after its leader says america is in range of a strike. a man dubbed a hero at the manchester arena attack now admits stealing from two of its victims. the bionic hand with a sense of touch — we have an exclusive report on the woman who's been testing it out for scientists in the real world. proud parents — the uk's first polar bear cub for 25 years is born at the highland wildlife park, though it's not yet been seen. and coming up on sportsday on bbc news, we look ahead to tonight's london derby. arsene wenger‘s arsenal host rivals chelsea in the fight for champions league football. good evening. the health secretaryjeremy hunt has apologised to patients after hospitals were told to delay tens of thousands of non—urgent operations and out—patinet appointments in england this month so the health service can cope with the winter pressures. the prime minister acknowledged the decision was "disappointing and frustrating" for all those affected but she insisted that the nhs was better prepared for this winter "than ever before". senior doctors, though, have warned that they're struggling to cope. labour says the nhs is in crisis. our health editor, hugh pym, has the latest. cancelled operations bring new worries for patients like anna. she is due to have facial reconstruction surgery. is due to have facial reconstruction surgery. that an appointment next week but that is in doubt and her hopes of the operation happening in january seem likely to be dashed. it's impacting my life quite a bit. i drool quite a lot now which is quite frustrating, and i am very uncomfortable with it. i think it will improve my quality of life quite a lot to have it. today the health secretaryjeremy hunt pushed for explanations, said sorry to those patients affected. for explanations, said sorry to those patients affectedli for explanations, said sorry to those patients affected. i want to apologise for the fact we have had to regrettably postpone a number of operations. we are 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. we wa nt to is obviously very undesirable. we want to do it in a much more planned way. surely the nhs, be running properly and the government if you have to cancel a months worth of operations. i think it's important to recognise that these pressures are to recognise that these pressures a re pressures we to recognise that these pressures are pressures we are seeing to recognise that these pressures are pressures we are seeing all over the uk in scotland and wales, where the uk in scotland and wales, where the nhs is being run by different political parties. the prime minister said she recognised that for people who had had their operations postponed it was disappointing and frustrating. she said nhs staff were doing a fantasticjob. said nhs staff were doing a fantastic job. nhs england said nhs staff were doing a fantasticjob. nhs england and the government is a extensive preparations for winter were carried out but if that is the case, the question is why were official instructions and cancelling nonurgent operations extended this week? here at st mary ‘s in west london, they've planned to treat more people without needing overnight stays. the idea is to keep beds free for those who really need them. it's been tougher than they expected because patients this year are sicker than they were. the numbers are largely the same but the intensity of the illnesses we've been seeing this year is very, very significant. we've really had to work very hard to find appropriate places to nurse patients who have got serious conditions. i think a number of things play into this. the weather, we know we are beginning to see an increase in the number of flu cases and all of that builds up to quite a problem for us on sundays. throughout the day there were reports across the country of the highest level of stress that hospitals. nottingham's queen's medical centre asked patients to avoid a&e because of numbers. southend and plymouth were also said to be under extreme pressure. when you've got ambulances backed up outside hospitals, hospital saying they are overcrowded and people waiting on trolleys for hours and hours it is a crisis. it's because of seven years of underfunding and cuts to our nhs, and the government burying their heads in the sand. nhs scotla nd burying their heads in the sand. nhs scotland said there had been a 20% increase in a&e visits before christmas. the la narkshire increase in a&e visits before christmas. the lanarkshire health board has cancelled non—urgent procedures. the welsh government said thousands of hours had been lost for ambulance crews waiting to hand over patients at hospitals. it is early in the new year and the nhs across the uk is already struggling, and it's patients who are in the new year and the and it's patients who are in the new yearand the nhs and it's patients who are in the new year and the nhs across the uk is already struggling, and it's patients who are injuring the consequences. storm eleanor has swept across the uk, causing flooding, power cuts, damage to homes, and disruption to motorists. gusts of up to 100 miles per hour were reported in the pennines, and thousands of homes were left without power across northern ireland, wales, the midlands and south west england. chris page reports. after the swirl of the storm, the sound of sauce was never far in northern ireland today —— the sound of saws. in south belfast eleanor brought down a tree, garden fence and power lines. residents said they had never seen whether caused such destruction. all of a sudden the sky lit up and these power lines touched each other and it was like guy fawkes. it was box, it was unbelievable. as well as frightening experiences, there were many dramatic sides. the workers whose job it is to bring back normality have had a huge challenge. engineers have had a huge challenge. engineers have restored electricity to most of the 25,000 homes which lost their supply during the height of the winds. we have to bring in crews to cut the trees, we have to bring in digging crews to dig out polls and replaced polls and free string lines. all of this takes time and effort, and essentially to restore small numbers of customers at a time. the damage to homes, trees and the fallen power lines all showed there was a danger to people's lives last night as storm eleanor blew through. but most followed the official advised to stay indoors and in northern ireland no one has been injured as a result of the severe weather. but there were some risk—takers, as the storm swept across the uk and ireland. in galway one driver tried to make it through as pc invaded the roads. —— the sea. the channel islands took a hammering, the seafront and jersey was an unappealing place to be when eleanor hit. in clevedon, somerset, the promenade was out of bounds and the promenade was out of bounds and the emergency services were on stand—by as the winds whipped up the waves. and wales also suffered. anglesey was pounded by fierce gusts and ferocious tides. but the weather was at its worst and the other side of the irish sea. in belfast and ruin areas, roads have been unblocked, dave breacker year dub and electricity mostly back. however, people here will remember storm eleanor for a long however, people here will remember storm eleanorfor a long time. chris page, bbc news, belfast. well let's go to cornwall now. jon kay, the storm swept through there last night — but it's not over yet? it's not. people here are waiting nervously to find out what tonight ‘s high tide in the next few minutes could bring. it was about 4am that people heard a crack and then a crash and then about 20 metres of the harbour wall, the old harbour wall which protects this community collapsed into the sea. this is what it looked like in the daytime. it left a great big gap in the defences which are meant to protect this small coastal community. the authorities have worked all day to try to work out how to do it. they cleared some of the rubble away and try to create a bank which will give some kind of protection. it's too big a gap to fill in by high tide tonight. they've cleared people away. it is as close as we are allowed to be. members of the environment agency are here, the coast guard are here and people who live in the houses around here are urged to go to a nearby community centre to take shelter to make sure their homes and properties are safe. we spoke to people who put their christmas presents upstairs to try to protect them against any possible flooding. the good news is at the moment it seems the tide is lower thanit moment it seems the tide is lower than it might have been. hopefully it won't be too bad. there's more bad weather to come in the next couple of days. this part of the world knows all about bad weather but it's not over yet. sophie. thank you. president trump has boasted on twitter that his nuclear button is "much bigger" and "more powerful" than north korea's. it was in response to a warning from north korea's leader kim jong—un that america was in range of a nuclear strike. meanwhile north and south korea have conducted their first direct communication in nearly two years using a dormant hotline run by the red cross. 0ur correspondent rupert wingfield—hayes reports from the south korean capital, seoul. on monday, kim jong—un welcomed in the new year with a more conventional display of fireworks than the sort he's been firing off throughout 2017. but anyone who was hoping his new year message would carry an offer of peace and goodwill was quickly disappointed. "the entire united states is within range of our nuclear weapons", he said, "and the nuclear button is always on my desk". "this is reality, not a threat". that was all the excuse president donald trump needed, and as we have now come to expect, his response came in a twitter tirade. so 2018 has begun pretty much as 2017 ended, with the president of the united states and the dictator of north korea hurling threats at each other, while the rest of the world looks on mostly in dismay. but here in seoul, 2018 has begun at least with a glimmer of hope, because as of this afternoon, north and south korea are talking to each other again by telephone. out of the blue, pyongyang suddenly reconnected the hotline between the two koreas that kim jong—un had personally ordered cut—off two years ago. in his new year address, kim also said he was prepared to send a team to take part in the winter olympics which begin here in south korea in a little over a month. the us state department accused north korea of attempting to drive a wedge between the us and its south korean ally. and it could be right. but for the 20 million people of seoul who live within firing range of north korea's artillery, any sign that pyongyang is willing to talk is a new year gift they will welcome. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in seoul. six people have been arrested on suspicion of belonging to the banned far—right terror group national action. the five men and one woman were detained during raids in cambridge, banbury, wolverhampton, leicester and stockport. all six are being held at a police station in the west midlands. 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 today. danny savage is outside the manchester arena for us. chris parker became famous after the manchester arena bombing. he was the homeless guy who rushed in to help people, that's what everyone believed because that's what he told eve ryo ne believed because that's what he told everyone in the aftermath of the bombing. but afterwards, when investigators started looking at the cctv, a different story began to unfold. although he did help some people, he undid all of that good by stealing from some of the victims. the cctv showed him going to one woman, pauline healey, repeatedly going to her before he eventually took a handbag with her purse in the hours that followed he used her bank cards in fast food restaurants. today at manchester crown court he pleaded guilty to theft and fraud. he will be sentenced at the end of the month and has been told he may go to prison. many people raised lots of money for him after those events and thought he was a hero. he was in store to get more than £50,000 from public donations. he 110w £50,000 from public donations. he now will not get that money and instead is looking at going to prison. he went from hero to zero over a matter of weeks. our top story this evening: winter piles on the pressure — the government apologises to patients as thousands of non—urgent nhs procedures are cancelled. and still to come: polluting the planet — almost all the plastic in our oceans comes from just 10 rivers. we report from one of them, india's holy river the ganges. coming up on sportsday on bbc news: mason crane will become the youngest england spinner to make his debut in 90 years — as we look ahead to final ashes test in sydney. this is a bionic hand — the extraordinary thing about it is that the person wearing it can actually feel what they're touching. but until now it has only ever been used in labs. now for the first time the bionic hand is being tested out in the real world. our medical correspondent, fergus walsh, has been to rome to meet the woman who's been using it — to see what difference it makes to her life. here's his exclusive report. a bionic hand with a sense of touch. and here is the proof. blindfolded, almarina mascarello knows whether what she's holding is soft or hard. she gets it right every time. 0ver lunch, she told me that nearly 25 years after losing her hand in a factory accident, it is almost like it is back again. translation: the feeling is spontaneous, as if it were your real hand. you are finally able to do things that before or difficult. like getting dressed, putting on shoes. all mundane but important things. you feel complete. the world's first peeling bionic hand, given to this danish man, never left the lab. the technology was just too bulky. now nearly four years on, it is portable. allowing almarina to go back to her hobby of car mechanics. all the electronics are in her rucksack. here is how it works. sensors in the fingertips are linked to a computer. this converts the signals into a language the brain will understand. the information is relayed to it via tiny electrodes implanted in nerves in almarina's upper arm. this represents a significant advance in neuro prosthetics, the interface between machine and the human body. the next patient won't need to have a rucksack to carry these electronics, because they're going to be miniaturised and implanted under the skin. and the team here are hoping to do the same with a bionic leg which will have pressure sensors in the foot. engineers, computer scientists and surgeons from several countries are involved in this eu funded research. a truly humanlike bionic hand is still decades away. but the team here think it will happen. we feel we are going more and more in the direction of science fiction like movies like star wars. with luke skywalker after the amputation of the hands. so fully controlled, fully natural, fully sensorised prosthesis very similar, identical to the human hand. since we filmed with almarina, she has had to give back her bionic hand because it is still in the research stage. but she says when it is commercialised in a few years, she wants the feeling bionic hand back for good. fergus walsh, bbc news, rome. 2017 was a great year for the music industry. across britain, the amount of music we bought, streamed and downloaded rose at its fastest rate since the 1990s. and home grown artists like ed sheeran accounted for eight out of ten of last year's best selling albums. 0ur consumer affairs correspondent nina warhurst has been looking at the figures. # i have no time... 2018 is set to be big for francis lung. # 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. i've got the power to put it online immediately and everybody that is waiting for it can hear it. whereas before, 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, and that is elbow... perhaps more surprising is how the tables have turned with vinyl records. as some who had flirted with digital returned 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 are 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. we are getting a bit too used to getting music for next to nothing. and that isn't really the value of the music. the music is somebody‘s life's work. and if the business model that we currently have continues, artists will pay the price of that. so artists like francis lung won't 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. the head of the revolutionly guards in iran has claimed the week of u nrest in iran has claimed the week of unrest in the country is at an end. thousands have been taking part in pro—government demonstrations today. 22 people have died in six days of anti—government demonstrations, which were initially in response to price rises and accusations of corruption. the problem of plastics and the impact they're having on our planet — it's a subject we've been exploring this week. according to a recent study — 95% of plastic pollution in the world's oceans comes from just ten rivers. one of them is the ganges in india. 0ur correspondent, sanjoy majumder, reports from the banks of the holy city of varanasi. 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 varananasi 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 his family have lived along the ganges in varanasie. living witnesses to its gradual degradation. 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. a polar bear cub has been born in the uk for the first time in 25 years. the parents are both well and looking proud. but the cub itself has not yet been seen. staff at the highland wildlife park say they first heard the baby's cries in late december. but they don't expect the cub — or possibly cubs — to emerge until march. katriona renton reports. up in the snowy hills of highlands, listen carefully. a sound which has not been heard in the uk for 25 years — the cries of a new—born polar bear cub emerged from this den the week before the christmas. and they have been heard every day since. this is dad, arctos, he is in a separate enclosure. he can feed and play. for now, mum victoria must not be disturbed, but the park is very excited. we discovered the cub when my colleague nicky went up there on one of my days off and she rang me very excitedly to tell me that she could hear a cub in the den. it is a very distinctive, very loud noise that the cubs make. so she was incredibly excited and then the next day i heard the noise for myself. arctos and victoria mated last year. this footage shows a polar bear club born in the netherlands. they have a high mortality rate in the first few weeks, due to their underdeveloped immune system and the mothers need for privacy means any disturbance risks cubs being killed or abandoned. some conservationists do not believe polar bears should be bred in captivity. what we are doing here is replicating as much as we can possibly the natural habitats and i think you have seen for yourself today the conditions that our polar bears are in — the space that they have and the enjoyment and the freedom of movement that they have here. male polar bears have no involvement with their offspring. arctos will never actually meet his cub and the rest of us will have to wait until the end of march or beginning of april when all being well victoria will emerge from her den with her baby or baby even babies. time for a look at the weather. here's louise lear. the talk of the town has been storm eleanor. these are the winds we had this morning, between 75 and 90mph. the storm is moving towards scandinavia, down to the low countries and germany. behind it, we have this fella that is moving into the south west. that is going to bring some rain, some of it heavy and some gale force winds. nowhere near as the strong as the night past, but there could be some localised flooding. further north and east a cold start with frost and icy stretches. tomorrow morning, it is all about the rain in the london area. some of it persistent, moving up area. some of it persistent, moving up into the midlands. an improvement in the south west and wales. a mild start as well. the rain will linger in the north of england, through the isle of man and into northern ireland and here it will stay for much of the day. to higher ground there could be some sleet and snow as well. to the far knot of scotland it is stays with clear skies with frost and sunshine. that stops and further south it is a brighter end to the day. still breezy, but mild at 13 degrees. to the north we keep the cold air and that will be the story at the weekend. the cold air spilling down from the north and with a brisk north—easterly wind it will feel quite raw. so it will be a shock to the system as temperatures fall below the average for the time of the year. but it will be dry. but feeling much colder. that's all from the bbc news at six, so it's goodbye from me and on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. you are watching bbc news. the top stories... the health secretary has apologised for the tens of thousands of nonurgent nhs operations that have been postponed in england due to winter pressures. i want to apologise for the fact that we have reg retta bly apologise for the fact that we have regrettably had to spell and a number of operations. we are trying to do it differently this year. —— asked to postpone. storm eleanor has swept asked to postpone. storm eleanor has swe pt a cross asked to postpone. storm eleanor has swept across the uk, causing power cuts, flooding and damage to homes. president trump has hit back at claims made by his former adviser steve bannon saying he lost his mind when he lost his job at the white house. a homeless man described as a hero in the aftermath of the manchester bombing admits stealing a purse and mobile phone from victims. for nearly 20 years, with streaming services accounting for more than half of consumption. sportsday is coming up, first, what else is coming up tonight. we'll have a report from north east england. one of the areas under the most strain during the latest wave of pressure to hit the nhs. beyond 100 days is here at seven. katty and christian will be looking at the ongoing spat between the us

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