The us director of National Intelligence has rejected suggestions made by donald trump that official agencies may have leaked unconfirmed claims that russia had Compromising Material on him. In a statement, James Clapper said he had called the President Elect to say the leak had not come from the intelligence services. This morning, that was flatly denied by the President Elect himself. The kremlin said they hoped that donald trump and mr putin would give along and there would be more Mutual Respect between the two countries. Christian fraser reports. Eight days from now, donald trump goes into battle as the next commander in chief. Never before has an incoming president been warring on so many an incoming president been warring on so many fronts. Not you, not you. Your organisation is terrible. Your organisation is terrible. Lets 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 DollarCash Payments funded to the trump campaign. The question for washington insiders is whether it is fa ct, washington insiders is whether it is fact, part fact or fiction. And was the leaking political . fact, part fact or fiction. And was the leaking political . I think it is deeply misguided for anybody at any level to question the integrity and motives of the patriots who serve in oui motives of the patriots who serve in our intelligence community. It doesnt mean they are always right, but questioning the motives is another thing altogether. The man who first compiled the intelligence is 52 year old christopher steele, a former british buyer who works here. He is now in hiding with his wife and children, in fear of his life. Mr steele had worked on the russian desk at mi6 for 20 years. In the 90s he spent time at the British Embassy in moscow. More recently he had been hired to gather information on mr trump, first by republicans and later democrats. The allegations his undercover war he uncovered were handed to the fbi. With nothing to report, the media steered clear until a 2 page summary was handed to president 0bama this week and mr trump himself. As early as last summer, there were reports circulating that the russians had a tip. Whether or not the sources were telling the truth, we wait to see. These allegations are being treated as credible by the Us Intelligence community. Compromat, is how the russians describe it. This year, the former prime minister, now a leading opposition figure, was allegedly taped having sex with his assistant behind his wifes back. He blamed the fsb. Even if there is no film, mr trumps presidency might already be compromised and not only by his dealings with russia. Yesterday he ceded control of his Business Empire to his two adult sons, but in the eyes of the Ethics Committee in congress, there is not enough distance to absolve him of any conflict of interest. In short, there are more questions than a nswe is 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 weeks inauguration. Gary 0donoghue is our correspondent in washington. Hejoins me now. An extraordinary situation just days before he becomes president. How problematic that this fractious relationship with the Us Intelligence services before him . He has gone to a new low. The war of words, a public war of words between a President Elect and the people that he is meant to trust to keep the country safe. It is really unprecedented. I think the only light at the end of the tunnel, potentially, is that the leadership of many of these organisations, the cia, for example, will change when donald trump comes in. As will the head of the director of National Intelligence, he will be a new man in thatjob, as ofjanuary 20. And i think donald trump will be hoping he can rebuild the relationship, because recently cannot afford to be at war with these people. They are his eyes and ears, notjust at home in terms of protecting the country from terrorism but also abroad as well. Protecting Americas 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. Im sure he will try to write that out because he has a trump card in that regard, the idea that president s cannot be the subject of a conflict of interest. 0ur Security Correspondent is with us now. 0ur Security Correspondent is with us now. How much do we know about this former mi6 officer who has compiled this dossier . Quite a lot. Normally there is a blanket ban on putting any details out into the public about former members or current members of the Intelligence Agencies but that has effectively been lifted as of ten oclock last night. Christopher steele is a 52 year old father of four with three cats. He lives in surrey and he isa three cats. He lives in surrey and he is a former russian specialist at mi6. He was it is more accurately known as the secret intelligence service. He left ten years ago and set upa service. He left ten years ago and set up a Business Intelligence firm and was hired by a firm of washington lobbyists to look into allegations of Donald Trumps 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 uks high street retailers last year. Marks and spencer saw a return to growth in its Clothing Division and homeware, after years of decline. Tesco, debenhams and john lewis all reported better than expected sales in the run up to christmas. Our business correspondent, emma simpson, reports. Mrs claus was popular this christmas, delivering presents in Marks Spencers glossy campaign. And this business served up a far bigger surprise present thenjust shoes. For the first time in two yea rs, shoes. For the first time in two years, Clothing Sales are up by more than 2 . It is getting back to serving its core customers. The close are stylish, but without being too cutting edge, and it has brought down clothing prices. It has also focused on getting the price right the first time so that when you buy something, there is less risk of the price being reduced in a couple of weeks and you have to ticket back to get a better deal. Too soon . Nah, bring it on. And king good for britains biggest retailer, enjoying an increase in sales, more proof that we have splashed out on food. 0n that we have splashed out on food. On christmas eve, tesco was serving 266 customers a second. If you look at the picture, on the whole it looks like retailers have done pretty well. Some had 0k christmases, some had really good christmases. What that means is that consumers as a whole have gone out and spent a lot in the shops. Here is where the real growth is. 0nline. Today, asos reported a huge surge in sales. And john lewis, a whopping 40 of its business this year came from internet sales. But these Department Stores are also costly to run. Although festive trading has been decent, the staff bonus will be lower this year. The chairman told me that he is preparing for challenging times ahead. There are pressures on costs, pressures on prices, and those things are happening, and we have a consumer, who knows What Happens Next year, but the predictions are that we will see a slowdown in the growth in consumer income. Christmas was not sparkling but spending was solid overall. The questionnaires, can it be maintained . The question is. Dozens of flights of been cancelled at Heathrow Airport amid warnings that Blizzard Conditions will hit parts of the uk today. Heavy snow has already hit parts of Northern Ireland and snow showers and strong winds are also being forecast for scotland, wales and parts of england. 0ur correspondent, frankie mccamley, is at heathrow. Lets be clear, this is pre emptive because there is clearly no snow at heathrow at the moment. Absolutely. Heathrow at the moment. Absolutely. Heathrow airport says that they made this decision yesterday. They wanted to give passengers time to move on to give passengers time to move on to earlierflights. To give passengers time to move on to earlier flights. 0r time to change their plans completely. What the report says is that these ru nways the report says is that these runways operate up to full capacity, so they needed to decrease the number of flights to make sure that when these delays happen, when the snow falls, they will be able to keep flights consistently taking off. Elsewhere, gatwick has also had to cancel four flights. We are looking at birmingham, manchester and edinburgh. They say their business is running as usual. Here, British Airways is the Main Operator and it is offering passengers that have had their flights affected refunds or the chance to change onto other flights. The advice for passengers travelling later on this afternoon is to check before you travel but as you mentioned, there is no snow here at the moment. It has just started raining. Is no snow here at the moment. It hasjust started raining. How big the disruption is, that will depend on how much snow does fall over the next few hours. Thank you. No snow at heathrow but a different picture in stirlingshire. Lorna gordon is in Rural Stirlingshire for us. How disruptive is it expected to be . When the snow showers sweep through, the conditions here are proving a little unpleasant. It is leading to isolated incidents on the roads around rush hour. Earlier today on the m74 around rush hour. Earlier today on the m71; south of glasgow, there was gridlock. The road had to be closed for a time to allow the gritters to get in. The lorries trying to travel on that stretch of motorway finding the icy conditions quite difficult. There has been somejackknifed lorries across scotland, some cars skidding off the roads, but for the most part, those 200 gritters of that were out overnight have been managing to keep the roads clear. The road that you see behind me, it is the anine, that runs up the spine of scotland, towards the highlands and further north. I have been driving on it today and when the snow showers pass it is a little tricky but for the most part conditions are ok. This has been a relatively mild winter here in scotland. And this has been described as a short, sharp blast. It has not been a good season so far but the ski slopes, they will be hoping that some of the snow settles for a while and it is forecast that on higher ground, there may be up to eight inches of snow. Lorna gordon, thank you. For the first time in a decade, ministers from greece, turkey and britain are sitting down for talks on re uniting cyprus. The island has been divided for forty years between the turkish controlled north and the republic of cyprus in the south. One of the main sticking points is the presence of 30,000 turkish troops, something Greek Cypriots say is unacceptable. Jonny dymond has been looking at at the roots of the conflict. Cyprus was once a British Colony but by 1974 the greek and turkish sides we re by 1974 the greek and turkish sides were at war. Turkey launched an invasion, after Greek Cypriots declared a union with greece. Ever since independence, britain, greece and turkey have been guarantor powers with a role in the islands future. Turkey conquered one third of the island. Its troops stayed put. And one of the worlds longest frozen conflicts began. The capital is divided between turkish and Greek Cypriots. The so called greenline ru ns cypriots. The so called greenline runs through the city, controlled by the un, it is a daily reminder of the un, it is a daily reminder of the islands 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 theres still a lot of work to go. Clearly there are some positive signs. Youve 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 theres a determination better get a deal, so they can solve one of their problems. The International Community is piling into geneva. Youve got Boris Johnson community is piling into geneva. Youve got borisjohnson and his turkish and greek counterparts, theresa may, the prime minister, says she is willing to come if that would help. Similar signals from athens and ankara. Theres a huge amount of Good Intention here. However, asjonny amount of Good Intention here. However, as jonny dymond amount of Good Intention here. However, Asjonny Dymond said, there are still obstacles. The big obstacle are still obstacles. The big o bsta cle is are still obstacles. The big obstacle is the question of how you guarantee the security of both sides once theres been some kind of reunified Power Sharing federal government. Its 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. Its a lot of work to be done on that. The thing that is really constraining these talks is that whatever is agreed here at in this extraordinary building behind me has to be a Cce Pta Ble Building behind me has to be acceptable to the people of North And South cyprus in a referendum that would happen later this year. So nothing here is going to be definitively agreed and sorted out, until that moment happens. So they can make some kind of political Framework Agreement here, but the real test will be whether or not they can sell it to the people back home in cyprus. James langdale in geneva, thank you. Our top story this lunchtime. The head of americas National Intelligence agency says they werent the source of the leak that russia has Compromising Material on donald trump. And still to come. Back behind the wheel the 72 year old rally driver making a comeback after half a century. Coming up in the sport at 1 30pm refusing to play high hopes for british number one Johanna Konta who warms up for the Australian Open by reaching the final of the sydney cup international. Tidal lagoons could they be the answer to ensuring secure Power Supplies for the uk . A review is recommending that the uk should build tidal lagoons to capture energy from the sea. And today, the government gave its backing to plans to build one in swansea bay after the report said it could provide clean, reliable electricity for more than 150,000 homes for more than a century. Heres our environment analyst, roger harrabin