the us director of national intelligence has rejected suggestions made by donald trump that official agencies may have leaked unconfirmed claims that russia had compromising material on him. in a statement, james clapper said he had called the president—elect to say the leak had not come from the intelligence services. this morning, that was flatly denied by the president elect himself. the kremlin said they hoped that donald trump and mr putin would give along and there would be more mutual respect between the two countries. christian fraser reports. eight days from now, donald trump goes into battle as the next commander—in—chief. never before has an incoming president been warring on so many an incoming president been warring on so many fronts. not you, not you. your organisation is terrible. your organisation is terrible. let's go. go ahead. quiet. quiet. he is in conflict with the press, the ethics committee, pharmaceutical and defence industries, some of his own senators, and of course the intelligence agencies. the dossier they investigated was an open secret. journalists had been working on it for months. it is a tale of sordid sexual escapades, russian espionage multi—million dollar cash payments funded to the trump campaign. the question for washington insiders is whether it is fa ct, washington insiders is whether it is fact, part fact or fiction. and was the leaking political?” fact, part fact or fiction. and was the leaking political? i think it is deeply misguided for anybody at any level to question the integrity and motives of the patriots who serve in oui’ motives of the patriots who serve in our intelligence community. it doesn't mean they are always right, but questioning the motives is another thing altogether. the man who first compiled the intelligence is 52—year—old christopher steele, a former british buyer who works here. he is now in hiding with his wife and children, in fear of his life. mr steele had worked on the russian desk at mi6 for 20 years. in the 90s he spent time at the british embassy in moscow. more recently he had been hired to gather information on mr trump, first by republicans and later democrats. the allegations his undercover war —— he uncovered were handed to the fbi. with nothing to report, the media steered clear until a 2—page summary was handed to president 0bama this week and mr trump himself. as early as last summer, there were reports circulating that the russians had a tip. whether or not the sources were telling the truth, we wait to see. these allegations are being treated as credible by the us intelligence community. compromat, is how the russians describe it. this year, the former prime minister, now a leading opposition figure, was allegedly taped having sex with his assistant behind his wife's back. he blamed the fsb. even if there is no film, mr trump's presidency might already be compromised and not only by his dealings with russia. yesterday he ceded control of his business empire to his two adult sons, but in the eyes of the ethics committee in congress, there is not enough distance to absolve him of any conflict of interest. in short, there are more questions than a nswe i’s there are more questions than answers and no amount of tweeting from the president—elect, this is the latest, is going to remove the clouds that are circling next week's inauguration. gary 0'donoghue is our correspondent in washington. hejoins me now. an extraordinary situation just days before he becomes president. how problematic that this fractious relationship with the us intelligence services before him? he has gone to a new low. the war of words, a public war of words between a president—elect and the people that he is meant to trust to keep the country safe. it is really unprecedented. i think the only light at the end of the tunnel, potentially, is that the leadership of many of these organisations, the cia, for example, will change when donald trump comes in. as will the head of the director of national intelligence, he will be a new man in thatjob, as ofjanuary 20. and i think donald trump will be hoping he can rebuild the relationship, because recently cannot afford to be at war with these people. they are his eyes and ears, notjust at home in terms of protecting the country from terrorism but also abroad as well. protecting america's national interests around the world. it is a serious situation for him and the problems are piling up. the office of government ethics says that his business plans do not pass muster in terms of the standard expected from the president. i'm sure he will try to write that out because he has a trump card in that regard, the idea that presidents cannot be the subject of a conflict of interest. 0ur security correspondent is with us now. 0ur security correspondent is with us now. how much do we know about this former mi6 officer who has compiled this dossier? quite a lot. normally there is a blanket ban on putting any details out into the public about former members or current members of the intelligence agencies but that has effectively been lifted as of ten o'clock last night. christopher steele is a 52—year—old father of four with three cats. he lives in surrey and he isa three cats. he lives in surrey and he is a former russian specialist at mi6. he was —— it is more accurately known as the secret intelligence service. he left ten years ago and set upa service. he left ten years ago and set up a business intelligence firm and was hired by a firm of washington lobbyists to look into allegations of donald trump's relations with russia, and what he discovered in his report alarmed him sufficiently that in august he gave his findings to the fbi. they then sat on them, but they leaked out from october. and as you have heard, the us intelligence people are saying that they did not leak it but in those allegations, included in that are allegations that donald trump was in a room with russian prostitutes, and that they have got what is called compromising material on him. sex espionage, it is an all trade in russia that has been going on for quite some time. there is no substantiation so far. i think what we may be looking at is a repeat of the so—called wmd dossier scandal where somebody has put out in their report what has been said, without any proof, and the caveats had been stripped out of it. probably more has been made of this than is actually there. thank you, frank gardner. there was a lot of festive cheer for many of the uk's high street retailers last year. marks and spencer saw a return to growth in its clothing division and homeware, after years of decline. tesco, debenhams and john lewis all reported better than expected sales in the run up to christmas. our business correspondent, emma simpson, reports. mrs claus was popular this christmas, delivering presents in marks & spencer's glossy campaign. and this business served up a far bigger surprise present thenjust shoes. for the first time in two yea rs, shoes. for the first time in two years, clothing sales are up by more than 2%. it is getting back to serving its core customers. the close are stylish, but without being too cutting—edge, and it has brought down clothing prices. it has also focused on getting the price right the first time so that when you buy something, there is less risk of the price being reduced in a couple of weeks and you have to ticket back to get a better deal. too soon? nah, bring it on. and king good for britain's biggest retailer, enjoying an increase in sales, more proof that we have splashed out on food. 0n that we have splashed out on food. on christmas eve, tesco was serving 266 customers a second. if you look at the picture, on the whole it looks like retailers have done pretty well. some had 0k christmases, some had really good christmases. what that means is that consumers as a whole have gone out and spent a lot in the shops. here is where the real growth is. 0nline. today, asos reported a huge surge in sales. and john lewis, a whopping 40% of its business this year came from internet sales. but these department stores are also costly to run. although festive trading has been decent, the staff bonus will be lower this year. the chairman told me that he is preparing for challenging times ahead. there are pressures on costs, pressures on prices, and those things are happening, and we have a consumer, who knows what happens next year, but the predictions are that we will see a slowdown in the growth in consumer income. christmas was not sparkling but spending was solid overall. the questionnaires, can it be maintained? —— the question is. dozens of flights of been cancelled at heathrow airport amid warnings that blizzard conditions will hit parts of the uk today. heavy snow has already hit parts of northern ireland and snow showers and strong winds are also being forecast for scotland, wales and parts of england. 0ur correspondent, frankie mccamley, is at heathrow. let's be clear, this is pre—emptive because there is clearly no snow at heathrow at the moment. absolutely. heathrow at the moment. absolutely. heathrow airport says that they made this decision yesterday. they wanted to give passengers time to move on to give passengers time to move on to earlierflights. to give passengers time to move on to earlier flights. 0r time to change their plans completely. what the report says is that these ru nways the report says is that these runways operate up to full capacity, so they needed to decrease the number of flights to make sure that when these delays happen, when the snow falls, they will be able to keep flights consistently taking off. elsewhere, gatwick has also had to cancel four flights. we are looking at birmingham, manchester and edinburgh. they say their business is running as usual. here, british airways is the main operator and it is offering passengers that have had their flights affected refunds or the chance to change onto other flights. the advice for passengers travelling later on this afternoon is to check before you travel but as you mentioned, there is no snow here at the moment. it has just started raining. is no snow here at the moment. it hasjust started raining. how big the disruption is, that will depend on how much snow does fall over the next few hours. thank you. no snow at heathrow but a different picture in stirlingshire. lorna gordon is in rural stirlingshire for us. how disruptive is it expected to be? when the snow showers sweep through, the conditions here are proving a little unpleasant. it is leading to isolated incidents on the roads around rush hour. earlier today on the m74 around rush hour. earlier today on the m71; south of glasgow, there was gridlock. the road had to be closed for a time to allow the gritters to get in. the lorries trying to travel on that stretch of motorway finding the icy conditions quite difficult. there has been somejackknifed lorries across scotland, some cars skidding off the roads, but for the most part, those 200 gritters of that were out overnight have been managing to keep the roads clear. the road that you see behind me, it is the anine, that runs up the spine of scotland, towards the highlands and further north. i have been driving on it today and when the snow showers pass it is a little tricky but for the most part conditions are ok. this has been a relatively mild winter here in scotland. and this has been described as a short, sharp blast. it has not been a good season so far but the ski slopes, they will be hoping that some of the snow settles for a while and it is forecast that on higher ground, there may be up to eight inches of snow. lorna gordon, thank you. for the first time in a decade, ministers from greece, turkey and britain are sitting down for talks on re—uniting cyprus. the island has been divided for forty years between the turkish controlled north and the republic of cyprus in the south. one of the main sticking points is the presence of 30,000 turkish troops, something greek cypriots say is unacceptable. jonny dymond has been looking at at the roots of the conflict. cyprus was once a british colony but by 1974 the greek and turkish sides we re by 1974 the greek and turkish sides were at war. turkey launched an invasion, after greek cypriots declared a union with greece. ever since independence, britain, greece and turkey have been guarantor powers with a role in the island's future. turkey conquered one third of the island. its troops stayed put. and one of the world's longest frozen conflicts began. the capital is divided between turkish and greek cypriots. the so—called greenline ru ns cypriots. the so—called greenline runs through the city, controlled by the un, it is a daily reminder of the un, it is a daily reminder of the island's division. the turkish controlled north declared independence in 1983. only turkey recognises the territory as a country. the rest of the world shuns it. in 2004, a un plan to reunify the island was put to a vote. the turkish cypriot north said yes. the greek cypriot south said no. and a divided island joined the european union. in the talks in geneva, there are still serious obstacles to be cleared. but there is a chance, a good one, but this time the frozen conflict will end. those talks are taking place in geneva, and our diplomatic correspondent, james landale, is there. how likely is that they will strike a deal? the official position from the awareness that a deal is within reach, but there's still a lot of work to go. clearly there are some positive signs. you've got everybody saying the leaders of the greek cypriot and turkish cypriot communities are determined to get a deal. turkey and greece have so many other issues on their plate, but i think there's a determination better get a deal, so they can solve one of their problems. the international community is piling into geneva. you've got boris johnson community is piling into geneva. you've got borisjohnson and his turkish and greek counterparts, theresa may, the prime minister, says she is willing to come if that would help. similar signals from athens and ankara. there's a huge amount of good intention here. however, asjonny amount of good intention here. however, as jonny dymond amount of good intention here. however, asjonny dymond said, there are still obstacles. the big obstacle are still obstacles. the big o bsta cle is are still obstacles. the big obstacle is the question of how you guarantee the security of both sides once there's been some kind of reunified power—sharing federal government. it's a big issue. it centres on whether or not the turkish army would be allowed to keep 30,000 troops on the island in the north on as they do now. it's a lot of work to be done on that. the thing that is really constraining these talks is that whatever is agreed here at in this extraordinary building behind me has to be a cce pta ble building behind me has to be acceptable to the people of north and south cyprus in a referendum that would happen later this year. so nothing here is going to be definitively agreed and sorted out, until that moment happens. so they can make some kind of political framework agreement here, but the real test will be whether or not they can sell it to the people back home in cyprus. james langdale in geneva, thank you. our top story this lunchtime. the head of america's national intelligence agency says they weren't the source of the leak that russia has compromising material on donald trump. and still to come. back behind the wheel — the 72—year—old rally driver making a comeback after half a century. coming up in the sport at 1:30pm: refusing to play — high hopes for british number one johanna konta who warms up for the australian open by reaching the final of the sydney cup international. tidal lagoons — could they be the answer to ensuring secure power supplies for the uk? a review is recommending that the uk should build tidal lagoons to capture energy from the sea. and today, the government gave its backing to plans to build one in swansea bay — after the report said it could provide clean, reliable electricity for more than 150,000 homes for more than a century. here's our environment analyst, roger harrabin. will this be the uk's latest source of low—carbon energy? the tides in swansea bay are some of the highest in the world, and utterly predictable, so why not build a sea wall to capture the outgoing tide? that's the plan from a private firm. the sea wall will trap the outgoing tide, then hydroelectric turbines will generate power as the water flows through the gaps in the sea wall. the cost was thought too high for bill payers to bear. but a review says the annual subsidy isn't as high as it first appeared. if you spread the cost of the subsidy over the 120 lifetime, bear in mind these will last two times as long as a nuclear power station, three or four times as long as an offshore wind farm, if you look at it in that way, then essentially the cost of this for a consumer is less than a pint of milk on their electricity bills every year. that's why i think it's affordable. supporters hope we'll see lagoons dotted along the western shores. that'll bring down the cost, they say. this is a pathfinder project. we need the government to get on with it. we need manufacturing scale to support industrial regeneration. it's great renewable energy and it's great for supporting jobs, both in the uk and in wales. but what about wildlife? friends of the earth support the lagoon for the clean energy it'll produce. the bird charity rspb are cautious about the impacts. the anglers are dead against. it would stop up fish, it would delay their migration, it could have impacts on seals and dolphins, with loss of habitat in the severn estuary, but furthermore the economics on which this scheme is based are based on a 120 year life span, and that's a huge time during which other technologies could come on stream, and we just don't think the lagoons will last that long before they get clogged up with silt. plans at swansea are ready to go. today's report suggests the government should agree terms for one lagoon, then wait and see. roger harrabin, bbc news. some breaking news. in the last few minutes it's been confirmed that the former england manager graham taylor has died. he was 72. let's speak to other sports correspondent andy swiss, who is at the bbc sports centre. he was a player, then a manager, a pundit. he's been a big figure in the world of football for a long time now. that's right, yes, this is very sad news which has just broken within the last few minutes. graham taylor first rose to prominence as manager of watford between 1977 and 1987. he was hired by the then new owner sir elton john. he guided watford from the fourth division to the first division injust five fourth division to the first division in just five years, an extraordinary achievement. he guided them to the fa cup final. he became manager of aston villa before in 1990, he took over as england managerfrom sir 1990, he took over as england manager from sir bobby 1990, he took over as england managerfrom sir bobby robson. he suffered a difficult few years in the england job. he took them to the european championships in 1992, where they were knocked out in the group stages by sweden. he co ntroversially group stages by sweden. he controversially substituted, you might remember, captain gary lineker in his very final match. that prompted the famous tabloid headline, swedes two, turnips one. he stayed on but he resigned in 1993, afterfailing to guide england to the world cup. he suffered huge personal criticism during his time as england manager, particularly after a fly on the wall documentary, which was broadcast shortly after he resigned as england manager. you remember his famous quote in that, doi remember his famous quote in that, do i not like that? after that, he returned to club management and watford, enjoyed more success there, guided them into the premier league will stop and after that he became a radio pundit with bbc radio, hugely respected for his views, a very popular figure respected for his views, a very popularfigure across respected for his views, a very popular figure across football, with fans, with players, with other managers. this is very sad news indeed for the game. andy swiss, thank you. some reaction from the former player stan collymore, who has treated saying, extremely saddened to hear the news that graham taylor has passed away. a genuinely kind, funny man, condolences to his family and friends. there was more evidence today of the pressures on england's hospitals. figures for november show big increases in delays in discharging patients, because of the pressures on social care. the number of patients going to a&e was also up, as were the number of 999 calls. the figures show there were an average of 31,000 emergency calls a day during november. 0ur health editor, hugh pym, is with me. and the crucial thing here is these are just november figures. that's right, we only get these official figures from nhs that's right, we only get these officialfigures from nhs england a couple of months after the event. of course, the bbc got leaked document couple of days ago about how bad things were injanuary. this is looking back a couple of months, showing that then, things were not great either. all the key targets missed in terms of weights for cancer treatment, waits for operations, and that key four our weight in accident and emergency, 95% of patients should be seen or assessed in that four hours, in england in november the figure was just 88.4%. that target hasn't been hit since the middle of 2015. england is slightly ahead of wales and northern ireland on that measure, though they cover slightly different time periods. scotland is above 90%, 92.3%. 0nce different time periods. scotland is above 90%, 92.3%. once again, a considerable number of patients in hospital beds who could not be discharged, so—called delayed tra nsfers, discharged, so—called delayed transfers, up nearly 30% year—on—year. that's because of difficulties out there with social care. a lot of them are down to social care, the inability to find a place for an elderly patient, so the patient is less —— left in hospital. all those problems in november, never mind where we are now. thank you. the trial of rolf harris has been played the tape of a phone call, made by a woman to the nspcc, alleging the entertainer sexually assaulted her. the woman describes the alleged incident at a theatre as "horrendous". the 86—year—old is on trial at southwark crown court, accused of indecently assaulting seven girls and women between 1971 and 2004. he denies the charges. let's speak to our correspondent, sian grzeszczyk, who's there. today, the court heard from three women, the first alleging that rolf harris indecently assaulted her at a theatre when she was a teenager. the jury theatre when she was a teenager. the jury heard that recording of the cult of the nspcc, which was made in july 2014, in which she describes the alleged incident as horrendous and said it had taken her years to come forward and have the courage to talk about it. she was being cross—examined by rolf harris‘s defence counsel about the timing of her making this call to the nspcc. the qc said in the call, you said mr harris is being charged tomorrow, we re harris is being charged tomorrow, were you referring to his sentencing at the time? i can't remember, she replied. the qc said, we know that you did, do you accept you were following mr harris‘ trial in the media and press? she replied, i was following it intently. the prosecution then asked her if there was a financial motivation for her deciding to make the call. she said, no, i work full—time. rolf harris denies all of the charges. the trial at southwark crown court is expected to last for five weeks. thank you. more than 3000 american troops, tanks, and armoured vehicles arrive in poland today — the united states' biggest military presence in the region since the cold war. it's to support a nato operation to deter russian aggression, following fears from neighbouring countries since the conflict in ukraine. their arrival comes just days before the inauguration of donald trump, who's signalled he wants to improve relations with moscow. this morning the kremlin has said that the us military build—up in poland is a threat to russia's national security. a 72—year—old female rally driver is coming out of retirement to drive the original car in which she competed in the world rally cup almost 50 years ago. in 1970, bronwyn burrell was the youngest driver in the race from london to mexico. now she's been reunited with her austin maxi sports car, and is preparing to get behind the wheel again to recreate her epic drive. she's currently in training, and john maguire went along to meet her. wembley, 1970, and a car rally marks the handover of the world cup hosting duties from england to mexico. sir alf ramsey waves them off, and in car 20, three women about to start a 16,000 mile race. we were going to be away for six weeks. it seemed like a lifetime, but wasn't a lifetime, it was a flash. this is us both in our lovely green c&a dresses and red puffer jackets and down the ramp. we were starting our huge adventure. gosh, we were young, weren't we? i think i was the youngest. i had very long hair. it was so unmanageable, really. it was a stupid thing not to have short hairfor that. the team was well—prepared, mechanically and personally. so we decided the best bet here was to have paper knickers, so we had colour—coded paper knickers. i think mine were... mine were probably white. i think tish was pink, and tina was blue. so we could discard, didn't have to worry about washing knickers. such ingenuity may now return, as almost 50 years on, bron has recently brought their original car, nicknamed puff the magic wagon, and they're ready to race again. back with the car again. what a shame tish is no longer with us. i know, she'd love this, she'd love to be doing it all again, like we're going to be doing. we're going to miss her, we are going to need to change a tyre you know. yes, exactly. thejoy was she'd be pumping up, jacking up the tyre, you'd be loosening the nuts, i'd be getting the wheel off. and then... give me the wheel, back on the roof or in the car. throw it into the car. a minute and 50 seconds? that was right. something like that. i tell you what, shall we take her out on the track? yes. shall we give it a go? give it a go. see if we can still do it. bron hasn't driven competitively since the early ‘70s, but you would never guess. as you can see, bron definitely comes from a rallying background. she's certainly not lacking in confidence out there in the car today, but you also see as well she's making quite a lot of little mistakes and that's why she's coming back to us a little bit in the future, to have those tweaks. in april, they'll drive to portugal once again, this time in a classic car rally. it's a bit more controlled, because of health and safety. you can't do what you used to do. we used to do rallies and have one night's sleep in five days. not anymore. the sport may have changed, but the car — and especially the driver — look as fast and furious as ever. john maguire, bbc news, 0xfordshire. time for a look at the weather. today, we have all sorts of weather happening across the uk. it's miserable across southern areas right now. we have some heavy rain around as well. 0ther right now. we have some heavy rain around as well. other parts of the country are experiencing some snow. the rain in the south could be turning to snow over the next few hours or so. we could have some heavy snow for a time across