17/07/2017 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at Ten, there's more funding for schools in England -

?1.3 billion over the next two years.

The money will come from the existing education budget,

including from funds set aside for free schools, a flagship

The additional funding I'm setting out today,

together with the introduction of a national funding formula,

will provide schools with the investment they need

to offer a world class education to every single child.

It's a step in the right direction and we're pleased that the

government now agrees with us, but this seems to us more of a

short-term fix rather than full remedy.

There'd been anger from some Conservative MPs in the wake

The route of the new HS2 rail line north of Birmingham has been

announced, and some new homes near Sheffield

A terminally ill man has begun a High Court battle for the right

We have a special report from eastern Ukraine,

where the misery continues for thousands of people,

as a ceasefire between Russian separatists and Ukrainian

These trenches are just 40 or 50 yards from the Russian backed

forces on the other side, just over the wall here.

That's why nobody speaks loudly in this place.

And it's a family state visit to Poland for the Duke

And coming up in Sportsday on BBC News...

It's raining British golds at the World Para

Hannah Cockroft wins the 800 metres T34 final,

while Sophie Kamlish triumphs in the 100 metre T44.

Schools in England are to get ?1.3 billion extra funding,

over the next two years, but the money will be

diverted from other parts of the education budget.

There have been protests by head teachers, and disquiet

from some Conservative MPs, that schools have been

Labour has welcomed the extra money, but says it's not enough,

just a "sticking plaster unless further action

Our Education Correspondent Gillian Hargreaves has the details.

Fears over bigger class sizes, enough schoolbooks and teachers

Funding in England's schools was a big election

issue, which is why today's announcement

of ?2.6 billion more over the next two years

We recognise that at the election people were concerned about

the overall level of funding in schools, as well as its

And as the Prime Minister said, we are determined to listen.

That is why today I am confirming our plans to get on with

introducing a national funding formula in 2018-19, and I can

announce this will additionally now be supported by significant extra

investment into the core schools budget over the next two years.

Astoundingly, this has all been funded without a penny of new money

Perhaps the Chancellor did not want to fund

schools and thought that teachers and teaching assistants

are simply more overpaid public servants.

School spending will rise from ?41 billion this year to ?43.5

And no secondary school pupil will have less than

?4800 spent on their schooling each year.

?2.6 billion sounds like a lot of money, but when rising costs,

teachers' pensions and pay are taken into account,

it amounts to a freeze over the next two years.

The devil will be in the detail and as I

understand it, it is not new money from the Treasury, but from other

parts of the education budget, so we will have

From a school 's point of view, that is welcome.

Only yesterday hundreds of parents, teachers

and children staged a protest at Westminster.

Finding the money has come at a political cost

to ministers, who have had to raid the pot of money set aside for free

Schools, a flagship Conservative policy. The scale of public anger

over school cuts is unprecedented. In recent times. Parents staging

marches and protests, headteachers writing hundreds of letters to

politicians expressing their frustration. All of which is

focusing ministers' minds. Schools have had to make serious cuts, and

it's not clear that the money announced they will be enough to

offer much hope to those schools. But it's a step in the right

direction and we are pleased the government now agrees with us, but

it seems to us more of a short-term fix. This new multi-billion pound

investment in schools is not short change, but as yet it's unclear

whether it will be enough to see off angry parents and frustrated

teachers. Gillian Hargreaves, BBC News.

The routes for the second stage of the new HS2 high speed rail

Trains will run from Birmingham on two lines -

one serving the North West the other running through the East Midlands

Business leaders in the Midlands and North have broadly

welcomed the announcement, but there is concern in some places

along the new routes which will see towns and villages disrupted,

The Transport Secretary Chris Grayling is making

Our Transport Correspondent Richard Westcott reports.

It's the train line that split people right down the middle.

For supporters, it will boost the economy and bridge

Critics say costs will spiral and benefits are overblown.

Today, several years late, the government finally confirmed

Trains will run on from Birmingham on two lines,

some on already existing tracks - one serving the North West and major

cities like Manchester and Liverpool, the other serving

the East Midlands up to Sheffield, Leeds and York.

The fact HS2 trains are now likely to stop in the centre of Sheffield

is bad news for everybody here on this estate

It means that the line will come through those trees,

and they were going to build new houses there, but they've

It will come over our heads and is likely to go through these

But of course it means all of the houses around

will have a 20 metre high rail viaduct right above their heads.

The route, we have been told, is going to cut

through from the show houses, through my property,

through my neighbour's property and straight through into the very

Why weren't we told when we bought the property?

Why build a brand-new housing estate and then

potentially knock it down, when we are short of

Just over the road from Ben's, the line could also cut

We spoke to her last year and she was livid.

To think we put all this, over 40 odd years, into what we've got.

You were fuming last time we were here.

Too much has gone into this over the years.

I could never imagine living anywhere else.

HS2 creates losers, but it makes winners, too,

like this small digital marketing company in Nottingham.

It will be easier for us to do business on a national scale.

It will be easier for us to attract clients to our

And for us to recruit talent from around the country who would be

willing to relocate to a city with better transport links,

or potentially even commute to Nottingham from other cities.

Contracts have just been awarded for the first phase of HS2

between London and Birmingham, worth nearly ?7 billion

The total bill will be ?56 billion, making it Britain's most

If we don't have the capital investment we need for the future

to increase the capacity of our transport system,

to support economic development, we won't carry on with the progress

that we've made that has brought unemployment down to the lowest

The first Leeds HS2 train will not depart for another 16 years -

plenty of time for opponents to fight the plans.

Richard Wescott, BBC News, Mexborough.

A second round of talks on Britain's departure from the European Union

The Brexit Secretary, David Davis, says it's now time to get

down to the "substance" of the negotiations.

On the agenda, the rights of EU citizens in the UK,

The financial settlement, covering the UK's outstanding commitments.

Meanwhile, Theresa May is trying to reimpose discipline

on senior ministers, after a series of leaks suggesting

Here's our Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg.

They don't really have much time to hang around.

The two men who will haggle over how we leave.

Especially with the UK's political situation rather fluid, at best.

It's incredibly important we now make good progress and we negotiate

through this and identify the differences, so we can deal with

them, and identify the similarities, so we can reinforce them.

Now it's time to get to work and make this

Working out the Irish border, the Brexit bill,

But government ministers don't agree completely

Perhaps that is why the Brexit Secretary seemed

Perhaps because chatter around the Cabinet at home suggests

We have seen in another part of town today, I'm very pleased that

negotiations are beginning, and as you know, a very fair,

serious offer has been put on the table by the UK Government.

It's not just that government has to wrangle Brexit

through Brussels and Parliament, but deal with other pressures

and disagreements on public sector pay and on spending.

Above all, the disagreements have emerged into daylight

because the discipline Theresa May had imposed on the Tories

has all but disappeared since the general election.

Tomorrow, she will warn the cabinet to behave,

to keep their views to themselves, but those with desire

for the top job, or helpful friends with ambition,

I think, whoever is doing it, everybody needs to get into a cold

bath or cold shower, and then get together

It's damaging to the party, to the Parliamentary MPs,

and, most importantly, to the country.

Remember him, urging the Tories today to inspire,

The risk fot the Tories - the current generation

hurts each other fighting old battles anew.

Laura Kuenssberg, BBC News, Westminster.

Laura is in Westminster for us tonight.

Big announcements on funding, the proposed routes of the HS2 line and

the Brexit talks. This is a government keen to be seen getting

on with things. They are trying to show they are getting on with the

job, to use one of Theresa May's favourite and often quoted phrases.

Any government has to operate on a 360 degrees basis. If know they can

try to shape the agenda, they can't dictate it completely, even if they

were at the height of their powers. And for this group, the last five

weeks have been about trying to show that they can be in charge, that

even know they are damaged by the election campaign, they are capable

of getting something is done. Theresa May has certainly not been

helped in that by the noises off from some of her Cabinet colleagues,

or, more likely, their supporters, if they have been having some of

their arguments rather publicly instead of keeping them behind

closed doors. I think it matters that tomorrow she will be

metaphorically banging the Cabinet table, and, frankly, if

indelicately, telling them to put a sock in it. But she is clearly

trying to get a grip back on things. The former Prime Minister David

Cameron was actually visiting number ten today to trade tips on how best

to do the job. And just in the days after the election, that tumultuous

time for the Tory party, it didn't seem then endeavour to -- it didn't

seem then inevitable she would make it this far. Now just days before

Parliament breaks up for the Sam Allardyce, some of her colleagues

believe she is not through the worst, but has certainly made a

start on trying to regain some of her moment. One senior Cabinet

minister said to me that every single day she manages to stay in

the job makes it more likely she will be able to stay on, not just

for a few months, but perhaps for another couple of years. But, as

anyone around here will tell you, it's far harder to rebuild

authority, than it is to lose it. Laura Kuenssberg in Westminster,

thank you. A terminally ill man has begun

a legal challenge at the High Court to end the ban on assisted dying

in England and Wales. Noel Conway, who's 67,

has motor neurone disease, and says he fears eventually

becoming "entombed in his own body." He wants the right to choose

when and where he dies, without those who help

him being prosecuted. Currently, it's illegal

to aid a suicide. Our Medical Correspondent

Fergus Walsh reports. It's an issue which polarises

opinion, and keeps coming The latest challenge

is from Noel Conway from Shropshire, who was too weak to attend today's

hearing. Motor neurone disease

means he increasingly Once fit and active, his muscles

are progressively wasting. He fears how he will die,

and wants a doctor to be allowed I want to be able to say goodbye

to the people that I love at the right time, not to be

in a zombie-like condition, suffering both physically

and psychologically. It is only three years

since the Supreme Court rejected a similar plea for a right to die

from Tony Nicklinson, though he was not considered

to be terminally ill. The blanket ban on assisted dying

has been challenged many times, and in every case, the courts have

rejected the central argument that the current law breaches human

rights by preventing people Mr Conway's lawyers argue

that his challenge is different, as it applies to a narrow group

of people - those who are terminally ill, with less than six months

to live, and who have a settled But those safeguards have already

failed to persuade parliament. It's only two years since MPs

overwhelmingly rejected proposals Baroness Jane Campbell,

a disability rights campaigner, says changing the law would send

all the wrong signals, This case must not become law

because it will burden disabled people across the country,

who will not feel safe without the protection of a law that

says it is wrong to assist Noel Conway's health is faltering,

and he knows he may die The High Court will reserve

its judgment until October, and it may then go all the way

to the Supreme Court. Today marks three years

since Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine,

killing 298 people. It was the worst single loss

of life in the conflict between Russian-backed separatists,

and the government in Kiev. More than 10,000 people have died,

and more than a million others have fled, or been forced

from their homes. A ceasefire in the region isn't

holding, with regular skirmishes as rebels who want closer ties

to Moscow battle the Ukrainian armed forces, in mainly

Russian speaking areas. Our special correspondent Fergal

Keane and cameraman Darren Conway have been to the front line,

in the town of Avdiivka. at first the land looks at peace.

Until very quickly we walk into the war. Here you follow in the steps of

those who know the safest path, like this 50-year-old who joined the Army

when the war began. We paused because there is a sniper who has a

direct line. She is telling us to go. The sprint to cover that is the

hallmark of all the world's war zones. This was once a thriving

industrial zone, now mangled by shellfire. Where the long silences

of a half-hearted ceasefire are suddenly shattered. Thousands of

shells have landed here. This unexploded rocket detonated by

Ukrainian troops. There is a grim humour here.

Bolstered by local soldiers whose homes lie beyond the bridge

where the territory of the Russian backed forces begins.

So that big building to the left is them?

The trenches of a European war with a front line more

The ceasefire allows men to dig close to rebel lines.

There is some protection, but it is not a place to stand

We are at the furthest point forward now in the Ukrainian positions

and these trenches are just between 40 and 50 yards

from the Russian backed forces on the other side,

That's why nobody speaks loudly in this place.

You can get a sense of how precarious it is by looking at

He is scanning, he is watching for any movement on the other side

that would threaten the men digging these trenches.

It tells you it is about permanence, that this war has

And that means untold suffering, particularly

More than 1 million people are displaced on both sides.

Ludmila has moved from one war-battered village to another.

She takes her seven-month-old son for a morning walk,

taking advantage of the absence of shelling and the

A 4-lane highway, nothing comes, but an occasional military truck.

Ludmila came here after her own home was shelled

But it is the fear of random shelling that haunts the family,

making this tiny basement their refuge.

Ludmila worries constantly about a direct hit.

There are many stories like this on the other side, too.

For those who cannot move but must eke out their days

near the front line, a visit from aid worker Olga breaks

Living in a flat that was hit by a shell and gutted by fire

She survives on a pension of ?50 a month.

I am praying that God will take me, she says.

Her memory stretches back through previous ages

This child, aged seven, is an orphan of the war.

And what that bomb did is locked in her memory.

She found her mother's mutilated body just after the shell landed.

Her grandmother is laying flowers at the spot where her daughter

There are small reminders of the lives taken away.

Mobile phones, left here since the day of the shelling last May.

In a country whose war has become a brutal stalemate,

she has learned too young, too cruelly, the fragility

Let's take a look at some of the day's other top stories...

A former soldier has been sentenced to 12 years in prison

for the manslaughter and rape of a 15-year-old girl back in 1976.

Stephen Hough, who's 58, was found guilty of killing Janet Commins,

after his DNA was taken in relation to another sexual assault case.

An innocent teenager was originally jailed for her death.

A 16-year-old boy has appeared in court in Stratford,

charged over a series of acid attacks in East London.

The teenager, who can't be named for legal reasons,

is accused of grievous bodily harm with intent, robbery,

and possessing a weapon designed to discharge a noxious liquid.

The head of EasyJet, Carolyn McCall, is to be ITV's new chief executive.

She'd been at the airline for seven years, and will take over

the running of the commercial broadcaster early next year.

Police in Manchester say a suspected arson attack at a mosque in the city

Five fire engines tackled the blaze at the Nasfat

Islamic Centre last night - a prayer room was damaged.

Our correspondent Elaine Dunkley reports from Manchester.

The Nasfat Islamic Centre set on fire, parts of the mosque turned to

ash and classrooms destroyed. Luckily no one was inside.

Investigators searched for clues as to who was responsible while

worshippers were forced to pray in the car park. If this was Ramadan,

people would have died here. They are still here until 11 o'clock

every day. This is how bad it is. This is the third fire in three

years and the most serious. In recent months pigs heads have been

thrown into the building during services. I am fearful for my kids,

that is all I am afraid of. My kids use the centre every week. What is

next? I do not know who is doing this. At this moment it is trying

period we are all shocked. Following the Manchester bombing that killed

22 people, Greater Manchester Police have recorded 224 incidents of

Islamophobia, an increase of 500% compared to last year. Police forces

in England and Wales have recorded a rise in hate crime, the impact is

felt not just by the victim but entire communities. Greater

Manchester Police take hate crime seriously and investigate all

reports and there will be extra patrols in the community to reassure

residents. Worshippers say they will not be forced out by a minority.

Their faith is strong but so is the fear they feel.

England's cricketers have been thrashed by South Africa,

Set a world record total of 474 to win, the hosts

collapsed to 133 all out, losing by 340 runs with more

It was new captain Joe Root's first taste of defeat.

There's been more success for British athletes

on the fourth day of the World Para-athletics

Championships at London's Olympic Stadium.

They've added three more gold medals, and among

those in action tonight were the double-amputee sprinter

Richard Whitehead and the wheelchair racer Hannah Cockcroft.

Our correspondent Andy Swiss reports.

Hannah Cockroft has every title, every record at every

And while the 800 metres was not quite a victory procession,

once she had surged past her team-mate, the outcome was

A second gold here for Cockcroft, remarkably still yet to lose a race

It was nice going out in front of a home crowd to help each other

and get across the line as quickly as we could.

Really glad the race is out of the way.

But it was also a night for a new kid on the blocks.

Sophie Kamlish finished an agonising fourth at last year's Paralympics.

After breaking the world record in the heat this morning the

20-year-old rose to the occasion and grabbed the gold medal. She always

runs with a flower in her hair. This was the night her talent blossomed.

Shocked and also like to thank goodness that is over. This whole

day I have felt nervous. I do not normally feel nervous that races. I

am now a nervous person, which is annoying. Britain found another

star, Olivia Breen took a gold medal in the long jump. Disappointment for

Richard Whitehead, the 200 metres champion settling for bronze in the

100 and later describing his run as rubbish, but the good news is he

says he is not retiring yet. Not quite the perfect night for home

fans but Britain is still second in the table, 11th old medals, 20

medals in total, it has been an impressive start to the

championships. Andy Swiss live at the Olympic Stadium.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been given

a warm welcome in Warsaw as they began their official visit

Three-year-old George and two-year-old Charlotte

From Warsaw, our royal correspondent Peter Hunt reports.

At three, he's far too young to know if he's a reluctant royal,

but Prince George definitely wasn't keen to embrace Warsaw

One future king did persuade another one to follow in his footsteps.

On the tarmac, George struck a nonchalant pose and practised

A fidgeting toddler with a lifetime under an intense

Princess Charlotte faces a similar future.

A reality aged two she can remain blissfully unaware of for now.

The language divide isn't the only challenge.

Here, a country that relatively recently embraced the EU

is welcoming royals from one on the way out of the institution.

The nitty-gritty of Brexit will not feature here.

Rather, William and Kate are in Warsaw to remind people

of the depth of past links and the potential for future ones

Warsaw's past on display on a memorial wall to those murdered

when, during the Second World War, the Poles tried and failed

You wore this all the time during the uprising?

Marjenna Schejbal, aged 20, joined the Warsaw uprising.

Now 92, she said they had to fight for independence.

We couldn't stand any longer the misbehaving of Germany.

Tonight in Warsaw, Prince William talked about the two countries'

close relationship and the fact Polish is the second most

Such links, diplomatic, military, cultural, offer much promise

He did not utter the word Brexit, but it influenced his speech,

as it will the time William and Kate spend first in Poland,

News from Hull, the Humber Bridge has been given grade I listed

status. It's one of the longest single-span

suspension bridges in the world, now listed with nine other local

landmarks, in celebration of Hull's The other sites include the flat

where the poet Philip Larkin He did most of his writing in the

front room. And these public toilets,

unique in the 1920s because they had