assets to help ukraine, how does what we are talking about here differ? 0ne are talking about here differ? one of the war started three years ago, the first thing that western governments did was freeze about $300 billion of russian government money. here, we are now in a war that most people thought finish much

quicker than three years, there has been a huge public drain on resources. as we are moving forward and trying to figure out how we continue to help ukraine fight off vladimir putin's invasion. the simple answer is that we should not be digging into our own pockets, we should be taking vladimir putin's money and let him pay for it. as you mentioned, we came up with what i would call a halfway measure, we said, ok, we have frozen this money, we are going to give ukraine in the interest on this money. but the interest on this money. but the interest on this money is simply not enough. we are in a situation where either the taxpayers are going to have to pay, or putin is going to have to pay so it seems like a pretty obvious thing to me and the mps that are holding this debate that blood me putin should pay. that is what this is all about. it's notjust take an interest but taking the full amount of the money. the uk government _

full amount of the money. the uk government says _ full amount of the money. the uk government says that it is acting already in at the correct legal framework. so, acting already in at the correct legalframework. so, do correct legal framework. so, do you correct legalframework. so, do you think that what is being proposed could go beyond the correct legal framework? this is not about — correct legal framework? this is not about legal— correct legal framework? ti 3 is not about legal frameworks, this is about purely political will. if there is enough political will, we can confiscate the money. it is legal to confiscate it, it is legal to confiscate it, it is legal to confiscate it, it is legal to commerce get the interest. when you have the british government saying, spewing out bureaucratic words to try and effectively negotiate with itself, when you're in a situation where, the government's budget is stretched. we have all sorts of money problems in this country and for us to lean even harder on the taxpayer when vladimir putin could pay for this thing seems absurd to me.- putin could pay for this thing seems absurd to me. does this have implications _ seems absurd to me. does this have implications down - seems absurd to me. does this have implications down the - have implications down the line? will other countries be looking at this and say why should we put our currency reserves, why should we allow

the uk, for example, to hold currency reserves if down the line we have a problem with them and they decide they want to seize those that are at the net assets?— to seize those that are at the net assets? . . net assets? that argument might work if we do _ net assets? that argument might work if we do it _ net assets? that argument might work if we do it by _ net assets? that argument might work if we do it by ourselves - work if we do it by ourselves but i think the argument to do it is to do it together with other countries. with the eu, the us, with canada, with japan, with switzerland. if all the major reserve currency countries do it, together, then there is no place for people to put their money. furthermore, the only people that are going to make that argument are people who are going to be launching wars of aggression on their neighbours so i don't think that's a large portion of the world, i think that's russia, and potentially, that is china to stop if they go after tie one. if we do this, it creates a deterrent to china invading taiwan.— it creates a deterrent to china invading taiwan. thank you very much join _ invading taiwan. thank you very much join us — invading taiwan. thank you very much join us on _ invading taiwan. thank you very much join us on bbc _ invading taiwan. thank you very much join us on bbc news - invading taiwan. thank you very l much join us on bbc news today. what much 'oin us on bbc news today. wha- . ~' , ., much 'oin us on bbc news today. wha- . ~ i. ., much 'oin us on bbc news today. whac— reports - what thank you. you reports cominu what thank you. you reports coming from _ what thank you. you reports coming from the _

what thank you. you reports coming from the governor i what thank you. you reports coming from the governor of city in ukraine, that a person has been killed after a russian drone attack on a bus. no more information on the incident at the moment. 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 dropped 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 just at the tale end of this storm, where i am standing now, we have about six to eight inches of snow. other parts of the state have over a foot. they have cancelled schools today, flights have also been cancelled. we have seen cars try to break these treacherous conditions, some of them getting stuck in these stove burns, i was speaking with the director of operations yesterday, does saint louis county snowploughs, operates

them, he says they have 3200 miles of roads to clear. that's the equivalent if you were to drive from seattle to miami or if you are in europe, you're driving from london, of course you have to take the ferry, and then go to baghdad. thatjust goes to show you how much roads they have to clear today. they are telling folks to stay off the roads. they don't think they will have this situated for than a couple of days. it's going to be cold here. but if you move further south to where we are at in southern illinois, they are dealing with an ice storm. it's on power lines, countries, there are power outages they are working with right now. this storm, even though it is moving on from east, they are still dealing the aftermath. let's show you these life pictures coming from washington, dc. a snowy scene at the capitol building there.

and around the city, people, does some movement on the roads but rather tricky conditions to say the least. for more on what this �*polar vortex�* means — i'm joined by our lead weather presenter, ben rich to explain what the polar vortex is, we have to look at the north pole. so let's take a look at some weather graphics. al george was going on. this time of year in the north pole, it never gets light. it is start all of the time. itjust gets really cold. we have an area of dense cold air that sits in place and is held in place by this extreme of strong winds, very high up into the atmosphere and that is the polar vortex. atmosphere and that is the polarvortex. in atmosphere and that is the polar vortex. in normal times it keeps that cold air cooped up it keeps that cold air cooped up above the north pole but sometimes that polar vortex can break down, it can even change direction and collapse completely. what is going on

this time is a bit of a stretching in that polar vortex, it is stretching its way southwards across the north american continent and that means lower down in the atmosphere where we are, we see that cold air spilling its way southwards all the way down to the gulf coast as you can see from the graphic. it's that combination of that really cold air and mild combination of that really cold airand mild airwafting combination of that really cold air and mild air wafting up from the south that is driving this historic winter storm. more than 60 million americans are under severe weather warnings — can you give me an idea of the spread of this? because it is in some places that you are not typically expect. it that you are not typically exect. , . ., , expect. it is certainly covering _ expect. it is certainly covering a _ expect. it is certainly covering a huge - expect. it is certainly covering a huge area| expect. it is certainly - covering a huge area and that cold there has covered a large area they normally expect. taking a look at the radar picture, this shows where we have had a corridor of snow in parts of kansas, eastwards through the ohio valley towards the mid—atlantic. we have seen the mid—atlantic. we have seen the pictures of snow falling in washington, dc and it's no as far as new york. on the

southern edge of that, there is some freezing rain which southern edge of that, there