12/01/2018 BBC News at Ten

President Trump sparks outrage

after allegedly making racist

comments about African countries.

Mr President, are you a racist?

As he comes under fire

from the press, his alleged remarks

are criticised by the United Nations

as racism.

It all stems from a meeting

in the Whitehouse about immigration.

The President denies the remarks.

The man who sat next

to him says they're true.

That's what he used,

those vile and vulgar comments -

calling the nations

they come from, "shitholes".

The exact words used

by the President, not just

once but repeatedly.

Is what's become an international

row going to cause serious

problems for the president -

or will it just add to his appeal

among his core support?

Also tonight:

The Government is urged to bring

construction giant Carillion

into public control amid fears

it could collapse.

A fine of £10,000 for the surgeon

who branded his initials

onto his patients' livers.

Facebook gets a status update -

it says it will prioritise your

family and friends over advertisers

and news.

And weighty reflections on the crown

- the Queen as you've never seen

or heard her before.

Speech up, because if you did, your

neck would break! Later in the hour,

we have Sportsday on the BBC News

Channel with all the latest reports,

interviews and features from the BBC

Sports Centre.

Good evening.

President Trump is embroiled

in a row about whether he's a racist

after being forced to deny making

derogatory remarks, including

the use of an expletive,

about African countries.

He's been accused of making

the comments in the White House,

during a meeting about his plans

to overhaul the immigration system.

A Democratic Senator,

who sat next to Mr Trump insists

the president did use the phrase,

repeatedly, and a United Nations

the President did use the phrase,

repeatedly, and a United Nations

spokesman has accused the President

of making racist comments.

A number

of African countries have

reacted with outrage.

From Washington,

Nick Bryant reports.

This is a great and important day...

The forces of American history seem

to collide at the White House today.

Donald Trump signing a proclamation

in honour of the civil rights

leader, Martin Luther King at the

moment he stands accused of using a

slur directed at African nations.

Here he stuck to the script.

Today we celebrate Dr King for

standing up for the self-evident

truth that Americans hold dear, that

no matter the colour of our skin or

the place of our birth we are all

created equal by God.

Mr President

will you give an apology for the

statement yesterday?

After the

ceremony, an unserve mownous

commotion.

Mr President are you a racist? Can

you answer these serious questions

about your statement, Sir?

No!

Mr

President are you a racist?

It was

behind closed doors that Donald

Trump allegedly claimed that

immigrants came from shithole

countries, Donald Trump said he used

strong language with the Senators,

though not that word but has been

contradicted by a senior Democrat

present.

I cannot believe in the history of

the White House, and the Oval Office

any President has spoken the words I

heard our President speak yesterday.

To no surprise, the president

started tweeting denying he used

those words. It is not true. He said

the hate-filled thinged and said

them repeatedly.

From the United Nations, the

stiffest of rebukes.

These are shocking and hateful

comments from the President of the

United States. There is no other

word that we can use but racist, you

cannot dismiss entire countries as

shitholes.

The comments were called

reprehencible and racist.

Maybe just once maybe in another

part of the world but on this part

of the continent that word is an

insult.

Build a wall was the cry of voters

who loved the Donald Trump hard line

stance during the election.

We're going to build a wall, folks.

Don't worry.

And said to be doing a victory lap,

belief eking that row will re-up his

votes. Donald Trump launched the

campaign for the White House with an

attack on Mexican immigrants and

claimed falsely that Barack Obama

was not an American. His latest

racial controversy will please at

least some of the supporters at home

but undercuts US leadership abroad

and shows again how America first

can mean America alone.

Nick Bryant, BBC News, Washington.

Nick Bryant, BBC News, Washington.

President Trump's visit

to Britain next month is off.

He HAD been due to attend

the official opening of the new US

embassy in South London.

But he tweeted he was not a "big

fan" of the new building and blamed

Barack Obama's administration

for a "bad deal".

Downing Street says an invitation

for a state visit will still take

place, although no date

has been set.

Our diplomatic correspondent

James Landale has more.

The new us embassy, more than $1

billion of prime American real

estate in South London, with its own

moat. A machinement, we are told, to

America's commitment to Britain,

that the US ambassador had hoped

would be formerly opened by Donald

Trump next month.

Yes, I do hope. We will welcome him

when he comes.

But he is not coming.

Donald Trump said he cancelled the

trip as he owe postsed the sale by

Barack Obama of what he killed: Only

to build a new one in an off

location for $1.2 dollars. A bad

deal. Wanted him to cut the ribbon,

no! A decision welcomed by his

critics.

Here is a Head of State of another

country, not only promoting hatred

and division in his country but is

surely giving his online activity

guilty of doing the same in our

country.

The decision to sell the old embassy

was taken by President Bush, to find

a more secure location in a time of

terror. The old embassy had been the

scene of demonstrations. And

diplomats said it was the threat of

similar protests that had spooked Mr

Trump.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan,

said there would be mass protests

like these but peaceful ones. Boris

Johnson accused Mr Khan of putting

US Lincolnshire UK relations at

risk.

Here we have many others encouraging

large scale street protests against

him. I think it must be part of his

calculation.

That is the point, in his first year

of office, Donald Trump has visited

the world. Visiting most other G7

countries and other European

nations, including France, Germany

and Belgium, the UK is notable for

its absence. The US ambassador says

that the fortress of glass

represents a new era between the US

and the UK, a strengthening of the

relationship. The fear of the

diplomats is that the President's

decision not to open the building

signals for him, at least, that

Britain is not a priority. Ministers

hope it will change when he comes,

if he comes.

It's an important diplomatic partner

for the UK. We want the close eest

possible relationship with the US

and look forward to a visit at some

point in the future.

For now, the closest we will get to

seeing Donald Trump is this wax

work, part of a PR stunt, life like

in every respect but he does not

speak or tweet.

but he does not speak or tweet.

Our North America Editor Jon

Sopel joins me now.

The real President Trump

tweets and makes comments

and causes some real offence.

Yes it is hard to overstate in

America ares how puritan call public

discourse is. The networks, the

newspapers are agonising weather to

use the word that the President did.

So shocking. But if a pollster were

to speak to Trump supporters and ask

if was presidential, they would say

no, and were they surprised? They

would say also, no, and does it

change your view of the President?

Also, no. What makes Donald Trump

popular is that he says the

unsayable, could say what others are

thinking and would get in trouble if

they did.

It's as though given the account of

the meeting that Donald Trump

believes that there are the

countries, the Nato countries and

the shithole countries.

And the President has been talking

about another controversial issue

today?

He has been talking about

Iran. The Iran nuclear deal done in

Barack Obama's time so, that if Iran

stopped the nuclear programme,

sanctions would be lifted. Donald

Trump was desperate to reimpose

sanctions as he believe it is is a

lousy deal. The European nations

have managed to persuade him to row

back. So for another 120 days the

Iran nuclear deal is intact without

change.

I suggested to a diplomat, is it a

victory but he said not so much a

victory, as a stay of execution.

Thank you.

The Government is being

urged to bring contracts

from the construction giant

Carillion into public control

amid fears it could collapse.

It's a major supplier

to the Government and has contracts

in the rail industry -

including building HS2 -

in education and in the NHS.

It's struggled since reporting

half-year losses of over a billion

pounds and a significant pension

deficit.

Our business editor

Simon Jack is here.

The BBC has learned tonight that

ministers are drawing

up plans to take over

Carillion prison contracts.

That's right. What we learned this

afternoon is a £200 million contract

to run 50 prince. The Ministry of

Justice is drawing up plans to bring

it back under public control. This

is a company in big trouble. It owns

the banks £900 million. It owns the

pension scheme, £600 million. It is

haemorrhaging money. It needs new

funds, the lenders don't want to

give them to them. It has had crisis

talks with banks, on Thursday a

huddle with a huddle of ministers

and today in talks with the pension

fund to find out what happens to

28,000 members' of that pension

scheme. The damage to the company is

severe. Losing 93% of its value

since this time last year. An army

of sub-contractors worried about

what happens and the model of

outsourcing some of the critical

public services to the public sector

is under attack. You said that the

Labour Party, the unions are saying

that they should be brought back to

the public control. Is Carillion too

big, to sensitive to fail? No, it is

not. Will the Government bend over

backwards to save the company? Yes,

it will. But only bending so far. So

a very anxious weekend for the

company in prospect.

Thank you.

Thank you.

A surgeon who branded his initials

onto the livers of two transplant

patients has been fined £10,000

and given a community service order.

Simon Bramhall pleaded guilty to two

counts of assault in December.

His crimes - carried out at Queen

Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham -

were discovered when the patients

returned to hospital for further

surgery as Sima Kotecha reports.

REPORTER:

Mr Bramhall,

what's your reaction?

Simon Bramhall, once

a respected surgeon,

now a convicted criminal.

What would you like to say

to the patients, Mr Bramhall?

Today, he was fined £10,000

after pleading guilty to assaulting

two patients by marking his initials

on their livers.

His victims were undergoing liver

transplants at the time.

In court, Judge Paul Farrer QC

told him:

Well, it was here

at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital

in Birmingham where Bramhall

committed his offences.

He marked the livers in 2013

and it was a year later,

after a disciplinary hearing,

that he resigned from his post.

Another of his patients, who also

underwent a liver transplant by him,

says he shouldn't be punished.

Signing his work is just his way

of showing the artwork he's done.

The fact that he's saved so many

lives through all the operations

he's carried out, mine included,

because without him I wouldn't be

here, just makes me think he needs

to carry on doing what he's good at.

Bramhall branded 'SB' on the organs

with an argon beam machine,

a heat-projecting device usually

used to stop any bleeding.

The Crown Prosecution Service

compared its imprint

to a minor burn.

What happened was a crime.

The rule of law applies equally

to everybody, including doctors,

so it's important to hold people

to account when they commit a crime

of assault, and that's

what's happened here.

The markings were discovered

after other surgeons noticed

them during operations.

Bramhall betrayed the trust

of his patients and took advantage

of them when they were

at their most vulnerable.

The General Medical Council,

which has already issued him

with a formal warning,

will now decide whether to take any

further action against the surgeon.

Sima Kotecha, BBC News, Birmingham.

Families searching for missing

relatives after the Manchester Arena

bombing were subjected to intrusive

media attention, according

to a progress report.

It's part of a review

by Lord Kerslake into the response

to the bombing in May last year

in which 22 people were killed.

Our North of England correspondent

Judith Moritz has been speaking

to one of the families affected.

Within moments of the

Manchester Arena explosion,

the attack was worldwide news.

Phone footage was

shared immediately.

Camera crews and journalists

provided round-the-clock coverage

for days afterwards.

And there were countless posts

on social media, as well.

There was huge interest

in the stories of those

most closely affected.

They included the family

of Martyn Hett, one of those

killed in the blast.

Martyn had a large online following

and had previously been on TV.

His relatives quickly found

themselves in the spotlight.

Press reporters arrived

at their house, before the family

knew that Martyn had died.

We had people coming round,

knocking on the door,

ringing the bell, basically saying,

"Sorry for your loss,

but would you like to comment?"

He wasn't even officially dead yet.

How can anybody be so cruel and say,

"sorry for your loss"?

We didn't find out officially

until that evening that he was dead.

The way the emergency services

responded to the Arena attack

is already being reviewed

by an independent panel.

Now, it will also examine the role

which the media played

during the aftermath.

Much of the media handled families

in a very respectful way.

But we've heard examples where that

wasn't the case and we think that

needs to be explored and understood.

# Walk on #.

The long struggle of those whose

loved ones died at Hillsborough has

recently inspired a charter

for families bereaved

through public tragedy.

There are elements of the response

that could have been better.

The Arena review asks organisations

to sign up to it and put

the needs of such families

before their own reputations.

I want anybody who works

in our emergency services to know

that they will be supported

in coming forward to tell

it exactly as it was.

Because that is what we need.

We need the families to have

the truth as quickly as possible.

In March, the full review

into the attack will be published.

Eight months after these 22 people

died, their families' lives

are still dominated by the tragedy.

Judith Moritz, BBC News, Manchester.

Facebook has announced what it says

is a major change to its news feed -

prioritising posts from family

and friends over those from

advertisers and media organisations.

The change follows criticism

that too much fake news

and misinformation has been ending

up on the social network.

Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg,

admits it could could mean people

spending less time on it,

which has hit the

company's share price.

Our media editor Amol Rajan reports.

Mark Zuckerberg's social network has

become of the biggest

distributors of news in history.

Today, the company went back

to its social roots.

He said, one of our big focus areas

for 2018 is making sure the time

we all spend on Facebook

is time well spent.

Facebook's founder admits users

are being fed a heavy diet

of news and adverts,

together with the more personal

posts from friends and family.

In Bristol today, many young

Facebook users agreed.

It's quite clogged up with adverts

for shopping and baby

things at the moment,

stuff I search on Google.

So I think it would be a lot better

if it was just based

around friends and family,

without any adverts.

I just feel like I'm

being sold to the whole time.

People are making assumptions

about my opinions, my tastes,

the things I'm interested in.

Zuckerberg says, I'm changing

the goal I give our product teams

from focusing on helping you find

relevant content, to helping

you have more meaningful

social interactions.

This is the biggest change

to Facebook for many years.

It follows controversy over

the promotion of fake news,

with fears the platform has been

used by foreign powers

to subvert democracy.

Today's changes aren't

driven by those concerns

over disinformation,

but they're clearly an attempt

to restore trust in a global brand

and the impact on our news ecosystem

could be huge.

Mark Zuckerberg clearly accepts that

not all news is of equal value,

but his changes could seriously

damage some reputable news providers

that have come to rely

on his platform for both

eyeballs and income.

Brands like HuffPost need the ad

revenue Facebook can drive.

The elephant in the room is fake

news and how they're trying

to clean up the timelines.

The fear for publishers like us

is that the baby gets thrown out

with the bath water and we lose

the really important real

journalism, along with the fake news

that they're trying to get rid of.

Google is often described as part

of a duopoly that is swallowing

the advertising and news industries,

together with Facebook.

Today, in a rare interview,

Google's most senior British

executive seemed to see this

as an opportunity.

There's an upside to traditional

media moving to the digital world.

You can reach 5 billion

people on any device,

you can use video if you come

from the print industry

and vice versa.

You know yourself as a journalist,

there's a huge ability to tell

the important stories in new ways,

and people are turning

to the digital world more than ever

before to understand the news.

For Facebook's young missionary

founder, a short-term hit

in revenues is worth it to allay

accusations that it's becoming

the anti-social network.

Amol Rajan, BBC News.

A brief look at some

of the day's other news stories.

There's been a breakthrough

in the talks aimed at forming

a new coalition government

in Germany between the Chancellor,

Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats

and their rivals, the Social

Democrats.

They're now expected to discuss

a detailed programme for government,

including a pledge to work closely

with France to strengthen

the Eurozone.

A huge fire that closed

Nottingham railway station

is being treated as arson.

Over 60 firefighters took

several hours to bring

the blaze under control.

It is believed the fire,

in the recently renovated station,

started in a toilet block.

Fortunately no-one was injured.

Women in Saudi Arabia have joined

spectators at a professional

football match for the first time

in their country's history.

The move is being seen as the latest

step in the gradual easing

of restrictions on women

in the deeply conservative

Muslim kingdom.

Young women with the faulty BRCA

genes who have gone on to develop

breast cancer have the same survival

chances as those

who don't have them.

A study of almost 3000 women also

found outcomes were the same

whatever kind of treatment the young

women had - including mastectomies.

Mutations in the BRCA genes can

significantly increase a woman's

chance of developing breast cancer.

Our medical correspondent

Fergus Walsh has more.

Diagnosed with breast cancer

when she was just 35 years

old and five months pregnant,

Laura faced childbirth

and then cancer treatment.

She carries a BRCA gene

mutation and so, like many

women in her position,

she opted to have

both breasts removed.

I decided to have

a double mastectomy.

My oncologist was keen for me

to have it and I was, as well,

because I was told that the risk

of me getting cancer again

was 50%, so it didn't seem

worth the risk, really.

A new study followed nearly 3,000

women aged 40 or younger diagnosed

with breast cancer in Britain.

It found no difference in survival

between those who carried

BRCA breast cancer genes

and those who didn't.

And it found no survival benefit

from a double mastectomy.

After ten years, around seven in ten

women survived in all groups.

So what does this mean for women

carrying a BRCA gene?

I think the key message is that it

allows them time to consider

all of their options.

So they may still need to go ahead

and have a double mastectomy

because of their risk

and for long-term survival.

But I think it encourages us

to think that they can

take their time and discuss

and consider all of

their options and make

the right decision for them.

This study didn't

look at prevention.

One in 450 women carry

faulty BRCA genes.

It means they have a 45-90% chance

of getting breast cancer,

and many women with a strong family

history of breast cancer

opt for preventative

double mastectomies,

which almost eliminates the risk.

Like Angelina Jolie,

the actress and campaigner

who revealed she had

preventative surgery,

it led to greatly-raised awareness

of BRCA gene mutations.

This study looked only

at young women, like Laura.

95% of breast cancers

are in the over-40s.

Laura says if she had her time

again, she might have delayed having

a double mastectomy,

but she has no regrets.

Fergus Walsh, BBC News.

It's the Queen as you've never seen

or heard her before.

To mark the 65th anniversary

of her Coronation in 1953,

Her Majesty has been giving a unique

insight into the day

and what it meant to her.

She's been speaking to the royal

commentator Alastair Bruce

for a BBC programme.

A key piece of advice for any

would-be monarch - don't look down -

as our royal correspondent

Nicholas Witchell reports.

She famously doesn't do interviews.

This is probably as

close as she'll get.

A conversation with questions about

the Coronation, the Crown Jewels,

and the Imperial State Crown worn

by her and her father,

King George VI.

Fortunately, my father and I have

about the same sort of shaped head.

Once you put it on, it stays.

It just remains itself.

You have to keep your

head very still?

Yes.

It was huge then.

Yes.

Very unwieldy.

You can't look down to read

a speech, you have take the speech

up, because if you did,

your neck would break,

it would fall off.

It's difficult to always

remember that diamonds

are stones, so very heavy.

Yes.

So there are some

disadvantages to crowns.

But otherwise, they're

quite important things.

She rode to her coronation

in the gold State Coach.

It weighs four tons.

It's not built for comfort.

Horrible.

It's not meant for

travelling in at all.

It's only sprung on leather.

So it rocks around a lot.

It's not very comfortable.

Were you in it for a long time?

Halfway round London.

Really?

We must have gone about

four or five miles -

we could only go at a walking pace.

The horses couldn't

possibly go any faster.

It's so heavy.

65 years after the event,

a monarch talking

about her coronation -

the crown - the real one.

Nicholas Witchell, BBC News.

And you can see 'The Coronation' on

Sunday evening, at 8pm on BBC One.

That's it.

Now on BBC One, it's time

for the news where you are.