02/03/2017 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at Ten: The pressure mounts on the US Attorney General,

who stands accused of lying under oath.

Following calls to stand down over claims that he lied about contacts

with Russian officials during the election campaign,

operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign.

President Trump has declared his total confidence in Mr Sessions,

but his political opponents have been piling on the pressure.

The fact that the Attorney General - the top cop in our country - lied

under oath to the American people is grounds for him to resign.

Mr Sessions also promised not to have any involvement

in the official investigation into Russian interference

Police chiefs in England and Wales have blamed budget cuts

for a series of failings identified by inspectors.

The value of the parent company of Snapchat has risen

sharply, after its launch on the New York Stock Exchange.

In China, we witness the official efforts to silence popular criticism

ahead of the National People's Congress.

And Jackie's life after JFK - the lost letters which reveal a love

affair with a senior British diplomat.

And coming up in Sportsday later in the hour on BBC News -

After an epic tie-break, the world number one

One of President Trump's most trusted colleagues, the US

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is under intense pressure tonight.

He's facing allegations that he lied under oath about his contacts

with Russian officials during the election campaign.

But Mr Sessions, speaking within the past hour,

has denied any improper contact and he's announced that he'll not be

involved in the official investigation into claims of Russian

influence in the presidential election.

Our North America editor Jon Sopel reports.

Marine One touching down on the Navy's newest aircraft

carrier, and the president feeling the full

downdraught of the latest setback to buffet his Administration.

His Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, facing charges that he lied under

oath during his confirmation hearings over his contacts with the

But the president is standing by him.

Mr President, do you still have confidence in the

When were you aware that he spoke to the

What's emerged is that then Senator Sessions met the Russian

ambassador at the Republican convention in July.

But at his confirmation hearing this January,

he denied any contact with the Russians.

If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the

Trump campaign communicated with the Russian

government in the course of

Senator Franken, I'm not aware of any of those activities.

I have been called a surrogate a time or two in

that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.

I'm unable to comment on it. We've now had the national security

adviser fired over his legs to Russia, the Attorney General accused

of perjuring himself because of his contacts and the White House is

absolutely insistent there is nothing untoward, there is nothing

to see, and the crowd should move on. But the questions keep piling

up. Senior Democrats are demanding Jeff Sessions' resignation and for

the appointment of a special prosecutor. The fact that the

Attorney General, the top cop in our country, lied under oath to the

American people is grounds for him to resign. It is grounds for him to

resign. He has proved that he's underqualified and unfit to serve in

position. Of trust. Republicans aren't going that far, but a growing

number have said that you can't have an Attorney General overseeing an

investigation into Russian activities, if he himself is

comprised. They are demanding him recuse himself. Based on what we

have read on the information is not complete, the Attorney General

should further clarify and I think you will need to recuse himself at

this point. At a news conference a short time ago Jeff Sessions

insisted he'd done nothing wrong, but he did bow to pressure from

within his own party. I've decided to recuse myself from any existing

or future investigations of any matter relating in any way to the

campaigns for president of the United States. # Goblin Webb bless

the USA -- God bless the USA. There's no disguising the warmth of

the reception the US president received. His hope is the rest of

the American personnel are more interested in what he's doing in

national security and jobs than they are in latest Washington brouhaha.

That report just in from our North American editor, John Sobel.

Policing in England and Wales is in a "potentially perilous"

state, with some forces putting the public at risk, according

to the police watchdog, the Inspectorate of Constabulary.

The report did say most of the 43 forces were providing a good

service, but that others were letting victims down.

Police leaders say forces are having to "prioritise more"

because of a sharp fall in their budgets, as our home editor

The arrest of a suspected drug dealer in Bedfordshire this morning.

This is the traditional view of what police do.

But the alleged crime scene offers clues

to what 21st century policing now involves.

Phones and sim cards may reveal victims requiring protection.

A laptop might reveal evidence of cybercrime.

The presence of a woman's possessions could suggest a

Bedfordshire Police were today described as "inadequate" in a

report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, with around a third

of chief constables in England and Wales

told their effectiveness was

There's a rationing of police services in some areas

because resources are stretched. Deliberately on occasions.

The amount of risk associated with a victim is downplayed.

Bedfordshire Police is criticising a report which

In an extraordinary response, Bedfordshire Police issued their own

video rebuttal, complaining the official inspectors had got it

Later, the Chief Constable told the BBC the HMIC had failed

to recognise the force's changing priorities,

Only today, the officers and staff from this unit have arrested an

individual who is responsible for downloading the most abusive and

And that's what we're doing, we're protecting

And I'm very frustrated that the good work

Police budgets have been cut by over 20% in the last five years, but then

crime has fallen by a third in the same period.

The government argues if some forces are coping, poor

Theresa May once said the mission of the police was to cut crime.

But of the priority and emergency calls they receive,

actually less than a quarter are directly crime related.

A typical day in a typical force will see 50

arrests, but also 14 incidents relating to

mental health issues and

Police work has shifted from catching

There was an age where if someone had an obvious injury from an

assault, somebody got arrested, how straightforward is that?

It has completely changed, it's about

It's about assessing what the risk is.

Have police officers become social workers?

They've had to become broader public servants as well as, not forgetting

and they still make lots of arrests, they still take people to court.

It's a long way from Z Cars or The Sweeney.

Whether forces are getting their 21st-century priorities right

British Cycling has apologised for failings in the way it

looked after its riders, and it's promised to improve.

An investigation was launched last year, after allegations

And the team's new chairman, Jonathan Browning, has set out

a plan for improving the welfare of athletes.

Our sports editor Dan Roan has more details.

For years the story was one of success -

British Cycling defined by medals and glory.

But now the image has been tainted amid a damaging tide of bullying

All have been denied, but today, the man tasked with salvaging

the sport's reputation told me it was time for

Do you owe riders and staff an apology today?

We've already met with our groups of both riders and staff and we've

made it very clear that where there's been failings,

We recognise them, but we're going to do something

So there was a bullying culture then here at British Cycling?

I think there have been some well reported instances

Today, with training here continuing as normal,

British Cycling unveiled a 39-point action plan, designed to overhaul

It all stems back to last year, when former sprint cyclist

Jess Varnish complained about sexism and bullying amid a culture of fear

at the sport's high-class performance programme.

A decade ago, Jenny Copnall was national mountain biking

champion and says she was also a victim of discrimination

I've certainly known of staff who have said to me down the years,

and particularly when I retired, that they supported and they had

felt bad for my situation, but hadn't been able to say

anything, because they were worried about their job.

The idea of job preservation was almost a joke amongst riders,

in the way that management behaved and decisions were made.

British Cycling's credibility was further damaged yesterday,

when MPs heard about a failure to keep records of medical

Sir Bradley, if we could have a quick chat, please?

The man at the centre of the storm, Sir Bradley Wiggins,

today declined to answer questions about the contents of a now

infamous medical package delivered to him in 2011.

But there's a real warning here for other sports, too.

A growing sense that British Cycling is symbolic of a win at all costs

mentality that comes at too high a price.

Today, it was warned that unless things improve,

it could lose millions of pounds worth of public funding.

Your best funded and most successful governing body

Well, there's a lot going on around British Cycling.

There are a number of fires that seem to be going off in different

areas and it's difficult for them at this point in time.

I was shocked and disturbed by what I heard yesterday,

particularly around the area of medical management.

Do you accept it looks very suspicious? I accept we have many

gaps that we need to address in how we run some of the areas of the

business. These

are dark days for the sport thought to be an explosive report

into cycling's culture now imminent, A brief look at some of the day's

other other news stories. The Syrian army says it's regained

control of the city of Palmyra IS has twice held Palmyra -

which is famous for its ancient ruins - during the six-year

Syrian conflict. During that time they've

destroyed some of the city's Polls have just closed

in the second election to the Northern Ireland Assembly

in less than a year. The power-sharing executive,

led by the Democratic Unionist Party Three skiers have been

killed in an avalanche 18 people were skiing

off-piste on fresh snow when they were hit by the avalanche,

near Courmayeur, this afternoon. Three people were seriously

injured and were taken A man has admitted raping

a woman just hours before Derry McCann, who's 28,

attacked the woman in a park McCann was jailed for a similar

attack when he was a teenager. He'll be sentenced next month

and was told he faced "a very, The French presidential candidate,

Emmanuel Macron, has unveiled his policy agenda -

promising to boost the economy Mr Macron, who's running

on a centrist manifesto, had been Tonight it emerged police have

searched the home of one of Mr Macron's rivals,

Francois Fillon. He now finds himself in the unusual

position in this election of being the only major candidate

not facing possible criminal charges, as our Paris correspondent

Lucy Williamson reports. His stage may not be as glitzy

as the Oscars but Emmanuel Macron knows how to

play the star. Never mind that critics

describe his campaign as blah blah land -

all talk, no real policies. Today this 39-year-old first-time

candidate came armed He's promised big tax cuts,

spending cuts and the sale of government stakes in some

companies but he's also promised 50 billion euros of investment

and help for those on low incomes. Mr Macron's supporters are largely

young, urban professionals. So, one journalist asked -

why does a former investment banker TRANSLATION: I was born

in a provincial town and in a family that had nothing to do

with the world of It's with a lot of pride that I say

I am the candidate of the working and the middle classes and frankly

when I compare my project with Marine Le Pen's,

she wants to withdraw from the eurozone and destroy 30%

of people's savings. Expanding his vote to blue collar

workers is key for Mr Macron. Here in Lyon he's won over

the socialist mayor but the support of the city's factory workers

is proving much more difficult. TRANSLATION: If it's between Macron

and Marine Le Pen in the second round I would vote for Macron,

but it would be a vote of necessity, I think he will better try to get

closer to people in general. By "people", I include,

of course, older people, more conservative people

and workers who work. Polls suggest Marine Le Pen has

the support of almost half the blue collar vote in France and is gaining

among farmers and some But she's also battling

claims that she misused EU Emmanuel Macron's strategy lies

in holding together two The centre-left

and the centre-right. Critics say the glue in that formula

has been Mr Macron's personality This programme tries to offer

something to both sides but will it be enough to keep them

faithful and get them out to vote? With his centre-right rival

Francois Fillon under investigation for embezzlement,

this presidency could come down to a choice between

Mr Macron or Marine Le Pen, between globalisation

or protectionism - This weekend China will open

its annual parliamentary session, As usual the weeks leading up

to the congress have been marked by a nationwide effort to stop some

of the most marginalised members These petitioners are often

prevented from airing their grievances and this

year our correspondent John Sudworth has had first-hand experience

of the tactics deployed by the authorities

to silence criticism. There are some violent

images in this report. We are stopped from meeting

the family we've come to see. This woman and her sister

claim their father was beaten to death

by a policeman in a land dispute. They're among the many thousands

of people who travel regularly to Beijing seeking justice

- known as petitioners. So the petitioners

hope to use China's annual parliamentary

gathering to make their case. But here's the reality,

China's Communist Party doesn't want By this country's dispossessed

and marginalised. The thugs force us out

and smash our cameras. Before the start of the National

People's Congress this weekend, a major security

operation is under way. While local officials work to stop

petitioners reaching Beijing, at the Petitions' Office,

where, in theory, their complaints and grievances can be lodged,

hundreds of plain clothed security guards now lie in wait to catch

people and send them home. We meet two women who show

us their petitions. One, claiming that a well-connected

company boss stole money from her. The other, trying to overturn

an alleged miscarriage of justice. "We come here during the Congress

because there is a chance for to us meet upright officials",

this woman says, "but instead we're treated as

troublemakers and threatened." The interview is abruptly stopped,

although for now, at least, the Few petitioners ever

succeed in getting Along with the persecution,

it makes their faith in the system We are just a few blocks

away from the People's Congress but the reality they play

here is very different indeed. For those who need political

representation the most, this is a system marked by suspicion,

surveillance and control. Shares in the company that owns

the messaging app Snapchat have jumped nearly 50%

on its stock market debut. Snapchat, which is best known

for its disappearing messages, allows its 158 million users

to share photos, often using novelty filters,

but it has never made a profit. Our technology correspondent

Rory Cellan Jones is with me, Rory, why is the company that doesn't make

a profit the subject of this attention? . The shares have been

massively oversubscribed with big investors terrified of missing out

on the next big investors terrified of missing out

on the next big thing. The young founders were billionaires on paper

before it opened on the New York Stock Exchange and within a couple

of hours the shares were trading at a price of $25, up nearly 50% on the

day Even at the open price, $17, the company was valued then at an

extraordinary $25 billion. All the more extraordinary when you think it

has never made any money. In fact last year it made a loss of $515

million. But the investors, they are not betting on what the company is

now but on what they believe it might become with that very young

audience, mainly 15-25-year-olds, they don't watch TV, this is the a

way of reaching them. But the competition has slowed recently.

There's competition from Instagram, which is copying a lot of Snap

Snap's capabilities and there is a warning sign from what happened to

Twitter. On its opening day on the stock market, its shares rose over

90%, today those shares are 40% below the opening price a few years

ago. The Chief Inspector of Hospitals

in England has given a stark warning about the state of the NHS,

saying it's standing on a "burning platform",

with four out of five trusts needing Professor Sir Mike Richards says

the traditional model of caring for patients is no longer capable

of meeting the needs Our health editor Hugh

Pym has the story. I'll bring your baby across and let

you know about the checks A new birth today and

a new beginning for this Maternity and other services were

rated inadequate by the regulator, the Care Quality

Commission, in 2015. The Trust, which includes

Addenbrooke's, was put into special measures,

but now it's tackled the problems It was a very big shock

for our patients. The boss who helped steer

the hospital from the low point of special measures back to where it

should be, told me how The wider leadership teams invested

a huge amount of their time, you know in some cases well

over two days a week, in going out into frontline clinical

areas and talking to staff and listening to them and listening

to patients about what needed and listening to them and listening

to patients about what needed The Care Quality Commission makes

clear that while there are successful turnarounds

like at this hospital, there are others where there

is cause for concern and where care The CQC report said across major

hospital trusts in England, 68% were rated as inadequate

or needing improvement. 81% was said to need to improve

safety but 93% were praised But those ratings were done before

this winter's extreme pressure in hospitals and the CQC says

the whole system needs a complete Of course I have concerns

about what has been happening and I think we need to take a long

look at that to see what more can be done in terms of improving the acute

care model, from emergency admissions, through the hospital,

through to discharge. So we need to look across

the country at all of those things. But some hospitals are managing

it better than others. The system as a whole is under

strain but for some hospitals those who having had a bad

inspection have turned things around The former Prime Minister,

Gordon Brown, has called on the Government to implement

the next stage of the Leveson inquiry into allegations

about press intrusion. Mr Brown says there are

"unanswered questions" about the way newspaper journalists

have behaved which need The Leveson inquiry

was intended to be in two parts but five years on, the second phase

still hasn't happened. Our media editor Amol

Rajan has the story. The Leveson Inquiry allowed victims

of phone hacking and press intrusion to explain in

harrowing detail how their lives had been ruined by Britain's

tabloid press. And former Prime

Minister Gordon Brown, whose bank and mortgage accounts

were broken into, says it's now time Leveson one could only deal

with part of the problem. The whole of the problem

has got to be dealt with, including the way

Murdoch newspapers impersonated Including the way that there

were breaches of the law. Including also how e-mail

interception might have happened, as well as

telephone interception. The remit of the first

inquiry was broad. To look at the culture,

practice and ethics of Britain's A second, more specific,

inquiry would look at claims of police corruption and allegations

of corporate wrongdoing at News But five years on, it

still hasn't happened. It was almost certainly

the worst experience of my One man splashed across tabloid

front pages was the teacher, He was wrongly accused

of killing his tenant, Joanna Yates,

and hounded for weeks. He's now patron of

the press reform group One sees the same kind

of treatment of innocent people in the press that

I had to go through. One finds the same extraordinary

disregard for truth Victims of press abuse believe

Britain's newspapers But many journalists

have already appeared in the dock, according

here at the Old Bailey. And some of Fleet Street's loudest

voices believe this is all part of a vendetta

against a free press. One of Rupert Murdoch's most

controversial former editors says a second inquiry

would be a waste of time. You'd get some clapped-out old judge

out of retirement to discuss the "Relationship"

between the police and the press. The police and the government

want to control what Many of Gordon Brown's

criticisms focus on Mr Murdoch, who is

currently trying to buy the remainder of Sky,

with a Five years after

David Cameron promised part two, victims of press abuse

believe the Leveson Inquiry is A series of lost love letters

detailing the relationship between Jackie Kennedy

and a British aristocrat and senior diplomat are to be

auctioned this month. The letters were written

after the assassination of President Kennedy

but ended when Jackie Kennedy married the Greek tycoon

Aristotle Onassis. Our correspondent David Sillito has

been studying the letters. Dear David, your last

letter was such a cri de I would do anything to take

that anguish from you. It doesn't seem that we can

ever help the people we David Ormsby Gore,

Britain's ambassador in The person writing to him

was a woman he wanted to marry, This is a love story

in letters that was, for the A few weeks ago,

the lock was forced, David Ormsby Gore had known

Jack Kennedy for many years. He was more than just

an ambassador, he was a The story of this glamorous golden

couple and the tragedy of the These letters reveal

the private story. How when David Ormsby Gore

lost his wife romance blossomed. But his heart was broken,

and Jackie left He writes about their plans

for a marriage, a possible secret All that, he says, has

become irrelevant trash. "As for your photograph",

he says, "I weep when I Why do such agonising

things have to happen?" We also have Jackie

Kennedy's response to that She writes back to him, painfully,

one Aristotle Onassis's own stationery from his yacht,

and with a Greek stamp on the envelope, and says,

no, it's not that bad, really, I'll always love

you and we'll always have But I don't know how

much that placated him. No one knew what was in the box,

there wasn't even a These letters are a fascinating

glimpse into the world of the White House, the Kennedys,

and a romance bound by grief. ...Have shared so many lives

and deaths and hopes and pain. We will share them

forever, and be forever An update on our main story, the

pressure on US Attorney-General Jeff Session who has been accused of

lying and his announcement today that he will not be involved in the

official investigation into claims by Russian interference in the US

presidential election. Let's go live to the White House, or North America

editor Jon Sopel is there. This statement tonight, Jon, do you think

he has done enough to answer critics? I think on the Republican

side they are hoping so. That is what they wanted. They wanted him to

say - I'm not going to have any part in any investigation overseeing it,

into whether the Russians interfered in the election. The Republicans

have got that. The Democrats, though, are not going to let that

go. They believe he lied under oath when he said "I had no contacts with

the Russians." He explained that by saying - I was asked whether I had

contacts as a Trump campaign manager. The answer to that was no.

Did I have contact with them as a member of the armed services

committee, well, yes, I did. With hindsight he may have been

better-served of giving a more honest answer at the committee

hearing. So to that extent it was a self-inflicted wound. They are

clearly hoping in the White House now that they have stopped the

bleeding. Thank you very much for the update. A reminder that

Newsnight is coming up on BBC Two. Here is Evan.

Tonight, all the reaction the it argument in the US over the Joan

general and as it is World Book Day we have the writer and illustrator,

Raymond