at their fastest rate for nearly 20 years, with steaming services accounting for more than half of consumption. it's 5 o'clock, good afternoon, our top story is that the health secretaryjeremy hunt has apologised to patients, after the postponement of tens of thousands of operations in england, until next month. theresa may acknowledged the move is frustrating, but said the nhs is better prepared this winter,than in previous yea rs. however senior doctors say seasonal pressures have "escalated rapidly" over the festive period. our health correspondent catherine burns has more. anna is waiting for an operation that's going to change her life. her facial nerve was removed when she had cancer seven years ago. she's due to have an appointment to plan facial reconstruction surgery next week, but is expecting it to be cancelled. i was hoping that i would have the surgery maybe at the end of january, beginning of february, but i have a feeling it will be knocked back to april or may. she's due to have the surgery at queens medical centre in nottingham, but it is on high alert and is asking people to stay away from a&e. several other hospitals around the country have similar stories and now the british medical association is calling this another winter crisis. a warning too from the royal college of emergency medicine that this is absolutely affecting patient safety. and so nhs england has taken action. before christmas, it had already told hospitals they could cancel all non—urgent operations and outpatient appointments for the first two weeks of the new year. now it's extended that until the end of the month. with respect to patients, i want to apologise for the fact that we have had, regrettably, to postpone a number of operations. we're trying to do it differently this year. last year, we cancelled a lot of operations at the very last minute, so people got a call the day before to say their operation wasn't going ahead. that is obviously very undesirable, so we wanted to do it in a much more planned way. but our hope is that the total number of cancelled operations won't be significantly higher this year. the government argue this is not a crisis, just taking sensible precautions. the lib dems say it is a serious crisis. that's the exact same way labour describes it. it is because of seven, well eight years now of tory under—funding cuts. we've lost 14,000 beds in the nhs. we've got vacancies for 100,000 staff and of course, we have seen very severe cuts to social care. so elderly people don't get the support in the community that they should be getting. during this time, hospitals will not be penalised if they put patients on mixed—sex wards. but operations for cancer and other time—sensitive conditions will still go ahead. we know the system is going to get difficult. so rather than cancelling patients at the very last minute and having patients queueing, we want to do is free up the bed capacity that would normally be used for those planned care patients and make that available for our sick patients that are in the a&e departments. anna does feel frustrated, but thinks things could be worse for her. i'm not really in much pain, and i can carry on with life quite well. but i do feel very sorry for people who are waiting for hip operations or knee joints, because they are dealing with quite a lot of pain. authorities in scotland, wales and northern ireland say they're facing higher demand from patients too. here we are, three days into the new year, with questions about what could happen if the weather gets colder or the increase in flu cases becomes an outbreak. catherine burns, bbc news. dr nick scriven is president of the society of acute medicine and a consultant at the calderdale royal hospital — and joins me from our leeds studio. thank you forjoining us. as a co nsulta nt thank you forjoining us. as a consultant what are the particular pressures that you are experiencing in yourline of pressures that you are experiencing in your line of work? over the past 48 hours the number of patients presenting a hospital needing proper hospital care has escalated incredibly. it was busy up until christmas but in recent days it has ramped up another 10 degrees and we are feeling very swamped and extremely busy. why has this happened? no one reason, a lot of very sick, frail patients presenting to hospital needing care. it is not as if we have a flu epidemic or even especially bad weather at the moment, just a combination of ongoing pressures building up year—on—year and this year has been the worst worst so far. you said there is no epidemic, no norovirus and yet the situation is bad. if things do turn into an epidemic with the flu then it will be catastrophic. incredibly difficult and hospitals would be swamped with very sick people. now as president of the society of acute medicine, is this a crisis? i think it is, we are under incredible pressure this week, andi under incredible pressure this week, and i think it is fair to describe it as and i think it is fair to describe itasa and i think it is fair to describe it as a crisis especially if things get worse. so the health secretary and government are being disingenuous when they said is just a carefully planned response to the winter pressures? i would not say a carefully planned response under pressure has been larger than normal but there is a response which is good, i do not think it has been planned for a long and it is now coming together, hopefully. so coming together, hopefully. so coming together, hopefully. so coming together now and you indicated at the beginning of our conversation that things had slowly be getting worse through the beginning of november and getting into the seasonal period proper. are you saying that everyone around the country knew the problems were going to be bad, that it had been building for some time but now the reaction is just too late? for some time but now the reaction isjust too late? pressure has been building and in the week until christmas across the acute sector, it was over 95% with some hospitals even with forging as cool or at maximum capacity up to christmas. that has been building for several weeks now. —— reporting as full. this announcement will help if it is fully implemented but it has now been building up for a long time. we went into the winter barely off the back of last winter and we had hardly recovered from then. so this surge has put us in great difficulties. the government have said longer term it is looking to recruit a quarter more doctors to the ranks and to train more nurses as well. £i.6 the ranks and to train more nurses as well. £1.6 billion earmarked as extra funding in the last budget for the nhs. are these the kind of things that will help and is it enough? they will help but the help will not be coming online for two or three years given the time it takes to traina three years given the time it takes to train a junior doctor, nurse and consultant. even if they start training now the effects will not be felt for several years and we have massive job vacancies across the sharp end of the nhs as it is. thank you forjoining us. a homeless man who was hailed a "hero" for helping some of the injured at the manchester arena bombing, has pleaded guilty to stealing a purse and a mobile phone from victims of the attack. chris parker appeared at manchester crown court earlier. our correspondent clare fallon is there for us now. danny savage is there now. farfrom being a hero, he was actually picking pockets? when these terrible events happened at the manchester arena behind me back in may chris parker, his story was one glimmer of light in the darkness. by all accou nts light in the darkness. by all accounts he had gone in to the epicentre of the blast to help the injured and the dying and comforting people at the time. but when it came to an analysis of the close circuit television at the arena it was revealed that it was a very different story. what chris walker—hebborn as well as helping people, and it was acknowledged he had done some good that night, but as well as that he undid all that good by going around different victims and taking their belongings. he kept going back to one lady called pauline healy, a grandmother who was lying on the floor is seriously injured. her granddaughter was lying close by dying. he kept going back to her and eventually took the handbag with her purse in it and made off with it. in the hours that followed he started to use her bank cards in local fast—food restaurants around here. physically he shot himself in the foot of this because he was the homeless guy who captured everyone's imagination at the time and there was a huge funding campaign for him that raised more than £50,000 to give to him. but he will never get the money now because of what he did and at the end of this month is likely to be sent to prison after admitting those cases of theft and one of fraud. he really did go from hero to zero in a matter of weeks. storm eleanor has swept across the uk, causing flooding, damage to homes, and disruption for motorists. gusts of up to 100 miles an hour were reported in the pennines, and thousands of homes have been left without power across northern ireland, wales, the midlands and south west england. dan johnson reports. it was a wild, wet and noisy night in the name of storm eleanor. in the channel islands jersey's seafront took a pounding under strong winds and surging tides. ireland felt the storm's force first. this is galway on the west coast where high seas meant flooding. eleanor also took power from thousands of homes. the storm then swirled across the uk. huge waves in anglesey. hailstones in blackpool. and here is what people were dealing with this morning. trees down, bits of buildings crashed through cars, some vehicles off the road altogether. today it has been really hazardous on the roads. we have had a record number of call—outs early this morning from cars being damaged from debris falling from trees, branches, etc. other cars just would not start because of all the rain, with wet engines, flat batteries. so in terms of breakdowns it has been busy but also in terms of driving conditions, many roads have been closed, blocked with fallen branches. aberystwyth was one of many places clearing up this morning. so was belfast where falling trees caused all sorts of problems. all of a sudden the skyjust lit up and these power lines touched each other and it was just like guy fawkes, just sparks and it was unbelievable. teams are still working to reconnect some electricity supplies. disruption continues on railways and roads. but the worst is now past. but in portreath in cornwall they now feared this evening ‘s high tide. part of the harbour wall was taken by the sea. buildings were also damaged, it was not quite clear what belonged where. across large parts of the country there are severe weather warnings still in place for the rest of this afternoon. dan johnson, bbc news. well some properties are at risk due to the loss of a stretch of coastal walk in portreath in cornwall. let's cross to our correspondentjon kay who's in portreath in cornwall. until the early hours of this morning there was a complete harbour wall, you would not have been able to see those people behind the fence because the wall was in front of it. you can see a large section of the wall has come crashing down during the storm last night. and in the early hours of this morning, leaving a gap, a rather worrying gap here in portreath because potentially it could mean that as the next high tide comes in this evening at around six o'clock, it potentially could come through that gap. and you can see it is notjust people up there being cleared away when that happens but quite a few houses here right in the shadow of the beach and the harbour wall. and they're evacuating these properties and telling people to go to nearby community centre and ta ke refuge to go to nearby community centre and take refuge for a couple of hours during the high tidejust take refuge for a couple of hours during the high tide just to take refuge for a couple of hours during the high tidejust to make sure people safe. just out at sea you can see even before high tide, the water is rising, it is windy out there, quite menacing site you see there, quite menacing site you see the harbour are filling up with sea water. and that level is creeping up ever so slightly and it is because of that gap that people are particularly worried. sandbags have been brought out, they have been coming thick and fast, filling them up coming thick and fast, filling them up from the beach. using the sand from the beach to protect the nearby houses. they've also tried to use some of the debris that came from the falling wall earlier today to bank it up and create some kind of barrier that might protect the properties. and help to protect people later on. the high tide tonight is expected to be not quite as high as it was in the early hours of this morning. the wind has dropped a bit so the hope is these houses will be fine but clearly it will be a worrying time as people go to the community centre and just wait to find out whether they can come back. and when. this is bbc news at five — the headlines. the health secretary apologises for the tens of thousands of non—urgent nhs operations, that have been delayed in england until february, due to winter pressures. storm eleanor sweeps across the uk, causing flooding, damage to homes and disruption to motorists following gusts of up to 100 miles an hour. a homeless man described as a hero in the aftermath of the manchester bombing, admits stealing a purse and mobile phone from victims. and in sport. arsenal take on cheslea in the premier league. a win for the champions would take them back to 2nd in the table. arsene wenger‘s side are hoping to bounce back from that controversial draw at west brom on new year's eve, victory would move them to within three points of 4th place. west brom say their midfielder jake livermore confronted a west ham fan after he'd been substituted during their match at the london stadium last night because livermore had been abused about the death of his son in 2014. and australia are back at full strength but england make a change for the final ashes test in sydney. mason crane becomes the youngest england spinner to make his debut in 90 years. president trump has said that his nuclear button is "much bigger" and "more powerful" than that of the north korean leader. his comments, on twitter, were the latest in an increasingly personalfeud with kimjong un. they came as south korea said the north had restored a hotline between the two governments, after a silence of nearly two years. 0ur correspondent in seoul, sophie long reports. this morning, in a broadcast on its state—run television, north korea announced it would reopen an inter—korean hotline. translation: by upholding a decision by the leadership, we will make close contact with south korea in a sincere and faithful manner. we will discuss working—level issues related to the dispatch of the winter olympics delegation. just after 3:30 seoul time, the south korean government announced that it had received a telephone call from the north, the first direct form of communication between the two countries for nearly two years. it's hoped this could pave the way for high—level talks proposed by the south on tuesday. if they go ahead, the two sides are expected to discuss the possibility of pyongyang sending a delegation to the winter olympics, due to get under way in south korea next month. the south korean president, moonjae—in, has said the pyeongchang? games could mark a turning point and relieve tensions on the korean peninsula, which are at their highest point in decades. kim jong—un announced he was open to dialogue with south korea in his new year speech, which also had a defiant message for the united states. he said he had nuclear weapons and a button on his desk. today, the us president gave his response to that. "will someone from his depleted and food starved regime", president trump tweeted, "please inform him that i too have a nuclear button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one and my button works!" and there was scepticism about the moves towards dialogue between the two koreas from the us state department. we are very sceptical of kim jong—un‘s sincerity in sitting down and having talks. our policy hasn't changed. the south korean‘s policy has not changed. but a key communication line is now open, so talks about higher—level talks could now take place. sophie long, bbc news, seoul. 0ur north america editor, jon sopel is in washington. beyond the juvenile tit—for—tat between these leaders what is the us strategy in dealing with north korea 110w strategy in dealing with north korea now that it looks as if they're pretty close to having a serviceable nuclear weapon? you cannotjust dismiss a tweet coming from the president is being juvenile because it is the president of the united states who happens to preside over the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world but yes, you read that as i did late last night in washington andi did late last night in washington and i thought is this international diplomacy or boasting in a locker room between two people snapping towels at each other to adopt that is what it felt like. yet there is a serious fight this. donald trump has a strategy with regards to north korea which is to isolate it as much as possible and get china to play a bigger role in implementing sanctions against pyongyang. but i think it is interesting and may be of some concern to the us that there seems to be a kind of reaching out to south korea, and maybe north koreans will participate in the winter olympics. i think america will want to make sure that if dogs are getting underway there are also pa rt are getting underway there are also part of the discussion as well. that is important, this reaching out it seems from the north to the south. there were better links between the two a few years ago, that has fallen into an abeyance. is this really seen as the beginning of something that could be pretty special between them? i think it is premature, that could be pretty special between them? ithink it is premature, i think what we've had is one speech from kimjong think what we've had is one speech from kim jong un, think what we've had is one speech from kimjong un, c would think what we've had is one speech from kim jong un, c would follow through on that is, what develops from that. i think to start saying there is a new dawn on the korean peninsula would be kind of getting ahead of ourselves other thing we need to watch what happens in reality. i think they will watch it very closely here in washington with a degree of concern and a degree of scepticism because what america does not want to have is a nuclear armed north korea capable of firing weapons that could breach the us mainland. that is the centrepoint of all us policy and that is why they're trying to seek to the pressure against the north koreans at this time. thank you. the united states says it plans to call an emergency session of the un security council to discuss the ongoing unrest in iran. 22 people have died in six days of anti—government demonstrations — which were initially in response to price rises, and accusations of corruption. tens of thousands of people are taking part in pro—government demonstrations today, after the government said it would organise counter—rallies. richard lister reports. after a week of anti—government protests, the regime responded today with rallies of its own. state television showed these marches taking place in cities around the country. some reports though suggest government workers were ordered to take part. by contrast, the demonstrations of discontent across iran appear to have been spontaneous. triggered by high food prices and unemployment, they have become a defiant challenge to iran's all—powerful clerics. and while these outbursts have been relatively small, they have been widespread. this map using data from opponents of the regime, shows protests in almost every province including rural conservative areas once firmly behind the leadership. and iran's leaders don't have a unified response. the supreme leader, ayatollah ali khamenei, blamed outside forces. the government today was more conciliatory. translation: the law and the government recognise the protests as the rights of citizens to send their messages to the authorities and make their voices heard. but this needs to be done within the framework of the law. what the regime wants to avoid is this. in 2009 a disputed presidential election brought millions onto the streets, leading to a violent crackdown by the authorities. washington is now shining a spotlight on iran and calling an emergency session of the un security council. the people of iran are crying out for freedom. all freedom—loving people must stand with their cause. the international community made the mistake of failing to do that in 2009. we must not make that mistake again. this was tehran last night. more than 20 protesters have died in the past week. hundreds more have been arrested. this simmering rage could evaporate, or it could boil over. richard lister, bbc news. six people have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences — including being members of the banned far—right group, national action. the five men and one woman — who are aged between 21 and 37 — were detained during raids in cambridge, banbury, wolverhampton, stockport and leicester. all six suspects are being held at a police station in the west midlands and a number of properties are also being searched as part of the operation. the fashion chain next says it's had a better than expected christmas. the high street store said full—price sales in the nine weeks to the 24th of december increased by 1.5%. as a result, next said annual profits were expected to rise by £8 million — to £725 million. but the retailer warned that the challenges it faced last year, like subdued consumer demand and lower spending on clothing, would persist in 2018. this week, we've been looking at the impact our increasing use of plastic — whether it's bottles or packaging — is having on the planet. a recent study has revealed that 95% of plastic pollution in the world's oceans comes from just ten rivers. one of them is in india, the ganges. 0ur correspondent, sanjoy majumder has been to the holy city of varanasi on its banks to see the scale of the problem. this looks like a drain carrying sewage. but it is actually a tributary of the ganges. the waste along its banks choking and contaminating one of the world's greatest rivers. every day wrappers, bottles, cups and other plastic waste is deposited here. slowly sliding into the water and then eventually flowing into the ganges. for centuries some of india's greatest cities have been built along its banks. varanasi the oldest one of them. it's only when you come to the ancient city of varanasi that you realise how this mighty river that is so central to the hindu faith, that sustains the lives and beliefs of nearly half a billion people, is as polluted as it is. the ganges is more than a river to indians, it is sacred to hindus who pray and worship along its banks and cremate their dead in it. from the time it flows out of the icy heights of the himalayas until it gets here, its crystal clear waters give way to a fetid, muddy flow. contaminated by the millions who live along its banks. five generations of this family have lived along the ganges in varanasi. living witnesses to its gradual degradation. translation: there is an old saying here that the ganges belongs to everyone. you are free to do what you want, throw what you want, cremate dead bodies, bathe, wash, and you will achieve salvation. but we are being irresponsible. we do not have the right to pollute the ganges this way. three years ago the indian government pledged more than £2 billion to clean up the ganges. but much of the money remains unspent and the focus in any case is on treating sewage and industrial effluents. so the only people trying to prevent plastic waste being dumped into the river are these scrap pickers. translation: every day we pick up about ten to 20 kilos of plastic. we have to sift through the rubbish and segregate the plastic. it is estimated that every year 1.2 billion pounds of plastic waste is dumped into the ganges. much of it carried into the bay of bengal where the river eventually empties out. time for a look at the weather. here's louise lear. the storm is moving to europe as we speak but still some rain to come and then cold. not great news in the first week of january. this is what happened, eleanor now moving through the north sea and into scandinavia past germany where the strongest of that wind is at the moment. but another batch of wet weather moving in through the night bringing some gales on the coasts. that is just going to enhance the water level that we have got on already saturated ground. so further north of that some clear skies and perhaps some fast and icy stretches. but first thing tomorrow the rain moves north and east, then grinds to a halt across northern ireland, southern scotland and northern england. behind that a much brighter prospect and pretty mild for the time of year. a little more disappointing in the north—east and a few scattered showers here. the cold weather is set to arrive as we move towards the weekend. this is bbc news. the headlines: health secretary jeremy hunt has apologised to patients whose operations have been cancelled, as nhs england attempts to alleviate winter pressures. storm eleanor sweeps across the uk, causing power cuts, flooding and damage to homes following gusts of up to 100 miles an hour. a homeless man described as a hero in the aftermath of the manchester bombing admits stealing a purse and mobile phone from victims. donald trump has boasted on twitter that his nuclear button is much bigger and more powerful than north korea's. time to look at the sports news from the bbc sports centre. arsenal play chelsea in the premier league tonight, a win for the champions at the emirates would see them go back to second in the table. they face a side though that have won 13 of their last 15 league games at home. arsene wenger knows the home form is imperative as his side aims for a top fourfinish. in the last two years, yes, we have played many times chelsea. it was a lwa ys played many times chelsea. it was always a tight result, apart from at home last year, when i think we beat them 3—0. after that, we played them many times and it was always a big battle. chelsea comes back as well in good form, you know? they have been consistent recently. it is a big challenge for us. west brom say their midfielder jake livermore confronted a west ham fan after he'd been substituted in their game at the london stadium last night in response to taunts about the death of his infant son in 2014. livermore was seen in a heated exchange near his team's dugout. west brom claim all right—minded football supporters could understand this reaction after which he was led away to their dressing room. west brom also say the player has the total support of everyone at the club and have left it to west ham to take any further action. manchester city's david silva has revealed he's missed recent matches because of the premature birth of his son. the midfielder didn't play against tottenham, newcastle and crystal palace for what were described as personal reasons. but after returning to the city side for their win over watford last night he's said in a statement that his son mateo was "born extremely pre—term and is fighting day by day". reports in spain claim barcelona are preparing to make another bid for philippe coutinho, although liverpool haven't yet received a renewed offer. now the january transfer window has opened its thought a bid will be made imminently after three were turned down by liverpool in the summer, the last of which was £118 million. but both barcelona and the brazilian are still interested in the move and liverpool haven't publicly stated that coutinho is not for sale, as they did last year. england will try to win a consolation ashes test against an australia side restored to full strength for the fifth test in sydney starting tonight. captain steve smith insists his back is fine after missing training yesterday and leading wicket taker in the series mitchell starc is fit again. if smith hits a fourth century of the series he'll become only the fourth batsman to do so. it would be nice. it would be a good way to end the series. it's been a good one, obviously personally for me, but for the team as well. i think we played some really good cricket. it would be great to end this series with a 4—0 win. but, you know, we've still got a hard five daysin know, we've still got a hard five days in front of us. it has probably been the difference between the two teams, especially in the last game in perth and the one at brisbane, that has probably been the difference in the results, two fantastic 1005. that partnership fanta5tic 1005. that partnership with fanta5tic1005. that partnership with mar5h. it is quite fru5trating a5 with mar5h. it is quite fru5trating as an opposition captain that he is in that sort of form in such a big 5erie5 in that sort of form in such a big series for us, but credit to him, he ha5 series for us, but credit to him, he has played exceptionally well. that's all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. we will have more for you in sportsday at 6.30. back to the nhs, and the health secretaryjeremy hunt has apologised for the problems in the health service as it comes under winter pressure. mr hunt said some of the extra pressure came from an upsurge in flu and that, while there was a longer term funding issue, the decision to postpone operations allows for a planned, methodical and thoughtful approach. he spoke to our health editor, hugh pym. with respect to patients, i want to apologise for the fact that we have had, regrettably, to postpone a number of operations. we're trying to do it differently this year. last year, we cancelled a lot of operations at the very last minute, so people got a call the day before to say their operation wasn't going ahead. that is obviously very undesirable, so we want to do it in a much more planned way. but our hope is that the total number of cancelled operations won't be significantly higher this year than last year. the signs are that we are managing to keep the occupancy levels relatively lower than last year. but we are dealing with an uptick in flu and respiratory illness which is creating particular pressures. surely, the nhs can't be running properly under your government if you have to cancel a month's worth of operations and outpatient appointments? i think it's important to recognise that these pressures are pressures that we are seeing all over the united kingdom, in scotland and wales, where the nhs is being run by different political parties, but actually all over the world. they had a very difficult flu season in australia, last year in france1 million people got flu. so this is a characteristic of health care systems. do we have big, longer—term questions to address about the funding of the nhs? of course we do, with1 million more over—755 coming down the track in ten years' time. so those are bigger questions that we need to answer. but as far as this government is concerned, we are proud of the nhs and we want it to continue being the best health service in the world. and we want to support it through this very, very challenging time of the year. under this government, it seems the nhs is only running properly 11 months of the year. that can't be right, can it? well, under this government we have more doctors, more nurses, the outcomes in most major conditions have dramatically improved. but there is a very, very pressured time of year. and, actually, what we're trying to do is do the winter planning better than last year. jeremy hunt, speaking to hugh pym. mr hunt is, of course, responsible for the nhs in england — the welsh and scottish health services are run by the devolved governments. scottish a&e units failed to meet their waiting times targets last month. in a moment we'll speak to our scotland correspondent james shaw — but first to university hospital wales in cardiff, and our correspondent tomos morgan. how have services in wales been affected by the winter problems we have been hearing about? clive, i understand that the services across wales, the early indication is that a&e departments across wales have fared worse this year than this time last year. that is according to the vice president of the royal college of the emergency services in wales, who is also a consultant at wrexham hospital. he said that a&e departments across wales have been struggling this year. one department in particular had only seen 38% of patients within a four hour period at one point. the welsh government target is to see 95% of patients within that for our time frame. now, there have been some cancelled operations, across some of the operations, across some of the operations in south wales, due to the winter pressures that have been faced. flu has played a major part in increased pressures across services in wales. that has been reflected in the welsh government statement we received not long ago. they say that a&e departments have suffered because of an increase in the number of patients that have presented flu, norovirus and other respiratory infections, who have required hospital beds. nhs organisations had been planning for winter pressures for some months, but the fluid —— flu influx meant that patients have been coming in for beds. patients have said that if people can visit their gp or pharmacies first, so the a&e departments do not get clogged up here. as i say, indications that the a&e departments and wales have struggled more so than last year. lets get the picture in scotland. james shaw is there. how bad is it looking as a result of the various pressures we have been looking at? there is no doubt that you can sense the system is cooking in some areas. take for example nhs lanarkshire, the health board, the big health board there. they have postponed nonurgent treatments for the rest of this week, and they have also called for office—based staff to come in on a volunteer basis to support clinical staff. they say there has been a good response to that. in the south—west of scotland, the royal infirmary in dumfries and galloway recently opened. they have also cancelled non—elective and some clinics for today, they have not given details for what they have been doing for the rest of the month. in the north—east of scotland, they told us this morning that they have cancelled 14 treatments last week. in terms of the scottish ambulance service, they say there has been a 50% increase in the number of life—threatening calls they have taken over the christmas period, and nhs 24 say demand for their services is at record levels. when you talk about accident and emergency, and the targets that the scottish government is trying to hit, they want 95% of people to be seen within the first four hours. they failed to hit that in the week before christmas, it was 83%. you can see, all across the board, there are difficulties that the service is struggling with. i suppose the key question, and jeremy hunt, in a sense, raised is in that interview, is scotland doing better or worse than the nhs in england or in wales? according to the deputy chief medical officer here, doctor gregor smith, he believes that scotland is doing relatively well. the reason for that come he says, is better planning. ok. james, thank you. thanks, both. i'm joined by the nigel edwards, chief executive at the nuffield trust, an independent health think—tank. it is good to see you. thanks for coming in. i don't want to spend too much time on this. let's clear this up. in youropinion, much time on this. let's clear this up. in your opinion, from an independent think tank, is this a crisis or a carefully planned response to winter pressures? looks like the sort of problem we have every year. it looks a little bit worse than perhaps we are used to. elective operations are cancelled every year, it is not a great way of running the health system in the sense that the people that do elective surgery are not necessarily any help in treating the types of emergency cases we seek. i any help in treating the types of emergency cases we seek. i don't think you can have something that happens every year and call it a crisis. but it does showjust how hot the health service is running and how little space there is to accommodate big peaks in demand.“ the problem in the planning for this once a year occurrence? is that the issue we have got here? it seems as if the health secretary in the nhs, the department for health, they are dammed if they do, dammed if they don't. last year they cancelled a lot of appointments late on and that upset a lot of people. now they are postponing things for a month. they can't win? if you're going to cancel, it is better to do it a month ahead than the day before. cancel, it is better to do it a month ahead than the day beforem they have got better there? the real issueis they have got better there? the real issue is that their ability and demand for health care does mean you will get big spikes. you can sometimes come in some of the hospitals, see almost twice the number of patients you see on an average day. planning for that is really difficult, it is not always easy to predict. i think this perpetual problem we have every single year, for probably as long as i remember, trying to run the nhs too close to the margin of what is actually safe and sensible. there is not enough spare capacity and flax ability in the system. the staff exposed to this, particularly in the winter months, they are getting burned out. these are very tough jobs to do. every people more respite and having more flexibility in the system would mean it is able to accommodate some of this growth we see in demand during winter months, without having to cancel operations. we have underinvested in the last 20 years on the types of staff that you need to be able to do that. we do have a staff crisis, no doubt about that, in the nhs. but the government would say £1.6 billion from the last budget, that is the announcement, that more money would go to the nhs. they are looking to try to recruit a quarter more doctors, thousands more nurses. the government was trying to make an effort. but the numbers speak for themselves in terms of more people going to a&e, an older population with more copulated health issues? the population hospitals has been growing between 1% and 4% a year, and we have not put the resources behind that. the nhs is becoming more efficient, but there becomes a point when you are so efficient that the system has no capacity to deal with the spikes. the types of doctors we're talking about here that can deal with a very frail and elderly patient, they often have different conditions, they are on ten drugs, it is conduct problems, it takes 15 years to produce doctors with those skills. we are also paying the price for a long—term country. —— long—term problem. as a country, we have seen this in ra i lwa ys country, we have seen this in railways and roads, we have been bad at long—term thinking and long—term investment. the government can try to fill those gaps now, but time is against them, because we should have made these decisions 2015 years ago. apart from try to get more staff in, it is the only way to do it, have a massive injection in funds, to deal with the gavin planning? fortu nately, with the gavin planning? fortunately, extra funds does not produce extra doctors, takes a long time to train them. there are areas where it would health, particularly community services. the problems we see in a&e and queues of ambulances, it is not to do with the a&e, it is the ability of the hospital to get people home. the other area we underinvested in, community services and particularly social care, people are in hospital that could be cared for somewhere else. they can't be sent home because it is not safe because the other services are not there. extra money would help there. but there are issues in the workforce in those areas as well, community nurses particularly, a very large number reaching retirement age, and we have not been producing the numbers and the right types of staff. nigel edwards, from the nuffield trust, thank you for joining us. this is bbc news at 5 — the headlines: the health secretary apologises for the tens of thousands of non—urgent nhs operations that have been postponed in england, due to winter pressures. storm eleanor sweeps across the uk, causing flooding, damage to homes and disruption to motorists following gusts of up to 100 miles an hour. a homeless man described as a hero in the aftermath of the manchester bombing, admits stealing a purse and mobile phone from victims. a chef has received death threats after boasting online that she'd "spiked" a dish for a vegan customer at her restaurant. laura goodman has since apologised and offered to resign, and the restaurant has denied that meat was included in the food. but trading standards officials have begun an investigation. giles latcham reports. police at carlini's in albrighton in shropshire responding to death threats made online against laura goodman, co—owner and head chef. in the early hours of sunday she posted in a closed facebook group that she had just "spiked a vegan". and that a "pious and judgmental vegan i'd spent all day cooking for has just gone to bed still believing she's a vegan.". there's been a storm online. herfiance and business partner is doing his best to quell it. we've got the possibility of demonstrations outside the restaurants, we've had death threats. you know, all i can say is to those people that are active vegans and vegetarians, is listen to our side of the story. nothing happened here. nobody had anything with meat in it. they say the "spiked" comments relate to one of the vegan diners ordering a pizza with cheese on it, which laura duly prepared. but the comments online include, "your behaviour as a chef towards vegans is sickening.". "disgusting behaviour on the part of your chef... possibly illegal.". "what if that vegan was allergic to animal products? this is fraud.". i spoke briefly to laura goodman and she looked pale and exhausted. she said she was deeply sorry for the comments she posted, deeply distressed by the response to them. too distressed, she said, to appear on camera. a committed vegan from telford says it's a question of trust. your initial thought is, oh my goodness, am i ever going to be able to trust a restaurant again? but also it makes you worry for other people who might have gone there who might have had an allergy or whatever. and you know, may well then sufferfrom some kind of symptom as a result of, you know, not being given what they thought they were having. food standards officials have begun an investigation. a new dish at carlini's — humble pie. giles latcham reporting. last year was a record year for music consumption in britain. figures from the bpi, which represents the music industry, suggest the amount of music streamed, downloaded, or bought in the uk rose at its fastest rate for nearly 20 years. homegrown artists such as ed sheeran and little mix accounted for 8 out of 10 of 2017's bestselling albums. nina warhurst has been looking at the sales trends. we are going to be talking to a guest that will be looking in detail at more of that story. an irish footballer has scored his first big victory of the year by winning the lottery. preston north end's kevin 0'connor was visiting family in ireland when he found out he'd won1 million euros in the christmas millionaire raffle, after his uncle bought him a ticket. he says he has no immediate plans on how to spend the money and that his main focus is helping his team climb up the league. the highland wildlife park in scotland has welcomed the first polar bear to be born in the uk for 25 years. no pictures of the new cub have emerged yet — but keepers say they have heard noises from inside the cubbing box. let's take a listen. screeching the mother bear, victoria, is one of three adult polar bears at the wildlife park at kincraig, near aviemore. arktos, the male bear victoria mated with, is one of the park's other adults. the last polar bear cubs born in the uk were twins at flamingo land in yorkshire in december 1992. doug richardson from the highland wildlife park gave an update on what they know so far about the polar bear cub. well, we certainly don't know how many or what sex. but you can certainly tell from the vocalisations as to whether the cub is healthy, whether it's suckling, how the mum is doing. so we know a fair bit without seeing anything. from a husbandry point of view, to be the first ones to do this in 25 years, this is actually a big deal. and when you look at polar bear breeding globally, it is still a pretty rare event. so, we're definitely all very chuffed here at the highland wildlife park. i was talking earlier about this record year for i was talking earlier about this record yearfor music i was talking earlier about this record year for music consumption in britain. a lot more downloads in the music industry, music bought at stores and so on rising at the fastest rate for nearly 20 years. nina warhurst has been looking at the sales trends. # i have no time... 2018's set to be big for francis long. # give it back... releasing his first album on manchester's buzzing music scene. because of the internet, he doesn't need the backing of a big label to be heard. # give it back... if i finish a record, i've got the power to put it online immediately and everybody that is waiting for it can hear it. whereas before, before the dawn of the internet let's say, i would have to wait for someone to give me permission, wait for somebody to tell me that it is good enough for other people to hear. last year we streamed more music than ever, 68 billion songs — the equivalent of more than a thousand each. father christmas brought it... perhaps more surprising is how the tables have turned with vinyl records, as some who flirted with digital return to their first love. just the beauty of having the record in your hand, i think. and looking after it, making sure it doesn't get scratched. so you like physically holding it? physically holding it, looking at the artwork on the covers, maybe reading the song lyrics as you're listening. vinyl sales were up an astonishing 26% on the year before with 4 million records sold. and the shape of the british music industry was helped by one ed sheeran. for the 13th year in a row, the number one artist was home—grown. today's news is encouraging for studios like this one in manchester, which is home to a small record label. but there's still what is termed a value gap. that is a disparity between the amount of music that is being listened to, and the amount of money that that is generating for the industry. the consumption of music on video streaming platforms such as youtube, who currently can hide behind these safe harbours in european law. which means they do not have to pay the same amount as even spotify or apple, deezer or any of those. and that is a significant amount of revenue that is not getting through to artists or songwriters or labels and publishers. so artists like francis lung wont be singing from the rooftops just yet. but our willingness to spend more on music as times get tighter does give the industry a little something to dance about. nina warhurst, bbc news, in manchester. joining me now is tshepo mokoena, the uk editor of the online music magazine vice noisey. good to see you. thanks for coming in. we are seeing this massive upsurge in people downloading music. are enough of those revenues getting to the artist? it is a tricky one, with streams versus downloads, in the general world of digital music. many people that don't listen to music online may not realise that every strea m music online may not realise that every stream pays an artist a tiny fraction of a pound every time. u nless fraction of a pound every time. unless you are somebody that is drake, ed sheeran, a huge international star, you are unlikely to be able to make a very co mforta ble to be able to make a very comfortable living, even more than a couple of thousand a month from streams alone. i think streaming is important for the industry, for it to show that it still has an impact and is important to people. but when it comes to being able to make money asa it comes to being able to make money as a small independent artist, you would not be relying on streaming as a main revenue point, that would not make sense. despite more of us listening to music, how are small artist surviving? gigs is really important, what we have seen coming out today is listening habits, how it passes into our hobbies, but when it passes into our hobbies, but when it comes to actually wanting to open up it comes to actually wanting to open upa bank it comes to actually wanting to open up a bank statement and not be horrified as a smaller musician, you really are in that case relying on the music you make from gigging, the merchandise you sell on tour, those are the revenue streams where you get a much bigger cut, when you have to music on spotify, you're getting 0.00 2p. when you are selling a t—shirt, you get the bulk of the money. any idea why we are listening to more music? it sounds silly, but i think it isjust to more music? it sounds silly, but i think it is just because of the way that smartphones have become so important. it is the kind of thing you wouldn't necessarily stop to think about that much. but now that your phone is not really a phone, it is also a computer, a device that can do so many things at once, it is a lwa ys can do so many things at once, it is always in your pocket. before, yes, we had the walkman, it would be in the pocket and that was a way to listen to music. but it was fiddly, you had to change seed is, it was bulky, now your mobile phone has an infinite amount of music. something as simple as having spotify or apple music at all times, never wanted to be bored, always able to plug in and have a little something. what about those people, and i am one of them, only because i am an old bloke and not trendy, that love vinyl? that has gone up? it has been on the up consistently for a decade, a really interesting trend we have watched develop since 2007, when sales were at their lowest for a long time. every year, people see it as something which is special, a memento, a gift, in one hand, and it is important... i would not say older consumers, something that you can physically own, people say, i like this music, but i also want to own that music. we have also seen new stores like urban outfitters, developing a section in their shop, full of nice clothes, but also a section where they have records of new music and new releases, rather than re—issues, which had been doing quite well as well. all very good. thank you forjoining us. i should say that hmv announced a couple of weeks ago that they believe their biggest selling item for 2018 would be the record player. signs of a lot of health in the music industry. storm eleanor has been through and call social problems, but there is another one around the corner, apparently. it is going to rain and be windy, but not as bad as storm eleanor. she has cleared away and is moving through the near continent, into scandinavia, down into germany. strong winds through low countries. more wet and windy weather pushing into the south—west as we speak. that will arrive through the night. it will move quite promptly across the south—west and into wales. by the south—west and into wales. by the early morning rush hour, it may have cleared away. into the north, clearer skies, a chilly night, maybe a touch of frost and worrell two isolated showers. first thing in the morning, it is going to be the rain that will be fairly miserable, particularly if you are driving towards london or you are catching the train. the rain clears away, and behind it quite an improvement. it will drive to a halt in northern england, southern scotland and northern ireland. to the south, quite mild, not bad at all. to the north, a disappointing story, feeling quite cold. at least you have the sunshine. the cold air heading in our direction for all as we go into the weekend. to allow the nhs to deal with the most urgent cases. i want to apologise for the fact we have regrettably had to postpone a number of operations. we are trying to do it differently this year. labour says the nhs is underfunded, understaffed and in crisis. also tonight. blowing through the uk — storm eleanor brings winds of up to 100 miles per hour, leaving thousands of homes without power. i'm reporting live from portree in north cornwall where part of the harbour wall collapsed this morning and we are now waiting anxiously for high tide.

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