10/01/2017 Outside Source

Hello I'm Ros Atkins. Welcome to Outside source. The first stop is

Washington. The US Senate is grilling Jeff sessions, the man

Donald Trump wants to be the next US Attorney-General. This is the live

feed from the Senate. We are six-and-a-half hours into the

session. We've been listening to all of. It we'll tell you the most

significant moments. In Tehran, hundreds of thousands of

mourners paid their respect to the former Iranian president Akbar

Hashemi Rafsanjani. We will play this report from Ivory Coast of

chimps showing a huge degree of intelligence when it comes to

finding water. Volkswagen is saying it has a concrete draft for a

multibillion dollar settlement with the US government over the emissions

cheating scandal. We're live in New York with details on that.

This is senator Jeff sessions. Donald Trump would like him to be US

Attorney-General. This is in the middle of his confirmation hearing.

It's been going on for hours and hours, six-and-a-half to be precise.

It has covered an extraordinary range of issues. We'll work through

some of the most important ones in the next few minutes. There have

been protests too. The hearing has been inrupted

several times. That may be because Mr Sessions is seen as one of the

most conservative members of the Senate. Some Americans don't like

the idea of him being their Attorney-General. He's been

questioned on a huge number of positions he holds on a variety of

issues. Let's work through some of those now. The BBC's Anthony Zirka

is in Washington. First of all, we've heard this extraordinary

situation of Mr Sessions being quizzed on whether he's a racist or

not. Right, absolutely. The racism issue has been hanging over

Sessions' head since he was nominated. His nomination back in

1986 to be a federal judge was derailed because he made racially

insensitive comments and jokes and so now people are looking at this as

perhaps an opportunity to rehash those racism issues. Actually that

was brought out fairly early on in his opening statements. He condemned

the KKK said he wasn't a racist, tried to tout his record on civil

rights, on prosecuting Ku Klux Klan member when he was a local state

attorney and he had could quay with -- kcolloquay about how it was

difficult to dole with the issues of racism and he may not have responded

in the best way earlier in his career, but he's learned from his

mistakes. They're trying to diffuse this. They knew this would be a key

angle of criticism going forward. We've pulled out various clips from

the hearing. We'll play them and get you to respond to them. This is

senator Sessions being asked about Donald Trump's idea a temporary ban

on Muslims entering the US. I have no belief and do not support the

idea that Muslims as a religious group should be denied admission to

the United States. We have great Muslim citizens who've contributed

in so many different ways and America, as I said in my remarks at

the occasion that we discussed in committee, are great believers in

religious freedom and the right of people to exercise their religious

beliefs. That's not what Donald Trump was saying on the campaign

trail. No, that's not what he was saying in December of 2015, at

least. Donald Trump has modulated his position as Jeff sessions noted,

to not an all-out Muslim ban, but intense scrutiny of people coming

over from countries that have a history of terrorism relations,

terrorism activity. Though it was interesting that Jeff sessions did

say that immigration officials can look at a person's religion to see

if it's conducive to public safety. There's a little bit of wriggle room

even in the comments we heard today. Let's talk about abortion. It's t

was inevitable it came up. Mr Sessions described a landmark

Supreme Court ruling as colossally erroneous. He was asked if that was

still his view? . It is. I believe it violated the constitution and

really attempted to set policy and not follow law. It is the law of the

land. It has been so established and settled for quite a long time. It

deserves respect and I would respect it and follow it. As such, should we

expect Mr Trump to attempt a fundamental shift in America's

position on abortion? I don't think so. I don't think Donald Trump,

well, he's said different things during the campaign. He said women

could be prosecuted for having abortions if it were illegal. Other

times he backed away from that. I don't think we'll see a fundamental

shift. From Jeff Sessions and other people Donald Trump is appointed,

we'll see attempts to chip away at the edges of abortion rights to

limit the amount of time a woman can have an abortion from say 24 weeks

of pregnancy down to 20 weeks of pregnancy, perhaps limiting

different hospitals can perform abortions, what clinics, the

requirements on clinics to be able to have abortions. There have been

Supreme Court decisions in the past that have tried uphold the abortion

rights. Donald Trump if he poise a Supreme Court justice who is as

strongly against abortion rights, we could see those policies change as

well. The next clip I've got and those of you just joining us, we're

running through some of the most significant moments as senator

Sessions goes through a hearing ahead of his being appointed as

Attorney-General. He was asked about an incident where Mr Trump was

caught on tape boasting about grabbing women by the genitals. Mr

Sessions said he wouldn't characterise that as sexual assault,

previously. The confusion about the question was hypothetical. And it

related to what was said on the tape. I did not remember at the time

whether this was suggested to be an unaccepted, unwanted, it would

certainly meet the definition. That's what the tapes said, then

that would be - My question is grabbing a woman by a genitals

without consent, is that sexual assault? Yes. Thank you. A range of

difficult questions. Nonetheless, you wouldn't bet against Mr Sessions

becoming the Attorney-General, would you? No, I think it would be hard to

bet against that, because everything that happened today, it looks like

Sessions' raurt support is -- Republican Party support is strong.

It takes just 50 votes to confirm him. One Democrat, of West Virginia,

has come out in support. It would have to be a pretty sizeable swing

erosion of Republican support for him not to be confirmed. There is no

indication of that happening any time today. Thank you very much. No

doubt we'll talk tomorrow. That's one major story we've been

covering in the news room. Let's turn to another. Let me show you

some of the pictures coming in of the funeral of Iran's former

president. First of all, this is the country's Supreme Leader leading

funeral prayers at Tehran University. You can see Iran's

current president next to him. The coffin was carried out of the

university campus with with his famous white cleric's turban on top.

I'm sure you'll recognise that. Then these were the extraordinary scenes

outside, hundreds and hundreds of thousands, some people estimated up

to two million people, came out to pay their respects. His body was

buried next to the founder of the Islamic Republic. There was only one

person to speak to about this, the BBC's Lyse Doucet.

I attended the funeral, the last major funeral in Iran, in ayatollah

Khamenhi in 1989. This is the most significant death since then. It's

been widely discussioned as a possible political turning point in

Iran. I was going to ask you about that. It's a day of mourning, is it

also a day of politics? Very much so. There's a lot of reporting about

the fact that state television carrying extraordinary images live,

some 2. 5 million people are said to have turned out from right across

the political spectrum. Yet mixed in with the lamentation, opposition

slogans went up into the crowds and the state television tried to reduce

the sounds, raise the sound of the chanting to somehow try to hide the

fact that some of the opposition groups that were there were trying

to dominate the sound from the crowds. Everyone found their own

moment in the crowds today. Interesting reading the obituaries

in the western press. A lot have warmed to him in recent years. He's

a unique character who played a awe neeck role in Iran. You hear the

bitterness being expressed by some people who remember him in the early

years of the revolution. He's the man who is identified with the

repressive rule, responsible, they say, for the deaths of many

dissidents, deaths never resolved. In later years, particularly the

younger generation and the middle classes warmed to him. They saw him

as a man who had both the credentials and the cloud and the

courage to speak out. He could speak truth to power and who is powerful

in the Islamic Republic? The Supreme Leader. Interests how he said we had

our differences, but they were the last two big pillars of the

revolution. I must take the opportunity to mesh together our two

lead stories. Huge political change in Washington. Political moments of

great significance in Tehran. How do you foresee those two cities, those

two governments operating alongside each other? It's interesting because

now everyone is looking at the legacy of Barack Obama. There are

many things which he did not do. One of the things he did do was this

landmark nuclear deal. In Iran there is real unease about what's going to

happen to the deal now with Donald Trump coming to power. And the fact

that the reformists have lost their strong voice in that Rafsanjani.

They are worried they won't be able to manoeuvre in a very pole rised --

polarised system in the way they used. To they've lost one of their

weapons. Thanks very much. Next, the centre of the earth. We

know you find iron and Nichol there. Now Japanese scientists think they

know of a third element. This is an exciting science story. If you don't

believe me, here's this report. The centre of the earth, this

mysterious place. We know it's a hard ball about 1200 kilometres

across. We know it's mainly made of iron, about 85% by weight and

Nichol, about so % by weight, that leaves 5%. For decades scientists

have been argue about what it might be. Now they've done a really neat

experiment. There are two ways to study the centre. See what happens

to seismic waves as they pass through the earths. The other way is

try and recreate the conditions of the centre of the earth in the lab.

That's what this team in Japan have done. They've subjected different

elements to incredibly high temperatures and high pressure. They

say the missing element is silicone. It's about 5%. Can they be sure? No.

But it looks quite good. Some other scientists a few years ago suggested

oxygen. This suggests more strongly it's silicone. Why silicone? Why is

this important, if you're a chemist you like silicone, so it's cool. But

it tells you about the formation of the earth, what was going on at that

time. You don't need to justify finding out about the centre of the

earth, it's interesting. How we learn about it, how does it inform

how we behave? It tells us more about what happened when we started

out. The solar system formed 4. 6 billion years ago. The earth then

formed. Rocks coming together. For a while molten rock, liquid moving

around. Gradually it cooled down and out of this hard crust on the

outside, you got this centre. By working out what's in there can tell

you much more about these processes. I think the best thing about this is

actually what the centre would look like. Because if it is alloys of

nickel and iron and silicone, it would be cystals, spectacular, that

we could never see but good to know they're probably there.

Rebecca always enthused but particularly so today. For more

background on that story, find it from her and her colleagues online

on the BBC News app. In a few minutes, another remarkable

science story, something different, showing us footage from Ivory Coast

of chimpanzees making tools out of wood to access water. Play that in a

few motorbike minutes. -- few minutes.

Jeremy Corbyn has said he isn't wedded to the idea of keeping

freedom of movement. He was addressing supporters in

Peterborough. The Labour leader pulled back from recommended a pay

cap on top earners. In the 1920s, JP Morgan, the Wall

Street banker, yes, JP Morgan, the Wall Street banker limited salaries

to 20 times that of junior employees. Another advocate of pay

ratios was David Cameron. His government proposed a 20-1 pay ratio

to limit sky high pay in the public sector. Now all salaries higher than

?150,000 must be signed off by the Cabinet Office. We'll go further,

and extend that to any company that is awarded a Government contract.

This is not about limiting aspiration or penalising success.

This is outsite source. The lead story is from Washington.

Jeff Sessions, the man picked to be the next US attorney-general,

Is six hours into his Senate confirmation hearing. First to

Afghanistan. BBC Pashto reports

on a bombing in Kabul. No hope of the Gambian political

stalemate getting sorted out soon. The Supreme Court says it won't have

enough judges until May to consider a petition from the President

detailing why his defeat French police are investigating

whether Kim Kardashian's chauffeur was involved in her being held

at gunpoint and robber Millions of dollars worth

of jewellery was stolen. The are looking into the theory

that the chauffeur may have For the first time ever,

researchers have filmed chimpanzees making and using tools to get access

to collect water. It's in this report

from Victoria Gill. A mother and baby in

Ivory Coast's Comoe National Park It's the dry season,

so to reach a water supply hidden deep within these tree holes,

they are making and using tools. It's just another insight

into the remarkable behaviour If you think they've got 90-95%

the same DNA as humans, We've seen it, working at Chester

zoo with these animals, The different cultures

of chimpanzees have So it's certainly not new to find

chimpanzees using tools. The animals are already known to use

sticks to fish for termites and to dip into beehives for honey,

but the researchers were particularly impressed by how well

crafted these drinking tools were. Chimps selected and stripped long

thin sticks and chewed the ends And for captive breeding

programmes like this one, zoos have to understand these

natural behaviours to keep the animals as mentally

stimulated as possible. And then we give them an area

where they keep honey, And they have to use their sticks,

make them into a certain way so they can put the stick

in the hole and get the food out. It's all gone very quiet

here at Chester Zoo because it's feeding time for

the chimpanzees, and these are actually Western chimpanzees,

the same subspecies that was looked Nimble fingered, very clever,

toolmaking and tool-using, but sadly, critically

endangered primates. In the wild, the population of these

great apes continues to decline, largely because of poaching

and the destruction Findings like this show just how

much more we have to learn Some news on the VW

emmissions scandal. Volkswagen has agreed

a draft settlement with US Let's bring in our correspondent in

New York. A few questions here. There's been some preliminary deals,

so what's different about this one? Well, this one resolves yet another

of the investigations and it's a key one, but I think the most striking

thing about it is that Volkswagen is expected to plead guilty to charges

that include wire fraud, that it violated the clean air act. It's

expected to plead guilty it to customs fraud. This is the result of

several investigations into the manipulation of diesel emission

tests. They began more than a year ago. The crucial thing for the

company is that as much as possible, they're trying to resolve this

criminal investigation, so they can move past the scandal that really

has cast a shadow. Remember right now, it's the Detroit autoshow. It

should be a golden moment to show off its wares and instead it's

talking about this. This is a draft deal. What needs to happen for it to

become a reel deal? -- real deal? It has to be approved by both sides.

We're expecting Volkswagen's board to meet possibly and approve it

possibly as early as today, maybe tomorrow. That's the process. The

key thing is if you compare this potential deal to recent ones

involving General Motors and Toyota, General Motors and Toyota in cases

of safety defects, neither of them had to plead guilty. They did pay

large fines. But they didn't plead guilty. That's what makes this

significant compared to those past ones. Michelle, thank you. I have a

report of yours that I'm going to play everyone watching about

President Obama's economic legacy. Have a look.

Wall Street is left reeling from some of the biggest blows... It's a

nightmare for Wall Street... Bankruptcies, bailouts and

unemployment rate that peaked at 10% in 2009. When Barack Obama became

president he and his team were confronting the total collapse of

the financial system. 15 million Americans were out of work, when he

delivered his first State of the Union Address. People are out of

work, they're hurting. They need our help. That is why jobs must be our

number one focus in 2010. Perhaps his biggest achievement - stopping

the recession from turning into another Great Depression. It started

with the rescue of a symbol of US industrial might, the American car

industry. Something this investment banker remembers well. Stephen

Ratner led Obama's autoindustry recovery team. It was a testament to

President Obama's impartiality that he made a decision that was

unpopular, but was clearly in retrospect the right decision. If we

had allowed those car companies to continue to liquidate, there would

have been a loss of potentially a million jobs, in the short run, at a

time in the economy was lose soing many jobs. -- losing so many jobs.

An unprecedented amount of money was spent to stimulate the economy.

Nearly $4 million made its way here to the Bronx community health

centre, saving 15 jobs. Not everyone was a fan of the stimulus plan. We

were. We were great fans of it, because it allowed us to really

enhance our mission. Under President Obama, a staggering 11 million jobs

have been created. While hiring has picked up, many of those positions

are temporary or part-time, not the kind of work you can raise a family

on. That's why many people I spoke to were gloomy. Do you feel more

hopeful than eight years ago or less? It's like so-so. Prices are up

and salaries remain the same. President Obama hands over an

economy near full employment, following the longest stretch of job

growth in history. But many Americans have forgotten what

prosperity feels like, a challenge facing the incoming administration.

Let's shift from the US to the UK, because this is what's happening to

the FTSE 100 indevil -- index. It made history today. It's been going

up and up. It closed at a record high for a ninth day in a row,

that's the longest streak ever and it's not unrelated to what's been

happening to the value of the pound since the UK voted to leave the

European Union. That's the moment of Brexit. But the pound has been

making its way down since. A weaker pound is boosting the profits of

many multinational companies, when they convert foreign earnings into

pounds. That does the world of good for their share price. The UK tech

sector got good news today. Snap is behind Snapchat. It announced its

going to set up its international base in the UK.

The point is that a lot of social media companies, like Facebook and

Google have run into trouble over setting up tax bases in lower tax

jurisdictions in Europe and then diverting profits from other large

markets into those jurisdictions in order to minimise their tax bills.

So snapping is not doing that. They're setting up in the UK and

channelling their profits from the UK first of all, but also from other

countries, where they don't have a major base, that includes Australia

and Saudi Arabia, and paying tax on them in the UK. Now that tax bill at

the moment won't actually be very high because Snapchat's revenues are

not that high, at the moment. But it's expanding rapidly. It's taking

on more advertising. So there will be more money coming in. That money

will be going through the UK. Let's not forget, the UK itself, as a

major economy, has a relatively low corporation tax rate, 20% at the

moment. It's going to fall to 17% by 2020. By doing this, Snap Inc is

avoiding regulatory problems, the UK Government and European Commission

clamping down on companies are aggressive tax policies. At the same

It's basing itself in the UK where it has -- -- It's basing itself in

the UK. We have live feeds coming in from Capitol Hill in Washington.

Various confirmation hearings continue ahead of Donald Trump

becoming president on the 20th January. Speak to you in a couple of

minutes.