Jacob zuma of south africa gave along Television Interview protesting his innocence. Hes has come under increasing pressure to step down amid numerous allegations of corruption. Our africa editor, fergal keane, sent this report from pretoria. In pretoria, seat of the presidency, rumours rippled all morning. The president might be about to resign. But when he did speak to the state broadcaster it was a defiant, defensive appearance. Zuma, the victim. What have i done . £f23 . 5c§§i~,§§1§ anc by could be swearing ini new cauldbe swearinginfinew what between seems to ace u their sleeve, if the an ace up their sleeve, if the president does not resign by end of Business Today they are prepared to table the motion of no confidence tomorrow in parliament. And the anc has the majority of seats in parliament and also opposition parties have indicated their winning to vote with the anc on this. So tomorrow we will be seeing a united effort between the anc and opposition to get was eh £37573 m fii the he has been mmgm completely out of touch with what south africans want to see happen and people within his own party have been demanding should happen. Thank you very much. We will be watching, a big moment of transition there. We couldnt decide where to start on white house news today with the story about the porn star of the latest on the alleged wife beater. So heres whats new on rob porter the House Oversight committee today announced its going to investigate how this white house aide got through the vetting process. And now the lawyer for mr trump said he paid a porn star a lot of money before the election in 2016. He said he used his own funds to facilitate the payment to mr Stephanie Clifford who goes under the stage name of stormy daniels. She claims to have had an affair with mr trump, a charge he denies. Mr cohen says now that the Trump Administration or the campaign know about the transaction but the statement raises questions not to mention the odd eyebrow. Here to help us sort it out is ron christie. You a lawyer, do you often make payments of to somebody as if you do, i would love to hear it not on valentines day, i want my wife to stay married to me this is so unusual and the language used by the law is strategic and careful. Not saying theyre admitting guilt or innocence but just saying theyre admitting guilt or innocence butjust the settlement payment that has nothing to do with the Trump Organisation or donald trump. Really . Ithink the Trump Organisation or donald trump. Really . I think there is more fired than smoke here. A 130,000 dollar payment before the election, trouble. Im tempted to sayjust another day in the white house but this is not normal by the standards of most administrations here in the us. None of this. I think if you deleted the name donald trump and instead of the name of any other president , of the previous 44, and that there has been a pay out to a porn star of 130,000, a can of scandal about someone alleged to have beaten his two previous wives and why the white house was not able to clear this up properly and still has not. This has been going on now for a week. It is extraordinary. And if this statement from michael cohen, the long standing law of donald trump, was meant to clear up any doubts about stormy daniels, why was the payment made. Have other payments being made of a similar nature. Stormy daniels previously alleged relationship with donald trump and said that is not true any more, what she paid for a non disclosure agreement. There are a pile of questions that are releva nt a pile of questions that are relevant for people to say you are focusing on the big issues of the day, im sorry, payment to a former porn star of 130,000, a month before the election, were you not to before the election, were you not to be covering that you would not be doing yourjob. I have a few questions about that as well, what a name, stormy daniels. And that is what my friends the Vice President has said about the handling of the other case, the issue of rob porter accused of beating his wife and now of course let go from the white house. This administration has no tolerance for domestic violence. Nor should any american. As i said and as the white house has said, i think the white house could have handled it better. So why has mr trump said exactly those words . You got me. First of all the Vice President , the white house is building and is not a person so white house is building and is not a person so when you said the white house it is the president who has not handled properly. Handled it properly. He should have said you will be fired immediately if these allegations are lodged against you but this is what happens when you have people in the white house who are not political experts and trying to manage a storm. Why can the white house not get its facts straight on this . Again to give you the same answer, it is beyond me. You will thought the key players would sit down and think what is the timeline, lets be straight forward and that there be no further questions, full disclosure and then we move on. Instead of which you had varying disclosures about what was known and when it was known and that always arouses suspicion ofjournalists. You had the of Staffjohn Kelly telling wall street journal we did things right. You now have the Vice President saying no we did not. And so president saying no we did not. And so youre still left with contradictory accounts and the House Oversight committee saying we will have to look into this. This is a story, no one realistically outside ofa story, no one realistically outside of a very small circle had heard of rob porter, i doubt he was a household name in his own household and suddenly now what we have been talking about for a week. And the only distraction we have is tech three. Is stormy daniels. Only distraction we have is tech three. Is stormy daniels. Take your pick of scandals and as we have said any other white house and this would have been huge Headline News and yet as we said earlier when it comes to donald trump it is like, yes, of course. Just another day in the neighbourhood, just donald trump being donald trump or stop the reality tv star on the highest state in the world. If this had been barack 0bama or president bush you would have had people on either side of the political divide saying impeachment, investigation. But donald trump it is like, what else is new. Its hard not to have sympathy for lawmakers who are trying to get things done on capitol hill but instead have all this to deal with. A brief time ago i spoke with democratic senator amy klobuchar. You know, when chaos goes on, it is always harder to get a job done. Because you want people really focused on what we see something incredibly important with the mid term elections in america only 264 days away. And that is that we need to not make ourselves as vulnerable to foreign interference, specifically russian interference, in our election. And all six intelligence chiefs including the cia and the fbi from the Trump Administration testified under oath that in fact they believe that russia is going to try this again and that they actually could be bolder. And that is the words of the National Intelligence director. And yet the president has not yet held a cabinet level meeting on this issue. To what extent does this actually have to come from the president on down rather than just relying on the intelligence communities to stop this from happening again . Exactly, this involves so many different agencies. It involves Homeland Security for infrastructure, it involves election assistance, it involves thejustice department. And that is why when they admit it, and i appreciate the honesty that there really had not been any inter agency work, that is really troubling. And that is why republican senator langford and i have stepped into this void along with senator harris and senator Lindsey Graham and said at least lets put some short term funding to help this state to bolster their election equipment, to get paper back up audit so that in fact if you have a paper ballot, youre able to have a back up in case there is a hack. And also that we designate people in each state that can get immediate information, classified information, from Homeland Security if they see hacks developing. There are 21 different states where the russians attempted to hack in. So while you and your colleagues are doing this important work in the senate, the House Oversight committee has now said it is going to investigate the security clearance process for rob porter, the aide who was accused by both his wives of beating them. How concerned are you that somebody is working in the white house in this way, close to the president , who had not got security clearance and perhaps for these reasons . Well, of course im concerned. This is a very important position and the first story was heard, that it was just taking too long which made no sense to me because yes, there is a backlog and we need to work on that, but for certain key positions at the highest levels, you can triage those and do those faster. We see it with us attorneys all the time, we see it with federal judges all the time, three months, four months or things like that. And so then we heard the truth yesterday from christopher wray, the fbi director, who in fact testified that this was done basically last spring. And so now they have another answer to give us and that is how did this happen because you do not have all these people on temporary clearance when you want to have them have actual clearance. Do you think the white house didnt want to know . I have no idea, i cannot read their minds. I just know again this is contributing to the chaos when we have the dream act right in front of us, with a deadline, or 800,000 kids are going to be deported. As well as dealing with the immediacy of the budget and what we just discussed, the threats to our election. Thank you very much forjoining me. Thank you, its great to be on. Boris johnson has made a characteristically counter intuitive argument for brexit, calling it the liberal project of our age. Since the vote to leave the eu is often seen as part of the populist, nationalist wave that brought donald trump to power, it was a noteworthy twist. The foreign secretary said he recognised the feelings of grief and alienation amongst those who wanted britain to remain in the eu, but he urged people to stay positive. Isaid to i said to my remainerfriends, actually quite numerous bunch of them remaining, more people voted for brexit than have ever voted for anything in the history of this country. And i just anything in the history of this country. And ijust say in all candour if there were to be a second vote i really think it would be another year of turmoil and wrangling and feuding in which the whole country would be the loser. In a press Conference Following the speech, European Commission president Jen Claude Juncker was asked about a reference borisjohnson had made to the european super state. Some in the british Political Society are against the truth, pretending that i am a stupid, stubborn federalist. That i am in favour of a european superstate. Im strictly against a european superstate. Were not the United States of america. We are the European Union. Which is a rich body because we have these 27, 28 nations. The European Union cannot be built against european nations. So this is total nonsense. Im joined now from brussels by the economists europe correspondent tom nuttall and from westminster by our chief Political Correspondent vicki young. Let me start with westminster, the uk position on brexit, is it any clearer after the landmark speech by borisjohnson . Clearer after the landmark speech by Boris Johnson . He did speak about the transitional implementation period, the time after we leave at the end of march next year when subject to negotiation there will be a period of time where nothing much changes. And he clarified his position on that saying although he was making the broader argument for divergence from the European Union, during that particular time he would be perfectly happy for the uk to abide by eu law. So some clarification on that but generally this is what downing street described as a rallying cry. It felt at times like the speeches that borisjohnson made as he went around the country on the famous boris bus as it became known. It was similar to all of that. It was this note of optimism saying there are great opportunities out there and nothing to be fearful about. But no detail. Downing street would say this is the first ina downing street would say this is the first in a series of speeches and we will hear from theresa may at the weekend when she makes a big speech in munich on security. And the number of other speeches as well or more detail will be laid out. But certainly some of the conservative party are still frustrated because the answers to some of the difficult practical questions we still do not have. And what about the reaction from brussels . Will this speech have any impact . In a word, no. Ithink the feeling here is they have seen enough speech making in london from the various different factions in the various different factions in the conservative party and what they have been waiting for since the last phase of negotiations in december is a specific concrete negotiating sta nce a specific concrete negotiating stance from the British Government that they can get their teeth into so that they can get their teeth into so they can begin to negotiate the future relationship. In march, next month, the european council, the heads of government of the eu will produce guidelines for that next phase of negotiations. And one eurocrat said to me if they do not start hearing soon from the uk about what the government wants in these negotiations then they will simply have their position written for them by europe. Well it sounds as if they will get a whole round of other speeches. Did they see this speech by borisjohnson really speeches. Did they see this speech by Boris Johnson really about speeches. Did they see this speech by borisjohnson really about being about the Brexit Process orjust about the Brexit Process orjust about Boris Johnson and about the Brexit Process orjust about borisjohnson and his own political ambitions . Safety say i think it is the latter. Boris johnson is a man who less than two years ago compared the eu ambitions to those of napoleon or hitler so hes not blogged on a specially kindly here. Reddish politics is followed closely here as you would imagine. The brexit negotiators are familiar with the position occupied by borisjohnson in familiar with the position occupied by Boris Johnson in the familiar with the position occupied by borisjohnson in the british political firmament and also who is likely to listen to him. They know theres a big divide in the uk on this issue and people on the redmayne side the debate are unlikely to pay much attention to borisjohnson. So from unlikely to pay much attention to Boris Johnson. So from that you draw the conclusion that borisjohnson is talking about Boris Johnson. That is certainly how it is seen here. Classic boris, a lot of colourful remarks about not going back to a diet of spam and cabbage. A lot of praise for two may, he kept referring to his friend theresa may and yet if this is as tom suggested about his own political ambitions, what is the subtext . I think a lot of this will be about borisjohnson simply because of the fact that he was the face of the leave campaign. No doubt about that. He was the one who went round the country on a bus emblazoned with the promise to bring back thousands of pounds for the National Health service, the brexit dividend as he called it. He now acknowledges that money might have to be split among some other things as well such as housing. But i think that he wants to get over this optimistic vision, he did not say they had not been enough of that but he certainly feels that. That we got so caught up in the process that there is no one talking about the bigger Global Vision that the uk will not be inward looking but outward looking. That is about making our way outward looking. That is about making ourway in outward looking. That is about making our way in the whole world and making the most of these opportunities out there. That certainly has been something that has been missing at the partly because theresa may was perhaps on the remain side. But i think what he does is that he brings that sense of confidence and optimism but of course it is answers that people are after and i think the crucial factor here is just over after and i think the crucial factor here isjust over a after and i think the crucial factor here is just over a year away from leaving. And if youre running a business in the uk or in the eu you will want to know some of the a nswers to will want to know some of the answers to these difficult questions about customs unions, about Single Market and also eu citizens, about nailing down exactly what happens. So all of that still needs to be decided. But the friends of Boris Johnson would say that is not what today was all about. Thank you very much. Some other stories making the headlines around the world. An important aid convoy has reached is to near the syrian capital damascus. Nine un trucks have now delivered enough food, health and supplies for more than 7000 people. It is the first aid convoy to enter the rebel held enclave since last november. The us secretary of state Rex Tillerson has demanded that iran and bringing back forces pull out of syria where they have been supporting president assad. They made the demand at a News Conference injordan in response, a Senior Iranian official said it is the us but should withdraw its forces from the country. Some advice for all you couples on this valentines day give and take, talk to each other, and say i love you. These are some of the keys to having a long and happy relationship according to four couples who have become experts on the matter. Its give and take, isnt it . Jean gives, and i take i love that. I think part of that is humour. Ron christie, what do you think. They were all laughing together. I think i drive my husband mad and sometimes he drives me mad but at least he makes me laugh a lot. No question, ithink but at least he makes me laugh a lot. No question, i think youre lucky when you get to marry your best friend. Youre going to laugh and cry together and have fun. So what did you give your wife for valentines day . Since she is in california today were celebrating on friday but there are a lot of flowers a nd on friday but there are a lot of flowers and a lot of romance coming up flowers and a lot of romance coming up this friday. I think you should send some of that my direction my husband gave me a card and i will buy him flowers on the way home, a little bit remiss of me but i promise there will be something. Hgppy promise there will be something. Happy valentines day to all of you. This is beyond 100 days from the bbc. Coming up for viewers on the bbc news channel and bbc world news. Women should not go sleeveless if they want to get on according to a former canadian pm not a view these women apparently share. And british ski jump legend eddie the eagle says team gb are complaining too much about the cold weather at the olympics well hear from the man himself. Thats still to come. Good evening. It has been another day of rain for some and snow for others. The weather watchers have been capturing the scenes, this from aberdeenshire with quite a lot of snow. Further south it was mainly rain and fairly happy at that. In worcestershire for example. You can see this area of cloud that has been bringing snow to Northern Areas and rain further south. All tied up with this area of low pressure to the north west. Going through the evening we slowly pushed the wet weather away from eastern parts of england. Behind that some clearer skies, wintry showers in Northern Ireland and scotland. Temperatures close to freezing although not as cold further south. And that theme continues tomorrow. Low pressure up to the north west, and north westerly wind in Northern Areas so still some cold air but a subtle change in the wind direction down towards the south bringing some milderair towards the south bringing some milder air across southern areas. As well as the milder air we have quite a lot of sunshine through the day. Just the deflating sharon possible. More showers as you look further north, one across parts of wales. These showers could be wintry. In the west of scotland once again some significant snow over the higher ground. And the wind pretty brisk across North Western areas as well. Chile in the north, five or 6 degrees for glasgow and aberdeen but further south, nine, ten or 11. Degrees for glasgow and aberdeen but furthersouth, nine, ten or11. 0n friday High Pressure in the south west will have an influence on southern parts of the british isles. Across much of england and wales friday looks like a dry day with goods for the sunshine. But we continue to seek showers across Northern Ireland and scotland and hill snow as well. Becoming a bit more persistent into the afternoon. Still pretty mild in the south and even further north temperatures creeping up a little bit. The mild weather spreads further north heading into the weekend. A lot of dry weather around but the chance of some rain in places on sunday. This is beyond 100 days, with me katty kay in washington. Our top stories south africas political crisis comes to a head president zuma refuses to resign, but parliament will decide his fate tomorrow. Fears that one of the worst flu outbreaks to hit the United States and canada in a decade hasnt peaked yet. The kremlin denies any knowledge of the russian mercenaries killed in a us air strike in syria. Eddie the eagle criticises winter olympic athletes for complaining about the cold well hear from the man himself. Let us know your thoughts by using the hashtag beyond100days. Right now, the United States is in the grips of one of the worst flu seasons in a decade, and its not over yet. At least 63 children have died from the illness and tens of thousands have been hospitalized. Across the border in canada, 130 deaths are being blamed on the flu. So what is making this season so intense and what precautions can be taken . Joining me now is anthony fauci, director of the National Institute of allergy and infectious diseases. Thank you forjoining me. How bad is this flu season . It is very bad. Looking at the time from when we started recording these kinds of numbers, it clearly is the worst seasonal flu we have had so far. There have been more hospitalisations, there has been more serious disease, more widespread disease than we have seen. At first it resembled the 201415 seen. At first it resembled the 2014 15 seasonal flu, but in the last few weeks it has surpassed that in intensity and seriousness. And i would assume it still has a few more weeks to run . We were hoping that the last report wouldve shown her plateau, but to our dismay the last report that came out shows that it is still escalating. Hopefully in m g elmz peeple get upper e infection. People get upper respiratory infections and respiratery infeehensaner said they the flu incorrectly said they have the flu when they have some sneezing is, some coughing, some upper respiratory problems. The flu is the stomach disease. When you get influenza you know you have that, you have aches, pains, high fever and you feel almost like you got hit bya and you feel almost like you got hit by a truck. You feel like you really need to get to bed. You get respiratory symptoms, but the real component of influenza that distinguishes it from a normal respiratory infection is the systemic nature, the fever, the chills, the aches and pains. Systemic nature, the fever, the chil vaccine, hes and pains. Systemic nature, the fever, the chil vaccine, and and pains. Systemic nature, the fever, the chil vaccine, and a 1d pains. Systemic nature, the fever, the chil vaccine, and a lot lains. Systemic nature, the fever, the chil vaccine, and a lot of 1s. Systemic nature, the fever, the chil vaccine, and a lot of people the help,§z;j, if; , the help, but,. If . ,. The help, but, isnt f , ; , eeeze 1421 el; eie;e eei lllieze l121 eel lilel eel a lwa ys lllieze l121 eel lilel eel always to lelieze l121 eel lilel eel always to get optimal. It is always better to get vaccinated than not get vaccinated because some degree of protection is better than none. If you look at what we are starting to see, we dont know until the end of the year, but the vaccine efficacy does not seem to be optimal, it is rather low. Why dont we know what kind of vaccine to produce a particular yea rs vaccine to produce a particular years strand of flu this . Vaccine to produce a particular years strand of flu this . We had mishap something happened this year thats. Most of mishap something happened this year thats. Most of the vaccine that is distributed in the knighted states and canada is made by growing the virus in eggs so that we can make it into a vaccine. What happened this year is that when the virus was put into the eggs to make it for a vaccine. Virus was put into the eggs to make it for a vaccine to well