21/03/2018 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at Ten: Another plunge

in relations between Britain

and Russia, as Boris Johnson

compares President Putin

to Adolf Hitler.

In Moscow, foreign diplomats

are summoned to hear an official

denial of any involvement

in the chemical attack

which happened in Salisbury.

During the day, as inspectors

continued their investigation

in the Salisbury area,

the Foreign Secretary suggested that

Russia would use the forthcoming

World Cup like Adolf Hitler had used

the Olympics in 1936.

What is going to happen in Moscow,

in the World Cup, in all the venues,

yes, I think the comparison

with 1936 is certainly right.

We'll have reaction from Moscow

and from Washington,

where President Trump has

congratulated Mr Putin

on his re-election.

Also tonight:

More than a million NHS workers

in England are set to get pay

rises worth at least 6.5%

over three years.

It's nice for us to be recognised

for all that hard work.

But, obviously, it doesn't detract

away from the last few

years, where we actually

haven't had anything.

Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that

Facebook made mistakes

in mishandling data belonging

to some 50 million of its users.

A senior police officer says

the rise in people killed

and injured by knife crime should be

causing far more public concern.

And a family from Bristol

is set a challenge -

to see if they can live

without single-use

plastic for ten days.

Coming up on BBC News.

Fresh from his first tournament

victory in 18 months,

Rory McIlroy struggles in his first

match since at the World

Matchplay in Texas.

Good evening.

The tensions between Britain

and Russia have deepened

following Boris Johnson's latest

reflections on the chemical

attack in Salisbury,

when a former Russian spy

and his daughter were poisoned.

The Foreign Secretary -

answering questions

from a parliamentary committee -

drew parallels between

President Putin and Adolf Hitler,

and suggested that Mr Putin

would try to use the forthcoming

football World Cup in Russia in much

the same way that Adolf Hitler used

the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

Moscow said that Mr Johnson was

"poisoned with hatred and malice."

Our Moscow correspondent,

Steve Rosenberg, has more details.

It was an invitation

that some had refused.

REPORTER:

Ambassador, why

are you taking part in this meeting?

But these foreign diplomats had

accepted, to come and hear

Moscow's side of the story

on the nerve agent attack.

Britain sent a diplomat

to the Foreign Ministry,

but the British Ambassador stayed

away.

This is what he missed.

TRANSLATION:

The British authorities

are either unable to ensure

protection from such a terrorist

act on their territory

or they themselves,

directly or indirectly,

I'm not accusing anyone,

have directed this attack

against a Russian citizen.

Hello my name is Emma Nottingham,

I'm from the British Embassy.

Off camera, the British

diplomat hits back.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter

Yulia were poisoned with a military

grade Novichok nerve agent of a type

developed by Russia,

in what we see as an attempted

assassination attempt.

"What's going on in their

heads", he replies.

"Take a break from your Russophobia

and your island mentality."

ARCHIVE:

Berlin's great day

dawns with the arrival

of the Olympic Flame...

In Britain, a Labour MP suggested

that Vladimir Putin would use

the World Cup like Adolf Hitler had

used the 1936 Olympics -

to cover up, as he put it,

a brutal, corrupt regime.

The Foreign Secretary agreed.

I think the comparison with 1936

is certainly right and I think it's

an emetic prospect, frankly,

to think of Putin glorying

in this sporting event.

Tonight, Moscow reacted to

Boris Johnson's comments with fury.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said

the Foreign Secretary was "poisoned

with hatred and malice,

incompetence and loutishness."

Meanwhile, Russia's

propaganda machine tries

to discredit Sergei Skripal.

We witnessed this bizarre webcast,

where two convicted murderers

claimed to be ex-cellmates

of the former double agent.

On air they accused him of drug

addiction, even paedophilia.

But after the show, one of them

admits to me he saw nothing.

"It was just empty gossip."

The poisoning in Salisbury has

spawned an information war,

one Moscow is determined to win.

Steve Rosenberg, BBC News, Moscow.

In a moment we'll speak

to our North America editor,

Jon Sopel, but first

to our diplomatic

correspondent, James Landale,

at the Foreign Office.

James, what is your reading of

relations between London and Moscow

right now?

Well, Huw, in recent days

there have been Harare shall words

between Russian and British

politicians. Comparing Vladimir

Putin to Adolf Hitler probably tops

the list. To realise just how

incendiary the comparison is you

have to remember millions upon

millions of Russians died fighting

Adolf Hitler's Nazis. Now the

Foreign Office here has been keen to

keep this an international

confrontation, they have been

marshalling allies against what they

see as Russia's international

pattern of aggressive material. That

is why the British Government hasn't

retaliated against Russia's decision

to expel 23 British diplomats. They

want to keep it from being seen as

some kind of bilateral spat between

London and Moscow. The problem, is

Mr Johnson's remarks risk doing

exactly that. Tomorrow, when Theresa

May goes to Brussels, she will have

just a little bit more work to do to

reassure European allies who might

be feeling a bit fearful now of

getting caught up in an increasingly

diplomatic cross fire between London

and Moscow.

James many thanks, James

Landale at the Foreign Office for

us. Straight to Washington and Jon

Sopel is there. Jon, is it fair to

say the signals from The White House

towards Moscow are slightly conle

conning?

If I was allowed to scratch

my head on the Ten O'Clock News I

would. Frankly, it's bewildering the

mixed messages we are getting.

Donald Trump in the past couple

hoursals tweeted -- hours has

tweeted. Forget the fake news media

we know as a result of a leak from

The White House that his own

briefing document counselling

against congratulating Putin put

because there are questions marks

over whether it was a free and fair

election. Many Republicans are

furious with the President over

this. But then the President had a

conversation with Emmanuel Macron

today. This is the official readout

from the White House, "the President

reiterated their solidarity with the

United Kingdom in the wake of

Russia's use of chemical weapons

against private citizens on British

soil and agreed on the need to take

action to hold Russia accountable."

One interpretation is that you have

Donald Trump looking both ways in

regard to Russia policy. The other

way of looking at it is that he's

not critical of Vladimir Putin at

all.

Jon, many thanks again. Jon

Sopel, our North America editor

there in Washington.

More than a million NHS workers

in England can expect pay rises

if they agree to a deal agreed

between most trades unions

and the Government.

The past five years have seen a pay

cap and a pay freeze.

The deal would see wages increase

between 6.5% and 29% over the next

three years with the exception

of doctors, dentists

and senior leaders.

The biggest rises would go to those

on the lowest end of the scale -

cleaners, porters and catering staff

- who will see an immediate

£2,000 added to their pay

packets this year.

The salary increases are expected

to cost around £4 billion,

but won't come out of the NHS

budget, they will come

from Treasury funds.

Our political editor,

Laura Kuenssberg, has more details.

Porters, paramedics, nurses,

who care for millions of patients.

The staff who keep the NHS going are

finally to have a bigger pay rise.

It's nice for us to be recognised

for all that hard work.

But obviously, it doesn't detract

away from the last few

years, where we actually

haven't had anything.

Most of us live on a strict budget.

That can ease off a bit

and the future will look

better and brighter.

I have two young children,

so having this pay rise will help

out even more with childcare,

things like that.

I'll be able to do more things.

Scrap the cap!

Scrap the cap!

For five years, there have been

calls to do just that.

Aside from some automatic rises,

the limit on public-sector

pay increases, of 1%,

meant wages fell behind.

THE SPEAKER:

The Secretary of State

for Health and Social Care,

Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

And the election left the Tories

in no doubt about the irritation.

So...

Today's agreement on a new pay deal

reflects public appreciation

for just how much they have done

and continue to do.

Rarely has a pay raise been

so well-deserved for NHS staff,

who have never worked harder.

When a nurse pleaded

with the Prime Minister for a pay

rise on national television,

she was told there was

no magic money tree.

So, can he tell us how this pay

rise will be paid for?

Has the Prime Minister's

horticultural skills grown

said magic money tree?

Taxpayers' money for the rises

will come from the Treasury to start

with, not out of existing health

budgets, so the big

unions are on board.

It's not solved the problems,

it's a start, and we would expect it

to be the start of a new process

that recognises the hard work

of our nurses and our people

who work in our health service,

that recognises the value

and that we value those

people for what we do.

But staff still have

to approve the deal.

And with inflation, it might not

make up the difference.

I think the devil is in the detail,

and our members that met

yesterday were absolutely

going through the details

and couldn't see how this

was going to claw back years

of pay cuts.

Perhaps for NHS staff in England,

these rises can't come fast enough.

Remember, limits on pay have been

in place for years -

part of the Conservatives' efforts

to balance the nation's books.

But public money

will still be tight.

This is an easing of

a squeeze, not the end.

Scotland and Wales are likely

to follow the Westminster move,

and it adds volume to calls

for rises in other parts

of the public sector.

Money round here's still tight,

but the cap no longer fits.

Laura Kuenssberg, BBC

News, Westminster.

Facebook has admitted making

mistakes in midhandling data

belonging to some 50 million

of its users.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg,

in his first response

to the controversy over the use

of data, has promised tougher steps

to prevent what he called "bad

actors" from getting access

to people's private information.

Facebook, the world's biggest

social media network,

is facing growing pressure in Europe

and the United States

about allegations that a British

firm, Cambridge Analytica,

accessed users' information

for political purposes,

notably to help Donald Trump's

presidential campaign.

Our business editor,

Simon Jack, has the latest.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

broke his silence tonight

on a scandal that has engulfed

the social media giant.

In a Facebook post, he said

the company had a responsibility

to protect your data and admitted

the company had made mistakes.

He described how a British academic

had invented an app inviting

Facebook users to do

a personality test.

300,000 people downloaded it,

it collected personal

information on them and also

all of their Facebook friends,

harvesting data on 50 million users.

That data was obtained

by a British consultancy,

Cambridge Analytica,

in 2014 - a move Zuckerberg

described tonight as "a breach

of trust" - and it was later

allegedly used in the Trump

election campaign.

A campaign the company's executive

took a lot of credit

for when secretly filmed,

an apparent shock to

the original app designer.

Never in our wildest dreams did

we think anything we did would be

used in the Donald Trump campaign.

This is 2014, well before anybody

would think Mr Trump would be

a serious candidate.

So, at the time, like, I didn't know

who their clients were going to be,

I didn't really know

the specific use case.

I did know it was going to be used

for political purposes,

but beyond that, you know,

it was well above my pay grade.

Should have asked!

Could this small consultancy

really have altered

the course of US history?

Unlikely, says a man who worked

on Barack Obama's 2008 election.

Data can be misused to increase

divisions and stoke fears

as they themselves have said,

and that is why it needs to be

regulated more carefully,

and ethical behaviour needs

to be enforced.

But elections are decided by a whole

range of factors and I think

Cambridge Analytica over

claimed their impact.

Zuckerberg says Facebook

will conduct a full audit of apps

with suspicious activity,

ban apps that break the rules

or refuse to be audited and make it

harder for developers to access data

in the future.

Perhaps the biggest change

will be our awareness of what we're

agreeing to when we hit "I agree."

The conversation we should be having

is, what happens to our data?

How much are we

comfortable to share?

Who are we comfortable

to share it with?

And what do we think

about how that's done?

So this feels like it's been

a real light bulb moment,

where people are understanding that

it's not just clicking "like"

on Facebook, what you are doing

there is giving data away.

Facebook's value has fallen

by $50 billion since Monday,

and today's announcement didn't

see that reverse.

Evidence, perhaps, of lasting

damage on Facebook's brand

and its users' trust.

Simon Jack, BBC News.

In a moment, we'll be speaking

to our economics editor,

Kamal Ahmed, who's in Brussels

to talk about the tax that big

technology companies pay.

But first our media editor,

Amol Rajan, is at Facebook

headquarters in California.

What do you make of the response we

got from Facebook this evening?

It

was long overdue. In fairness to

Mark Zuckerberg, his reputation has

taken a hammering over the last few

days when he remained silent. I have

been tough on him. Today he

announced substantial changes like

the restriction on data for apt

development and the fact it will be

easier for users to work out what

data will be vulnerable. Those are

significant changes. I spoke to

Chris Cox, the chief product officer

he said he was clear there had been

a big breach of trust. What Mark

Zuckerberg said in his blog post had

three audiences. There was a staff

audience, they look to Mark

Zuckerberg as a deity and they are

reassured. Over the Atlantic,

questions are any beginning to be

answered. Then there is the public.

The public at large feel that the

reputation of Facebook for safety

with personal data has taken a

hammering and it will take more than

a blog post to fix that.

Let's go now to Brussels. On the

theme of these big companies under

pressure, there is another dimension

to this tonight.

Absolutely.

Controversy is for big, digital,

global giants like Facebook and

Google are not just about data, the

other big issue is tax. Today the

European Commission here in Brussels

announced really radical plans to

make these big, digital companies

that operate around the world and

here in Europe, of course, pay more

tax. They want them to pay tax the

amount of users they have, the

amount of revenues they gain. The

claim is, under these proposals,

they could be paid up to £4 billion

more tax across Europe and a chunk

of that could come to Britain.

Traditional businesses effective tax

rate is about 23% with digital

businesses effective tax rate is

9.5%. That is the issue the European

Commission wants to solve. Will it

happen? The commission I spoke to

today said he wanted agreement by

the end of the year and the UK will

be ably participant. The Treasury

has said it wants to go down this

route. This is the big test. On data

we have heard what governments and

regulators want and contacts we have

heard what governments and

regulators want to do. The question

now, by the end of the year, will

anything really of substance change?

Many thanks.

A brief look at some

of the day's other news stories.

More than 30 people have been killed

in a suicide bomb attack

in the Afghan capital,

Kabul.

At least 65 others were injured.

The blast happened as crowds

were leaving a shrine.

A man charged with a series

of bombings in Austin,

Texas has died after blowing

himself up in his car

following a police chase.

He's been named as

23-year-old Mark Conditt.

Two people were killed in six parcel

bomb attacks during the past month.

More than 100 Nigerian schoolgirls

abducted by Islamist

militants last month in the town

of Dapchi have been freed.

Five girls are said to have died

in captivity and another,

the only Christian in the group,

has not been released.

The Government denies paying

Boko Haram a ransom.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has

told an inquiry into child abuse

that he is ashamed of the Church

of England's handling of the issue.

Justin Welby said listening

to three weeks of evidence

about abuse in the Church had

left him horrified.

The inquiry is looking

at abuse that took place

in the diocese of Chichester.

A senior police officer has told BBC

News that the rise in people killed

and injured by knife crime should be

causing far more public concern.

He says that because many

victims are black,

not enough is being done

to prevent it.

This year, there have been 26 fatal

stabbings in London.

The BBC has also seen new figures

from the NHS showing a significant

increase in those being treated

in hospital for stabbing injuries.

Our special correspondent

Lucy Manning has the story.

Seven days, six murders,

all by knives.

Police in East London

investigate another last night.

Knives now being used too

often, killing too many.

Just a few miles away,

this bedroom was full of life,

but that life is gone.

They are parents who lost

their son last month.

Now it's empty.

Nothing is here.

He died for nothing.

When I come into this room,

Hasan's smell comes in my nose.

Everywhere, it has that smell.

Hasan's mother, Amina,

can now only stroke his picture.

Everyone is lost too much, Hasan.

A lot of people loved him.

He was handsome.

He was very honest.

And he was 19 years old.

He had a plan for the future.

Hasan was a student,

studying Criminology,

when he was stabbed.

It's two minutes that

changed Hasan's life,

my life, my family's life.

Police!

Stay where you are!

Police!

5am, West London, police

burst through the doors.

Officers are stepping up trying

to stop knives being used,

but admit they haven't been able

to stop knife crime rising.

Knuckle-dusters and drugs

are removed from the house

and a sword is recovered.

There has been a significant

increase of knife crime and that's

what we are tackling and have been

tackling over the last year or so.

So it's gone up, and I think we

should all be concerned about that.

26 people murdered by knives

in London so far this year,

including six teenagers,

prompting this frank admission.

I do fear sometimes that

because the majority of those that

are injured or killed are coming

from certain communities -

and very often, the black

communities in London -

it doesn't get the sense

of collective outrage that it ought

to do and really get everyone

to a place where we all are doing

everything we can to prevent

this from happening.

The BBC's obtained the latest

provisional NHS figures for England,

showing more than 4,000 stabbing

victims treated in the ten months

until the end of January this year.

That's 520 more people and a 14%

increase on the same

period the year before.

London hospitals like Barts,

Imperial and King's College

treated the most.

213 were treated in Birmingham, 181

in Manchester and 133 in Liverpool.

What would you like to see

the police and the Government doing

to stop so much knife crime?

They're not doing good enough.

This is a serious problem, honestly.

There's a lot of people that

are dying that's 17 years old,

18 years old, 20 years old.

They're dying for nothing.

After the stabbings,

the flowers, but they don't

last, and everyone -

but the families - move on.

I don't want anyone

else hurt any more.

I don't want...

any mothers and fathers

crying any more.

Lucy Manning, BBC News.

It is six months since Hurricane

Maria devastated Puerto Rico. Aid

agencies say life for many of the

residents remains a day-to-day

struggle. Many of them I get to have

their electricity reconnected. Our

correspondent reports from the

central town for that there is

resentment towards the US government

for what is seen by many Puerto Rico

Ricans as a lack of urgency to the

response.

Imagine having to depend on a

generator to keep your mother alive.

That's the way Carmen has been

living for six months.

She, like so many here,

all American citizens, has

had no electricity

since Hurricane Maria.

Every time the generator fails,

her mother's respirator shuts down.

TRANSLATION:

I've been

crying all the time.

I thought my mother would die

because I couldn't help her.

It's horrible.

Me and her are struggling so much

to fight this situation.

It was the most devastating

hurricane to hit Puerto

Rico in living memory,

plunging more than 3 million

people into darkness,

and into a humanitarian crisis.

Maria obliterated infrastructure

right across this island.

People are crossing

a river in the way they

have not done for years

here because the bridge

was totally destroyed.

For so many people,

in so many ways across

Puerto Rico, life has been set

back decades.

This bridge is being rebuilt.

But the pace of recovery

across what is an American territory

has been painfully slow.

Puerto Ricans expected far

more help from the US.

And it's hard not to wonder,

if this school had

been in Texas or Florida,

whether the children would have gone

this long without electricity.

Unable to use computers

as they used to, often

in unwashed uniforms, and unable

to work at home after dark.

This teacher, Maria Isabel Santana,

told us she was upset by the impact

it was having on her students,

saying there were already months

behind in their learning.

But the misery is not

just about power.

There was so much damage

done to homes as well.

Many though have been given

little more than blue

tarpaulin to repair them.

So many who can have

just left the island,

scrawling their contact details

on the buildings they abandoned.

Evelyn Cruz knows

more than anyone the

psychological impact

of staying here.

Her brother, Julio,

took his life just last month.

She says it's because

he was overwhelmed by

the conditions since the hurricane.

TRANSLATION:

All the disasters

in real life, it affected him.

Seeing so much need.

-- Maria left.

Knowing all the bad news.

Being without electricity.

Seeing all the desolation

and all the people leaving.

It affected him mentally.

And there has been a massive spike

in Puerto Ricans attempting

suicide since the storm.

In many ways, people here can accept

the devastation of a force of

nature like Hurricane Maria much

more than they can understand

the suffering they are

still going through now.

Aleem Maqbool, BBC News,

Morovis, Puerto Rico.

The pilot of the jet that

crashed at the Shoreham

Air Show in 2015 is to

be charged with the

manslaughter by gross

negligence of the 11 people

who died on the ground.

Andrew Hill is also accused

of endangering an aircraft

and is due to appear before

magistrates next month.

For the latest, let's

join our correspondent,

Duncan Kennedy at East Sussex Police

headquarters in Lewes.

Yes. It is nearly three years since

the air crash in Shoreham. Tonight

the families came to the Sussex

Police headquarters for a private

meeting with the Crown Prosecution

Service. They were told the pilot,

Andy Hill, who survived the crash is

to be prosecuted for manslaughter by

gross negligence.

This was the worst airshow disaster

in Britain since 1952.

A vintage jet taking part in an air

display crashed next

to the A27 in Shoreham.

11 men on the ground were killed.

At least 11 other

people were injured.

Tonight, the families of those

who died came to Sussex Police

headquarters to meet

the Crown Prosecution Service.

They were told that Andy Hill,

the pilot, would now be prosecuted.

I have found there is sufficient

evidence to charge Mr Hill

with manslaughter by gross

negligence of the 11 men who died.

I have also authorised a further

charge against Mr Hill

of endangering an aircraft contrary

to Article 137

of the Air Navigation Order 2009.

Lawyers for the families involved

say the decision by the CPS

to prosecute comes after nearly

three years of grief and loss.

The decision by the Crown

Prosecution Service is very much

welcomed and the families now hope

that this criminal procedure

and process can progress

as swiftly as possible.

This memorial to the 11 men who died

has been placed on this bridge

near the crash site.

Tonight, the Crown Prosecution

Service said that Andy Hill,

the pilot, would be charged

and appear in court in due course.

The inquest into the men's deaths

is now likely to be postponed

until after any court case.

Duncan Kennedy, BBC News, in Sussex.

A major new study has warned

that the quantity of plastic

in the world's oceans

will treble within a decade,

unless urgent action is taken.

So, in the first of a three-part

series, we've set one family

from Bristol a challenge -

to see if they can live without

single-use plastic for ten days.

Our correspondent, Jon Kay,

has been to visit them.

So, what's for tea in

the Evans household tonight?

Plastic, and plastic, and plastic.

And more plastic.

Liz, Andy and their girls

want to live with less of this.

But how?

Plastic, plastic, plastic...

Plastic, plastic, plastic.

They're going to try

living without single-use

plastic for ten days.

We're up for it, but...

I can't see how you can do it,

as a modern family.

And look at the bottles

of lemonade that we like.

Milk!

Tomorrow is bin day.

We're doing well at recycling,

but where does it go from us?

They were inspired by

watching Blue Planet 2.

It will take years,

and years, and years.

It'll probably still be that

same bottle when you're

Mummy and Daddy's age.

Shower gel for Chloe.

Shower gel for Ella.

Shampoo for the puppy.

Going plastic-free...

Moisturisers...

..is going to mean some big changes.

We're just plastic weirdos!

I don't think you are weird.

I think this is pretty

typical of most households.

Yeah, but when you start to think

about it, that's when you realise

how reliant on it we are.

We make our own toothpaste.

How do you do that?

To get some tips, they've come

to meet the Williams family,

who've been living without

plastic for two years.

We're so used to being told

we need a spray for this

and a bottle for that...

They use bars of shampoo,

home-made deodorant.

They have a little wooden

stick in the middle.

Even special earbuds.

It just keeps anything fresh.

And waxed paper,

instead of clingfilm.

Andrew and I do work

on a fairly tight budget.

Liz wants reassurance that it

won't break the bank

when they try doing this.

Well, we think it's probably

a bit cheaper, don't we?

Yeah.

We haven't done a complete

comparison, but our gut feeling

is that it's cheaper.

So windscreen wash now is water,

a little bit of detergent...

Like a spoonful, yeah.

Vinegar, and it works a treat.

Saving you money.

But will the Evanses grind

their coffee, instead of buying

pods, and use a strainer,

rather than tea bags

containing plastic?

I think it's brilliant.

Absolutely brilliant.

You look quite blown away by this!

Yes, I am!

Ooh, there's the fruit and veg.

Tomorrow, we'll follow

their ten-day challenge.

I've got a stinking cold.

And it's not easy.

I've just been up to the chemist.

Everything's packaged

and in blinkin' plastic!

Jon Kay, BBC News, Bristol.

A quick reminder