19/03/2018 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at Ten:

A big step on the road to Brexit,

as broad agreement is reached

on the UK's transition period.

Relief after a weekend

of intensive talks

as Britain sees opportunities ahead,

but the EU warns of major

issues yet to be resolved.

The deal we struck today,

on top of that agreed in December,

should give us confidence that

a good deal for the United Kingdom

and the European Union

is closer than ever before.

TRANSLATION:

A decisive step

remains a decisive step.

But we're not at

the end of the road.

No one in Westminster Bridge tends

this is the end, but in government

tonight, sighs of relief that the

Brexit talks have cleared this

hurdle.

We'll have more reaction.

We'll consider the unresolved

question of the Irish

border and the dismay

in Britain's fishing industry.

Also tonight:

Investigators widen their search

in the spy poisoning case,

as international chemical weapons

experts arrive in the UK.

The minicab service, Uber,

suspends all tests of self-driving

cars after a woman in Arizona

is killed in a collision.

Doctors take a major step

towards curing macular degeneration,

the most common form

of blindness in the UK.

And, following a suspected

drink-driving crash,

the ITV presenter, Ant McPartlin,

goes back into treatment and steps

down from his television work.

Coming up on sports day on BBC News,

Britain's Winter Paralympian 's have

returned home having reached their

pregames target of seven medals.

Good evening.

Britain and the European Union

have reached broad agreement

on a transition period after Brexit.

But there are still important

issues to be resolved.

In today's documents,

highlighted in green

is what's been agreed.

In yellow,

what's close to agreement.

And in white, the parts

still being negotiated.

Agreed so far is that

EU citizens arriving in the UK

before December 2020

will have the same rights

as those here now,

as will British citizens living

in the EU.

And the UK will be able

to negotiate new trade deals

during that transition period.

But not agreed is the key

issue of the border

between Northern Ireland

and the Republic,

as our Europe editor

Katya Adler reports.

In the quest to resolve

relations after Brexit,

today was a big moment

between the EU and UK.

A historic handshake to seal a deal,

not a final Brexit deal,

but the long-awaited agreement

on transition to ease

the UK from leaving the EU

to life on the outside.

The EU and UK's chief Brexit

negotiators were visibly relieved.

They'd been under big pressure

from business on both

sides of the Channel.

Businesses need not delay

investment decisions or rushed

through contingency plans based

on guesses about the future deal.

Instead, they now have certainty

about the terms that will apply

immediately after our withdrawal.

Certainty? Not quite.

An oft repeated phrase

in these Brexit negotiations is...

Nothing is agreed

until everything is agreed.

The transition deal is part

and parcel of the UK's complex wider

withdrawal agreement from the EU

as these slides show.

Areas highlighted in green

indicate where hard-fought

agreement has been reached.

But some of the most controversial

issues remain unresolved.

So, when it comes to the transition

deal, what exactly has been agreed?

It will be time limited,

lasting 21 months after Brexit day.

During that time, the UK will

continue to pay into the EU budget,

and will keep full access

to the European single

market and Customs union.

The UK will have to follow all EU

regulations, and though

it may voice concerns,

it will no longer be

at the decision-making table.

The UK will be allowed

to sign new trade deals,

but can't implement them

until the transition period is over.

What has not yet been

agreed is what happens

in Ireland after Brexit,

how to avoid a hard border

between Northern Ireland

and the Irish Republic.

This issue could bring

the whole Brexit deal,

including transition, tumbling down.

The UK hopes an ambitious EU and UK

trade deal will solve the problem.

But just in case, Ireland

and the rest of the EU insist

on a backstop agreement

where Northern Ireland stays

in the customs union

and parts of the single market.

Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister was

in Brussels today to press his case.

What Ireland has always asked

for was that we would essentially

have an insurance mechanism,

so that I and others can say

to people in Northern Ireland

and in Ireland, look,

we are not to have any border

infrastructure on this island again.

So, a lot done, but more to do

for the EU's Brexit chief.

Good news today?

As you see, spring has sprung

with the floor spreading even

to these often frosty

Brexit negotiations.

Progress on transition

today was hailed in there

as a big step forward,

but it's not all good

news for the government.

It's clear now, there won't be

a final trade deal between the EU

and UK at the end of

these Brexit talks.

The transition will be used

to hammer out more details.

And to get this far,

the UK has had to make some

pretty big concessions.

Like fishing.

Far from taking back

control after Brexit

as promised by the Gottman,

EU quotas will continue

during the transition period,

allowing EU countries to fish

in UK waters.

-- by the government.

But it's not all over yet.

EU leaders still need to sign off

on the transition deal.

They're expected to do that

at a summit here later this week.

Katya Adler BBC News, Brussels.

The Brexit secretary, David Davis,

said agreement on the transitional

arrangements would mean that British

business could now invest

with confidence and that the UK

would be free to negotiate

new trade deals.

Business groups have given

the agreement a broad welcome

but many have called for further

details on what the UK's

relationship with the EU will look

like, once the transitional period

ends, as our business editor

Simon Jack explains.

For businesses both big and small,

today's news was just

what the doctor ordered.

Although not a cure-all for business

anxiety as we head out

of the European Union,

it was welcomed today by the boss

of Glaxo Smith Kline

as a dose of common sense.

We certainly welcome this pragmatic

approach to transition.

It's absolutely critical to secure

the supply of medicines and vaccines

for the people here

and in Europe who need them.

But we're also looking

forward to more precision

on the details of the end state

of the relationship.

And in that end state,

if you like, what's the most

important thing for GSK?

That we get the security

of supply to the people that

need our medicines and our vaccines

is absolutely critical,

and the right kind of alignment

with the regulators.

Harmonising rules on drugs

between the UK and the EU

is critical to a company that

employs 16,000 people in the UK.

GSK is already spending £50 million

per year on its Brexit planning.

For business, this is a really

important, really welcome moment

in the whole Brexit process.

A little bit of breathing room to

prepare for life outside of the EU.

But as big businesses like banks

and pharmaceutical companies

are spending hundreds

of millions of pounds

on their contingency plans -

what could, what should,

and what are smaller businesses

doing to prepare?

Meet the boss of this

brewery in Suffolk.

And Charlie Adam,

who runs skateboard

company Shiner in Bristol.

For Charlie, exports

to the EU account for over

50% of his business.

Once outside the EU,

he fears customs paperwork

could cost him £25,000 per week.

He is glad of the extra

preparation time, but is still

worried about the future.

The transitional deal really helps

with us extending the time to be

able to set everything

up for Brexit.

The reality is, we still have

to deal with Brexit, and we don't

know what the final solution

is going to be, partly

because we don't know

what all of the problems are.

He also employs workers from the EU.

Any more that he hires

before the end of 2020

will definitely be allowed to stay.

Meanwhile, at the brewery,

Steve thinks transition is useful,

and gives him time to plan

for business beyond the EU.

I think it's a helpful

thing for us to have,

because it buys us a bit

of stability for a period of time

to work out what we need to do.

It also gives us the opportunity

to explore markets further

which are outside of the EU.

I think the whole business

is optimistic, because actually

we've got good products,

we've got some interesting

products, and actually

the world's there to be taken.

There are major

sticking points ahead.

Big questions remain unanswered.

But as the gruelling process

of Brexit rumbles on,

now the key milestone has been met.

And, for now, businesses

will drink to that.

Simon Jack, BBC News.

Let's speak to our political

editor Laura Kuenssberg,

who's at Westminster.

What's the level of compromise?

There certainly have been

compromises, whether you find it an

unacceptable climb-down, whether you

find them sensible concessions, or

inevitable compromises, it probably

depends on what you felt about

Brexit when you went to the polls

back in 2016. But there certainly

has been a lot of budging, a little

bit on the Brussels side.

Significant amounts in Westminster

over the recent months, but two

things are true. First off, looking

at what has been agreed today, the

fact that people who wanted to leave

the EU will have to wait two years

after Brexit day for there to be any

significant changes to immigration,

for the fact that some Tory MPs

furious tonight about what they see

as a compromise too far when it

comes to fishing rights. It is the

case that today feels different to

what was promised back in the days

of the referendum. But what is also

true is for the government these

compromises are worth it. In order

to get this deal moved onto next

phase, they work desperately keen in

recent months to get the transition

signed off, and they were clear,

having listened to businesses around

the country, they didn't want Brexit

next year to come as a sudden shock

to the system. Certainly, there have

been compromises, and certainly,

there will be probably many more on

the roads to this. But tonight, the

government believes they have

achieved a decisive step.

An international team

of chemical weapons experts has

arrived in Salisbury

to examine the nerve

agent used to poison

the former Russian spy,

Sergei Skripal, and

his daughter, Yulia.

The BBC understands

British investigators have

broadened their search to include

a car that Yulia Skripal

is believed to have travelled

in as our diplomatic correspondent

James Landale reports.

The focus today shifted

to the village of Durrington,

ten miles north of Salisbury,

where investigators removed a car

that was used to pick up

Yulia Skripal from the airport

the day before she and her father

Sergei were attacked

with a nerve agent.

Nearby, at the military research

complex at Porton Down,

inspectors from the global chemical

weapons watchdog, the OPCW,

were due to start analysing

the nerve agent that British experts

believe came from Russia.

In Brussels, the Foreign Secretary

and to brief EU counterparts,

saying Russian denials

were increasingly absurd.

This is a classic Russian strategy

of trying to conceal the needle

of truth in a haystack

of lies and obfuscation.

There is scarcely a country

round the table here in Brussels

that has not been affected in recent

years by some kind of malign

or disruptive Russian behaviour.

EU foreign ministers

issued a statement expressing

their unqualified solidarity

with the UK, and taking

its assessment that Russia

was to blame extremely seriously.

The EU and Nato speaking as one.

What is absolutely clear is our full

solidarity with the United Kingdom,

and our extreme concern

about what has happened.

It is really unacceptable.

All 29 Nato allies stand united.

We stand in solidarity

with the United Kingdom.

And the UK is not alone.

But in Moscow, as President Putin

began his fourth term,

the defiance continued.

His Foreign Ministry

dismissing the EU statement

as an anti-Russian reflex.

As for Russia's diplomats in London,

well, some of these officials

and their families will be heading

home tomorrow, 23 in all.

With a similar number of British

diplomats leaving Moscow shortly.

Tomorrow, the National Security

Council will meet to decide

Britain's next step.

There is a live debate

within government, should

they retaliate and escalate,

or simply do nothing?

Should they kick yet more Russian

diplomats out of the Embassy here,

or should they find new ways

of penalising Russia?

The risk for Britain is that

a bilateral confrontation

with Russia might overshadow

attempts to maintain

international pressure.

Back in Salisbury, the police

tonight revealed the full scale

of the investigation,

with 250 counterterrorism officers

examining 4,000 hours of CCTV, 800

exhibits and 400 witness statements.

Detectives said this

could last many months.

James Landale, BBC News.

One of the biggest inquiries

into the alleged abuse of teenage

recruits in the British

Army has collapsed

after a judge stopped the first

of three court martials.

It had been alleged

that 16 instructors,

all sergeants or corporals,

mistreated 28 school leavers

at the Army Foundation College

in Harrogate in North Yorkshire.

But the judge said a 3-year

investigation by the Royal Military

Police had been seriously flawed.

Uber, the minicab service,

has suspended all tests

of self-driving cars,

after a woman in Arizona

was killed in a collision.

At the time of the accident,

the vehicle was running

in autonomous mode,

with an 'operator' at the wheel.

Uber described what happened

as 'incredibly sad',

and said it was 'fully co-operating'

with local authorities.

Our technology correspondent

Dave Lee reports from San Francisco.

It was late Sunday night when,

according to police,

Elaine Herzberg was struck

by Uber's self-driving car.

The 49-year-old was crossing

the road, but not using

the pedestrian zone.

There was a driver behind the wheel,

but Uber said the vehicle

was in full autonomous mode,

meaning it was handling

all aspects of the driving.

Miss Herzberg was taken to hospital,

but died from her injuries.

Taking to Twitter,

Uber's Chief Executive,

Dara Khosrowshahi, said the news

from Arizona was "incredibly sad".

Adding...

As part of its licensing agreement,

Uber must keep detailed logs in case

of an incident like this.

Although Miss Herzberg is the first

pedestrian to be killed

by an autonomous vehicle,

her death comes one year

after Uber temporarily

took its self-driving cars off

the road following an accident

that left a Volvo SUV

on its side in Arizona.

The programme was later reinstated.

There are so many motor vehicle

deaths in the United States,

and generally every year.

And the ultimate goal

of self-driving cars

is to eliminate those entirely.

But these are complex systems that

are just sort of starting

to navigate the roads.

Arizona has positioned

itself as a testing ground

for this new technology.

But incidents like this will no

doubt concerned those who do not

believe these systems are yet safe

enough to be on our roads.

Experts in this technology will tell

you that the bigger picture is that

this technology is making our roads

safer and has the potential to

greatly reduce the number of

accidents, but that will be little

comfort to the family of a woman who

was essentially killed by a computer

that perhaps was not working in the

way it was designed.

Thank you. Our

technology correspondent there in

San Francisco.

Doctors have restored the sight

of two patients with the most common

form of blindness in the UK.

More than 600,000 people in the UK

suffer from age-related macular

degeneration and doctors hope

the treatment could be widely

available within a few years.

The team at Moorfields Eye Hospital

in London used surgery to insert

stem cells at the back of the eye.

Our medical correspondent

Fergus Walsh has the story.

I will occlude now the left-eyed...

Before his pioneering

stem cell treatment,

Douglas Waters was completely blind

in his right eye.

Now he can see.

"Everyone wanted to go outside

when the rain finally stopped."

That's perfect.

So this is an amazing

improvement, Mr Waters.

I just couldn't believe it.

Each morning, I picked things out

in the bedroom to look at

out in the garden.

I'd do this...

It's unbelievable.

I'm completely chuffed,

I suppose you could say!

And so is his surgeon.

Two patients with age-related

macular degeneration had the sight

restorming treatment

at Moorfields Eye

Hospital in London.

We're able to show that we've taken

someone who could not read at all,

they couldn't, in fact,

see the book they were reading from,

and taken them to reading around 60

to 80 words per minute

with their normal reading glasses.

For us, this is

a fantastic breakthrough.

And it could help other

patients with age-related

macular degeneration,

who can lose all

their central vision.

So what causes AMD?

So if we open the eye,

the macula is at the back.

It's the part of the retina

responsible for central vision.

If we pull out a section,

here are the light-sensitive cells,

the rods and cones.

AMD is triggered when a crucial

layer of support cells,

seen here in green, die.

As a result, patients gradually lose

the validity to read

or to recognise faces.

Scientists use stem cells

from a human embryo and turn them

into the support cells needed.

They were put onto a tiny patch

like this, which was placed

at the back of Douglas's eye.

You can see it here.

The stem cells were

paired his vision.

The stem cells repaired his vision.

Regenerative medicine's goal

was to restore a person's help.

I think this is one of the first

indications from generative medicine

that that can be achieved.

It can stop people from going blind.

Douglas, who is 86, says the stem

cell therapy has given him

renewed independence.

Moorfields says it should be no more

expensive than other AMD treatments,

and potentially could help

save the sight of

thousands of patients.

Fergus Walsh, BBC News.

The UK's Information Commissioner

Elizabeth Denham says

she will seek a warrant to look

at the databases and servers used

by the data mining company

Cambridge Analytica.

A former employee at the firm claims

they were handed the personal

data of 50 million Facebook users

which was then used to influence

the 2016 US Presidential election.

Facebook's shares finished nearly

seven percent down after a turbulent

day on the New York stock exchange.

Both Cambridge Analytica

and Facebook deny any wrongdoing.

The ITV presenter, Ant McPartlin,

says he will seek further treatment

after he was arrested on suspicion

of drink driving.

He was detained yesterday afternoon

following a collision involving

three cars in south west London.

ITV says his Saturday night

programme with partner

Declan Donnelly will not be

broadcast this weekend,

as our entertainment correspondent

Lizo Mzimba reports.

Moments after the Mini

he was driving was involved

in a collision with two

other cars, Ant McPartlin

at the scene of the crash.

When police arrived,

he was taken away under arrest

after failing a breath test.

A number of people were treated

for minor injuries, and a child

passenger in one car taken

to hospital for a

precautionary checkup.

I think it's time

for me to say hello...

The evening before, Ant McPartlin

had been presenting ITV's

Saturday Night Takeaway.

He returned to television last year

after going into rehab to treat an

addiction to alcohol and

prescription painkillers.

This afternoon,

the broadcaster said:

"ITV have taken a joint

session with Ant

and Dec's team not to broadcast

Saturday Night Takeaway

this weekend.

We will be reviewing options for the

last two episodes of the series

which would not feature Ant who is

taking time off to seek treatment.

Over more than 20 years.

Ant, together with Dec,

has become one of

TV's most successful presenters.

The pair have won dozens

of awards and earned

millions, thanks to their

popularity with viewers.

ITV said they hoped the presenter

would get the help he needs.

The police say enquiries

into the collision are continuing.

It is not just about a pretty big

hole in ITV's Saturday night

schedule, from Britain's got talent

through to I'm a celebrity, so much

of ITV's prime time entertainment is

built on the popularity of the

double act. Over the coming days and

weeks at ITV, they will be assessing

exactly what the long-term

probabilities will be for Ant's

long-term future. Thank you for the

update.

President Trump has

outlined plans to combat

America's opioid epidemic,

including introducing the death

penalty for drug dealers

in certain circumstances.

Over-prescription of

opioid painkillers,

such as morphine and codeine,

has created a nationwide

addiction crisis with

patients turning to heroin

and other street drugs

when their prescriptions stop.

Our North America editor

Jon Sopel reports.

During the election campaign,

Donald Trump called New Hampshire

a drug-infested den.

Today, he has gone back

to the Granite State

to show his rock solid determination

to deal with America's appalling

opioid crisis and by using the most

Draconian measures possible.

If we do not get tough on the drug

dealers, we're wasting our time.

Remember that, we are wasting our

time. That toughness includes the

death penalty.

APPLAUSE.

But it is not just about

the criminal justice system.

He wants opioid prescriptions cut

by a third and the drugs companies

held more accountable.

This crisis is hitting every

community, rich and poor, black and

white, young and old, urban and

rural. The biggest cause of death is

drug overdose amongst the under 50s

in America. And two thirds of those

deaths are caused by opioid abuse.

That is $110 right there.

America for decades has had

a war on drugs and, yes,

it has resulted in hundreds

of thousands of mainly black

and Latinos men being incarcerated,

but it has had zero success

in reducing dependency

or use of illegal drugs

or prescription drugs.

Thank you, please be seated.

This court in Buffalo,

New York State, looks unremarkable,

but has become the first in America

to deal with only one type

of case, opioid addiction.

I will release you today and I need

you to report here tomorrow...

The judge, himself once an addict,

is determined to rethink the way

America handles opioid abuse.

I think we made a tremendous mistake

in the 1960s and 70s and 80s and 90s

of locking people up and we are not

going to make that same mistake now,

because we have the research and

data to show that you cannot lock up

an addiction.

Carly Mayor had to be

resuscitated three times

in one week at the height

of her addiction to opioids.

When someone cares about you, what

your problems are, how we can help

you, it remind you that deep inside

there is a person, that needs and

deserves love.

Much has been made of how polarised

politics has become in the US.

On this, though, there is broad

agreement that simply locking

people up is not enough,

but finding the correct

policy prescription,

to deal with the abuse

of prescription drugs

is proving elusive.

Jon Sopel, BBC News, Washington.

It's three years since the start

of the war in Yemen.

Houthi rebels, supported by Iran

remain in control of large

parts of the country,

including the capital Sana'a.

Opposing them are forces loyal

to the former president,

who are being backed

by an Arab Coalition,

led by the Saudis supported

by western powers including the UK.

The BBC's chief international

correspondent Lyse Doucet has been

to Yemen to meet some

of the children affected

by the conflict.

Her report starts in the government

controlled town of Marib.

We travelled into Yemen

with the Saudis.

They wanted us to see the suffering

being inflicted by their enemy.

They took us to meet these boys,

robbed of their childhood,

forced to fight alongside grown men.

Children in Yemen are

recruited by all sides,

but especially the Houthis.

Pasha was 13 when his best friend

was shot dead in front of him.

So many children so young have been

dragged into this destructive war.

But even in war, there are rules.

And in Yemen, they're being broken

time and again by all sides.

These children live in Sana,

the capital controlled by Houthis.

Their families sought refuge

here after their home

was bombed by the Saudis.

Coalition air strikes have

reportedly caused the greatest

number of child casualties.

Six-year-old Lamees

wants them to stop.

There was no place to

hide for Yaya's family.

Five children killed,

only 17-year-old Yaya

and a brother left.

Back in government-held Marib,

these men will always live

with the cost of this conflict.

So often, it's the youngest

to lose the most.

These little boys are being fitted

with prosthetics at this

Saudi funded clinic.

11-year-old Abdullah mistook

a landmine for a toy.

Nine-year-old Ali Youssef

wants to be a goalkeeper

when he grows up, believing this

point hold him back.

when he grows up, believing this

won't hold him back.

Yemen's conflict has

had a crippling effect

on all its people.

The youngest growing up

knowing nothing but war.

Lyse Doucet, BBC News, Yemen.

Britain's Paralympic

team arrived home today

after their most successful winter

games.

Menna Fitzpatrick and her guide

Jen Kehoe became Britain's most

decorated winter Paralympians

with 1 gold, 2 silver

and a bronze in South Korea.

Our sports correspondent

Andy Swiss reports.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE.

They left as hopefuls, they have

returned as history makers.

Jen Kehoe, Menna Fitzpatrick,

plus extra luggage.

Four medals including the best

they saved until last.

Fitzpatrick, who has

less than 5% vision,

following her guide to gold

in the slalom, now Britain's

most decorated winter

Paralympians, they told me

it is barely sinking in.

It means everything to me.

I have always had a dream

since I was little,

to come away with a medal

in the Paralympic games.

And 2018 was always that goal,

ever since I first started.

So, I am immensely

proud to have done it.

Hopefully it will inspire others

to go out there and do the same

and get out and try something,

you never know where

it is going to lead.

This is a simulation

of what Fitzpatrick sees

when she is skiing.

Following her guide's bright orange

bib at up to 70 miles an hour.

For her parents, who first

took her skiing when she was five,

how things have changed.

She used to follow me

down the slope, wearing

a bright orange coat.

She described it as following

an orange blob down the slope.

She used to shout at me to wait

for her and now I am having to shout

to her to wait for me.

We are as proud as punch, aren't we,

we are proud as punch.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

We haven't stopped smiling all week!

And the pair are already

targeting the next games.

For now, though, they say they will

celebrate with a cup of tea.

Andy Swiss, BBC News, Heathrow.

Newsnight's about to begin over

on BBC Two in a few moments.