13/12/2016 The Papers

Hello there. Well to Our Conor look ahead to what the papers are

bringing us tomorrowment With me are Pippa Crerar,

political correspondent at the London Evening Standard,

and Neil Midgley, media commentator Let's lock at some of the front

pages: The FT says Donald Trump has the backing of senior Republicans to

push through Rex Tillerson's nomination. This follows criticism

the oil boss is too close to Vladimir Putin. The I turns over its

front page to the crisis in Aleppo, as people leave the war torn city.

The Metro leads with that story. The paper says the rush is on to save

100 children cut off from their parents and stuck in the city.

The Telegraph claims UK taxpayers have footed a 50 million bill for

all southern rail strikes this year. According to the Times ministers are

considering to break up Southern and pushing for an all out ban on rail

strikes. The Daily Mirror calls for a complete renationalisation of the

rail network, which it says it supported by unions, MPs and the

public. Thousands of banking jobs in the UK could be lost if ministers

don't agree a transitional deal on access to the sing the market. The

Express highlights a report which claims that positivity may be the

key to living a longer life. Its headline eye catching, revealed: How

to live longer. The secrets are in that paper. You are probably going

to buy it now, that's the whole point.

Onto the I. We've been hearing from our correspondents tonight, experts

on the region, this is the beginning of the end game, it might seem. Yes,

well weapons have fallen silent. As you say, it appears to be the end

game for Aleppo. There's two main areas that the papers are covering

of this story, one is of course, that the people of Aleppo themselves

and that many have been on social media, using Twitter and posting

videos online throughout the conflict and given people real

insight, real civilian journalism. Many of them have said farewell,

because they don't know what the future holds, whether they will find

themselves escaping the city and making it through to somewhere more

peaceful or whether they will leave and meet a tragic end. There's a

powerful photo here of a father carrying his child through the

rubble. It would be impossible for anybody to feel anything but gutted

about what's gone on there. The second element of what the papers

are covering is the blame game. British politicians in the House of

Commons held an emergency debate in which they discussed all the

different possibilities, aid drops, what could be done next. There were

powerful speeches, not least from George Osborne, the former

Chancellor who said, "We can't absolve ourselves of blame. MPs are

deceiving themselves if they don't think they played a role in this,

because in 2013 MPs voted against military action in Syria.

Andrew Mitchell told me tonight that if they had the vote now, obviously,

it wouldn't be a vote for military action, the lack of foresight three

years ago, many people including George Osborne are pointing to as

part of the problem here. Yes. Yes, they are. It's impossible to say how

those air strikes, which remember were planned in retaliation for

Assad using chemical weapons on his own people. It was nothing to do

with Aleppo, nothing to do with Russian involvement. That has come

subsequently, certainly military involvement on this scale.

Therefore, I do wonder if we unpick history at our cost. Also, when has

British military intervention in the Middle East actually done any good

at all? That's my question. That seemed to be the point made by the

US Congress as well. President Obama went to Congress, he didn't have to.

He could have unilaterally done this, he felt after Iraq and after

the mess the West has made of past engagements in the Middle East, that

he had to do that. Congress said no, just as the British Parliament. That

was after the British Parliamentary vote. Exactly. He decided he had to

do that to cover his own back. And it swung between humanitarian

intervention and not. Really British MPs and the Americans were scarred

by Iraq. When Ed Miliband first started talking with David Cameron

about the 2013 vote he was supportive and said he would like to

support it in the House of Commons. Then after a series of concessions

and then it became apparent to him he didn't have the support amongst

his own backbenches. He took a political decision not to. They were

hugely scarred by Iraq. You swing both ways. Nobody wants to repeat

Srebrenica or Darfur, unfortunately, we've got to hope that what's

happened in Aleppo, something like 5,000 people over the last month

alone have died there. It's just a tragedy. 82 killed in their own

homes, reminder of the Civil War in Lebanon and the massacre of

civilians by militias linked to the Israeli forces there. Onto the

Telegraph. The rail strike. Now rail strike costs taxpayers 50 million

while train company saves cash. All this is over who is supposed to shut

the doors. I mean that's what it boils down. To And who is supposed

to drive the train ie... A driver would be good. And well, but no. Not

one who isn't on strike. The driverless trains is what this is

all about. Again, like my simplistic view of British military

intervention in the Middle East, show me a an innovation that any

trade union has ever supported. Are you calling them Luddites? RMT,

ASLEF? Yes. Yes! I am. It's a great story showing that the taxpayer is

footing the bill for the strike, because what we've got here is a

situation where this line or set of lines haven't been privatised in the

sense of sold off to the highest bidder. It's a fixed price contract

that Southern Railway's parent has to run the services, but the

Government maintains control of both the revenue and the cost. Well

that's all very well, if you think you know what the costs are going to

be. You think, oh, we might get more revenue and attract a few more

passengers onto this line. Fixed price contract with your builder,

for example, when you renovate your house is generally a good thing,

because your builder takes the risk of things running over. In this

case, this has come back to haunt the Government. Of course, now there

is less revenue, less fares being paid, because fewer people are

travelling because no trains are running. Also the Government has to

pay the cost of the compensation. So this atomisation of the railways

that was the way that the Major Government privatised the railways

is coming back to haurnt the Government now. To the Daily Mail

then. Daily Mirror. Sorry. Renationalise - no that wouldn't be

the Mail. That would be a story! Daily Mirror. Renationalise our

railways now! Do you think that's been given added impetus by this?

It's really popular with the public. A lot of people think it's just like

the papers, lefty socialists that want to renationalise the railways.

Loads of people do. Every poll done it suggests the majority of the

Brits would like to renationalise. We like to complain about the state

of the railways. These are people all under the age of 35, who don't

remember what it was like. Quite possibly. But it is something, I

mean, the Government is certainly thinking about doing, and the Times

picks this up, is stripping GTR, the parent group of its massive

franchise in the new year. Other senior rail industry figures are

concerned that it's going to be like a poison effect and start a ripple

affect around the industry and cause more strikes. There's a feeling that

the unions are considering launching coordinated action in other areas as

well. They want to nip this in the bud. What then happens to it is

really an unknown. Sadiq Khan has called for a renationalisation of

the Southern franchise. He wants Transport for London to run it. He

says that's the long-term solution, more local democratic

accountability. That's nationalisation of another sort. But

the Government is currently discussing all options. They started

holding talks again with unions tonight. It's something. The company

and the unions, which won't stop this current round of strikes, but

hopefully might prevent the action happening again at Christmas and

disrupting the ailways then. Financial Times, Mr Trump? This is

brilliant. I mean, he's got more millionaires in his Cabinet than you

would see at the average country club. Billionaires! Millionaires and

billionaires. This guy has been given an award by Vladimir Putin and

he's putting forward as America's top diplomat. Yes. Not only is he

putting him forward as America's top diplomat, Rex Tillerson head of

Exxon Mobil, the oil company who is very close to Putin, or so we

believe, not only has he got to be nominated by Trump, he has to be

confirmed by Congress. Trump is worried that even a Republican

Congress, which is what he's got, won't necessarily confirm him in

this new role as America's top diplomat. Trump is rolling out, as

the Financial Times says, heavy weights to blunt the Tillerson

nomination revolt, including Bob Gates, former Defence Secretary and

Condoleezza Rice who was high up in the Bush administration. Red blooded

Republicans, both of them. Both of them unimpeachable. When you get to

the fourth paragraph of the story, you realise that Exxon Mobil is a

client of Mr Gates' consulting firm, whose founders include Miss Rice.

Yeah. Millionaires and billionaires all round. I know! I know! And

what's perhaps, I'm just trying to get my head around this, because it

seems so bizarre that you would have someone so close to Vladimir Putin

being put forward as America's top diplomat. The suggestion is that

this is all Nixon going to China in reverse, this is trying to isolate

the Chinese by co--ying up to Russia. I think the relationship

between the States and Russia over the next few months is definitely

the one to watch. We've had the CIA a few days ago suggesting that the

Russians, it was proven they were interfearing with the US election.

We've now got a Secretary of State who received a medal from Vladimir

Putin and whose, Moscow's senior foreign policy chief is saying, he's

not just close to Putin. He's close to all of us. He wanted sanctions

watered down against Russia as well. Trump has made a big thing about his

not being an outsider, that he's, Washington outsider. That would

bring a breath of fresh air into relations. The impact of that

relationship is massive. Not just for China, but the rest of the world

as well. To appoint an oil executive who is close to Russia and has no

experience is likely to cause, ruffle a lot of feathers around the

world. It's going to be interesting. Finally, Einstein and the shrinking

father Christmas. The faster an object travels according to

Einstein's special theory. That object could be Santa Claus.

Exactly! How does Santa fit down the chimney. Good question. The answer

is that Santa and Rudolph and all the rest of them have to travel so

fast to get presents to all the children around the world that

Einstein's theory of relativity dictates that they get smaller,

physically smaller, which is what happens to all objects, as you will

know, according to the theory. It proves that father Christmas exists,

a fact which my three young children will be delighted to hear. Exactly!

Many thanks for looking at some of the stories behind the headlines.

Thanks to you for watching and goodbye.

Hello there. We start with a quick look at the satellite sequence over

the last few hours. It shows this cloud in the Atlantic just getting

closer and closer to us. It will bring rain with it. Ahead of that, a