04/03/2017 BBC Weekend News

Sinn Fein are celebrating their best ever showing in elections

They've won 27 seats, just one less than the Democratic Unionists.

Sinn Fein's President, Gerry Adams, said it was "a watershed election"

and the end to a permanent unionist majority in Northern Ireland.

The two parties now have three weeks to try to agree

Sinn Fein believe they have changed the political picture in Northern

Ireland. If this election was a battle, in a long fight between

Unionism and nationalism, they are claiming victory. Clearly, the

Unionist majority in the assembly has been ended and the notion of a

permanent or a perpetual Unionist majority has been demolished. The

DUP are still Stormont 's biggest party but they could only watch as

Republicans out into the sizeable lead from the last election, just

ten months ago. Many voters were motivated by the harsh words of the

campaign. At one stage the DUP compared Republicans to crocodiles.

Now they have bitten back. In order to go back into government, it Sinn

Fein are calling for Arlene Foster to step aside as First Minister

while a public enquiry takes place into a financial scandal linked to a

botched green energy scheme, it is a demand that has angered Mrs Foster

's party. Now we have to pick up the pieces after having a brutal

election and I think that the party which has got most to be concerned

about as to how it repairs the damage is Sinn Fein. For so long the

big beast of politics here, Unionism is facing a fresh raw from

nationalism. Just months ago they seem to be working together, but in

Unionist east Belfast with the CS Lewis Square has been

built in honour of the author 's mythical tales of battle there is a

certain concern about what is emerging. Aaron Cole government

system is not working for the people who need it, because they are up

there are squabbling over very little to be honest. Republicans are

out again in force, they put us to shame. We should get off our

backsides and go and vote now. Once hailed as the champion of Unionism,

a statue of Edward Carson stands outside Stormont. Today, his

political successors feel on their guard and no one is sure if a deal

to restore power-sharing is within their grasp. Chris Buckler, BBC

News, Belfast. Donald Trump has accused the Obama

administration of orchestrating a plot to tap his phones,

in the run up to last year's In a series of messages on Twitter,

President Trump accused Mr Obama of personally authorising

the alleged tapping and compared it to the Watergate scandal,

but offered no evidence that it Our Washington correspondent

Laura Bicker reports. There is a protocol between

presidents even across the political divide, a peaceful handover of power

even when the pair do not get along. In a tie rate of tweets, Donald

Trump has trashed this tradition accusing Barack Obama of ordering a

wiretap on his Trump Tower phone, not in one, but in four tweets, the

last red... What we are witnessing today... What

a contrast to his tone during this week 's address to Congress. It

appears this was not the pivot to a different kind of President that

many thought. So where Trump Towers phones tapped? The Conservative news

publication Breitbart seems to think so and blames Barack Obama. Did this

article start the Twitter cascade? But no President has the power to

order a wiretap, only the FBI can do that with a warrant from the court.

President Trump is now facing calls to produce proof for his claims.

Laura is in Washington this evening.

What response first from the Obama camp if any? We have had no official

response from President Obama. There has been our response from Ben Rose,

his former adviser who tweeted saying that no President can order a

wiretap and he said, that when it came to this response from Donald

Trump, he said that these measures were put in place to protect the

public from the likes of a President like you, he said on Twitter. It has

to be pointed out that we are at a rally for Donald Trump's supporters.

They are here gathering because they believe in him 100% and they are

reacting to the protests that have taken place throughout the country.

However, Donald Trump is dogged by this Russian controversy, he lost

his National Security Adviser Michael Flynn after he had contact

with the Russian ambassador and discussed sanctions and those

conversations were revealed during phone interceptions. That would

suggest that his phone was tapped. This week Jeff Sessions, his chief

lawyer had to step aside from being in charge of any of these Russian

investigations because he had had a meeting with the Russian ambassador

and failed to disclose it. This is leading to an Democrats calling

Donald Trump the deflector in chief. Thank you, Laura Bicker.

The Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has announced that he will visit

Moscow in the coming weeks, in an attempt to improve

relations with Russia. It will be the first such trip by

Talks will focus on British - Russian relations, and disagreements

over Russia's actions in Ukraine and Syria.

The Foreign Office said the trip did not signal a change

The Prime Minister of Somalia says over a hundred people

from a drought-hit region in the country have died of hunger

The drought was declared a national disaster on Tuesday,

and the United Nations estimates that five million people

Thousands have been made their way to Somalia's capital, Mogadishu,

Tens of thousands of people have marched in London today to protest

at what they say are cuts to NHS services. Hospital staff,

campaigners and union representatives joined

the demonstration, with the Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn

Organisers claim Theresa May's demands on austerity in the NHS

represent a real risk to patients and safety, but the department

of health says extra money is being invested.

The French carmaker which owns Peugeot and Citroen is reported

to have reached an agreement to buy Vauxhall from General Motors.

Talk of a deal has raised concerns about the future

of Vauxhall's two UK factories at Luton and Ellesmere Port,

which employ more than four thousand people.

An official announcement is expected on Monday.

Our Business correspondent Joe Lynam reports.

This Vauxhall plant is one of the more efficient car making factories

in the world. 60% of the vehicles made here are exported, mostly to

Europe. But the workers here may have new bosses from Monday when it

is likely that the company that makes Peugeot cars, PSA confirmed

that it has bought foxhole and Opal, but with too many factories in

Europe and not enough demand, PSA is likely to have a long hard look at

which it plans to keep open and that the microscope. Vauxhall employs

just under 200 staff in its Ellesmere Port plant which makes

Astros. The whole plant is really worried, it is going to affect a lot

of jobs in the area. There is nothing here, is there a? If

Vauxhall goes. Bad, really bad. Its ban on making factory in Luton

employs 1400 people. I am optimistic about the future of this plant here

in Luton, but really the prospects of car manufacturing in the UK will

come down to the kind of deal we get out of Brexit. In

all, Vauxhall makes 200,000 cars a year. PSA has the capacity to build

more cars in its own plant and it does not need these plants in

Britain. There are obstacles in the way with the currency fluctuations,

the problems posed by Brexit with freedom of movement and parts as

well. The government says it is cautiously optimistic that it will

be able to limit the job losses as a result of this deal, possibly by

providing the kind of assurances it gave to Nissan in Sunderland, we do

not know what those assurances are for sure, but there are quite a few

British-based car makers who will be watching carefully. Only this week,

Nissan said it now needs ?100 million to support a car

manufacturing in the north-east. BMW said it might make battery-powered

minis in Germany rather than Britain and Ford looks like it could

be shedding more than 1000 jobs in Wales. So the pressure will mount on

Theresa May to support the automotive sector at the very time

she will be in intensive talks with the EU over Brexit. Joel Lynam, BBC

News, in Luton. Sir Andy Murray has won

the Dubai Championships for the first time,

to clinch his first trophy of 2017. The world number one

initially struggled against Spain's Fernando Verdasco,

but recovered to win