12/12/2017 BBC News at Ten

Crisis in Congo - a humanitarian

disaster as violence and food

shortages ravage the country.

The UN warns at least 400,000

children are at risk of starvation.

One-and-a-half million people have

been forced from their homes.

Such suffering isn't the natural

condition of these people.

It's manmade and that is

the tragedy of Congo.

We'll be looking at why Congo has

become the world's forgotten

disaster and what can be

done about it.

Also tonight.

A rise in inflation to its highest

for almost six years puts

the squeeze on incomes just before

Christmas.

The house fire in Salford

which killed three children.

Police say it was a targeted attack.

The extraordinary story of the baby

born with her heart outside her body

and the groundbreaking operations

to put it back.

And, by Royal appointment

and Royal cameo.

The latest Star Wars film

and the Princes' roles in it.

And coming up in Sportsday on BBC

News, Antonio Conte's Chelsea look

to get back to winning ways

in the Premier League

as they visit Huddersfield Town.

Good evening.

We start tonight with a special

report on a humanitarian crisis

unfolding in the Democratic Republic

of Congo in Central Africa.

Unicef is warning that at least

400,000 children there are suffering

from severe acute malnutrition

and could die within a year

without emergency support.

It also estimates that nearly

one-and-a-half million people have

been displaced from their homes.

The crisis is centred

on the country's central Kasai

region where fighting

erupted last year.

It was sparked by the killing

of a traditional leader in clashes

with security forces.

Since then, anti-Government factions

have been locked in a spiral

of violence with Government troops

and other Government-backed forces

who are determined to crush them.

The UN says the crisis

in the Democratic Republic of Congo

is now as severe as those affecting

Yemen and Syria.

Our Africa editor Fergal Keane

and cameraman Tony Fallshaw

travelled to Kasai.

You may find some of the images

in their report upsetting.

In a place so green,

a land so fertile we didn't expect

the tragedy that haunts this road.

But a man-made hunger

has enveloped Kasai,

stalking the youngest

and the weakest.

Nearly half a million

children are at risk

from severe malnutrition.

At this nutrition centre run

by Medecins sans Frontieres

we met this two-year-old,

malnourished and sick

with malaria, and her mother.

TRANSLATION:

We walked

for three months to get here.

When I saw my daughter sick,

my heart was full of sadness.

Children make up the majority

of the nearly million-and-a-half

people displaced here.

It began in June last year

after a local chief, Kamuina Nsapu,

rebelled against a corrupt

and brutal Government.

He was killed.

In the terror that followed,

both sides committed atrocities.

A child with her leg hacked off.

Another slashed with a machete.

TRANSLATION:

We were sleeping

when they entered our place

and asked, "Who are all of these

people sleeping here?

We can kill all the men

who are here and after killing them,

we will tell our chiefs and show off

about so many people we have

killed in this village."

This 12-year-old weeps

for her murdered father.

We met her and her brothers

and sisters near Kananga, the main

city, at a nutrition centre.

A nurse points to the swelling

caused by malnutrition.

By pressing the skin they can assess

the severity of the condition.

Imagine walking on these legs.

TRANSLATION:

I love the children,

I love to rehabilitate them,

I love when they are healthy.

When I see there is nothing left

I am sick, it's bad.

With the worst fighting over, people

are returning to their villages.

But they find homes

burned, property looted.

Little wonder these people

were furious when they

stopped us on the road.

TRANSLATION:

We ask you to help us.

We lost our children.

They were killed and we fear

to go to the bush.

The children are starving

and when we go to the bush to find

food, we are killed.

This soil on which we sleep

is the same soil where

we buried our children.

We paused on the road

and out of a wandering

wilderness, the stories came.

Marie and David walked for 300

kilometres with their three young

children to escape violence.

Marie is suffering

from tuberculosis.

TRANSLATION:

We were

starving, we had no food.

We headed to the main

road to look for food

but there was nobody,

only dead bodies.

We followed our son's pace

but his swollen feet stopped him

from walking normally.

It took two weeks to reach the city

but we found nothing to eat

and nowhere to sleep.

Now they are walking home,

hundreds of kilometres more.

Then a young woman,

weakened by disease.

She is being taken home to die.

Her name is Charlotte,

her mother explains.

"I cannot afford to pay

for medical treatment,

our village was attacked

and everything destroyed."

Here people pleaded for food.

At this food distribution only half

rations were being given out.

The World Food Programme is running

out of money to feed the hungry

and is warning many will die

without international support.

Weary of years of conflict in Congo

and preoccupied with other crises,

the world seems immune

to these pleas.

There are three million people

needing food in Kasai actually.

Because there are not resources

enough, we have to halve the ration.

Is it fair to say you're

being asked to play God,

to say who gets food,

who doesn't, perhaps

who lives and who dies?

Yes, I think it's a good point.

And we're not ready

to play that role.

Money that might have helped provide

nutrition and health care has been

stolen by a corrupt elite,

aided by foreign corporations.

President Joseph Kabila smiles

upon corrupt cronies,

who have looted billions.

This is the heart of

the matter, as I put it

to the governor of Kasai.

As a government official,

do you feel any sense

of shame about the looting,

the corruption that has helped

to bring your people to this misery?

TRANSLATION:

You know,

this concept of corruption

cannot be challenged.

But it should not be tied too much

to Congo or Africa and used

to justify the absence of action.

The most important thing is that

when you give money,

you get some guarantee that this

money is used.

Food aid does get to the people,

but the needs are vast

and the politics so unstable,

so undermined by corruption that new

crises constantly threaten Congo.

This is the government-run

hospital in Chikapa,

the second city of the province.

This three-year-old has just died.

Fever, his mother, explains.

He died of fever.

He died just now.

This is Kasai, where children

are dying from preventible

diseases, their bodies

weakened by malnutrition.

All of this is avoidable.

Such suffering isn't a natural

condition of these people.

It's man-made and that is

the tragedy of Congo.

A distraught mother waits

for news of her sick child.

And a lullaby as tiny

lungs fight to survive.

Just some lives out of so many here,

hanging in the balance.

Fergal Keane, BBC News, Kasai.

I'm joined by Solomon

Mughera from BBC Africa.

So many heartbreaking images. We can

see the desperate need for help but

getting it there is not

straightforward.

Absolutely. It's a

vast country, second largest in

Africa. It's also home to the

largest UN peacekeeping mission.

It's been there nearly 20 years now

but we can see problems still

persist. The peacekeeping mission

being sent, it was to tackle

problems in the eastern part of the

country, now you have Kasai

province, home to diamonds and home

to 30% of the world's diamond

deposits but look at what's

happening there. It is poverty.

Instability. Insecurity. Tackling

problems in a province like Kasai

and Congo doesn't doesn't get a

quick fix or magic solution, you

have to look at the entire mix of

poverty, corruption, poor

governance, instability, insecurity,

add to that interest and

interference from neighbouring

countries and from foreign countries

as well.

Thank you.

Inflation has been pushed

to its highest level

for almost six years,

thanks to rising food costs

and bigger electricity bills.

The Consumer Prices Index -

the measure the government uses -

hit 3.1% last month.

With the latest data showing that

wages are growing at a slower pace

it means a squeeze on household

budgets - just when those Christmas

shopping bills are coming in.

Here's our economics

correspondent, Andy Verity.

At this baker on the outskirts

of Barnsley, it's not just the bread

rolls that are on the rise.

Ingredients like butter

and flour have shot up

in the last year and a half,

so it's had to do everything it can

to make sure its costs are covered.

One of the things we've

done with our suppliers,

we've decided to take a radical

approach, which is pay

all of our suppliers very early

and demand better terms from them

because we are paying them

early, and that's helped

mitigate some of the costs.

If you're looking to warm yourself

up in the cold weather,

it's not getting any cheaper.

The price of food was up by 4.4%

in the year to November.

Hot drinks like coffee,

tea and cocoa were up 5.6%

and electricity costs 11.4% more

than it did last year.

On high streets like this one

in Glasgow, your wages won't buy

as much as they would've

done last year.

That renewed squeeze on living

standards is starting to pinch.

Very difficult to make ends meet

these days, especially coming

up towards Christmas.

Everything is going up.

Money, rent, electricity, gas,

telephone - everything is going up,

so we need somebody to do

something about it.

You see a lot of things going up

maybe a couple of pennies and that,

but if you're getting a few things,

by the time you get

to the cash desk you say -

how did it come to that, you know.

The upward pressure on prices comes

partly from the weakness

of the pound since the Brexit vote,

which means it takes more pounds

to buy the same imported goods,

and partly from a recent surge

in the price of oil.

The interest rate setters

here at the Bank of England know

that inflation is now above target,

but that doesn't mean there'll be

an interest rate rise any time soon.

The confident prediction is that

inflation will come down next

year and in the City,

they're betting the next interest

rate rise won't come

until the summer of next year.

The Bank of England is navigating

a pretty tricky course as it tries

to work out how the economy

is going to fare through

the Brexit process.

So it's being ultra-cautious and,

for that reason, it's unlikely that

they'll make another rate move

so soon after the November one.

So nothing until a bit further

into 2018 and probably

one rate rise in 2018,

and one in 2019.

The hope is that down the line

the inflationary effect

of the weaker pound and higher oil

prices will fade and that inflation

is now hitting its peak.

If your wages buy less

than they did last Christmas,

though, that's no more

than a crumb of comfort.

Andy Verity, BBC News.

Police say a mother and her

three-year-old girl are fighting

for their lives in hospital

following what police

are calling a "targeted attack"

on a home in Walkden,

Manchester, in which

three children died.

Three people remain in custody,

held on suspicion of murder.

Danny Savage reports.

A major crime scene where a house

fire left three children dead.

A home police believe

was deliberately set alight

early yesterday morning.

We have collected CCTV from the area

and now believe this to be

a targeted attack on this house.

We have a full team of detectives

and specially trained officers

working on this case.

The victims were 14-year-old

Demi Pearson who died at the scene,

her eight-year-old brother Brandon,

and seven-year-old sister Lacie

died later in hospital.

The head of their school

says it was a senseless

loss of precious life.

Their 35-year-old mother,

Michelle Pearson, is in a serious

condition and still doesn't

know her children are dead.

A fourth sibling, three-year-old

Lia, is still critical.

Back at the scene, a family friend

told me how difficult

it is for people living here.

What were they like?

All nice.

Kids were nice.

The mum and the dad,

they're all good people.

I think it's a shock,

it's going to affect

the community for a long time.

Last night, a man and a woman

were filmed being arrested

in connection with the fire.

Three people now remain in custody

on suspicion of murder.

It's emerged extra security had been

fitted to the family home, including

a special letterbox guard

after previous incidents.

So, painstaking work is under way

to try and establish how

the fire was started.

Details on trouble here before

yesterday are sketchy, though.

Police won't comment on previous

contact with the family

because those events will be looked

at by the Independent Police

Complaints Commission.

Danny Savage, BBC News, Walkden,

in Greater Manchester.

A baby girl born with her heart

outside her body has survived

in what's thought to be a first

in the UK.

The baby, who is three weeks old,

has undergone three operations

at Glenfield Hospital,

in Leicester, to place her heart

back within her chest.

Our medical correspondent,

Fergus Walsh, spoke

exclusively to the parents

and the medical team involved.

His report contains some graphic

images of the baby's condition.

Good girl.

Yeah, who's a beautiful girl?

Their pride and joy.

This is Vanellope,

astounding her parents

and doctors with her progress.

After three operations,

in three weeks, her heart is now

back inside her chest.

Vanellope's parents say

the moment she was born

they knew she was a fighter.

She came out kicking and screaming.

Then she gave all the surgeons

aggro, didn't she?

Yeah.

It was a beautiful

moment, weren't it?

Yeah.

Absolutely beautiful.

If you saw her when she was first

born, to where she is now,

and what they've done, it's...

Beyond a miracle, isn't it?

The family knew from the first

ultrasound that Vanellope's heart

was outside her chest.

You can clearly see

its unusual position,

which is due to the absence

of a sternum or breast bone.

Babies with this rare condition

are usually stillborn.

But immediately she emerged during

the Caesarean section, doctors

could see that Vanellop's heart

was beating strongly.

Within minutes, they were

preparing her for surgery,

covering the chest with a sterile

bag for protection.

Now three weeks on, her heart

is back where it should be,

covered with her own skin.

Vanellope is going to be

here for some considerable time.

The next step will be

getting her to breathe

without the help of a ventilator.

Then, in years to come,

she faces more surgery to create

a new sternum to protect her heart.

There may be strategies whereby

we can put some internal

boning protection in,

whether that's with 3D printing,

either of something plastic or maybe

even something organic that might

grow with her.

This little girl was born in Texas

with the same condition

and was allowed home

after three months.

Doctors created a special chest

shield to protect her heart.

Audreena is now five years

old and still doing well.

That is the hope for Vanellope.

She faces a long road ahead, but has

already confounded predictions.

Fergus Walsh, BBC News, Leicester.

Yesterday we brought you some

shocking stories about the kind

of behaviour young women and some

men have to put up with at work.

It came from a survey

commissioned by the BBC,

one of the largest ever conducted

on sexual harassment.

Today we're looking

at the experiences of older

women, those over 55.

It turns out they are half as likely

to report inappropriate

behaviour as younger women.

In her second report,

Lucy Manning has been

to Whitley Bay, in Northumbria,

where she's been hearing

from the older generation.

# Waking into the light #.

Into the light - the groping,

the harassment and the assaults

faced by women at work.

# Waking into the light #.

In Whitley Bay they sing,

but the mostly retired choir members

are also starting to talk -

some for the first time.

He started to put his hand

on my knee and then it went

further and further up.

Every time I went into work,

when he was there,

I was terrified to go in.

Did I misunderstand?

But I knew he'd touched my bottom

and then he'd stroked

the side of my breast.

He thought he had nothing better

to do than to slap me hard

on the bottom, and it stung.

My husband doesn't even know.

Mine didn't know.

No.

The BBC's poll on sexual harassment

reveals the older generation

are only half as likely to have

reported harassment

as younger people.

Just 16% of those now aged 55

or over have reported an incident,

compared to 30% of those aged 18-34.

Can you put your hands up

if you didn't report to your boss

or to someone senior the sexual

harassment or the sexual assault

that happened to you?

My boss was actually in the room.

Can I just say, it was my boss.

So why didn't you report it?

Because I thought I

might lose my job, and

I loved my job.

Yeah, same with me.

I could have lost my job.

This was the man I worked for, I had

to stay on the right side of him.

But nobody would have

believed me either.

There was no idea about reporting

it and there was no

idea about taking it

into a formal complaints procedure.

Older people are now more likely

to reconsider behaviour

they witnessed in their careers.

More than 40% of over 55s would now

describe incidents they saw

as sexual harassment.

We didn't have the vocabulary.

I would now be saying -

hang on a minute, I think that's

some kind of assault.

But I would never have said it

20 years ago, never,

because I didn't think it was.

No.

I thought it was just the way

you were if you were a woman.

We're of a generation where women

were only just beginning to be

encouraged to speak out.

Overall, the poll found most people

were optimistic recent events

will lead to change.

Nearly 70% think the revelations

will cause sustained

improvements in behaviour.

What do you think about all these

stories about sexual harassment,

sexual assault in the workplace that

have come out now?

There are some brave women who have

started the ball rolling.

It will always continue.

Men will always feel that

they're superior to women.

And you don't think that the massive

publicity that we've had recently

will in anyway change that?

I don't think so.

Oh, I think it will.

I think it's hopeful.

It's been changing for a while now.

It will never stop.

They can't put the lid

back on the box now.

I'm sure it's educating men.

I was just going to say

that, Annie, absolutely.

Do you think it's something that

all women of your generation had

to put up with, when you speak

to friends and relatives?

Oh, yeah.

When you talk to just

about everybody.

There were lots of people

in the choir who didn't want to come

into a public forum who've said

things to me - oh, that

happened to me, but I don't

want to discuss it with anyone.

This is the generation who had

to put up with harassment at work,

who can't believe it's

still happening today.

Lucy Manning, BBC News, Whitley Bay.

The owner of a dog which attacked

and wounded children

in a playground in Northumberland,

has been jailed for four years.

The court heard that

the Staffordshire bull terrier had

carried out previous attacks

and the owner, Claire Neal, had been

ordered to have the dog put down,

but it escaped and attacked 12

children at a park in Blyth,

leaving some needing skin

grafts and stitches.

Police are appealing for witnesses

and any dash-cam footage

as they investigate the death

of a woman who was struck

in a suspected multiple hit

and run in South London.

The 29-year-old victim was hit

by a lorry on a pedestrian crossing,

before she was thought to have been

struck by another

lorry and two cars.

None of the drivers

stopped after the incident

in Tulse Hill yesterday.

The American state of Alabama

is holding a vote today

which could see a Republican

candidate elected to the US Senate,

but one who's facing numerous

allegations of sexual misconduct,

including against

a 14-year-old girl.

Roy Moore, a 70 year-old Christian

conservative, has been

endorsed by President Trump,

despite the claims which he denies.

If he loses, it would be a blow

to Mr Trump's authority

and could affect his ability

to pass legislation.

From Alabama, Nick Bryant reports.

Just when you thought American

politics couldn't get any weirder,

Judge Roy Moore rides to the polling

station on horse back

and then sets it to music.

He's come to personify

the polarisation of this

manic political age.

To his female accusers,

he's a sexual predator who molested

teenage girls in his 30s.

To his fans, he's a crusading

evangelical, a firebrand populist

in the mould of Donald Trump.

I want to make America great again

with President Trump.

I want America great,

but I want America good

and she can't be good until we go

back to God.

Moore fiercely denies

the allegations of sexual misconduct

and his supporters have adopted

the new default position

of the politically embattled,

they're crying fake news.

All of a sudden, here

come the allegations -

blah, blah, blah -

from 40 years ago.

That makes it highly, highly,

highly suspect in my mind.

Oh, that's nothing but

a bunch of fake news.

Things that happened so long ago,

there's such a thing as redemption.

Though many senior Republicans have

refused to back Roy Moore,

he has a cheerleader in Donald

Trump.

For the President, it's

morally uncomplicated -

to advance his legislative agenda,

he needs a Republican in the Senate.

So get out and vote for Roy Moore.

Do it, do it.

I mean, I literally broke down

in tears over all of this.

These Republicans can't bring

themselves to vote for Roy Moore,

they've defected to the Democrat,

Doug Jones.

It's because I'm a Republican.

it's because I'm a Christian.

It's because the party

I belonged to does not support

people like Roy Moore.

Alabama was a great battleground

of the civil rights era, this too

is a climatic defining struggle.

This has become so much

more than a Senate race,

it's a battle for the soul

of the Republican Party

between the establishment and more

radical populous forces.

It's a test of whether any

allegation is disqualifying

in modern-day public life here,

and it's an indication of the extent

to which Donald Trump has changed

America's political culture.

In this age of upsets, could this

Republican state go Democrat?

Nick Bryant, BBC News, Alabama.

Last night was the coldest this year

and if you live in Shropshire you'll

have known all about it,

it was down to minus 13

Celsius in one area.

The freeze has led to fresh

disruption for travellers

and hundreds of schools were closed

for a second day running.

From Shawbury, in Shropshire,

Sima Kotecha sent this report.

A bed of snow with freezing

conditions - across parts

of the Midlands it's not been easy,

icy roads and extremely

cold temperatures.

For the children, though,

it's been another day off school.

We've been obviously

sledging, snowball fights.

We've been like building snowmen.

Yeah.

Here in Shropshire, more than 200

schools were closed,

and in Gloucestershire

and Herefordshire almost

100 remained shut.

It is pretty difficult trying

to find them things to do.

You know, keep them occupied.

When you've got childcare issues

and you're working full-time then,

obviously, it would be disruptive

to you because obviously the schools

are closing on a day-to-day basis

and you're not knowing

until that last-minute.

Obviously, it's very

disruptive to the home.

Well, it's bitterly cold here,

the temperature is around minus four

Celsius and there's no sign of this

snow melting any time soon.

As night falls, the temperatures

are expected to plunge even further.

In the West Midlands,

it was a similar story -

more schools closed than open.

Some councils have been criticised

for advising them not to re-open

even though many roads

have been cleared.

So the initial advice, last Friday,

was to all schools to close.

We have now changed that advice

to say the decision should be made

locally, depending

on whether you can get school

transport to the school

and whether or not it's safe to do

so in consideration of the roads

and other conditions.

More than 200 homes in the region

were without power this morning.

Tomorrow is likely to

present its own challenges.

With rain coming in from the west,

some of the snow will be turned

to ice, making roads and pathways

even more slippery.

Sima Kotecha, BBC News, Shropshire.

It was the Royal premiere

of the latest Star Wars movie

earlier this evening,

40 years since the first movie that

spawned one of the most successful

film franchises in history.

Princes William and Harry

were on the red carpet and -

in a first for the Royal Family,

in the movie, but you'd be hard

pressed to spot them.

Our entertainment correspondent,

Lizo Mzimba, reports.

This film contains some flash

photography.

The stars of Star Wars, cinema

royalty, on the red carpet with

actual royalty.

Princes William and Harry,

such fans of the saga, during

filming, they secretly played cameos

as stormtroopers, much to the

excitement of the cast.

It was great, fantastic.

Fantastic.

Phenomenal.

And they've done an

official visit as well.

They got in an X-wing

and all that kind of

stuff.

It was fun.

All just one more indication

of the impact the series

has made since its return.

One key factor in the

recent success of Star

Wars has been the expansion

of its own universe, with respect to

on-screen representation

of both race and gender.

I think if movies

start a conversation,

it's a wonderful place

for a reflection of

societial changes,

hopefully and progress.

Action.

Shot here in the UK

at Pinewood Studios, the films

are amongst some of the most

expensive ever made, ensuring they

connect with 21st century

audiences is crucial.

It's five years since some

questioned the wisdom of Disney

paying around $4 billion

for Lucasfilm and the right to keep

making Star Wars films.

The first new movie

made $2 billion at the

global box office.

Now the deal is looking

like one of the better

Hollywood bargains.

Telling a wonderful story,

creating characters

that people care about -

we pay attention to all those things

inside these movies and hopefully,

then

shareholders and business and

everything that goes along with it

are happy.

But we always start with that.

The strategy has ensured continuing

adulation from fans and

helped Disney consolidate its

position as Hollywood's top studio.

Lizo Mzimba, BBC News.