here's our middle east editor, jeremy bowen. jeremy: in tehran, squads of motorbike police are cruising the streets to break up groups of demonstrators. the protests have changed since they started last thursday. to begin with, they were about the economy. most of the protesters are young men. more than 50% of iranians are under 30. perhaps 40% of them are unemployed. but pent-up political frustration is spilling out, and much of it has been directed at this man, the supreme leader, ayatollah ali khamenei. he is the powerful figurehead of the islamic republic. attacks on his posters will be seen as attacks on the islamic system. he is blaming iran's foreign enemies. ayatollah khamenei: following recent events, the enemies have united and are using all their means -- money, weapons, policies, and security services -- to create problems for the islamic republic. jeremy: it is not just ayatollah khamenei, the supreme leader, who is blaming foreigners. the former president, a reformist, says iranians have the right to protest, but he

jeremy bowen reports. any piece on a cold winter day is an allusion. it is small palestinian village on the west bank, a sharp thorn in the side of its occupier, israel. thopled here refu give into israel's overwhelming power. some israelis, -- for some israelis, that makes them terrorists. soldier shot a 15-year-old in the face with a rubber coated metal bullets. surgeons took the bubret out of hin, along with part of his skull. s protests andd the village. many of them have been imprisoned by israel for security offenses. mohammed was jailed for three mont last year. a was rushed to hospital after he was shot during demonstration on the 15th of december. the village was ptesting against presidentmp 's decision to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital. a seasonevist at 16 years old, told 2 israeli soldiers to get off her family's propty. she heard wrongly that muhammad had died. afr one soldier swaed her away, she smacked him. viral,e video had gone she was arrested with her mother, who did the filming. they are charged with security offenses and ph

our middle east editor, jeremy bowen, reports.n tehran, squads of motorbike police are cruising the streets to break up groups of demonstrators. the protests have changed since they started last thursday. gunshots to begin with, they were about the economy. most of the protesters are young men. more than 50% of iranians are under 30 and perhaps 40% of them are unemployed. but pent up political frustration is spilling out and much of it has been directed at this man, the supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei. he is the powerfulfigurehead of the islamic republic, and attacks on his posters will be seen as attacks on the islamic system. he's blaming iran's foreign enemies. translation: following recent events, the enemies have united and using all their means — money, weapons, policies and security services — to create problems for the islamic republic. it's notjust ayatollah khamenei, the supreme leader, who's blaming foreigners. mohammad khatami, the former president, who's a reformist, says iranians have the right to protest, but

jeremy bowen, bbc news.look at some of the day's other news: the united states says it's hearing reports that north korea might be preparing for another missile test. it's warning that would mean tougher measures against pyongyang. earlier, south korea proposed high—level talks with north korea next week. it comes a day after the north korean leader said he was open to dialogue and was considering sending a team to next month's winter olympics in south korea. something the south korean president welcomed. translation: we welcome that the north korean leader kimjong—un expressed a willingness to send athletes to the winter olympics and to hold talks. this is in response to hold talks. this is in response toa to hold talks. this is in response to a proposal to make the olympics and opportunity to improve into korean relations and peace. but a short while ago the us state department expressed scepticism about the talks, saying kimjong un may be trying to drive a wedge between the us and south korea. more analys

jeremy bowen, bbc news, nebi saleh.four children at a belfast hospital were avoidable. the inquiry investigated the deaths of five children between 1996 and 2003 and took 1a years to complete. the chairman made damning criticisms of hospital staff, managers and officials, saying families had been deliberately misled. the international development minister, lord bates, stunned colleagues in the house of lords this afternoon by resigning because he was late to the chamber to answer questions. i'm thoroughly ashamed for not being in my place and will be offering my resignation to the prime minister. tonight downing street announced they had rejected his resignation saying it was "unnecessary". lord bates will now continue in his role. will see a loss of valuable british influence in the fight against crime the head of europol fears the uk's departure from the european union will see a loss of valuable british influence in the fight against crime and international terrorism. the government says it is optimistic that an ambi

jeremy bowen, thank you.have been told to postpone tens of thousands of non—urgent surgery and outpatient appointments until the end of this month. nhs chiefs say it's to ease pressure on services after a busy christmas period. it comes as some doctors have been speaking about the extremely difficult conditions at a&e. our health editor hugh pym reports. there is always great pressure on the nhs in the new year. some patients have held off until after the seasonal holiday. but the strains seem even bigger this year. two ambulance services in england, covering the north—east and east, are on the highest state of operational alert, asking families to use their own transport to bring patients into hospital for possible. here in the north—east, they say they've prepared as much as they possibly could. it's unprecedented levels of demand that we're dealing with — you know, if i take just the period from the 23rd of december until the ist of january, we've seen 30% more calls. now, you know, we do plan for winter.

jeremy bowen, the bbc‘s middle east editor. if you wa nt bbc‘s middle east editor. and i can't believe jeremy you can follow him on twitter. and i can't believejeremy has not been following this... the israeli legislator has passed new legislation saying two thirds of the parliament would have to support giving any more territory to the palestinians. the biggest rise in train fares in the last five years commuters face this morning as they returned to work after the christmas break. the average ticket price went up by 3.4%. labour has renewed its call for the railway to be re—nationalised — while the government and the rail industry say the fares will help pay for improvements to the network. if we can continue to make savings by bringing the railways back into public ownership and stop wasting money on franchising, on the complexity of the arrangements between all these different companies, and we don't pay out dividends to state owned companies across the channel, we can keep that money in—house. across the channel, we can keep that money in-house. for every pound

£135,000 did not appear on the list but she noticed that two other international on air editors did, jeremy bowening thought that she had secured pay parity with men in equivalent roles when she took up the post, she then initiated a grievance procedure against her employer and frustrated with its lack of progress on sunday said she would be leaving china and returning toa would be leaving china and returning to a post in the london newsroom. bbc management refused a request for someone bbc management refused a request for someone to discuss this on the programme, pointing us towards this statement. carrie gracie was not satisfied with the bbc‘s response. carrie gracie was not satisfied with the bbc's response. this is what she had to say. the bbc talks about a gender pay gap but what i'm talking about isn't a gender pay clap ware sometimes men and women are in different roles which explains the differences in pay. what i'm talking about is pay discrimination which is when men are paid more to doing the samejob or a job when men are paid more to doing the same job or a job of equal value. that is

jeremy bowen, bbc news.illed two previous partners has today admitted to murdering a third. theodore johnson attacked angela best in north london a year ago, after they broke up and she began a relationship with someone else. the old bailey heard he was "an abusive and controlling man". he'll be sentenced on friday. winds of up to 90miles per hour are expected to hit parts of northern ireland and northern england tonight with the arrival of storm eleanor. so far the atlantic coast of the republic of ireland has taken the brunt, with serious flooding in the city of galway. as the storm moves eastwards, there'll be high winds across much of england, wales and northern ireland overnight. train operators have been defending the biggest rise in railfares for five years, insisting that it's necessary to address "decades of under investment". average ticket prices across the uk have gone up by 3.4%. unions say commuters are being priced off the trains as the burden of paying for the system falls increasingly on pas

jeremy bowen, bbc news.alysis, we can speak to professor mohammad marandi from the university of tehran. it's not surprising that the iranian people are bit fed up. they have unemployment among young people at 30%, the price of staple food and goods has risen by 40% in recent weeks, and yet sanctions have been lifted and the country ought to be feeling richard? first of all, sanctions have not been lifted. the united states has failed to abide by its side of the bargain. the iranians made many concessions with regard to the nuclear programme, and the americans basically refused to abide by their side of the bargain. as we speak, if i was to send you a single euro or dollar or pound to your bank account in england, that would be impossible, and vice versa. so no, most iranians recognise that the united states has betrayed the iranians. 0n the other hand, you have to make a sharp distinction between the protesters we have been seeing over the last few months who have been protesting after the colla pse have be

jeremy bowen, bbc news.situation in iran, including what has caused the conflict, go to our website. you can also download the bbc news president trump has threatened to withhold financial aid to the palestinians. he made the threat on twitter, saying it was because the palestinians were "no longer willing to talk peace." last month, the palestinian president said us peace plans were unacceptable, following mr trump's decision to recognise jerusalem as the capital of israel. mr trump has also again targeted north korea on twitter, as our correspondent, peter bowes explains. another twitter tirade by donald trump. the president questions why the us should continue to provide aid to countries that show no respect in return and do not reciprocate. 0n the middle east he tweets the state ofjerusalem, which the us now recognises as the capital of israel, will no longer be part of future negotiations. it is not only pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to the nothing but also many other countries and others. as

jeremy bowen, bbc news. i talked to amir handjani, a senior fellow at the atlantic council in new york, and asked him how the us and president trump factored in in all this. well, what is going on is, as your report indicates, at the height of the green movement, you had, numbers suggest, 2—3 million people on the streets of tehran. you had discernible leadership, and you had very clear demands. you do not have that here. you have a few hundreds, sometimes thousands, in certain cities, that are protesting and there is no discernible leadership — indigenous or outsider. we don't know what the demands of these protesters are. they are — what's very clear is they have a lot of grievances, mainly economic. some have taken the opportunity to voice their dissent on the iranian leadership, or on its foreign policy. but mostly the grievances have been that, you know, economic inequality and corruption, that's so pervasive right now in the iranian economy... one point i'm sure people are wanting to ask you, we're sli

jeremy bowen, bbc news.w from washington, dc is reza marashi, research director at the national iranian american council. welcome, thank you very much for your time. where do you see this headed? it is hard to say at this point, you know, six, seven days in. but i think the proper metric to look at over the next week or so is how the government responds with regards to addressing the fully legitimate economic and political and social grievances of people of iran, but frankly have been long—standing. and if the government ta ke ste ps long—standing. and if the government take steps to properly address those grievances in a tangible and sustainable fashion, then protest will likely die down. if they don't, thenit will likely die down. if they don't, then it runs the risk of becoming something bigger. and how do you expect them to react, and how does this play into the dynamic between reform ists this play into the dynamic between reformists and conservatives in iran? well, this is a great question, and one of

jeremy bowen, bbc news.hat story we can go live to new york, where i'm joined by amir handjani, a senior fellow at the atlantic council. thank you for your time. not due iranian revolution, iran is a wealthy country with an expanding economy. how far do you think this is going to go? what is going on, as your report indicates, what is unusual about these protists is that they are happening in poorer agrarian societies, deeply religious communities in iran. these tend to be the base of the iranian regime so it is particularly noteworthy that these are the communities rising up and they are rising up because they have seemed neither benefits of the nuclear deal or any economic prosperity in the last 30— a0 years. every year prices rise on essential goods, food prices in particular, and it becomes very, very difficult to make ends meet and to get by. this is at the heart of the issues of these protists. despite what the us ambassador to the un is saying, you do not see this as a movement to overthrow the govern

which were initially in response to price rises and alleged corruption. 0ur middle east editor, jeremy boweneneral say it is. the sedation is over. what if he's right. he says 15,000 people were involved. his men had to only get involved. his men had to only get involved three times. well, it could be correct or it could be that this now is at a test, this movement is ata now is at a test, this movement is at a test, a crossroads. will they go back on the streets to try to ta ke go back on the streets to try to take on the authorities? 0r, go back on the streets to try to take on the authorities? or, will they just say, well, take on the authorities? or, will theyjust say, well, rub their hands and say — maybe we've made our points. the thought of an interrogation in one of the regime's prisons is not attractive and people now know what we think. we have to wait and see about that. i think that even if it all stops now, because people can get intimidated. the authorities, the security forces there can be very intimidating, if they were angry enough to take on they were angry enough to take o

did not appear on that list, but she noticed that two other international on—air editors did — jeremy bowenad secured pay parity with men in equivalent roles when she took up the post, carrie gracie then initiated a grievance procedure against her employer and, frustrated with its lack of progress, on sunday said she would be leaving china and returning to a post in the london newsroom. bbc management refused our request for someone to discuss this carrie gracie was not satisfied with the bbc‘s response. here is what she had to say. the bbc talks about a gender pay gap but what i'm talking about isn't a gender pay gap, where sometimes men and women are in different roles which explain the differences in pay. what i'm talking about is pay discrimination, which is when men are paid more for doing the samejob or a job of equal value. now, that is illegal. so what do newswatch viewers think about all this? colin robertson agreed. but for peter stewart, it wasn't the gap in salaries that was the issue, but their level. there were more people leaving theirjobs at westminster this week as theresa

editors, iadmire of my male peers as international editors, i admire the work ofjon sopel and jeremy boweno stand alongside them as an international editor for the bbc for four years. other people kind of save china desk in north america is on the ten o'clock news more often, you know, other people in the china can say everyone speaks north american. i don't want to get into that fight, frankly. what i want to talk about more is the sense in which my case isjust talk about more is the sense in which my case is just an example talk about more is the sense in which my case isjust an example of the bigger problem, but it's a useful example because i was a senior person who the bbc really wanted to keep in position and yet even at the point where this arose, and the six months, i've been trying to get the bbc to take my equality issue seriously, and it hasn't been possible for that to be resolved in the way that i feel is in accordance with the lawful stop so if the bbc can't sort it out for me, a senior person at 55 in a powerful position, how can it sort it out for more vulnerable people who