11/01/2017 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at Ten, Donald Trump uses his first news conference

since the election to attack America's intelligence agencies.

He responds with anger to claims that Russia has obtained

compromising information about him and his links with President Putin.

It didn't happen and it was gotten by opponents of ours.

And he turns his fire on America's intelligence agencies,

in effect accusing them of leaking the claims.

Released by, maybe the intelligence agencies, who knows?

But maybe the intelligence agencies, which would be a tremendous

blot on their record, if they in fact did that,

We'll have details of an eventful news conference, just nine days

before Donald Trump is sworn in as president.

Prime Minister, are you going to put more money into the NHS?

Theresa May is accused by Labour of being "in denial" about the scale

of the problems facing the NHS in England this winter.

Following the death of a seven-year-old in York,

a teenage girl has been charged with murder.

Into Smith! That is the record-breaking goal.

And Kelly Smith, Britain's first female professional

footballer, is to retire after a record-breaking career.

Coming up in Sportsday at 10:30pm BBC News, the second of the

League Cup semifinals and Southampton take an early lead in

the first leg against Liverpool on the south coast.

In his first formal news conference since being elected,

Donald Trump has rounded on America's intelligence agencies.

He's suggested they might have been responsible for reports that Russia

had gathered compromising information about him.

The president-elect denied that he was in any

way beholden to Russia, and he repeatedly criticised some

media organisations for spreading what he called "fake news".

With just nine days to go until Mr Trump becomes president,

our correspondent Ian Pannell reports from New York.

-- our diplomatic correspondent James Robbins has this report.

Donald Trump is nine days away from inauguration as president and

America's commander-in-chief but is passed to the White House is now

tangled in extraordinary controversy. What role might the

Kremlin under President Putin have played to help Mr Trump to undermine

Hillary Clinton and perhaps also to gather compromising material to use

against President, once he is in power -- president Trump. My friend

Annie President-elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump.

This afternoon, Donald Trump was blunt. The allegations against him

are totally untrue and designed to undermine him. It is all fake news.

It is phoney stuff. It didn't happen and it was gotten by opponents of

hours, as you know, because you reported it and so did many of the

other people. It was a group of opponents that got together, sick

people, and they put that together. So what could Moscow's role has

been? In shadowy work, both to promote Donald Trump and also gain a

hold over him. Here he is visiting the Russian capital in 2013, for the

Miss universe pageant, then co-owned by Mr Trump. The most lurid claim is

that he used the same hotel suite which President Obama had stayed in

for unusual acts involving sex workers, all of it allegedly

recorded by Russian spy cameras and microphones. I was in Russia years

ago with the Miss universe contest, which did very well, in the Moscow

area. It did very, very well. And I told many people, be careful because

you don't want to see yourself on television. Cameras all over the

place. And again, not just Russia, all over. Does anyone really believe

that story? I'm also very much of a germophobe by the way. The source

for the unproved claims is said to be a former British spy and ex-MI6

officer who was once based in Moscow. Today Dmitry Peskov, Putin

was back spokesman said the planes were pulp fiction and a clear

attempt to damage relations. Mr Trump says he is in no way

compromised by Vladimir Putin's preference for him as the next

president. Is Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not

a liability because we have a horrible relationship with Russia.

Russia can help us fight Isis which by the way, is number one tricky. I

don't know that I'm going to get along with Vladimir Putin. I hope I

do but there's a good chance I won't. And if I don't, do you

honestly believe that Hillary would be tougher on Putin done? Does

anyone in this room really believe that? Give me a break. The press

conference got mostly did when CNN, one news on the -- news organisation

which has cover the latest allegations extend to become tried

to put a question. No, not you, not you, your organisation's terrible.

Your organisation's terrible. Don't be... I'm not going to give you a

question. You are fake news. These papers are just some of the many

documents... Mr Trump also use the occasion to display some of the

legal documents turning his business over to his family. It is his

response to accusations of future conflicts of interest. But the

controversies surrounding Donald Trump and Russia are not going away.

Those who voted for him and those who rejected him all know his

presidency will be a stormy one. James Robbins, BBC News.

Our North America correspondent Paul Wood is in Washington.

This report today, Paul, that has caused so much of a rumpus and all

of these heated exchanges, what have you found out about it? Let's not

lose sight of the central allegation here which is that Donald Trump,

President-elect of the United States, is vulnerable to blackmail

by the Russians. That is such an extraordinary claim, so much depends

on the credibility of the author of this dossier. He has now been named

as Christopher Steele, a former MI6 agent who was in Moscow in the early

1990s. Speaking to one intelligence source, he has apparently -- is

apparently very highly regarded among his peers as competent and

trustworthy and that reputation, I think, is one of the main reasons

why what he said, the allegations he repeated from Russian security

officers, were taken so seriously by the American intelligence

institutions. I spoke to one intermediary, you can't speak to CIA

case officer 's directory but a message came back from the people

dealing with this file that they found it credible, that there was

more than one take, that there was an audio tape as well as a video

tape, that there were several times that these activities supposedly

took place and in more than one location, not just the Ritz-Carlton

in Moscow but ain't Petersburg as well. The fact that the CIA

apparently finds these allegations credible and credible enough to put

on President Obama's death is not then saying they believe the

allegations. They are just saying they are worthy of consideration.

One further thing, this former MI6 officer is not the only source. I

spoke to a retired spy last August, who said he had been told of the

existence of a blackmail tape by the head of an Eastern European

intelligence agency over the summer. We should stress in all of this,

these are just allegations and Mr Trump is literally correct when he

says they are unsubstantiated. Nevertheless, Americans are in the

incredible position, nine days before the inauguration, of having

to decide whether the President-elect is the Russian agent

of influence. Thank you for joining us.

As Donald Trump faced the media, his nominee for Secretary of State,

Rex Tillerson, was facing questions from a panel of senators

who are considering his suitability for the post.

Mr Tillerson said that Washington needed an open and frank dialogue

with Moscow about its national and global ambitions,

as our correspondent Aleem Maqbool reports.

Rex Tillerson was Donald Trump's surprise choice to be Secretary of

State. As he tried to convince Congress he is fit for the job, he

appeared to have a tougher line on Russia than the man who picked him.

Russia today poses a danger but it is not unpredictable in advancing

its own interest. It has invaded the Ukraine, including the taking of

Crimea and supported Syrian forces that brutally violates the laws of

war. But Rex Tillerson's background as chief executive of oil and gas

giant Exxon-Mobil involves extensive ties with Russia, even receiving the

country's medal of friendship from Vladimir Putin. Some politicians are

clearly not convinced he's really able to get tough on the Kremlin and

it finally showed. Is Vladimir Putin Walker and? I would not use that

term. Let me describe the situation in Aleppo and perhaps that will help

you reach that conclusion. Senator Marco Rubio went on to describe what

he called the targeting of civilians by Russian forces in Syria. You are

still not prepared to say that Vladimir Putin and his military have

violated the rules of war and have conducted war crimes in Aleppo?

Those are very, very serious charges to make and I would want to have

much more information before reaching a conclusion. There is so

much information out there. I find it discouraging, your inability to

cite that. And protesters dressed in KKK robes have disrupted proceedings

to confirm another of Donald Trump's pics. Would you raise your hand

please? Jeff Sessions is the man Donald Trump wants to be his

Attorney General, a man who in the 1980s was denied a judge ship over

claims of racial discrimination. I am not a racist. I'm not insensitive

to blacks. In his hearing, some of the leading black voices in Congress

laid out their concerns. He has demonstrated a total disregard for

the equal application of justice and protection of the law as it applies

to African-Americans and falls short on so many issues. It is still

likely that both Rex Tillerson and Jeff Sessions will be confirmed in

their respective posts. But it's also clear that in these choices

that lead, Donald Trump has not felt the need to reassure those Americans

who are concerned about his politics when it comes to Russia or race.

Aleem Maqbool, BBC News, Washington. With me now is our North America

editor, Jon Sopel. We have an incoming president of the

United States who is picking a fight, it seems, with his own

intelligence agencies. Even by the unusual standards of Donald Trump

that have become the new normal, this was something else. I mean,

these extraordinary swell of allegations about his business

conduct, bizarre allegations about his personal conduct, all this, nine

days before he takes the oath of office and becomes the president of

the United States of America and commander-in-chief. Of all the

diffuse claims, the thing that stood out for me from that news conference

was the clear breakdown in trust there has been between him and the

US intelligence services. He seemed to think that the word Vladimir

Putin and the Russians, he spoke more favourably about them than he

did about his own intelligence agencies. The CIA and the FBI are

charged with keeping Americans safe. To say it was highly unusual for

Donald Trump to take this kind of attitude was, to put it mildly. We

were repeatedly told that Trump, the strident campaign, which disappear

and we would have a new person, the presidential person would appear. On

today's evidence, what would you say? He was an orthodox as a

candidate and he is unorthodox as President-elect. There is absolutely

no reason to think that he's going to be any different when he takes

the oath of office on the 20th of January and moves into the White

House. He will carry on tweeting, picking fights, reacting very

quickly to provocation. And if you go onto the right-wing message

boards, they are not saying, "For goodness sake, President-elect, be

more presidential". They are loving it. And those people that absolutely

loathed Donald Trump during the campaign still feel deeply uneasy

about his presidency. The night after his election, he said he was

going to unite the United States of America but that still seems a very

long way off. Jon Sopel, there. Labour's Jeremy Corbyn has accused

Theresa May of being "in denial" about the scale of the problems

facing the NHS in He said the Prime Minister

was ignoring warnings from many senior doctors that extra funding

was urgently needed. Simon Stevens, the head

of the NHS in England, also told MPs that funding levels

were "challenging" and would get even more challenging in the months

ahead as our deputy political The health service needs

help and needs it now. Overworked, understaffed,

despite the extra doctors and nurses, resources always

stretched and at breaking Is this a winter crisis

as bad as any we've seen? Today, the blame, claim and

counterclaim reached a new pitch. REPORTER: Prime Minister,

are you going to put Theresa May came wrapped up

and ready for a row, ready to savage the British Red Cross for saying

the NHS faced a humanitarian crisis. To use that description

of a national health service... Which last year saw 2.5 million more

people treated in Accident and Emergency than six years ago,

was irresponsible and overblown. And critics seized

on this as complacency. I accept there have been a small

number of incidents, where the... Where, where unacceptable

practices have taken place. The Labour leader, fairly or not,

had an obvious target Earlier this week,

the Prime Minister said she wanted More people sharing hospital

corridors on trolleys. More people sharing waiting

areas at A departments. More people sharing in anxiety

created by this Government. Our NHS, Mr Speaker, is in crisis,

but the Prime Minister is in denial. Doctors, nurses, charities queued

like patients in A NHS England's boss added more

pressure with what sounded In the here and now,

there are very real pressures. Over the next three years, funding

is going to be highly constrained. In 2018-19, as I previously said

in October, real terms NHS spending per person in England is going to go

down, ten years after We all understand why that is,

but let's not pretend that that is not placing huge pressure

on the service. Here was a tabloid headline

about the NHS falling behind in Europe and a pointed reminder

to Theresa May. These were problems tougher

than those she was used to. We don't have, you know,

we can't change the age of Britain. It is quite different than say,

the criminal justice system. Talk of a winter health

crisis is as regular and predictable as winter itself,

but when has there been There's never enough cash,

but the squeeze is real and changing the way treatments are delivered

is a long-term project. After being catapulted

into Number Ten, the pressure is severe and outside Theresa May's

normal comfort zone. Fairly or not, the buck

stops with her. The growing pressure on the NHS

was underlined again today by the head of NHS Hospital Trusts

in England, who told MPs it was time to stop pretending the NHS

could afford to do everything He warned that the current

situation could not continue. Our health editor, Hugh Pym,

has more details. If there's one story which sums up

the current state of the NHS, it's Pat's, she couldn't get a local

doctors visit and fearing she had pneumonia had

to go to her local A, but once she got there she had

to wait 19-hours for a bed. I were crying, weren't I,

when we are were sat Through tiredness of, you know,

being there as long as we were. Pat has this message

for politicians. There's loads of hospitals that's

in the same position - go and see them and then say -

right, we'll sit down and see The local Hospital Trust said

on the day in question the pressure was higher than usual,

but safety was monitored closely. Some hospitals are managing

better than others. Here in Exeter, senior consultants

are at the front door of A, ensuring only the sickest

patients are admitted. They can send some straight home,

keeping beds free for others. As soon as you admit an elderly

patient to hospital, there's a risk that they are going to deteriorate,

they're going to lose muscle power and also they might get

into the system of doing more and more investigations

which actually doesn't necessarily There's no doubt of the huge

strain on the NHS. Figures leaked to the BBC showed

a big increase last week in the number of patients in England

waiting 12-hours or more on trolleys because hospital

beds weren't available. Several hospitals fell far short

of targets for A waiting times, and medical profession leaders

are warning that lives are at risk. Our counsel members specifically

have said to me that this There are patients

all over the hospital. We don't know where to put them

and they don't feel that they're able to provide the standard of care

that they've been trained to do. The main representative

of England's hospitals had a stark warning for MPs

about the longer term implications. I think the biggest concern is,

to be frank, if we carry on on the current trajectory,

I think what we begin to bring into question is the entire

sustainability of the NHS model. The NHS is always very busy

early in the new year, The question is - will the pressure

ease off any time soon? A burst of cold weather or,

for example, an upsurge in flu cases could add to the high levels

of pressure being Some say the NHS is in perpetual

winter, with patient demand Today's problems

could yet intensify. A 15-year-old girl has appeared

before magistrates in York charged The teenager was remanded

into secure accommodation. Katie Rough was found with fatal

injuries in a field on the outskirts of York on Monday afternoon

as our correspondent, Some of Katie Rough's family left

court in tears this morning after listening to a brief outline

of the case against the 15-year-old The teenager, who can't be named

publicly because of her young age, said nothing during the brief

hearing, here at York The two charges are that on Monday

she murdered Katie Rough and that on the same day she had

with her in a public place Katie's headteacher says

she was "a kind and thoughtful Many more people have

been to leave flowers and messages where she was found

with fatal injuries. People are just shocked

that a seven-year-old My daughters were friends

with Katie and, you know, How difficult is it to talk

with your own children about what's Yes, it's a very hard thing

to deal with at the moment. The teenager accused of murdering

this little girl will appear before A brief look at some

of the day's other news stories. Rolf Harris has gone on trial

accused of indecently assaulting The 86-year-old former

entertainer denies the charges. He's appearing from

prison on a videolink. Volkswagen has agreed to pay more

than ?3 billion to settle the case over rigging emissions levels

in the United States. VW - which is the world's

second biggest carmaker - admitted in 2015 that it had

installed software in hundreds of thousands of diesel cars

in the US to cheat emissions tests. The BBC's Director General,

Tony Hall, has said the top online TV service

in the UK by 2020. He told staff it needed to make

the leap from a catch-up service to a "must-visit destination"

in its own right. One change might allow viewers

to watch an entire series on iPlayer Strong winds have caused disruption

in parts of Scotland The Forth Road Bridge has reopened,

it was closed all day A man has been charged

with dangerous driving. There was damage to property

and many homes lost power. Met Office yellow warnings

are in place for wind and snow across much of Scotland and Northern

Ireland. On the financial markets,

the FTSE index of 100 leading shares has continued its record-breaking

streak, closing at an all-time high During the day, the governor

of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said that leaving the EU was no

longer the biggest risk to the UK's financial stability

because of action taken by the Bank. Our business editor,

Simon Jack, is here. Mr Carney admitting he's wrong?

Yeah. He changed his tune in a couple of ways. He conceded the

economy has performed better than he thought it would post-Brexit along

with other people. He thought he might upgrade his forecast for how

well it is going to do. Before the vote he said that Brexit was the

biggest risk to UK stability. This is about disruption. He said because

the rest of the European Union uses the UK as a wholesale bank, any

disruption in that relationship might be a bigger threat to their

stability than it is to the UK. He echoed calls for this transational

period we heard from finance chiefs that we need time after 2019 so

everyone can adjust. He took credit, he say I cut interest rates and put

money to the banks. If the weather has improved, partly down to me.

Good news for the financial markets where the FTSE is concerned?

Astonishing streak streak. For the tenth day in a row the FTSE 100

closed at an all-time high. It hadn't happened since the modern

index was put together in 1984. What Mark Carney got right is that

sterling would fall. It has sharply, particularly against the dollar by

19%. The FTSE 100 is stuffed full ofs companies that make most of

their money in dollars. As the pound falls the dollar earnings are worth

more in pound terms go up, therefore the share value goes up. Mr Trump

gets his way into this story well. A lot of people think his plans to

spend big, super charge growth in the US is good news for the global

economy and might bring back inflation. If we have inflation it

means everyone's favourite asset they have been buying over the

years, Government bonds, that pay little, are safe, the low returns

get eaten up by quickly by inflation. The right thing to do,

sell bonds, buy shares, therefore shares go up. That is what you've

seen. Thank you very much. Simon Jack there for us, our Business

Editor. Barack Obama delivered his final

farewell as President last night He listed his achievements

after eight years in the White House and he struck a sombre note

as he warned of threats to US democracy from inequality and racism

and derided many of the policies advocated by his

successor, Donald Trump. From Chicago, our correspondent,

Nick Bryant, sent this report. He's one of the most

gifted speakers ever to occupy the White House,

the poet laureate of his own presidency and he returned home

to Chicago to define, If I'd told you eight

years ago that America would reverse a great recession,

shut down Iran's nuclear weapons programme without firing a shot,

take out the mastermind of 9/11, you might have said our sights

were set a little too high. CROWD: Four more years!

Four more years! America's first black President

never wanted his time in office to be defined by race,

but the hope was he would do more After my election there

was talk of a post-racial America and such a vision,

however well intended, Race remains a potent and often

divisive force in our society. There were no direct

attacks on Donald Trump, but much of the speech read

like a rebuttal to the billionaire's campaign,

to the President-elect's Twitter Democracy can buckle

when it gives in to fear, that's why I reject discrimination

against Muslim Americans Seldom has there been such

a photogenic presidency, it's had the look of a black

Camelot, and the thank you to his wife, Michelle, left him

struggling to contain his emotions. You took on a role you didn't

ask for and you made it your own with grace and with grit

and with style and good humour. For a moment, the great wordsmith

rendered speechless. Then he ended with three famous

words that brought such hope, It was a presidency that began

with the mountain top experience of becoming the first black man

to live in a White House built by slaves, but it ended

in the valley with the knowledge that Donald Trump will try to

dismantle his signature achievements I just hope that President-elect

Trump take on some of these pointers and carry on the torch

of being a fair to all people. But I know that's going to take some

work, so we'll just wait on it. Barack Obama is a leader likely

to have the word "era" But the rise of Donald Trump

was partly a reaction to his presidency and not how he'd

scripted his finale. Kelly Smith, Britain's first female

professional footballer, is to retire from football

after an 18-year career in which she scored a record number

of goals for England and won the FA Cup on no fewer than five occasions

as our sports correspondent, For years, Kelly Smith made

the spectacular seem almost routine. COMMENTATOR: Through

for Kelly Smith. It's a great pass.

Kelly Smith! As Britain's first female

professional footballer, hers is a career that set

a benchmark and a career that I think I've had a very good

career at international At the age of 38, the body's

telling me that it needs to stop. The game's in a magnificent place

at the minute and it's good to step She made her England debut just days

after her 17th birthday and went on to win 117 caps and score

a record 46 goals for her country. The majority of her career

was spent at Arsenal, where she won the Champions League

and five FA Cups. COMMENTATOR: Trying

to play it to Smith! Her influence will be measured

in more than goals and titles. Current England captain,

Steph Houghton, described her as an, "inspiration" and "the country's

greatest female player." While England head coach,

Mark Sampson, said "defenders all over the world will be

celebrating her retirement." Her time playing in the US

was blighted by injuries, alcoholism and depression,

but she overcame those challenges to flourish

in the twilight of her career. Now she'll turn her

attention to coaching. I'd love to see how far I can

develop as a coach and obviously there are goals to manage Arsenal,

the club of my heart, Who knows where that will be,

but I'm just at the bottom Whatever obstacles she's

faced, Smith has always As one era ends, another

could be about to begin. Newsnight is coming up

on BBC Two, here's Emily. Tonight, Donald Trump lashes out

at those who publish unverified allegations as news,

is he right? And, we hear from the doctor

fired for questioning whether transgender children really

know their own minds.