as they move from primary to secondary school, england's children's commissioner says. the leader of the council in windsor calls for police to take action against what he called "aggressive begging" before the royal wedding in may. and britain's andy murray withdraws from the australian open after failing to recover from an ongoing hip injury. he hasn't played a competitive match since wimbledon. donald trump's lawyers have threatened his former chief—of—staff steve bannon with legal action for speaking about his time on the election campaign to the author of an explosive new book about the president. the book by the journalist michael wolff makes many bold claims including that donald trump was unprepared for the job and his wife melania cried when he won the race to the white house. mr bannon was quoted as describing the president's son donald junior as ‘treasonous and unpatriotic‘ for meeting russians during the campaign. mr trump hit back, accusing his former strategist of ‘losing his mind', after he lost his job at the white house. our north america correspondent peter bowes reports. they were once as thick as thieves. steve bannon helped to shape the america first campaign that elected donald trump. in the white house, he was a key player. he had the ear of the president. but his job as chief strategist was short—lived. he promised to be the president's wingman outside but this book reveals a different story. the most damaging claim is that steve bannon viewed a meeting between donald trumer and a group of russians during the campaign and considered it treasonous. also present were paul manafort and jared kushner. "the three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside trump tower in the conference room on the 25th floor with no lawyers," bannon is quoted as saying. he adds that after the meeting they should have called the fbi immediately. the president has hit back in a scathing statement. he goes on, steve was really in a one on one meeting with me. white house press secretary sarah sanders has condemned the contents of the book as completely untrue. she says the meeting was not an act of treason. i think it is a ridiculous accusation and i am sure we have addressed many times here before. if that is in reference to comments made by mr bannon, i would refer you back to ones he made previously on 60 minutes, where he called the collusion with russia about this president a totalfarce, so i think i would look back at that. if anybody has been inconsistent it has been him, certainly hasn't been the president of this administration. the book also says the steve bannon believes the russians were taken after the meeting to meet donald trump. the president has always denied that happened. with the ongoing investigation into possible russian collusion in the presidential election, this explosive row between donald trump and his once trusted ally has left washington stunned. peter bowes, bbc news. there are more revelations in the book. wolff describes the amazement — and dismay — in the trump camp at his november 2016 election win. he says: a befuddled trump morphing into a disbelieving trump and then into a horrified trump. suddenly, donald trump became a man who believed that he deserved to be president. michael wolff also claims that trump did not enjoy his own inauguration he was angry that a—level stars had snubbed the event. and visibly fought with his wife, who seemed on the verge of tears. the first lady's office rejects this claim, saying that mrs trump supported her husband's bid for president and was happy when he won. the book also purports to lift the lid on trump's daughter ivanka's secret presidential ambitions. it says that his son—in—law jared kushner and ivanka decided to accept roles in the west wing over the advice of almost everyone they knew. and that — if sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she — ivanka — would be the one to run for president. meanwhile another claim in the book — that tony blair warned donald trump's aides uk intelligence may have spied on him, and that blair was angling for a post—election middle east adviser role is "categorically absurd" according to the former prime minister. he's been speaking to the bbc. this story, as we pointed out, is a complete fabrication, literally from beginning to end. i have never had such conversation in the white house, outside of the white house with jared kushner or anybody else. have you metjared kushner? of course i've met him. we discussed the middle east peace process, and by the way, that part of the story is untrue, i wasn't angling for a job. you don't want a job? no, i did the quartet role. i am still very active on the middle east peace process, but i have no desire for an official position. i never sought one, i was never offered one, don't want one. the story, it is a sort of reflection to me on the crazy state of modern politics. here is a story that is literally an invention and is now half way round the world, with conspiracy theories attached to it. anyway, there you go, that is modern politics. at 11:15am at ii:isami at 11:15am i will be seeking more about this story. the environment secretary has set out his plans for what he calls ‘a green brexit‘. michael gove said the government will mirror eu subsidies to british farmers — worth three billion pounds a year — until 202a. the payments will then be replaced by a system to encourage environmental improvements, such as rewards for opening up the countryside to the public, providing new habitats for wildlife and increasing biodiversity. of course brexit will mean change but critically what it means most of all as we can once more decide how we shape change and how we meet the challenge of. it means we don't need any longer to follow the path dictated by the common agricultural policy. we can have our own national food policy, our own agriculture and environment policies and economic policies shaped by our own collective interests. our political correspondent chris mason is in westminster. just give us the headlines in terms of what michael gove has been saying, particularly how the subsidies would continue for up to five years after brexit? and really interesting detail because for all of the noise at westminster about brexit. this kind of stuff really matters because it affects lots and lots of people and the common agricultural policy is a central tenet of the european union. back in 1980, 70% of the eu expenditure went on agriculture. looking to the figure from last year it was still beg, just under a0%. and you look at the uk, more than half the money received from the eu goes to farming and agriculture. the uk receives £2.7 billion last year in direct payments to farmers and 178 thousand farmers are beneficiaries each receiving on average around £17,000. the argument that could be made is that the uk is a net contributor sobel have more money and sport overall after brexit than it does 110w overall after brexit than it does now is so good payjust as much if not more after brexit. what michael gove is saying is that in the short term for up to five years after march of next year things will stay the same, farmers will receive money from a different source of the uk government rather than the european union but as far as the bottom line that will remain the same, but after that will remain the same, but after that he fundamentally wants to shake up that he fundamentally wants to shake up what was the common agricultural policy. a system based on how much land you have is perverse and was designed for an era when there was concern about food shortages and now we have different landscape as far as agriculture is concerned. here is the essence of the argument. we will formally leave in march 2019 but the government agrees we will work on an implementation period for the whole country with the eu lasting for around another two years. we have guaranteed the amount in cash terms will be protected throughout and beyond this period rate until the end of this parliament in 2022. we will continue to support agreements entered into before we leave the eu and we will insure that no one on an existing scheme is unfairly disadvantaged when we transition to new arrangements. and to what extent does this go towards a gathering farmers summary assurance does this go towards a gathering farmers summary assurance when they like other sectors are concerned about access to eu markets?m like other sectors are concerned about access to eu markets? it is certainly the issuing from the perspective of having a bit more time to adjust to this new system. the has been talk that during any transition period the existing system will be maintained. michael gove is talking about five years after brexit is that is a further time frame we are things effectively will stay the same. that is still a relatively tight window in terms of preparing for the future. that is a chance for those who have grumbled about the common agricultural policy to make the argument to lobby effectively for how agricultural policy in the uk should look in the future. michael gove talked about the importance of environmental and soil protection and flood prevention all been built in in terms of incentives to the new payment structure, so we are beginning to get a bit of a sense from a vitally important industry in the context of our withdrawal from the european union given the relationship agriculture has because of the common agricultural policy about how things might look, not just common agricultural policy about how things might look, notjust in the transition period but into the longer term as well. and let's get reaction to that speech from farmers. we can speak to the deputy president of the national farmers' union. iam the deputy president of the national farmers' union. i am assuming that the news that five years after brexit farmers will be receiving the same money that they do now, that is pretty reassuring? it is very reassuring. farming is a long—term business. farmers can have some certainty of thinking. it is absolutely vital we have that certainty and michael gove has provided that this morning and that is really well received. beyond that do you agree with michael gove that the system which he called unjust and inefficient, do you agree that the system as it currently stands does need to be changed after that? this is the opportunity for a new deal that works for the uk. they'll make sure that we have quality affordable british food on the shelves. we know that's what people wa nt to shelves. we know that's what people want to be able to buy and i am thrilled he has committed to a national food policy, thrilled he has committed to a nationalfood policy, the recognition of how important food production is in this country and this is our chance in the uk to do something that actually works for every citizen. but some of the future money seems to be tied with farmers making environmental improvements and improving natural habitats and increasing biodiversity. is that a positive step as far as most of the members of the union are concerned on something they are willing to collaborate on? very much soul. for 20 years we pioneered a lot of environmental policy. we created 37,000 kilometres of grass margins and planted 20,000 kilometres of hedgerows so the environment is something we are very much working on alongside food production and thatis on alongside food production and that is how we would hope it continues. it is a key part of what we do and everybody that gets out of the countryside sees it for what it is and nose and recognises and loss that landscape created by farmers who are producing food as well. but a yearand a who are producing food as well. but a year and a little bit out from brexit itself, what are the key concerns for farmers as they hope to secure tariff free access to european markets, what are the key things you want to see the government doing? the key concern is a lwa ys government doing? the key concern is always fun everybody, what the trade deals will look like. we absolutely wa nt deals will look like. we absolutely want agriculture and food to be part of those negotiations. we are very proud of high standards of environmental protection and welfare and we want those to be respected in any trade negotiation and we don't wa nt to any trade negotiation and we don't want to see cheaper food produced to lower standards and that has a core requirement, i am sure you pick that up requirement, i am sure you pick that up from the public, that they really don't want to have food produced to lower standards and that is the key concern for all of us and something we are determined to make sure happens. very good to have you with us, thank you. the headlines now. anger in the white house — donald trump's lawyers threaten legal action against his former chief of staff, steve bannon, over explosive claims in a new book on the president. the environment secretary, michael gove, has set out how the regulations governing food and farming will change after brexit. record numbers of people called the nhs111 helpline this during the festive period — and there was an increase and then sport, andy murray pulls out of the first grand slam of the season as he continues to struggle with a long—term hep problem. injury worries for konta to as she retires. australia get the advantage of the opening day of the fifth and final ashes test in sydney, england are 233-5 at ashes test in sydney, england are 233—5 at close of backjust ashes test in sydney, england are 233—5 at close of back just after 11:30 a:m.. let's get more now on our top story. we have been finding out this morning that record numbers of people called me non—emergency 111 hotline over the christmas week. the pressures facing the nhs are also highlighted by a sharp increase in ambulances being delayed outside a and e. the data, just released by nhs england shows over 480,000 people called nhs111. that's a 21% rise in calls to the non—emergency helpline on the previous week. ambulance crews faced delays of over 30 minutes handing over patients to a&e staff — nearly 17,000 times during the last week of december. at least 20 hospital trusts have now been forced to declare major incidents this week — nearly one in eight of the total. our health correspondent, nick triggle says the figures show why the nhs was forced to cancel tens of thousands of non—urgent operations until the end of this month. nhs 111 tends to be busier during the festive period but it received a re cord the festive period but it received a record number of calls and the ambulances delayed outside of a&e, this happens when that is not the staff to hand over their patients. nearly 17,000 delays, and over 40% rise on the week before. that figure alone gives you a clear mental image of these ambulances waiting it said year the and you can imagine how busyit year the and you can imagine how busy it must be inside for those ambulances to have to wait outside. we won't get the figures until next week and we don't knowjust how long will delays have been in a&e. it does suggest that as a lot of overcrowding and not enough staff to see overcrowding and not enough staff to see patients at hospitals were under incredible pressure. what we don't quite know is why the pressure has mounted so quickly. the festive period is always busy because during the festive period community services are closed, but there is some suggestion of a lot of respiratory illness and flu circulating. we would get the latest figures until the supplements that will govern as more information about what is happening. with me is richard murray, director at the health charity, the king's fund. thank you. we have some indicators but not the full picture, that's all pa rt but not the full picture, that's all part of the way to explaining why we have had the cancellations of these outpatient appointments and some routine surgeries. what do you make of the data so far? what we're seeing from this data is that hospitals are increasingly fills all admitted from a&e are admitted into beds in hospitals and occupancy rates are rising and they looked to be higher than they were last year because last year already was very difficult. that is then having a knock on effect to other parts of the service and particularly what we see here is increasing delays and ambulances queueing outside of a&e. and as i discussed earlier, winter is just getting underway in terms of the nhs. normally the december period is the most difficult period. it often comes injanuary february as flu begins to pick up. what do you think the answer is to dealing with these peaks and troughs in pressure, the amount of people coming in the level of demand because there are and troughs? what we have seen in recent years is the nhs increasingly struggling to deal with the peaks and troughs and that isa mix with the peaks and troughs and that is a mix of the ageing population and the numbers needing to be admitted going up, and the nhs's the sources and funding which feeds into the number of staff has been held down since 2010, so you are seeing an increasing imbalance of the year. it is increasingly struggling. what does the king is one thing needs to address these different levels of demand and the whole funding issue in the nhs as well as recruitment of staff? two things. the nhs will need more money if he wanted to provide the services we have got used to. how much? we said an extra 4 billion. the government gave the nhs more money but it fell a long way short of that number. it is the government's decision how much it wishes to provide but you can't keep it does everything if it doesn't get the these authors it needs. you can try to reduce the number of people arriving by providing better services and the community and we think the government should support those attempts at reform and find better ways of delivering services and then get them out quickly as well once they have been admitted. thank you for your thoughts and good to have workers. there have been lots of reaction in washington to michael wolff's book. we can speak to daniel lippman — he's a reporterfrom politico and is based in washington. lots of people are amazed that these revelations, what to you is most striking? steve bannon calling donald junior's meetings with the russians treasonous is pretty unprecedented because he was ceo of the campaign and was architect of the campaign and was architect of the nationalist policies that tromp one on. it is very unprecedented to see one on. it is very unprecedented to see steve bannon of crimes and sate donald trump jr and jared kushner probably spoke with donald trump himself even though he has said he knows nothing about the matter. how do you think that feeds into the wider investigation about allegations of collusion with the russians and the tromp campaign? is that going to be significant?” think it means that steve bannon is setting the stage forgetting opinion it and showing that he knows this was wrong to meet with the russians because mueller will come out with his report later this year and reveal other thing he has found. steve bannon wants to be on the knights edifice of history and a lot of democrats are plodding steve bannon privately for speaking out and they usually hate him! that is in itself fascinating. in terms of the reaction from donald trump, threats of lawyers letters flying around, but is he going to go on the offensive with more of his fake news? he has been on the offensive for two years on that! i don't think he wants to draw more attention to this. he gave his big statement yesterday where he said steve bannon wasjust a staffer yesterday where he said steve bannon was just a staffer and yesterday where he said steve bannon wasjust a staffer and had little influence and he is quoted as saying steve bannon is losing his mind, but they haven't disputed lots of parts of the book. they have milan at tromp crying on election night because none of them expected the campaign to be successful. —— melania trump. so they were entirely unprepared and this comes out in lots of things michael wolff got, seeing that donald trump in the middle of a meeting with a foreign leader will step out because he is bored and doesn't have long attention span. looking at donald trump's twitter account, he was talking about pushing hard for both identification and mostly democrat states refusing to hand over data to the commission on waterfront. he is obviously off on a different track. —— commission on voterfraud. 0ne can imagine he can avoid becoming embroiled in this. apart from that statement he hasn't said much but it is difficult to imagine he will resist getting involved with that again. even his son, donald trump jr, he tweeted yesterday, thanks so much for your help, steve, you lost the alabama senate seat so you have these attempts at humour, but donald trump these attempts at humour, but donald trumer has to these attempts at humour, but donald trump jr has to worry about what mueller will find out so he would be joking twitter forever. it is interesting to see the fallout from the book. thank you. tony blair says the british public should be able to think about brexit again. he also said the labour party has a again. he also said the labour party hasa timid again. he also said the labour party has a timid approach to brexit. 0ne member of the shadow kavanagh has described his latest intervention as entirely unhelpful. a council leader has written an open letter calling for action to tackle what he describes as "aggressive begging" on the streets of windsor. the letter, written by councillor simon dudley, comes ahead of the wedding of prince harry and meghan markle, which is taking place in in may. windsor homeless project described the comments as "abhorrent". 0ur correspondent adina campbell has been gauging reaction in windsor. this 3—page letter has caused quite a stir in windsor. the leader of windsor and maidenhead royal borough council has written this letter to the thames valley police crying commissioner setting out his concerns over the level of homelessness and aggressive begging in windsor. he says it is intimidating and the mess they are leaving in windsor is casting windsor in an unfavourable light. these comments have caused quite a stir with lots of homeless charities upset by what has said and we can speak to one of them. how do you feel about these comments? speak to one of them. how do you feel about these comment57m speak to one of them. how do you feel about these comments? it is unbelievable that anybody can have this opinion these days. with reference to the letter he lays out bullet points which are very misinformed. he says we have an emergency stilt 365 days a year. it sleeps eight males and two females and it is an emergency shelter. you can'tjust turn and it is an emergency shelter. you can't just turn up and it is an emergency shelter. you can'tjust turn up if and it is an emergency shelter. you can't just turn up if you find yourself homeless. you have to be registered and then placed in to it. he says there is a pay service attached to the night shelter but it is an empty warehouse. he says there is an empty warehouse. he says there isa drug is an empty warehouse. he says there is a drug and alcohol and mental health service but the errors no such thing. how widespread is homelessness in windsor? we deal with about 50—60 cases at the moment but that is notjust rough sleepers but that is notjust rough sleepers but inclusive of prevention of homelessness, those at high risk, and there are between 12 and 15 sleeping rough in windsor town centre. and the fact this has been written just for months until the royal wedding, how do you feel?m is totally unwarranted to bring the royal wedding into this. this situation should affect the headlines because of people sleeping in bus shelters. tens of thousands of people are expected to come here on may 19 two see prince harry wed but this letter has cast a dark shadow over the upcoming celebrations. let's check out the latest weather forecast. we are watching the winds pick up again. gusts have reached 63 mph and they could reach 70 over the next couple of hours of strong winds for some of us but others see it breaks of rain. the main rain band is here, slow—moving today. a bit of snow over the hills which will continue and then the skies to brighton across wales and southern counties. the wind could bring down a few trees or localised transport disruption and destruction to power asa disruption and destruction to power as a possibility. overnight, further pulses of rain and strong winds. the coast of south wales getting buffeted. still snow in the health in scotland than coming down to lower levels. tomorrow broadly speaking as a day of sunshine and showers but we have still got this weather front bringing more persistent rain across scotland and northern england and the temperature coming down so that is europe. this is bbc news , our latest headlines. donald trump has issued legal proceedings against his former chief strategist steve bannon following his contribution to an explosive new book in which he describes a meeting between his son donald junior and a russian lawyer as "treasonous". tony blair has dismissed as complete fabrication a claim that he said british spies may have spied on his let to campaign. the environment secretary is unveiling new plans for the future of farming and food regulation post brexit. under the new plans farmers will receive money for protecting the environment. high levels of flu and respiratory illnesses saw record number of people calling the nhs111 helpline over the festive period.ambulance services also faced excessive delays outside a&e departments. technology companies are working to repair "serious flaws" in chips made by intel which could allow hackers to access personal information. to with the leaders sporting news. we will start with tennis. andy murray at this year australian open which gets underway in two weeks' time, his long—standing hip injury has ruled him out of the tournament and he is returning to concentrate on his rehabilitation. it is a major setback. he is desperate to resume his tennis career. to be competing for the major titles once again. the frustration has really hit him there speak of having spent six months doing painstaking rehabilitation and still not being in condition where he can trust that hip to compete with the best in the world on the bigger stage of them all. 0nce with the best in the world on the bigger stage of them all. once he made the decision to pull out of brisbane, he gave us very heart details on instagram. it was inevitable that he would fly home and the big question is does he have and the big question is does he have an option other than surgery? is that the best way of getting his career on track. breton's number one female retired after an injury to her right hip. she needed treatment during the deciding set and ended the match three down. her focus during the deciding set and ended the match three down. herfocus is on defending sydney in a few days' time. i was pleased that i was able to start the match off playing the level i wanted to play. my opponent hungin level i wanted to play. my opponent hung in there in the second set. it was very hung in there in the second set. it was very close to me for being able to come away in a straight set. it isa to come away in a straight set. it is a shame that i couldn't finish the match. importantly to get some physiotherapy treatment and a good's night ‘s sleep. i will give it the maximum amount of time to be able to play. better news for car edmund who has reached the quarter files. he won in three sets. it has been australia's day in sydney as the final ashes test got underway. england one the toss, and tell a the hosts... so it has happened again. from a position of tranquillity, england have found trouble. they blew their chance to put themselves ina dominant blew their chance to put themselves in a dominant position in this match. when we turned up this morning it was raining and we didn't get any play before lunch. joe root, the england captain decided to bat. the patter emerged of england's batsmen getting themselves out. james dennis looked impressive but gave his wicket away. alex cooke was trapped lbw. it was over to root to rebuild the innings. he made 50. he was dropped by the australian captain but made his own 50. it was going to be england's day, but australia took the new ball. when the third delivery root through it to square leg. england sent out jonny bairstow and he got out and handed the day to australia. england must try to clear their heads to make it competitive total on day two. but has the damage already been done? it sums up where we have been this tour. we have been on top and made one or two mistakes and let the australians back in. it was disappointing. he played fa nta stically disappointing. he played fantastically well to get to that position. to be five downer after the hard work we put in today is not ideal. that was a very australian themed sports bulletin. see you a little later on. with social media in the hands of children, there are challenges of growing up in a digital age. a report released today called life in likes, warns many children in secondary school are struggling to handle social media as the world expands. ifeel like i'm pressured by other people because my friends do it so i have to do it to fit in. you see people, if they're getting bullied on social media, they don't tell their parents. if you don't tell them, they will never find out. the report shows that as children move from primary to secondary school, the way they use social media changes. instead of scoring points playing games, getting likes and comments becomes important and worryingly, they also adapt their offline behaviour to fit an online image. it's a huge pressure on children at a time when there is immense pressures in their life anyway from moving to a new school and knowing that is something that i believe we need to do more about. secondary school can be a difficult time, when young people feel pressured to fit in. today's report warns a generation could grow up feeling insecure and unable to cope if left to their own devices. elaine dunkley, bbc news. with me is annie 0'leary, the editor of netmums and i'm alsojoined by drew povey, the headmaster of harrop fold, and the star of educating manchester. thank you for talking to me about this very important subject. you allow the children in school to have phones. talk to us about your policy and how you came up with that. we had a conversation with all our staff and the students and we wanted to get into detail about crude mobile phones be used as a distant learning tool because we all understand the could be a distraction, but could we use them in the right way? when you look at their technology that is out there that could help, and mobile technology that you can connect into, it seems to be naive to ban mobile phones completely when they can bea mobile phones completely when they can be a good learning tool. however, that comes with a huge health warning that you had to manage it in the right way. teaching people to use mobile phones responsibly which is the key to this. we have created a green and a red sign at our school, if a mobile phone can be used for e—learning purpose or to help the learning purpose, then the students can use them. if not the red light comes up and the mobile phones are not allowed out and are not to be part of the lesson. we were chatting a second goal and you were saying that you got quite good at teaching our kids about safety and social media. but not very good at educating them about the emotional resilience they might need when using social media. this is what the report is focusing on. that is a good thing, i guess. absolutely. teenagers are keen for everyone to like them, to be invited to every party or day out, with social media, that stuff approaches asa social media, that stuff approaches as a challenge art tenfold. we need to prepare children at a younger age for those challenges. this report has highlighted this. the sooner we can start the conversation, the more emotionally resilient they will be. where does the responsibility allow? does it lie with the teachers or does it and should it always begin at home? it has to be collaborative. it would it would be lovely... nothing works like this. we are all responsible for raising our own children but schools have a part to play in it, they have a captive audience, and they are experts in how to talk to children in age appropriate ways. we need to have age—appropriate conversations about emotional resilience and how to face challenges that their peers bring to them. when children are moving from primary level to secondary level, of course the hour learning about emotional literacy but they also had to learn about literacy in the sense of how to handle social media. do you specifically teach the children about that? yes, we do. schools need to do this. every school handled it ina to do this. every school handled it in a different way, through assembly, through four times, some will have lessons which address these issues. we need to be teaching young people about resilience. i would go a step further and see not about resilience on mine but resilience in life. there are mental health issues that are huge at the moment for schools and we are having to wrestle with those. we do need to be teaching young people about how to be resilient on mine and in life. are you coming across pupils who are upset about something on social media that has been said about them or because a picture has not been liked a sufficient number of times? what we would say is that what social media does is exacerbate things that would have happened in life anyway. for young people who have a disagreement in school you can get huge forms of online bullying. when we were at school if you had a disagreement, you went home, you slept on it and came back and moved forward. for young people today, they go home and engage with each other through social media through lots of different ways of communicating using mobile technology which means that issue snowballs overnight and that is the biggest concern. but also how to use instagram, twitter, snapchat which is probably the go to social media choice at the moment. it is making sure schools are up to speed with it and help young people navigate this new technological landscape. also supporting parents as well. this has got to be a joint effort. we do have a captive audience and we have a huge role to play. 0ur nervousness at our school is that if we were to ban mobile phones, are we actually helping young people be responsible with mobile technology and if you do ban them, i'm not sure whether you can get to the point that you can help them. you may get a bigger issue outside of school. that is a good debating point. it is about teaching the children emotional resilience and toughness. but also about being kind and thinking about the consequences of what we do online. and how it might affect others. do you think we need more official guidance on what to do, on guide children or is there enough information out there? there are two sides to the debate, there are some people who think children shouldn't engage in social media and tell a certain age, and others think that we should introduce it gradually. i would fall into the latter camp. at the moment social media companies say that they shouldn't do it until the 13. i would agree with the report today that we need to start in primary school. teach our children about kindness and respect and sharing in terms of offline, let's extend it into online and have a joined let's extend it into online and have ajoined up let's extend it into online and have a joined up conversation about immortal intel —— emotional intelligence across the board. thank you very much. in a moment a summary of the business news this hour but first , the headlines on bbc newsroom live: anger in the white house — donald trump's lawyers threaten legal action against his former chief of staff, steve bannon, over explosive claims in a new book on the president. the environment secretary, michael gove, has set out how the regulations governing food and farming will change after brexit. record numbers of people called the nhs111 helpline during the festive period , and there was an increase in ambulances being delayed outside a&e. in the business news... two bugs have been found in computer that could allow hackers to steal personal data from computer systems. 0ne, known as "spectre", was found in chips made by intel, amd and arm. the other, "meltdown" affects intel—made chips alone. the uk's national cyber security centre said there was no evidence that the vulnerability had been exploited. house prices are still on the up across the country, but they are not growing as fast as a year ago. according to the nationwide's house price index, average prices have grown by 2.6% over the past 12 months, down from the 4.5% in 2016 and 2015. london prices are actually falling — the average price of a house there fell 0.5%. department store chain debenhams' shares have sunk 20% after it warned that annual profits would be lower than expected. christmas sales have been disappointing, particularly in the last week of the year. it's notjust debenhams that's been telling us about christmas sales. we've had a raft of figures.aldi. they are good. sales in december up 15%. the convenience store nisa — good but not brilliant. in the 10 weeks to the year end sales up 1.7%. mountain warehouse: record sales up by 33.1%, it's saying because of the cold weather and everyone wanting to wrap up in the chill. joining us now from bristol is laith khalaf, senior analyst, at hargreaves la nsdown. what went wrong with debenham?. whole series of problems. the autumn period did not start very well. unseasonably warm start to the autumn season so unseasonably warm start to the autumn season so people did not go out and buy their normal cults and jumpers. what debenhams dead in response was to cut its prices and boosted christmas sales figures but at the cost of debenham's margin and asa at the cost of debenham's margin and as a result, they are telling us they are going to make less profit this year than expected. it has had a massive hit on the share price and more worryingly, even after that discounting, the boxing day sales we re discounting, the boxing day sales were disappointing at the debenhams as well. mountain warehouse are saying the colder weather has given them good figures. what kind of christmas has it been generally across the retail sector? it is very ha rd to across the retail sector? it is very hard to say. retail is very seasonal, a warm autumn defers purchases into december. we know that last year was tough for the consumer because we had rising inflation and weak wage growth, we do not have a full picture as yet of how the consumer has really treated christmas. it looks like people still went out and bought their christmas essentials. aldi has done quite well. going for lower—priced goods. what about online? across the board is the key winner for the christmas sales period and continues a trend that has been going on for a long time. people preferring to do shopping on their mobile phone or at home rather than going to physical stores. that is putting pressure on the high street retailers like debenhams and marks and spencer who are now having to up their game in terms of their online offering. it is telling if you look at the latest debenham's boss was recruited from amazon which tells you the direction retailers going on. can we get a picture here of the kind of companies that are going to be doing well in the coming year or so because we know that there are a lot of changes going on in retail.m because we know that there are a lot of changes going on in retail. it is really fascinating at the moment. we have cost price inflation from a falling pound, we have a move to online. the winners of next year and beyond are really going to be those who can improve their digital offering and combine it with a high—street presence as well. there isa high—street presence as well. there is a synergy between the two. a lot of quick and collect happens. 50% of next is next on mine. it gives people a place to return things if we don't want it. if you can manage that combination, it is probably a recipe for success. fascinating and interesting industry to be in. have you ever raged about having to use a self—checkout till in a shop, rather than being served by a human being? you may have to get used to it. a new report from the institute for is warning that some minimum wage jobs — including cashiers and shop assistants — could be replaced by machines or computers. earlier, we spoke to agnes norris keiller, who put the report together. 0ver over the next few years the minimum wage will rise substantially. people who work in personal services such as care assistants which are jobs that are hartford people to do, computers to do, the retail cashier jobs are easy for cat computers to do so we will see an increase in automation over the next few years. typically we think someone's wages is determined by how an employer can choose between a worker and a machine. the lowest paid are doing jobs which is hard for a computer to do which has insulated them against technological change. another story that's getting a lot of interest on the bbc website is the story of fat cat thursday — that's today, the day that, around lunchtime that the average chief executive of the average ftse 100 company can reckon he or she has made as much as the average worker will make — ina year. £28,758 if you're wondering. you can find out more about this on our website. the music streaming company spotify has reportedly filed papers with us regulators to list its shares publicly on the new york stock exchange . not officially confirmed yet but it's though the firm will launch its shares in the first three months of the year. in the us shares in tesla, the electric car maker are down between 2—3% after it said production targets for its new model 3 sedan would have to be delayed — it's the second time it's done this, although it is claiming "major progress" overcoming manufacturing bottlenecks. manchester city may be four points down in the premier league this season but they are top of the league when it come to financial fire power. based on playing and fixed assets, money in the bank, owner potential investment and debt it's number one. the top 10 on the international list compiled by soccerex football finance 100 is dominated by english clubs. markets... the ftse looking good today. a lot of activity injapan which is feeding through to european markets. that is all the business use. tech firms are working to fix bugs. serious security flaws made by intel, arm. we have been aware of the problem for months. earlier, i spoke to our technology correspondent and asked him if there is any evidence that the data has already been stolen? the security centre is aware of these flaws of these millions of chips that power millions of devices around the world, but there is no evidence that the arab by hackers to get evidence to the data. it is a serious design flaw because it potentially allows programmes or hackers to get into the very heart of a computer where information is kept that is not usually available to any other part of the computer. that information could include passwords and other sets of information. are any of the companies saying anything about how this mistake has happened?m companies saying anything about how this mistake has happened? it is interesting how it has emerged. yesterday, we thought it was just a problem at intel, then it became aware when google put out a blog, a security blog that it affected a whole range of companies. they have known about this floor for a long time and they have been working furiously to close the door, you don't find a floor and then tell eve ryo ne don't find a floor and then tell everyone the door is open and invite hackers in. you try to close it before you tell anyone about it and get the security patches out there. they rush is on to get the security patch is available. why is why the arisaig b had tried to sort it out before it was made public. hackers will see that they will have a go at getting some data. i seen some researchers saying it will be added to the toolkit of all hackers. they will be trying the door. it is supposed to be quite difficult to use but it is such a widespread problem, so many chips affected, so many devices, it has caused quite a degree of concern across the industry. also concerned that the cu re industry. also concerned that the cure could slow down a lot of computer operations. we know the industry has been aware of the problem for months and has been kind to fix it for months, who knows how much longer it is going to take? they seem pretty confident that they are they seem pretty confident that they a re pretty close they seem pretty confident that they are pretty close to fixes at some security updates have already been issued and more will be coming in the coming days. the advisers look out for the updates and take them as quickly as you can. we are in the midst of a turbulent spell of weather following on from storm eleanor. particularly across south wales and south—west england. . strongest winds there. these strong winds has caused flooding. this is the river severn. there are flood warnings in force around because of england. most of these are due to high tides. across northern ireland snow in the hills in county londonderry. for the rest of the day, the rain is slow—moving and it is going to be a cold date, temperatures around six or 7 degrees. for an urban scotland, after eight cold start to the day, those temperatures are struggling to rise. tom temperatures around three degrees. rain will be with us throughout the afternoon and snow developing over the tops of the southern uplands. for the south, strong winds. 70 miles an hour around coastal areas. could cause coastal destruction. tonight, further rain and strong winds affecting southern wales and south—west england. some localised destruction and a threat of flooding combined with high tides. further north, the snow in scotland. perhaps down to 200 metres elevation. tomorrow, a mixture of sunshine and showers. the weather front bringing rain to southern scotland and the north of england, maybe parts of northern ireland two. temperatures will come down. between 4 degrees and nine celsius. that trend to cold where there is going to continue the weekend. cold north and north easterly winds. clyde to start the day. spots of rain going separate. sunshine across north—western areas. temperatures are going down, between two and seven celsius. around the north coast it will feel colder than that. saturday night, this big area of high—pressure settling down over the north of the uk. clear skies, temperatures down to minus ten. a freezing cold start to the day. sunday a lot of dry weather and sunshine. cold. this is bbc news and these are the top stories developing at 12. anger in the white house — donald trump's lawyers threaten legal action against his former chief of staff, steve bannon, over explosive claims in a new book on the president. former prime minister tony blair rejects allegations in the book that he warned donald trump's aides uk intelligence may have spied on him. record numbers of people called the nhs111 helpline the environment secretary, michael gove promises farmers they'll receive the same level of subsidies they currently get from the eu — for five years after brexit. the environment secretary, michael gove, has set out how the regulations governing food and farming are to change post brexit. of course brexit will change but critically what it means is that we can once more decide how we shape change. we want to do is ensure they are after that is a smooth path towards after that is a smooth path towards a different form of paying farms. record numbers: the 111 hotline and an increase in ambulances waiting outside a&e. tech firms are working to fix a flaw in computer chips that could allow hackers to steal personal data from computers and smart phones. schools should play a bigger role in preparing children for social media's emotional demands as they move from primary to secondary school, england's children's commissioner says. the leader of the council in windsor calls for police to take action against what he called "aggressive begging" before the royal wedding in may. and britain's andy murray withdraws from the australian open after failing to recover from an ongoing hip injury. he hasn't played a competitive match since wimbledon. good afternoon. what date is? it is the 4th good afternoon. what date is? it is the 11th of january. welcome to bbc newsroom life. donald trump's lawyers have threatened his former chief—of—staff steve bannon with legal action for speaking about his time on the election campaign to the author of an explosive new book about the president. the book by the journalist michael wolff makes many bold claims including that donald trump was unprepared for the job and his wife melania cried when he won the race to the white house. mr bannon was quoted as describing the president's son donald junior as ‘treasonous and unpatriotic‘ for meeting russians during the campaign. mr trump hit back, accusing his former strategist of ‘losing his mind', after he lost his job at the white house. 0ur north america correspondent peter bowes reports. they were once as thick as thieves. steve bannon helped to shape the america first campaign that elected donald trump. in the white house, he was a key player. he had the ear of the president. but his job as chief strategist was short—lived. steve bannon returned to his role as the head of the breitbart website. he promised to be the president's wingman outside but this book reveals a different story. the most damaging claim is that steve bannon viewed a meeting between donald trumer and a group of russians during the campaign as treasonous. also present were paul manafort and jared kushner. "the three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside trump tower in the conference room on the 25th floor with no lawyers," bannon is quoted as saying. he adds that after the meeting they should have called the fbi immediately. the president has hit back in a scathing statement. he says, steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. when he was fired he not only lost his job but his mind. he goes on, steve was rarely in a one on one meeting with me. he only pretends to fill a few people with no access and no clue. white house press secretary sarah sanders has condemned the contents of the book as completely untrue. she says the meeting was not an act of treason. i think it is a ridiculous accusation and i am sure we have addressed many times here before. if that is in reference to comments made by mr bannon, i would refer you back to ones he made previously on 60 minutes, where he called the collusion with russia about this president a totalfarce, so i think i would look back at that. if anybody has been inconsistent it has been him, certainly hasn't been the president of this administration. the book also says steve bannon believes the russians were taken after the meeting to meet donald trump. the president has always denied that happened. with the ongoing investigation into possible russian collusion in the presidential election, this explosive row between donald trump and his once trusted ally has left washington stunned. peter bowes, bbc news. there are more revelations in the book. wolff describes the amazement — and dismay — in the trump camp at his november 2016 election win. he says: a befuddled trump morphing into a disbelieving trump and then into a horrified trump. suddenly, donald trump became a man who believed that he deserved to be president. michael wolff also claims that trump did not enjoy his own inauguration. he was angry that a—level stars had snubbed the event. and visibly fought with his wife, who seemed on the verge of tears. the first lady's office rejects this claim, saying that mrs trump supported her husband's bid for president and was happy when he won. the book also purports to lift the lid on trump's daughter ivanka's secret presidential ambitions. it says that his son—in—law jared kushner and ivanka decided to accept roles in the west wing over the advice of almost everyone they knew. and that — if sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she — ivanka — would be the one to run for president. meanwhile another claim in the book — that tony blair warned donald trump's aides uk intelligence may have spied on him, and that blair was angling for a post—election middle east adviser role is "categorically absurd" according to the former prime minister. he's been speaking to the bbc. this story, as we pointed out, is a complete fabrication, literally from beginning to end. i have never had such conversation in the white house, outside of the white house with jared kushner or anybody else. have you metjared kushner? of course i've met him. we discussed the middle east peace process, and by the way, that part of the story is untrue, i wasn't angling for a job. you don't want a job? no, i did the quartet role. i am still very active on the middle east peace process, but i have no desire for an official position. i never sought one, i was never offered one, don't want one. the story, it is a sort of reflection to me on the crazy state of modern politics. here is a story that is literally an invention and is now half way round the world, with conspiracy theories attached to it. anyway, there you go, that is modern politics. joining me now to look into this is leslie vinjamuri — associate professor at soas university of london and associate fellow of the us and the americas programme at the independent international affairs thinktank — chatham house. are these the words of a disgruntled former chief of staff or is there more to it than that? undoubtedly both. steve bannon is trying to stoke the fires but undoubtedly there is more to it. the real problem is that this is a president who has come back in 2018 and really needs to drive forward with a very strategic agenda and what we have seen strategic agenda and what we have seenin strategic agenda and what we have seen in the last few days is tweeting on a number of issues, very inflammatory, and now this comes out. there might be a lawsuit against the author of the book, michael wolff, forfailing against the author of the book, michael wolff, for failing to abide toa number of michael wolff, for failing to abide to a number of confidentiality agreements. there's a question of is this going to this president right back down? there was a lot of concern over whether he would be more of a problem outside of the white house than in, and the loss of the senate seat, the election in alabama, was attributed in part to donald trump listening to steve bannon saw this break has been coming but it is really very significant in the sense that it is going to distract this president. the really big story coming out of the book is that bannon is taking the book is that bannon is taking the russian investigation very seriously and has used the word treason so i think that is something thatis treason so i think that is something that is going to prove problematic. how do you think the specific comment on donald trump's meeting, calling it treasonous, how do you think that will feed into the investigation? —— donald trump think that will feed into the investigation? —— donald trumer. it gives fuel to those who want to see the investigation proceeds. the president has been hoping the investigations would come to a close. it is pretty clear especially since he got the news that the former national security adviser seems to be cooperating. none the less the president is hoping that he can tie up all onto these investigations. now we have steve bannon who was very close to donald trump saying a real problem here. the conversation around those investigations is not going to go away and it proves to be a very serious distraction for a president who just about got tax through and it hasn't been popular and hasn't made any headway with his brother legislative agenda. he is facing some very serious legislative agenda. he is facing some very serious national security problems with north korea and the russian investigations are going to continue to distract. and in many ways it is not surprising because these latest revelations from steve bannon, they are very symptomatic of the white house since donald trump became president. it has been a chaotic white house where he has very publicly clashed with people who one day he is calling a great quy who one day he is calling a great guy and the next is pushing out the door. we are seeing ongoing dysfunctionality and we thoughtjohn kelly would be able to bring some order to the white house and for people outside america trying to understand the white house, it is very disturbing, because one question has been do we follow the tweets only policy? now, can this white house and the broader administration make policy or is it going to continue to be very dysfunctional? it is a bit of a soap opera going on at a time when there are very serious opera going on at a time when there are very serious issues at home and abroad. this the environment secretary has set out his plans for what he calls ‘a green brexit‘. michael gove said the government will mirror eu subsidies to british farmers — worth three billion pounds a year — until 202a. the payments will then be replaced by a system to encourage environmental improvements, such as rewards for opening up the countryside to the public, providing new habitats for wildlife and increasing biodiversity. of course brexit will mean change but critically what it means most of all as we can once more decide how we shape change and how we meet the challenge of. it means we don't need any longer to follow the path dictated by the common agricultural policy. we can have our own national food policy, our own agriculture and environment policies and economic policies shaped by our own collective interests. 0ur political correspondent chris mason is in westminster. isa is a special case being made for farmers in that the payments they currently get will be mirrored for five years post—brexit in a way that in other areas it won't happen? that is an acute in other areas it won't happen? that is an acute awareness in other areas it won't happen? that is an acute awareness that farmers are particularly affected because the common agricultural policy that has been around for many decades, and still around 40% of eu payments by the common agricultural policy, that used to be much higher. in other words farmers will be very conscious of what happens after brexit because payments from the eu make upa brexit because payments from the eu make up a big proportion of their income and balance sheets. a couple of statistics, more than half of the money goes on agriculture. in 2016 that was about £2.7 billion and in the uk there are 178,000 recipients of chp payments. the average amount is between 17 and £18,000. what we knew prior to today was that the government said that for the two yea rs government said that for the two years that is expected to be the window of a transition period, so after brexit has formally happened, that things would remain the same. what we have learnt today is that in england for most farmers things will continue the same beyond that for a further three years until 202a. healers michael gove spelling that out. he talks about the bps which is the basic payment scheme which is the basic payment scheme which is the biggest of the eu's rural payments. i envisage guaranteeing the bps payments continuing for a transition period in england which would blast on a number of years beyond the instrumentation period. during these years we propose to reduce the largest bps payments in england, and we could do this with a straight cap at a maximum level or through a sliding scale to the largest payments first. what sort of reaction has been from farmers to this? mostly positive reaction from farmers, obviously concerned about what would happen in a relatively short period. from that perspective some year students but a relatively narrow window for them to adjust to the new system and however much the frustrations many farmers have had with the common agricultural policy, and they have been plenty, the new system being proposed will be in all likelihood pretty different. he wa nts to likelihood pretty different. he wants to make a virtue of taking back control to design a system of rural payments that are channelled from the government you that westminster to farms around england ina way westminster to farms around england in a way that better reflects the agricultural industry and just a nod to the situation elsewhere in the uk, the view from the government when they look at the practicalities of delivering brexit is that during the transition period from march 2019 until march 2021, and that hasn't been negotiated yet, things will effectively carry on much the same because the money will still be coming from europe even though we are not part of the european union. beyond that, the three years michael gove was talking about this morning, agriculture being a devolved issue will be something sorted out in edinburgh and cardiff and belfast, so edinburgh and cardiff and belfast, so it is possible that administration is there follow a different policy from the english model so that is why what he was saying is talking about england only. one more caveat, michael gove is talking about a period at least some of which is beyond the next general election, so he is effectively talking about conservative rather than government policy because who knows who will be in government the other side of the next election. and that is a good question, thank you. a warning that some low paid jobs could be replaced by machines computers at the minimum wage continues to increase. jobs that are easy to automate could disappeared altogether as artificial intelligence increasingly dominates our lives and employers consider cheaper in the long—term than humans. let's get more insight into this story — jonathan cribb is a senior economist at the institute for fiscal studies who are behind today's report. what sort of time frame are you talking about? we have looked at a measure of how routine jobs are, the more routine jobs are, the more likely they are able to be replaced by machinery. we're talking about technology now, not even thinking about the more complex technology that might be coming in the future. what we see is that if we look at where the minimum wage is now compared with only two or three years ago, the jobs affected by the minimum wage laws likely to be able to the automated than they were a few years ago. we already see that in some shops, there might be one member of staff supervising self—service tills but clearly replacing several tells you have had people standing not long ago. the technology exists to do that on a wider scale already? general technology exists that is able to replace jobs that have fixed limits and fixed rules and patterns or things that involve anger dexterity. some jobs that are relatively routine and automated all our middle paid such as bank clerks so those are things that could be in the future subject automation. the irony is this good put people out of work but actually increase productivity? the design of a higher minimum wage would be to boost the earnings and incomes of low paid people in work but if we raise it saw harley that firms increasingly have an incentive to use machines rather than people thenit to use machines rather than people then it could have a really tedious effect on people was back living standards. so that might result in a situation where they don't have wages to go out and spend money... better technology in general would increase productivity of workers. what would be worrying is that this higher productivity for some workers isn't also experienced by low skilled people. if they get priced out of the labour market by a higher minimum wage. it is a fascinating topic, thank you for talking to us. the headlines on bbc newsroom live. anger in the white house — donald trump's lawyers threaten legal action against his former chief of staff, steve bannon, this is over explosive claims in a new book on the president. the environment secretary, michael gove, has set out how the regulations governing food and farming will change after brexit. record numbers of people called the nhs111 helpline this during the festive period — and there was an increase in ambulances being delayed outside a&e. the money has pulled out of the first grand slam of the open season and says he is not yet ready to compete. a long—term hep injury has ruled him out playing competitively for six months. another major setback for andy murray who is desperate to be able to resume or the love playing and to be will to compete for the major titles once again. the frustration has really hit him of having spent six months doing painful rehabilitation are not yet being in a position where they can trust that wright hit to play on the biggest stage of all. 0nce can trust that wright hit to play on the biggest stage of all. once he made the decision to pull out, he gave some more details any heartfelt and the grand post, it was inevitable he would fly home but the big question is, does he have options other than surgery which you thought them to do? is that the best way to get his career back on track? injury worries for britain's number one female tennis player too — johanna konta— who retired from her quarterfinal at the brisbane international after an injury to her right hip. she needed treatment during the deciding set against elina svitolina and ended the match when serving at 3—2 down. but she says her focus is still on defending her sydney international title in a few days time. i definitely was pleased that i was able to start the match of playing the level i wanted to play. credit to herfor the level i wanted to play. credit to her for hanging the level i wanted to play. credit to herfor hanging in in the second set and it was very close for me being able to come away with a straight sets win but that is the beauty of tennis and there was really looking forward to being able to play the third set and it is a shame i am not able to finish the match. i will look to treatment and have a good nights sleep and wake up tomorrow. i will give it the maximum amount of time to be able to play. better news though for britain's kyle edmund who has reached the quarrter finals of that brisbane event. he beat hyeon chung in three sets. it's been australia's day as the fifth and final ashes test got underway. england won the toss, chose to bat and looked set to end the day in a strong position. until some late wickets swung the day back in the host's favour. patrick gearey reports from sydney. it has happened again. from a position of tranquillity england have found trouble. they blew their chance to put themselves in a dominant position in this match. when we turned up this morning it was raining and we didn't get any play before lunch. joe root decided to bat and the decision seemed to be vindicated by the way they went about their early batting but the pattern emerged of england batsmen getting themselves out. james vince looked equally impressive and gave his wicket away. alastair cook was tracked lbw after australia use the review. to joe tracked lbw after australia use the review. tojoe root to tracked lbw after australia use the review. to joe root to save tracked lbw after australia use the review. tojoe root to save the innings. it seemed that this would be england's day but then australia took the new ball and with a delivery they knocked the ball straight to square leg where much marsh was standing. instead of sending a nightwatchman out, england sent outjonny bairstow and he got out and handed the data australia. england must somehow try to clear their heads and make a competitive total on day two but in those closing overs has the damage already been done? that's all the sport for now. baby in the next hour archive sport from a country other than australia! record numbers of people called the non—emergency nhs111 helpline over the christmas week. the pressures facing the nhs are also highlighted by a sharp increase in ambulances being delayed outside a and e. the data, just released by nhs england shows over 480,000 people called nhs111. that's a 21% rise in calls to the non—emergency helpline on the previous week. ambulance crews faced delays of over 30 minutes handing over patients to a&e staff — nearly 17,000 times during the last week of december. at least 20 hospital trusts have now been forced to declare major incidents this week — nearly one in eight of the total. our health correspondent, nick triggle says the figures show what does this information to us beyond the obvious information we have been hearing about? beyond the obvious information we have been hearing abounm beyond the obvious information we have been hearing about? it is a sign ofjust have been hearing about? it is a sign of just how have been hearing about? it is a sign ofjust how busy a&e units are. ambulances should be able to hand overtheir ambulances should be able to hand over their patients to doctors and nurses within 15 minutes of arrival but it is clearly not happening. i have been speaking to ambulance crews who say they have been forced to take patients at the hospital corridors and wait until staff become free and sometimes those delays up to five are six hours. some of the extreme ones are for that long. delays in getting it to the community responding to other 999 calls. we have seen the ambulance trust also declaring major incidents. they have had to resort to things such as asking those less serious cases to perhaps arrange their own transport to hospital, so it is clear there are some severe pressures. we have just had a quote from theresa may apologising for delays to nhs operations saying she knows it is difficult, frustrating and disappointing. ten downing st wa nts to and disappointing. ten downing st wants to project the image that the prime minister empathises and lots of people who have had procedure is cancelled or postponed, lots of people are asking, if you know there is going to be a peek at this time of year in demand, why don't you put more resources in? burke has been more resources in? burke has been more planning this winter than previous winters and the move to cancel operations is about easing the pressure to avoid last—minute cancellations that have happened in previous winters. what has previously happened as the nhs has had a busy couple of weeks. whilst it is difficult the nhs is able to cope but what will be crucial this time round is that the pressure doesn't ease, if we have a bad flu outbreak, that could put the nhs under severe strain, so much depends on the next few weeks. flu figures out this afternoon? that is out at 2pm and so far pretty low levels but there are reports of a lot of respiratory illness in a&e departments. a council leader has written an open letter calling for action to tackle what he describes as "aggressive begging" on the streets of windsor. the letter, written by councillor simon dudley, comes ahead of the wedding of prince harry and meghan markle, which is taking place in in may. windsor homeless project described the comments as "abhorrent". 0ur correspondent adina campbell has been gauging reaction in windsor. this has proved to be very controversial. just four months until prince harry marries here that windsor castle behind me. in this 3—page letter the leader of windsor and maidenhead royal borough council has written to the thames valley police and crime commissioner setting out his concerns about the level of homelessness and begging ms borough saying they should be using their legal powers to remove the number of homeless people here ahead of the wedding. he has called this an aggressive begging and intimidating behaviour and seeing homelessness is completely unacceptable. this has caused anger and upset among homeless charities who called his comments upon it and even gone so who called his comments upon it and even gone so far who called his comments upon it and even gone so far as who called his comments upon it and even gone so far as to say they are sickening, saying he has used the royal wedding as an excuse to target these vulnerable people. tens of thousands of people are expected to join in the celebrations on may 19. but of course a bit like the weather this has caused a dark shadow ahead of the upcoming celebrations. he talks about people begging and choosing to be homeless and say they have been offered accommodation which they have torn down, what evidence is that that this is the case? in his letter, he says the council has invested heavily in the support services to help some of the 5060 rough sleepers in windsor. it says the support is there but he goes as far as to say they have chosen not to engage take up the support which has been rejected by some of the charities in this area who say it is not out of choice, that they want to be homeless, it is just the situation they are then and some of the people we have spoken to this morning say it is completely outrageous he is trying to remove these people who are in such a vulnerable situation, saying they should just be clear about because of this high—profile royal wedding. tens of thousands of people are expected to visit to see meghan markle marry prince harry but some people have said these comments are unacceptable not just for the residents but for the millions who visit wins another year to see sites like this. thank you. we will find over the next few hours the winds will pick up again, ghosts of 60 or 70 mph, then easing before we get another dose of gales in the south—west. further north, a mix of rain, sleet and hill snow, germany stuck across scotland but does become drier in the north of england for a while. winds will ease across the south but in looking showers and wales, the south—west, especially in the morning, pushing east, limited sunshine. turns a bit brighterfor northern scotland, still a mix of rain, sleet and hill snow. a cold day, noticeably so. still got some rain, more cloud in the south on saturday, brighter skies, temperatures continuing to fall. widespread frost, a brighter day with more sunshine but not as windy on saturday but it will still be cold. this is bbc newsroom live, our latest headlines: donald trump has issued legal proceedings against his former chief strategist steve bannon — following his contribution to a new book in which he describes a meeting between his son donald junior and a russian lawyer as "treasonous". tony blair has dismissed as "complete fabrication" a claim in the book that he told donald trump's advisers that british intelligence services may have spied on his election campaign. mr blair strongly denies any involvement. the environment secretary michael gove says uk farmers will receive the same level of subsidies they get from the eu for five years after brexit. high levels of flu and respiratory illnesses saw record number of people calling the nhs111 helpline over the festive period. ambulance services also faced delays outside a&e departments. technology companies are working to repair "serious flaws" in chips made by intel which could allow hackers to access personal information. we were just telling you about some comments from theresa may, apologising for delays to nhs operations. we can listen to that clip now. first of all, i have been very pleased here at finlay park hospital today to be able to say a personal thank you to all staff here, but that is also a thank you to all staff across the nhs for their great work and dedication, they do a greatjob for us day in day out all year round, but in wintertime over christmas and new year is there are particular pressures . year is there are particular pressures. they have been dealing with those. the nhs was better prepared for this winter than ever before, we have put extra resources m, before, we have put extra resources in, £470 million extra, but it is the staff who make the difference. it is their hard work that ensures people get the treatment they need. measures have been taken to ensure that treatment is available, particularly those who most need urgent care. those measures were planned for. jeremy hunt has said this morning that this is a crisis, do you agree? the nhs is better prepared for this winter than ever before but of course there are winter pressures the staff are having to cope with. we have put extra resources in, we have planned measures to ensure people who need urgent care are getting that treatment and that care, there are the pressures there. but whatever resources we put in, actually what makes the difference is the staff. it's the hard work and dedication of nhs staff that ensure patients get the treatment they need. i have seen today here at finlay park what i know will be replicated across hospitals across the country, which is that yes it's about doctors and nurses but is also about the support staff, the admin, reporters, it's a whole team effort in every hospital up whole team effort in every hospital up and down the country. our staff are dedicated and we owed them a huge debt of gratitude. what those staff are saying is that the system is underfunded. are you going to fund the nhs with the money the staff say it needs? we actually prison records amount of money into the nhs. we wanted to make sure plans were therefore winter pressure, that's why we put £470 million extra into the nhs over this particular period. as i say, record levels of funding are going into the national health service. there are pressures over the winter period but these have been planned for better than ever before. do you take responsibility for the state of the nhs? the national health service continues to do a fantasticjob for people, yes, it has pressures over winter, yes it has particular pressures in the christmas and new year period, the staff are dedicated. we have put extra resources in. let's not forget, the nhs has been identified as the best and safest health care system in the world. that is down to the fantastic work our staff do. would you be happy if that's the case for your family, to be facing some of these delays? i recognise it's difficult for people who are facing delays. i recognise that it's difficult if somebody is delayed on their admission to hospital, or if somebody has an operation postponed. we will hope to ensure there operations can be reinstated as soon as possible. i know it's difficult, it's frustrating, i know it's disappointing for people and i apologise. bpm speaking at finlay park hospital in surrey a while ago. —— the prime minister speaking. the environment secretary has set out his plans for what he calls ‘a green brexit‘ michael gove said the government will mirror eu subsidies to british farmers — worth three billion pounds a year — until 2024. the payments will then be replaced by a system to encourage environmental improvements, such as rewards for opening up the countryside to the public, providing new habitats for wildlife and increasing biodiversity. i'm joined via webcam by prof david barling from the university of hertfordshire. thanks for taking time to talk to us. it's a pretty ambitious plan outlined by michael gove today, isn't it? something is at least in the short term are staying the same at least in terms of the amount of money uk farmers will receive in the five years post—brexit, but is also talking about a shake—up in the longer term. yes, he is. we are looking at an opportunity here to recast agriculture and food policy going forward after brexit. it's clear that the secretary of state is taking much opportunity and he has laid out some important guidelines as to whether my god. is it clear, given there are so many uncertainties about brexit, how agriculture and food policy needs to shape up to be fit on a post—brexit environment? there are some continuities, that is four years at an international level, a link between sustainable consumption and production. this is a line which is now being identified in the secretary of state's speech. in terms of particular post—brexit challenges, everything still rests on what trade agreements we end up with. from that, then with the rest of the world. indeed there is still some unknowns, but within those broader known unknowns, if you like, there are clear (inaudible). u nfortu nately, there are clear (inaudible). unfortunately, i think we have lost the line to professor barling. there was some problem with it. i think professor david barling for his time. let's get reaction from our political commentator on the new book from steve bannon. an administration that has delivered many shocks and it came to office, where does this rank?|j many shocks and it came to office, where does this rank? i think we are seeing this continue to reverberate around washington. 2018 is starting with a bang. what we are seeing is the relationship between trump and his chief strategist is no more. in this book, steve bannon has made a shot across the bow. not only at the president of the republican party. i think we will continue to see this type of discord, of chaos, continued to ratchet up in washington and i think it's going to happen at a very difficult time for this president. there are so many issues on his plate right now that he needs to address.

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