22/01/2017 BBC Weekend News

The Prime Minister, Theresa May, says she has "absolute faith"

in the Trident nuclear missile system, despite claims

that an unarmed test firing veered off course.

It's claimed an unarmed rocket fired from HMS Vengeance

in the Atlantic Ocean shot off in the direction of

But on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme this morning, Mrs May

declined to answer if she'd been made aware of the incident before

a crucial vote on the future of the Trident programme

in Parliament, as Daniel Boettcher reports.

This is what the launch of a Trident missile looks like.

Last June, the Royal Navy carried out what it calls

a routine unarmed test launch from HMS Vengeance.

But according to the Sunday Times, it went wrong.

The paper says the submarine was about

It was due to fire the missile 5600 miles to a location of the West

Instead, the paper says it may have veered off in

That was just weeks before a vote in parliament to renew

Britain's ageing Vanguard submarines.

Today, the Prime Minister was asked four times if she

had known about the alleged incident when she had made a statement on

The issue we were talking about in the House

It was about whether or not we should renew Trident, whether we

should look to the future and have a replacement Trident.

That is what we were talking about in the House of Commons.

That is what the House of Commons voted for.

He doesn't want to defend our country with an

There are tests that take place all the time

What we were talking about was the future.

The paper says there had been four previous Trident tests since 2000.

In the past, the MoD has issued a press release and video of

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has accused the Prime Minister of

not telling the public about the alleged misfiring.

I think this failure is something that ought to

pause everyone for a moment and just think what happened.

We understand the Prime Minister chose not to

inform Parliament about this and it has come out through the media

It is a pretty catastrophic error when a missile

While the Ministry of Defence is the test launch was a success

for the crew and the boat, it has not denied the report

that the missile itself might have veered off course.

But it does say the capability and effectiveness

of the Trident missile is unquestionable.

The Prime Minister has also confirmed she'll visit America

to meet President Trump on Friday - the first world leader to meet him

Mrs May said Britain's "special relationship" with the US

would allow her to speak up to say she disagrees with some

Here's our political correspondent, Susanna Mendonca.

As Britain pulls away from its ties with the European Union, it is

looking to rekindle old alliances with a brand-new American president.

The special relationship between the UK and the US has been

We will have the opportunity to talk about our future

possible trading relationship, but also some of the world challenges

that we will face, issues like defeating terrorism,

Comparisons will be drawn to another female British Prime

Minister who forged a close relationship with

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were united in

their free trade aims back in the 1980s,

and it has been reported that

Donald Trump has already referred Theresa May is his Maggie.

But no previous US president has been so

In particular with women, who turned out in their hundreds of thousands

to protest against him in America yesterday and in cities including

Mrs May wouldn't be drawn on whether she plans to challenge Mr

Trump on the things he has said about women.

I think the biggest statement that will be made about

the role of women is the fact that I will be there as a female Prime

Minister, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, talking to him

directly about the interest that we share.

No longer back of the queue on trade, Mrs May's focus in her talks

with Mr Trump will be on building a future

trade deal with the US after Britain leaves the EU.

He and people around him have also spoken about

the importance of a trade arrangement with the United Kingdom,

and that that is something they are looking to talk to us about

I would expect to be able to talk to him about that

alongside the other issues I will discuss with him

If Mr Trump's inauguration speech is anything to

go by, though, he is more focused on protectionism than free-trade,

insisting that he will put America first.

So critics say the Government should be cautious about putting US

No trade agreement with America, however ambitious, can replace

or match what we are potentially going to lose on our

As Brexit negotiations loom, though, Mrs May knows that she needs trade

This week's meeting with the US president is a

At least 36 people have been killed and many more injured after a train

derailed in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

Many people are still trapped in the wreckage and it's feared

It's not yet clear what caused the train to derail, but police

are investigating claims the track could have been tampered with.

The former president of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, has flown into exile -

22 years after taking control of the west African state in a coup.

He sparked a political crisis when he refused

to accept the outcome of the country's election.

Jammeh finally agreed to hand over power to the winner

after the leaders of neighbouring countries threatened

Many councils in England are taking far too long to determine patients'

needs so they can be discharged from hospital.

Guidelines say the assessment should be done within six weeks -

but a report for the health watchdog Healthwatch England has found

Smitha Mundasad is outside St Thomas' Hospital in central London.

Four weeks, we have been hearing from accident and emergency is

experiencing extreme winter pressure, from hospital saying they

cannot admit people into hospital because they cannot discharge people

home because they don't have the social care they need at home, or

can't get into residential care. Healthwatch England now says there

was another part of this problem, that people are waiting too long to

get those initial assessment from local councils to see if they are

eligible for care, for example help at home if they cannot walk, or help

getting into residential care. Their investigation found data was patchy.

People waited on average between two days and 52 days to get the initial

assessment, and then maybe months to get the care they need. In one case

they found someone waited nearly two years for an initial assessment, and

they say things need to change. There is no statutory time, but the

local government ombudsman says between four and six weeks is

reasonable. The government says it is putting 900 million of additional

funding into adult social care in the next two years, and says it will

challenge local authorities that do not give care in a timely fashion.

Thank you. The time new cars are allowed

on Britain's roads before they need an MOT could go up from

three to four years, The Department for Transport said

safer technology and improved manufacturing means new vehicles

stay roadworthy for longer. The change, which could come

in from 2018, would bring Britain in line with Northern Ireland

and many other European countries. Andy Murray is out of

the Australian Open, after a shock defeat by a player

ranked 50 in the world. The world number one

lost his fourth round match to Germany's Mischa Zverev in four

sets, as Ben Croucher reports. With Novak Djokovic out,

the path for Andy Murray to win the Australian Open had become

a little clearer. Blocking his path, though,

was the imposing figure of Germany's Mischa Zverev,

earning the biggest win of his career and arguably one

of the most surprising When the world number

50 took the first set, Murray knew it wasn't

going to be as smooth And although Murray levelled

the match, he was fast Zverev had one main idea -

serve and volley, and it was a specialty he was frustrating

Murray with to go a set clear again. The top seed, though,

is a specialist in dealing with adversity,

and he wasn't about It's Murray's earliest exit

in Melbourne in eight years, Who will win the title now

is anything but clear. You can see more on all of today's

stories on the BBC News Channel. The next news on BBC One

is at six o'clock. We have had high pressure keeping us

fairly settled in the past week, but it is seen being quite varied, the

weather. We have seen some hard frost in recent days. Some have been

quite funny at times in