12/01/2017 BBC News at One

American intelligence agencies did not leak claims that Russia has

compromising material on Donald Trump, says the head of US

James Clapper say he spoke to Mr Trump and they had agreed that

such leaks were damaging to national security.

The man behind the report claiming Russia has compromising material

on the US President-elect is understood to be a former MI6

More festive cheer for the high street as Marks and Spencer,

Debenhams and Tesco report better than expected figures

Dozens of flights are cancelled at Heathrow as heavy snow starts

Creating a tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay - the government

backs the idea to boost the Uk's energy supplies.

And coming out of retirement - the 72-year-old former rally driver

And coming up in the sport on BBC News:

High hopes for British number one Johanna Konta,

who warms up for the first tennis major of the year -

by reaching the final of the Sydney International.

Good afternoon and welcome to the BBC News at One.

The US Director of National intelligence has rejected

suggestions made by Donald Trump that official agencies may have

leaked unconfirmed claims that Russia had compromising

In a statement, James Clapper said he had called the President-elect

to say the leak had not come from the intelligence services.

This morning, that was flatly denied by the president elect himself.

The Kremlin said they hoped that Donald Trump and Mr Putin would give

along and there would be more mutual respect between the two countries.

Eight days from now, Donald Trump goes into battle as the next

commander-in-chief. Never before has an incoming president been warring

on so many fronts. Not you, not you. Your organisation is terrible. Your

organisation is terrible. Let's go. Go ahead. Quiet. Quiet. He is in

conflict with the press, the ethics committee, pharmaceutical and

defence industries, some of his own Senators, and of course the

intelligence agencies. The dossier they investigated was an open

secret. Journalists had been working on it for months. It is a tale of

sordid sexual escapades, Russian espionage multi-million dollar cash

payments funded to the Trump campaign. The question for

Washington insiders is whether it is fact, part fact or fiction. And was

the leaking political? I think it is deeply misguided for anybody at any

level to question the integrity and motives of the patriots who serve in

our intelligence community. It doesn't mean they are always right,

but questioning the motives is another thing altogether. The man

who first compiled the intelligence is 52-year-old Christopher Steele, a

former British buyer who works here. He is now in hiding with his wife

and children, in fear of his life. Mr Steele had worked on the Russian

desk at MI6 for 20 years. In the 90s he spent time at the British Embassy

in Moscow. More recently he had been hired to gather information on Mr

Trump, first by Republicans and later Democrats. The allegations his

undercover war -- he uncovered were handed to the FBI. With nothing to

report, the media steered clear until a 2-page summary was handed to

President Obama this week and Mr Trump himself. As early as last

summer, there were reports circulating that the Russians had a

tip. Whether or not the sources were telling the truth, we wait to see.

These allegations are being treated as credible by the US intelligence

community. Compromat, is how the Russians

describe it. This year, the former Prime Minister, now a leading

opposition figure, was allegedly taped having sex with his assistant

behind his wife's back. He blamed the FSB. Even if there is no film,

Mr Trump's presidency might already be compromised and not only by his

dealings with Russia. Yesterday he ceded control of his business empire

to his two adult sons, but in the eyes of the ethics committee in

Congress, there is not enough distance to absolve him of any

conflict of interest. In short, there are more questions than

answers and no amount of tweeting from the President-elect, this is

the latest, is going to remove the clouds that are circling next week's

inauguration. Gary O'Donoghue is our

correspondent in Washington. He joins me now. An extraordinary

situation just days before he becomes president. How problematic

that this fractious relationship with the US intelligence services

before him? He has gone to a new low. The war of words, a public war

of words between a President-elect and the people that he is meant to

trust to keep the country safe. It is really unprecedented. I think the

only light at the end of the tunnel, potentially, is that the leadership

of many of these organisations, the CIA, for example, will change when

Donald Trump comes in. As will the head of the director of national

intelligence, he will be a new man in that job, as of January 20. And I

think Donald Trump will be hoping he can rebuild the relationship,

because recently cannot afford to be at war with these people. They are

his eyes and ears, not just at home in terms of protecting the country

from terrorism but also abroad as well. Protecting America's national

interests around the world. It is a serious situation for him and the

problems are piling up. The office of government ethics says that his

business plans do not pass muster in terms of the standard expected from

the president. I'm sure he will try to write that out because he has a

Trump card in that regard, the idea that presidents cannot be the

subject of a conflict of interest. Our security correspondent is with

us now. How much do we know about this former MI6 officer who has

compiled this dossier? Quite a lot. Normally there is a blanket ban on

putting any details out into the public about former members or

current members of the intelligence agencies but that has effectively

been lifted as of ten o'clock last night. Christopher Steele is a

52-year-old father of four with three cats. He lives in Surrey and

he is a former Russian specialist at MI6. He was -- it is more accurately

known as the secret intelligence service. He left ten years ago and

set up a business intelligence firm and was hired by a firm of

Washington lobbyists to look into allegations of Donald Trump's

relations with Russia, and what he discovered in his report alarmed him

sufficiently that in August he gave his findings to the FBI. They then

sat on them, but they leaked out from October. And as you have heard,

the US intelligence people are saying that they did not leak it but

in those allegations, included in that are allegations that Donald

Trump was in a room with Russian prostitutes, and that they have got

what is called compromising material on him. Sex espionage, it is an all

trade in Russia that has been going on for quite some time. There is no

substantiation so far. I think what we may be looking at is a repeat of

the so-called WMD dossier scandal where somebody has put out in their

report what has been said, without any proof, and the caveats had been

stripped out of it. Probably more has been made of this than is

actually there. Thank you, Frank Gardner.

There was a lot of festive cheer for many of the UK's high street

Marks and Spencer saw a return to growth in its clothing

division and homeware, after years of decline.

Tesco, Debenhams and John Lewis all reported better than expected

Our Business Correspondent, Emma Simpson, reports.

Mrs Claus was popular this Christmas, delivering presents in

Marks Spencer's glossy campaign. And this business served up a far

bigger surprise present then just shoes. For the first time in two

years, clothing sales are up by more than 2%. It is getting back to

serving its core customers. The close are stylish, but without being

too cutting-edge, and it has brought down clothing prices. It has also

focused on getting the price right the first time so that when you buy

something, there is less risk of the price being reduced in a couple of

weeks and you have to ticket back to get a better deal. Too soon? Nah,

bring it on. And King good for Britain's biggest retailer, enjoying

an increase in sales, more proof that we have splashed out on food.

On Christmas Eve, Tesco was serving 266 customers a second. If you look

at the picture, on the whole it looks like retailers have done

pretty well. Some had OK Christmases, some had really good

Christmases. What that means is that consumers as a whole have gone out

and spent a lot in the shops. Here is where the real growth is. Online.

Today, ASOS reported a huge surge in sales. And John Lewis, a whopping

40% of its business this year came from internet sales. But these

department stores are also costly to run. Although festive trading has

been decent, the staff bonus will be lower this year. The chairman told

me that he is preparing for challenging times ahead. There are

pressures on costs, pressures on prices, and those things are

happening, and we have a consumer, who knows what happens next year,

but the predictions are that we will see a slowdown in the growth in

consumer income. Christmas was not sparkling but spending was solid

overall. The questionnaires, can it be maintained? -- the question is.

Dozens of flights of been cancelled at Heathrow Airport amid warnings

that blizzard conditions will hit parts of the UK today.

Heavy snow has already hit parts of Northern Ireland and snow showers

and strong winds are also being forecast for Scotland,

Our correspondent, Frankie McCamley, is at Heathrow.

Let's be clear, this is pre-emptive because there is clearly no snow at

Heathrow at the moment. Absolutely. Heathrow Airport says that they made

this decision yesterday. They wanted to give passengers time to move on

to earlier flights. Or time to change their plans completely. What

the report says is that these runways operate up to full capacity,

so they needed to decrease the number of flights to make sure that

when these delays happen, when the snow falls, they will be able to

keep flights consistently taking off. Elsewhere, Gatwick has also had

to cancel four flights. We are looking at Birmingham, Manchester

and Edinburgh. They say their business is running as usual. Here,

British Airways is the main operator and it is offering passengers that

have had their flights affected refunds or the chance to change onto

other flights. The advice for passengers travelling later on this

afternoon is to check before you travel but as you mentioned, there

is no snow here at the moment. It has just started raining. How big

the disruption is, that will depend on how much snow does fall over the

next few hours. Thank you. No snow at Heathrow but a different picture

in Stirlingshire. Lorna Gordon is in rural

Stirlingshire for us. How disruptive is it expected to be?

When the snow showers sweep through, the conditions here are proving a

little unpleasant. It is leading to isolated incidents on the roads

around rush hour. Earlier today on the M74 south of Glasgow, there was

gridlock. The road had to be closed for a time to allow the gritters to

get in. The lorries trying to travel on that stretch of motorway finding

the icy conditions quite difficult. There has been some jackknifed

lorries across Scotland, some cars skidding off the roads, but for the

most part, those 200 gritters of that were out overnight have been

managing to keep the roads clear. The road that you see behind me, it

is the Anine, that runs up the spine of Scotland, towards the Highlands

and further north. I have been driving on it today and when the

snow showers pass it is a little tricky but for the most part

conditions are OK. This has been a relatively mild winter here in

Scotland. And this has been described as a short, sharp blast.

It has not been a good season so far but the ski slopes, they will be

hoping that some of the snow settles for a while and it is forecast that

on higher ground, there may be up to eight inches of snow. Lorna Gordon,

thank you. For the first time in a decade,

ministers from Greece, Turkey and Britain are sitting down

for talks on re-uniting Cyprus. The island has been divided

for forty years between the Turkish controlled north and the Republic

of Cyprus in the south. One of the main sticking

points is the presence of 30,000 Turkish troops,

something Greek Cypriots Jonny Dymond has been looking

at at the roots of the conflict. Cyprus was once a British colony but

by 1974 the Greek and Turkish sides were at war. Turkey launched an

invasion, after Greek Cypriots declared a union with Greece. Ever

since independence, Britain, Greece and Turkey have been guarantor

powers with a role in the island's future. Turkey conquered one third

of the island. Its troops stayed put. And one of the world's longest

frozen conflicts began. The capital is divided between Turkish and Greek

Cypriots. The so-called greenline runs through the city, controlled by

the UN, it is a daily reminder of the island's division. The Turkish

controlled north declared independence in 1983. Only Turkey

recognises the territory as a country. The rest of the world shuns

it. In 2004, a UN plan to reunify the island was put to a vote. The

Turkish Cypriot north said yes. The Greek Cypriot south said no. And a

divided island joined the European Union. In the talks in Geneva, there

are still serious obstacles to be cleared. But there is a chance, a

good one, but this time the frozen conflict will end.

Those talks are taking place in Geneva, and our

diplomatic correspondent, James Landale, is there.

How likely is that they will strike a deal? The official position from

the awareness that a deal is within reach, but there's still a lot of

work to go. Clearly there are some positive signs. You've got everybody

saying the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot

communities are determined to get a deal. Turkey and Greece have so many

other issues on their plate, but I think there's a determination better

get a deal, so they can solve one of their problems. The international

community is piling into Geneva. You've got Boris Johnson and his

Turkish and Greek counterparts, Theresa May, the Prime Minister,

says she is willing to come if that would help. Similar signals from

Athens and Ankara. There's a huge amount of good intention here.

However, as Jonny Dymond said, there are still obstacles. The big

obstacle is the question of how you guarantee the security of both sides

once there's been some kind of reunified power-sharing federal

government. It's a big issue. It centres on whether or not the

Turkish army would be allowed to keep 30,000 troops on the island in

the North on as they do now. It's a lot of work to be done on that. The

thing that is really constraining these talks is that whatever is

agreed here at in this extraordinary building behind me has to be

acceptable to the people of North and south Cyprus in a referendum

that would happen later this year. So nothing here is going to be

definitively agreed and sorted out, until that moment happens. So they

can make some kind of political framework agreement here, but the

real test will be whether or not they can sell it to the people back

home in Cyprus. James Langdale in Geneva, thank you.

The head of America's National Intelligence Agency says

they weren't the source of the leak that Russia has compromising

Back behind the wheel - the 72-year-old rally driver making

Coming up in the sport at 1:30pm: Refusing to play -

High hopes for British number one Johanna Konta who warms up for the

Australian Open by reaching the final of the Sydney Cup

International. Tidal lagoons - could they be

the answer to ensuring secure power A review is recommending that the UK

should build tidal lagoons And today, the government

gave its backing to plans to build one in Swansea Bay -

after the report said it could provide clean,

reliable electricity for more than 150,000 homes for

more than a century. Here's our environment

analyst, Roger Harrabin. Will this be the UK's latest source

of low-carbon energy? The tides in Swansea Bay are some

of the highest in the world, and utterly predictable,

so why not build a sea wall The sea wall will trap the outgoing

tide, then hydroelectric turbines will generate power as the water

flows through the gaps The cost was thought too high

for bill payers to bear. But a review says the annual subsidy

isn't as high as it first appeared. If you spread the cost

of the subsidy over the 120 lifetime, bear in mind these

will last two times as long as a nuclear power station,

three or four times as long as an offshore wind farm,

if you look at it in that way, then essentially the cost of this

for a consumer is less than a pint of milk

on their electricity Supporters hope we'll see lagoons

dotted along the western shores. That'll bring down

the cost, they say. We need the government

to get on with it. We need manufacturing scale

to support industrial regeneration. It's great renewable energy and it's

great for supporting jobs, Friends of the Earth support

the lagoon for the clean The bird charity RSPB

are cautious about the impacts. It would stop up fish,

it would delay their migration, it could have impacts

on seals and dolphins, with loss of habitat

in the Severn estuary, but furthermore the economics

on which this scheme is based and that's a huge time

during which other technologies could come on stream,

and we just don't think the lagoons will last that long before they get

clogged up with silt. Today's report suggests

the government should agree terms for one lagoon,

then wait and see. Some breaking news. In the last few

minutes it's been confirmed that the former England manager Graham Taylor

has died. He was 72. Let's speak to other sports correspondent Andy

Swiss, who is at the BBC Sports Centre. He was a player, then a

manager, a pundit. He's been a big figure in the world of football for

a long time now. That's right, yes, this is very sad news which has just

broken within the last few minutes. Graham Taylor first rose to

prominence as manager of Watford between 1977 and 1987. He was hired

by the then new owner Sir Elton John. He guided Watford from the

fourth division to the First Division in just five years, an

extraordinary achievement. He guided them to the FA Cup final. He became

manager of Aston Villa before in 1990, he took over as England

manager from Sir Bobby Robson. He suffered a difficult few years in

the England job. He took them to the European Championships in 1992,

where they were knocked out in the group stages by Sweden. He

controversially substituted, you might remember, Captain Gary Lineker

in his very final match. That prompted the famous tabloid

headline, Swedes two, turnips one. He stayed on but he resigned in

1993, after failing to guide England to the World Cup. He suffered huge

personal criticism during his time as England manager, particularly

after a fly on the wall documentary, which was broadcast shortly after he

resigned as England manager. You remember his famous quote in that,

do I not like that? After that, he returned to club management and

Watford, enjoyed more success there, guided them into the Premier League

will stop and after that he became a radio pundit with BBC radio, hugely

respected for his views, a very popular figure across football, with

fans, with players, with other managers. This is very sad news

indeed for the game. Andy Swiss, thank you. Some reaction from the

former player Stan Collymore, who has treated saying, extremely

saddened to hear the news that Graham Taylor has passed away. A

genuinely kind, funny man, condolences to his family and

friends. There was more evidence

today of the pressures Figures for November show

big increases in delays in discharging patients,

because of the pressures The number of patients

going to A was also up, The figures show there

were an average of 31,000 emergency Our health editor,

Hugh Pym, is with me. And the crucial thing here is these

are just November figures. That's right, we only get these

official figures from NHS England a couple of months after the event. Of

course, the BBC got leaked document couple of days ago about how bad

things were in January. This is looking back a couple of months,

showing that then, things were not great either. All the key targets

missed in terms of weights for cancer treatment, waits for

operations, and that key four our weight in accident and emergency,

95% of patients should be seen or assessed in that four hours, in

England in November the figure was just 88.4%. That target hasn't been

hit since the middle of 2015. England is slightly ahead of Wales

and Northern Ireland on that measure, though they cover slightly

different time periods. Scotland is above 90%, 92.3%. Once again, a

considerable number of patients in hospital beds who could not be

discharged, so-called delayed transfers, up nearly 30%

year-on-year. That's because of difficulties out there with social

care. A lot of them are down to social care, the inability to find a

place for an elderly patient, so the patient is less -- left in hospital.

All those problems in November, never mind where we are now. Thank

you. The trial of Rolf Harris has been

played the tape of a phone call, made by a woman to the NSPCC,

alleging the entertainer The woman describes

the alleged incident The 86-year-old is on trial

at Southwark Crown Court, accused of indecently assaulting

seven girls and women Let's speak to our correspondent,

Sian Grzeszczyk, who's there. Today, the court heard from three

women, the first alleging that Rolf Harris indecently assaulted her at a

theatre when she was a teenager. The jury heard that recording of the

cult of the NSPCC, which was made in July 2014, in which she describes

the alleged incident as horrendous and said it had taken her years to

come forward and have the courage to talk about it. She was being

cross-examined by Rolf Harris's defence counsel about the timing of

her making this call to the NSPCC. The QC said in the call, you said Mr

Harris is being charged tomorrow, were you referring to his sentencing

at the time? I can't remember, she replied. The QC said, we know that

you did, do you accept you were following Mr Harris' trial in the

media and press? She replied, I was following it intently. The

prosecution then asked her if there was a financial motivation for her

deciding to make the call. She said, no, I work full-time. Rolf Harris

denies all of the charges. The trial at Southwark Crown Court is expected

to last for five weeks. Thank you. More than 3000 American troops,

tanks, and armoured vehicles arrive in Poland today -

the United States' biggest military presence in the region

since the Cold War. It's to support a Nato operation

to deter Russian aggression, following fears from neighbouring

countries since the Their arrival comes just days before

the inauguration of Donald Trump, who's signalled he wants to improve

relations with Moscow. This morning the Kremlin has said

that the US military build-up in Poland is a threat

to Russia's national security. A 72-year-old female rally driver

is coming out of retirement to drive the original car

in which she competed in the World Rally Cup

almost 50 years ago. In 1970, Bronwyn Burrell

was the youngest driver in the race Now she's been reunited

with her Austin Maxi sports car, and is preparing to get behind

the wheel again to She's currently in training,

and John Maguire went Wembley, 1970, and a car

rally marks the handover of the World Cup hosting duties

from England to Mexico. Sir Alf Ramsey waves them off,

and in car 20, three women We were going to be

away for six weeks. It seemed like a lifetime, but

wasn't a lifetime, it was a flash. This is us both in our lovely green

C dresses and red puffer It was a stupid thing not to have

short hair for that. The team was well-prepared,

mechanically and personally. So we decided the best

bet here was to have paper knickers, so we had

colour-coded paper knickers. I think Tish was pink,

and Tina was blue. So we could discard,

didn't have to worry Such ingenuity may now return,

as almost 50 years on, Bron has recently brought their original car,

nicknamed Puff the Magic Wagon, What a shame Tish

is no longer with us. I know, she'd love this,

she'd love to be doing it all again, We're going to miss her,

we are going to need The joy was she'd be pumping up,

jacking up the tyre, you'd be loosening the nuts,

I'd be getting the wheel off. Give me the wheel, back

on the roof or in the car. I tell you what, shall

we take her out on the track? Bron hasn't driven competitively

since the early '70s, As you can see, Bron definitely

comes from a rallying background. She's certainly not lacking

in confidence out there in the car today, but you also see as well

she's making quite a lot of little mistakes and that's why she's coming

back to us a little bit In April, they'll drive

to Portugal once again, It's a bit more controlled,

because of health and safety. We used to do rallies and have one

night's sleep in five days. The sport may have

changed, but the car - and especially the driver -

look as fast and furious as ever. Today, we have all sorts of weather

happening across the UK. It's miserable across southern areas

right now. We have some heavy rain around as well. Other parts of the

country are experiencing some snow. The rain in the south could be

turning to snow over the next few hours or so. We could have some

heavy snow for a time across the South and Southeast in particular,

as we had unfortunately to the rush hour. This is the nasty weather

system across the South. We've also got frequent snow showers, wintry

showers, across the north of the country, and also some very strong

winds. We have a mix of weather happening out there today. Let's

focus on the South first, because this is where the weather could be

quite disruptive during the course of the rush hour. We were talking

about this yesterday, the cold air mixing in with the milder rare.

Let's see whether snow zone could from around about the South

Midlands, going eastwards, across the south-east, and further north

we've got those snow showers carried in by the really strong winds. We've

seen pictures of Northern Ireland where we've had snowfall, also

across parts of Scotland and in the North a little bit later on we could

have blizzards across Scotland, so gales combined with the heavy snow.

Let's focus across the south first. These are rough amounts of snow.

It's so difficult to predict this. I'm not going to tell you we are

going to get this absolutely spot on. It could be zero, it could be

double that. Just be prepared. Going halfway. Most of that will probably

settle across the hills but there could be some settling in towns and

cities. That's one area of weather that should clear out eventually.

These snow showers will affect other parts of the country through this

evening and into tonight and tomorrow. Northern Ireland, parts of

Wales, particularly the hills, Scotland, and another band of wintry

weather crossing Yorkshire, moving southwards. Some of these Eastern

counties as well. These are temperatures tonight, freezing. Any

slushy stuff on the ground will look like this first thing tomorrow

morning. This is probably the extreme. If you get this, it will be

quite nasty. Look at this wintry weather affecting Eastern East

Anglia, south-eastern areas through tomorrow morning, further wintry

showers in the North, then it's actually a bright day. If you get

one thing out of this weather forecast, the main thing is, just be

prepared for some snow. Don't necessarily expect any, but be

prepared for some nasty conditions and some delays as well. Now, how

long is this weather going to last? Well, Saturday is looking pretty

bright, but by the time we get the Sunday it looks like milder weather

on the way. A reminder of our main

story this lunchtime. The head of America's National

Intelligence Agency says they were not the source of the leak that

Russia has compromising material on Donald Trump. It's been announced

that former England football manager Graham Taylor has died. He was 72.

More on that throughout the day, but that's all from the BBC News that

one. It's goodbye from me. We'll