15/02/2017 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be

With me are the business editor of The Independent,

Josie Cox, and Helen Joyce, the international editor

Let's take a look at the front pages then.

First up the FT - it's reporting that companies competing to build

nuclear power stations in the UK have been asked to offer

a significantly lower price for electricity than the ?18 billion

According to an investigation by the paper, eleven maternity

and neonatal units across England face closure or consolidation under

The Independent focuses on the stark US

warning to NATO allies, that members must increase military

The Express takes a look at the latest

official employment figures, saying the number of foreign-born

workers rose by almost 450,000 in a year -

And the Metro leads with the fresh attack

by Donald Trump on US intelligence agencies for reportedly leaking

details of discussions between his team and Russia.

Let's start with President Trump. He accuses US intelligence services of

criminal push to undermine him. This is today's episode of the ongoing

soap opera. This is going to be a running plotline, cars since before

the election there have been serious worries, including the American

intelligence community and elsewhere, that President Trump's

liking for Vladimir Putin is puzzling, to say the least. He

criticises other people, but not him. His national security adviser

has had to step down because it appears he has had unauthorised

contacts with Russian intelligence agents, and now President Trump

doesn't really like that people are leaking things like this. One

extraordinary thing about this story is that in a tiny corner of the FT

we have, Trump backs off a 2-state solution. On another day, this would

be enormous news. It has four little lines on the front page because of

this ongoing soap opera. Quite incredible. Having said that, it is

a bit out of order. Your intelligence services leaking

private documents. What would happen tomorrow morning if Theresa May

found out that MI5 and MI6 were leaking stuff? You cannot function

in that way? In any other situation, this would be a remarkable story.

But in the context of what we have seen in the Trump administration and

the narrative that is unfolding, it is not as surprising as it perhaps

should be. And his reaction, the words he is using, the aggressive

tone, in accusing the intelligence services of doing this, that is not

unusual either. He has fired similar shots at the media, the Obama

administration and at Clinton. This is becoming routine. And is he

trying to have it both ways? As a campaigner, when he was running for

the White House, he was happy for the Secret Service to leak against

his opponent. You cannot have it both ways. Is he stupid, or what? I

think he is a man with a special approach to what we might call

consistency. The most extraordinary thing he said before the election

was he lives in bite it Putin to hack into and release Hillary

Clinton's private documents. He asked the Russians to get

information on Hillary Clinton, so how can he talk about it now? All

bets are off. The Republicans are in control of Congress and should be

saying that we should investigate this, there are credible links

between the Trump administration and the Russians. But they are not, so

this is the point where we have the intelligence services leaking this

stuff. And something about the nuclear plant's viability being in

doubt? Another bad story in the week of bad stories about the power

industry in the UK. We had some very poor results from Toshiba, the

Japanese conglomerate, which owns a very large stake in the company

supposed to be developing a nuclear power plant in Cumbria. That called

that whole development into question. Now we have a story about

funding. Government officials have indicated that future projects would

be expected to deliver a discount of at least 15% to 20% on the price of

electricity, which is absolutely massive, and will deliver a big blow

on any revenue they may generate to pay off those projects. This is a

big blow if you are into nuclear power. Even the green lobby believe

this is the way forward. The problems, potentially, that there

might be of leakages and so forth seem to have been dealt with, unless

you live in Japan and you have a tsunami. We know the problems of

Fukushima. So we know that cost is potentially a problem. It seems like

a massive shame. You don't want to overpay for your electricity. We are

on the cusp of having lots of other renewable energy a lot cheaper. So

would you want to spend millions on a whole load of nuclear plants if

you can get solar in a few years? That is what the green lobby is

saying. It's starting to look like a possibility. On to the daily out

loud. Or is that lots of love? That is what David Cameron thought. Are

used to think that as well! Perhaps we all did. This is the laughing

airport assassin. This is one of the suspects in the death of the

brother-in-law of Kim Jong-un ill. Apparently he has been a target of

the North Korean assassination plots for several years. He believed he

was going to be attacked. You normally has Chinese bodyguards with

him. They seem to have injected him with poison in the airport and

attempted to get the body back before there was an autopsy. This is

a mysterious state were terrible things happen, and these things

erupt into our consciousness. I don't know what to tell you about

it. I don't know anything about the man or what he did. But I guess we

have this mysterious picture that has caught our imagination because

of the T-shirt. It is cold war. Basically, if you are related to Kim

Jong-un, where ever you are in the world, watch out, basically.

Absolutely. In the Daily Telegraph as well. The Church of England a

step closer to gay marriages in church. A three years study from

bishops from the Church of England said that the church should still

not approve of gay marriage. They put together a report of a status

quo that they should believe that they should not approve of same-sex

marriages, that they should have a more welcoming attitude towards

same-sex marriages. The motion has been rejected, which means that we

will stick with the status quo for the time being. It seems like they

haven't really created any change or furthered any cause, but it is

perhaps encouraging to see that there is motion in the debate around

the subject. I think they were trying to balance between two very

much opposing sides, say that marriage is between a man and a

woman, but that we must be nice to same-sex couples. But that seems not

to have worked. The House of Clergy of the three bodies, so your

ordinary rank and file vicar, it seems they've voted to reject this

report. They are the ones who have to deal with it. Yes, they are the

ones who have to deal with parishioners every Sunday. With

someone saying that they are being rejected. The idea is that, at some

point, some way down the line, perhaps the church is moving closer

to officially sanctioning gay marriages. Let's go to the Times. An

ultimatum on Nato spending. I cannot understand why a country like

Germany, the fourth or fifth biggest economy in the world, doesn't pay

its way. What's that about? They said they would. One of the Nato

agreements is that you spend 2% of GDP on defence. It's not just what

you spend, it is what you spend it on. It is that troops can

interoperate and so on. Only five countries actually spend that 2% of

GDP. That headline, he is right. I agree with him. He has said so many

different things about Nato, and some very worrying. This is a man

who was not willing to affirm a long-standing commitment to one of

Nato's commitments that if one were attacked, -- to be attacked, that

the others would stand with them. I agreed with him for about five

seconds! That if you are a member of this alliance, why would you not be

willing to pay for the privilege? I guess people haven't for such a long

time. Spending on defence is like spending on foreign aid. And we have

all felt so save for such a long time. The world seemed a nice place

a year ago, five years ago. Now it all looks a lot scarier. I really do

think they will start stumping up. So you approve of Trump's policy.

I'm not sure if it is his policy as such, and I don't agree with

undermining what Nato is about. It looks like a lot of the thrust of

this is coming from his Defence Secretary. Nato itself has been

saying this for a long time. In the Times, Britain sees final warning on

the shameful air-pollution levels. Yes, another topical story, though

it does feel like we have been here before. It seems like air pollution

is one of those things that keeps coming up. It will keep coming up in

the lead up to Brexit, because of EU regulation and to what extent we in

London could benefit from that. I don't know if this furthers the

causes or not. What will Brexiteers think of this? This could

potentially go to the European Court of Justice. But I suppose Brexiteers

will want clean air as well, but will not want it to be legislated

over there rather than via? The problem of this particular aspect of

air pollution is diesel cars. They produce less carbon, but they do

produce these little particles that go into your lungs. Josie runs and I

cycle, so... This will feed quite nicely in to the tinted Brexit

debate, no doubt about that. It should be about us being healthy!

Thank you so much for joining us. That is it for The Papers tonight.

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