05/02/2018 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at Ten.

A warning from the EU -

Britain faces 'unavoidable' trade

barriers if it leaves

the customs union after Brexit.

At Downing Street -

the EU's chief negotiator meets

Brexit Secretary David Davis

and asks for greater clarity

about the UK's approach.

He said there wasn't

a moment to lose -

as he spelled out the consequences

of Britain rejecting any

customs union with the EU.

Without the customs union -

and outside the single market -

barriers to trade and goods

and services are unavoidable.

We want a comprehensive

free trade agreement,

and with it a customs agreement,

and to make that as frictionless

as possible to make as much trade

as currently exists,

as free as possible.

We'll have more on today's talks -

and we'll be looking in more detail

at how trade would be affected

by leaving the customs union.

Also tonight.

A British man accused of hacking

into computers at the FBI

and NASA has won his appeal

against extradition

to the United States.

A special report on one of the many

victims of Fentanyl -

the powerful painkiller linked

to a growing number

of drug-related deaths.

Fentanyl's a killer,

and those drug dealers are playing

Russian Roulette with our lives.

They give our children

drugs, and our children,

my child, died from it.

A report from Syria -

amid claims that rebel-held areas

were targeted by a suspected

chemical attack at the weekend.

And - it's a century since one

of the biggest advances

in gender equality -

but most women were

still not able to vote.

And coming up in sport.

Chelsea in trouble again.

Could the champions come

back from a goal down at

Watford to avoid a second straight

Premier League defeat?

Good evening.

Theresa May's decision to rule out

being a member of any

kind of customs union after Brexit

will result in new trade barriers

on British goods and services.

That was the warning

delivered by the EU's chief

Brexit negotiator Michel

Barnier after talks

in Downing Street today.

Mr Barnier went further

and said the time had come

for the UK to choose what sort

of relationship it wanted

with the EU after leaving.

Labour says it's 'foolhardy'

to reject a customs union

with the EU - which is Britain's

largest trading partner -

as our political editor

Laura Kuenssberg reports.

In a hurry.

Not just to catch the 1056

from Brussels to London.

We have not a minute to lose,

because we want to achieve a deal.

But the EU's chief negotiator

wants to press on.

It is time for bargaining

he says as the next

round of Brexit talks loom.

The first priority for him

and his host David Davis is to agree

what happens straight after Brexit.

Do you know what the British

government wants?

The two years or so timeframe,

not much will change but the real

posturing is about the longer term.

Theresa May popped in for a drink

after reminding her party

that she wants out of the single

market free trade area

and the current customs union.

But she knows, along

with these two, there might be

mishaps along the way.

Our negotiating team

is starting straightaway,

tomorrow certainly, on an intensive

period of negotiation

and are confident we can

get that agreement.

Yet while this might sound

elegant in a French accent

it is still a warning.

Without the customs union,

outside the single market,

barriers to trade and goods

and services are unavoidable.

Time has come to make choice.

In other words, Foreign Secretary

and others, make your mind up.

The EU has consistently said

we can't keep the best bits

of the EU without losing somewhere.

But that has always been

rejected by Brexiteers.

What my side wants, what most

of the country wants is a good deal.

The way to get a good deal is to be

very clear that we are leaving,

we are leaving the single market,

leaving the customs union.

The fear of others in the Tory

party and Parliament

is that the Eurosceptics are too

close to No 10.

This week the Prime Minister

hopes to get the Cabinet

to find a compromise.

What is more important,

sticking close to the EU or making

the most of freedom outside?

We've heard a lot of,

we are not going to do this,

we are not going to do that.

What are we going to do?

That is what we're waiting to hear,

that is what the 27 countries

the UK's negotiating

with are waiting to hear.

In the meantime this

uncertainty is really,

really bad for business.

No 10 has to make bargains

within its party as well as

with the EU outside.

Today's talks were about the EU

and the UK plugging back

in before the next charged

round of negotiations really gets

going but arguably for there to be

meaningful progress any time soon

the UK ministers have

to speed up their decisions

about their overall approach.

None of the questions are easy

but after months of squabbling time

to discuss becomes time to decide.

Laura Kuenssberg, BBC

News, Westminster.

As we've heard, Michel Barnier -

the EU's chief Brexit negotiator -

warned that leaving the customs

union would bring added trade

barriers for the UK.

So how would trade between the UK

and the European Union

be affected by leaving

the customs union?

Our economics editor Kamal Ahmed

is here with more details.

Trade matters to the UK

economy - and our jobs.

We export 28% of everything we make.

Our biggest customer is the EU.

43% of all UK exports go there.

And to help that trade

we are a member of what is

called a customs union.

That means that goods and services

can circulate freely throughout

the EU with no import taxes and few

border checks.

UK farms are able to integrate

themselves into supply chain

networks so farms can

have their manufacturing networks

extend across countries.

The second main benefit

is that large multinational

companies who have

located their investment

and jobs in the UK in

the

first place, to take

advantage of not just

the UK market but also

the

European market, the third benefit

is that as a part of the large EU

trading block the UK could extract

concessions in negotiating with

other countries like China

that they might not have got

if they were operating individually.

The government has made

it clear it wants to

leave the customs union

so

we are less constrained by EU trade

rules but as Michel Barnier made

clear today that means taxes

and border checks are likely for our

exports to the EU,

like food and cars.

And that is a barrier to trade.

And we could respond

by applying our own taxes to imports

from the EU, which

could increase prices.

The Prime Minister insists she wants

a good trade deal with the

EU.

She calls it frictionless trade.

And for businesses like this steel

firm in Northern Ireland,

having no border

checks really matters.

If anyone can remember back

to the days when we did have to stop

at the border and we did have

customs clearance processes, very

very disruptive.

Not constructive or helpful

to businesses or trading

between the countries.

The British government says it wants

to throw its trade arms wide and do

free trade deals with countries

like America and China,

prevented at present

because we are a member

of the customs union.

Britain is also a large importer of

EQ goods so Brussels will want some

form of trade deal. The key cabinet

committee meetings take place this

week. Set with the task of answering

the nutty question exactly what our

relationship with the EU will look

like after we have left.

A man accused of hacking into US

government computers -

has won a High Court challenge

against his extradition

to the United States.

Lauri Love - who has

Asperger's Syndrome -

a form of autism -

is alleged to have carried out

a series of cyber attacks

against agencies including NASA

and the US Army.

But judges in the UK said it

would be 'oppressive' to send him

for trial in America -

where he could have faced a 90-year

prison sentence if convicted -

as our correspondent Daniela Relph

reports.

For four years, the threat

of extradition to the United States

had hung over him.

Lauri Love described it

as "gnawing away at his soul".

Today that threat was lifted.

The reason I've gone through this

ordeal is not just to save myself

from being kidnapped and locked up

for 99 years in a country I've never

visited, but it is to set

a precedent whereby this

will not happen to other

people in the future.

The Appeal Court judges ruled

that Lauri Love was vulnerable,

that extradition to America

could lead to severe depression,

and make him a suicide risk.

And crucially, for his well-being,

he needed to be close

to his parents, here in Britain.

The relief for Lauri Love,

his family, and supporters

is obvious here in court.

They believe that this

decision is just and humane.

In a spate of online

attacks in 2012 and 2013,

Lauri Love is alleged to have hacked

into the computers and systems

of several US government agencies.

They include the FBI,

the Department of Defense,

the Federal Reserve,

America's central bank,

and the space agency Nasa.

Lauri Love was traced via a Romanian

e-mail address and a PayPal account.

He's been interviewed here

by Britain's National Crime Agency

but, as yet, has not been charged.

Today's judgment did not rule out

a prosecution here in the UK,

something his family

and his supporters are prepared for.

How do you feel about the prospect

of a trial here in the UK

and a possible jail term?

I do trust a trial in the UK.

In the US, the chances of me ever

getting a trial are quite slim just

because people are forced to plead

guilty to avoid huge charges,

huge sentences that they might face

if they take a trial.

In the UK, we don't strong-arm

people into facilitating

their own prosecutions.

This case has been a strain

on the entire Love family,

especially Lauri's father,

who is a prison chaplain.

There is a consensus of agreement

about the things

that really matter, about decency,

about justice, about fairness.

I've always believed to be born

in these islands is to win

the lottery of life

and that what makes Britain great

makes it Great Britain,

is not our power or our might,

but the fact that it is

a great place to live.

The United States now has two weeks

to lodge a request for an appeal

hearing at the UK Supreme Court.

The Crown Prosecution

Service will also decide

whether to bring charges.

But, despite the remaining

uncertainty, this was a day

to celebrate for Lauri Love.

He now wants to focus

on his electrical engineering degree

and is planning to pursue

a career in cyber security.

Daniela Relph, BBC News,

at the Court of Appeal.

The leading stock market index has

fallen by the biggest modern

history. The Dow Jones briefly fell

one and 10% from its record high in

January. Just tell us about the

events of the day and the factors in

this Fall.

What triggered this was

on Friday when you had a Labour

report coming out in the US showing

stronger than anticipated wage

growth. So the expectation is it

wages rise people will start

ratcheting war and that would push

up consumer prices and Ben Howe

would the American central bank

control that, by increasing interest

rates. That is the bottom line,

investors are concerned, traders are

concerned that interest rates will

rise more rapidly than anticipated

in the US. You see this kind of big

Fall in US markets, there was a

possibility of a domino effect on

markets around the world whether the

UK, Europe, Japan or China. Those

countries are impacted by other

individual factors as well so hard

to say how much that will affect the

UK market. But on a more fundamental

level essentially if you have a high

interest rate in the US and an

investor who has money to spend,

they will think he is getting a

higher return here so he or she

could decide they want to move their

money here at the US and that would

be moving it away from other parts

of the world. It is interesting

because this comes less

than one week after the State of the

Union address where you had

President Trump talking about how

stock markets had touched record

highs.

We have not heard anything

from him on this Fall today but

certainly another record. Thank you

for that update.

Ministers have confirmed

they're terminating

the contract with Stagecoach to run

the East Coast Main Line.

The transport secretary

Chris Grayling told MPs the company

is making significant losses -

but said there would be no

question of a bailout.

He insisted there would be no

impact on the day-to-day

operations of the railway -

or on staff.

The National Audit Office has

already launched an investigation

into the government's

handling of the franchise -

to provide services on the line

between London and Edinburgh -

as our business editor

Simon Jack reports.

The East Coast Mainline has been

heading for trouble for years.

Stagecoach owns 90%

of the franchise, and Virgin 10%.

Both companies wanted

to walk away from the loss

they were making in 2020,

three years early.

Today it became clear they will be

getting to the point

of collapse even earlier.

It has now been confirmed

the situation is much more urgent.

It is now clear this franchise

will only be able to continue

in its current form for a matter

of a very small number

of months and no more.

That is because Stagecoach

has already lost £200

million running the line.

This company cannot be allowed

to run this franchise and simply

make a profit given what's happened.

They got their sums wrong

and they will pay the price

for that, not the taxpayer.

He said the option of

full nationalisation

was very much on the table.

It wouldn't be the first time.

The government profitably ran

the East Coast Mainline from 2009

to 2015, after National

Express admitted

defeat two years

into a 10-year deal.

The Secretary of State was very

clear that he didn't think

either the travelling public

or the taxpayer would be affected.

Stagecoach is the big loser.

But that won't dampen

the debate about

whether a system that allows

Stagecoach to potentially keep on

running this line, and get

awarded an extra year

on a profitable contract

on the West Coast Mainline,

is a system that is fit for purpose.

You've got people over

bidding, over promising,

and then not delivering.

And on the East Coast Mainline,

we're saying that from 2020 to 2023,

that's £2 billion that the Treasury

are not going to receive over that

period, as Virgin and

Stagecoach promised.

So the system is completely flawed

and should be stopped.

Stagecoach admitted they got

their sums wrong on the East Coast.

But the profitable West Coast

franchise was extended today

from another two years.

Good news for its operators -

who happen to be

Virgin and Stagecoach.

Simon Jack, BBC News.

A self-confessed Nazi sympathiser

accused of plotting a machete attack

The only surviving suspect

in the 2015 Paris terror attacks

has gone on trial in Brussels,

relating to a gun battle

with Belgian police.

Salah Abdeslam, who's charged

with possessing illegal weapons

and the attempted murder of police

officers, refused to stand up

in court or answer any questions.

Damian Grammaticas

reports from Brussels.

200 armed police ringed the court

today, guarding this trial.

More than two years after the Paris

attacks, those in the courtroom

strained to get a first glimpse

of the only surviving attacker,

Salah Abdeslam and an accomplice.

Abdeslam refused to stand

for the judge, refused even

to have his face shown.

And he wouldn't answer questions.

"I don't want to", he said.

Later he told the court...

GUNSHOTS.

When police finally traced

and arrested Abdeslam in Brussels

four months after the Paris assault,

there had been a gun battle.

In this trial, he is charged

with trying to kill Belgian police.

Survivors of the Paris attacks

were here in court to see him

face-to-face for the first time.

Philippe Duperron's son

was one of the 90 killed

in Paris's Bataclan Theatre.

TRANSLATION:

It really was painful

to see Abdeslam enter in front

of us for the first time,

to breathe the same air in the same

room, but we don't expect

he will reveal much.

This court process is just the first

of what are expected to be

years worth of trials.

Salah Abdeslam faces another

in France for the Paris attacks,

and dozens more have been rounded up

in the police investigations

that have followed.

In total, since the Paris

and Brussels attacks,

around 200 people have been arrested

and are now in prison in Belgium.

The networks have been disrupted,

but anti-terrorist police

say the threats remain.

TRANSLATION:

The threat

is still high.

Islamic State has lost

its territory, but its members

are now dispersed, but it can

still inspire others with grievances

to carry out attacks.

It was the Brussels district

of Mollenbeeck where some

of the attackers came from,

where Salah Abdeslam lived

and was eventually caught.

Now, by night, some

streets here feel empty.

Rules were put in place to stop

anti-social behaviour,

banning gatherings of more

than three people after 9pm.

We met up with a friend

of Salah Abdeslam.

He told us, of ten people

in their former circle,

six are now in jail,

caught up in the waves of arrest.

Salah asked me to do things,

think God I didn't,

or I would be in prison.

Others are, because they helped him,

but they didn't know

what he was up to.

He needs to speak

and tell the truth.

But there's no sign Abdeslam will

talk, either to help his friends

or the victims of the attacks.

Damien Grammaticas,

BBC News, Brussels.

Fentanyl is an extremely strong

painkiller, much more

powerful than morphine.

Doctors prescribe it in lower doses

for cancer patients.

But dozens of people have died

in Britain in the past few

years, after taking

it to get a high.

Today, a 25 year-old drug dealer

from Newport was sentenced to eight

years in prison for exporting

and selling fentanyl.

Since December 2016,

113 people have died in the UK

after overdosing on the drug.

It's used worldwide, but 10 %

of global sales take place here.

Jeremy Cooke reports

on where the drug is coming from,

and who's being affected by it.

His report contains some

flash photography.

It looks like chemical warfare.

But this is a police raid on a drug

dealer who was selling fentanyl over

the internet from his home.

Kyle Enos has now been sentenced

to eight years in prison,

serious time for a serious

drug which has taken

lives up and down the country.

Robert was 6 foot 5

by two inches wide.

Hi, guys!

He was the kindest, gentlest

person in the world.

Full of life, full of promise,

but when 18-year-old Robert Fraser

went to buy cannabis,

the dealer gave him

something new, something

different, something deadly.

I got a phone call from my

ex-husband to say he'd just

walked in and found

Robert dead in bed.

And I just remember thinking,

he hasn't said that.

He can't have said that.

It's not true.

Robert knew nothing about fentanyl,

a synthetic opioid drug which users

snort, swallow or inject.

It's related to heroin but can be

thousands of times more powerful.

Fentanyl's a killer.

And the drug dealers are playing

Russian roulette with our lives.

They give our children drugs

and my child died from it.

Dealing with fentanyl is a game

changer, for the police and

emergency services and in this

government-licensed lab.

It can be absorbed by

the skin, so we just

don't want any risk.

They've been trained

to be super careful.

Because just a few grains

of fentanyl can kill.

So it's powerful and cheap,

and for dealers that

means big profits.

They've seen it all here.

Heroin, cocaine, crystal meth.

But nothing like this.

Fentanyl's just a different

category of drug altogether.

And the potential harm

that they can cause

is just way above anything

we've had in the past.

But where is fentanyl coming from?

The BBC is undercover

in China on the trail of the

suppliers and so a meeting

with a laboratory boss

and his translator.

Let's talk business.

So 1kg of fentanyl...

China has banned production

of some types of fentanyl

but labs can work around the law

by making small changes

in the fentanyl molecule.

And they're happy to ship the drug

anywhere in the world.

2,600...

Within minutes we are

being offered a deal.

The BBC bought no drugs

but what is clear is that

fentanyl is on sale to anyone

with the money to buy it.

This one is very powerful.

Very strong.

Yes, very strong.

Can you send this to England?

Yes, yes, England.

From China to Britain,

UK drug dealers get wholesale

deliveries, then break them down

to sell on the internet.

Really, it looks much

like any other online marketplace.

Jamie Bartlett is an author

who writes about the

so-called dark net, a hidden,

unregulated corner of the internet.

But you have cannabis,

ecstasy, opioids,

psychedelic steroids and so on.

408 different offerings of fentanyl

on this website alone.

Yeah.

Fentanyl is a highly

dangerous substance.

And carfentanyl, an elephant

tranquilliser, is still more deadly.

It makes all of these

products which were never

within reach, especially of young

people, far more easy to get

than ever before.

In this part of Teesside alone over

the past year at least six

deaths have been linked to the drug.

Kenny was lucky not

to be the seventh.

Ended up using what I

thought was heroin.

And turns out it wasn't.

What was it?

It was fentanyl or

carfentanyl, not sure.

Kenny has a history of drug abuse

and overdo overdosed on fentanyl.

Luckily he was in the Moses

project drop-in centre

with the antidote nearby.

I overdosed, that's

as much as I can remember.

Injected it and overdosed.

I was dead.

Seeing red, it was like blood

was covering my eyes.

The spike of deaths across

north-east England put fentanyl

firmly on the radar

of the National Crime Agency.

They know the drug is taking

thousands of lives in America

and are determined to stop it here.

The NCA has prioritised the threat

from fentanyl and its analogues back

in April last year, and it's

still priority today.

So we have a number of officers

working solely on that threat.

Michelle knows the cost of fentanyl.

How it took Robert's life.

What it does to families.

People are sitting

in their bedrooms, clicking

a button, and getting it.

Why, how?

The world I grew up

in wasn't like that.

And I don't want that future

for my little lad either.

For my surviving little lad.

Michelle is now a campaigner,

determined to make us all aware

of the dangers of fentanyl,

how easy it is to get,

how easily it kills.

Jeremy Cooke, BBC News.

Details of organisations offering

information and support

with addiction are available

at bbc.co.uk/actionline,

or you can call for free at any time

to hear recorded information -

the number is 08000 155 947.

In Syria, government

and Russian forces have

intensified air strikes

against rebel-held areas,

after rebels shot down a Russian

fighter jet over the weekend.

The strikes include reports

of a suspected chemical attack.

Syria's government has previously

denied using chemical weapons.

The latest attack

took place in Idlib,

the last rebel-held

province in Syria.

But since the start

of the year a number of others have

been reported in the Damascus suburb

of Eastern Ghouta.

This report by Nawal

Al-Maghafi's contains

distressing images.

A hospital in flames.

Here in Idlib, a night

of intense violence.

Rescue workers raced

to the scene of the attack.

Inside, premature babies now

being rescued from the bombing.

Exposed to the smoke,

they struggle to breathe.

Medics attempt to resuscitate them.

Only just introduced

to the world, they're now

fighting for their lives.

Elsewhere, these men

are being hosed down after

a reported chlorine gas attack.

While no one was killed, attacks

like this spread fear among

the population.

The escalation was a response

to rebels shooting down a

Russian jet in the area

this weekend.

But this year has seen a sharp

increase in reported

chemical attacks.

A US draft resolution that

would have allowed an independent UN

body to investigate the chemical

attacks, was vetoed by Russia

late last year.

It was the ninth time Russia

used its UN power to block

action targeting its ally, Syria.

Today, the US expressed

his frustration.

It is a true tragedy that

Russia has sent us back to

square one in the effort to end

chemical weapons use in Syria.

The besieged Damascus suburb

of Eastern Ghouta has seen

for reported chemical attacks

since the start of the year.

Without weapons inspectors

on the ground, activists have taken

to documenting them.

This is one of them.

Three were hit today,

in the morning.

Now we're just...

Boom!

Along with shelling and air strikes,

they have become a terrifying

prospect for civilians.

TRANSLATION:

We were sleeping.

My wife woke up and said,

"I can smell the chlorine."

We closed the windows and covered

ourselves with blankets.

We can withstand it

but the children can't.

We have to be rushed to hospital.

The Syrian government denies

using chemical weapons.

This war, now entering

its eighth year,

has devastated the country

and its people.

And with international diplomacy

failing, Syria's war seems

far from over.

Nawal Al-Maghafi, BBC News.

Tomorrow marks a century

since women over the age of 30,

who owned property or were

graduates, won the right to vote

under the Representation

of the People Act 1918,

which was passed by the coalition

government led by Prime

Minister David Lloyd George.

It would be another decade before

all women over the age of 21,

regardless of property or education,

were allowed to vote.

Sarah Smith reports

on the the events of 1918,

a milestone in the struggle

for gender equality.

The Palace of Westminster was built

as an exclusively all male club.

No women allowed.

So suffragettes often

targeted Parliament itself.

Four of them chained themselves

to these statues in 1909.

Their militant behaviour

was then used as an

argument for why votes for women

would be "exceedingly dangerous".

Hidden beneath those corridors

of power, there is an intriguing

memorial to the

suffragette movement.

In 1911, thousands of women

tried to avoid being

registered in the census.

Emily Davidson said:

"If women

don't count, then neither

shall we be counted."

Emily Davidson spent

the night hiding behind this

door in a broom cupboard

underneath Westminster Hall.

She was discovered in here,

so she was registered in

the census as being resident

in the House of Commons.

COMMENTARY: A woman runs out.

There is a fall.

Davidson did not live long enough

to see women win the vote.

She died in 1913, after running

into the path of the King's

horse at the Epsom Derby.

But she may not have

intended to kill herself.

This is the actual scarf

Emily Davidson had with her that

fateful day at the Derby.

And it is thought now

it might have been her

intention to try and attach it

to the bridle of the King's horse,

rather than to actually

bring the horse down.

The scarf is owned today

by a collector, who let me see a

telegram she has never

shown publicly before -

sent from Queen Alexandra

to the injured jockey.

It says: "Queen Alexandra

was very sorry indeed to

hear of your sad accident caused

by the abominable conduct of a

brutal, lunatic woman."

This is really strong language -

a brutal, lunatic woman?

Well, people had mixed

feelings about the

militant suffragettes.

Half of them thought

they were crazy, and half often

thought that was the only way, by

destroying property, that they would

actually achieve the vote.

As MPs, women continued

campaigning for equal rights.

Edith Summerskill, on the left,

was first elected in 1938.

And

Her daughter, Shirley, followed her

into the Commons in 1964.

Women who got to anywhere

in their career are

very conscious, and should be,

of the women who went before

and paved the way

and made it possible.

That includes Saffron Dickson,

20 years old, who, because she

lives in Scotland, has

already voted six times -

thanks to the suffragettes,

who fought for her rights.

Hopefully I like to think

I would have been on the front line,

you know, totally involved.

But that's coming from a privileged

perspective of somebody who a

political voice just now,

because of the women that made

those sacrifices.

But actually we've got so many

different issues still

happening in the workplace -

sexual assault, sexual

harassment and pay parity -

that are still

affecting women today.

100 years of remarkable change

since women got the vote.

But any suffragettes surveying

the political scene today would

undoubtedly see much that

still needs to be done.

Sarah Smith, BBC News.