today and we will find out how some of the biggest names fared over christmas. are voters willing to pay more taxes to boost spending on the nhs? a survey suggests nearly a half of them are. we've a special report. plans for a billion pound project to use the tides in swansea bay to generate electricity are backed by a senior government advisor. in sport: southampton lead liverpool in their league cup semi—final. nathan redmond gave the saints a 1—0 win in the first leg. carol has the weather. good morning. there is snow in the forecast today, wintry showers and windy conditions for the north in particular, and also parts of the west. in the south we have rain initially with hill snow but later in the day some of that will readily turn to sleet and snow even at lower levels. i'll have more details in 15 minutes. thanks, carol. good morning. first, our main story. the us director of national intelligence has rejected suggestions made by donald trump that official agencies leaked claims 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. our washington reporter laura bicker has the story. donald trump is not a huge fan of the press corps but he had a message to send to the media and us intelligence agencies. he believes the leak of substantiated allegations that the election couuded allegations that the election colluded with russia. it is all fake, it didn't happen. there are also claims russian spies have compiled material to blackmail mr trump including salacious of his private life. does anyone really believe that story? i am also very much of a germaphobe, believe me. the bbc understands the russian memos on mr trump were compiled by a former member of mi6, christopher steele. the director of national intelligence james clabo has called the president—elect. he said the lea k the president—elect. he said the leak did not come from within us intelligence. and they have not made anyjudgement that intelligence. and they have not made any judgement that the information is reliable. as donald trump moved the media towards his business dealings he confirmed he was handing total control of his empire to his sons. these papers are some of the many documents i have signed turning over com plete many documents i have signed turning over complete and total control to my sons. that too is proving troublesome. the ethics committee has now set his plan doesn't meet past presidential standard. this performance was a typically eccentric and bombastic piece of political theatre which his supporters will love. but it did little to counter the soil of controversies which surround this president—elect. —— swirl. we'll be getting the view of a republican commentator in washington in around 20 minutes' time. some of the biggest names on the high street are set to reveal how they performed over the christmas period. ben's at the london stock exchange to find out what this will mean for share prices. welcome to the london stock exchange. it will be really busy morning here a seven o'clock with a raft of retail results coming in and we will find out how some of the high—street names went over the christmas period. we will have numbers and updates from tesco, marks & spencer, john lewis, waitrose, asos, companies telling us how christmas was for them, and we have had an indication from some retailers, with morrison is this week, yesterday sainsbury‘s, and it isafamiliar week, yesterday sainsbury‘s, and it is a familiar story with the findings that shop sales haven't done so well and online has done well. food sales, this year has been a christmas of food sales, not things like clothing with suggestions we all went and decided that this year we were going to have a good christmas as far as food was concerned but maybe we were shopping around elsewhere when it came to things like clothing. and while i am here, we should point out yesterday the london market, the ftse 100, the the london market, the ftse100, the 100 leading firms, that hit a record high, 7290 was the index, that is the 10th day of rises for the london market, so some suggestions it is because the pound is so weak, but nonetheless business is feeling quite confident at the moment. we will find out how the high—street names have gone from seven o'clock this morning. i will have all of the details for you then. doctors believe they are closer to understanding why chronic stress increases the risk of heart disease and strokes. theirfindings, published in the lancet, suggest that increased activity in the part of the brain which responds to fear and anger prompts the production of extra white blood cells. this can make the formation of blockages in the arteries more likely. volkswagen has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the united states for using illegal software to cheat emissions tests for its diesel vehicles. its been ordered to pay fines of more than 5.5 billion, the largest penalty ever levied by the us government against a car manufacturer. sarah corker reports. it's been dubbed the dieselgate, the world's second biggest carmaker reading environmental tests boardies diesel emissions and now volkswagen will play a heavy price for what us authorities have described as a 10—year conspiracy. the final £3.5 billion is the biggest ever levied by the us government on a carmaker. vw has already agreed a {12.3 billion civil settlement with car owners and environmental authorities and worldwide, 11 million vehicles are involved in this scandal. the us attorney general said vw lied to cover up its actions. hundreds of thousands of cars that volkswagen sold in the united states were pumping illegal levels of nitrogen oxides into our atmosphere. up to a0 times more than the amounts permitted under federal law. now, what's more, these vehicles were equipped with software that masked the true amount of the pollutants the cars released. and it looks as though the us regulators are far from finished. six executives have been formally charged with conspiracy. volkswagen says it deeply regrets the behaviour that led to this scandal, but there's still a turbulent road ahead as the company faces potentially damaging lawsuits in europe. sarah corker, bbc news. plans for the uk's first hydro—electric tidal lagoon will take a significant step forward today. a report from the former energy minister charles hendy concludes that the technology can deliver a secure supply of clean energy, with swansea bay the front runner for the one—point—three billion pound project. roger harrabin has more. will this be the uk's's latest source of low carbon energy? that hides are some of the highest in the world. why not build a seawall to ca ptu re world. why not build a seawall to capture the outgoing tide? that is the plan from a private firm. they will use hydroelectric turbines to generate power as the water flushes through gaps in the seawall. the cost was thought too high to bear. a review says it will need subsidy. it is not as dear as it looks. review says it will need subsidy. it is not as clear as it looks. if you look at the cost spread over the lifetime, 120 years, it comes out at 30p per household for the next 30 yea rs. 30p per household for the next 30 years. that is less than a pint of milk. that is where we can start a new industry at an affordable cost to consumers. supporters hope we will see lagoons dotted around the close, that will bring down the cost, they say. but anglers fear the impact on wildlife and they want to agree terms forjust one of them and then wait and see. we know they can walk like you but scientists believe that monkeys might also be able to talk like you. the results of a study into the grunts baboons make has found they create five sounds similar to the vowels we use to say words. it had been thought baboons did not have the larynx needed to make vowel sounds. the research suggests language might have begun to evolve earlier than previously thought. what we need is the noises to make judgement. i know some teenagers who grunt like that owns. and also my friend alan, if he could talk like one, he wouldn't have to punch it when it invaded his tent —— like baboons. remember the story? how can i forget baboons. remember the story? how can iforget it? every baboons. remember the story? how can i forget it? every time baboons. remember the story? how can iforget it? every time i hear it, it sounds less plausible. wake up and find a baboon in your tent, just grunt. don't mention baboons. you have mentioned the baboons again! well, the saints had many of punches, just the one goal to take a liveable. they do have the edge towards wembley. southampton have the advantage after the first leg of their efl cup semi final against liverpool. nathan redmond's goal was the difference as the saints won 1-0. the sides will meet again at anfield in a fortnight‘s time. england women's record goal—scorer kelly smith has announced her retirement from football. the 38—year—old scored 46 goals in 117 appearances for her country. laura robson says she felt "sluggish and flat" as she lost in straight sets in the first round of qualifying at the australian open. robson was beaten by amandine hesse of france, and has now lost seven matches in a row. sam warburton's six—year spell as wales rugby union captain is to come to an end. the 0spreys lock alun wynjones is set to be named as his successor when interim coach rob howley announces his six nations squad. what have you got first? we'll have a quick look. the press conference yesterday dominating the front pages this morning. extraordinary scenes. it might be something to get used to, the style of donald trump just nine days before he becomes president. talking about these allegations. a former british spy has been named as the man who worked on this dossier which has caused all of the row over these allegations on donald trump. we will talk about that throughout the program. and something else that has been in the news on what is the nhs crisis and the fact that there is a rift between the head of the nhs and theresa may, who was accused of stretching the truth over the funding. we will discuss it later. 0n the sun, following the trial of rolf harris, which is ongoing. the daily mirror, talking about the trump chris —— press conference. some of the quotes, you can see, you are acting like nazis, that was one of the quotes. he was talking about his own intelligence services. we have a response at this morning from the us intelligence services to the allegation from donald trump that they might have leaked some of those stories. shall we look inside at this picture? this is how a rhinoceros was moved over a lake. i was looking at this, because it looks really dangerous, but a p pa re ntly looks really dangerous, but apparently it is the best way to get the rhino across. he is blindfolded, obviously, so he can't see how high he is. these were taken in south africa's eastern cape. upside down. he was taken by a guy from devon who was on holiday. imagine if you saw that on holiday! not very dignified. it is supposed to be the safest way. looks like bungee jumping. it is supposed to be the safest way. looks like bungee jumpinglj it is supposed to be the safest way. looks like bungee jumping. i would feel sick if it was me. to be hung upside down from your legs.“ feel sick if it was me. to be hung upside down from your legs. if you are blindfolded, it is worse. managers often send instructions on the pitch when things are not going well. jurgen klopp sent an essay on with daniel sturridge. there is a piece of paper with lots of writing. after he said it was a change in formation. daniel sturridge was handing it around, showing the players instructions. it didn't really work. maybe he was better off grunting. we are always fascinated by that, we see that in tennis as well. in the past, before big matches, we have speculated on the formation and it ends up being a shopping list. this is from the times, junior masterchef spain. it isa times, junior masterchef spain. it is a spanish version. a young british boy is involved, 0scar jefferson, only nine years old, and the nation has fallen in love with him because he was making fish and chips. he has lived in spain for two yea rs. chips. he has lived in spain for two years. imagine, he has only been in spain for two years, and he is making fish and chips and the batter went wrong. and as a result he brea ks went wrong. and as a result he breaks down in tears on the program and he is grandfather apparently told him to make sure he paid attention to the temperature of the oil, which should be between 175 — 190 degrees. most of us wouldn't let children anywhere near a pot of boiling oil. basketball ramadi for the most played sport. it gets very little funding. we cannot afford to insure them. crazy. we will see you later. you're watching breakfast from bbc news. the main stories this morning: us intelligence chiefs reject suggestions made by donald trump that they leaked claims russia had compromising material on him. an important day for the british high street as a number of big names reveal how well they did over christmas. here's carol with a look at this morning's weather. it felt wild in manchester last night, it has to be said. what does it look like our there? today there is snow in the forecast. snow showers in the north and west. windy in the north. later in the day, sleet and snow, especially in the hills, and maybe at lower levels in the south. look at the isobars, it is going to be pretty windy. further south, an area of low pressure coming our way introducing rain and also some snow. it all depends on how quickly the north—westerly is coming in. it will turn to snow. i will move my microphone because it is causing issues. through this morning we are looking at snow showers in scotland and also northern ireland. also the risk of ice first thing. the seine in northern england. snow showers again. some ice in between. hill snow this morning in wales. at lower levels, rain. it will push through in the day. dry and bright in some eastern areas but it will not last. through the day, the snow showers persist in the north of the country. windy though it will slowly ease. the rain pushes over all of us and some will be heavy. surface water issues. some flooding on the roads. then it will turn to sleet and snow, especially in the hills. the cotswolds especially. some sleet and snow at lower levels as well. a cold day wherever you are although temperatures will be above freezing. it will be especially cold in the north. below freezing in the wind. through the evening and overnight, you can see the rain continuing to go away. more snow at the rush—hour time. pushing down to kent. behind that, quite quickly we will see the risk of ice on damp surfaces as temperatures drop. through the night, further snow will go south across scotland. snow showers in northern ireland. watch how the snow continues to aid across northern england and parts of north wales and in towards the midlands into tomorrow morning. largely dry tomorrow morning. largely dry tomorrow but do not forget the risk of ice and it will be cold. we pick up of ice and it will be cold. we pick up the snow tomorrow morning for the rush—hour. it goes through east anglia and london and heading down towards kent before it goes away. behind that, wintry. strong winds lowing a gay eel down the east coast. showers. strong winds whipping up waves. there is the risk of local coastal flooding down the east coast. something else to be aware of. saturday, a change. some dry weather. even sunshine. towards the west, the cloud thickened beacons. you will see the temperatures go up. monday, the windhoek west to east. light north—westerly winds. temperatures going up. that does not mean they will stay because next week they will stay because next week they will go back down again. back to you. the thing i love about you is that even though you had people screaming in yourear that even though you had people screaming in your ear about your microphone you were delivering the weather beautifully without a script or anything. thank you. not too shabby yourself. thank you. with just over a week to go until his inauguration as president, donald trump is once again surrounded by controversy. a press conference designed to clarify his business affairs and update reporters on key policies was dominated by allegations surrounding the president—elect. we will get the reaction of a republican commentator in a moment but first here are some of the key parts from yesterday's briefing. it is all fake news. it is false staff. it did not happen. it is a disgrace. it is something nazi germany would have done. look at the nonsense released by maybe the intelligence agencies. can you give us intelligence agencies. can you give usa intelligence agencies. can you give us a question? do not be rude. do not be rude. you are fake news. bbc news, that is another beauty. if vladimir putin likes donald trump, thatis vladimir putin likes donald trump, that is an asset. they can help us fight isis, who are number one tricky. i do not know if i will get along with him but i hope i do. do you think hillary clinton would be tougher on vladimir putin than me? is anyone in this room believe that? gives me a break. the only ones who ca re gives me a break. the only ones who care about my tax reports are the reporters. no, ido care about my tax reports are the reporters. no, i do not think so. i won. iam president. my two reporters. no, i do not think so. i won. i am president. my two sons you are right here are going to be running the company. they are going to be running it in a very professional manner. 0therwise, if they do a bad job, i will say "you're fired." joining us is a republican commentator. good evening. that press conference was really colourful. you watched it. what did you think of it?|j really colourful. you watched it. what did you think of it? i think he did on the whole a pretty good job. the clips you put together pulled out the more colourful bits from the press co nfe re nce out the more colourful bits from the press conference which was geared towards highlighting what he is going to do and what he will be undertaking to stop potential conflicts of interest when he becomes president in a week and head of trump 0rganisation. becomes president in a week and head of trump organisation. you talk about conflicts of interest. this controversy is not going away. you have seen the dossier. what about these allegations of russia having compromise in material on him?|j read compromise in material on him?” read the papers when they came out. they were published by buzzfeed, a website in the us. immediately i was struck by how unprofessional they look. it looks like anything anyone could sit down and type at their laptop. they could write down allegations, some of which were quite colourful. i will not repeat them on your programme but your listeners can look them up. that came out because of another report by cnn which referenced the existence of that dossier. that is what donald trump was saying to the cnn reporter in the press conference saying he will not give them a question because he considers them fa ke question because he considers them fake news. from what you are saying, you are saying you do not think it was that serious because it did not look like a typical dossier. yet the intelligence agencies thought it was important enough to bring to the attention of donald trump and barack 0bama. surely if they are taking it seriously everyone else should. they definitely have to investigate it and ask president—elect donald trump about the allegations. but they investigated what was in the dossier. that is my understanding. multiple news organisations investigated and tried to verify it, very serious ones, a couple of months ago. that is why the timing of the dossier published at buzzfeed has raised eyebrows and questions at this point. why is it coming out now? when i was initially reading it i was concerned by what i heard was in it. but when i read it he did nothing serious. after hearing many organisations debunked... well, were not able to verify it... it reinforced the idea it is not serious. there is clearly a breakdown of trust between donald trump and the intelligence services. that cannot be good. there is certainly some tension there. it is not historically unprecedented in our nation's history. i remind you of sja edgar hoover, head of the intelligence agency. and fdr. there we re intelligence agency. and fdr. there were multiple reports britain. there was a lot of tension, famously. —— written. it is not what you want to start out on. but as donald trump was saying in his press conference, he was wondering where the leaks we re he was wondering where the leaks were coming from. he started scheduling some of them and telling them in his office to see if he could discover if they would be lea ked could discover if they would be leaked and then details of the meeting would be leaked. he said publicly he thinks it would be the intelligence agencies. do you think it will be a good president?” intelligence agencies. do you think it will be a good president? i think so. it will be a good president? i think so. he has many people rooting for him, including the democratic leadership. barack 0bama and even hillary clinton have said they are hoping he becomes a very strong leader and he does what is that of the nation. that is what we are rooting for and will work towards making that happen. coming up this morning on breakfast: would you pay more income tax if it meant extra money for the nhs? new research says its an increasingly popular idea, we'll find out why at around 6:a0. time now to get the news, travel, and weather, where you are. good morning from bbc london news. i'm sonja jessup. chelsea football club's plans for a new 60,000 seat stadium have been given the go—ahead by hammersmith and fulham council. the proposals include demolishing the current stamford bridge venue and building a walkway over the nearby district line. it's expected to cost half a billion pounds. the final say will be down to the mayor sadiq khan. transport bosses say they're prepared should wintry weather hit the capital later today. tfl says more than 100,000 tons of salt are stockpiled, and it will be gritting roads and cycling routes, as well as de—icing the rails on the under and overground lines. heathrow airport has warned passengers of possible disruption to their flights, and to check before they travel. and you can get the very latest on the travel situation throughout the day on bbc radio london and on our website. let's have a look at the travel situation now. the tube is off to a good start. no reported problems so far, apart from those ongoing works on tfl rail services, which mean it's not running between brentwood and shenfield. there are no southern trains to and from beckenham junction, guildford and wimbledon because of industrial action, reduced services on all other routes 0n the roads, here's the a13, it's getting busy westbound heading out of dagenham into barking. in vauxhall, we've still got gas works holding traffic up. restrictions on vauxhall bridge, millbank there. and just a warning— in the city, bankjunction and the approaches to it will close from a.30pm today due to a demonstration a city worker who was diagnosed with cancer just weeks after both his best friend and mum died of the disease has made history by conquering the south pole. rob smith reached the south pole on monday evening after becoming the first british explorer to pioneer a new route, battling temperatures as low as minus 35 celsius. let's have a check on the weather now. good morning. today we could possibly see wintry weather across the london area. a fairly quiet start. cloudy. temperatures between four and six degrees. heavy rain in the morning and afternoon. some could turn wintry as the day goes on. a weather warning for the snow on. a weather warning for the snow on the high ground especially. it could be at lower levels through the evening rush—hour as well. to begin today, dry. then rain comes from the west. the rank and cause a problem. lots of rainfall in a short period of time. —— rain could. 4— seven degrees later on this afternoon. some of the rain will turn to sleet and snow in the high ground walker. it will pull away. this includes the evening rush—hour. possibly treacherous driving conditions later on. then everything will be freezing. problems with highs into tomorrow morning. possibly even some or wintry weather. tomorrow, largely dry and sunny. it will be very windy as well. all of this is subject to change the p2 keep an eye eye on the forecast. i am back with the latest in halfan forecast. i am back with the latest in half an hour. now, though, it's back to charlie and steph. bye for now. hello, this is breakfast, with steph mcgovern and charlie stayt. it's almost 6:30am. we'll bring you all the latest news and sport in a moment, but also on breakfast this morning. don't be rude. can you give us a question? i am not gonna give you a question. in his first press conference since becoming president elect an angry donald trump has slammed his critics. we'll discuss his performance throughout the morning. christmas maybe over but today we find out where shoppers spent their money over the festive period. we'll be at the london stock exchange to find out how the high street‘s biggest names have performed. he's the magician who pulled the britain's got talent title out of his hat. richard jones will be on the sofa to tell us about his new tour and you can expects some tricks. all that still to come. but now a summary of this morning's main news. the us director of national intelligence has rejected suggestions agencies may have leaked claims that russia had compromising information about donald trump. in a statement, james clapper said he had called the president—elect to say the leak had not come from the intelligence community. he also said agencies had not made anyjudgement on whether the unsubstantiated allegations about mr trump were reliable. multiple news organisations investigated, tried to verify, they did their best to do so, very serious organisations are couple of months ago, so that is why the timing of the dossier being published has raised eyebrows and questions at this point — why is it coming out now? when i was reading it initially i was concerned by what i had heard was in it but as i was reading through it it didn't seem to be serious, so hearing multiple organisations had debunked it, well, not been able to verify it, seemed to reinforce my impression that it wasn't serious. we'll be speaking to a member of donald trump's transition team about this story at about 7:10am. it's a big day for some of the largest high street names as they prepare to announce how they've performed over christmas. marks & spencer, john lewis and debenhams are amongst the companies set to release their results. much of the attention today will be on tesco — bosses there have been seeking to turn the business around, after losing ground to discounters like lidl and aldi. we'll be getting those results live from the london stock exchange within the next hour. just after 7am. doctors believe they are closer to understanding why chronic stress increases the risk of heart disease and strokes. theirfindings, published in the lancet, suggest that increased activity in the part of the brain which responds to fear and anger prompts the production of extra white blood cells. this can make the formation of blockages in the arteries more likely. more than 3,00 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. volkswagen has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the united states for using illegal software to cheat emissions tests for its diesel vehicles. its been ordered to pay fines of more than three and a half billion pounds — the largest penalty ever levied by the us government against a car manufacturer. these vehicles were equipped with softwa re these vehicles were equipped with software that mast the true amount of the pollutants that cars released, forwarding the regulators doing the environmental testing —— masked. typically, vw knew these problems and the regulators expressed concern. vw denied and ultimately light. plans for the uk's first hydro—electric tidal lagoon will take a significant step forward today. a report from the former energy minister charles hendy concludes that the technology can deliver a secure supply of clean energy, with swansea bay the front runnerfor the 1.3 billion pound project. if you look at the cost spread over the entire lifetime, 120 years, it comes out at 30p per household for the next 30 years, that is less than a pint of milk and that is where i think we can start a new industry and we can do it at an affordable cost to consumers. a 17—year—old boy from austria has built his own miniature ski resort in the backyard of his parents‘ house. must be big! kevin pobatschnig has created two chair lifts, ski slopes, skiers and a snow machine as part of his mini ski village. the teenager uses his spare time to improve the resort, clean up the buildings and invent new models. what a great thing to do. how extraordinary. it looked real. yes. there might be some snow in certain parts of the country over the next few days. there is an idea. get out with cardboard boxes. a little felt. you don't need snow, just some cotton wool. it is all about dreams. southampton fans might be waking up and slapping themselves, thinking, not yet. did that hurt? no, you have to slap me a lot harder. they have one leg, one toe, in the final. we'll start with the efl cup where southampton have taken a slender advantage over liverpool in the second semi final. they could have scored more. nathan redmond's cool finish gave saints a lead to take to anfield for the second leg in a fortnights time. they'll play either manchester united or hull city in the final. former france midfielder claude makelele has been appointed assistant coach at swansea. the 43—year—old joins paul clement's team, signing a deal until the end of the season. makelele worked with clement during his playing stint at chelsea and as a coach with paris st germain. manchester city have been charged by the football association for breaching anti—doping regulations regarding information. clubs have to provide training details and players‘ overnight addresses on request, and it's understood that the club failed to update this when training schedules changed. they have to respond to the charge by next thursday. england women's record goal—scorer kelly smith has retired. the 38—year—old scored 46 goals in 117 games for her country. she quit the international game two years ago. but at club level, smith was a champions league winner and also won the fa cup five times in three spells with arsenal ladies. she became the first english professional player when she went to play in the usa in 1999. she's been given a coaching role with arsenal. we will speak with herjust we will speak with her just after 8:30am this morning. it feels like the time is right now. i think it feels like the time is right now. ithinki it feels like the time is right now. i think i have had a very good career at international level and clu b career at international level and club level. travelled the world. and at the age of 38 the body is telling me that it needs to stop. i have had some injuries along the way. itjust feels that the time is right. the game is in a magnificent place. it is good to step away at this time. in the next few hours british number onejohanna konta plays eugenie bouchard in the semi final of the sydney international — a warm up ahead of the australian open. laura robson won't be there next week though — she says she felt "sluggish and flat" as she lost in qualifying to amandine hesse of france. that was overnight. bbc sport understands that sam warburton's six—year spell as wales rugby union captain is to come to an end ahead of the six nations tournament that starts next month. warburton is still expected to be part of the squad which is named on tuesday but he's ready to relinquish the role he's held since 2011. alun wynjones is the leading candidate to succeed warburton. i think alan is a good choice because of his consistency and performance, he is always up for the game. his performance level never drops. you would hope the captaincy wouldn't affect him. he is very senior international. the burden of captaincy shouldn't affect his performance. he is an excellent candidate. one other rugby union line, joe marler will miss at least the first of england's six nations matches, against france. the harlequins prop broke his leg in the warm—up before the weekend game against sale. earlier this week, marler's quins team—mate chris robshaw has already been ruled out for the entire tournament. jim furyk will captain the us ryder cup team at next year's event. as a player, furyk has played in nine ryder cups. he's named davis love ii! as a vice captain for the 2018 competition, which will be held in francejust outside paris. it has the teamwork, competition, carmeraderie, the competition, it brings fans worldwide, and i get chills just brings fans worldwide, and i get chillsjust thinking brings fans worldwide, and i get chills just thinking about all the evidence i have been able to participate in, and now to stand here as 2018 captain, see here as 2018 captain for 2018 is such an honour. nba basketball returns to london this evening. the denver nuggets are taking on the indiana pacers at a sell—out o2 arena. the nba global games london is celebrating its 10th season in the capital. i think for both teams they will be excited about being here. of course they travel a lot throughout the united states and a little bit to toronto canada but for the most part they are all in the united states, so they will treat it as a big deal. and it is hoped it will inspire british basketball, the fourth most played sport, but it gets no uk sport funding. however, this weekend on the bbc there will be live coverage of the finals of the men's and women's bbl. i have never watched live basketball. it is fantastic. non—stop. watched live basketball. it is fantastic. non-stop. you are really close up as well. absolutely. you should do it. i will do it. absolutely. it is 6:40am. you're watching their busy —— you are watching their busy —— you are watching bbc breakfast. the nhs has been facing a long, harsh winter. pressure on staff and services has reached unprecedented levels and raises questions about how to ensure a sustainable health service. so would you be willing to pay more tax if the money went directly to your nearest hospital? a yougov survey seen by bbc breakfast suggests many people would, 42% to be exact, would be in favour of a rise in tax in order to increase spending on the nhs. graham satchell looks at how we've reached this point. hospitals are full, patients we are told are at risk, doctors say it has been the worst week in the nhs in living memory. i think it is fair to say that currently we are in a crisis. we have been seeing the number of admissions going out yearly. we have seen the number of beds going down yearly. it is no surprise we have reached the point where the system cannot cope any more. there are simple reason is that the nhs is struggling. to start, it is winter and more are are ill and more of us are ending up in hospital. one in two of us are getting cancer. that is because people are living longer. we have to do more with what we have. pressure is nothing new but professionals say that doing much more with what they have got, the budget, won't work. the government says it is investing record amounts in the nhs. that is true. we spend more on the health service than ever before. in england it will be £120 billion next year. nhs england says in real terms spending per head will go down in 2018. what is the solution? in a yougov poll the public were asked this question, would you support increasing the basic rate of income tax from 20— 21% and using that money raised to increased spending in the nhs? 42% said yes. for someone in the nhs? 4296 said yes. for someone on an average income in the nhs? 4296 said yes. for someone on an average income it would mean giving the taxman £118 extra per year. i wouldn't mind it. if it needs it, definitely. the nhs to me isa if it needs it, definitely. the nhs to me is a bottomless pit. you can paul money into it and it doesn't necessarily do anything.” paul money into it and it doesn't necessarily do anything. i think you can always pay a little bit extra in your tax. you moan about it but am a yes. you get on with it. people might say they would pay more tax to fund the nhs but putting up taxes is politically tricky and the government is certainly not talking about it, so what will happen if funding isn't substantially increased? people might have to say, 0k, we won't spend any more, so we have to wait longer. there might be stuff that you have to get in a yea r‘s stuff that you have to get in a year's time, rather than 18 weeks. but then you have to start talking about what we will stop doing, and thatis about what we will stop doing, and that is really hard. it means people are then going to have to pay for those things. should taxes go up to fund the nhs? is continued deterioration of service is inevitable? many want a broader more honest debate about the future of the health service. joe twyman is the head of political and social research at polling company yougov and joins us from our london studio. thank you for your time this morning. the overall picture is there are more people who would be happier with the idea of paying more tax if they knew it was going directly to the nhs. yes, popular but not overwhelmingly. 42% say yes they would be willing. 37%, just underfour out of 10, they would be willing. 37%, just under four out of 10, said they would be willing. 37%, just underfour out of 10, said they would not. it is not a slam dunk. this isn't a policy which has universal approval. it is something that politicians would need to take a lot of attention to and be very careful about introducing, given that all of the parties don't find it overwhelmingly popular. just under two years and it has changed ina under two years and it has changed in a short period of time. yes. two yea rs in a short period of time. yes. two years ago we found thatjust over half were opposed to this, whereas a third, 34%, supported it. there has been a reverse. that is unsurprising given their has been a lot of attention about the difficulties the nhs has been facing over the winter. perhaps this could be the worst time for the nhs and is not surprising people wish to fund it. it is a different move for a politician to jump different move for a politician to jump on board the ship, because any politician who talks about raising taxes is in tricky territory. absolutely. there are two things going on. everyone believes in it and it is almost sacrosanct in this country. very few politicians would be willing to risk annoying the public over that. having said that, at the same time, we know there are parties that have suggested raising taxes and they do not do well at elections. we have competing forces. we know the nhs is also a political football on a number of occasions. it was important to the labour party last election. who could forget the £350 million a week we can now expect as a result of leaving the eu plastered on the side of a bus. even the most ardent brexit supporters have turned against that one. in terms of a specific percentage of income tax going to a specific task, imean, income tax going to a specific task, i mean, that notion is quite appealing to the electorate. you know where your muggy is going and it is designated. that is an appealing prospect. the lib dems have used that many times. in the 19905 they had a penny on income tax to pay for education and one for the nhs. the difficulty on that is that while individual policies may be popular, saying, oh, yes, a penny of income tax on this and that, when it comes down to the ballot box, people are far more hesitant to support parties historically speaking that wa nt to parties historically speaking that want to raise taxes than otherwise. we will leave it there. thank you for your time. from yougov. we were talking about a new survey suggesting baboons are closer to speaking. some even say that they could do it if they wanted to. they haven't done it yet, though. very interesting. you're watching breakfast from bbc news. the main stories this morning: us intelligence chiefs have rejected suggestions made by donald trump that they leaked claims russia had compromising material on him. it's an important day for the british high street, as a number of big names reveal how well they did over christmas. i accidentally said how whale they did. it is me talking about baboons getting new thinking about animals. any baboons in the weather forecast? my any baboons in the weather forecast? my cat donald can talk. i understand everything he says, like no one ever feeds me, give me some treats. that is wrong but i understand what he means. this morning, snowy. some have yet to see it and some already have yet to see it and some already have it. still windy in the northern half of the country in particular. you can see that from the spacing of the isobars. look at this area of pressure coming in. initially, south—westerly winds. it will bring rain asa south—westerly winds. it will bring rain as a result. as it goes through and the wind goes north—west, that will feed into this rain. some of it will feed into this rain. some of it will fall as the leif 0lson though. you'll snow this morning. —— sleet or snow. it will be at lower levels as well. scotland and northern ireland, snowy already. sleet and snow. there are showers. not all of us are snow. there are showers. not all of us are seeing them. snow in wales. you can see it is mostly rain. ahead of that, it still is dry. if you are in the south and east anglia it will not stay dry. wind is blowing across scotla nd not stay dry. wind is blowing across scotland and northern ireland. blizzards on the hills again. here is the rain. pushing through wales and the midlands and heading towards the south—east. you can see a south—westerly wind. behind that, a north—westerly. we will start to see things change. snow in the cotswolds. also hear. later on, we will see some of that at lower levels. parts of north—east england and scotland, missing this action. mostly a dry day but it will feel colder. it will feel cold everywhere are almost. through the evening rush—hour, look how we still have some rain but it starts to change more readily to sleet and snow. a risk of this at lower levels. pushing down towards kent. eventually it will clear away. behind that, the risk of some highs on untreated surfaces. going to be near continent it. the next batch of snow. some showers in northern ireland. then it continues by the end of the night to push down towards the north midlands and north wales. ahead of that, still dry with a risk of ice. then snow showers we pick that up again tomorrow. pushing down through east anglia, the london area, essex, kent, then clearing off. tomorrow, a fine day and dry day for most. a keen and cold wind. especially on the east coast. where we have showers they will be wintry in nature. that will create large waves which will coincide with the spring tide. there is the brisk in east england are just a risk of flooding. as we had into saturday, quiet and flooding. as we had into saturday, quietand dry flooding. as we had into saturday, quiet and dry weather around. rain comes in parts of western scotland. rain will come in. temperatures going up. rain on sunday going west to east. windfall will be lighter. look the temperatures, different compared to today. that does not mean it will stay like this into next week. mixed news. see you in a bit. christmas may be over but today we find out where shoppers spent their money over the festive period. it's a bumper day for figures, so we've sent ben down to the london stock exchange. we will get lots of results are from different companies this morning. there are a whole manner of different companies that will give out results. you will be busy. you are making me work hard this morning at the london stock exchange because normally we get involved in a couple of results. as we go and see whether they go well all bad. today we get many. tesco, jon lewis, waitrose, a whole list of companies reporting this morning. some of the biggest names on the high street. they will let us know how they fared over the christmas period. some will be good, some expected to be less good. we had two experts to talk us through those numbers. james and brian roberts. good morning to you both. tesco. we have had morrisons this week already. and sainsbury‘s. what are we expecting? quite positive news from tesco. kind of in the ballpark of plus 3% like from morrisons. they are going back to basics. both of them have corrected theirgame in terms basics. both of them have corrected their game in terms of availability, productivity and everyday low prices. that is telling us it is a successful strategy. notjust prices. that is telling us it is a successful strategy. not just over christmas, but over the course of the last 18 months. when we talk about the likes of tesco and sainsbury is and morrisons, it is about how we have changed our shopping habits. there is a tendency to pick things up on the way home. that is the story in the city. we are doing it in a different way. that is the story in the city. we are doing it in a different waym is split now. shoppers are now value conscious. they look on line and pick up some goods from some stores and others on line and others from their traditional supermarkets. a next. things may be different. we may actually see positive clothing sales for the first time in a year for mns. they have been through a difficult steer period. good has done well but they are trained to do things differently. —— food. done well but they are trained to do things differently. -- food. all eyes will be on those fashion numbers today. have they finally turned a corner, especially in womenswear. they are trying new designs. hopefully... they will be scared last week after some gloomy figures. but maybe after 15 years mns may be turning the corner. maybe some genuine growth in terms of fashion. debenham, not expected to do great. their core market is going elsewhere. they are much more under pressure. coming back to the point of people shopping in different places. they are suffering. jon lewis on the high street as well. mixed results from them. where are we expecting them to be on the reportgood news for waitrose but not so reportgood news for waitrose but not so much forjon lewis. food has been doing well. so has the rest of the business but under pressure compared to last year. what does that tell us about the state of the economy? some said christmas was the last big hurrah. inflation will change things this year. that has been the message. next morning they may need to increase prices by up to 5% as inflation comes in. supermarkets have said the national living wage has changed things as well. there will be an end to deflation. fashion designers will think about how they can continue to buy from the far east in dollars. it will be quite a tricky year across the retail spectrum in 2017. we will watch that very closely. for now, thank you very closely. for now, thank you very much. we will get those figures m, very much. we will get those figures in, oh, just about five minutes. bear with me. there will be a lot to read and get through. we will see you then. thank you. still to come this morning. i would stand on the table and square and say you are not my mum and dad. based on the back of that christmas eve i was kicked out. with the number of children in the care system in england at a 30—year high, we'll be looking at whether foster ca re or residential homes work best for vulnerable children with complex needs. time now to get the news, travel, and weather, where you are. good morning from bbc london news. i'm sonja jessup. transport bosses say they're prepared should wintry weather hit the capital later today. severe weather warnings in place this morning. 18 flights cancelled at heathrow as a precaution. tfl says more than 100,000 tons of salt are stockpiled, and it will be gritting roads and cycling routes, as well as de—icing the rails on the under and overground lines. and you can get the very latest on the travel situation throughout the day on bbc radio london and on our website. chelsea football club's plans for a new 60,000 seat stadium have been given the go—ahead by hammersmith and fulham council. the proposals include demolishing the current stamford bridge venue and building a walkway over the nearby district line. it's expected to cost half a billion pounds. the final say will be down to the mayor sadiq khan. let's have a look at the travel situation now. a city worker who was diagnosed with cancer just weeks after both his best friend and mum died of the disease has made history by conquering the south pole. rob smith reached the south pole on monday evening after becoming the first british explorer to pioneer a new route, battling temperatures as low as minus 35 celsius. let's have a look at the travel situation now. the tube is off to a good start. no reported problems so far. that's apart from those ongoing works on tfl rail services. that means it's not running between brentwood and shenfield. there are no southern trains to and from beckenham junction, guildford and wimbledon because of industrial action. reduced services on all other routes now. 0n the roads, here's the a13. it's getting busy westbound heading out of dagenham into barking. in vauxhall, we've still got gas works holding traffic up, restrictions on vauxhall bridge, millbank and grosvenor road. we will have travel bulletins throughout the day with regards to those warnings. now for a full forecast from elizabeth rizzini. good morning. today we could possibly see some wintry weather across the london area. a fairly quiet start. cloudy. temperatures between four and six degrees. heavy rain in the late morning and afternoon. some could turn wintry as the day goes on. a met office weather warning for the snow on the high ground especially. it could be at lower levels through the evening rush—hour as well. to begin today, dry. then rain spreads in from the west. the rain could cause a problem. a lot of rainfall in a short period of time. a poor day weatherwise. 4—7 degrees later on this afternoon. some of the rain will turn to sleet and snow in the high ground. maybe to lower levels as it pulls away. this includes the evening rush—hour. possibly treacherous driving conditions later on. then everything will refreeze. problems with ice into tomorrow morning. possibly even some more wintry weather. tomorrow, largely dry and sunny. it will be very windy as well. all of this is subject to change. so do keep an eye eye on the forecast. i'm back with the latest from the bbc london newsroom in half an hour. plenty more on our website at the usual address. now, though, it's back to charlie and steph. bye for now. hello, this is breakfast, with steph mcgovern and charlie stayt. a stand—off between donald trump and us intelligence services over claims about his private life. i think it was disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out. now the head of intelligence services in america hits back, saying they weren't involved in any leaks about the president—elect. good morning, it's thursday, 12th january. also this morning: ben's in london on an important day for some of our biggest shops. we have a raft of retail results today and we will find out how some of the biggest names fared over christmas. m&s, john lewis and tesco. plans coming up. plans for a billion pound project to use the tides in swansea bay to generate electricity are backed by a senior government advisor. in sport: southampton lead liverpool in their league cup semi—final. nathan redmond gave the saints a 1—0 win in the first leg. warnings of icy weather. carol has the weather. good morning. is snow. and, ireland and northern england. some of us will stay dry with some sunshine. the south we have rain from the south—west moving east with hill snow. later on some of it will fall as sleet or snow at lower levels. i'll have more details in 15 minutes. thanks, carol. good morning. first, our main story. the us director of national intelligence has rejected suggestions made by donald trump that official agencies leaked claims 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. 0ur washington reporter laura bicker has the story. donald trump's not a huge fan of the press corps but he had a message to send to the media and us intelligence agencies. he believes they leaked unsubstantiated allegations that his election team colluded with russia. it is all fake news, it is phoney stuff, it didn't happen. there are also claims russian spies have compiled material to blackmail mr trump, including salacious videos of his private life. does anyone really believe that story? i'm also very much of a germaphobe, by the way, believe me. the bbc understands the russian memos on mr trump were compiled by a former member of mi6, christopher steele. the director of national intelligence james clapper has called the president—elect. he said the leak did not come from within us intelligence. and they have not made anyjudgement that the information is reliable. as donald trump moved the media towards his business dealings he confirmed he was handing total control of his empire to his sons. these papers are just some of the many documents i have signed turning over complete and total control to my sons. that too is proving troublesome. the ethics committee has now said his plan doesn't meet past presidential standard. this performance was a typically eccentric and bombastic piece of political theatre, which his supporters will love. but it did little to counter the swirl of controversies which surround this president—elect. the latest figures on waiting times in the nhs will be published later this morning. it comes as the chief executive of nhs england simon stevens has questioned government claims that the health service is getting more funding than it asked for. a survey published today suggests an increasing number of people would be prepared to pay more tax to fund the nhs. 42% of people surveyed by yougov said they would back the move up from 34% in 2014. we know the nhs is a massively important issue for many people and the strong believe in it being free at the point of delivery is sacrosa nct at the point of delivery is sacrosanct in this country and very few politicians would be willing to risk annoying the public over that. having said that, at the same time, we know that parties that suggest raising taxes at all do not generally speaking do well at elections, and so you have both of these competing forces. doctors believe they are closer to understanding why chronic stress increases the risk of heart disease and strokes. theirfindings, published in the lancet, suggest that increased activity in the part of the brain which responds to fear and anger prompts the production of extra white blood cells. this can make the formation of blockages in the arteries more likely. plans for the uk's first hydro—electric tidal lagoon will take a significant step forward today. a report from the former energy minister charles hendy concludes that the technology can deliver a secure supply of clean energy, with swansea bay the front runner for the £1.3 billion project. roger harrabin has more. 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, so why not build a seawall to capture the outgoing tide? that is the plan from a private firm. they will use hydroelectric turbines to generate power as the water flushes through gaps in the seawall. the cost was thought too high for billpayers to bear. a review says it will need subsidy but it is not as dear as it looks. if you look at the cost spread over the entire lifetime, 120 years to the project, it comes out at 30p per household for the next 30 years. that is less than a pint of milk. that is where i think we can start a new industry at an affordable cost to consumers. supporters hope we will see lagoons dotted around the coasts, that will bring down the cost, they say. but anglers fear the impacts of lagoons on wildlife, and the review advises government to agree terms forjust one of them and then wait and see. temperatures across the uk are expected to fall over the next couple of days, bringing the possibility of snow in some areas. some flights have been cancelled already. 0ur correspondent steven godden is in dunfermline this morning which has seen some snow already, what can we expect over the coming days? it looks pretty cold at the moment. absolutely. a sign of things to come. this is what people in central scotla nd come. this is what people in central scotland are waking up to it and it is making it a challenge for people to get around in the rush—hour. i am standing at around about beside scotland's main motorway, the m90 heading south towards the fourth road bridge. good news is it is moving, which wasn't the case yesterday, when a lorry went across and was blown onto its side by 70 mph winds. it took them the best pa rt mph winds. it took them the best part of the four hours to recover the lorry and it meant the fourth road bridge, a main artery up and down these coastal scotland, was com pletely down these coastal scotland, was completely closed. it is reopened. they managed it around nine o'clock. things are moving. across the uk there will be difficulties as the weather came in. you about cancelled flights at heathrow. people should prepare for more scenes like this. thank you. volkswagen has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the united states for using illegal software to cheat emissions tests for its diesel vehicles. its been ordered to pay fines of more than £3.5 billion, the largest penalty ever levied by the us government against a car manufacturer. we know they can walk like you but scientists believe that monkeys might also be able to talk like you. the results of a study into the grunts baboons make has found they create five sounds similar to the vowels we use to say words. it had been thought baboons did not have the larynx needed iam not i am not sure that the baboon sound has been very helpful. who would have thought? it had been thought baboons did not have the larynx needed to make vowel sounds. the research suggests language might have begun to evolve earlier than previously thought. so you think you didn't understand what they were saying? we interrupted the conversation when they were agitated.” interrupted the conversation when they were agitated. i heard something about getting us about the fries. was it that? ok. we have all of the weather and sport coming up shortly. it was supposed to be the moment donald trump began his transition to president ahead of his inauguration in just over a week's time. instead, mr trump's first press conference as president—elect was dominated by allegations against him. we will be getting the view of a member of his transition team in a moment but first here is a reminder of some of the key moments from yesterday. it is all fake news, it is phoney stuff, it didn't happen, i think it is an absolute disgrace. and that is something that nazi germany would have done and did do. they looked at that nonsense which was released by maybe the intelligence agencies, who knows? can you give us a question? don't be rude. can you give us a question? i am not going to give you a question. you are fake news. bbc news, that is another beauty. if putin likes donald trump, i consider that an asset, not a liability, ‘cause we have a horrible relationship with russia. russia can help us fight isis which, by the way, is tricky. i do know that i am going to get along with vladimir putin. i hope i do. as far as hacking i think it was russia. do you honestly believe hillary would be tougher on putin than me? does anyone in this room believe that? give mea anyone in this room believe that? give me a break. the only one who ca res give me a break. the only one who cares about my tax returns are the reporters. no, idon‘t cares about my tax returns are the reporters. no, i don‘t think so. i won. i became president. my two sons, who are right here, are going to be running the company, they are going to be running it in a very professional manner. 0therwise, if they do a bad job, i will say, "you‘re fired." goodbye, everybody. republican commentator jan halper—hayes is a member of donald trump‘s transition team and joins us from our london newsroom. good morning. can you just explain this idea of the transition team. what are you transitioning to? what happens is that generally, in april or may of last year, the president, so, the incumbent, would start to prepare his transition team. because all the policies, administrative, the programs, the initiatives, what ever they have been doing has to be passed onto the new administration. then what happens is the ones we think that will get the nomination, so, there were a couple until trump got it, they put the team together and talks began. they begin to learn what has been going on. the biggest thing we are dealing with right now is trump needs to make 4000 political appointments. and so carter, clinton, george bush, it took a year to get all of it done and our goal is to have it done in may. and you are part of the team, the transition team ? may. and you are part of the team, the transition team? yes. looking at the transition team? yes. looking at the press conference, at the moment, mrtrump, he cannot the press conference, at the moment, mr trump, he cannot get away from controversy, mr trump, he cannot get away from co ntrove rsy , ca n mr trump, he cannot get away from controversy, can he? no, he can't. and i think it is because... we cannot call it love hate, it is a hate—hate relationship. there are sunny people who didn‘t want him to be president and they are still wanting to delegitimise him. —— there are so many people. give him a chance to prove himself. if he fails, he fails. if you look at some of the things around either controversy, it is allegations of russia has compromising material on him, and this is something the intelligence agencies thought was serious enough to put to mr drum and mr0bama, so it serious enough to put to mr drum and mr 0bama, so it is not, you know, there are legitimate things behind this if the intelligence agencies say, we need to talk to you about this? -- mr trump. note, not at all, it was presented to them so they knew what was going on. clapper came out yesterday and he was outraged that it had been released because they do not consider it to be valid. the fact of the matter is that this supposedly mi6 agent has gone to ground. when has there been, either controversy, i can‘t say it the way you do, a controversy around trump when people haven‘t come out, people have come out of the woodwork because there are so many people who wa nt to because there are so many people who want to prove him wrong and taken down. —— take him down. then it was put together as republican opposition for a never trumper and it was given to someone who really hates trump. guess what, 4chan came out and admitted they knew some of the people that fabricated the story. sorry to interrupt, so there is clearly issues, but fundamentally how is he going to — you know, he talked in the conference about prioritising is, but how will he do that when in conflict with the intelligence services? the trust is not there at the moment. it isn‘t. i said yesterday one of the reasons it might have been released by a supposedly intelligent service was that they were not happy that he had been criticising them the past couple of weeks. first of klapper and brennan are going to be gone, the other political appointees within the intelligence service will be gone with in a period of time. —— clapper. he is going to consider reorganising it so they focus on things but they‘ve also lost their credibility by partisan. 0bama came out and said he realised he couldn‘t trust the intelligence services because when he called isis jv, he blamed the intelligence services board telling him it wasn‘t a serious issue and he didn‘t need to worry about it. it‘s gone on, it‘s become too political because it‘s even come out, on both sides of the political spectrum, democrat and republican, that they have tailored the information and given it to 0bama to make him happy rather than giving him the hard truth. thanks very much, republican commentator and part of donald trump‘s transition team. ben is at the london stock exchange with the details. lots of big numbers coming out about some of the biggest players in terms of stores, tesco included. what have you got? let me run you through some of them, a really busy morning at the stock exchange because all of the stock exchange because all of the retailers have let the stock market and all bus know how they have fared over the crucial christmas period. forgive me, there‘s a lot of numbers to get through. let‘s start with marks & spencer. sales up by 1.3% on a like—for—like basis, comparing this year with last. that is a good result for marks & spencer because you will know they have had a tough time of late. what i want to do is break those figures down because this is where it gets interesting. closing sales were up by 2.3%. familiar tale over the last few yea rs has familiar tale over the last few years has been clothing sales have fallen at marks & spencer and it has been food sales that have been propping everything up but in this update they tell us clothing sales are up by 2.3%. just a rise of 0.6% forfood, are up by 2.3%. just a rise of 0.6% for food, not are up by 2.3%. just a rise of 0.6% forfood, not doing quite are up by 2.3%. just a rise of 0.6% for food, not doing quite as well on food, but overall sales up at marks & spencer by 1.3%. at tesco, slightly different, we already heard this week from sainsbury‘s at hand morrisons, today it is the turn of tesco telling us that sales rose by 0.7% over christmas —— at morrisons. good for them. looking at the quarter as a whole, the last three months, not just quarter as a whole, the last three months, notjust christmas, they we re months, notjust christmas, they were up 2%. some others, debenhams telling us sales were up by 1%, a good result for them because many in the city were expecting sales at debenhams to fall but they are up by 196. debenhams to fall but they are up by 1%. crucially they say online sales did particularly well for them, up by 14%. mothercare says sales were up by 14%. mothercare says sales were up by by 14%. mothercare says sales were up by 1% during the quarter and again it saw online sales rising sharply, up by 5.5%. 0nline, macro asos said sales were up 13% and it has done well around the world. looking at the fall of the pound, it said sales were up 50% around the world. a lot to get through, a lot of results, all turning out positive and a good christmas for our retailers. we are still waiting to hear from retailers. we are still waiting to hearfrom john lewis retailers. we are still waiting to hear from john lewis and waitrose, i will get those figures to you as soon as will get those figures to you as soon as i have got them. we will leave you crunching the numbers. interesting about marks & spencer is, first rising clothing sales for quite a while! here‘s carol with a look at this morning‘s weather. we saw stephen in dunfermline earlier, very snowy and cold, you have a very snowy picture behind you, is that what we can expect? of of last but not all of us. at the moment we have snow in the north of the country, rain in the south. —— some of us but not all of us. windy in the north, look at the isobars, or blizzards in the scottish mountains. this area of low pressure moving from west to east in the south of the uk. we have south—westerly winds here that are mild but as it pushes east the wind the years to a north—westerly which is cold, as it cuts into this rain it will more readily turn to sleet and snow. —— veers. snow showers in scotland, northern ireland and northern england, showers, so not eve ryo ne northern england, showers, so not everyone will catch them, watch out for highs on untreated surfaces and in between them we will have sunshine today. hill snow in some parts of the country. —— highs on untreated surfaces. —— ice. through the day in the north, the winds will ease but it will still be windy, we continue with snow showers and in the southern third of the country, you can see the rain moving across, hill snow with it, in between, dry weather and sunshine but as the wind veers too that north—westerly direction we see it falling as sleet and snow, also to lower levels. wherever you are it will feel cold but add on the strength of the wind and for some it will feel bitter, even raw. through the rush—hour, again we have the risk of sleet and snow, a lot of it on the hills, some of it down to lower levels pushing through the south—east to east anglia and clearing kent. behind this quickly it will turn icy on untreated surfaces, so if you‘re travelling then take extra care. through the evening and overnight, rain in the northern isles but snow inland in scotland, pushing south to northern england. snow showers coming in on the wind in northern ireland and by the end of the night we will have that snow resting in parts of northern england, the north midlands and north wales. drier but cold and icy ahead of it. them through tomorrow morning, you can see how the snow continues across east anglia, heading through the london area we think at the moment, down through kent and then it clears. leaving tomorrow dry and brighter but cold if you‘re exposed to the wind again. windy down the north sea coastline where we could have gales, any showers we have here could be wintry in nature and with the big waves being whipped up by the big waves being whipped up by the wind and also the spring tide, the wind and also the spring tide, the two of them merging, there‘s the risk down the east coast of england potentially for some coastal flooding. into saturday, a lot of dry weather, the winds that bit lighter, cloud in over in the west. snow coming into western scotland and north—east england ahead of this band of rain. look at the rain on western sunday, moving from the west to the east. 0ne western sunday, moving from the west to the east. one thing you will notice on the weekend is the temperature, it is going back up but it went necessarily stay up next week. keep your thermals on standby. —— won‘t. the welfare of some of england‘s most vulnerable children in care is being put secondary to budgets, according to a former senior government advisor. lord laming, a former chief inspector of social care services, says some children with complex needs are being put into foster families rather than given specialist support in residential homes. the number of children in care in england is at its highest since the 19805. jayne mccubbin reports. liam hilland liam hill and lem liam hilland lem said liam hill and lem said they suffered at the hands of a care system that didn‘t care enough. at the hands of a care system that didn't care enough. how many times where you fostered? 42 times. 42 foster placements! liam‘s mum was unable to look after him. at the edge of five he went into ca re him. at the edge of five he went into care but went on to have 42 foster placements, 24 care home visits. lem had just one long—term foster fa m ily visits. lem had just one long—term foster family and shortly after this picture was taken, they gave him up. it was not care, it‘s called care but care was the last thing that i received. i remember standing up on the table and swearing to them that you're not my mum and damp, i know who my mum is and i want to go back to my mum and based on that on christmas eve i was kicked out. liam tells us he was denied any specialist help and bounced around the care system for the next 13 yea rs. the care system for the next 13 years. foster carers aren't trained for therapeutic help. 0ne years. foster carers aren't trained for therapeutic help. one of the issues they put me into foster care and not a residential place because of money. a child in a foster family isn‘t necessarily the right place for it to be, a children‘s home if you get the right treatment can be an incredible place to be. do you really believe that? i don't believe it, i know it. successive governments have agreed for most children fostering is a better option, that‘s why the proportion of looked after children in homes has fallen from a high of 40% in the 705 to 11% today. house excessively we look after these children matters. look in prisons and you‘ll see between a quarter and a third of inmates have been in care. the howard league for penal reform said some blame lies with care homes specifically. we've identified children living in residential homes and are in care are more likely to be criminalised. and we‘re worried that might be because the children‘s homes themselves are using the police as respite care, or to control children when they haven‘t got the resources. children's homeowners tell me they are under attack and at times like this they have specially trained staff able to deal with the rising tide of children who need specialist help. we‘re always frowned upon, we‘re a lwa ys we‘re always frowned upon, we‘re always the last in the queue. my job‘s more difficult now than it‘s ever been. some of the traumas that young people go through has got predominantly worse over the last couple of years. the truth is there just aren‘t enough places out there for all of the looked after children. but the fear is too many of those children are in the wrong kind of place and getting the wrong kind of place and getting the wrong kind of place and getting the wrong kind of support. former government adviser lord laming, the man who chaired the victoria climbie eight enquiry shares those concerns. he told me he fears children with complex needs are being fostered not because it‘s the best option but because it‘s the best option but because it‘s the cheapest option. jayne is here now. there‘s no escaping it, liam and lemn, harrowing hearing there experiences but it‘s important to point out this isn‘t pitching foster ca re point out this isn‘t pitching foster care against residential care. it's not a criticism of foster care. lord laming‘s concern is that it‘s not right for everybody and he‘s concerned local authorities have lost 40% of budgets since 2010, residential care costs £3000 a week, foster ca re costs £600 residential care costs £3000 a week, foster care costs £600 a week. harvey gallagher from the nationwide association of fostering providers says there‘s no doubt residential ca re offers says there‘s no doubt residential care offers more specialist care but foster carers care offers more specialist care but foster ca re rs a re care offers more specialist care but foster carers are professionals and they get inspected in the same way as homes by 0fsted. they get inspected in the same way as homes by ofsted. we will be talking later to lord laming. what is the government response? they say we look after all people who look after children. right now they are doing a stock take to look at the skills they have access to to see if people need more and they will report back on that early this year. scotla nd report back on that early this year. scotland and wales? interesting, scotla nd wa nt scotland and wales? interesting, scotland want the best residential child care in the world by 2018. they won all home staff to have degree level qualifications in childcare. in wales they have concerns, like the howard league, that children in homes slip into the criminal system and they are getting onto that this year. in england the government with the youth justice board is also looking at that but they don‘t believe the blame for children being proved that macro lie lies is with the homes, they believe the fault is with the difficult history these children have. interesting topic. thanks, and we will be speaking to lord laming a little later in the programme. time now to get the news, travel and weather where you are. good morning from bbc london news, i‘m sonja jessup. severe weather warnings are in place for the capital with transport bosses preparing for possible snow and ice which could cause disruption during this evening‘s rush hour. up to 80 flights have been cancelled at heathrow as a precaution and passengers are being advised to check for the latest information with their airline. tfl says it will be gritting roads and cycling routes, as well as de—icing the rail lines. chelsea football club‘s plans for a new 60,000 seat stadium have been given the go—ahead by hammersmith and fulham council. the proposals include demolishing the current stamford bridge venue and building a walkway over the nearby district line. it‘s expected to cost half a billion pounds and the final say will be down to the mayor sadiq khan. a city worker who was diagnosed with cancer just weeks after both his best friend and mum died of the disease has made history by conquering the south pole. rob smith reached the south pole on monday evening after becoming the first british explorer to pioneer a new route, battling temperatures as low as minus 35 celsius. travel now. the tube is running well so far this morning apart from those ongoing works on tfl rail services, which mean it‘s not running between brentwood and shenfield. there are no southern trains to and from beckenham junction, guildford and wimbledon because of industrial action reduced services on all other routes this is how it looks in stockwell, there‘s been an accident we‘ve got southbound restrictions in place on the a3 clapham road. and an accident on the m25 means we‘ve only got three lanes open, anticlockwise between junction 11 for chertsey and junction ten for the a3. now, though, let‘s get a full forecast from elizabeth rizzini. good morning. today we could possibly see some wintry weather across the london area. but it is a fairly quiet start. quite cloudy. temperatures between four and six degrees. heavy rain in the late morning and early afternoon. some could turn increasingly wintry as the day goes on. a met office weather warning for the snow on the high ground especially. it could be at lower levels through the evening rush—hour as well. to begin today, dry. then rain then spreads in from the west. the rain could cause a problem. a lot of rainfall in a short period of time. a poor day weatherwise. winds will pick up. 4—7 degrees later on this afternoon. some of the rain will turn to sleet and snow in the high ground. maybe to lower levels as it pulls away. this includes the evening rush—hour. possibly treacherous driving conditions a little bit later on. then everything will refreeze. problems with ice into tomorrow morning. possibly even some more wintry weather through the morning rush—hour tomorrow. tomorrow, largely dry and sunny. it will be very windy as well. all of this is subject to change. so do keep an eye eye on the forecast. i‘m back with the latest from the bbc london newsroom in half an hour. plenty more on our website at the usual address. now, though, it‘s back to charlie and steph. bye for now. hello, this is breakfast, with steph mcgovern and charlie stayt. the us director of national intelligence has rejected suggestions agencies may have leaked claims that russia had compromising information about donald trump. in a statement, james clapper said he had called the president—elect to say the leak had not come from the intelligence community. he also said agencies had not made anyjudgement on whether the unsubstantiated allegations about mr trump were reliable. some of the biggest high—street names have released christmas results. tesco and demens reported growth and john lewis will report in the next hour. —— debenhams. plans for the uk‘s first hydro—electric tidal lagoon will take a significant step forward today. a report from the former energy minister charles hendry concludes that the technology can deliver a secure supply of clean energy, with swansea bay the front runner for the one—point—three billion pound project. doctors believe they are closer to understanding why chronic stress increases the risk of heart disease and strokes. theirfindings, published in the lancet, suggest that increased activity in the part of the brain which responds to fear and anger prompts the production of extra white blood cells. this can make the formation of blockages in the arteries more likely. more than 3,000 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. volkswagen has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the united states for using illegal software to cheat emissions tests for its diesel vehicles. its been ordered to pay fines of more than £3.5 billion — the largest penalty ever levied by the us government against a car manufacturer. and one last story for you. should robots be given legal status as "electronic persons"? that‘s what meps are due to debate as they vote for the first time on rules for how humans will interact with artificial intelligence. they‘ll also decide whether designers need to build in a kill—switch which will allow robots to be shut down in an emergency. a report submitted to the european parliament suggests failure to prepare for advances in robot technology could pose a challenge to humanity to "control its own creation". that is hard going, isn‘t it? that is hard going, isn't it? they are big questions, those. very sinister. maybe i need an off switch at times. it is quite scary, isn't it? legal status for robots. they have a robot world cup injapan. there is no danger of it taking over the ocean of football. we hope not. southampton are starting to dream a little bit about wembley. they have to go to liverpool in a couple of weeks. they could have scored more. nathan redmond‘s cool finish gave saints a lead to take to anfield for the second leg in a fortnight‘s time. they‘ll play either manchester united or hull city in the final. former france midfielder claude makelele has been appointed assistant coach at swansea. the 43—year—old joins paul clement‘s team, signing a deal until the end of the season. makelele worked with clement during his playing stint at chelsea and as a coach with paris st germain. manchester city have been charged by the football association for breaching anti—doping regulations regarding information. clubs have to provide training details and players‘ overnight addresses on request, and it‘s understood that the club failed to update this when training schedules changed. they have to respond to the charge by next thursday. england women‘s record goal—scorer kelly smith has retired. the 38—year—old scored 46 goals in 117 games for her country. she quit the international game two years ago. but at club level, smith was a champions league winner and also won the fa cup five times in three spells with arsenal ladies. she became the first english professional player when she went to play in the usa in 1999. she‘s been given a coaching role with arsenal. we will speak with herjust after 8:30am this morning. in the next few hours british number onejohanna konta plays eugenie bouchard in the semi final of the sydney international — a warm up ahead of the australian open. laura robson won‘t be there next week though — she says she felt "sluggish and flat" as she lost in qualifying to amandine hesse of france. bbc sport understands that sam warburton‘s six—year spell as wales rugby union captain is to come to an end ahead of the six nations tournament that starts next month. warburton is still expected to be part of the squad which is named on tuesday but he‘s ready to relinquish the role he‘s held since 2011. alun wynjones is the leading candidate to succeed warburton. i think alan is a good choice because of his consistency and performance, he is always up for the game. his performance level never drops. you would hope the captaincy wouldn‘t affect him. he is very senior international. the burden of captaincy shouldn‘t affect his performance. he is an excellent and obvious candidate. one other rugby union line, joe marler will miss at least the first of england‘s six nations matches, against france. the harlequins prop broke his leg in the warm—up before the weekend game against sale. earlier this week, marler‘s quins team—mate chris robshaw has already been ruled out for the entire tournament. jim furyk will captain the us ryder cup team at next year‘s event. as a player, furyk has played in nine ryder cups. he‘s named davis love ii! as a vice captain for the 2018 competition, which will be held in francejust outside paris. it has the teamwork, competition, camaraderie, the competition, it brings fans worldwide, and i get chillsjust thinking about all the events i have been able to participate in, and now to stand here as 2018 captain, see here as 2018 captain for 2018 is such an honour. nba basketball returns to london this evening. the denver nuggets are taking on the indiana pacers at a sell—out o2 arena. the nba global games london is celebrating its 10th season in the capital. i think for both teams they will be excited about being here. of course they travel a lot throughout the united states and a little bit to toronto, canada, but for the most part they are all in the united states, so they will treat it as a big deal. a big weekend of basketball as well with the men and women‘s cup finals on sunday. who knew it was the fourth most played sport? 336,000 per month in the uk. thanks very much. we all know stress isn‘t good for us but for the first time research has suggested that reducing it benefits both our physical and mental health. a study published in the lancet has looked at the function of an area of the brain called the amygdala. it‘s responsible for emotions, survival instincts, and memory and is more active when we are stressed. authors believe the response it produces could also cause heart attack and stroke. joining us from our london newsroom is dr mike knapton, medical director of the british heart foundation, and neil shah, founder of the stress management society, is here in the studio. very good morning. welcome. if! very good morning. welcome. if i can first ask you, tell us more about the amygdala. it is a new word for me. this research — have i said it correctly? tell me about it?” me. this research — have i said it correctly? tell me about it? i call it the amygdala. it is a small area of the brain, quite deep in the brain, the part of the brain responsible for stress, a motion, memory, though is deeper, less conscious functions that the brain is responsible for. and what this study has shown is that it is a novel mechanism linking our emotional lives with very physical manifestations such as heart attack and stroke. and while it was a small study, it does provide us with another mechanism to study within the research laboratory, which might in time have implications for patients that i would see as a gp, in terms of managing their cardiovascular risk. it is not a shock, though, is it, because we know, don‘t we, that stress causes physical manifestations, don‘t we? we certainly do, so the common one would be a racing heart, perhaps sweating a little bit, obviously the emotional side of it, feeling anxious or perhaps depressed. the important thing about this research is trying to understand how those emotional affect, which are often caused by external life events, stressful work environments, marital problems, money problems, how that sort of stuff then leads to very physical manifestations in the body such as heart attack and stroke. because if we can understand those mechanisms, we might be able to intervene to improve people‘s outcomes. so, neil shah, that is the medical evidence in the lancet today, i suppose a lot is about how today, i suppose a lot is about how to try to help yourself, because stress is something people have to deal with one way or another. we can't avoid stress, and we should aim to avoid it, it is being able to recognise it and understand steps to ta ke recognise it and understand steps to take to do something about it. the first step is people don't understand what stress is. it is not an emotion, it is a physical response is hidden by nature as a survival mechanism. your body has an inbuilt mechanism to put you into a flight inbuilt mechanism to put you into a flight or fight a state, instigating physiological changes triggered by releases of hormones, such as adrenaline, which equip you to fight ha rd adrenaline, which equip you to fight hard or run fast. perfectly appropriate response as a short—term intervention. we were not designed to live in stress. most people in modern society living in a state which was designed to put you into a state long enough to survive an attack from a sabretooth tiger.m sounds like there is good and bad stress. that would suggest there is different types. there is only one response. i call it stress used appropriately or inappropriate. in an emergency, stress is good. if you are at your desk, overwhelmed by deadlines, watching bbc breakfast and getting nervous, i would say it is about using it appropriately or inappropriately will stop being in a state of stress can have a damaging effect to your physiology. let me ask you a question on this, what do you advise patients who are stressed? yes, so, as we have heard, the first thing is to recognise that there is stress happening. i would say as ourgp there is stress happening. i would say as our gp that all my patients will have psychological and physical issues, and the important thing is to recognise that it is happening. in terms of managing it, there are a number of interventions. quite a lot of them, people can manage it if they understand what is happening. that understanding in itself is quite therapeutic. but for other people who are affected by more severe levels of stress, which is affecting their physiology, but also their life, it is preventing them from living a full and productive life, there are more interventions, such as psychological therapy, cbt, cognitive behavioural therapy, and the like, so there are a range of interventions to choose from. the main thing is to recognise it in the first place. if you don‘t do that, you won‘t be able to address it effectively. thank you. and neil, my attention is drawn to your lively show. and people might have noticed your shoes. i don‘t mean to be flippant. is your shoes. i don‘t mean to be flippa nt. is it your shoes. i don‘t mean to be flippant. is it part of dealing with stress ? ca n flippant. is it part of dealing with stress? can things you do, things you wear, have a bearing on how you feel? absolutely. as i said, being able to express yourself. expression is really important. something to highlight is that mental health issues are at epidemic proportions. the number one reason for death under45 in britain the number one reason for death under 45 in britain is suicide sadly because a lot of them don't find it comfortable expressing themselves emotionally, and expression is so important. what you have to bear in mind is the quickest way to change your psychology is to change your physiology. the best way to do that is to move, to be active, laughing changes your physiology, you know, even sitting and having a laugh at my shoes will change the way your bodyis my shoes will change the way your body is functioning. so, you know, expression, physicalactivity, laughter i , enjoyment will impact your stress. enjoyment wil , enjoyment will impact your stress. i wasn‘t laughing at your shoes. thank you for your time this morning as well. i will see you tomorrow, won‘t i, in a flamboyant outfit? just for the hell of it. there we go. here‘s carol with a look at this morning‘s weather. you might be crying after this forecast, not laughing. good morning. we have some snow on the ca rd morning. we have some snow on the card is today, not everywhere, some of us already have it and still windy in the northern half of the country, you can see it by looking at the isobars so blizzards on the mountain is. this area of low pressure has south—westerly winds around it, a mild direction, taking rain from the west to the east but later in the day as the wind goes to a north—westerly the cold air feeds turn the rain more readily to snow. we have snow showers this morning already in scotland and northern ireland, showers so not everyone seeing them and the same in northern england and northern wales, some snow showers but the risk of ice on untreated surfaces. for wales we are likely to seize snow this morning but for most coming from the south—west and wales this morning my rain, ahead of it we have some dry weather and sunshine. through the rest of the morning we continue with the snow showers in the northern half of the country, the blizzards in the mountains and slowly the wind will ease and meanwhile the rain continues to drift to east anglia, essex and kent. some of this will be heavy and could lead to some localised surface water flooding but not the wind, still south—westerly in the south—east. here we have the rain. but as it cuts in as a north—westerly we start to see the snow. snow in the cotswolds, the mendips, the chilterns as well and as we go through the day here, exposed to that it will feel cold but especially when you add on the windchill in the north feeling below freezing. let‘s pick up this rain again, there it goes moving to the near continent, falling as snow in parts of the home counties, towards london, east anglia and kent before it clears. sleet and snow as i mentioned. behind it, the risk of ice on untreated surfaces and a widespread risk as well. through the evening and overnight, here comes more snow pushing across scotland and into northern ireland and northern england and pushing by the end of the night through north wales and also the north midlands. as we go through the course of tomorrow picking up that band of snow, this is the rush hour remember, there it goes pushing down towards the south of the midlands, the home counties, east anglia and clearing away from kent. as it does it will brighten up, behind its some sunshine, wintry showers in the north and west and strong winds, gales down the east coast and north sea coastline. any showers here will be wintry but hit and miss. the other thing is the winds will bring large waves, which will coincide with the spring tide. across parts of the east coast of england there‘s the risk we could see some coastal flooding. something certainly worth bearing in mind. is another cold day. as we head on to saturday, dry weather around, a new weather front will bring rain preceded by snow in western scotland and western england as it goes steadily east. this is the picture on sunday, the rain in many areas clearing to the east, showers coming in the behind but one notable feature will be the temperatures, going up but not staying there. kind ofa kind of a mixed picture, it‘s going to get warmer but then cold again, it builds your hopes up and then ta kes it builds your hopes up and then takes everything away! that's the weather for you! some business news today, lots of big figures bringing out their results today including tesco and mothercare. ben‘s at the london stock exchange for us this morning crunching all the numbers. we have nipped outside today, carol isn‘t lying when she says it is turning cold, but we have gone outside the stock exchange in the shadow of saint pauls in the heart of the city. plenty of people going to work around me, getting busier. this is the london stock exchange. the reason we are here is it is a really busy important day as far as retail results are concerned. we‘ve been talking about those because there‘s a raft of retailers reporting this morning. we‘ve had figures from marks & spencer this morning, they have said sales are up by1.3% and morning, they have said sales are up by 1.3% and it‘s a really interesting story, their clothing sales have risen, up by 2.3%. we have been so used to them struggling to sell clothes but they have done really well. we‘ve also heard from tesco this morning, up by 1.7%, debenhams up 1%, mothercare up by 1% and a host of other retailers. it seems like it‘s been a good christmas both on the high street and online. let‘s delve into some of those numbers. good morning, brian. 0verall those numbers. good morning, brian. overall we have heard a good time for retailers? pretty much, some robust figures across the board, store based and online, the only negative stories so far this year has been a dismal report from nxt and a bad result from asda yesterday so and a bad result from asda yesterday so overall a robust performance from everyone. mns, good clothing sales, a real surprise, many of us have talked about how they have struggled to sell clothes, but this time it looks like they might have got something right? -- mns. up 2.296 like unlike, that was something to do with the way christmas bell on the calendar, but likely to fall back into the next quarter. —— christmas fell. the chief executive of mns said they held their nerve this time and they didn‘t discount things too quickly —— marks & spencer is. especially things like black friday. —— marks & spencer. it might mean they made profit. black friday. —— marks & spencer. it might mean they made profitm means higher margins. black friday 2017 is likely to be limited to electronics and entertainment, it hasn't worked for supermarkets or clothing retailers. tesco, another good set of figures, not as good from the likes of morrison‘s this week but they actually beat sainsbury‘s. week but they actually beat sainsbury's. very respectable from tesco, they did well on the premium end and fresh produce, lots of innovation in food and getting back to basics, availability, service and pricing coming through. good numbers from the co—op and tesco and morrisons, the only weak link being asda. let's talk online, that familiar tale, the online retailer is doing well and the online bits of the high—street doing well. the likes of asos, the clothing firm, doing very well. yes, asos, boohoo doing very well. yes, asos, boohoo doing well, mine specialists thriving and for the big ones like john lewis, which we will hear from soon, their big struggle is making the stores work with online and hanging onto the economics of people returning goods and click and collect but overall it is knitting together well for these retailers. thanks, brian. a lot to get through but as brian was saying it looks like it has been a good time for those retailers. we will have the figures from john lewis in about eight minutes. see you then. back in 1970, bron burrell was the youngest driver in the world cup rally from london to mexico and now half a century later she‘s been reunited with her car and is competing again. at the age of 72 she‘s planning to re—stage the first leg of the rally this april. breakfast‘sjohn maguire caught up with her in training. there were so many people, i was staggered there were so many people interested in the rally, we didn‘t expect... i think there were 10,000 there or something. wembley, 1970, and the handover of the world cup hosting duties from england to mexico is marked by a car rally between the two countries. sir alf ramsey waves them off and in car 20, three women about to start one of the toughest rallies ever staged. we we re the toughest rallies ever staged. we were going to be away for six weeks, which seemed like a lifetime, but it wasn‘t a lifetime, it was a flash. there‘s us in our lovely green sea addresses and red pufferjackets and there we are, starting our huge adventure. of course 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 hair for that. the team was well prepared mechanically and personally. we decided the best thing here was to have paper knickers, we had colour—coded paper knickers, mine was white, the others were pink, green and blue so we didn‘t have to worry about washing knickers. they we re worry about washing knickers. they were forewarned of the dangers along the 16,000 mile route but decided against being forearmed. teams had told us that if we wanted to we could take guns for protection. they asked us and i said to tish, is that asked us and i said to tish, is that a good idea? so we decided against it but there were cars who carry guns. she has now bought their original car. path that magic wagon they called it is once again race ready. what a shame that tish is no longer with us, she would have loved this. she would have loved doing it like we are doing. she is going to miss it. the joy is she would be jacking up the tire, you would be loosening the nut, i would be getting the wheel off. i would be back on the roof or in the car. 0ne minute and 50 seconds? that was right. something like that. tell you what, shall we take it out on the track and give it a turn and see it we can still do it? bron hasn't driven competitively since the early 705 but you would never guess. driven competitively since the early 70s but you would never guess. you can see bron comes from a rallying background, certainly not lacking in confidence in the car today but you can see she was making quite a lot of little mistakes and that‘s why she‘s coming back with us in the future to have those amended. she‘s coming back with us in the future to have those amendedm april they will drive to portugal once again, this time in a classic or ali. it's a bit more control because of health and safety, you can‘t do what you use to do, you used to have one night‘s sleep in five days but not any more —— classic car rally. things have changed, especially the driver, but she is still as fast and the furious as ever. bron, she isn‘t hanging around. she‘s the type of person you want taking you to the workplace in the morning! still to come on breakfast: he‘s the soldier turned magician who won britain‘s got talent. richard jones will be on the sofa to talk about his new tour, the relationship between magic and the military and of course he‘ll be performing a couple of tricks as well. time now to get the news, travel and weather where you are. good morning from bbc london news, i‘m sonja jessup. severe weather warnings are in place for the capital with transport bosses preparing for possible snow and ice which could cause disruption during this evening‘s rush hour. up to 80 flights have been cancelled at heathrow as a precaution and passengers are being advised to check for the latest information with their airline. tfl says it will be gritting roads and cycling routes, as well as de—icing the rail lines. chelsea football club‘s plans for a new 60,000 seat stadium have been given the go—ahead by hammersmith and fulham council. the proposals include demolishing the current stamford bridge venue and building a walkway over the nearby district line. it‘s expected to cost half a billion pounds and the final say will be down to the mayor sadiq khan. a city worker who was diagnosed with cancer just weeks after both his best friend and mum died of the disease has made history by conquering the south pole. rob smith reached the south pole on monday evening after becoming the first british explorer to pioneer a new route, battling temperatures as low as minus 35 celsius. the tube is running well so far this morning, apart from those ongoing works on tfl rail services, which mean it‘s not running between brentwood and shenfield. there are no southern trains to and from beckenham junction, guildford and wimbledon because of industrial action, reduced services on all other routes. this is how it looks in stockwell. and an accident on the m25 means we‘ve only got three lanes open anticlockwise between junction 11 for chertsey and junction ten for the a3. and long delays on the a1 southbound towards borehamwood after a breakdown. now, though, let‘s get a full forecast from elizabeth rizzini. good morning. today we could possibly see some wintry weather across the london area. but it is a fairly quiet start. quite cloudy. temperatures between four and six degrees. heavy rain in the late morning and early afternoon. some could turn increasingly wintry as the day goes on. a met office weather warning for the snow on the high ground especially. it could be at lower levels through the evening rush—hour as well. to begin today, dry. then rain then spreads in from the west. the rain could cause a problem. a lot of rainfall in a short period of time. a poor day weatherwise. winds will pick up. 4—7 degrees later on this afternoon. some of the rain will turn to sleet and snow in the high ground and chilterns. maybe to lower levels as it pulls away. this includes the evening rush—hour. possibly treacherous driving conditions a little bit later on. then everything will refreeze. problems with ice into tomorrow morning. possibly even some more wintry weather through the morning rush—hour tomorrow. tomorrow, largely dry and sunny. it will be very windy as well. all of this is subject to change. so do keep an eye eye on the forecast. i‘m back with the latest from the bbc london newsroom in half an hour. and of course you can stay up to date if we do have wintry weather hello, this is breakfast, with steph mcgovern and charlie stayt. a stand—off between donald trump and america‘s intelligence services over claims about his private life. i think it was disgraceful. disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake, out. now the head of intelligence services in america hits back, saying they weren‘t involved in any leaks about the president—elect. good morning, it‘s thursday 12th january. also this morning, ben‘s in london on an important day for some of our biggest shops. we‘ve had a whole raft of retail results this morning, and it‘s good news for marks and spencer. it‘s reported a rise in sales, and crucially, for the first time in a long time, a big rise in clothing. are voters willing to pay more taxes to boost spending on the nhs? a survey suggests nearly a half of them are, we have a special report. in sport, southampton take a step towards wembley. they lead liverpool by 1—0, after the first leg of their league cup semifinal, thanks to nathan redmond‘s goal. there are warnings of snow for many parts of the country, this is what it looks like in dunfermline this morning. carol has the details. good morning. we have snow showers across scotland, northern england, northern ireland and north wales. not all of us are seeing them. lizards in the mountains of scotland. further south, rain lizards in the mountains of scotland. furthersouth, rain coming in across the west of wales, further south west. as the wind changes to a north—westerly later on will see some sleet and snow at lower levels. more details in 15 minutes. good morning. first, our main story. in the last few hours, the us director of national intelligence has rejected suggestions made by donald trump that official agencies leaked claims russia had compromising material on him. in a statement, james clapper said he had called the president—elect to say the information had not come from the security services. 0ur washington reporter laura bicker has the story. donald trump‘s not a huge fan of the press corps, but he had a message to send to the media and to us intelligence agencies. he believes they leaked unsubstantiated allegations that his election team colluded with russia. it is all fake news, it is phoney stuff, it didn‘t happen. there are also claims russian spies have compiled material to blackmail mr trump, including salacious videos of his private life. does anyone really believe that story? i‘m also very much of a germaphobe, by the way, believe me. the bbc understands the russian memos on mr trump were compiled by a former member of mi6, christopher steele. the director of national intelligence james clapper has called the president—elect. he said the leak did not come from within us intelligence. and they have not made anyjudgement that the information is reliable. as donald trump moved the media towards his business dealings he confirmed he was handing total control of his empire to his two sons. these papers are just some of the many documents i have signed turning over complete and total control to my sons. that too is proving troublesome. the ethics committee has now said his plan doesn‘t meet past presidential standards. this performance was a typically eccentric and bombastic piece of political theatre, which his supporters will love. but it did little to counter the swirl of controversies which surround this president—elect. laura becker, bbc news, washington. we will be speaking to a former russian prime ministerial aide about the donald trump allegations at about 8:30am. some of the biggest names on the high street have been releasing their christmas sales figures this morning. they are coming in thick and fast. good news from marks & spencer but you‘ve also gotjohn lewis results. it's it‘s a really busy morning. we are right at the heart of the city of london. you‘ll know all the companies have to report to the stock exchange to tell them how they did over the christmas period. the standout winner so far this morning has been marks and spencer. it‘s a really interesting tale. they say their sales are up by 1.3%. if you start to break down where they have seen start to break down where they have seen growth, it‘s in clothing. first time ina seen growth, it‘s in clothing. first time in a long time their clothing sales have done much better. they are up by 2.3%. we‘ve heard from the boss of marks & spencer. he said that‘s down to two things. he says we‘ve got things a bit better but it‘s also that they held off from discounting. you might not have seen many sales in store before christmas at marks & spencer. that means they are able to sell things at full price. they didn‘t put them on discount just to get price. they didn‘t put them on discountjust to get people through the doors. so a good period for marks and spencer. tesco similarly upbeat. sales rose by 0.7%. we‘ve already heard from sainsbury‘s, we‘ve had figures from morrisons as well. good news from them too. debenhams sales are up by 1% as well. some figures we‘ve just got through from john lewis, reporting sales are up by 4.9%. another good christmas forjohn lewis. 0verall sales are up by 4.9%. another good christmas forjohn lewis. overall it seems to be a story of online doing very well for the bricks and mortar high—street retailers. also some surprisingly good figures. john lewis up by 5% but marks and spencer the standout winner with its clothing sales rising for the first time ina clothing sales rising for the first time in a long time. studio: thank you. doctors believe they are closer to understanding why chronic stress increases the risk of heart disease and strokes. theirfindings, published in the lancet, suggest that increased activity in the part of the brain which responds to fear and anger prompts the production of extra white blood cells. this can make the formation of blockages in the arteries more likely. plans for the uk‘s first hydroelectric tidal lagoon will take a significant step forward today. a report from the former energy minister charles hendry concludes that the technology can deliver a secure supply of clean energy, with swansea bay the front runnerfor the £1.3 billion project. roger harrabin has more. 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, so why not build a seawall to capture the outgoing tide? that is the plan from a private firm. they will use hydroelectric turbines to generate power as the water flushes through gaps in the seawall. the cost was thought too high for bill payers to bear. a review says it will need subsidy, but it is not as dear as it looks. if you look at the cost spread over the entire lifetime, 120 years to the project, it comes out at 30p per household for the next 30 years. that is less than a pint of milk. that is where i think we can start a new industry at an affordable cost to consumers. supporters hope we will see lagoons dotted around the coasts, that will bring down the cost, they say. but anglers fear the impacts of lagoons on wildlife, and the review advises government to agree terms forjust one of them and then wait and see. roger harrabin, bbc news. temperatures across the uk are expected to fall over the next couple of days, bringing the possibility of snow in some areas. some flights from heathrow airport have already been cancelled this morning, in anticipation of the wintery weather. the met office has issued yellow "be aware" warnings for much of the country. 0ur correspondent steven godden is in dunfermline this morning, what‘s the situation there. as we can see from the images around you the snow has already kicked in there. it has. this was what people have been waking up to in parts of scotla nd have been waking up to in parts of scotland this morning. we‘ve got the snow on the ground, and freezing temperatures which is making it that bit more challenging for the people who are trying to get around this morning. i‘m standing beside a roundabout, one of scotland‘s busiest motorways. if you had that way you get onto the forth road ridge. things are moving, that‘s a different picture to yesterday when there was huge disruption caused by a lorry being blown over. it caused a lorry being blown over. it caused a huge amount of damage to the ridge. it took them the best part of 24 hours to recover that vehicle and to repair it. the high winds that calls that, more of them are forecast today and into tomorrow. parts of scotland, northern ireland, and also in england as well. at heathrow we‘ve seen more than 70 flights cancelled later this afternoon, most of those because of the weather. that's the situation in dunfermline this morning. a full weather forecast coming up shortly. we know they can walk like you but scientists believe that monkeys might also be able to talk like you. monkey chatter to be fair, that could sound like me occasionally! the results of a study into the noises baboons make has found they create five sounds similar to the vowels we use to say words. it had been thought baboons did not have the larynx needed to make vowel sounds. the research suggests language might have begun to evolve earlier than previously thought. as steph mentioned, that example of bad moon language may not be the best exa m bad moon language may not be the best exam in! we didn‘t understand a word of it! —— baboon language. the nhs has been facing a long, harsh winter. pressure on staff and services has reached unprecedented levels and raises questions about how to ensure a sustainable health service. so would you be willing to pay more tax if the money went directly to fund hospitals? a yougov survey seen by bbc breakfast suggests many people would, nearly half of voters, 42% to be exact, would be in favour of a tax rise, in order to increase spending on the nhs. graham satchell has been looking at how we‘ve reached this point. hospitals are full, patients we are told are at risk, doctors say it has been the worst week in the nhs in living memory. i think it is fair to say that currently we are in a crisis. we have been seeing the number of admissions going out yearly. we have seen the number of beds going down yearly. it is no surprise we have reached the point where the system cannot cope any more. there are simple reasons that the nhs is struggling. to start, it is winter and more are ill and more of us are ending up in hospital. one in two of us are getting cancer. it used to be one in three. that is because people are living longer. we have to do more with what we have. pressure is nothing new but professionals say that doing much more with what they have got, the budget, won‘t work. the government says it is investing record amounts in the nhs. that is true. we spend more on the health service than ever before. in england, it will be £120 billion next year. nhs england says in real terms, spending per head will go down in 2018. what is the solution? in a yougov poll, the public were asked this question — would you support increasing the basic rate of income tax from 20—21% and using that money raised to increased spending in the nhs? 42% said yes. for someone on an average income, it would mean giving the taxman £118 extra per year. i wouldn‘t mind it. if it needs it, definitely. the nhs to me is a bottomless pit. you can pour money into it, and it doesn't necessarily do anything. i think you can always pay a little bit extra in your tax. you moan about it but, yes, you get on with it. people might say they would pay more tax to fund the nhs but putting up taxes is politically tricky, and the government is certainly not talking about it, so what will happen if funding isn‘t substantially increased ? people might have to say, ok, we won‘t spend any more, so we have to wait longer. there might be stuff that you have to get in a year‘s time, rather than 18 weeks. but then you have to start talking about what we will stop doing, and that is really hard. it means people are then going to have to pay for those things. should taxes go up to fund the nhs? is continued deterioration of services inevitable? many want a broader more honest debate about the future of the health service. we can talk now to alastair mclellan, editor of the health service journal, and a longstanding observer of what‘s been happening within the nhs. good morning. thank you forjoining us. good morning. thank you forjoining us. there‘s a lot of debate about at the moment, between the prime minister and the chief executive of nhs england, about funding and whether there‘s enough of it. what are your thoughts? the row between simon stephens who is the chief executive of nhs england, a lot of people won‘t have heard of him, but he is the man responsible for spending one in ten of every pound the country produces. he‘s a very significant figure. he is quite upset the government keeps suggesting that the nhs is being given more funding than it asked for. but for the point he was at pains to make when he appeared in front of the committee yesterday. it was very categorical, what he said, is that what marks it out from previous rows overfunding? yes indeed, back in 2014, the nhs made and ask of government, it said, we know money is tight, but we reckon we can improve services if you give us we can improve services if you give us around £8 billion worth of funding. now, the government has been saying, we have given you more than £8 billion, and those who are running the nhs, i think, they think thatis running the nhs, i think, they think that is very dangerous, because they think the nhs is under a lot of pressure, and if the impression is created that the nhs is somehow getting more money than it needs, thenit getting more money than it needs, then it gives an excuse for government not to take action to deal with some of the really intense pressures in the service at the moment. we have been asking people for their opinions, and for questions, and one from abbey on facebook, could we ever put enough money into the nhs, or is it a black hole? well, if you compare our spending to countries that are comparable, france, germany — we are spending significantly less money on health care in this country than comparable countries in europe. in an organisation, a system as large as the nhs, £100 billion plus, there is always going to be waste, inefficiency. there are very significant rise to try and reduce that inefficiency now, and as i say, the international comparisons suggest we‘re not spending enough money on health. what are your thoughts on the 1% extra on tax advocated to the nhs? what is it, 4296 advocated to the nhs? what is it, 42% of people saying they would be in favour of that? it is an idea that has been around for a very long time, it is reproduced every couple of years or so. i‘m just mindful that the last time we saw tax raised for the nhs back in 2002, that was by labour government on the back of ten yea rs by labour government on the back of ten years of economic growth. even then, they did it through national insurance, rather than through income tax, and that is when waiting times were sometimes failing to hit 18 months, as opposed to 18 weeks, which is the target now. so i understand the logic behind it, but i think it is very unlikely. what do you think is going to happen if nothing is done, if we don‘t see any increase in funding and things continue this way? well, it is very likely that we will have corps million people on the nhs operations waiting list this year. —— four. what will happen first of all is that access times will increase, it will take longerfor that access times will increase, it will take longer for people to receive treatment, both elective treatment, seeing gps, emergency care, and then they will turn to the nhs offer and whether it can be restricted. we have already seen a number of clinical commissioning groups begin to remove things like ivf treatment cycles from their offer to patients. interesting. thank you very much boil time this morning. —— for your time this morning. —— for your time this morning. we are talking snow and ice, what is the picture? much of the country will see it today, and it is still windy, as you can see from the spacing of the isobars. for a time, there will be blizzards on the mountains. we have an area of low pressure bringing rain from the west and moving eastwards. the wind around it is coming from the south—west, a milder direction, but as it continues to drift towards east anglia, notice how it changes to more of a northwesterly. that is salient because it is cold and it will turn the rain into sleet and snow falls. this morning the northern half of the country continues with wintry showers, and we will not also them, but there are issues on the a74, closed between junctions eight and nine at the moment. some of the rain will be heavy and could lead to issues with local surface water flooding. into the afternoon, we hang on to the showers across scotla nd hang on to the showers across scotland and northern ireland, parts of eastern scotland having a dry, cold day with sunshine. the same for northern ireland, some areas will miss the showers, and the same for northern england, much of it staying dry with sunny spells. by mid—afternoon, philsnow dry with sunny spells. by mid—afternoon, phil snow in wales, the rain continuing across southern areas. “— the rain continuing across southern areas. —— he‘ll dominic temperatures will be cold, but most of us above freezing, and it will field below freezing, and it will field below freezing for many areas in the wind, especially in the north. picking up this band of heavy rain and snow, you can see more of it pushing down to the london area into kent, into east anglia before eventually clearing away. behind it a risk of ice on untreated surfaces, so bear that in mind if you are travelling. we will have rain across 0rkney and shetland, snow moving across scotland, showers across northern ireland on the northwesterly, and the snow pushing across northern england in 20 wales and the north midlands by the end of the night. ice wrist behind that too. if we pick up that snow for the brush our tomorrow, it goes through the rest of the midlands, east anglia, essex, kent, the london area, before clearing to digne continent. down the isco is, we will be looking at gales. that is important because we will see spring tides combined with that. dashed down the east coast. as we head into saturday, quite a different day, dry weather, some sunshine, not nearly as cold, some snow a head of the next weather front coming in, bringing some rain, pushing from the west to the east, behind it some showers, but nine and ten on the chart once again. but they are not here to stay into the next working week. those temperatures look promising, but i know they will go back again! the allegations that the kremlin holds compromising material about donald trump have been dismissed as fake news by the president—elect and pulp fiction by russian authorities. it has emerged several media organisations knew of the story for months but didn‘t feel comfortable reporting it, so how much confidence can we have in the claims? former russian prime ministerial aide natalya pelvina joins us from moscow now. thank you very much for your time this morning. the president—elect says that these allegations are fake news, they are false. why should we give them any credibility? they have had a lot of publicity, but why should they have any credibility? well, they describe very much the methods of the russian secret service. natalya, my apologies, we‘re just service. natalya, my apologies, we‘rejust going to service. natalya, my apologies, we‘re just going to stop for a second, because there is a problem with the line, we are not hearing you very clearly. if you bear with us you very clearly. if you bear with usa you very clearly. if you bear with us a moment, we will maybe come back to that. we will check the line and come back to it, my apologies, natalya. we were just going to talk about some of the allegations about donald trump and whether there should be any credibility to the suggestion that the russians hold any compromising information about him, we will try to come back to that. i was just reaching over, because lots of questions coming in about nhs funding as well. carolyn was asking on facebook and social care for the elderly worked perfectly, what difference would it make in terms of alleviating the current pressure on the nhs? cat smith on facebook is talking about what you can do to try to stop people going to a&e if they don‘t need to. the time i is 8:20 three. back in 1970, the youngest live in the world cup rallied to mexico has been reunited with her car and is competing too. she is planning to restage the first leg of the rally this april. john maguire has been to catch up with her. there were so many people, i was staggered there were so many people interested in the rally, we didn‘t expect... i think there were 10,000 there or something. wembley, 1970, and the handover of the world cup hosting duties from england to mexico is marked by a car rally between the two countries. sir alf ramsey waves them off, and in car20 three women about to start one of the toughest rallies ever staged. we were going to be away for six weeks, which seemed like a lifetime, but it wasn‘t a lifetime, it was a flash. there‘s us in our lovely green c&a dresses and red pufferjackets, and there we are, down the ramp, 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. we decided the best thing here was to have paper knickers, so we had colour—coded paper knickers. i think mine were probably white, tish was pink and tina was blue. so we could discard them, we didn‘t have to worry about washing knickers. they were forewarned of the dangers along the 16,000 mile route but decided against being forearmed. teams were told that if we wanted to, we could take guns for protection. they asked us and i said to tish, "is that a good idea?" so we decided against it but there were cars who did carry guns. almost 50 years on and safer times. bron has now bought their original car. puff the magic wagon, as they called it, is once again race ready. back with the car again. what a shame that tish is no longer with us. i know. she would love this. she would love to be doing it like we are going to be doing. we are going to miss her when we need to change a tyre, you know. she would be 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. one minute and 50 seconds? something like that? that was right. tell you what, shall we take it out on the track and give it a turn and see it we can still do it? bron hasn‘t driven competitively since the early ‘705, but you would never guess. you can see bron comes from a rallying background, she's certainly not lacking in confidence in the car today. but you can see she was making quite a lot of little mistakes, and that's why she's coming back with us in the future to have those amended. in april, they‘ll drive to portugal once again, this time in a classic rally. it‘s a bit more controlled because of health and safety, you can‘t do what you used to do. you used to do rallies and have one night‘s sleep in five days but not any more. things may have changed, but the car and especially the driver are as fast and the furious as ever. she is going to do well, i think! time to get the news, travel and weather where you are this morning. good morning. it‘s going to feel cold for us today. still very cold airand the winds cold for us today. still very cold air and the winds will blow in some more snow showers. a boundary between the cold air and the mild air. that boundary is this weather system, here. as the colder air digs in behind that we will find that rain turning to sleet and snow. in late morning it‘s mostly snow over the hills of wales. but weather moving across southern england towards the south—east. further north, the air is colder. more wintry showers in the north—west of england and more snow showers. for northern ireland and scotland these will be heavy. not so many showers for the eastern side of scotland but there will be a cold wind blowing across northern areas, keeping those snow showers going. the wet weather sliding into the midlands, starting to turn to sleet and snow during the afternoon. heading further into east anglia and the south—east. the rain will be heavy and will feel cold. colder still further north where we‘ve got those stronger winds. towards late afternoon, we‘ll find that rain turning to sleet and snow. especially in the south—east of england. most of the settling will be over hills. as it quickly clears away later in the evening it turns icy. notjust icy in the south—east buticy icy. notjust icy in the south—east but icy patches elsewhere in the uk, complicated by bands of wintry showers moving down through scotland into northern england, towards wales and the midlands. cold overnight, temperatures about freezing across many parts of the country with some icy conditions. particularly treacherous with the sleet and snow moving down through the midlands into east anglia and the south—east for the morning rush hour. after that we‘ve got wintry showers around areas exposed to those strong, northerly winds. for many, friday will be sunny but cold, feeling particular cold down those north sea coasts given we could have some severe gales. this is business live from bbc news with sally bundock and aaron heslehurst. the director of the us office of government ethics has sharply criticised donald trump‘s plan to hand his global business empire to his sons before he becomes president of the world‘s biggest economy — in just eight days‘ time. live from london, that‘s our top story on thursday 12th january. from boardroom chief to commander—in—chief. trump hands control of his business empire to his sons. but ethical questions will remain for america‘s richest—ever president. plus — "i apologize to the south korean people". samsung boss jay y lee is questioned in a growing corruption scandal.