06/01/2018 BBC Weekend News

Good evening.

An ambulance service has apologised

to the family of a pensioner

who died after waiting nearly four

hours for help to arrive.

The 81-year-old woman had rung 999

complaining of chest pain.

The East of England service

said it was stretched -

and had warned of the pressures

its staff and the NHS were facing.

Our correspondent Sarah Campbell

is at Clacton in Essex.

The woman who died has not been

named but we know some details of

her tragic death. She called 999 on

Tuesday evening and waited and

waited and after about an hour and a

half the Ambulance Service finally

arrived after a further two and a

half hours. They found her on the

floor unconscious, not breathing and

she could not be saved. The

paramedics found her I said to be

devastated.

The period over New Year was

according to the local Ambulance

Service in Essex the busiest ever.

On the day in question they received

more than 4000 999 calls, far more

than usual. A statement in response

to the death of the 81-year-old

woman said, our sincere condolences

and apologies go out to the family

and friends of the patient. We have

publicly expressed how stretched the

Ambulance Services and the pressures

the staff and the NHS has been under

over the past few days. The union

representing health workers also

blamed wider pressures on the health

service.

I think there is chronic

underfunding which is endemic, it

tells us the public sector is under

so much strain that it is now

beginning to kill people.

This is

the second death in recent days

which has been linked to an

overstretched service. A teacher

role Jozsef Smalling died following

a seven-hour wait for a bed of the

Queen Alexandra Hospital in

Portsmouth. And in recent days the

Health Secretary and Prime Minister

has both apologised to patients

after thousands of nonurgent

operations have been cancelled. The

health service as a combination of

winter flu and cold weather are

adding to pressure on the service.

The impact on the local MP is

demanding answers.

I'm furious, it

should not happen, we need to get to

the bottom of this and find out what

happened and make sure it never

happens again.

And as the government

doing enough?

We will find out when

we get that in quarry.

With

temperatures once again dropping,

the worry is the health service

simply will not be able to cope. And

that indeed is the body. The

Department of Health said it has

brought in new measures which should

help emergency departments to cope

with winter demands and the Prime

Minister has said that extra funding

has been given to the NHS and assist

the health service is better

prepared for the winter than ever

before.

Donald Trump has dismissed claims

made in a new book that he is

mentally unfit for office. He told a

news conference his success in

business and office as proof of his

capabilities. And he has dismissed

the author of the book as a fraud.

Boarding a flight to camp David for

meetings with senior Republican

leaders, the image that Donald Trump

was seeking to project was one of

order, professionalism and control.

Instead he finds himself battling

claims contained in a book, claims

which question his mental fitness.

I

went to the best colleges, I went I

had a situation where I was an

excellent student and came out and

made billions of dollars, became one

of the top business people, went to

television and for ten years was a

tremendous success as you probably

have heard.

Perhaps the most

damaging allegation shared claims

the author by all the senior

advisers to the president is that

the leader of the free world lacks

curiosity, does not read or listen,

is like a child.

They all came to

the conclusion graduate first and

then faster and faster, that

something was unbelievably amiss.

But this was more peculiar than they

ever imagined it could be.

Fire and

Fury also quotes the former senior

aide Steve Bannon to Donald Trump,

the man credited with getting him

elected, as describing a meeting

between a Russian order and Donald

Junior as treasonous. Other

revelations paid a picture of a

chaotic White House at the mercy of

a petulant, easily distracted

commander-in-chief. Claims denied by

a leading member of the

administration.

I have never

questioned his mental fitness, I

have no reason to. We have different

management styles. How I make

decisions and process information, I

have to learn how he takes in

information and processes it and

makes decisions.

Having achieved a

major success just before Christmas

with the passage of tax reform

legislation, senior Republicans had

hoped the New Year would be a new

start for the Trump administration

but instead of moving forward on key

issues like immigration reform, the

focus it seems is yet again on the

president himself, his personality

and his mental competence.

Opponents of President Assad

in Syria have accused his regime -

with the help of Russia -

of launching a series of air attacks

on a suburb of the capital.

They say at least 17

people were killed today.

Most of the dead were in

Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus.

Raids on the rebel held area have

continued for several days The UN

has condemned the impact

of the fighting on civilians.

The department store House of Fraser

has confirmed it's asking landlords

to reduce the rent it pays for some

of its shops.

The group is set to release

Christmas retail figures next week -

with some analysts suggesting

its takings over the Christmas

period were disappointing.

Joe Lynam has more.

It is one of the key brands on our

high streets with 59 stores and more

than 7000 staff. We do not yet know

how Christmas was for House of

Fraser but we know it has asked if

landlords to cut the rent. So what

do people think when they think of

House of Fraser?

It has got the

shops that I like to browse and

within the department store so it is

quite easy to just go from one place

to the next.

It has a lot of good

quality brands, and quite a lot of

variety.

I think it has a good

reputation for good quality

products. And I know all the high

street has been affected at the

moment and is not doing well.

In

terms of reputation is up there with

Jon Lewis, maybe a bit more

down-market than Jon Lewis so it

occupies that gap in the market.

I

kind of think it is for older people

but maybe because it is more

expensive.

Not unusual for retailers

to seek rent reductions from their

landlords, Marks and Spencers and

next are already so and traditional

retailers face challenges such as

rising red especially in big cities,

the national living wage going up

which pushes up costs and of course

online. £1 in every £6 now spent

shopping online. And then there is

overall sentiment. Shopping is a

vital part of the UK economy, if

consumers tighten their wallets than

GDP suffers.

Inflation has hit a

five-year high in the run-up to

Christmas and business building

personal finances under pressure.

Our research showed about 50% of

consumers said they spent less this

Christmas than last year and almost

two thirds said they did some of

their online.

The success or failure

of one retailer will not tell us

whether the high streets are

healthier and not. But if consumers

throughout the UK cannot afford to

spend as much as previous years then

more big names may struggle to

survive.

England's hopes of a consolation

victory in the fifth and final Ashes

test look slim after Australia took

control of day three.

Joe Root's side trail by 133 runs,

after the hosts closed on 479 for 4.

Patrick Gearey watched

the day unfold in Sydney.

A special day, especially

for Usman Khawaja,

a first Ashes hundred in a city

he emigrated to as a child.

At the other end, nearing his

hundred, Steve Smith,

the uncrackable code.

But wait, Moeen Ali's eureka moment.

Smith left a void and young

Mason Crane fielded with an appeal.

Review.

First they check the no ball

and there the case closed.

Had the umpire felt the boot

was behind the line,

Mason Crane would've had his first

Test wicket.

Fine margins.

And fine shots from the reprieved

Usman Khawaja, which helped him

to 150 and helped Australia

into a lead only three wickets down.

England needed energy, badly.

It came from Mason Crane.

This time he had

Usman Khawaja for real.

And for 171.

But in now baking temperatures

the Marsh brothers turned

England into their stooges,

with every run scored

by Australia's batsmen only adding

to the regrets felt by England.

A draining day in every sense.

So England 133 runs behind,

they will have to go back

into the field on day four when it

will be even hotter.

What is more they know this pitch

is now spinning more,

just in time for their last innings

of this Ashes Series.

Patrick Geary, BBC News in Sydney.

There's more throughout the evening

on the BBC News Channel,

we are back with the late

news at 20 past 9 -

now on BBC1 it's time

for the news where you are.