20/12/2017 Outside Source

Hello, I'm Ros Atkins,

this is Outside Source.

We will start with breaking news

from Westminster because in the past

have an hour the first Secretary,

Damian Green, has announced that he

has resigned. That is the sound of

major tax reform being passed in the

US.

There are tax cuts coming for

American companies and individuals.

Opponents says it

reform for the rich.

The President's having none of that.

This bill means more take-home pay,

it will be an incredible Christmas

gift for hard-working Americans.

The EU is taking unprecedented

action against a member state

as Poland presses on with

changes to its judicial.

We'll report from

Brussels and Warsaw.

And we'll be in Barcelona on the eve

of crucial elections in Catalonia.

As with every edition of Outside

Source, we will take you through the

biggest stories around the world in

the next hour with the help of the

best of the BBC international

journalists and we start here in

London because Damian Green from the

UK's Deputy Prime Minister, has

resigned. It was after an enquiry

into allegations about his conduct

found he made inaccurate and

misleading statements about what he

knew about claims pornography had

been found on a computer in his

office in the Houses of Parliament a

few years ago. This was the letter

that has been sent to Theresa May,

apologising for his conduct and the

Prime Minister has replied accepting

his resignation. We can go live to

Alex Forsyth who is in Westminster.

Tell us more about the conclusion of

this investigation.

This enquiry was

in two broad matters, the first was

allegations that Damian Green had

behaved inappropriately towards a

conservative activist and the second

concerning alleged legal pornography

that was found on computers in his

Parliamentary office in 2008. From

the outset he has denied any

wrongdoing on either account and

maintained that any pornography

found did not belong to him and this

enquiry has not been definitive when

it comes to those two central

matters. It does not say exactly

what happened in either case but

what it does find is that when

Damian Green says he was not told by

police about those allegations of

pornography, that was wrong and in

fact his lawyers were told by police

lawyers and therefore he made

misleading statements about what he

knew about the allegations and as a

consequence he is bound to have

breached the ministerial code and

has resigned. The reason this so

much is because he was the first

Secretary of State, the de facto

Deputy Prime Minister and very close

to the Prime Minister. They have

been friends since university, he

was her political ally and confidant

around the Cabinet table and it is

very clear she did not want him to

go at this stage and in fact in her

letter to him she said she was

extremely sad to be writing this

letter and she pays long tribute to

his role in government as first

Secretary of State and she talks

about their long friendship but she

says with deep regret, because he

was found to have breached the

ministerial code, when it came to

what he was told about the

allegations of pornography, that she

has asked him to resign.

There are

tweets coming through, one saying

another one bites the dust which is

a reference to the fact that the

Prime Minister has lost a number of

allies in the last few months.

She

has, the third Cabinet minister to

go after Michael Fallon resigned

over allegations about his conduct

and then Priti Patel also resigned

over business meetings she had

without informing Downing Street.

This is the third Cabinet minister

and perhaps the most significant for

Theresa May because he was such a

close ally, but the third to go in a

short period of time. This follows a

period where there have been

questions about the stability of the

government and the Cabinet in the

UK. This is in June timing for

Theresa May to say the least. It is

something she would not have wanted

-- in opportune timing. But she felt

she had little choice but to ask him

to resign. We must make it clear

that Damian Green continues to deny

any allegations of wrongdoing when

it comes to the substance of those

matters of the act he said he was

not told about the pornography when

his lawyers were made aware.

Thank

you very much. The UK Deputy Prime

Minister has resigned at there will

be further coverage of this in the

coming minutes and you can get more

details online right now. We are

going to switch to Washington.

A short time ago President Trump

gave a press conference

marking the major overhaul

of the US tax system.

These are the people right behind me

who have worked so long and so hard.

It has been an amazing experience I

had to tell you. It has not been

done in 34 years but actually,

really hasn't been done because we

broke every record. It is the

largest, I always say the most

massive but it is the largest tax

cut in the history of our country

and reform, but tax really something

special.

It's been approved by both

houses of Congress today

because the House of Representatives

had to vote again today

because a procedural rule

hadn't been followed.

Hugely significant for two reasons.

First, the bill gives big

tax cuts to businesses,

and to lesser and greater extents

tax cuts to individuals.

Second, this is President Trump's

first major piece of legislation.

He's pleased, calling it

the biggest in history.

That was what he said on Twitter.

He says the cuts are so large

and so meaningful and yet the fake

news is working overtime to follow

the lead of their friends,

the defeated Dems, and only demean.

No demeaning going on here,

but we are going to look

at this in detail.

Mr Trump's been thanking

senior Republicans.

Well he might.

Every single Republican senator

voted for the bill which got it

through 51 to 48 last night.

Every Democrat voted against it,

so they're not happy.

There are only two places where

America is popping champagne. The

White House and the corporate

boardrooms including Trump Tower.

Otherwise Americans have a lot to

regret.

Rajini Vaidyanathan is at

the White House. It is quite

something to see Mr Trump laughing

and joking with Paul Ryan and other

senior Republicans. He was at

loggerheads with them not so long

ago.

These are some of the people

who criticised him very strongly

when he was candid at Trump and have

not been on the best of terms with

him since he moved into the White

House. This is a significant moment

for the relationship between

President Trump and the Republican

party because they have managed to

rally together and go back and forth

on what this tax plan would contain

and come to an agreement. And when

it came to the Senate, all of the

Republicans voted with the party,

only 12 on the house side dissented.

The majority rallying together and

that is why they all joined him on

the steps. It is worth noting what

some of the Republican leadership

have been saying in the last few

days, people like Senate majority

leader Mitch McConnell conceding

that the job now is to sell this

planned to the American people all

the polls suggest that the majority

of Americans are concerned about

this tax plan, and as you heard with

the Democrats saying it will only be

the wealthy and billionaires who

will be the winners in this.

And one

thing I don't understand, President

Trump has expensive plans for

infrastructure, a wall along the

Mexican border, and yet the

government taxation income is going

to drop from this so where will he

get the money from customers in many

ways this is based on the idea of

what is known as trickle-down

economics.

The Republicans have been

saying that yes, this could be

something like a $1.5 trillion tax

bill that this plan could end up

costing but they believe if you cut

corporation tax it will stimulus

growth in the economy because

businesses are more likely to invest

in things and create jobs. That is

what Republicans have been saying.

If you do this, more money will flow

around the economy and it will boost

growth but not everybody is buying

into that theory and certainly

Democrats are concerned that

something is going to have to pay

for this huge price tag. Their big

concern is that in the New Year the

Republicans may come back to

Congress and start slashing welfare

and entitlement programmes which

could impact of lower income

Americans the most.

Thank you very

much. If you still have questions

about this tax reform, send them in

because we will be covering this

again in a few minutes. We started

in Westminster, then to Washington

and now Brussels and Warsaw.

The European Union is doing

something it's never done before -

it's taking action against one

of its members, Poland,

over judicial reforms that it it

believes are anti-democratic.

Frans Timmermans is vice-President

of the European Commission.

He says they've acted

with "a heavy heart.

But the facts leave

us with no choice.

We have no other option.

This is not just about Poland,

it is about the EU as a whole."

A number of things to play you on

this.

This is Adam Fleming in Brussels.

For about two years the European

Commission has been monitoring the

situation in Poland and they say

there have been 13 pieces of

legislation put in place or proposed

which threaten democracy in the

country, threaten the rule of law.

What happened today is that Frans

Timmermans, the first vice president

of the European Commission,

recommended the triggering of

article seven which is the EU's way,

never used before, of disciplining

countries with the rule of law under

threat. Now it moves to the European

Council, the EU leaders and they

have the right to call in the Prime

Minister Poland and asking what he's

doing and get him to explain

himself. If four fifth of those

leaders agree, pollen can be put

under observation and

recommendations can be made and the

situation observed.

What we are

looking at is part one of Article

seven of the Lisbon Treaty. You can

read it all online.

Let's look at the second part,

the so-called 'nuclear option'.

That allows for sanctions

and the suspension of voting rights.

But for that to happen,

all of the EU's members

states need to approve it.

And Hungary has already said

it'll block such a move.

Perhaps that helps us understand how

defiant Poland is.

President Duda has announced that

he's signed into law two bills

on the judiciary that particularly

concerned the EU.

And he said this earlier.

TRANSLATION:

These reforms were

passed in Parliament, first by the

upper house and then by the Senate

without amendments and I made the

decision to sign these two laws. We

cannot allow judges to govern

themselves and decide on matters

that concern them without any

oversight. It is not just the

separation of powers which is

important, there also has to be the

right balance between powers.

Now, the centre of the Polish

government's argument

is that its judicial system

is inefficient and corrupt.

And it argues that

communist-era judges

are pursuing their own agenda.

It says addressing these issues

is its sovereign right.

Let's get to Warsaw.

Adam Easton is there.

I put it to him that the government

is right and that there are judges

from the commonest era who resisted

democratisation and still pursue

their own agenda.

The government

says that essentially commonest era

judges are still sitting in court

and Communist era collaborators

infiltrated the system and resisted

any change. -- Communist era judges.

The case of the government would be

reinforced if it were not for the

fact that the governing party's

point man on judicial reform was a

communist era prosecutor. It is OK

for him to be in this position even

though his history was in the

Communist era as a prosecutor but

not for judges who are of a certain

age and were judges during the

commonest era.

And in terms of the

confidence we are seeing from the

Polish government, do you think it

is rooted in the fact they don't

believe all of the EU member state

would vote through serious sanctions

against them?

I think they are

almost assured that will be the

case. Budapest, Hungary is a very

close ally of this current Polish

government and it has said many

times it will veto any sanction

against Poland and let's not forget

that to have any, the second stage

of this process, which could end in

Poland having its voting right

inside the EU suspended and other

sanctions, that requires the

agreement of all EU member states

and Hungary has said it will not

sanction it. I think it has ground

to be confident.

And is the position

taken by the government are proving

popular at home?

Certainly

overwhelmingly Polish people think

the court system should be reformed.

A recent opinion poll said 81% of

people here said reform was needed.

The main grievances of the public

are firstly that trials drag on for

months and months, far too long. The

second is that the court proceedings

themselves are too complicated and

the third is this concern about

corruption amongst judges. Yes, the

public agrees there should be some

sort of reform. But does not mean to

say that they agree with the way the

governing Law and Justice party is

going about it. There is a

difference there of course. Tens of

thousands of people over the last

few months have taken to the streets

to protest against this because they

share the European Commission's fear

that these reforms give the

governing party the tools to

essentially politicise the media and

essentially put in judges who are

loyal to the government in positions

of power.

In a few minutes we will

return to the US to talk about

Donald Trump's first major

legislative victory and we will get

into the detailed of what will

change.

The Metropolitan Police

is undertaking a review

of all of its current sex offence

investigations following

the collapse of two rape cases.

The prosecutions were halted

because of the late

disclosure of evidence.

The Attorney General, Jeremy Wright,

has been giving his thoughts.

We need to understand and urgently

what went wrong in those cases, that

is the work underway now but there

is a broader issue here. That is

about how well or otherwise the

disclosure system is working

throughout the criminal trial system

and we were already aware that there

were concerns about this. Concern is

that I think arise not necessarily

from failures of individuals to do

their jobs properly but from the

fact that we have very large amounts

now of mostly digital information in

a whole range of trials that it is

very hard to filter and sift

effectively so you can find the

evidence that ought to be disclosed

and that is a problem we are

encountering in fraud cases,

terrorism cases but also as we have

discovered in other cases and that

is what we need to look at.

The lead story comes from

Westminster because Damian Green has

announced he has resigned. Picking

up on some of the main stories from

BBC World Service.

Two people were killed

in a nightclub fire in Kisumu

on Lake Victoria in Kenya.

Authorities believe an electrical

fault may have been the cause.

The renowned Mexican crime

journalist Gumaro Perez has been

shot and killed while attending

a Christmas celebration

at his son's school.

He is one of 12 journalists to have

been killed in Mexico this year.

No one has been arrested

over the killing.

That's on BBC Mundo.

Cardinal Bernard Law has

died aged 86 in Rome.

He was forced to resign

as Archbishop of Boston 15 years ago

over a church sex abuse scandal.

Back to this tax reform in the US.

Let's give you some details.

It'll lower corporate

taxes from 35% to 21%.

The argument for this is that

if corporations benefit,

so do many Americans.

The President has only one thing

at the top of his mind.

Ultimately what does it mean? It

means jobs, jobs, jobs.

The tax rates for individuals

will also drop, at least until 2025.

The highest earners

who get a 2% cut.

If you look right across the

spectrum, the bipartisan tax policy

Centre put out this data which shows

the more you earn, the more you are

likely to benefit and the less you

earn, the less you benefit. The

Democrats have been looking to

emphasise that.

This is not about

anything better for working-class

families, this is about champagne

glasses clinking and wealthy

families across the country and I

don't begrudge them success or

wealth or their achievement, I just

don't want to see it at the

exploitation of America's working

families.

Other key elements in the bill

include lower inheritance tax,

lower taxes on overseas profits.

And what about the cost of this?

The joint Congressional committee

on taxation says it's

around $1.4 trillion.

But here is the President making

the case for the cost.

$4 trillion will come flowing back

into the country, money that is

overseas that has been stuck there

for years and years.

We are covering

this story in the US. Let's talk

about the corporations. The idea is

that if there is less tax charged in

the US they will bring more money

back?

That's right. At 35% the US

corporate tax rate was the highest

in the developed world so what

President Trump and the Republicans

are saying is that by bringing it

down to 21%, and with other

deductions and exemptions, the

effective rate that companies pay

could be much lower and they are

essentially making the US

competitive on the global stage.

Making its corporate tax it

comparable to other countries. They

are also doing, money that US

companies earned abroad, when that

was with penetrated to the US there

was tax on it but they have a away

with that -- when it was

repatriation tip. President Trump is

saying they are giving incentives to

businesses overseas to bring it back

here and also for companies to

invest more here because they will

be taxed at a lower rate. There are

questions raised about whether the

trickle-down effect they have been

talking about will actually happen,

if the big companies benefit, making

these savings, are they really going

to pass them on in the form of

investment and creating more jobs or

will it just mean giving higher

dividends to their shareholders?

And

temporary tax cuts for individuals,

the fact they are slated to continue

until 2025 but what happens then?

Then it returns back to the

situation as it was earlier. You

pointed out earlier there would be

tax cuts for a lot of people but

also concerns that for some people

in some state taxes could even go

up. Right now what happened is that

if you pay a state or local tax here

there is a certain reduction you can

get on your federal income tax and

that has been curtailed by this bill

so for example New York, or New

Jersey, these are states with higher

tax rates so some people here could

even find themselves paying more.

But all of that is temporarily,

lasting only until 2025.

Thank you.

The European Court of Justice has

ruled what a lot of people might

think is pretty obvious,

that Uber is a transport company

rather than a digital service.

That impacts on how EU member

states can regulate Uber.

Theo Leggett explains

in this report.

The ride-hailing service Uber has

become a fact of life

in cities around Europe

over the past few years.

It is certainly convenient.

You can call a car, monitor

its progress, and pay for it -

all over the internet.

But what exactly is it?

When Uber first started

operating in Europe,

it tried to present itself as a kind

of digital middleman,

connecting passengers with drivers.

In other words, it was just a mobile

phone based app and didn't need

to abide by all the onerous rules

and regulations that apply

to regular taxi companies.

But others, particularly established

taxi drivers, disagreed.

They said that Uber was in fact

a transport services company

and should be subject to the same

rules and regulations

as any other taxi business.

Now the European Court of Justice

has agreed with them.

It says that legally speaking Uber

is indeed a transport company.

For Uber itself there

will not be a huge immediate

impact from the ruling.

It has already given ground

to regulators in most

of its major European markets.

In the UK and many other

countries it is already

licensed as a taxi operator.

But the decision could

affect its future plans.

It said today, millions

of Europeans are still prevented

from using apps like ours.

It is appropriate to regulate

services such as Uber

and we will continue the dialogue

with cities across Europe.

So that is actually

a transport service...

Meanwhile lawyers said the impact

of the ruling could go beyond taxi

firms and affect other businesses

which operate in the

so-called gig economy.

I think other companies in the gig

economy will be worried by this.

This is showing that the courts

are not going to be distracted

by the technology, they're

going to look at what is actually

happening and how local legislation

should already apply to that.

Free-market campaigners meanwhile

say that is a bad thing.

They think policymakers should be

moving with the times.

If you halt innovation

by applying old systems

and old patterns of regulation,

simply to protect incumbents,

or perhaps even you know with some

sort of idea about passenger safety,

you are constraining

the ability of people to do

things in their own way.

And at the end of the day people

know what is good for them.

This is by no means the first legal

ruling to affect Uber

and it is unlikely to be the last

as courts and regulators come

to terms with the profound impact

companies born in the digital age

have had on traditional businesses.

Theo Leggett, BBC News.

A moment to remind you of the lead

story, the UK Deputy Prime Minister

Damian Green has announced within

the last hour that he has resigned.

This is to do with an investigation,

and it should be added that the

allegations he is facing he has not

admitted to come it is to do with

information he provided and whether

it was entirely accurate. Laura

Kuenssberg is telling us that the

primary suspect to Damian Green

about those findings this afternoon

and then he resigned from the

government. We will be live from

Westminster in a moment.

It is that time in the evening when

we take a look at the weather

elsewhere around the world and

making the headlines recently

unfortunately have been the

Californian wildfires. The next few

days sees easing in the wins but

unfortunately with high building

there is no rain -- in the winds and

they might increase again at the end

of the weekend. You can see that low

pressure and then fewer ice and

lighter winds and the high-pressure

means little rain. Further east, it

may be December but severe

thunderstorms on Wednesday and even

the odd tornado before the system

clears into the Atlantic and we see

colder weather plunging southwards

Alsop by Christmas and beyond it

looks like we could have very cold

weather in deed with temperatures

five or 10 degrees below average

across the east of the US and Canada

all stop some snow in the great

Lakes. If you are travelling to or

from India the biggest problem is

amber warnings for fog across

northern state which will persist

for the rest of the week and it gets

cold as well. This mass of cloud is

a tropical storm which has affected

the Philippines and is moving across

southern part of the Vietnam towards

the Malay Lindsay. Expect more

flooding unfortunately. Also wet in

Sumatra and Jarba and Borneo and

this could be another storm for the

southern Philippines but even

further north the monsoon will

enhance the reins. Quite a lot of

rain is set to fall across central

and southern parts of Africa, it is

the rainy season but it looks more

intense than it has been. Days of

that heavy rain could cause further

flash flooding while in the north

there are strong winds blowing sick

dust around which could be a

disruptive for travel as well as

showers in the art of Algeria and

Tunisia and Libya. It is all tied in

with this low pressure developing

across the Mediterranean pushing

across Malta and into Greece and the

southern Balkans and eventually into

Turkey. Pretty inclement here but

further west we have high pressure

which means fog could still be an

issue for travellers in parts of

France, Germany and Iberia. There is

the low pressure moving gradually

eastwards, Stowe further north as

well as you can see in parts of

western Russia -- snow. As for the

UK, we have that week Weatherford

still with us on Thursday, brightest

to the north that in the slightly

told Abbott it will be mild further

south. More on the outlook for

Christmas and beyond in the next

half an hour. Goodbye.

Hello, I'm Ros Atkins.

This is Outside Source.

We will continue with the breaking

news because the past hour or so,

Damian Green has announced he will

resign. And a major tax reform bill

in the US has passed. Tax cuts for

companies and individuals. Opponents

say it is for the rich.

This means

more take-home pay, it will be an

incredible Christmas gift for

hard-working Americans.

A BBC report

from Nigeria.

The country's authorities

are trying to crack down

on fake prescription drugs.

And we'll be in Barcelona on the eve

of crucial elections in Catalonia.

Welcome to Outside Source.

Damian Green was second only to

Theresa May as the highest ranking

figure in the UK Government but he

has resigned as Deputy Prime

Minister after an investigation into

allegations of inappropriate

behaviour found he had breached his

code of office. The allegations were

that he made unwanted advances to a

female journalist, Kate Maltby, in

2015, and that he viewed pornography

on his computer in his office in

Parliament almost ten years ago. He

previously denied the

Parliament almost ten years ago. He

previously denied the allegations

but the report said he had been

inaccurate and misleading. Laura

Kuenssberg updated us on Twitter

saying Theresa May's deputy was

asked to resign. No definitive

conclusion on his behaviour to Kate

Maltby and the enquiry found her

account plausible. The resignation

letter has been released, as has the

reply from Theresa May accessing it.

The statement came through from the

parents of Kate Maltby on her behalf

and read...

We can go to Westminster. It is

increasingly clear that while

technically it was a resignation, it

was encouraged by the Prime

Minister?

Theresa May asked Damian

Green to go and he did. He offered

his resignation as he was asked and

I think once the findings of the

independent investigation were

presented to the Prime Minister she

felt she had no choice but to ask

him to go because of the finding he

misled the public with his

statements in relation to the

pornographic material discovered on

his Parliamentary computer. There

were two macro aspects of the

investigation, one about allegations

made by a young activist about

unwanted advances and the other

about whether he viewed pornographic

material on his Parliamentary

computer in 2008. This was during a

police raid the computers were

seized. Damian Green maintained his

innocence strongly throughout the

investigation. The tone of the

letters exchanged between Theresa

May and Damian Green are regretful.

The first line of Theresa May's

letter was, I am extremely sad to be

writing this. It was clear it was

not a conclusion she wanted to reach

but the finding, although

inconclusive with regards to

allegations of unwanted behaviour

towards the activist Kate Maltby, it

was more definitive, the findings

from a Cabinet Office official when

it came to his statements

surrounding the pornographic

material he denied he had been made

aware that interior was found on his

computers in 2008. In fact, the

Metropolitan Police, the

investigation found, had informed

him of that, so that led to him

having to go.

I have lost track how

many times Theresa May -- people

have said Theresa May does not have

the authority to sack a senior

figure but she felt that way today.

She has lost three senior ministers

are government in the past weeks and

she has managed to weather storm.

This resignation, Damian Green is a

close ally and they go back many

years and he is the de facto Deputy

Prime Minister, so this will be a

personal blow to her. It shows she

is taking action against one of her

closest allies. After the

recommendations of this committee

and although she may appear to have

lost one of her closest confidants,

she can be seen to be taking strong

action in regards to his behaviour.

Thank you.

Tomorrow, Thursday, Catalans

will vote in regional elections -

their core choice is between

politicians who want want

their core choice is between

politicians who want

independence and those who don't.

The reason this vote is happening

is because in October,

Catalonia's leaders held

a referendum on independence -

that was deemed illegal

by Spain's highest court.

Less than half of eligible

voters took part, but

according to organisers,

90% of who did,

supported independence.

That led to Catalonia's then

President, Carles Puigdemont

declared independence.

But within days he'd gone

into exile in Belgium.

Plus eight Ministers

and the regional parliament's

speaker were jailed while being

investigated for rebellion.

Spain's Prime Minister then sacked

the Catalan government -

and this election was called.

Tim Willcox, Barcelona.

The last three months of been

extraordinary with a whirlwind of

events and two months ago the

declaration of Independence and

Mariano Rajoy imposing, calling

these elections on December the

21st, saying he wanted to restore

normality to the region that the

campaigning in the elections have

been anything but normal. One

political leader, Carles Puigdemont,

has campaigned fire a hologram by

Brussels. His deputy leader of the

Republican Party, is imprisoned in

Madrid, trying to mastermind his

campaign, but facing charges of

sedition and rebellion. The only

issue on the campaign trail has been

Independence and those people

supporting independence from Spain

are viewing the vote tomorrow as a

referendum on the original

referendum deemed illegal by Madrid

in October. The Unionist groups, the

silent majority as they describe

themselves, using tomorrow as an

opportunity to come out on the

streets and say we want to remain

part of Spain. One group, a couple

of months ago we mentioned them,

known as the Citizens' party, a

right wing pro-Unionist party, they

could be the largest party in the

regional parliament tomorrow when we

have the initial results at 11pm

tomorrow evening. Crucially they

need to form some coalition with

other groups that will be the

problem, because either the

separatists or Unionists might not

have enough political allies in the

parliament to form a working

coalition. If that is not the case,

we are back at new elections

probably in the New Year.

MPs have

voted in Uganda overwhelmingly to

remove an age limit for the

presidency. The reason is the

president wants to run for a sixth

term, he is 73 and has been in

office since 1986.

I guess we were

expecting this? Yes. The ruling

party has the majority in the house

and today that paid dividends. We

saw MP after MP voting for the

legislation. And members of the

opposition and independents.

What

does the government said to critics

who say some African leaders want to

hang around too long?

This was his

point when he first came to power

over 30 years ago, and now he says

Uganda is a young nation that needs

more work and things to do to

improve the economy and

infrastructure. He says if you have

an age cap you are limiting options

for better leadership and I guess in

that case he means himself.

An

important vote in the parliament in

Uganda. More details on any of the

stories can be found on the website.

We are moving to different parts of

the world at pace. We have been in

Barcelona and Uganda. Now Ukraine.

There has been some of the worst

fighting in the east of the country

for the whole of the year. These are

recent pictures.

Several villages have been

shelled in recent days -

this is the aftermath in one.

BBC Russia reports this was carried

out by pro-Russia separatists.

We talk about this conflict less

frequently than in previous years

because of a reduction in fighting -

but it's not been resolved.

The UN believes 10,000 people have

died in the Donetsk and Luhansk

regions since April 2014.

The separatists seized territory not

long after Russia annexed

Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.

Russia has pulled out

of joint efforts to monitor

the ceasefire.

But independent observers

are still in place.

Here's one.

The special monitoring mission has

seen since the beginning of December

a steady increase in violations of

the ceasefire and in particular

since the 10th of December where the

ceasefire violations have reached

and passed the 4000 number on a

single day. The situation remains

volatile and unpredictable and it

has been throughout the year. If

measures to calm down the situation,

the withdrawing of heavy weapons and

disengaging are not undertaken

immediately, we are afraid the

situation will escalate add more

damage and injury will be caused.

On

stories like this we have an

invaluable resource. I mentioned

advice we had received from BBC

Russian. And now...

Irena Taranyuk, BBC Ukrainian.

It seems to have coincided with the

announcement of the Russian Foreign

Ministry that Russian generals are

withdrawing from the joint command

control centre that is supervising

the conditions of the ceasefire. The

spike started on Tuesday. A day

after Russia withdrew from the joint

command centre. One of the crucial

functions of the command centre has

been guaranteeing security to

international ceasefire observers

from overseas. It looks like

Ukrainian officers have no choice

but to also leave this centre

because rebels will not guarantee

Ukrainian officers' security. In

places not on Ukrainian government

control. It is a big mess and there

is no foreseeable end in this Spike

until, until of course you believe

the agreement. A group has agreed a

ceasefire will start on Saturday.

Why have the Russians pulled out?

The jury is out about their motives.

They claim the Ukrainian side is not

guaranteeing Russian officers'

conditions for any operation. They

worked there three years without

obstacles. Ukrainian experts claim

Russians are worried that starting

from the 1st of January Ukraine

demands stricter conditions and

controls for Russian citizens, which

includes biometrics. Can you imagine

Russian generals, who according to

sources might be connected to secret

Russian agents. Operating on

Ukrainian territory. That they will

have to leave biometric details for

the border? It is not clear why. The

Russians blame the Ukrainian side

for creating obstacles. The

Ukrainians consider Russians

uncooperative and consider Russia

wants to push Ukraine towards

negotiating straight with the rebel

commanders and Ukraine does not

recognise them as an independent

entity, it considers them puppets,

Kremlin puppets of Russia.

The World Health Organisation has

warned that up to 30% of medicines

in some parts of Africa are likely

to be fake.

Back in August, in West Africa

in which they seized 41 million

pills worth $22 million.

That was part of an international

policing operation. Nigeria is at

the heart of the story.

A forceful crack down on fake pills.

The police are running after him.

They arrest him and sees the drugs

he is serving. Over a three hour

period eight men are arrested for

selling counterfeit drugs.

We have

seen them falsified.

Medicines have

been sold at this market over 50

years.

It is over dramatisation of

the pain.

Many of the shops do not

have registered pharmacists and the

medication is stored above room

temperature. We find a shop selling

illegal pills. Most of these illegal

drugs come from Asia, smuggled

through Nigeria's borders by

middlemen looking to profit. But not

all stores sell fake drugs and it

makes it difficult for the

authorities to close down the area.

Some hospitals and pharmacies get

supplies from the market because

drugs manufacturers do not sell

directly to them and those who do

not go through the complex chain of

up to 20 middlemen to get the drugs

which makes it easier for fake wants

to pass through.

I was doing the

procedure and 15 minutes in, there

was nothing we could do to restrain

the patient, they woke up. Or we

could do was physically restrain the

patient until the procedure was

completed and that was my first

experience with fake drugs.

The

patient was lucky but fake medicine

can be fatal.

I had a friend who

died from taking a fake malarial

pill and I was devastated thinking

it could have been anybody who had

taken the medication to the trusted

source.

This person links up

manufacturers with clinics. She has

signed up 300 hospitals and

pharmacies but until she gets more

funding she could not expand.

Nigerian authorities say they are

working with China and India to

crack down on the imported fake

drugs and trying to close the market

by the end of next year. Until that

happens millions of lives will be

risk.

And now they report on the US

military.

And thousands of foreign

nationals on active

duty in the US military.

The border is the closest Richard

can get to America.

Unbelievable,

does not make any sense. Especially

as I fought to defend that country.

A Mexican citizen, Richard served in

the US military under a programme

that allowed green card holders to

endless.

I spent three years during

the Vietnam War in Vietnam, in the

Philippines. Was discharged a year

early. It had to do with my drug

addiction.

Years after he left the

Marines he was involved in robbery

and after serving time he was

deported to Mexico.

I understand,

convicted of a crime, but serving

the US military in combat should

count for something.

Home for

Richard is in Tijuana, where he has

found a group of people who share

his story. More than 200 foreign

veterans have been deported from the

US.

We call this affectionately the

bunker, a resource centre, shelter,

housing for the US military

veterans.

Hector runs this centre, a

former paratrooper he spent time in

prison after shooting at a car.

I am

missing out on my daughter's life.

Her mother has multiple sclerosis. I

am not doing anything for them, that

is difficult.

Many people do not

think it matters, arguing that

committing a crime is reason enough

to deport foreign veterans.

I take

responsibility for the fact I got

myself into a situation where I went

to prison, but I do not think it

right to deport people who served in

the military because we made

mistakes, it should not define the

rest of our lives.

Hector is taking

his case to the federal courts and

says he is not giving up his fight

to go back to America, a country he

risked his life for.

We are now staying in the US. The

increasing life expectancy of humans

and how we are approaching being old

and how science might be able to

stretch human life. This report

comes from California and Arizona.

I like to do things.

I don't want to sit

in the background.

Enthusiastic, engaged, optimistic.

Lester Dray is 101.

The oldest resident

at this retirement village

in Sun City, Arizona.

You're going to miss something

if you just moan and groan

about how horrible life is.

Show me your teeth.

Do you hear a sound?

Say ahhh.

Ahhh.

He gets regular medical checks

as part of a study into longevity.

It's an issue which is attracting

interest from unusual quarters.

In Silicon Valley, California,

some of the biggest names

from Google to Facebook

are investing hundreds of millions

of dollars into defeating

the diseases of ageing.

So why are tech entrepreneurs

suddenly interested in human health?

I think Silicon Valley

is driven by curiosity.

That same curiosity that drives

a 14-year-old to programme computers

in his bedroom drives somebody

in their 20s or 30s

to really apply their minds

and their cash to this problem.

The DNA from the special

part of the cell called

the mitochondrion...

It is why this British scientist set

up in Silicon Valley.

Aubrey de Grey is probably

the world's leading

advocate of life extension.

The idea that humans can

and will live in good health

for hundreds of years.

There will certainly be no limit

on how long people can live once

we bring ageing under control.

People will still die,

there are still trucks

to be hit by and so on.

But the fact is people

will on average live a lot longer

unless there is some bizarre thing

like we get hit by an

asteroid or whatever.

That's beautiful!

That's a minority view.

Although extending life

is possible in the lab,

with fruit flies, yeast or worms,

it gets more difficult higher up

the evolutionary ladder.

So in the lab in simple

laboratory animals, we can

increase life span by 100%,

200, 500%, really extraordinary

differences in life span.

It turns out ageing is really

plastic in the simple

laboratory animals.

It may be more complex

as we go over to mammals,

the mouse, for example.

We have been able to increase

life span 20 or 30%.

And we really do not

know what is possible

for humans at this point.

We do know exercise

is a magic formula that can

keep us healthy longer.

And there are no drugs

yet to match it.

There is probably an upper

limit to life expectancy

of around 115 years.

So the quest for immortality is

still the stuff of science fiction.

But increasing our health span,

the number of years we spend free

of chronic diseases,

well that really could be a reality.

Here we go!

# Jingle bell, jingle

bell, jingle bell rock!

Finding something you enjoy

and staying socially engaged are key

elements of healthy ageing.

Like the Sun City Poms, many

of whom are in their 70s and 80s.

I'm 78.

Born on the 4th of July.

So I'm still a firecracker,

still going and booming.

It keeps me physically active,

it keeps my brain working

and helps my memory.

We just get out there and do

what we need to do and enjoy.

We can't slow time but we can

put more life in years.

And hopefully become super-agers.

Fergus Walsh, BBC News,

Sun City, Arizona.

I wanted to reflect on questions

placed against the quality of Rome's

official Christmas tree. It is in

the city's main square and there are

some good reasons people are

concerned.

This is in the city's main

square, Piazza Venezia.

It's been described as mangy -

and looking more

like a toilet brush.

Local media's reporting

that the tree wasn't properly

covered when it was transported

from Northern Italy, and died.

Although a lot of us have trees

that have been cut down

and we don't get a toilet brush

effect.

Either way, it's 20m high,

cost nearly 60,000 dollars -

and people aren't happy.

That was the first thing I noticed

was that it was drooping.

The Christmas trees we've

got in England are all

very pert.

I thought I should show you our

beautiful tree.