17/05/2017 BBC News at Ten


17/05/2017

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Tonight at Ten: flashing images.?

:00:00.:00:07.

Donald Trump faces the most serious allegations

:00:08.:00:08.

He's accused of asking former FBI boss James Comey to halt

:00:09.:00:16.

the investigation into links between his former national

:00:17.:00:18.

Donald Trump hasn't yet responded directly to the latest

:00:19.:00:24.

allegations against him, but he remains defiant.

:00:25.:00:27.

No politician in history, and I say this with great surety,

:00:28.:00:30.

has been treated worse, or more unfairly.

:00:31.:00:40.

But tonight as pressure intensifies on the President,

:00:41.:00:42.

he's facing growing criticism from within his own party.

:00:43.:00:46.

I think we've seen this movie before.

:00:47.:00:48.

I think it's reaching the stage where it's

:00:49.:00:50.

After the turbulence of the first few months,

:00:51.:00:56.

we'll be asking how serious a moment this is for the Trump presidency.

:00:57.:01:01.

The Liberal Democrats launch their election manifesto

:01:02.:01:05.

pledging another referendum on any Brexit deal.

:01:06.:01:09.

Meanwhile, new measures to curb immigration are understood

:01:10.:01:11.

to be among the pledges in the Conservatives'

:01:12.:01:13.

A record number of people in work, but there are more warnings

:01:14.:01:20.

And trying to fight digital propaganda -

:01:21.:01:27.

the millions of fake profiles created on social media

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

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There's so much at stake in the Championship

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as Sheffield Wedmnesday and Huddersfield look to reach

:01:36.:01:37.

President Trump is facing what his critics say

:01:38.:02:04.

are the most serious allegations to beset his presidency so far.

:02:05.:02:08.

He has been accused of trying to get the former head of the FBI,

:02:09.:02:12.

James Comey - who he sacked last week - to drop an investigation

:02:13.:02:15.

into links between his former National Security Adviser

:02:16.:02:17.

The claims have prompted a small but growing number

:02:18.:02:22.

of the President's fellow Republicans to call for

:02:23.:02:24.

an independent inquiry into links between the Trump Administration

:02:25.:02:26.

Our North America Editor Jon Sopel reports.

:02:27.:02:32.

Chuck Schumer, And Chuck Schumer, Donald Trump was today on the way to

:02:33.:02:42.

the coastguard Academy as his administration seemed to be listing.

:02:43.:02:45.

Our commander in chief, Donald Trump. This has been the most torrid

:02:46.:02:51.

week of the presidency and though he didn't address each individual set

:02:52.:02:56.

back there was a message. No politician in history, and I say

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this with great surety, has been treated worse, or more unfairly. You

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cannot let them get you down. I didn't get elected to serve the

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Washington media, I got elected to serve the forgotten men and women of

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our country and that's what I'm doing. He has become more famous

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than me zmrchlt his. The disclose that James Comey kept notes of his

:03:34.:03:38.

meetings with the president, including over the sacked Michael

:03:39.:03:41.

Flynn is serious. Donald Trump is reported to have said to Comey:

:03:42.:03:57.

Amid allegation that this amounted to obstruction of justice the White

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House denied any wrong doing, saying the president hadn't told the FBI

:04:04.:04:07.

director to stop his work. It brought this from the democratic

:04:08.:04:13.

leader. The president says what Comey says was wrong. Prove it. It

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is easy to prove. As long as there are tapes or transcripts of what

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happened. If the president's right, he will have no problem releasing

:04:24.:04:31.

memos, tapes, transcripts that corroborate his story. Other

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democrats have started using the I word. I rise today Mr Speaker to

:04:36.:04:44.

call for the impeachment of the president of the United States of

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America. For obstruction of justice. This is not good for America. Some

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influential Republicans too are growing restive with comparisons to

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the days of Nixon. I think we have seen this movie before, I think it's

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reaching the point where it is of Watergate size and scale and a

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couple of other scandals that you and I have seen. It has been a bad

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week, last Tuesday came the firing of James Comey with the White House

:05:16.:05:20.

giving muddled explanations about why and then the president seemed to

:05:21.:05:28.

threaten Comey saying he had better hopes there are no tapes of our

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conversation. And the president divulged material to the Russian

:05:37.:05:41.

foreign minister. But what about the mood outside Washington? In the home

:05:42.:05:46.

of country and western, in Nashville, the Trump loyalists are

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not changing tune. They're still singing stand by your man. You can't

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tell me that all these leaks and comments that come through almost

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daily are not because people are trying to subvert the president. The

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things they're saying about him is a lie. All the immediates are

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democrats and left-wingers, they don't want to see him do well or

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America do well. They just want to give America away. The president,

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who returned to the White House tonight will be buoyed by this

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support but that is kwha gets you elected. Not what keeps you in power

:06:23.:06:25.

and this administration can't afford any more weeks like the one that's

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just gone. How serious a moment this is for

:06:28.:06:40.

Donald Trump? If you drew up a league table of the allegations that

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have swirled around Donald Trump and looked at what was the most serious,

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I think potentially this memo from James Comey is the most serious.

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Like any good detective he has kept notes of his meetings with Donald

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Trump and if it was a court of law, that would be entirely admissible as

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evidence. The notes of an FBI person. So that presents a problem

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for Donald Trump and some say he will be impeached now. Impeachment

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is, for a start you have got to have a huge burden of proof. But it has

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never happened in US history. It not only has to pass the House of

:07:21.:07:24.

Representatives, it becomes a trial in the Senate and you need a two

:07:25.:07:29.

thirds majority for that to happen. That is still unlike and still

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premature to talk about this, but it has been a torrid week for the White

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House and you have seen members of staff feeling insecure about their

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jobs, the president has made mis-steps, you see on Capitol Hill

:07:45.:07:49.

the Republicans feeling uncertain about the future. It has sometimes

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felt like we are going through a daily soap opera, an improbable plot

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line, but what we are not yet at is the season end, that still has a

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long way to go. Thank you. The BBC understands the Conservativing will

:08:17.:08:21.

promise to curb immigration when they publish their manifesto

:08:22.:08:25.

tomorrow. Let's talk to our political editor in Westminster.

:08:26.:08:28.

These are the first details we are getting. Yes the publication of any

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manifesto is a big deal for a party leader, particularly for Theresa

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May, because of course this is the first big document to come from the

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Conservatives since she has been in charge and it is her decision to

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call the election and her calculation that the ideas that she

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and her team will put forward will be enough to keep her on in Downing

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Street and one of those first messages is an uncompromising one on

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imdprags. Migration. It is her calculation that voters say

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immigration must come down and she will say immigration is too high and

:09:08.:09:12.

when immigration is too high that has consequences for society. The

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question is of course then well what is she going to do. Don't forget as

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Home Secretary in charge for six years, she missed that target of

:09:21.:09:25.

bringing immigration down to under a hundred thousand. Tomorrow she will

:09:26.:09:30.

recommit to that figure and make that promise again that if elected

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under her leadership immigration will come down to under 100,000. She

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will also say that student numbers will stay in those immigration

:09:42.:09:44.

figures and there has been pressure on her to change that, arguments

:09:45.:09:49.

that it creates a false picture. But she will also propose extra charges

:09:50.:09:56.

for employers who bring in non-EU workers from around the world, she

:09:57.:09:59.

will double the amounts they're expected to pay if they want to hire

:10:00.:10:03.

them. There is a suggestion that people from around the world other

:10:04.:10:08.

than the EU will have to pay more to use the NHS during the time they're

:10:09.:10:13.

here. There will be plenty more big ideas on social care. But I think

:10:14.:10:16.

broadly this is not going to be a manifesto that is full of hearts and

:10:17.:10:22.

flowers, I think it is going to be a hard-headed document with Theresa

:10:23.:10:26.

May's ambition, her calculation, is that by saying to the country, I

:10:27.:10:30.

know there are problems that you wants me to fix, she will come

:10:31.:10:35.

across as the leader that they believe can sort them. Thank you.

:10:36.:10:40.

The Liberal Democrats have - as expected - pledged to hold

:10:41.:10:42.

a second referendum on the final Brexit deal

:10:43.:10:44.

In their manifesto - which they launched today -

:10:45.:10:48.

the party promised to spend billions more on housing,

:10:49.:10:50.

It would be funded in part by a penny increase on income tax.

:10:51.:10:56.

Other policies include the legalisation of cannabis

:10:57.:11:00.

and a future ban on sales of diesel cars and vans.

:11:01.:11:03.

Here's our political correspondent, Vicki Young.

:11:04.:11:14.

Tim far Ron wants the election to be about Brexit. Someone is going to

:11:15.:11:31.

have the final say. It could be the politicians, or it could be the

:11:32.:11:34.

people. I believe it must be the people. But is his message getting

:11:35.:11:44.

through? I caught up with him as he toured a school. Certainly there are

:11:45.:11:49.

many people lacking hope. They think that the only thing on the table is

:11:50.:11:55.

Theresa May's bleak vision of us leaving the EU with a hard Brexit.

:11:56.:12:00.

There are many people who voted for Remain who accept that result,

:12:01.:12:03.

something you're unwilling to do and they feel you have got to get on

:12:04.:12:07.

with it and many thing traichl is the person to do -- Theresa May is

:12:08.:12:13.

the person to do. Many have given up the fight, what I'm saying is I

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haven't. If you believe that Britain's future is better alongside

:12:19.:12:24.

our neighbours in Europe, you should not be forced to accept a stitch up.

:12:25.:12:31.

You should have the final say. The manifesto promises ?8 billion of

:12:32.:12:35.

investment in England and an increase in corporation tax and a

:12:36.:12:40.

rise in income tax to fund spending on health and an end to the freeze

:12:41.:12:44.

on working age benefits and to legalise cannabis. There is no

:12:45.:12:49.

mention of abolishing tuition fees in England, a policy they abandoned

:12:50.:12:52.

when they went into coalition with the Conservatives. Do you accept

:12:53.:12:57.

tuition fees were the right thing to do? I voted against the rise. I

:12:58.:13:01.

think it is important that people keep their word. That is why my

:13:02.:13:06.

advice to others is don't make promises you can't keep. Would you

:13:07.:13:11.

reverse it now? We have said we would put money to returning grants

:13:12.:13:15.

to students to make sure it is affordable. In London the Liberal

:13:16.:13:24.

Democrat hope to come back. The area voted against Brexit. So how is the

:13:25.:13:27.

promise of another referendum going down. It is childish to think

:13:28.:13:31.

because you don't like a decision that has been made and voted for

:13:32.:13:37.

that you can go back and reverse it. This is democracy, this is the

:13:38.:13:40.

country we live in and we should stand by that, even though the

:13:41.:13:45.

decision wasn't one that I liked. I don't think the fight should ever

:13:46.:13:51.

stop. It is too important and too many lies and yeah we should carry

:13:52.:13:56.

on fighting until we have no you know fight left in us. I was

:13:57.:14:03.

disappointed about the news of a potential referendum chl I think

:14:04.:14:06.

that ship has sailed and it is about getting the best kind of Brexit. How

:14:07.:14:11.

many seats do you need too gain too keep your job 1234? We need above

:14:12.:14:18.

all else is to offer the British people this one chance, the last

:14:19.:14:22.

chance saloon for Britain, if you believe Britain is open, tolerant

:14:23.:14:31.

and united and reject the extreme version of Brexit and want a better

:14:32.:14:34.

future, the Liberal Democrats are the only party offering you hope.

:14:35.:14:41.

Two years ago the Liberal Democrats narrowly avoided election wipe out.

:14:42.:14:46.

But they hope the vote to leave the EU has thrown them a political

:14:47.:14:48.

lifeline. Well the Lib Dems are hoping

:14:49.:14:52.

to attract young voters - not just with that pledge

:14:53.:14:55.

for another referendum on any Brexit deal, but also

:14:56.:14:57.

with a number of other policies concerning housing

:14:58.:15:00.

and the voting age. Our Home Editor Mark Easton

:15:01.:15:01.

has been to Cambridge, a key target seat for the Lib Dems,

:15:02.:15:03.

to see what young voters We're here to talk to

:15:04.:15:07.

you about the election today. Let us know your

:15:08.:15:11.

thoughts and tweet us. So often ignored by the politicians,

:15:12.:15:13.

it's loud and clear at This could be about anything such

:15:14.:15:19.

as Brexit, student tuition, Call Radio Cambridge broadcasts

:15:20.:15:23.

to thousands of young voters in the Liberal Democrats'

:15:24.:15:35.

number one target seat. I think politicians have to start

:15:36.:15:38.

appealing to young people, because these young people

:15:39.:15:41.

are going to grow old. I think there's many things that

:15:42.:15:43.

need to be changed, such as tuition, health care, NHS - it

:15:44.:15:45.

all needs to be different now and I think that a lot of people need

:15:46.:15:49.

to take the young people's opinions The Liberal Democrat

:15:50.:15:52.

manifesto promises young people cheaper bus fares, higher

:15:53.:15:57.

welfare payments, help with housing Is lowering the voting

:15:58.:15:59.

age the kind of policy that cuts it with these

:16:00.:16:06.

student hairdressers? A lot of people my age

:16:07.:16:10.

don't know enough about it and they kind

:16:11.:16:14.

of they go with that their parents think, so

:16:15.:16:16.

I don't think it's a great idea. Brexit's a big issue for you,

:16:17.:16:25.

isn't it, explain why? Well, I'm a British citizen,

:16:26.:16:28.

but my parents are Portuguese and so are

:16:29.:16:30.

the rest of my family. How do I know that nothing

:16:31.:16:32.

will happen to them and they won't have to be going back

:16:33.:16:35.

to their country and I'm just here? The Liberal Democrats

:16:36.:16:38.

are saying they want a much softer Brexit that's

:16:39.:16:40.

going to retain access to the single Is that appealing

:16:41.:16:43.

for someone like you? I don't know if it's

:16:44.:16:46.

going to be done. Political wisdom decrees that your

:16:47.:16:50.

manifesto should appeal to people So the Liberal Democrats'

:16:51.:16:52.

focus on younger 18 to 24-year-olds

:16:53.:16:58.

are almost half as This college has been encouraging

:16:59.:17:01.

students to register before next Monday's deadline, but cities

:17:02.:17:07.

with large student populations have been reporting a big

:17:08.:17:09.

drop in registrations. And there's a credibility issue

:17:10.:17:13.

for the Liberal Democrats. After promising not to put up

:17:14.:17:18.

university tuition fees in the 2010 election, they voted to do

:17:19.:17:22.

just that in Government. Are the Liberal Democrats

:17:23.:17:24.

damaged goods now? I don't really remember

:17:25.:17:26.

when they put them up, I was probably just

:17:27.:17:32.

finishing secondary school and stuff, so I didn't pay

:17:33.:17:35.

attention to it. For me, knowing what they've

:17:36.:17:39.

done, I wouldn't be I feel like they're stuck

:17:40.:17:41.

in a catch-22, because what they're giving

:17:42.:17:45.

is a mix in the middle. They're not going to completely

:17:46.:17:47.

cut tuition fees, but they're going to offer

:17:48.:17:49.

a maintenance grant, which is great, it is

:17:50.:17:52.

Everybody should be given the chance to go to uni.

:17:53.:17:56.

So these are Liberal Democrat target voters in a Liberal

:17:57.:17:58.

I'm quite excited, but nervous at the same time.

:17:59.:18:01.

For the party, a lot depends on how they respond to to promises

:18:02.:18:04.

There are new warnings that workers are facing a squeeze

:18:05.:18:12.

The latest figures indicate that wages are not keeping pace

:18:13.:18:16.

However, another set of figures show that a record number

:18:17.:18:19.

and good news on jobs - firms hiring plenty

:18:20.:18:31.

of people as economic growth remains positive.

:18:32.:18:33.

We are continually recruiting staff, we have grown

:18:34.:18:41.

really quickly in the last two years from four to 32 people.

:18:42.:18:47.

We've just employed our new park manager and we've

:18:48.:18:49.

also employed in the last couple of months a new ground staff.

:18:50.:18:53.

At this moment on our company website, I think, we have 15

:18:54.:18:55.

The last time we saw unemployment this low was 1975,

:18:56.:18:59.

when the price of a pint of milk was a princely seven pence.

:19:00.:19:04.

It was also an era of high inflation and

:19:05.:19:05.

Today, inflation is creeping back and

:19:06.:19:18.

Let's look at the more recent history of

:19:19.:19:22.

If we go right back to the year 2000,

:19:23.:19:23.

you can see that earnings were consistently above the rate

:19:24.:19:23.

That came to an abrupt halt in 2008 when the financial

:19:24.:19:29.

Wages fell sharply and inflation rose, as things like the

:19:30.:19:32.

That led to this long period of pay squeeze

:19:33.:19:46.

and that didn't come to an end until September 2014.

:19:47.:19:48.

And until today, wages have stayed above the cost of

:19:49.:19:50.

living, but the gap has been closing and today those lines crossed.

:19:51.:19:53.

Individual incomes on average are going down again.

:19:54.:20:05.

Donna Spicer is a teaching assistant from south-east London.

:20:06.:20:07.

She has faced a pay freeze for four years.

:20:08.:20:09.

I have no social life because of no money to

:20:10.:20:15.

and it's a choice of heating and eating.

:20:16.:20:18.

So one winter it was sitting there with blankets, hot

:20:19.:20:20.

Low unemployment used to mean higher wages

:20:21.:20:25.

Higher inflation used to mean workers demanded increased pay

:20:26.:20:29.

rises, but people are still concerned about asking for a pay

:20:30.:20:32.

rise and the public sector pay freeze remains in place.

:20:33.:20:37.

The big question for 2017 is whether wages

:20:38.:20:47.

respond to either of two big pressures -

:20:48.:20:49.

If they don't, we're likely to see the pay squeeze continue for some

:20:50.:20:56.

A way to produce more wealth from the hard hours we work?

:20:57.:21:02.

That relies on productivity going up.

:21:03.:21:04.

Until that problem is solved, the danger of a

:21:05.:21:07.

The number of child migrants and refugees travelling alone

:21:08.:21:12.

around the world has reached record numbers.

:21:13.:21:17.

The United Nations is warning that many of them are at risk

:21:18.:21:19.

of being exploited by smugglers and traffickers.

:21:20.:21:22.

In the past two years alone at least 300,000 unaccompanied children

:21:23.:21:25.

160,000 of them applied for asylum in Europe.

:21:26.:21:36.

Our correspondent, Caroline Hawley, has been to Greece where she has

:21:37.:21:44.

been talking to children who've fled war and poverty.

:21:45.:21:45.

They had to cross through five different countries to get here -

:21:46.:21:45.

three Afghan orphans now being looked after at

:21:46.:21:46.

Hameed is 15, his brother Ali 13 and Mortaza 11.

:21:47.:21:52.

Their parents were killed in a Taliban bomb.

:21:53.:21:57.

The boys arrived here in March after a month-long

:21:58.:22:00.

journey, partly on foot, in the hands of smugglers.

:22:01.:22:06.

Hameed says they now want to join their 18-year-old brother in Sweden.

:22:07.:22:25.

How difficult was the journey, what was the hardest part?

:22:26.:22:50.

With so many migrants now stuck in Greece,

:22:51.:22:52.

there's not space in proper shelters for all the unaccompanied children

:22:53.:22:58.

and there are stories of teenagers being forced to work for no pay

:22:59.:23:02.

or prostituting themselves for pocket money.

:23:03.:23:03.

One in ten of the children who've arrived in Greece travelled alone.

:23:04.:23:06.

These Syrian brothers told me their parents had sent

:23:07.:23:08.

them to Europe to avoid them being conscripted.

:23:09.:23:12.

It's very dangerous to stay in Syria because they're taking a lot

:23:13.:23:22.

of children like us, from the age 16, to the war, to fighting.

:23:23.:23:25.

In the shelter they live in, 21 teenagers are learning

:23:26.:23:27.

The man in charge of the refuge fled Iran as a child himself

:23:28.:23:31.

TRANSLATION: All these kids have psychological difficulties -

:23:32.:23:38.

they have sleep problems, aggressiveness, self-harm,

:23:39.:23:40.

not wanting to eat or be around other people.

:23:41.:23:46.

Some of them will be scarred for life by what they've been through.

:23:47.:23:53.

And the UN says that record numbers of children are now

:23:54.:23:56.

on the move around the world without their parents -

:23:57.:23:58.

driven from their countries by conflict and desperation.

:23:59.:24:01.

Much more must be done, it says, to protect them.

:24:02.:24:04.

A brief look at some of the day's other news stories.

:24:05.:24:12.

A council has been ordered to pay nearly ?200,000 to a former member

:24:13.:24:15.

of staff who was sexually abused by a council official.

:24:16.:24:19.

Richard Rowe, who's waived his right to anonymity, successfully sued

:24:20.:24:21.

Sheffield City Council after being assaulted

:24:22.:24:24.

Dodds, who's 81, was imprisoned in February for a series of assaults.

:24:25.:24:31.

A lawyer for Ian Brady has made clear that the ashes

:24:32.:24:34.

of the Moors Murderer, who died on Monday, will not be

:24:35.:24:59.

scattered on Saddleworth Moor in Greater Manchester,

:25:00.:24:59.

where most of his victims were buried.

:25:00.:25:00.

The assurance came during a Coroner's Court hearing this

:25:01.:25:00.

The Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, has announced

:25:01.:25:01.

he will stand down next month when his party, Fine Gael,

:25:02.:25:03.

He led the country through the economic crisis,

:25:04.:25:05.

but his position was weakened after last year's election

:25:06.:25:07.

which resulted in a minority coalition government.

:25:08.:25:09.

The former American soldier, Chelsea Manning -

:25:10.:25:10.

who was behind one of the biggest intelligence leaks in US history -

:25:11.:25:11.

has been released from military prison.

:25:12.:25:12.

The 29-year-old was expected to remain in jail until 2045,

:25:13.:25:16.

but President Obama commuted her sentence just before he left

:25:17.:25:19.

Our correspondent, Rajini Vaidyanathan,

:25:20.:25:21.

Chelsea Manning, seen here in her final days behind bars.

:25:22.:25:31.

Held in an all-male prison, she won her fight to have surgery

:25:32.:25:34.

As she stepped out to a new life, she shared photos of the everyday

:25:35.:25:40.

In a statement she said she was looking forward to so much.

:25:41.:25:46.

Chelsea Manning left the military prison here at Fort Leavenworth

:25:47.:25:48.

in the early hours of this morning under the cover of darkness.

:25:49.:25:55.

Her supporters say she's a whistle-blower and a hero,

:25:56.:26:04.

but in the past Donald Trump's called her an "ungrateful traitor."

:26:05.:26:06.

And that's a view shared by many people I've spoken to near the base

:26:07.:26:10.

here who believe her actions put many lives at risk.

:26:11.:26:19.

It was while she was living as Bradley Manning that she was

:26:20.:26:22.

convicted of one of the largest leaks of government

:26:23.:26:24.

A low ranking Army private in Iraq, Manning hacked government databases,

:26:25.:26:28.

handing hundreds of thousands of classified documents

:26:29.:26:29.

It included this video of a US Apache helicopter strike

:26:30.:26:33.

in Iraq, which killed civilians and journalists.

:26:34.:26:35.

And diplomatic cables which revealed the private

:26:36.:26:36.

WikiLeaks had very significant impacts.

:26:37.:26:43.

In certain countries, for a variety of reasons,

:26:44.:26:45.

it did not necessarily have the global impact

:26:46.:26:47.

But Chelsea Manning put real American interests

:26:48.:26:54.

Supporters have been campaigning for her release for years.

:26:55.:27:02.

They say she faced discrimination in prison because of her transgender

:27:03.:27:06.

identity, which she revealed shortly after her sentencing.

:27:07.:27:12.

She's learned how to live with her situation, as it was,

:27:13.:27:14.

because she thought you was going to be there for a long time,

:27:15.:27:22.

and now she's ready to get out and, more importantly, she's ready

:27:23.:27:25.

to finally be able to live as the woman that she is.

:27:26.:27:28.

For now, Chelsea Manning will remain a member of the US

:27:29.:27:30.

military, without pay, as she appeals her conviction.

:27:31.:27:37.

Chelsea Manning's release has been met with a mixed reaction. Her

:27:38.:27:46.

friend say she could take on a public role as a campaigner for

:27:47.:27:52.

transgender rights. In the seven years she spent behind bars, society

:27:53.:27:55.

has changed a quite a bit. Transgender are now able to serve

:27:56.:27:58.

openingly in the US military. Thank you.

:27:59.:28:03.

More on the election campaign now and the latest in our series looking

:28:04.:28:06.

at the new shape of politics in the UK.

:28:07.:28:08.

It's now three years since Scotland chose to remain a part

:28:09.:28:11.

Tonight, our special correspondent, Allan Little, reports on how

:28:12.:28:14.

the principle fault line in this election campaign still seems to be

:28:15.:28:17.

There's new energy in the Scottish Conservative Party,

:28:18.:28:22.

for 20 years they'd all but disappeared from the electoral

:28:23.:28:26.

map, now they're ahead of Labour as the second party

:28:27.:28:28.

Strong and stable leadership is not front and centre stage here,

:28:29.:28:34.

it's the Union that dominates their campaign message.

:28:35.:28:39.

People are leaving Labour and coming to us because we are the party

:28:40.:28:42.

of the Union and it's the party you can put your trust in.

:28:43.:28:47.

The second independence referendum was the issue that motivated me

:28:48.:28:50.

to join the Conservative Party and to take an active part in,

:28:51.:28:53.

Yes, as soon as you go door-to-door, start door-knocking,

:28:54.:29:03.

the first thing they want to talk about, it's supposed to be

:29:04.:29:06.

local issues and then it becomes very, very much

:29:07.:29:08.

It is the number one issue in Scotland.

:29:09.:29:12.

Until recently, general elections in Scotland were about the same

:29:13.:29:15.

question as in the rest of the country, namely -

:29:16.:29:17.

And for 50 years, Scotland's answer to that question was Labour.

:29:18.:29:21.

The independence referendum of 2014 realigned Scottish politics.

:29:22.:29:24.

Now the question is not so much - who do you want to govern Britain,

:29:25.:29:32.

but do you want to be in Britain at all?

:29:33.:29:34.

In the 20th Century, Scots were devoted Unionists,

:29:35.:29:37.

bound into the UK by the great shared enterprises of Empire,

:29:38.:29:47.

the Second World War and the post-war welfare state.

:29:48.:29:49.

The nationalised industries - coal, steel, shipbuilding -

:29:50.:29:51.

were bedrocks, not just of Labour loyalty, but of British

:29:52.:29:53.

Miners in Fife were part of the community of shared interest

:29:54.:30:00.

with miners in Yorkshire and South Wales.

:30:01.:30:07.

The deindustrialisation of the 1980s and 90s brought down these powerful

:30:08.:30:09.

For much of the 20th Century, Dundee was a Labour fortress.

:30:10.:30:16.

In 2014, it became yes city, voting for independence

:30:17.:30:18.

by the largest margin in the country.

:30:19.:30:24.

So I've been kind of falling out of love with Labour for a long time.

:30:25.:30:28.

That experience pushed many traditional Labour

:30:29.:30:29.

Jane Phillips was among them, she believes independence is inevitable.

:30:30.:30:37.

The idea is there and it's like trying to unknow something.

:30:38.:30:41.

You can't unknow it, and now that idea is out there,

:30:42.:30:43.

It's like, think of all the other countries in the world who've

:30:44.:30:50.

got their independence, think about the British Empire.

:30:51.:30:52.

Once this notion of independence was out there, it was

:30:53.:30:54.

You can't unknow that idea of taking control of your own future.

:30:55.:31:07.

Does the Conservative revival mean that the

:31:08.:31:08.

In some ways, the Conservative resurgence seems to suggest that

:31:09.:31:12.

actually the constitutional issue matters perhaps more than it

:31:13.:31:15.

ever has because it's the Conservative Party,

:31:16.:31:19.

more than any other party, that are talking about independence

:31:20.:31:22.

and the threat of independence and that helps them,

:31:23.:31:26.

they feel it's helped them to be the party of choice for those

:31:27.:31:30.

who are, first and foremost, in favour of Scotland remaining

:31:31.:31:32.

The Conservatives and the SNP together have changed

:31:33.:31:39.

The fault line is not so much left versus right,

:31:40.:31:47.

independence, for or against, is what divides Scotland now.

:31:48.:31:49.

They are known as 'bots' - fake profiles created on social

:31:50.:32:07.

media posting millions of automated messages.

:32:08.:32:08.

They're increasingly being used to spread propaganda,

:32:09.:32:10.

sometimes by foreign powers and often without us

:32:11.:32:12.

Today, the Information Commissioner said she would launch a formal

:32:13.:32:16.

investigation into the way political campaigns use new digital tools

:32:17.:32:22.

to win votes, as our media editor,

:32:23.:32:24.

This is the moment in crime thriller Homeland when bots or fake

:32:25.:32:29.

personalities online, are put to work.

:32:30.:32:30.

You'll find a new set of talking points in your folders.

:32:31.:32:34.

But the threat that they pose to democracy is fast

:32:35.:32:38.

Researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute witnessed a huge explosion

:32:39.:32:46.

in the use of bots around the US election last year.

:32:47.:32:49.

A bot's basically a bit of software that automates

:32:50.:32:56.

The question is - how can you tell the difference

:32:57.:32:59.

Well, what I'm showing you here is an account on Twitter

:33:00.:33:03.

that says that it was started in July 2015, but it

:33:04.:33:06.

It looks like it's tweeting on a really particular schedule.

:33:07.:33:17.

So it says four hours, four hours, four hours,

:33:18.:33:19.

all of the tweets are coming up within minutes of one another

:33:20.:33:22.

And what those shows us is that - there's a couple of things -

:33:23.:33:30.

one, that it's tweeting much more regularly than a person could.

:33:31.:33:37.

And two, that it's tweeting on a very particular schedule.

:33:38.:33:50.

There are fears bots could be used to influence Britain's

:33:51.:33:52.

Many experts believe Russia has already used bots to target

:33:53.:33:54.

the French and US elections, a claim Russia denies.

:33:55.:33:54.

Leading academics say bots are degrading the truth by spreading

:33:55.:33:54.

There are users who can't distinguish between a message that

:33:55.:33:56.

comes from their friends or their family and a message

:33:57.:33:58.

In a close election, where you need 2% or 3%

:33:59.:34:02.

of the popular vote to make a difference, to push you over

:34:03.:34:05.

the edge, having an automated campaign that can get you those

:34:06.:34:07.

voters who are a little uncertain or don't quite know,

:34:08.:34:10.

getting those small numbers of voters to believe

:34:11.:34:12.

a lie about your opponent is sensible strategy.

:34:13.:34:17.

Bots are a 21st Century form of propaganda.

:34:18.:34:21.

The question is whether the law and public awareness have kept pace

:34:22.:34:24.

And while extremists and foreign powers use bots to influence

:34:25.:34:31.

elections and change our behaviour, it's only now that we're

:34:32.:34:35.

Bots will form part of a formal investigation announced today

:34:36.:34:40.

by the Information Commissioner, she'll report later this year

:34:41.:34:43.

on how personal data is being captured and exploited

:34:44.:34:45.

I think there needs to be public awareness.

:34:46.:34:51.

Somebody needs to pull back the curtain and look

:34:52.:34:53.

behind-the-scenes to see how all of this data may be mashed up,

:34:54.:34:58.

may be linked and may be used to push people

:34:59.:35:00.

There has to be transparency around that.

:35:01.:35:03.

But it's not yet clear how to protect British voters from bots.

:35:04.:35:08.

Without strong defences in place, they could undermine the very idea

:35:09.:35:20.

Here, on BBC One, it's time for the news where you are.

:35:21.:35:22.

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