25/09/2016 BBC Weekend News

Tonight at 10pm, Russia is directly accused of committing war crimes

in Syria by Britain's ambassador to the UN.

As the fighting intensifies in the northern city

of Aleppo, Moscow is blamed for indiscriminately

Bunker-busting bombs more suited to destroying military installations

are now destroying homes, decimating bomb shelters,

crippling, maiming, killing dozens if not hundreds.

Russia denies it's targeting civilians, and says the recent

TRANSLATION: More than 200,000 people in Aleppo have become

prisoners of the terrorist group and other terrorist groups.

They are trying to use women and children as a human shield.

We'll have the latest from an emergency meeting of the UN,

where Britain, America and France have walked out.

Let nobody in the Labour Party claim a monopoly of principle.

Labour MPs are urged to stay in the party

and fight for their beliefs after Jeremy Corbyn's

Olympic cycling champion Sir Bradley Wiggins speaks

for the first time about his use of steroid injections.

This was not about trying to find a way to gain an unfair advantage.

This was about putting myself back on a level playing field to compete

Prince George gets a little fatherly reassurance as William

Britain and France have accused Russia of committing war

At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York,

the UK Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said the Assad government and Moscow

"had plunged to new depths and unleashed a new hell".

Government forces backed by Russian fighter jets are continuing

an offensive to retake the northern city of Aleppo from rebels,

and the UN envoy Steffan de Mistura says conditions there have reached

As Syria's ambassador was called to address the Security Council,

the American, British and French ambassadors walked out.

Nick Bryant's report now from New York contains images some

Aleppo, once Syria's largest city, but likened today to the Guernica

and Sarajevo of the five-year civil war.

The government's Russian-backed assault has intensified, with at

They've killed and injured more people in

rebel-held eastern Aleppo and made a mockery of this week's diplomatic

efforts to salvage what was left of a ceasefire agreement.

Seven days, according to one diplomat, when

talks failed and barbarism triumphed.

Britain has accused Vladimir Putin's Russia as well as

the Assad regime of perpetrating war crimes.

After five years of conflict, you might think that the

regime has had its fill of barbarity, that its sick bloodlust

against its own people has finally run its course.

But this weekend, the regime and Russia have

In short, it is difficult to deny that

Russia is partnering with the Syrian regime to carry out war crimes.

Among this weekend's harrowing scenes, the miraculous rescue of

She was pulled alive from the rubble of the building, where her parents

and four siblings are said to have died, an orphan whose name has now

been invoked in the war of words at the UN.

It's apocalyptic, what is being done to eastern Aleppo.

Surely, for Rawan, who's lost her entire family,

this council can at the very least have the courage to say

who is responsible for this and in a single voice tell

But from Russia, defiance, not regret, and its usual refrain,

that it is targeting terrorists, not civilians.

TRANSLATION: More than 200,000 people in Aleppo have become

prisoners of the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra and other

They are trying to use women and children as a human shield.

In this multisided conflict fighters once loyal to Al-Qaeda are playing a

prominent role in the battle against government forces.

Humanitarian workers on the ground estimate that

half of the casualties pulled from the rubble were children.

No wonder the UN has said the conflict has

During the course of this conflict there have been many security

council meetings where Western ambassadors have condemned the

actions of the Syrian Government. What made today so significant was

that Britain, France and the United States primarily went after Russia

and said that when it comes to the bombing of Aleppo, the actions of

the Assad regime and Vladimir Putin's Russia are one and the same.

The negotiations between John Kerry and his Russian counterpart are near

the end of their life. Russia's ambassador said bringing peace to

Syria is now all but impossible. At the end of an intensive week of

diplomacy here, a mood of great anger and great despondency.

In the wake of Jeremy Corbyn's resounding re-election

victory as Labour leader, several senior MPs who wanted him

to step down say they'll remain in the party to fight

The former Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn,

whose sacking led to a wave of resignations from the frontbench,

has told activists they should "rise above the most vile abuse"

being thrown at them by other members of the party.

Our Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg reports from the Labour

This is our party and we stay and we fight.

Packed in, hardly room to stand, in this room Jeremy Corbyn's

These MPs and activists are the outsiders now.

So many gathered, they filled the back lane too.

Let nobody in the Labour Party claim a monopoly of principle.

But speaker after speaker have said they are distraught

People are disappointed, but we live in a democracy,

To those 9 million people who voted for the Labour Party,

When there is the most vile abuse from people who say they are members

of the Labour Party directed to other members of the party, all I

The planned rally upstairs was so packed, this meeting has

spilled out into the street, an impromptu meeting

of activists and MPs, many of them distraught

at yesterday's result, but determined they are going nowhere.

His detractors say Jeremy Corbyn believes his own hype.

But his clear double victory put him firmly in charge.

And what should happen to those MPs who took him on and lost?

The relationship between an MP and their constituency is complex.

I think the vast majority of the MPs have no problem whatsoever.

He delighted some of his vast group of supporters.

The surprise guest at a rally, fresh from the studio.

Thanks for giving me a few minutes of your time.

He might please them even more with plans to give members much more

I want to see much greater democracy within the party,

and unleashing and unlocking ideas and potential.

For his supporters, this conference is a chance for a show of strength.

They have cast their villains as well in the drama

Lots of right-wing Labour MPs were constantly stabbing

It seemed that the first thing they must do when they wake up

of a morning is think, "What stick can I hit

Tonight, the former leader tried to reassure.

I don't believe these people that write us off all the time.

Some of our biggest gains and most-famous victories have been

I said yesterday we needed to unify behind Jeremy,

Labour has been noisy, angry and passionate.

For peace, both sides believe there is much to forgive.

The Olympic cycling champion Sir Bradley Wiggins has

defended his use of medical certificates allowing him

to take otherwise-banned substances to treat asthma.

Online hackers calling themselves Fancy Bears leaked his confidential

Last month, Sir Bradley Wiggins became Britain's

Today, he was defending his reputation.

The cyclist is one of many leading athletes who have

had their therapeutic-use exemptions, or TUEs,

These allow the use of banned treatments, if there

The hack revealed Sir Bradley received TUEs for powerful steriod

injections days before the Tour de France in 2011

But in his first interview since the controversy erupted,

ten days ago, Sir Bradley told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme,

that he took the drug to treat his asthma.

This was to cure a medical condition and was...

The governing body, the World Anti-Doping Agency,

This wasn't about trying to find a way to gain an unfair advantage,

this was about putting myself back on a level playing field in order

What's to become of a cycling superhero?

The interview was recorded before a former team doctor

of Sir Bradley's told BBC's Newsnight that he was surprised

the cyclist was allowed to use the corticosteroid triamcinolone

In his autobiography, Sir Bradley wrote he'd

I was writing it with a cycling journalist who was very

knowledgeable on sport and had lived through the whole era of the Lance

So from your point of view, "needles" meant,

All the questions at this time were very much loaded

Having finally broken his silence, Wiggins will now be hoping that this

The problem is, it doesn't address all the issues.

For example, why is it that, if he was struggling with illness

in the build-up to the 2012 Tour de France, does he say in his book

that he was in good health and fine form?

Questions always remain for Team Sky and why they backed

Wiggins' former team, competing in Belgium today,

have always claimed a strong ethical stance on doping and in

a short statement have defended their use of TUEs.

Opinion is divided on whether trimcinolone

is performance-enhancing, and although there's no

have broken any rules, some aren't happy the

I think a lot of people will be very disappointed that they have, sort

of, perhaps crossed an ethical line, if not a legal line.

I think for a lot of people the drug that Bradley Wiggins used

All this has raised questions over whether the system of medical

exemptions now needs reform, but with his legacy on the line,

one of British sport's greatest figures insists he has stayed

within the letter and the spirit of the sport.

Police in the American city of Charlotte in North Carolina have

released their own video of the controversial

shooting of a black man, Keith Lamont Scott, last Tuesday.

It's not clear whether he's carrying a gun in the footage,

though the city's police chief says Mr Scott was armed.

The shooting has led to several days of protests and riots.

The former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has

rounded on one of David Cameron's senior aides for criticising

Theresa May's conduct during the EU referendum campaign.

Sir Craig Oliver, who was director of communications for Mr Cameron,

said the former Prime Minister felt badly let down by Mrs May,

because she repeatedly refused to back him over Europe.

Mr Duncan Smith accused Sir Craig of pinning the blame

Health problems related to the way we live, like poor diets, drinking,

smoking and a lack exercise, are costing the NHS in England

Experts say unless we live healthier lives, the future of the entire

Now one GP in the town of Fleetwood in Lancashire is bringing together

not just health professionals, but sports clubs, housing

associations and even the police to address the problems.

Our health correspondent Dominic Hughes has been given exclusive

A seaside town struggling with physical and mental-health problems.

After every up I have an inevitable down.

The new threats are now things like diabetes,

like chronic bronchitis, for which there is no cure

And a community trying to heal itself.

What we need to give to the people of Fleetwood is some hope.

Aged 36, Jonathan hasn't worked for a decade.

Crippled by mental as much as physical ailments,

I said to my wife about a week ago, "I can see this low side coming

back," and she went to bed one night and I started self-harming.

I really, really wanted to die, you know.

But I hadn't got the nerve to take my life.

On bad days, all Jonathan can manage is watching TV, smoking

Diabetes, depression and despair are all-too-common in an area

where life expectancy for men is around seven years lower

The collapse of the fishing industry in Fleetwood in the 1970s and '80s,

combined with a closure of a big local factory

and the main ferry terminal, hit the town hard.

Unemployment levels rose, poverty levels soared

and there was a devastating impact on the health of this community.

Illnesses linked to lifestyle, threaten to overwhelm

Things like smoking, like being overweight,

lead into illnesses like chronic bronchitis and diabetes.

They are illnesses for which there is no cure and cost the NHS more

So in Fleetwood they've decided to act.

A coalition of local people and health professionals

determed to break a damaging cycle of sickness.

If we can give the residents hope and a sense of purpose,

that's when the whole of the health of the town starts to improve,

Plans for more open spaces, cooking classes for kids,

It's early days, but for Jonathan, defining success is simple.

I'm not on about something miraculously better,

like living in a mansion with Ferraris outside.

Just with getting out once a week and starting to look

forward to the future, instead of dreading it.

This is an ambitious plan, to change behaviour that's damaging

health and to win back the years of life currently being

Tomorrow night, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will go head

to head in the first of three keenly anticipated televised debates.

With the two US Presidential candidates running neck and neck

in the polls, their performances will be heavily scrutinised,

with tens of millions of people expected to tune in.

Our North America Editor Jon Sopel has been looking back at the key

moments in previous TV debates, and analysing what can make

the difference between a winning and a losing performance.

NEWS REEL: The candidates need no introduction.

The Republican candidate, Vice-President Richard M Nixon,

and the Democratic candidate, Senator John F Kennedy.

The moment that politics changed in America and around the world.

I should make it very clear that I do not think

56 years ago, it felt like a revolution, as personality

became as important as policy, perception as important as reality.

And a sweaty, old-looking Richard Nixon bested

by the handsome, young John F Kennedy.

Over the years, the fascination hasn't dimmed, and it's expected

the audience for Monday's debate will break all records,

Gerald Ford never recovered from this in his 1980 encounter

There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never

There are the zingers, 73-year-old Ronald Reagan

old to run for President, against the Democrat Walter Mondale,

I will not make age an issue of this campaign.

I am not going to exploit for political purposes

my opponent's youth and inexperience.

Senator Dan Quayle was blown away by this from Lloyd Bentson

And then there have been the failed attempts at intimidation,

The big moments in US politics have all been emotional and visual.

How Reagan's team was at ease and Jimmy Carter didn't.

How Rick Perry looked when he made an error and that's why the law

among the former speech writers is, if you want to know who is going

to be seen as winning or losing, you watch this thing

So can you win the White House off the back of a great

But could you lose it by doing badly?

And that's why the stakes are so high for these two

And why the TV audience promises to be huge.

In football, Manchester City's women have been crowned

Women's Super League champions for the first time.

They secured the title with a second-half penalty

from Toni Duggan, sealing a 2-0 win over Chelsea.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have arrived in Canada

for their first royal tour with both their children.

The couple, along with three-year-old Prince George

and 16-month-old Princess Charlotte, were greeted by Prime Minister

This hovercraft is the latest form of royal transport which will be

used to navigate these coastal cities. Five years ago, when Prince

William and his wife were in Canada, they came as newlyweds. They have

returned as a family of four. The Cambridges in Canada,

and a brief taste for Prince George and Princess Charlotte of the royal

life they have been born It is early evening on the Canadian

west coast, but this time-zone travelling toddler's body clock

is telling him it is way On the tarmac, a tired George needed

the support of his father. Now was not the time to tell him

that, as things stand, both will one day be

Kings of Canada. For Charlotte, the teething

16-month-old, this is her first And on bended knee, a rare

defeat for Canada's Prime Well versed in kissing

babies, he was stumped Away from the airport

and away from public view for George and Charlotte,

their parents are determined Nous sommes tres heureux

d'etre de retour... His destiny means William will have

to brush up on his French In this part of the world,

this is an ideal way to travel. While George and Charlotte

stayed with their nanny, her parents took a plane

from Victoria to another of British Columbia's

coastal cities, Vancouver. Plenty of people on hand to see the

future of the British and Canadian monarchy. They will visit one of

Canada's poorest neighbourhoods and meet some Syrian refugees.