09/09/2016 BBC News at Ten

Plans to allow all schools in England to apply

The Prime Minister says along with new grammars, it'll boost

I want to see children from ordinary working-class families given the

chances their richer contemporaries take for granted.

But there's significant opposition, not least from the Government's

My fear about this is that we will create again grammar schools

for the few and secondary moderns for the many.

We'll be looking at how the plans might work and whether they're

The British Iranian woman jailed for five years in Iran -

her husband says she's not been told why.

Why sentence them all for five years and then not say

It is just crazy by any legal system and it is

Three women arrested in Paris over a suspected terror plot

were directed by so-called IS, say French authorities.

The groundbreaking surgery restoring sight where it

And the golds keep coming for Para GB as records tumble in Rio.

And coming up in Sportsday on BBC News...

Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola get ready for their first

Manchester derby in what is being billed as the highest profile match

All schools in England should be able to apply to select

That's the proposal from Theresa May -

part of her plans for a huge shake up in education with

a new generation of selective schools and grammar schools.

She also stipulated that the new grammars

would have to take children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

But her proposal will face strong opposition from much

of the teaching profession and from within her own party ,

including the previous education secretary.

Here's our deputy political editor, John Pienaar.

All schools free to seek to become grammars.

The biggest and most controversial shake-up in decades.

The grammar school educated PM is going further than any

Politicians, many of whom benefitted from the very kind of education

they now seek to deny to others, have for years put their own dogma

and ideology before the interests and concerns of ordinary people.

For we know that grammar schools are hugely popular with parents.

We know they are good for the pupils that attend them, so we help no-one.

Not least those who can't afford to move house or pay for a private

education by saying to parents who want a selective

education for their child, we won't let them have it.

What about children from poorer homes who don't often get

What about schools like this, inner London comprehensive?

She insisted no-one would be left behind.

Britain hadn't just voted out of the EU, people

And this Government is going to deliver it.

Everything we do will be driven, not by the interest

of the privileged few, not by those with the loudest

voices, the special interests, the greatest wealth

This Government's priorities are those of ordinary

The Prime Minister said new grammars would have to reserve places

for disadvantaged children, there would be new

They would also have to offer help to local non-selective schools.

She said independent fee paying schools must offer more in return

They would have to give help to state schools

If they want to raise tuitions fees, they will have to sponsor

new schools or help underperforming ones.

And Mrs May wants to relax restrictions on faith schools.

If they are oversubscribed they will no longer have to offer

half their places to children from outside the faith.

Today you say there should be more academically elite

state grammar schools, which means more talent drawn away

from nonselective schools and it means the losers,

who do not get into the schools, are denied the opportunities,

with the greater sense of unfairness and injustice that causes.

It's not fair today when some children are able to get into a good

school because their parents are able to buy the house that sits

So there are too many children in society today who are not getting

The plan went down badly, at this comprehensive.

What we are going to see is true genuine mixed

This school does a great job by all children, most able,

least able and middle about children, by taking one group

out of schools like this, schools like this are going

The man in charge of monitoring English schools standards isn't

The comprehensive system is working, the academy

Greater autonomy for schools is working and it

My fear is that this will throw a spanner in the works

Theresa May doesn't see politics or big changes in policy

as an ideological game, with rival theories backward

and forward, she is interested in what works, and creating a school

system with more winners, without creating more losers

fits her idea of a fairer Britain after Brexit.

Trouble is, her critics don't believe it can be done, and tearing

up decades of political consensus that can't be done without a fight.

The MP Theresa May sacked as Education Secretary Nicky Morgan

posted her view of the plan on social media.

I want good education for every child.

divides communities, divides children, and ends up giving

a good chance to a minority and less chance to the majority.

I don't think that is a very sensible way forward.

The Prime Minister's old school has changed,

a grammar no longer, but its most illustrious old pupil

came away with a conviction that what worked for her can work for

The proposals announced by Mrs May apply only to England.

But the picture around the rest of the UK varies widely.

In Northern Ireland nearly half of all pupils go to grammar schools

- but there are none in Scotland and Wales.

Our education editor Branwen Jeffreys reports now

from two very different parts of Greater Manchester -

Tameside, which doesn't have grammar schools -

Educating the girls of Altrincham for 100 years.

A third of pupils in Trafford go to grammar schools now.

So how, in this leafy area, can they be open to all?

With the right circumstances, then all children can flourish.

The head teacher tells me they have started a quota system,

setting aside some places for poor families.

We are here in Altrincham, we cannot change that,

But that doesn't mean that we cannot work with schools in other parts

of Manchester to make sure that all of us provide the best possible

The lessons learned here are being shared.

This school is part of a group which includes comprehensives.

So grammar schools argue that they are already changing.

That they are no longer just about improving the life chances

Schools like this are reaching out to others in deprived areas

and working with them to raise standards across

But look at grammar schools across England and just 3% of pupils

In nearby non-selective schools, it is 18%.

And 13% of grammar school pupils come from independent schools.

In Altrincham, most pupils also need to live nearby to get in.

In streets of smart houses and clipped hedges.

No surprise this is called a social mobility hotspot.

Trafford is at the top end of good places to grow up.

Better chances of going to university, getting a well-paid job.

Travel to the other side of Manchester and it's

Tameside is what is called a social mobility coldspot.

That is not just down to education but jobs and health, too.

Primary school is all about letting your imagination fly.

Audenshaw primary school is in an area not rich, not poor.

Kids go on to local high schools - one good, one struggling.

Our motto is putting children first, regardless of ability.

But like many teachers, the head here is uneasy about selection.

You bring them in, you nurture them, you get to know the parents,

we get to know all the parents in the school.

And that, to me, is what education is actually about.

Getting to know the families and treating all the

Audenshaw is the kind of area where most parents go out to work.

Sometimes juggling two or three jobs to make ends meet.

Just the kind of families that Theresa May wants to reach.

So I asked some of the parents here what they made of the suggestion

I am from round here and I went to the school, my children do.

And I think grammar schools are a good way

It doesn't fill me with confidence, I feel like children

from all backgrounds should be getting the same quality

Will this generation grow up with selection?

There is a fund of ?50 million to encourage it.

But there are risks for existing grammars and their reputations.

Risks, too, for academies, who want to make progress

Branwen Jeffreys, BBC News, Tameside.

Let's go back to our deputy political editor, Jon Pienaar,

This is Thresea May's first domestic policy statement

and it sets out huge change which has taken many by surprise.

But the Prime Minister will have a fight on her hands

Yes. There will be trouble in Parliament and the House of Commons

and House of Lords, which is ironic considering Theresa May owes part of

popularity to her perception as a for stability in the turmoil after

the EU referendum and today we can see she is willing to take on big

change, big policy challenges, even if that means a fight and this well.

In the House of Commons, criticism from your own side as well as the

other parties, there is a tiny government majority and in the House

of Lords there will be those who think they can stop this in its

tracks, it was not spelt out in the manifesto so it means there is no

obligation for the peers to respect this, there will be a fight there

also. Theresa May's sees this as part of answer to the demand for

change and fairness she sees as a backbeat to that European referendum

campaign and there is personal commitment. She writes in the Daily

Mail offer time at grammar school and how those teachers helped make

the woman she is. What we know about the woman she is tells us she is not

about to back down from this position any time soon. John

Pienaar, thank you. The Foreign Office says it's deeply

concerned about the fate of a British Iranian woman who's

been sentenced to five Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe,

who's a charity worker, was detained in April

while visiting her parents in Iran Today, she was convicted

by a Revolutionary Court on charges Her British husband has

been speaking to our Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe faces five

years in a high security Iranian jail. She had been visiting family

with her young daughter when she was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards

as in returning to the UK. She was accused of trying to engineer the

peaceful overthrow of the Republic. When her husband was allowed to

speak to her on the phone briefly this morning, he told me she did not

know the exact charges. Why sentence them for five years and not say why?

That is crazy by any legal system and it is a punishment without

crime. It looks like nonsense. This is where she is held- the prison is

notorious in Iran, we spoke to someone who knows what it is like.

Every prison has a history of executions and torture, thousands of

innocent lives perished in that prison. And for someone like her,

who has not had any prison experience, that prison, being

there, is torture. Iran's relations with the West have been improving

since the deal on the nuclear programme. This was the reopening of

the British Embassy last year and earlier this week ties were upgraded

to full diplomatic relations. Many believe Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is

a victim of infighting within this regime between hardliners and the

moderate president. Another victim, Gabriella Ratcliff, filmed before

the arrest of a mother at her grandparents' house in Iran. She has

spent a quarter of life separated from both parents. She told her

husband she dreams of her daughter every diet. It is just horrendous

she cannot take another day of it. And yet she is powerless to do

anything. Amnesty International has called the case against Nazanin

Zaghari-Ratcliffe a complete travesty of justice. The foreign

office says it is deeply concerned. A brief look at some

of the day's other news stories. Police are looking into

whether the Labour MP Keith Vaz committed any crimes

following allegations Mr Vaz resigned as chair

of the Home Affairs Select Committee after a newspaper claimed

that he paid for the services Thames Valley Police say they've

found the body of the last man missing after part of Didcot power

station collapsed back in February. Four men were killed

in the incident. The body is believed

to be that of John Shaw, The US car company General Motors

is recalling more than four million vehicles due to a software defect

linked to at least one death. The company says the fault is rare

but can prevent airbags The vast majority of vehicles

affected are in the United States. The three women arrested near Paris

yesterday on suspicion of planning imminent terror attacks

on the capital were being directed remotely by so-called

Islamic State in Syria. That's according to the French

prosecutor, who also revealed one of the women had been engaged

to the extremist who killed The women were detained after a car

was discovered near Notre Dame Our Paris correspondent,

Lucy Williamson, has more. This, say police, was the heart

of a terrorist cell of three young women, controlled

directly from Syria. Officers tracked them to this

flat south of Paris. And yesterday evening,

while still undercover, caught them as they emerged

onto the street outside. In the chaos, the youngest -

just 19 years old - stabbed an officer with a large

kitchen knife and was A witness captures the moment

she is stretchered away. On her, police found a plegde

to terrorise France in the name In Paris today, the chief

prosecutor described the cell TRANSLATION: The actions of these

young women directed at a distance by IS members and Syria show

that this organisation wants to turn This is the car left near Notre Dame

last weekend, packed with gas canisters and a petrol soaked

blanket, but no detonator On one of the suspects investigators

say they found keys to the car Another, they say, had been

romantically involved with some of the men who had carried out

jihadist attacks One of her former fiances is said

to be Abdel Kamish, the teenager who killed a priest in Rouen less

than two months ago. Speaking after the arrests last

night, France's Interior Minister said the hunt for the woman had been

a race against time. TRANSLATION: These women, aged 39,

23 and 19 years old, were radicalised and politicised

and were planning new and More than 200 people have

been killed in terrorist attacks across France over

the past two years. Their killers studied for clues

about this growing national threat There are battle-hardened fighters

and recent converts. Immigrant and nationals,

women and men. Surgeons in Oxford have

used a robot to operate The patient was a 70-year-old man

who had the vision in his right eye restored after the robot removed

a membrane just 100th The technology should mean that

in future surgeons will be able to do more complex procedures

than are currently possible. Our medical correspondent Fergus

Walsh has this exclusive report. Deterioration of sight

in my right eye is progressive. Bill Beaver is going blind

in one eye. If, for example, I take a book,

and I cover my left eye, which is still good,

all I see is mush. His central vision

is completely gone. But that is about to change,

at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital. In theatre, the surgeon uses a joy

stick to move the robot arm, Robot-assisted surgery is now

commonplace, especially in cancer operations, but this

will be a world first. Never before has a robot been used

to operate inside the eye. This is delicate surgery,

involving tiny precise movements, to remove a membrane

which is causing Bill's sight loss. Crucially, the robot can filter out

the surgeon's hand tremors. The robot has to pivot around a tiny

hole in the wall of the eye. Inside, it removes

a membrane just 100th of a millimetre thick -

shown in blue - which is Allowing the hole in

the retina to close. If you could hold

your watch face up. Just a few days later

and the results are clear. And before long, his distance vision

will return to normal. It's almost the world of fairy

tales, but it is true. It is the difference between active

and doing the things I need to do, The surgeon says the robot performed

better than the human hand. I think we're going to go

into a new era of eye surgery, where we will be placing things

at the back of the eye, under the retina, very

much more accurately, and with greater precision

than we do at the moment. We can certainly improve

on the current operations, but I very much hope we can do

new operations that we currently Diseases of the retina are the most

common cause of blindness Robots should enable many more

patients to have their sight saved. Three former Tesco senior executives

have been charged with fraud It follows an investigation

by the Serious Fraud Office, after a black hole of over

?300 million was found in the supermarket's

accounts two years ago. Our business correspondent, Emma

Simpson, joins me in the studio. Emma, this was a massive

scandal for Tesco. It really was, it plunged Tesco into

turmoil. It stunned the city and wiped billions off the value of the

company. Now it centred on how it has incorrected income from supplier

which boosted its profits and today the SFO charged three men. Carl row

burring, the former finance director for Tesco UK who you can see there,

John Schooler, and the most senior of them all Tesco's former UK boss.

They are all accused of fraud, by abusive position and a charge of

false accounts. Two of them made statements through their laws today

saying they weren't guilty but they would be contesting the allegations

vigorously, as for Tesco it said it continued to co-operate with the

SFO, and that it had made extensive changes over the last two years. In

other words, this business is a very different one compared to its

darkest days in 2014. But could there be more to come? Because the

SFO says its investigation into Tesco are ongoing. Thank you.

There's been international outrage after North Korea

carried out its fifth, and reportedly biggest,

Kim Jong Un, the leader of the isolated communist regime,

was described by the leader of South Korea as a reckless maniac.

The UN Security Council has been holding an emergency

From South Korea, Steve Evans reports.

The North Korean newsreaders says the nuclear test will protect

In South Korea, they monitor the tremors.

Each test has been bigger than the one before.

The device detonated this time is just short of the power

From Japan today, planes took off to gather air samples

to try to determine what kind of device was exploded.

We are gravely concerned by reports of a nuclear device being tested

by North Korea and this is a flagrant violation

of Security Council resolutions and threatens the stability

The underground blast happened at this site in North Korea.

Only nine months after the last nuclear test.

Kim Jong-un is in a rush to fulfil his nuclear ambition.

Yesterday in Pyongyang, the regime's leaders clapped

in unison as the country celebrated the anniversary of

For them, the bomb is the icing on the cake.

Here tonight in Seoul in South Korea, life goes on.

People assume Kim Jong-un's bloodthirsty threats to turn

the place into a heap of ashes will not happen.

Even though he has appeared alongside what he claimed

was a nuclear warhead small enough to go on a rocket.

North Korea is just 50 kilometres from here, 30 miles.

The regime there is celebrating a great triumph tonight.

But there is no sign of that regime being close to collapse.

North Korea does not have nuclear-tipped missiles yet,

but it's working steadily towards getting them.

It was a trip up the highest mountain in the Alps that

Dozens of people were forced to spend up to 24 hours dangling

precariously 12,000 feet above the ground

A helicopter managed to winch out some of those trapped to safety.

But others were forced to spend the night in the cars, before

rescuers eventually managed to restart them and bring them

It's been a victorious Day Two for Britain's Paralympians in Rio.

In the last hour there's been another gold - this time Jody Cundy

stormed to victory in his one kilometre time-trial

Earlier, para-cyclist Sophie Thornhill and Helen Scott won

gold in their women's 1,000m time trial.

Two rider, one common goal. At the back of the tandem Sophie Thornhill

who is visually impaired piloted by Helen Scott, together, the perfect

peddling partnership. That made them the fastest so far in the time

trial. But would anyone go faster? Well, when they last rivals failed

to beat their time they knew the gold was there theirs. Cue unbridled

joy as the velodrome echoed to British cheers. Manufacture

Yesterday, they had been been for this woman, Dame Sarah Storey. It

was her first though with daughter Louisa and and she told me that made

it particularly special. Having her here is the icing on the cake. It

doesn't get much better having your kids to watch you win. Whether she

remembers it nor she is excited to have the mascot. I never thought I

could leave her at home, she is included in everything we do and

that obviously, is just fantastic to have her here. In the athletics

there was a Silver Medal for Steph Reed, but success mingled with

controversy. Visually impaired sprinter Libby Clegg setting a world

record only to be disqualified after it was ruled her guide runner pulled

her along. Britain appealed and Clegg will compete in the final

tonight. But the title of world east fastest Paralympian once again went

to Ireland. Ireland. Jason Smyth has less than 10% vision. 10.64 seconds,

his third title in a row. And in the last hour, more British success,

four years ago in London, Jody Cundy was disqualified, prompting a

furious and expressive filled rant. This time, though it was a ride of

redemption adds he conjured a blistering display, gold at last,

after the agony of London, victory in Rio.

And just moments later gold in the athletic, Georgie Hermitage quit the

sport as a teenager but inspired by 2012 she returned, and this was her

moment, a world record, and tears of joy. And there was more. 19-year-old

Sophie Hahn took up athletics after watching Jonny peacock in London and

now she has her own title. Three gold medals in 10 minutes, for

British sport, some evening! Guess what, another gold medal in

the swimming for 15-year-old Ellie Robinson, a schoolgirl from

Northampton, quite extraordinary, that makes it ten gold medals in the

first two days, it has been some start here, for the British team.

Congratulations to them all. Thank you very much.

That's all from us,now on BBC1, it's time for the news where you are.