19/01/2016 Outside Source

Welcome back to Outside Source. Let's look through the top stories.

A new report by the UN accounts staggering violence in Iraq. It

details thousands of civilian deaths and atrocities carried out by

so-called Islamic State. China's economy is growing now at

the slowest rate for 25 years and critics are saying actually the

Chinese data could be unreliable. Growth could be even slower than

reported. We're also going to turn to Flint in

Michigan. We're showing you this water because it has far too much

lead in. It a state of emergency has been declared. We will look at that

story. In sport, we concentrate on the

tennis. Nadal is out and Venus Williams.

Now next I want to look at a new website launched by the UK

Government, designed to prevent school children from being rad cried

by -- radicalised by extremists. The site has information for teachers,

parents too and there's advice on how to spot signs that pupils are

being targeted. Let's look at what difference a site

like this could make. Captured on camera for ever. The

three schoolgirls who were enticed to Syria. The education secretary

ought and anti-radicalisation message to their school, but can a

simple website make a difference. I think they website would help. It

would help teachers to engage with parents and the community. If a

Muslim girl aged 15 or 16 decides she wants to wear the niqab because

she is becoming a woman, can that be interpreted as a sign of

radicalisation? It could be a warning. Today the education

secretary promised to back any school that banned children from

covering their face. Sometimes children can be influenced by

friends and family. At a local charity I met young people. Did they

believe government advice would influence parents? Some people are

on social networking sites because they have more friends on them.

Parents could take that in a wrong way. Is there a danger in over

interpreting some of those simple signs? Yes, definitely. Take me for

example, I am growing a beard. People might take it the wrong way

and overthink it too much. Schools are in the front line, but some

teachers fear they are being turned into policemen. There is a fine line

it's been protecting children and alienating the communities the

government wants to reach. If you were watching a view minutes ago,

you would have seen me pull up this copy from the New York Times. Sarah

Pailin is going to endorse Donald Trump. We have just got through to

Kathie Kay in our Washington bureau. We will speak to her in five or ten

minutes time. In the meantime, let's talk about tennis. The Australian

open is up and running. Already, some surprises. But they Nadal is

out. This is what he said after the game. I am feeling myself that I am

not ready for it. The year has been a different story. I have been

playing and practising great. Working so much. It is tough when

you work so much and arrive at an important event and you are out.

Let's speak to the BBC sports centre. There was talk for Nadal --

of Nadal passing Federer in terms of grand slams, but that is looking

unlikely. He was beaten today by his compatriot and friend Fernando

Verdasco. It is only the second time he has gone out in the second round

of eight grand slam, but he spent all of 2015 without a grand slam

title, which is the first time it has happened since 2004. Last year

he only won three ATP tour titles, the lowest number since 2004. But in

context, he has been out for times in the last six years with injuries.

Talking about his age, people are saying he could be getting old. He

is 30, but Roger Federer is 34. It is too soon to say. Let us see what

happens during the clay season and the French open, which he has won

nine times. I was surprised when I heard about the Nadal result, but

less surprised to hear that the Ms Williams did not make it three. She

is the eighth seed and is a seven times grand slam champion. Her fire

was heavily strapped and she was struggling. She is the oldest player

at the age of 35. She has struggled with illness. Years. It seemed last

year she may have found some form and return to the top ten for the

first time in five years, but she is not the player she was. She has not

won a grand slam since 2008. One top seed, Simona Halep is out. Her

opponent beat into sets and she cried on court because just a feud

months ago she is that she going to hang up her rackets and become a

fruit and vegetable farmer. Instead, she has beaten the second seed at

the Australian open. Great stuff. The farming can wait. If at first

you don't succeed, try and try and try again. That could apply to the

opponents for the welterweight belt. This is what they said at the press

conference. Despite will be different than the first to

altercations we have had. -- this fight. It is going to be a great

fight. I know he wants to win badly and so do I. I am so happy. I am

hanging up my gloves after this fight because what I have done. I am

sure I will feel sad after that, but you know, that is life. Not all the

time you keep on fighting. Not all the time you are in the ring, but

this time I think, I remember when I started boxing, I started boxing

because I wanted to help my family, my mother. Now I want to help my

countrymen, the Filipino people. So April the night before their last

fight. A quick up dates on the fee first gamble. It turns out Sepp

Blatter is still being paid a full salary. -- the Fifa scandal. He is

still being elected president and is entitled to receive his

remuneration. All this despite the fact that blatter is banned from all

football related activity over the payment made to Michel Platini. We

must emphasise that both men denied doing anything wrong. Let turned to

the faculties in athletics. There is no one you would want to hear from

more than Michael Johnson. He has been talking about the IAAF

corruption allegations. We have spent several years now with

athletics being top of mind when doping in sport comes around and

that is partially due to the fact we probably catch more people in our

sport than others catching their sports, but at the same time, that

conversation has change from whether or not this athlete or that athletes

may be doping. I can't think of anything worse than the idea that

the very people who have been entrusted to protect clean athletes

and protect and grow the sport have been involved in allowing people to

destroy the sport and allowing those athletes who may be have been dirty

and have tested positive to take medals and prize-money and glory

from the real victims which are those clean athletes. I would never

have thought we would be sitting here in a situation which is as bad

as the Fifa scandal, where athletics could be seen as corrupt, even

worse. The real victims in this situation with athletics, if you

think about the victims it is worse because the victims here are those

athletes that never had the opportunity to stand on the podium

and they should have. Michael Johnson there on the today

programme. Later, we will hear about Europe is back longest ice road. It

is in Estonia. We will speak to someone who has driven on it. Now,

famously, or infamously, the pollsters got it wrong in the

general election. Today it was revealed why.

Here it is, ten o'clock, and we are saying the Conservatives

As Big Ben struck ten on election night last year,

there was a collective gasp at the exit poll.

It put the Conservatives as the biggest party

So different from the dead heat predicted in the run-up to polling

day, pundits and politicians were astounded.

An extraordinary night, if, if that exit poll is right.

If this exit poll is right, Andrew, I will publicly eat my hat

During the campaign, pollsters ask people how

They got it wrong because, put simply, they spoke to too many

Labour voters and too few Conservatives.

So how can we trust pollsters in the future?

Yes, we did get it wrong last time but we hope to get it

We and all the other pollsters need to do a better job of contacting

older people and younger people who are politically disengaged.

To many people, opinion polls may not matter that much

but to journalists and politicians they do, and repeated predictions

of a hung parliament before the last election shaped the way parties

ran their campaigns and defined the debate.

The idea of Labour being in the SNP's pocket in a power-sharing

deal was seized upon by the Tory campaign.

Because of the focus on possible coalitions,

some think polls and the media might have influenced voters.

They certainly shape the election campaign in a scandalous way

because the whole of that campaign, if you remember, was dominated

by the likes of you speculating about a hung parliament.

That is what all the officially-published opinion polls

were predicting, rather than focusing on the much more

probable outcome which was a Tory majority.

But Labour's loss was more complex, according to its own

It failed to connect with voters on issues like welfare

and immigration, and didn't convince them on the economy.

Actually, the policies were very popular, but people didn't know

quite where they fitted, they did not have a feel

for the overall picture of what a Labour government

And at the end of an election, it is voters at the ballot box,

not the opinion polls, which determine who gets

This is programme at Crow. Our lead story is the UN reports that talks

about atrocities in Iraq. This is what you have got coming up after

Outside Source. Economic uncertainty is leading the ten o'clock news.

There will be a bumpy year ahead for the global economy. As I was just

mentioning, look who says Donald Trump will be the best next

president of the United States. This coming from the New York Times who

broke the story, but it is now on his website. Sarah Pailin is

endorsing Donald Trump. But I speak to catty came, live from the US. Did

you see this one coming? It is quite a pairing. Sarah Pailin, die-hard

conservative, a woman who can rally massive crowds. It is an unusual

pairing. She is conservative and has Christian credentials. He has been

seen as less conservative. For example, he has supported a national

health system for the United States, comparing it to Canada and Scotland.

That is a kind of thing she would hate. Politically, they are not the

same. Stylistically, they are similar. They love the limelight,

they have both in reality show stars, they get the crowds, they

like speaking of the calf, saying things that are outrageous. In some

ways, these two have been public soul mates for a long time and it is

not that much of a surprise and it is a big deal for Donald Trump.

When she joined John McCain on the ticket she was a boost, but that

only lasted a few weeks. So how much of a boost is she really? The reason

I think it's a big deal is the timing of this. We're ten days from

the aye what Caucasus. Iowa. He's feeling the pinch with Ted Cruz. Ted

Cruz gaining in the polls. That's causing Donald Trump some worry. He

wants to make sure he wins Iowa. Sarah Palin's endorsement could be

the boost that pushes him into a late surge in that state. That would

be very important for him. I'm not sure if she brings in a massive

amount of new supporters. She's a conservative. I suspect that people

that like Sarah Palin already like Donald Trump. I think it's the

momentum. It's the buzz. It's the fact that we are all talking, once

again, about Donald Trump, and not about that guy who is competing with

him Ted Cruz. Thank you very much. Have a good programme. That's live

from the World News America studio in Washington DC. We're going to

stay? The US d -- stay in the US and focus on Flint in Michigan. There's

a major environmental disaster playing out. It's to do with the

town's water supply. It's become severely contaminated with lead

because of an ageing pipeline system.

The birthplace of General Motors, Flint, Michigan, is a symbol of

industrial decline. Now a new danger - its water. Melissa, once a healthy

mother of three, blames her family's recent health problems on the city's

water. It was in the fall of 2014 we started to lose our hair, all five

of us. We started to develop rashes on our arms and face. It wouldn't go

away. It hurt. So you know, we'd ask questions, and they'd tell us the

water is just harder, it's fine. Come in here and get some water. It

was far from fine. Her children's blood tests revealed high exposure

to lead. So how did Flint's water supply become contaminated? To save

money, the city stopped pumping water from Detroit and started

pumping it from the Flint River. The problem is it's a lot more

corrosive, damaging Flint's ageing pipes and leeching lead into the

water supply. The state didn't acknowledge there was lead in the

water until September, a year-and-a-half after the switch.

They didn't ask for government help until last week. President Obama has

now declared a state of emergency. We found some really hot pockets

where the lead levels were the worst. The paediatrician who helped

exroz the lead problem says residents would live with the

consequences for the rest of their lives. It affects their cognition.

So their thinking, it drops children's IQ. It drops their IQ

points. So imagine what this has done to an entire population? We

have shifted that IQ curve down. In a largely black sitsy, a sense of

betrayal -- City, a sense of betrayal and anger. Film maker

Michael Moore said what many were thinking, this wouldn't have

happened anywhere else. This is not just a water crisis, it's a racial

crisis. It's a poverty crisis. Relying on donated water, resz dents

fetch all the -- residents fetch all the bottles they can carry, a

routine that's wearing thing but -- thin, but one they have to get used

to. It may be years before the water is safe to drink again.

Now just in case you've just joined me, let me just reiterate the

breaking news we began the programme with, that Islamic State group has

confirmed the death of Jihadi John. The UK and the US governments have

been saying this is the case for a long while. This was due to a drone

strike in early November. This is the first Islamic State has

confirmed that he has been killed. He is the person allegedly appearing

in several grotesque IS videos in which we see people being held by

Islamic State, being beheaded. Next we turn to a story from

Estonia, which our colleagues at Outside Source radio alerted us to.

It's about Europe's longest ice road. Its about to open. It connects

the Estonian mainland to an island, which is only open in the winter,

for the obvious reason that's the only time the ice is thick enough.

The director of the island's museum is here beautifully describing this

extraordinary journey. This is not much scary. You don't

feel actually being on the ice, you just know it. Below you have about

20 metres of water, but it's quite safe. It is not glass ice. It is

covered with snow. So you have a feeling of driving in the

countryside on a big field rather than on ice. Actually it's very big

and good feeling for an islander. We normally go by ships, by ferries,

boats, and for a couple of months during the winter, to go by car,

it's a very good feeling. The road is well prepared, very safe. There

will be road signs. They will cut from the forests and put from the

road so you can see where the road goes. There is a speed limit of 70

kilometres per hour. What is interesting, it's not only the upper

limit, but lower limit. You can't drive too slow. You must drive

approximately the same speed all the time. Something mesmeric about that.

That's all for now. I'll see you at the same time tomorrow. Bye-bye.

Here's some of the stories on Sportsday this evening. There were

eight FA Cup third round replays being played tonight. Eastleigh were

the only non-league team left in the competition. They were