04/01/2018 BBC News at Ten

An apology from Theresa May

after new figures reveal

the pressure on the NHS this winter.

From patients forced

to wait in ambulances,

a record number of calls

to the helpline and

cancelled operations.

We will hope to ensure that those

operations can be reinstated

as soon as possible.

I know it's difficult,

I know it's frustrating,

and I know it's disappointing

for people and I apologise.

The Government and the NHS had

been planning for months

to deal with winter demand.

So, what's gone wrong?

Also tonight...

The London taxi driver believed

to have raped and assaulted more

than a hundred women is to be freed

after ten years in jail.

Now President Trump tries

to silence his former chief

strategist by banning a book

about goings on in

the Trump Whitehouse.

An exclusive report

from inside the battle for Yemen,

where war has driven millions

to the brink of starvation.

A warning that, for children moving

from primary to secondary school,

social media can create

an avalanche of pressure.

And hip problems force Andy Murray

to pull out of the Australian Open.

He's not played a competitive match

since Wimbledon last year.

And coming up on Sportsday

on BBC News...

All the action from tonight's

Premier League as Spurs battle

to remain within touching distance

of the top four.

What a shot!

Good evening.

Theresa May has apologised

for the postponement

of thousands of operations

because of winter pressures.

Speaking on a visit to a hospital

in Surrey, the Prime Minister said

she acknowledged the difficulty

and frustration for patients.

And new figures compiled

by the BBC show that,

for the last six weeks of 2017,

more than 75,000 patients

were left in ambulances

for half an hour or more.

That's one in every eight

patients enduring a delay.

And last week was the busiest for

the NHS 111 helpline since it began.

It received more than 480,000 calls.

Here's our Health Editor, Hugh Pym.

We are in a queue with lots of other

people who are clearly very sick.

Everybody's waiting to get in.

A patient's eye view

of the stress across the NHS.

A queue of ambulances waiting

to hand over patients at a hospital.

Leah was stuck for more

than an hour in the

ambulance with her mother, who was

at that moment having a stroke.

It's gobsmacking.

It's gobsmacking and devastating.

It feels like a sick feeling

like a sickening feeling,

that this is how bad it is.

One chief executive even

tweeted a picture of

ambulances at his hospital, Wigan

Infirmary, a lovely fleet of 14

parked outside the door, he said.

Handover delays at hospitals are not

good news for patients and they stop

ambulances getting back

on the road again.

The process at A&E units is supposed

to take no more than 15 minutes.

The latest figures for England show

a sharp increase in the

numbers waiting more

than 30 minutes.

BBC analysis shows that,

across the system, since the end of

November, one in eight have been

held up more than half an hour.

The North West and

eastern regions saw

some of the biggest numbers of long

ambulance waits at hospitals.

Some of the best performers were in

London and the West of England.

The Prime Minister

was asked again about

the response of the Government and

NHS England to the extreme pressure

in many hospitals, postponing

a month's worth of

non-urgent operations.

I recognise that it's difficult

if somebody is delayed on

their admission to hospital or if

somebody has an operation postponed.

And we will hope to ensure those

operations can be reinstated as

soon as possible.

I know it's difficult,

I know it's frustrating, I know it's

disappointing for people

and I apologise.

There was an apology too

from the Welsh Health Secretary to

patients who had their operations

cancelled, so emergency care could

be prioritised.

Just wondered if you had

any update for daddy.

In Northern Ireland, meanwhile,

Karen's 86-year-old father,

who had a chest infection

and had to wait more than

26 hours for a hospital bed.

There were people on

the floor, there were

people sitting on chairs.

Most of them were elderly.

There was an elderly lady

I remember very vividly

who was slumped in the chair

in her nightdress the whole night.

No one came near her.

No one even put

a blanket around her.

It was really very distressing.

There were police everywhere,

there were people with

blood pouring out of them.

It was just like a battlefield.

Official figures now

show that flu is adding

to the strain on the NHS.

In Scotland there are more

than double the number of cases

compared with the same time the year

before and there

have been warnings about the flu

impact in England.

What we are seeing is

a significant increase in

this particular week from the last

week in terms of the numbers of

people being admitted to hospital

and the numbers of people who are

being admitted to intensive care.

It is too soon to say how severe

the flu season but it won't take

much to add to the long waits

and delays, as illustrated in these

pictures, already

evident across the NHS.

Our health editor Hugh Pym

is outside the Royal Free

Hospital in North London.

This information gathered by the BBC

about the number of patients being

kept waiting in ambulances is

symptomatic of more serious problems

inside the hospital.

Yes, Fiona.

There are significant variations

around the NHS but this hospital,

the Royal free, there were no delays

of 30 minutes or more from the

arrival of an ambulance and the

discharge of a patient in the weeks

we have had so far in winter. At

other hospitals it was nearer 50% of

patients and ambulances which had to

wait that long. A real variation. It

is a sign of real stress in the

health system when you have

ambulances queueing up outside A&E.

It's just the emergency department

is under real stress, staff are

struggling to find beds for new

patients because they cannot

discharge medically fit patients

back home because of social care

problems. Today we had the first

official confirmation of one of the

factors behind all of this, a

significant increase in the last

week also influenced his admissions

to hospital. GPs are put out their

own data showing an increase in the

numbers coming into their surgeries

with flu-like illnesses. You might

say the NHS has to deal with flu

every year, what is different? The

answer

is, yes, that is true. In recent

years flu has been at relatively low

levels and the NHS has been

stretched almost to the limit. No

suggestion it is a trend but if it

is its Bell's recent problems in the

months and weeks ahead.

A London taxi driver who's believed

to have carried out more than 100

rapes and sexual assaults

on his female passengers

is to be freed after

serving ten years in jail.

John Worboys was convicted

of 19 offences in 2009.

Now a parole board has approved his

release with what it calls

'stringent' licence conditions.

Some of his victims have told

the BBC they are shocked

and distressed that he is being

freed and they haven't been told

about it by the authorities.

Daniel Sandford reports.

For six years, John Worboys cruised

smart areas of London in his black

cab, looking for women

to drug and rape.

When he was finally caught,

the judge said he'd serve a minimum

of eight years in prison and said

he wouldn't be released

until he was no longer

a threat to women.

Worboys would show young

women he picked up

in his cab large wads of cash,

saying he'd recently

won big at the casino.

Then he'd offer them champagne,

which he'd spiked with

sedatives, and rape them.

The judge gave him

what's known as an

indeterminate sentence,

under which people are only

freed once they're no longer

considered dangerous.

But today the BBC

discovered that the Parole

Board has decided Worboys will be

released this month under

supervision, after spending less

than ten years in prison.

I've spoken to one

of my clients, who is

absolutely horrified

and really distressed,

that nobody had the courtesy

to inform her,

so she's in the middle

of cooking tea for her kids

and she hears this on the radio,

and feels absolutely

sick to her stomach.

The question does arise

as to whether his real dangerousness

has been considered,

and the seriousness of his offences

been properly taken into account.

The organisation,

Rape Crisis, said it

was far too soon for

Worboys to be released.

Although police believed John

Worboys attacked over 100 women, he

was only convicted of attacking 12.

And only one of those

convictions was for rape.

And that's why his

sentence was so short.

All the same, under

the indeterminate sentence

rules, the Parole Board will need

to have assured themselves that John

Worboys was no longer a risk

as a sexual predator.

Daniel Sandford, BBC News.

The row between Donald Trump

and his former top aide

Steve Bannon has intensified,

with lawyers for the President

threatening legal action

against Mr Bannon.

It follows comments attributed

to him in a controversial new book

about the Trump presidency,

a book which Mr Trump's lawyers are

trying to prevent being published.

Our North America Editor Jon Sopel

is in Washington for us tonight.

Some of the details in this book,

the book President Trump

doesn't want us to see,

are certainly intriguing.

Yes. And extraordinary, as you say,

the White House looking at legal

measures to stop the book from ever

reaching the shelves. Quite

unprecedented. Perhaps not

surprising then that the publishers

are bringing forward the release

date to tomorrow. At the briefing

this afternoon with Sarah Sanders,

the White House spokesman by Perisic

described the book as sad, pathetic,

complete fantasy, tabloid gossip and

a lot more besides. In focusing

their fire on the publication of

this book, they are giving the

marketing team the sort of publicity

they could only dream of.

Hell hath no fury like a Bannon

scorned, it would seem.

Steve Bannon, who was described

as the brains behind Donald Trump,

is now out in the Washington cold

after his extraordinary attack,

the warm words of last summer

but a distant memory.

I like him, he's a good man.

He is not a racist -

I can tell you that.

He's a good person.

He actually gets a very unfair

press in that regard.

But we'll see what happens with

Mr Bannon, but he's a good person,

and I think the press treats him,

frankly, very unfairly.

But Bannon was fired soon afterwards

and has now had his revenge,

rounding on the President's son

and son-in-law over a meeting

they had with a Kremlin-linked

lawyer at Trump Tower

during the campaign, saying:

And that's provoked rage

and fury in the White House,

the President issuing

this unprecedented statement

about a close colleague:

Today at the White House,

they're lawyering up,

orders to Stephen Bannon

to cease and desist -

threats to the publisher, too.

And the response from

Mr Bannon last night -

why, to declare his unfailing

support for the President.

And that brought this response

from Mr Trump today.

Has Steve Bannon betrayed

you, Mr President?

Thank you very much.

I don't know, he called me

a great man last night,

so he obviously changed his tune

pretty quick.

All right, thank you all very much.

The White House is pushing back hard

on the contents of this book,

describing the author,

Michael Wolff,

as an unreliable witness

and a fantasist.

That despite him being given

unprecedented access to the workings

of the West Wing and recording

hours and hours of conversations.

And even if only 50% of the book

is accurate,

it still paints a damning portrait

of a White House

that's dysfunctional

and a president who's paranoid.

No wonder Donald Trump is so angry.

Jon Sopel, BBC News, Washington.

The Environment Secretary,

Michael Gove, says subsidies

to British farmers, currently

paid for by Brussels,

will be guaranteed by the government

until the 2022 General Election,

with a proposed transition

period afterwards.

Farmers would then receive payments

in exchange for taking steps

to protect the environment such

as planting woodland

or boosting wildlife.

Our business editor,

Simon Jack, reports.

Farming is perhaps the industry

most closely entwined with the EU.

For 45 years, those who work

on this green and pleasant land

have been regulated,

protected and paid by the EU.

Three billion a year in subsidies

is paid out to farmers,

determined by how much

land they own.

That will change, according

to the Environment Secretary.

And what I want to do is to move

away from the current method

of subsidy, which doesn't really

reward efficiency, towards a method

of agricultural support which makes

sure that good farmers have

new markets for their products,

and at the same time that

the natural environment is enhanced.

Under proposals announced today,

the Government would limit payments

to the largest landowners.

It would reward environmental

protection measures such as

flood prevention and support high

standards in animal welfare.

Well, we're very pleased

with the Gove announcement today,

because it provides a level

of certainty for farming...

David Exwood farms 2,000

acres in West Sussex.

He's grateful the UK Government

is promising to cover

current payments till 2024.

It's really important,

it gives us a chance

to sort of adjust our businesses,

really study the impact of Brexit

and plan accordingly.

Farming's a really

long-term business.

The wheat I have in the ground,

the cattle we have on the farm,

many of them will not be sold

until after we leave the EU,

so any chance to plan ahead

is really valuable to us.

The Government's offer seems

ambitious, even speculative,

given the next election

is due in 2022.

Grain mountains, butter mountains -

at times over the last 45 years

the EU's Common Agricultural Policy

became associated

with wasteful protectionism,

but it also shielded farmers,

including those in the UK,

through bans or tariffs on products

from outside the bloc.

For example, cut-prices chickens

treated with chlorine from the US

are banned in the EU.

Some fear that, in a rush to make

new powerful trade partners,

UK farmers, standards and prices

will be undercut.

Some farmers say,

"Well, if that happens,

we'll just have to lower our

standards to compete."

But that is a race to the bottom,

and what will happen is,

we will lose.

Ultimately, Britain doesn't

have the economies of scale

to produce low-quality,

low-welfare food

more cheaply than other countries.

There is perhaps no other sector

where opinion is so divided

between those who think Brexit

will be the making of

and those who think Brexit will be

the breaking of an industry.

Can you make an agricultural policy

tailor-made for Britain's

economy and environment,

or are you taking a massive gamble

by stepping outside the fence

of subsidies and protection?

The farming landscape

may change with Brexit,

but subsidies for farmers aren't

going anywhere for six years -

proof, perhaps, of how hard some

habits are to break.

Simon Jack, BBC News.

One of the Arab world's

poorest countries, Yemen,

has been devastated by war,

which has claimed thousands

of lives, driven millions

to the brink of starvation and seen

the world's most deadly

outbreak of cholera.

The current crisis

started three years ago,

when Houthi rebels -

backed by Iran - together

with forces loyal to the former

President, Ali Abdullah Saleh,

took control of territory around

the capital, Sana'a.

They have been fighting

government forces,

backed by a Saudi-led coalition

who control the south

and east of the country.

However, last month,

Mr Saleh was killed by the Houthi

forces who had earlier

supported him, after

suggestions he might do

a deal with their enemy,

Saudi Arabia.

In the second of her exclusive

reports inside Yemen,

Nawal Al-Maghafi has more

from the capital, Sana'a.

The balance of power has shifted

in Yemen's civil war,

from the Saudi coalition

to their bitter rivals, Iran.

For years, we've watched as this

proxy war tore the nation apart,

killing thousands and leaving

millions homeless and starving.

Last month, a battle took place

in the capital, Sana'a,

that may have also killed

hopes for peace.

Allies turned into enemies,

as Houthi rebels fought the forces

of former President Ali Abdullah

Saleh.

Civilians were caught in the middle.

TRANSLATION:

They were firing

across and into our house

with rockets and with their AK-47s.

It was the worst day of our lives.

We were surrounded from all sides.

That fighting eventually

ended with the death

of the former President.

The Houthis imposed

a complete media blackout.

No-one knew exactly what had

happened - until now.

This exclusive footage,

seen for the first time,

shows the battle that changed

the course of Yemen's civil war.

Houthi soldiers surround Saleh's

complex, fighting barefoot.

They blow the walls and enter.

The chant goes up.

"Death to America.

"Death to Israel.

"Curse the Jews."

And, "Victory to Islam."

News of Saleh's death spreads.

TRANSLATION:

That's

it, the show is over.

Saleh is dead.

His guards just came out and told me

the Houthis have killed him.

The Houthis call Saleh a traitor

for wanting to negotiate

with the Saudi coalition.

Inside his huge complex,

the aftermath of the battle.

The Houthis are in charge now.

The former President's men

are their prisoners.

But not all of Saleh's

men were captured.

This man was one of Saleh's closest

aides, by his side just

minutes before he died.

His family are still in Houthi

territory and so we're

protecting his identity.

TRANSLATION:

He was defending his

home, with his aides

and nephews by his side.

Three or four tanks

surrounded his house.

They began firing.

The Houthis have captured

all of Saleh's arms,

but the former President's allies

who fled took something potentially

more valuable, their secrets.

I ask his aide about the Iranian

support for the Houthis -

long suspected, but never proven.

There are Iranians by their side and

they tell them exactly what to do.

I saw them with my own eyes.

They give them weapons,

but it's the information they give

that is most important.

I met the Iranian advisers

when I was with Saleh.

They were always beside

the Houthi leaders.

Three other well-placed sources

confirm the existence

of Iranian advisers.

In our time in Sana'a,

it was a city gripped with fear.

Most people were reluctant

to speak on camera.

TRANSLATION:

There is so much fear,

even when you go out

on the street and things are OK,

but fear has spread.

This woman was one of hundreds

who took to the streets calling

for Saleh's body to be buried.

The Houthis retaliated.

THEY CHANT.

They hit us with wires and tear-gas

canisters, electric rods.

They would run after us

and keep beating us.

Since that protest, hundreds

of the former President's

supporters have been detained.

The death of Ali Abdullah Saleh -

the only person the Saudis

could negotiate with -

has undoubtedly swung this proxy war

in favour of the Iranians, for now.

What happens next is unclear.

The only certainty for the people

of Yemen is that their

suffering will continue.

Nawal Al-Maghafi, BBC

News, Sana'a, Yemen.

A brief look at some of the day's

other other news stories.

Tony Blair says he believes Labour

should oppose the Brexit deal,

once the final terms are known.

The party currently backs Brexit

and has ruled out a second

referendum on the issue.

The former Prime Minister warned

that Brexit would leave

a Labour Government distracted,

short of money and unable

to deliver on its promises.

Australian authorities have

recovered most of a seaplane

that crashed near Sydney

on New Year's Eve,

killing a British family.

Businessman Richard Cousins,

four members of his family

and the Canadian pilot died

in the crash on Sunday.

It's emerged the plane had been

involved in another fatal

accident 20 years ago.

Tech firms are racing to fix bugs

that could allow hackers to steal

personal data from computer systems.

Researchers said there

were "serious security flaws"

in chips made by Intel,

AMD and ARM, affecting

devices which use them.

The industry has been aware

of the problem for months and hoped

to solve it before details

were made public.

The Colmans' mustard factory,

in Norwich, is going to close.

It's been made in the

city for 160 years.

Owner Unilever shares

the site with Britvic,

which had already said

it was closing its part of the site.

The factory will shut

at the end of 2019.

Pupils entering secondary school

are ill-equipped to deal

with the emotional demands of social

media, according to

the Children's Commissioner.

Anne Longfield says social media can

quickly become an avalanche

of pressure for children.

She's calling for more education

in primary schools and a greater

awareness among parents.

Elaine Dunkley reports.

For many young people, social media

is at the centre of their lives.

Following, sharing and posting,

part of growing up in a digital age.

But for some children, it's a steep

and difficult learning curve.

I made music, I posted it,

I expressed how I felt,

so I got a lot of hate

and backlash from that.

James was 12 when he first started

posting images of himself online.

Negative comments have had a huge

impact on his self-esteem.

I wasn't like the average boy

who played football every lunchtime.

I learnt to dance, I love to sing

and act, so I got a lot of backlash

from that and loads of harsh

comments in the section.

How did that make you feel?

Trapped, alone.

Because I'm kind of like a confident

person and I don't really

like to tell people stuff,

so I was kind of like suffering

in silence for a long time.

James is keen to share his

experience and is now

an anti-bullying campaigner.

Today's report, Life In Likes,

highlights the way children use

social media changes as they go

from primary schools to secondary.

From playing games on family devices

to often having their own phones.

As their world expands,

there is pressure to fit in.

Going into secondary school,

you're surrounded by lots

of new people you don't know

and you want to impress them

by showing them on social media how

great you are and how good

a person you are.

My mum checks my phone

quite regularly.

She checks my Instagram

and my messages to see that

I'm behaving myself.

Going from primary school

to secondary school can

be a huge transition,

for a number of reasons,

but today's report highlights

the need to help young people cope

with the realities of social media.

I would like government

to introduce compulsory digital

literacy in all schools for Year Six

and Seven, the top of primary

the top of primary school,

the first year of secondary school,

to help children anticipate what it

means, to help their resilience

and help empower them to be more

in control in their own

social media accounts.

Most social media platforms

have a minimum age of 13,

but keeping up with changing apps

and trends is a challenge

for parents.

Just simple things like

trying to get people

round the table for dinner,

the amount of times I have to call

people down because

they're all on their phones.

These mums have started a project

in primary schools in Kent to make

children understand it's OK not

to be online.

The possibility of feeling rejected

is kind of there all the time,

which is a really sad thing.

At such a vulnerable age.

Today's report warns

the challenges are many.

Increasing pressures to be popular

needs early intervention,

to ensure children are

emotionally prepared

for life online.

The leader of the council in Windsor

is facing a backlash after calling

for rough sleepers and beggars to be

cleared before the Royal

wedding in May.

Simon Dudley said some people

begging were not in fact homeless,

and had made what he called

a "voluntary choice"

to live on the streets.

Campaigners say his comments

are 'misinformed'.

Adina Campbell reports from Windsor.

It's been home to British kings

and queens for nearly 1,000 years.

Windsor Castle is a popular

tourist destination,

overlooking high-end shops,

in one of the country's

most affluent areas.

But a stone's throw away

is Stewart's home -

a bus shelter, where he's been

living for the last four months.

It's the Royal Borough, isn't it?

So, you know, the Queen lives right

behind me, and the castle.

And I think they're going to say

that's the Royal wedding coming up.

They don't want us on the street.

Now people like Stewart are being

targeted by the local council.

In a three-page letter

to Thames Valley Police,

leader Simon Dudley says: "There's

evidence that a large number

of adults begging in Windsor are not

in fact homeless and if they are,

they're chosing to reject

all supporting services."

He goes on to say: "This is creating

a concerning and hostile atmosphere

for residents and the seven million

tourists who come to

Windsor each year."

But for those out in the cold,

it's a different story.

James has been homeless

for the last 12 months.

He says he never aggressively begs

for money, but is grateful

when people give him cash.

The council has said

that they have offered support

accommodation to people like you.

Why haven't you taken that up?

Er, it's only over the Christmas

period, for four days.

And after the four days, you're

kicked back out on the streets.

Windsor Castle is one

of the country's most popular

tourist destinations and on May

19th, when Prince Harry marries

Meghan Markle here, tens

of thousands of people are expected.

Police and the local authorities

will want to make sure everyone,

from all different communities,

are safe and secure.

For years, Windsor has been home

to the rich and poor,

but some local businesses say

begging is increasingly

becoming a problem.

There's been a large influence

of these beggars coming in and,

at the moment, it's becoming

a little bit a nightmare.

The Thames Valley Police

and Crime Commissioner says

the homeless community should be

treated with kindness,

but today's letter has created more

unease and uncertainty for those

living here on the streets.

Adina Campbell, BBC News.

Cricket, and two late wickets took

the shine off a good opening day

for England in the final

Ashes Test in Sydney.

Captain Joe Root went for 83,

and Johnny Bairstow for 5,

as England ended the day on 233-5.

The second day's play begins in just

over an hour's time.

Football, and in the Premier League,

the London derby between Tottenham

and West Ham at Wembley produced

two outstanding goals.

West Ham took the lead midway

through the second half

with a stunning long-range strike

from Pedro Obiang.

But with six minutes to go,

Son Heung-min equalised

for Tottenham with a similarly

spectacular long-range effort.

Andy Murray has pulled out

of the Australian Open

after failing to recover

from an ongoing hip injury.

The three-time Grand Slam tennis

champion hasn't played a competitive

match since Wimbledon last summer.

And there's been more bad news

in the women's game.

British Number One Johanna Konta

was forced to retire

from her Brisbane Open

quarter-final, also

because of a hip injury.

Here's our sports

correspondent, Joe Wilson.

Andy Murray in Brisbane, departing.

No Australian Open for him.

He practised competitively -

seemed all right, he told reporters,

but the hip would not stand up

to the pressure of a tournament.

When Murray limped to defeat

at Wimbledon last summer,

we thought he'd be back.

After all, he stands for resilience,

whatever the state of his body.

Six months on, he's still not played

another competitive match.

Today, Murray - in his

official statement -

admitted he's not yet ready

to compete and he's flying home

to assess all the options.

That suggests surgery.

So, does this look like the end?

It is very sad when someone has

to retire, and I'm assuming this

is the end of his career,

and it may not be.

So, you know, forgive me,

but I've got a new hip and it's just

an awful long way back.

It's a real uphill

struggle from here.

The Australian Open

is busy promoting itself.

Tennis must go on.

Although it's a sport

heavily reliant on over-30s

for its marketing, and that's not

a long-term solution.

Johanna Konta will still

carry British hopes

at the Australian Open.

Well, perhaps.

She withdrew from her match

in Brisbane overnight,

with suspicions of -

guess what?

- a hip problem.

More assessment on Friday.

Low-grade strain, she suggests.

Just be fit for June,

Wimbledon might well hope.

This week, Andy Murray posted this

picture of himself on social media.

"The little kid inside me,"

he explained, "just wants to play

tennis and compete."

It's difficult to be denied

something so simple.

Joe Wilson, BBC News.

Newsnight's about to begin over

on BBC2 in a few moments.

Here's Evan Davis.

Tonight, you've heard of bitcoin -

the digital currency that appears

to conjure up money from nothing -

but we'll look at the other wacky

speculation going on in the world

of cryptocurrencies.

It's been called 'the dot-com boom

on steroids', why is it

so bedazzling to shareholders?

Join me now on BBC Two.

Here on BBC One, it's time

for the news where you are.