13/07/2017 Victoria Derbyshire

Hello it's Thursday, it's nine o'clock, I'm Victoria Derbyshire,

Charlie Gard's parents return to the High Court in London this

morning in a hearing that will decide if their terminally-ill

son will be allowed access to experimental treatment in the US.

They've got letters from up to seven doctors and scientists and it

demonstrates that there's up to a 10% chance of this

Medics at Great Ormond Street Hospital say the therapy won't work,

and his life support systems should be turned off.

Why can't schools recruit more teachers from ethnic

We'll ask some what the barriers are and what more can be done

And at Wimbledon, Johanna Konta faces Venus Williams on centre court

today. Can she become the first British woman to reach a Wimbledon

singles final since Virginia Wade? I don't take anything

for granted and I demand of myself my best effort

and I demand of myself my full commitment to what I do and then

to make sure I prepare well and do Hello, welcome to the programme,

we're live until 11 this morning. Also today - new figures this

morning show applications for university courses have fallen

by 4% among British students, and 5% for students

from elsewhere in the EU. It's the first decline in uni

applications since fees were last increased in England,

back in 2012. If you've decided not

to go to university because of the cost,

let me know. Whether you're a school leaver

or a would-be mature student, Our top story today,

lawyers representing the parents of the terminally-ill baby,

Charlie Gard, will return to the High Court in London this

morning, to present what they claim is new evidence showing

an experimental treatment Doctors at Great Ormond

Street Hospital, where he's in intensive care,

say the therapy won't work, and his life support systems

should be turned off. Charlie Gard has been in intensive

care since October last year. He has an extremely rare genetic condition.

It has left him extremely brain damaged and unable to breathe

without the help of a ventilator. Ever since his birth 11 months ago,

there have been numerous legal battles, escalated to the highest

level in the UK and Europe. All the courts have agreed that the baby is

so welcome he must be allowed to die. But his parents have persuaded

the original judge they should be permitted to present what they say

this new scientific evidence today, suggesting an experimental treatment

could help their son. My understanding as they have got

letters from up to seven doctors and scientists, and it demonstrates

there is up to a 10% chance of this ground-breaking treatment working,

and they would know within a period of two to eight weeks whether or not

baby Charlie is improving. And the treatment is noninvasive, it is not

an operation, it is actually a food additive into his food. Charlie's

parents have received offers of help from the Vatican and the United

States, but the judge, Mr Justice Francis, has made it clear any new

evidence must be presented swiftly, due to concerns about prolonging the

little boy's suffering. Sophie Hutchinson, BBC News.

Ben Brown is in the BBC Newsroom with a summary

The BBC has learned that at least one person who survived

the Grenfell Tower fire has been diagnosed with cyanide poisoning.

12-year-old Luana Gomes was treated for the effects

It isn't known what caused the poisoning, but her parents -

who lost their unborn child after the fire - believe it may have

been caused by the burning of insulation or plastics

This was the home of the Gomes family on the 21st

They have been living in a hotel since their release from hospital.

Andreia Gomes was seven months pregnant and the baby was stillborn

by caesarean section, while she and her daughters

The family allowed BBC Newsnight to film their

Their 12-year-old's diagnosis details cyanide poisoning.

Her mother and sister were also treated for the risk of cyanide.

This is the first confirmation of a cyanide poisoning diagnosis

The highly toxic gas may have been released by the burning

of insulation or plastics during the blaze.

The Gomeses direct their ire at whoever made the decision

to place cheaper fire retardant cladding on the tower.

I'm very angry with them, because it could have all been avoided.

And that is where the anger really stems from.

It should never have happened like this.

The residents never wanted the cladding in the first place.

I don't know if it's the right word, but you just killed so many people

and you just killed my son, because if we were in a normal

situation, I could have gone out, and he was seven months,

Because of the conditions, he passed away.

The family has requested a full postmortem examination on their son

They should have been celebrating his birth next month,

and they had already decided to name him Logan.

The government will today publish a long-awaited bill that

will convert European Union laws into British legislation.

The Repeal Bill is designed to ensure a smooth transition

The Brexit Secretary, David Davis, has described it

But political opponents have threatened to disrupt its passage

With us now is Political guru, Norman Smith.

Norman, publishing the bill is one thing, but getting it through the

Commons, something else. What we have learned is that the government

is now facing a titanic battle to get its Kebe Brexit Bill through

Parliament, -- its key Brexit bill. Not only has the Liberal Democrat

leader Tim Farron said he will make life hell for the government, but

more significantly Labour have said they will vote against the

legislation, unless there are significant changes. And when you

put Labour MPs together with some conservative rebels, then that opens

up the prospect that Mrs May could be defeated on this, which would

plunge Brexit into chaos. And so this morning the Brexit Minister

Steve Baker was appealing for all MPs to work together in the national

interest. We will consider what they bring forward, and after we have

published the bill and everyone has had a good chance to look at it, we

look forward to what they bring forward, but this is a bill in the

national interest and it is an essential next step as we leave the

European Union. The Labour Party manifesto accepted the result of the

referendum, so I'm hoping that people will come together in the

national interest, support this bill and insure that we are able to leave

the European Union in a way which is smooth and orderly, and which, as I

say, gives individuals and businesses that certainty that the

law will have some continuity as we leave. And more trouble for the

government today over Brexit when they publish their what is called

position paper on the future of Euratom, this is the organisation

that manages the import and export of radioactive materials into

Britain, with the Royal College of radiologists warning that if we

leave Euratom, that might jeopardise the sort of isotopes cancer patients

need for scans and treatments, and some Tory MPs threatening to rebel

against the government's plans to quit Euratom.

Applications for university courses have fallen by 4%. Figures from the

admissions service UCAS show a sharp decline in those wanting to study

nursing courses, down 19%, and they continued fall in the number of

mature students as well. The number of EU students planning to study in

the United Kingdom has also fallen by 5%. It is the first decline in

applications since fees were last increased over ?9,000 of England

five years ago. University leaders say the decline could be done to in

Amber Rudd factors, including Brexit, higher fees and funding

changes the trainee nurses and midwives -- a number of factors.

School inspectors have raised what they call serious concerns about the

standard of education in Derby. Ofsted says the city does not have

enough high-quality Academy trusts, with the experience necessary, to

improve underperforming schools. The warning coincides with new research

by the cross-party commission on inequality in education, which says

the gap between poor and rich children is now wider than it was a

generation ago. The government says Derby has been selected as one of 12

areas in England to receive extra support to help boost social

mobility. President Donald Trump is in Paris, where he will be holding

talks with President Macron, and also attending a steel day

celebrations. High on the agenda will be US French actions in Syria

and Iraq against so-called Islamic State. Despite the differences

between the two leaders, Mr Macron has indicated he will work to

reaffirm historic ties between the two allies, and to prevent the US

from being isolated. Let's go live to our Paris correspondent, is used

to. What sort of reception do you think Donald Trump will get in

France? There is the reception from France and there is the reception

from Macron. I think in France there is no question that there is a

general feeling of suspicion, if not outright hostility to the man, not

that that will express itself in demonstrations here in Paris. In

fact, we are kind of entering holiday mode in Paris, now that we

are in the middle of July, so there are no demonstrations planned, but

there is, no question about it, and polls confirm it, yes, people don't

like Trump in general. Macron on the other hand does have this very, very

peculiar relationship with him, which isn't friendship, but is

certainly based on a kind of openness and candidness, and a

willingness to communicate. Macron's view is very much, I'm not Macron

come he's not come, I'm France, is America, France and America talk, so

we are going to talk and we will be friends because our relationship is

old and fruitful and necessary. The things that divide us must not be

allowed to dominate. And so the relationship, even though it is an

old one, and it is hard to imagine anything that binds them on a

personal level, is there, and both sides say there is a chemistry. So

today will have ceremony, and tomorrow will have the March down

the Champs-Elysees, where Trump will be guest of honour. This is 100

years since the American entry into the First World War, and then there

will be the talks, which will focus on the issues which divide, and

there is no question there is many of them, above all climate and

trade. But they will also focus on the things that bring the countries

together and that will in course include the fight against terrorism

against so-called Islamic State. Many thanks indeed. The owners of

Southern Rail have been fined ?13.4 million for poor performance. The

government said the fine on go the Thames Link railway would have been

higher but most of the delays have not been Southern's fought. The

Department for Transport said strikes and President levels of sick

leave were also to blame but the RMC union has been critical, saying the

government had let Southern and its parent company off the hook. The

Natural History Museum in London has unveiled a skeleton of the blue

whale in its entrance hall. Weighing 4.5 tonnes, it has been suspended

from the ceiling with wires, so that it appears to dive down on the

visitors, as they enter the building. The whale replaces Dippy,

the Dick LeBeau Rocas, which will soon had out -- the diploid ochres,

which will soon had out on a tour of the UK. That is a somebody -- the

diplodocus. That's a summary of the latest BBC

News - more at 9.30. This e-mail from Scott, my name is

Scott Foster, I am starting university in computing the

September. The fees and loans being as high as they are did not bother

me, considering the conditions and percentages when paying it back.

Bettering myself and my living is more important than a little bit of

money. Good luck with your course, Scott. We are asking if you have

been put off applying for university, because figures out

today show there has been a 4% decline in British students applying

to university here, the first decline since 2012, which was the

last time the university tuition fees went up. So share your own

experiences. Do get in touch with us

throughout the morning - use the hashtag Victoria LIVE

and If you text, you will be charged Here's some sport now

with Leah Boleto. She'll be waking up

this morning knowing she's got to get past five-time

champion Venus William to become the first British woman to reach

a Wimbledon final for 40 years. The last time that

happen was back in 1977, There's every chance Jo could make

the final, having beat Venus three out of the five

times they've played. That match is second

on Centre Court today. Meanwhile, world number one

Andy Murray says it's possible he'll take several weeks off to recover

fully from his hip injury. He was of course beaten in five sets

by American Sam Querrey yesterday and looked in pain throughout,

limping between points. Elsewhere, the former Fifa

official, Chuck Blazer, seen The American had been banned

from all football activities for life two years ago,

after admitting charges He'd been suffering from cancer,

but did turn whistle blower to help investigators uncover

corruption in football. And England have secured

their place in the semifinals They beat New Zealand by 75 runs,

thanks to Natalie Sciver's century. England are joined in the last four

by Australia, who beat India, and South Africa,

who defeated Sri Lanka. That's all from me for now,

but Sally will be live from Wimbledon for you at 9.30

with all the latest. There's a shortage of teachers

from ethnic minority backgrounds in English schools,

and if the situation is to get any better,

then many more people from diverse backgrounds need recruiting

onto training schemes. It's hard to get a totally accurate

picture of the current situation because of the way data

on this is collected. But we know 27% of school pupils

in England are from black However, in 2016, only 7%

of teachers were BME. The Government puts the figures

slightly higher, at 13%, but that is because they include

white non-British teachers from other minorities in that

number, such as Irish Now research from BBC Yorkshire has

found that schools in England would need to recruit an extra

69,000 ethnic minority teachers to reflect the diversity

within the school population. Let's talk now to Dr Zubaida Haque

from the Runnymede Trust. She's researched this

issue extensively. Tobie Martins-Ojo works in a London

school, co-ordinating volunteers, and wrote an article about the lack

of black teachers. Patrick Dempsey who is the diversity

lead for Teach First, the recruiter responsible for 5%

of all teacher And Allana Gay is the deputy head of

Lee Valley Primary School in London. And Nikki Cunningham-Smith,

a teacher, who's joining Welcome to all of you. Obviously, I

am going to ask you why you think there is such a shortage. You have

done research, Zubaida. Tell us why. It is across the piece, starting

from the beginning, in terms of recruitment, the Government have not

done very well in terms of recruiting. Only one in ten of the

new recruits are from ethnic minority backgrounds. Where the

story is really interesting and worrying, if you like, is around

retention, the teachers that stay within the occupation, and now

increasingly research showing teachers are more likely to leave.

Why is that? There are lots of reasons. First of all, it is

important to know approximately 75% of black and ethnic minority

teachers have told us in our very large surveys they are thinking of

leaving. The reasons are around discrimination, sadly, workload and

pay discrimination as well. Give us some examples. Workload, the

Government have introduced a lot of bureaucracy. That is teachers across

the board. Let us concentrate on discrimination. The disproportionate

impact on BME teachers is day-to-day, the policies and

practices keeping them out, an example of that would be, for

instance, and this is a rather sad example, but a lot of the teachers,

black and ethnic minority teachers in our surveys, talked about how

they were given behavioural responsibilities, instead of more

intellectual responsibilities. The issue is when it claims to -- when

it comes to pay performance, behaviour is not counted as much as

taking over a maths class. Because they are misdirected into

behavioural issues on stereotypes... A headteacher sees a black teacher

and says, you would be good to be in charge of discipline? Absolutely.

You are a deputy head, Allana. Can you relate to this? That has come

out for us. In my experience, when you go into teaching, as an ethnic

minority, they preferred to put you at a pastoral level. What we have

found is that the vast majority of our teachers find they are placed

into a pastoral box, you are told, you are able to relate to those

children, you take them. So they take the lower sets and they have

behaviourally difficult children and they are not given the opportunity

or fair distribution of the workload for everyone. What about cultural

issues, going to the pub after school with your colleagues? For

some ethnic minorities, that would be an issue because part of British

culture is that in the pub you will have decisions and discussions and

you feel excluded from those discussions. When you start

self-selecting, later on, everyone starts excluding new. If you have

certain requirements for your culture, you would like to take a

part of, going out for eating meal, because everyone has to consider

you, you become the problem in the group. If you do not have the social

support, you will not survive in teaching. You need to have that to

reinforce the work you are doing already. Let me bring in Nikki. Why

do you think there is such a shortage? When I grew up, I never

saw any ethnic minority teachers. From primary through the secondary.

It was because my parents and pupils direction put me on the path towards

further education and that is a missing link. I have been quite

fortunate in my school is to be invited the senior leadership team,

but when I go to meetings and I am in a more rural area, I find there

is not fat spread of ethnic minorities to give those pupils role

models -- there is not that spread. I never had that. I know that there

are pupils who gravitate towards me and they are probably gravitating in

the first instance because they finally have someone to identify

with. Is that your view? That is the key point, the figures you

mentioned, 7% of teachers in the teaching workforce, 25-30%,

depending on how you look at it, black and minority ethnic pupils,

there is a gap in that gap is expressing itself in exactly that, a

lack of role models. It is a self-perpetuating problem. If you

have a lack of role models, people in your primary classes are not

thinking, I will be an educator. They are thinking, my role models

are doing something else. We need to break that self-perpetuating... I

agree. A lot of second-generation immigrants are not drawn to teaching

because a lot of them might have grown up poor and you aren't -- you

are drawn to jobs that pay better. I think it is just that cycle. I think

you are not drawn to it. When I was writing the article and speaking to

and searching for blackmail teachers, they said, teaching does

not pay well for me -- black male teachers. Selecting yourself out, it

is an issue, but we should not fall into the false trap where we think

that is what is holding black and ethnic minority people back from

applying for teaching. There are push and pull factors. It relates to

the story within schools where you have to ask questions like, are the

government, the national College of School leadership, are they

recruiting in the right places, advertising in the right places,

making the job attractive overall? Are they encouraging black and

ethnic minority people to apply? It might not be a job you have fought

about -- thought about. Has it been pitched to you? Absolutely, it sits

at the recruitment level. That is how we break the cycle. 25% of

pupils in classrooms. We are at 16% of our cohort that started a couple

of weeks ago at black and ethnic minority backgrounds. We are doing

better but not as well as we want to. But we are doing the things you

are talking about. This is where it gets complicated because what is

happening at the moment is even when the recruits are coming in, the

evidence is suggesting they are not staying. There is quite a high

dropout rate after three years, even with Teach First. I can see you want

to come in, Nikki. What can happen is the advertisement does not give a

clear picture. I know I personally have been used as a poster girl at

times of areas. It gives the illusion we do have black and ethnic

minority people in these areas. That is not always the case. I know I

have been the only black girl on that course, in that environment,

yet I am the first to be selected, be a part of it. Where are the

advertisement is going out? Where is the careers advice at a lower level

saying, you can achieve and you can do this? For me, it comes... You

have the element where the recruitment process is very

difficult because within ethnic minority communities, if we think of

the people, when they had their expense of education, it was not

necessarily positive. They then project those sorts of prejudices

they experienced onto their children and say, you have got a good degree,

why do you to teach? When you sign up for the course, you break the

barrier, you go, you are the only one, you are again experiencing that

isolation. You do not have the support network. What drew you to

the profession? I love kids and I have a moral purpose, making sure

there is a change in education. That is what is part of wrong with the

advertising. When you say, come into teaching, you will get 65,000,

however much. If you come into teaching to be a millionaire, good

luck! If you come because you want to make a difference, you can see a

change is necessary, that is when you will capture your ethnic

minority because they have come here to seek change and we need to

capture that and encourage them onto the courses and give them the role

models. I would like to see Teach First put forward a lot more role

models on their roster of trainers. We have talked about role models,

advertising, what else could you suggest now to the Government to

attract more teachers from black and ethnic minority backgrounds? They

have to go beyond what they are doing. At the moment, it is

piecemeal. An initiative here, a big campaign, they have got the

leadership equality and diversity fund. They are small initiatives. No

strategy? The question I would be asking in government, I have had

these initiative since I came in, the figures have not changed, it

was... We have a minute and a half, other ideas? There needs to be

reached. There is clearly black and ethnic minority teachers, but I have

never had anyone say, why haven't you got involved? I think they know

we are there, why not outreach to people who have got into it

recently? Hear from them, get them involved, get them talking to

people, getting people involved that universities. The constant level of

support. You also need to show it from the top as well because Ofsted

does not have a good track record on diversity either. They all need to

make that change as well. It is not just the bottom-up approach, in

needs to be top down as well. The Government needs to follow through

with the initiatives they bring forward because the conversation

comes up again and the Government bring something out and drops it and

you need to follow it through. I have got a statement from the

Department for Education. "The proportion of teachers

from minority ethnic groups The department provides a range

of initiatives to ensure there are no barriers to any

individual, including black and minority ethnic groups,

joining the teaching profession." Ask them what the range is, what

accountability they have, to show the impact. Even the equalities

grant, think about it, when the course is finished, what is the

follow-up that encourages those teachers to progress? Thank you, all

of you. I know there is so much more you could say. I can see it in your

face, Zubaida! On Nikki's face! Thank you for your input. Still to

come on the programme... Lawyers for the parents

of the terminally-ill baby, Charlie Gard, are to present

to the High Court what they argue is new evidence that an experimental

treatment in the US could help him. We'll be live outside the High Court

for the latest hearing. And the Royal College

of Radiologists is seeking reassurances from the Government

that leaving the EU will not affect the UK's supply of vital diagnostic

and cancer-treating materials We will bring you all you need to

know about Euratom in the next half an hour. It sounds dull but it is

incredibly important. The latest news headlines.

Lawyers representing the parents of the terminally-ill baby,

Charlie Gard, will return to the High Court in London this

morning to present what they claim is new evidence showing

an experimental treatment could help him.

Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where he's in intensive

care, say the therapy won't work, and his life support systems

The BBC has learned at least one person who survived the Grenfell

Tower fire has been diagnosed with cyanide poisoning. 12-year-old was

treated for the effects of the highly toxic gas. It is not known

what caused the poisoning but her parents who lost their unborn child

after the fire believe it may have been caused by the burning of

insulation or plastics during the blaze.

As the Government prepares to publish its long-awaited bill

that will convert European Union laws into British legislation,

the head of the National Audit Office has said he's worried

about failures in government leadership over Brexit.

Sir Amyas Morse said ministers weren't presenting a united front

The Brexit Minister, Steve Baker, has dismissed those concerns.

Donald Trump is in Paris, where he'll hold talks

with President Macron and attend Bastille Day celebrations.

High on the agenda will be US-French actions in Syria and Iraq

Despite differences between the two leaders, Mr Macron has indicated

he will work to reaffirm historic ties between the two

allies and prevent the US from being isolated.

Applications for university courses starting this autumn have fallen

Figures from the admissions service UCAS show a sharp decline in mature

students and those applying to study nursing courses.

It is the first decline in applications since fees were last

increased to over ?9,000 in England, five years ago.

University leaders say the decline could be down

to a number of factors, including Brexit, higher fees

and funding changes for trainee nurses and midwives.

That's a summary of the latest BBC News - more at 10.

Let's head to Wimbledon now, and talk to Sally Nugent.

Sally, you have had behind the scenes exciting access to Johanna

Konta training. It is all about her today, isn't it? Yes, can you

believe it? I have to say it wasn't in the last ten days, about eight or

ten weeks ago we went to film with her at Roehampton, and she gave us a

real insight into the work she has been doing to get this far. One of

the most interesting things she said to me was we were walking around the

courts, we spent hours with her and she did her routine and everything,

and we got the one court, and she said I lived there. I said what,

where, and she pointed to like a cubbyhole, there is a row of tiny

bedrooms, so she lived on the court while she was training as a young

player. That is the level of dedication. She wasn't even joking.

That is the level of dedication she had to her sport, so I got a little

bit of an insight into her training routine but I'm joined by somebody

who knows an awful lot more, Justin Sherrin, you used to be her coach. I

did, and what a pleasure that was, all the hard work we put in, all of

the enthusiasm shoe showed after every session, and to see her on

centre court today is a dream come true. I mentioned she lived next to

the tentacle, she would sleep there, as -- next to the tennis court, as a

kid, was her life completely unlike any other normal's teenager? You

imagine what the normal 19, 18-year-olds do at university,

having fun, having parties. If you want to be a supreme athlete and one

day come to centre court community to be very dedicated from an early

age. She faces Venus Williams right here on centre court today. It is an

intimidating prospect at the best of times, but how will Joe be managing

her nerves this morning? If you listen to the way she talks, she

talks the talk and she certainly walks the walk and she will just be

focusing on the tennis ball and their processes, and her team sets

out fantastically for each match, and if the plan goes as well as it

has done in previous matches, I think she will just think of it as

any other match. What is the process, because she talks about the

process. It is most like sometimes when you watch her, point by point,

she is doing the same thing again and again and again. The great thing

about tennis is, we know how it starts, either with a return or a

serve. If you watch how meticulous she is with her ball bouncing, her

breathing, it is about focusing on your target, presenting the ball to

the sky and then ripping it. If you keep doing that over and over again

for about ten years, you end up getting it in. Just the ten years!

How do you beat Venus Williams? By returning well, you have to take

away the great woman's serve, and you have got to get her running.

Those 37 years I'm hoping we'll catch up with her legs. If Jo can

hit the ball as well as she did against Halep, we could have a

finalist on our hands. Disappointed to see Andy Murray go out yesterday.

Very disappointing, but what has Andy given us in the last five or

six years? So much pleasure and Joe and it is now -- Klizan joy, Joanna

Contador's turn now. Present the ball to the sky and hit the hell out

of it, that is all you need to do. Some of your e-mails about applying,

applications are down in this country. As a college lever with a

confirmed union Place, so many of my peers with the potential to get into

university had been deterred by a lack of financial support and

ridiculous level of debt we will all leave with. Sad to see so much

potential lost due to the government's lack of support.

Charlie says as a current university student, Fedetskyi written off after

30 years anyway. I read on the BBC's website that only 33% of fees get

paid and the scaremongering of being left with thousands of pounds worth

of debt is not very truthful. We will talk about the university

application numbers before ten o'clock.

Charlie Gard's parents are back at the High Court today for another

hearing in their ongoing fight for permission to take him abroad

Sarah Campbell is outside the High Court. What will Mr Justice Francis

be hearing today? We are just awaiting the arrival of Charlie's

parents Chris card and Connie Yates. Charlie is now 11 months old, and

the legal battle over his treatment has gone to the highest court in the

UK. Every single decision so far has gone against his parents, who want

to take him to America. Charlie's Doctors at Great Ormond Street

Hospital believe that his brain damage is most likely irreversible

and that he is most likely to be suffering pain, so they have been

arguing throughout that this trip would not be in the best interests

of Charlie, and what is in his best interests is to have his life

support withdrawn. What changed is that last Friday, seven scientists,

some clinicians, wrote a letter to Charlie's parents to be given to

Great Ormond Street Hospital, detailing treatment, which they say

is new, and experimental, it has never been tried on any trial or

indeed any animal with Charlie's condition. They say it is worth

trying and there is a chance it might have a positive benefit. Last

Friday, Great Ormond Street Hospital applied to the High Court to have

this hearing so that Mr Justice Francis, who is the original judge

who made that original High Court decision back in April, that the

life support should be withdrawn, he is hearing this new evidence today,

and it will be up to him to decide whether this new evidence does have

merit. We will be back with you when Charlie Gard's parents arrive.

In a moment, we'll speak to Darran O'Neill, whose son, James,

was born with the same condition as Charlie Gard.

But first to the US, which is where Charlie's parents

Six-year-old Art Estopinan, from Baltimore, in the US,

His father, Art Senior, has been telling the BBC

All of his muscles shut down, so it's basically a slow death.

It's devastating, especially to see your son in that situation.

We had a healthy, normal baby, and then all of sudden, 20 months

later, a doctor is telling us that he is going to

I mean, we were totally devastated, but I told her, "Doctor,

I could assure you we are not taking our baby home to die."

Do you want to throw it on the floor?

So I was sort of calling all kinds of doctors from Harvard in the east

to Stanford in the west, Ohio in the midwest

So they started gearing me towards Columbia University Medical Centre

in New York City, and when I talked to the doctor he said, "Yes,

we are doing a clinical protocol," and we were like,

wow, this is the hope that we are looking for.

I didn't care if he was the first human to try this medication,

because they only told us he was going to die.

Because we had already called him the priest to give him the last

rites because he hadn't opened his eyes in a few days.

Luckily we were able to get the approval pretty fast

and then we were able to give him the medication.

Little by little, he started to get stronger.

We are going to go in and play a little bit.

Now he can move his hands, his fingers, he is able to vocalise.

You know, like, little kids, when they want Mickey Mouse

and you tell them no, we have to do this, that

or the other, take a bath and he doesn't want to take a bath.

But we are happy to see that, because he is reacting like a normal

Dying with dignity is just not a dignity at all.

Human beings are taught to fight and to go forward and to give up

Let's now talk to Darren O'Neill whose son James was born with the

same condition as Charlie Gard. Hello. And your little boy very

sadly died after three months, and I wonder how long it was before

yourselves, the medics, realised there was something wrong? Yes,

James was born in 2008, in December, and he passed away in March 2009.

The actual diagnosis for the depletion syndrome, we actually got

that in the August after he died. Right. At the time, there was no

actual recent research that had been done on the actual condition. They

realised about three to four weeks before he died that he had a

mitochondrial disorder, but because mitochondria is made up of 70

different things, they didn't actually know what the strain was.

And can you explain to our audience, Darran, how the symptoms manifested

themselves? With James, it was quite weird, he was born quite similar to

Art, a healthy baby, the only issue we had was about feeding. He was

taking about four hours to take a bottle of milk. At first he was

breast-feeding with his mum, and it puts a much strain on his mum that

in the end we actually got some bottles of the doctor, so we went

and bought some bottle feed, and he was still taking four hours, he just

didn't have the energy, he didn't have the muscles to do the sucking.

So after two weeks, he was put into hospital at Warrington general, and

he was just treated for a feeding issue, at first. That is what they

thought. As you are hearing Charlie Gard's parents speak, and what they

are going through, it must bring up so many emotions for you and your

family? Definitely. My heart goes out to them, it really does. Any

parent who is in a position that you find yourself in when you get told

your son or daughter will die, you will fight tooth and nail,

regardless of whether the outcome is a positive or a negative one. You

want to know that you have given your child every opportunity for the

chance of life. And, as I say, unfortunately, when James died in

2009, because it had been like 30 years since the last research paper

was written, there was no actual research, there were no options of

medication. The mitochondria, the easiest way to describe it is

basically, if you take a car engine, take out the engine of the car, the

car doesn't work, and that is exactly what the mitochondria

depletion is. It is in the nucleus, basically. Basically in the nucleus

of the eggs, so from the minute he was conceived, he already have this

bonus. -- already had this illness. For James, the only way we could

change James was basically take I suppose his spirit and put it into

another body, really. I understand. Because every part of your body,

every living gene, every living cell in your body, has mitochondria, and

the depletion syndrome is basically because the body has not got enough

mitochondrial. As Art's dad was describing before, the organ start

to shut down, bit by bit. Darran, thank you, we are really grateful

for your time, thank you so much. Thank you very much. Still to come

on the programme, the number of students applying for uni students

has fallen for the first time in five years. Brexit has been cited,

rising tuition fees in England, your own pertinent experiences are really

helpful for our conversation, which is coming up in the next few

minutes. A decision will soon be

made, which could affect The Government is going to outline

its policy on whether the UK should remain part of Europe's nuclear

regulator, called Euratom. Euratom is responsible for supplying

vital radioactive isotopes, which we, in the UK, have to import

because we don't make them ourselves, and which are used

for cancer treatments. Doctors are concerned our deliveries

could be disrupted if we leave this Medics have called for more clarity

and assurance for patients who require treatment

using these isotopes. The Government has accused the media

of publishing alarmist stories about the risks of leaving, yet even

some of their own Conservative MPs We will speak to one in a moment,

as well as the President of the Royal College

of Radiologists, but first, here's all you need to know

about Euratom in 90 seconds. A group of MPs and some medics

are concerned that the treatment of thousands of cancer patients

could be disrupted or delayed if Britain leaves Europe's nuclear

regulator as part of Brexit. The European Atomic Energy Community

has controlled Europe's use and movement of nuclear

energy since 1957. It's not part of the European Union,

but it does use many of its Back in March, Theresa May sent

a letter telling the EU It contained a clause,

which set out the UK would also be This was hardly

discussed, until now. Doctors are warning leaving

Euratom will threaten the UK's supply of vital

imported radioactive isotopes. These are widely used

in scans and NHS treatments. The move could affect

thousands of cancer patients. There are also warnings the UK

could risk losing highly paid, The Government says there will be no

impact on the availability of medical radioisotopes

with the UK's exit from Euratom. Euratom places no restrictions

on the export of medical isotopes So after leaving Euratom,

our ability to access medical isotopes produced in Europe

will not be affected. So I hope that clears up and I hope

that reassures cancer patients around the country

that the scaremongering that's The Government will clarify its

position in a paper released today. Here with us now is Conservative MP

Ed Vaizey, who is calling for the Government to reconsider

its stance on Euratom. And the president of

the Royal College of Radiologists, It is going to be fine, nothing to

worry about, says Damian Green, you are scaremongering. I have not

raised the issue of the effect on cancer treatment. I think he will

talk about that in a minute, but I have an interest in nuclear research

in general because we do nuclear research in my constituency in

Oxfordshire and that is under threat if we leave the nuclear treaty with

Europe. There are a whole range of issues, whether cancer treatment or

nuclear research in terms of cleaner nuclear energy that could be

threatened if we leave Euratom and the paper the Government is

publishing today on the future of Euratom does not mention medical

research so I do not think it will clarify the position on treatment.

Dr Nicola Strickland, do you accept you are scaremongering? I am not

scaremongering, it is my role in representing patients in this

country and clinical radiologists and oncologist to make sure those

patiently map are treated properly, so my role is merely to protect

patients and make sure they do not suffer as a result of us leaving

Euratom. The Government says they will not suffer, it will not affect

access to the isotopes that we do not make in this country. We will

still be able to import them. Why are you not reassured? We just do

not know and we want more communication from the Government

with the medical profession and with industry to know what the situation

will be. At present, the radioisotopes are covered by the

treaty. There has been some disagreement about that. They are

actually listed under list A2 in the annex and air transport is also

protected by the union in the nuclear treaty by which the tariffs

cannot be increased and the transport is assured. We do not want

patients getting investigations for cancer or treatment delayed as a

result of hold-ups in the delivery of these materials or an increase in

their prices. You think both of those are possibility? They are a

possibility and we want some reassurance and to know what is

actually going to happen. When the Government says, leaving Euratom as

part of Brexit will have no impact on the supply, the availability, our

access to the radioisotopes used in scans and treatments for thousands

of patients, at the moment, you do not believe them, frankly? I am

saying there is a risk and patients deserve some reassurance. OK. The

Government publishing the paper today to clarify its position,

hopefully, on Euratom. Would it work for you as a Conservative backbench

MP if there is some kind of associate membership of Euratom? We

leave the institutions to do with the EU, but we have some kind of

associate membership? Let us look at what solution the Government can

come up with. We have got into this mess partly because we have taken an

ideological view of Brexit, it has to be pure, we cannot be subject to

the jurisdiction of any things like the European Court of Justice.

Euratom creates a mini free market in nuclear which is deeply

controversial because it supports millions of pounds of investment in

Oxfordshire in nuclear research and as Dr Nicola Strickland has pointed

out, it enables the transport of nuclear material for cancer

treatment. The Government wants to say it is going to completely

replicate it. It is a bizarre process of leaving an institution

and then trying to recreate it as perfectly as we possibly can. For

me, the simplest thing would be to stay in that institution. If

associate membership is the compromise the Government comes up

with, Switzerland is an associate member, that might work, but

remember, Switzerland is subject to the European Court of Justice. We do

not want ideological pure Brexiteer is saying, that is not good enough

because the European Court of Justice has the jurisdiction. We

want security for cancer patients and my constituents who work in

nuclear research and we want continued investment in nuclear

research in the UK. Associate membership might not be on offer. I

have been reading some legal opinion which suggests that when Article 50

was triggered, that is it, we cannot pick and choose which bits we still

want, we are leaving, the letter was written. This is also the big

dilemma. I do not want to widen this discussion too much, but you saw the

head of Ryanair saying, we are now in picking wall of the aviation

agreements which allows us to fly cheaply around European destinations

-- we are now undertaking all of the aviation agreements. Our European

partners might say we want one thing and we say we want another thing. We

need clarity from the Government and an indication they are prepared to

compromise to save British jobs and things we take for granted like

reliable cancer treatment and cheap air travel in Europe. Thank you

both. I will read the statement then from the Government. There will be

no impact on the availability of radioisotopes. The UK supports

Euratom and will want to see continuity of cooperation in

standards. We remain absolutely committed to the highest standards

of nuclear safety, safeguards and support for the industry. New

figures showed the number of people applying for UK university places is

falling. UCAS, the university admissions

service, says the number of British applications is down 4% compared

to last year. And applications from students

in other EU countries are down 5%. Some people are saying that higher

tuition fees are putting off British students form applying to university

and that uncertainty caused by Brexit is another reason people

from other countries Let's talk now to Sally Hunt,

the general secretary Good morning. What are your own

theories? You have hit the nail on the head. When you know the average

debt for the poorest student is ?57,000, the average debt is around

?50,000, when you know that bursaries and grants have been

replaced by loans, when you know that we have a 19% drop, for

example, in student nurses applying. What we understand from this is that

people are not stupid, government has repeatedly pretended this is not

a debt, repeatedly said this is the only way we can fund the system, we

now know the bluff is being called. People have looked, they understand

the debt is huge, it does impact on their life, those people in the

future sea 6.1% interest rate being slapped on it from September. It is

putting people off. But it has not four years, has it? There has always

been a benefit recognised, higher education, everyone knows that, I

would say it over and over again, one of the best things you can do

for yourself. But people are very uncertain in the current climate,

very worried. People do not really understand where this Government is

going on all sorts of issues, let alone higher education itself. They

are worried about the economy, all sorts of things that make them

think, shall I invest at this point in time? If you look in the Times

Higher, they are reporting even vice chancellors are questioning whether

the regime is sustainable. That need to look at it. It is a mess. What do

you mean specifically? We have said for many years there should be a

question put as to why the state are paying, why the families of students

and students themselves are paying and business is not. There needs to

be a more equitable spread and we have always advocated a business

education tax and we have always said to look at corporation tax and

we were glad to see the Labour Party picking up on that. Robert Halfon

has just been elected as the Education Select Committee chair, a

Tory, someone who understands government and someone who

understands working-class people. I would say to him, get this on your

agenda, get a review going and let us look for a way we can have a

sustainable future for our economy and our people because we all need

higher education to work. Does it matter if University applications

have fallen by 4%? It does. When you are looking at Brexit and we

understand we have to have an economy that has a lot of people who

are skilled up, looking at the world as it is which is a very tense place

now, you need to have a democracy that is vibrant and people who feel

able and willing to share and participate. Those to -- two pillars

alone tell us it needs access to higher education. It opens up

opportunity. What is happening at the moment is people are being

frightened by the debt and EU students in particular are saying to

themselves, is there a future here for me? What will happen in terms of

not just my education but also my sense of being welcome as a person

who has writes or not? These things matter because we have to be part a

world and we have to be part of a world in a positive way. Thank you.

Let us bring you the latest weather. Sorry, let us do a statement from

the Department for Education. About University applications. Young

people continue to see the benefits of going to university with record

application rates for 18-year-olds and those from disadvantaged

backgrounds... Later, the sport. Before that, the

weather. A largely fine day so far and we

will continue to see Sunny spells with the rest of the day. This

lovely picture from Shetland, sunny spells here. This afternoon,

scattered showers developing across England and Wales, but across

Northern Ireland, western Scotland, the showers more persistent.

Temperatures reaching high teens, low 20s. Staying dry for Wimbledon

this afternoon and feeling quite warm. Showers in the north-west

spreading south-east through the night. Staying largely dry in the

south. Temperatures tonight similar to last night. Towns and cities,

double figures. In the countryside, low single figures in sunspots.

Tomorrow, not bad on the whole -- some spots. Sunny spells around,

more rain in the north-west later in the day. Temperatures similar once

again. That is your forecast for now.

Charlie Gard's parents return to the High Court in London today. They

have got letters from up to seven doctors and scientists and it

demonstrates there is up to a 10% chance of this ground-breaking

treatment working. Doctors that Great Ormond Street said the therapy

will not work and his life-support system should be turned off.

A junior doctor's gripping account of working on the NHS's frontline.

We'll be hearing how doctors deal with rota gaps,

exhausted staff, and risks to patient safety, on a daily basis.

And at Wimbledon Johanna Konta meets her date with destiny today,

when she takes on Venus Williams in the women's singles semifinal.

I'm fully aware that every single match that I'll get to play will be

a testing one, and will challenge me.

Theresa May tells the BBC she was devastated after hearing the exit

poll results and says the result was a complete shock. Devastated enough

to shed a tear? Yes, a little tear. At that moment? At that moment.

Here's Ben Brown in the BBC Newsroom with a summary of todays news.

Lawyers representing the parents of the terminally-ill baby,

Charlie Gard, will return to the High Court in London this

morning, to present what they claim is new evidence showing

an experimental treatment could help him.

Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital,

where he's in intensive care, say the therapy won't work,

and his life support systems should be turned off.

Theresa May has said she shed a little tear after hearing the exit

poll results on general election night. In an interview with BBC five

live to mark the year Sinjah became Prime Minister, she said the result

was a complete shock. I suppose devastated really because, as I say,

I knew the campaign wasn't going perfectly, but still the messages I

was getting from people I was speaking to, but also the comments

we were getting back from a lot of people that were being passed on to

become aware that we were going to get a better result than we did.

Devastated enough to shed a tear? Yes, a little tear. Yes, at that

moment. At that moment, yes. As the government prepares

to publish its long-awaited bill that will convert European Union

laws into British legislation, the head of the National Audit

Office has said he's worried about failures in government

leadership over Brexit. Sir Amyas Morse said ministers

weren't presenting a united front The Brexit minister, Steve Baker has

dismissed those concerns. The BBC has learned that at least

one person who survived the Grenfell Tower fire has been

diagnosed with cyanide poisoning. 12-year-old Luana Gomes,

was treated for the effects It isn't known what caused

the poisoning, but her parents - who lost their unborn child

after the fire - believe it may have been caused by the burning

of insulation or plastics Four former teachers at a leading

independent school West Sussex, have been charged with a number

of historical sex offences dating The men, who taught at

Christ's Hospital School in Horsham, are alleged to have attacked 15

suspected victims, both male and female,

between 1980 and 1996, according to the Crown

Prosecution Service. Donald Trump is in Paris,

where he'll hold talks with President Macron and attend

Bastille Day celebrations. High on the agenda will be US-French

actions in Syria and Iraq Despite differences between the two

leaders, Mr Macron has indicated he will work to reaffirm historic

ties between the two allies and prevent the US

from being isolated. Applications for university courses

starting this autumn have fallen Figures from the admissions service,

UCAS, show a sharp decline in mature students and those applying

to study nursing courses. It is the first decline

in applications since fees were last increased to over ?9,000

in England, five years ago. University leaders say

the decline could be down to a number of factors,

including Brexit, higher fees and funding changes for trainee

nurses and midwives. That's a summary of the latest BBC

News - more at 10.30. Do get in touch with us

throughout the morning - use the hashtag Victoria live

and if you text, you will be charged Particularly about university

applications, if you are a would-be mature student and had been put off

from applying for a university place, or not, let us know.

Here's some sport now with Leah Boleto.

Britain's on the verge of having it's first woman reach

a singles final at Wimbledon in 40 years, later.

Johanna Konta takes on five-time champion

Jo says she knows she got her work cut out, but appreciates the support

It makes it more special, because it is home, and I do

get that home support, which I don't get anywhere else.

I guess it makes it that much sweeter.

The Wimbledon crowd will be rooting for the British

But her form at the All England Club has impressed many, including one

former Grand Slam champion, who thinks Konta will know exactly

In her mind, Jo knows what she needs to do, tactically, the beat Venus

Williams. She has improved as a tennis player, a game is so much

better now, mentally she is even stronger, she has really impressed

me mentally with her game. She seems to stay in the present moment really

well and in the zone. I have a feeling if she continues to play

like she has since the beginning of this tournament, she has a very good

chance to win today. So, support from former

players for Konta - U2 are among those who've tweeted

wishing her good luck. And Sir Mick Jagger did the same,

saying Konta's gone further So Konta is the only British player

left in the main singles draw Andy says it's possible he'll take

several weeks off to recover fully from his hip injury,

after he was beaten in five sets Murray looked to be struggling -

in pain throughout The American came from two sets

to one down and is through to his first ever grand slam semi-final,

where he'll face Marin Cilic next. Cilic beat Novak Djokovic,

who retired with injury. Roger Federer is the favourite

to take the men's title now that three of the top four men's

seeds are out. Federer looked impressive in beating

last year's finalist He's bidding to win a record 8th

Wimbledon title and will face Away from Wimbledon,

the former Fifa official The American - seen

here on the left - had been banned from all football

activities for life, two years ago, after admitting

charges of tax evasion. He'd been suffering from cancer,

but did turn whistle blower to help investigators uncover corruption

in football. Let's just return to Andy Murray

for a moment, and as he exited Wimbledon yesterday,

he was his usual We know he is always very

supportive of women - and we saw another example yesterday

in his post-match press conference when he corrected an American

reporter on their tennis REPORTER: Sam is the first US player

to reach a major semi-final Yes, first male player,

that's for sure. That's all the sport,

I'll be back with more at 10:30. Children beaten and tear-gassed by

police, their belongings destroyed; That's the life for many child

migrants stuck in Northern France, according to a report

into what happened after the so-called 'jungle' camp

in Calais was cleared The All Party Parliamentary Group

on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery decided

to investigate reports that many of the unaccompanied children

who were trying to get to Britain were at risk of being trafficked,

because French Police were moving Let's talk to Fiona MacTaggart,

Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Trafficking

and Modern Slavery, and a former Labour MP, Sue Clayton,

is a documentary maker, who has witnessed police brutality

against children in Calais. 'Bilal' was one of the few hundred

children who arrived under He's 17 and came from Syria; Bilal

is not his real name, and we're protecting his identity

because he has family in Syria, Bilal, by the way, was not

trafficked, as I say, he came on the dub scheme. Fiona McTaggart, from

your research, what is happening to these unaccompanied children? The

shocking thing is we are talking about children. I think in this

country we are proud of our perfection of children, and yet

children, many of whom have relatives here, who are stuck in

Calais, who have run away from horrible situations, from war in

Syria, oppression by the Taliban, the threat of being recruited into

armies, they ran away. They want to come and join their family here, and

they face chaos and oppression by the French police. The Dubs scheme,

which is the scheme that you described, which allowed actually

only 200, so far, children, like Bilal, to come to the UK, actually

showed how we could properly process a group of people who are very

vulnerable and enable them to come here. And instead, what happened is,

after that first 200, nothing happened. So these children are

still there, sleeping rough, facing CS gas and pepper spray from riot

police in France almost every day. And they are not being treated like

children. We aren't doing anything to protect them. And as a result,

because they don't know how they can get to safety, they are at risk from

criminals, from traffickers, they jump onto lorries, trying to get

here safely. Of course some of them are wildly injured, if they get on a

lorry. And what our report says is that the fear the government has,

that having a proper legal way of letting these children come to the

UK makes more of them try. They said it was a pull factor. Actually the

opposite is true, the pull factors to Britain are cricket, television,

football, speaking English, education here, those are the pull

factors. We are not getting rid of any of those. The pull factors are

not legal routes because when they were, the children did not know

about them. So we need to treat them as children, protect them, that is

what we expect. Sue, as a documentary maker, you got back from

Calais yesterday, tell us what is happening there now. The jungle has

been dismantled, apparently, but the unaccompanied children and young

people are still there, as Fiona has described. That's right. Just to

recap, the jungle was there. The UK does have a boarder at Calais, we

have our border there and the jungle camp used to have 10,000 people

staying there. And no one really knew, because it wasn't an official

camp, that within that camp there were up to 2000 unaccompanied

children. No one knew their names, if they had rights or not. I have

been filming therefore nine months. What I found out was that almost all

of them did have a right under the Dubs scheme, which you have just

described, or under another law called Dublin three, if they have

family members in the UK. So I followed right through what has

happened to those children. Only 200 were accepted, and the rest are

stuck in the forest, the words, they are sleeping rough. The French

police RTA guessing them and spraying -- they are tear gassing

them, and pepper spraying them, just when they are asleep that night, not

when they are doing anything bad, but what concerns me more is that

the British government, because we do have a boarder at Calais, has an

arrangement where they pay to support the French policing. So even

though the French policing is very harsh, I would like to know more

clearly from the Home Office what part the Home Office is playing in

supporting those police methods. Let me bring in Bilal. Thank you for

talking to us. You have come from Syria, Bilal is not your real name,

we are not using your real name because there is a war going on in

Syria and your family is still there. You have not been trafficked,

you came under the Dubs scheme, you have not been treated badly, is that

correct? Yes. I decided to leave my family come at the first prison

because of the war in my country, the second reason, I did not want to

shed any blood for my country, I don't want to be any part of the war

in my country or of anyone. The third reason I cannot see my future

there. I just see a dark future, so I decided to be said, to follow my

future, to make my life again. And why did you want to come to Britain?

I always wanted to go to Britain, before the walk one of my ambitions

was to come here legally and study here. We hear a lot about this

country, we love this country, about the Marquess, the safety, the

humanitarian life, everything gives it the best advantage to come here.

What was it like when you were in the so-called jungle in Calais? Life

in the jungle is a really demanding life, really difficult, you will

face a lot of trouble there. Like what? When you arrive there, the

ambition is to get there, OK, but when you arrive, you will face a lot

of things, you will try to survive in this horrible place, to find

food, clothes, just to survive. After that time you will lose your

ambition, you will think you can't even move, just to survive. When you

arrive at this place, you lost everything. And what kind of a

welcome have you had in this country, Bilal? A lot of pressure

groups -- a lot of groups like Citizen UK, they welcomed us, and a

lot of British people welcomed us and I am really happy with that. Do

you want to stay in Britain, or do you have an ambition to go back home

one day, perhaps when the war is over, whenever that may be? If the

war is over and make country is free again and democracy for everyone,

maybe I will go back there but if not I am happy to stay here. Who

have you left back there? Mum and dad, my sisters, everyone. I am the

only one from a family who came here. OK, but you must really miss

them. I miss them so much, but I have no choice, this is the only

thing to protect myself. Thank you. Why do you believe it is partly the

responsibility of British taxpayers to look after people like Bilal,

desperate to get to Britain for the reasons Bilal has explained, to help

them come here? A very large proportion of the children in Calais

have relatives here and we have a legal responsibility under a

convention called the Dublin Convention to enable them to be

looked after by their families here. That is the first group, which would

be quite straightforward to deal with. We do not know how many

because unfortunately the only people who have done a census of

voluntary organisations and the Government has never used that

information to process people. The second group is people who are

profoundly vulnerable. When Alf Dobbs who himself as a refugee was

six came here on Kindertransport which was a scheme to enable

children who were at risk from the Nazis to be protected, when he moved

the amendment to the Bill, the Government and he and

parliamentarians of all kinds were talking about perhaps 3000 being the

specified number of children, actually 200 have come. In our

report, we did research with the local authorities about how many

extra places there are to look after those children. Something like 700,

800 places are available. The Government says we were full but the

Government was wrong. They did not count figures. We can look after

these children. Are seeing -- you are saying reopen the scheme in

print 3000? We open the scheme and make sure the children there at the

moment are safe. At the moment, they risk. There is sexual exploitation,

they are getting into survival sex, being assaulted by the police, it is

not safe. Actually, I am just an average middle-aged woman, but I

think I have a responsibility to help children to be safe. Thank you.

It has certainly really changed, the jungle. The jungle itself, there was

at least some kind of food, provision. Now they are living even

worse than we would treat animals. No clean water, clean toilets. They

have absolutely nothing. No food. A lot of them do still definitely have

a legal claim. As long as the Home Office is not there, who will prove

that claim? The Home Office sent a statement.

"We are committed to supporting vulnerable children who are caught

Our strategy is clear, we believe the best way to help

the most vulnerable children is by resettling refugees directly

"It is completely untrue to say that the Dubs scheme

The Government remains committed to resettling 480 children -

Thank you very much. You look... The expression on your face. Go on? I

feel cynical because when they say we remain committed to 480 people

achieved under consultation, actually, the only reason it went up

from 300 was because of a successful legal case against the Government.

It is not a scheme, it was a law, passed in Parliament. They have

reduced it to a scheme and the Government thinks it can close it

but it was a British law passed by the parliament that should be

expected. Thank you for coming on the programme. -- that should be

respected. More now on the news that the number

of people applying for UK UCAS, the university admissions

service, says the number of British applications is down 4% compared

to last year. And applications from students

in other EU countries are down 5%. The fall is being blamed by some

on high tuition fees and the uncertainty

caused by Brexit. The interest rate is also going to

go up in September. Let's talk now to Professor Les

Ebdon, director of Fair Access to Higher Education,

who is in our studios in Dunstable. Hello. Good morning. What is your

own theory? We can explain them fall in the number of 18-year-olds

because of the decline in the number in the population. The percentage of

18-year-olds who have applied for university has gone up from 37.2%

last year to 37.9% this year. No evidence it is putting them off. But

we do see a full in the numbers of mature students. It may well be

mature students are put off. Those over the age of 21, for example,

seem to be less inclined to apply for university under the current

funding system. Are you worried? I am reassured the number of

18-year-olds has held up but I worried about the number of mature

students because many of them are from disadvantaged backgrounds and I

have asked universities to do more to help them in terms of flexible

provision, meeting other needs mature students have in terms of

childcare and so on, putting on programmes more attractive to them.

Like what? Well, I was visiting two very different universities this

week, Birkbeck College and London Metropolitan University. Both of

them do a lot of work to raise the confidence of mature learners, that

they can return to education, and also provide flexible opportunities

for them to do so with a timetable suiting the kinds of needs parents,

for example, have. OK. But that does not address tuition fees. No, it

does not. That is a decision for Parliament. Not for me as the

regulator. You say in terms of mature students, you are worried

about it, maybe it is about flexibility and the timetable, but

it is also about that money, isn't it? Well, I am encouraged the number

of 18-year-olds has not fallen, the number of disadvantaged students as

a percentage... In terms of the mature students? I think the fees

are a disadvantage for those students, they feel they have other

debts and they do not want student debt. Maybe there are opportunities

to study part-time and in different ways. OK. Thank you very much. This

e-mail from Chris, my husband served a five-year electrical

apprenticeship. In effect, he paid for his day release to college and

paid tax on his weekly wage which helped fund those people luckily

enough to attend a university. Today more and more are tending and

without them contributing, it is unsustainable for their studies to

be paid for from general taxation. They should accept most of them will

become higher earners eventually. Another says, from speaking to

academics around the country, it is becoming clear that since the price

increase of tuition fees, universities are being run like a

business as opposed to a place of learning, some courses without the

student numbers are being closed. Masters courses are less encouraged

because of less profit being made and more students from overseas are

encouraged because of more profit. Courses with little profit get no

funding. Wimbledon, Johanna Konta takes on B as Williams in the

semifinals today. It's a moment she says she's dreamt

of since she was nine years old. Let's take a look at the stunning

victory over world number two Simona Halep on Tuesday that

got her there. It's a very special

day for Johanna Konta. It is extra special for British

tennis fans, they have waited 33 years to be able to say that one

of their own is in Whenever you engage in one of these

titanic tussles, you always My trust in my own ability

has got to be there. With the situation

and moments like this, than necessarily what I believe

I can or cannot do. I have always believed

in my own ability but I think I have needed to accumulate

experiences and time. That is a magnificent tie-break

from Simona Halep and Konta has got I go into every tournament,

including the championships here in Wimbledon, to be involved

in the event until the very end. But I am fully aware that every

single match I will get to play will be a testing one

and will challenge me. Look at that, somehow Jo Konta

has forced a final set. I don't take anything

for granted and I demand of myself my best effort

and I demand of myself my full commitment to what I do and to make

sure I prepare well and I do # I rise up, I rise up like the day,

I rise up # And I'd do it

a thousand times again #. You are the first British woman

since 1978 to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon and now winning that

quarterfinal match means that you will be in the top five

of the women's rankings When you tot up all these

achievements, do you ever pat yourself on the back

and go, well done? Um, it is difficult because I guess

in both an unfortunate and fortunate position that we are in tennis,

things move very quickly so before you know it, the championships

will be over and it is already In that sense, because things

are so fast-moving, it's almost an art to reflect well

and to acknowledge the good things that you do and actually

that is something I work on to make sure I acknowledge the good things

that I am doing, but I will let you know after Wimbledon how my pat

on the back went, OK? We can speak now to tennis

commentator, David Law. How is she going to do? I think

she's going to do well. Whether she is going to win, another matter. She

is up against a five-time champion in Venus Williams, but she is 37 now

and a player that Johanna Konta has beaten more often than not. I think

personally it matches up really well for her. The know-how on the grass

and at Wimbledon on the Centre Court, it certainly favours Venus

Williams, but Johanna Konta... I've personally think she will win this

match. I was watching Venus Williams on Monday, I was there, she does not

move like a normal 37-year-old. You would think she is 25, unbelievable.

She is a miracle. For her age and given meal must as she has had, the

injuries, she has been playing for 20 years. -- given the injuries she

has had. She is suffering from a fatiguing illness she has had to

deal with. She has a veto on diet. She has had to change her life. At

37, still able to get to the final four of Wimbledon. -- she is a VPN.

I think it is about 52-48 in the favour of Johanna Konta but it can

go either way. If Johanna Konta does beat Venus Williams and makes it to

the final, what will the pressure be like on her, from the great British

public, the media, everybody? It is noticeable looking today, I think

today is the first day looking at the newspapers that you really

realise the significance of what she is doing. The first time she has

gone further than Andy Murray at Wimbledon, a big deal in itself. On

the front pages of newspapers, wrapped in the Union flag, a huge

moment for her. I think a couple of the matches she has won this week

have informed everybody in the country who this person is. We

intend circles have known for a couple of years. She has announced

herself on the biggest stage of all, the last couple of weeks, and she

has done incredibly well because the pressure against Simona Halep,

playing to become the world number one, and Johanna Konta refused to

yield, highly impressive. Do you know how? Do you come across her a

lot? I just see her in interviews, she seems like a really nice woman.

I think she is. I do not know her hugely well. I interviewed her for

half an hour towards the end of last year. As we were trying to get to

know her. One of our colleagues on BBC 5 Live did a show that was on

last night, we repeated it last night, The Real Johanna Konta. She

is concentrating on what is in front of her. She is very keen to talk

about the very much process of how she goes about her business, just to

keep it simple, to not worry about the pressure, to not think about the

millions watching on hoping she wins, that is her way of handling

it. To me, certainly as a dad, I think she is an inspiration. I have

a daughter who was calling me up and saying, I really like this Johanna

Konta, I want to be like her. I think she is a great role model and

she is doing an amazing job at Wimbledon. Thank you very much,

David. Coverage of that match on five live and BBC television. Still

Theresa May has admitted she shed a "little tear" when she saw

the exit poll on election night - we'll have the details.

We'll be speaking to doctor Rachel Clarke, to find out what it's

With the news, here's Ben Brown in the BBC Newsroom.

The parents of terminally-ill baby Charlie Gard have arrived

at the High Court in London this morning, to present what they claim

is new evidence showing an experimental treatment

Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital -

where he's in intensive care - say the therapy won't work.

A solicitor for the family read a statement on their behalf.

They said they now had over 800,000 signatures on various petitions.

Theresa May has said she shed "a little tear" after hearing

the exit poll result on general election night.

In an interview with BBC Five Live, to mark a year since she became

Prime Minister, she says the result "was a complete shock".

Well, I felt, I suppose, devastated really, because,

as I say, I knew the campaign wasn't going perfectly, but still

the messages I was getting, from people I was speaking to,

but also the comments we were getting back from a lot

of people that were being passed onto me, were that we were going

Yes, at that moment, that private moment?

As the government prepares to publish its long-awaited bill that

will convert European Union laws in the British legislation, the head of

the audit office has said he is worried about failures in government

leadership over Brexit. Sir Amyas Morse said leaders were not

preventing -- possessing a united front in dealing with the

challenges. The Brexit Minister Steve Baker has dismissed those

concerns. The BBC has learned that at least

one person who survived the Grenfell Tower fire has been

diagnosed with cyanide poisoning. 12-year-old Luana Gomes

was treated for the effects It isn't known what caused

the poisoning, but her parents, who lost their unborn child

after the fire, believe it may have been caused by the burning

of insulation or plastics Four former teachers at a leading

independent school in West Sussex have been charged with a number

of historical sex offences dating The men, who taught at

Christ's Hospital School in Horsham, are alleged to have attacked 15

suspected victims, both male and female,

between 1980 and 1996, according to the Crown

Prosecution Service. Donald Trump is in Paris,

where he'll hold talks with President Macron and attend

Bastille Day celebrations. High on the agenda will be US-French

actions in Syria and Iraq Despite differences between the two

leaders, Mr Macron has indicated he will work to reaffirm historic

ties between the two allies and prevent the US

from being isolated. Join me for BBC Newsroom,

live at 11 o'clock. This is an e-mail from teeth on

university applications, which have fallen a bit in this country. I am

surprised and this had not fallen sooner, my son is about to go and is

looking at close to 60 K debt on leaving. My big fear with the

current system is that the debt is linked to an individual, and grows

at 6% per annum, so does not go away for 30 years. With an initial debt

of 60 K, someone would end up owing ?325,000 at the end of 30 years,

then written off, so costing the taxpayer five times the original

amount. Here's some sport now

with Leah Boleto. A big day for Johanna Konta

she knows five-time champion Venus William stands in her way

of becoming the first British woman to reach

a Wimbledon final for 40 years. The last time that

happen was back in 1977, There's every chance Jo could make

it, having beat Venus three out That match is second

on Centre Court today. Meanwhile, World No 1 Andy Murray

says it's possible he'll take several weeks off to recover fully

from his hip injury. He was of course beaten

in five sets by American, and looked in pain throughout,

limping between points. Elsewhere, the former Fifa

official Chuck Blazer - seen here on the left -

has died aged 72. The American had been banned

from all football activities for life, two years ago,

after admitting charges He'd been suffering from cancer,

but did turn whistle blower to help investigators uncover corruption

in football. Germany's Marcel Kittel has

won his fifth stage on this year's Tour de France with victory

in Stage 11. Chris Froome retains the leaders

yellow jersey and will be looking to defend his 18 second overall

lead, as the race heads That is the latest sport headlines.

A new era begins at the Natural History Museum today.

We're about to see the unveiling of the complete skeleton

of the giant diving blue whale, which is the largest

Our report, Rebecca Morell, is down at the museum now.

Lagat that, that is amazing. Yeah, it really is quite gobsmacking

actually. So this is the new star attraction at the Natural History

Museum, 25 metres long, 4.5 tonnes of blue whale, and they have given

it the name, Cowan hope. Putting the wail in here has not been entirely

without controversy because replaces much loved Diddy the dinosaur, who

was in the hall since 1974, but the Natural History Museum said it had

been time for a change and to find out why, I am joined by Richard said

then, the principal curator of mammals here the museum. Richard,

you were one of the people championing getting a wail in here.

Why was that? We wanted to put a specimen at the scent of the museum,

at the heart of the museum, a species people could relate to, but

something that represented what we as a species, the human race, can do

when we put our minds to trying to conserve something. There was a

complete ban based on the hunting of blue whales in 66. We had taken them

right the edge of extension, and we realise we were about to lose them,

and we should do is work together and bring them back, and this is

what we have done. We wanted the specimen to basically talk to people

in that way and give them way to reach the natural world. This has

been in the museum. You made a life changing visit here when you were

ten years old. I came down on a school trip in Birmingham in 1976,

the last year of my primary school. Money was tight, but I got the cash,

saw the then I was told by one of the gallery attendants, you are

looking at the bones of an animal that is out there in the ocean. I

was blown away. I was no idea what I was looking at. It really was a life

defining moment. If you had said to me back then I would be the person,

40 years on, making a change, breathing new life into the specimen

and displaying her for visitors to come for at least the next 20, 30

years, I would not have believed you. The logistics have been

incredibly difficult, not only have you had to dismantle a dinosaur, you

have had to move it from one part of the museum to another, and the post

has been really important. Tell us a little bit about what it has been

like to put this thing in here, it is not easy, is it? No. Making the

recommendation that the blue well should be the new specimen here was

quite a thing because ultimately we had to take it down, around all the

other specimens in the mammal hall, its old location. Four other huge

skeletons, the blue whale medal was done fairly effortlessly, we had a

great team of removals workers and a great team of conservatives in the

museum getting it out into a aircraft hanger in Bicester where it

was worked on from a crew from Canada that built the new frame. And

then I had to work designing this new pose, this is a lunge feeding,

diving posture, and I wanted it to represent the knowledge we now have

about the heavy of these blue whales, to really make it exciting

for people and I think we have achieved that. And getting it,

because it was assembled side, assembling it back in here and

winching it up to the ceiling. These are really old girders up here, you

want to be certain this thing isn't going to fall down on someone's

Head! That was it like winching up? That only took place at a few weeks

ago. We finished the winching in May, but it was relatively

nerve-racking, because it had to be done though slowly, centimetre by

centimetre. On each of the suspension points you can see up on

the roof girders, there was a man, so there were ten men in total with

cranks slowly winching the specimen into position, but the structural

engineers have signed off the integrity of the roof structure, so

we knew that the building could actually take the load thank you

very much. There is a party later this evening to show it off but

tomorrow will really be the test of the team here, because that is when

the public will come in and be greeted with this enormous beast.

It's huge mouth wide open as if it will swallow them up -- its huge

mall. It has been swapping one giant creature, BP, for an even bigger one

post they will be up to them to decide whether the wail has been a

worthwhile replacement, but I have to say, it does look fantastic.

They will love it, I'm sure, it is a thing of absolute beauty and

astonishing. Thank you. Theresa May says she shed "a little

tear" after hearing the exit poll In a BBC interview to mark a year

since she became Prime Minister, she says the result

"was a complete shock". As the campaign was going on, I

realised was not going perfectly but

throughout the whole campaign the was was that it would be a better

one for us than it was. We did not see the result that came coming, and

if I'm honest, I've heard stories about quite a view Labour MPs who

actually did not think they would keep their seats, and ended up

keeping those seats. So when the result came through, it was a

complete shock. Complete shock? When was that moment for you, of

realisation? It was when I heard the exit poll. To be honest with you, I

didn't actually watch the exit poll myself, I have a little bit of

superstition about things like that, my husband watched it for me and

came and told me come and I was shocked at the result that had come

through in the exit poll. It took a few minutes for it the sort of sink

in, what that was telling me. My husband gave me a hug, and then I

got on to the phone the Sisi HQ, the Conservative Party, to find out what

had happened. That must have been a moment for Philip to tell you, it

must've been quite hard for him? It was, but as you know he has been a

huge support for me over the years, and there are times when I perhaps