18/03/2018 BBC Weekend News

Good afternoon.

The Foreign Secretary,

Boris Johnson, says the Government

has evidence Russia has been making

and stockpiling Novichok,

the nerve agent Britain says

was used to try and kill the Russian

spy Sergei Skripal and his

daughter in Salisbury.

Mr Johnson accused the Russians of

"smug sarcasm" after the country's

ambassador to the EU suggested

the nerve agent could have come

from Britain's own Porton Down

research centre near Salisbury.

Here's our Home Affairs

Correspondent, Daniel Sandford.

After two weeks of delicate

investigation and decontamination

work in Salisbury, in which police

officers and troops have had to take

extraordinary precautions to protect

themselves, the Russian ambassador

to the EU chose to hint that Britain

might have been responsible for the

nerve agent attack.

Porton Down, as

we all know, is the largest military

facility in the United Kingdom,

which has been dealing with chemical

weapons research. And it's actually

only eight miles from Salisbury.

You're not suggesting Porton Down is

responsible?

I don't know.

Immediately afterwards on the same

programme, this was the Foreign

Secretary's riposte.

This isn't the

response of a country that really

believes itself to be innocent.

Their response has been a mixture of

smug sarcasm and denial and

obfuscation and delay.

And he

insisted the Russians have been

doing recent nerve agent research.

We actually have evidence within the

last ten years but Russia has not

only been investigating the delivery

of nerve agents for the purposes of

assassination, but has also been

creating and stockpiling Novichok.

That what a direct lie?

Yeah, but

you will get that.

Then the Foreign

Secretary had to concede that the

wife of a former finance minister

under Putin had paid £150,000 in a

Conservative Party option to play

tennis with him.

Did the tennis game

happen?

It did.

After signs of a gap

opening last week between Labour and

Downing Street over the attack, this

morning the Labour position was much

closer to the government.

Putin has

questions to answer because this

could be a state execution, but what

we don't do in this country is we

don't leap to conclusions without

the evidence, but we are saying to

our international partners, working

with the chemical inspectors,

working with Porton Down, we will

now produce the evidence that leads

us to a judgment that they can rely

upon.

The Porton Down military

laboratory is where experts have

spent two weeks analysing the rare

neighbourhood confused. Tomorrow,

international specialists from the

Organisation for the Prohibition of

Chemical Weapons will arrive to

start their own analysis of what

left Yulia and Sergei Skripal

fighting for their lives.

Meanwhile, voting is under way

across Russia in the country's

election, in which President Putin

is expected to win

a fourth term in office.

There are several other candidates

but his main rival, Alexei Navalny,

has been barred from taking part

after being convicted of fraud -

a charge he says was

politically motivated.

From Moscow, Richard Galpin reports.

At a polling station here in Moscow,

a deliberately festive atmosphere.

Encouraging people to vote.

Russians have only known one leader,

Vladimir Putin, since 1999, and now

they are casting their ballots once

again with the odds stacked

heavily in his favour.

With the only serious opposition

leader banned from taking

part in this election,

there's virtually no doubt that

Vladimir Putin will win.

The issue is going to be the turnout

and whether it is sufficient

to legitimise another six years

in power for Mr Putin.

And although people have been voting

here, we soon found scepticism

about how genuine this election is.

TRANSLATION:

Formally

there is a real choice

but in reality I cannot say

it is fair because I know people

are being forced to vote,

especially those working

in government institutions.

The President himself voted

here in Moscow earlier today.

The Kremlin apparently

aiming for him to get 70%

of the vote and of the turnout.

But when asked by journalists how

many votes would be seen as a

success, he said any amount

allowing him to be president.

Voters in Crimea are also taking

part in this presidential election

for the first time since the area

was annexed from Ukraine,

the election date moved

to today to coincide

with the fourth anniversary.

Another boost for Mr Putin.

We must emphasise that Mr Putin

retains high popularity ratings

amongst voters here, but I think

there is a question about reaching

that 70% turnout figure, which

apparently the Kremlin wants.

Meanwhile, there have been some

reports of electoral violations,

with reports coming in of ballot

boxes being stuffed in one area, but

I must stress that that is only a

small number of reports in just one

area.

Much of the UK has experienced

its second significant

snowfall of the winter.

Worst affected have been the north

and east of the country,

and the snow is now falling in south

Wales and the south-west of England.

Combined with sub-zero temperature

winds, it's bought delays

and cancellations to public

transport and made for difficult

driving conditions for many,

as Frankie McCamley reports.

Late last night in Barnsley,

not a sight you would usually see

in March, a truck being pulled

to safety by a car in

treacherous conditions.

And in Halifax, police rescued

the driver of this car,

who escaped with minor injuries.

On the Trans-Pennine Express,

an officer's dash cam,

the road almost at a standstill.

This morning as people

try to leave their homes,

it proves to be a difficult task.

And gritters out on the A68

in Northumberland try

to keep things moving.

In places on higher ground

like here in West Yorkshire,

up to 11 centimetres of snow fell,

but the places that saw the most

were Hereford and Wattisham

with 13 centimetres.

Today though the south-west

of England and South Wales will be

hardest hit, with amber weather

warnings in place until nine

o'clock this evening.

Elsewhere, there's been more

disruption at the airports today

with Bristol, Bournemouth

and the East Midlands

closing runways.

Heathrow and Gatwick have also told

passengers to expect delays.

Some rugby and football matches have

also had to be cancelled too.

But for some there has been fun

to be had in what's been dubbed

the mini beast from the east

with temperatures expected to return

to normal by Tuesday.

Frankie McCamley, BBC

News, in West Yorkshire.

Britain have won their first

gold medal at the Winter

Paralympics in South Korea.

Menna Fitzpatrick and her guide,

Jen Kehoe, took the women's

visually-impaired slalom crown

on the final day of the Games,

as Kate Grey reports.

It was the golden moment they'd been

waiting for. Menna Fitzpatrick and

her guide, Jen Kehoe, saved their

best till last to win gold on the

last day. They were in silver

position going into their second run

and displayed a perfect performance.

The time was unbeatable. Their first

medal here in Pyeongchang, to become

Britain's most successful winter

Paralympian.

We are running on

adrenaline at the moment, because

this first bronze was an incredible

achievement to finish that race and

to win a medal, and to finish on a

gold medal and put in one of our

strongest performances this week is

beyond words. It hasn't sunk in and

I think it probably won't until we

get back to the UK and we are back

in our own beds for a lie in.

Further successful Millie Knight and

her guide, making the bronze in the

same race, meaning that Paralympics

GB have reached their target of

seven medals, but all dependent on

one spot, one classification and a

small number of athletes.

We came

into these games with clear

potential on snow and ice. The

wheelchair curlers a tough week, but

from my perspective I am proud of

every single one of the 17 athletes

who came to Pyeongchang to represent

Paralympics GB. Yes, the medals came

from snow, but every athlete gave it

their all.

So the Brits have had

plenty to cheer about and, with more

nations taking part than ever before

and a record number of tickets sold,

the international Paralympic

committee can also celebrate,

claiming these games to be the

greatest winter Paralympics to date.

That's it from me.

The next news on BBC

One is at 6:35pm.

Until then, have a good afternoon.