12/04/2017 BBC News at One

President Putin says relations between Russia

and the US have deteriorated since Donald Trump became President.

His comments come as the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov,

met his US counterpart, Rex Tillerson in Moscow

We'll have the latest from Moscow and Washington.

German police say the explosions which hit the Borussia Dortmund

team bus were directly targeting the club.

The boss of United Airlines appears on US television to apologise

for a passenger being dragged off an over-booked flight.

He describes the incident as a 'system failure'.

You saw us at a bad moment and this can never, will never happen again

That's my premise and that's my promise.

Tesco sees its first annual sales growth for seven years -

but its profits were still down, by nearly a third.

And breaking the speed limit - the steam train that's travelled

at more than 100 miles an hour, for the first time

And coming up in the sport on BBC News.

Leicester City prepare for their first Champions League

quarter final, they face Atletico Madrid in

Good afternoon and welcome to the BBC News at One.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said trust

between Moscow and Washington has deteriorated since

Mr Putin's comments come as his foreign minister,

Sergei Lavrov, holds talks with his US counterpart, Rex Tillerson

Opening the meeting, Mr Lavrov said he wanted to clear up

what Moscow regards as America's 'ambiguous and contradictory'

Rex Tillerson is hoping to persuade Russia to stop supporting

Syria's President Assad - after last week's chemical attack

which killed more than 80 people, including children.

Barbara Plett-Usher reports from Moscow.

This is not the kind of meeting that once seemed on the cards. Long gone

is talk of a grand resettling of relations with Russia. That has been

replaced over tensions over the chemical weapons attack in Syria and

Russian anger over the American military response. It is important

for us to understand your intentions, the intentions of the US

aid and the real intentions of this administration. The Secretary of

State said both sides had some explaining to do. We can further

clarify areas of common objectives, areas of common interests, even when

our tactical approaches may be different. To further clarify areas

of sharp difference so that we can better understand why these

differences exist. The Trump administration has raised the stakes

by so publicly and strongly blaming Russia for the actions of its Syrian

ally. It's a major shift in approach but it's not clear what the strategy

is. Relations have never been easy but Moscow says they haven't been

this low since the end of the Cold War. The strike on a Syrian air base

seemed like a game changer but the Americans said they were taking a

stand against the use of weapons of mass destruction, not taking sides

in the Civil War. Yet President Trump is now pressing the Russians

to back away from supporting the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad.

Frankly, Putin is backing a person that is truly an evil person and I

think it's very bad for Russia, I think it's very bad for mankind,

it's very bad for this world. That is reinvigorated Western allies who

met Rex Tillerson yesterday. They are hoping this means the US will

take a more forceful role in pushing for a political solution. In Moscow

though, that approach has backfired. President Putin has only deepened

his show of solidarity with Assad and blames the rebels for the

chemical attack. The relationship between the US and Russia is as bad

as it has been in a very long time. In the aftermath of this air

strikes, Rex Tillerson is going over with the hope that he can somehow

persuade Russia of the critical importance of the US and Russia not

coming to conflict in Syria. Tillotson has a lot of expense of

working with the Kremlin, but in cutting business deals when he

worked for Exxon Mobil. This is a whole other matter and the trip will

be a test of whether he is up to the challenge.

In a moment, we will have the latest from Gary O'Donoghue in Washington,

but first, let's join Sarah Rainsford in Washington -- in

Moscow, and one can only imagine how I see those initial conversations

must have been. Certainly it looked like a very cool atmosphere and the

words coming from the Russian side were fairly strong. I think Sergey

Lavrov wanted to make clear that Russia is this all sorts of

ambiguities and contradictions coming from America and it wants

America to make its position clear. Of course, Rex Tillerson have come

here with one clear demand. He had been calling on Russia to top in

support of Bashar al-Assad but we have heard from the Kremlin, Mr

Putin himself and the Foreign Minister that that is not going to

happen. Russia has invested a huge amount in supporting Bashar al-Assad

in Syria and it has made the point again today that that's because it

sees him as a bulwark against terrorism. It believes that its

fighting international terrorism alongside President Assad in Syria

and we heard from the Kremlin today that it would be absurd to stop that

support. I think it's going to be a very testy round of talks. We still

don't know whether Rex Tillerson will meet President Putin, that

might take place later today, but I think the atmosphere will be very

different now between those two men and it was a view years back when Mr

Putin gave an award to Rex Tillerson and called him a friend of Russia

for his work in the oil industry. So a very different mood now. Thank

you. We had to Washington. What is their next move by the Trump

administration? We haven't heard really on what they

think should happen to Bashar al-Assad. One point is that they

want him to go straightaway and another is that they seem to be

prepared to see his removal as less of a priority. Russia, not

surprisingly, has latched onto this lack of consistency about America's

approach to Syria and said, what are you up to? During the election

campaign, Donald Trump, there was a lot of support for the idea that

Russia was taking on terrorism, as Sarah mentioned there, terrorism

inside Syria and that they could be more coordination between Russia --

between Russia and the US are met. This has also been hamstrung

slightly by the failure of the G-7 to agree further sanctions on

Russia. It's not clear that Rex Tillerson turns up in Moscow with

much in the way of Trump cards in his hand. Thank you Gary O'Donoghue

and Sarah Raynsford. The manager of Borussia Dortmund had

urged his players not to give into terror. He was speaking after the

team bus was hit by three explosions last night. Both sides agreed a

short while ago that they would still play tonight and federal

investigators are investigating. That means this is a serious crime

and terrorism is being looked at. Letters have been sent claiming

responsibility and it seems the investigation is moving fast.

A narrow escape from a targeted attack on the Borussia Dortmund

Three roadside explosions triggered at the same

time last night as the coach left its hotel in the south of Dortmund.

The Spanish international Marc Bartra was sitting close to the

He is being treated for a broken wrist.

TRANSLATION: Marc Bartra is being operated on right

now for a broken bone in his right hand.

And he has various glass shards that had been blasted into

The team through their captain just rang me.

They are still very shocked and thinking about Marc.

Also injured was a police officer escorting the

Federal investigators are focusing on two

letters, one received at the scene and one posted online.

Both claiming responsibility for the attack.

No more details have been given but German

note left in the road claims that Islamist

extremists are behind the

A far left antifascist activist group is also claiming

TRANSLATION: I can say a letter was found near the blast scene.

At the moment Judy the ongoing investigation I cannot give more

-- due to the ongoing investigation, I cannot give more information on

the content. The authenticity is

being investigated. Monaco are the other

team due to play tonight and are staying here

at I have spoken to some

of the players, some They say they're worried,

they say they're checking developments

on their mobile phones but that they trust

in German security and there

is an extra police presence here especially checking the other

coach throughout the day. The kindness of strangers

in the aftermath of the In hundreds of Germans

offering through social media to take

in French fans for the night. Fabien Dubois and his

friends took up the offer. We had the possibility

to rest in Dortmund today. So it is fantastic because we

really want to see the Earlier today football's governing

body Uefa confirmed the game will go ahead this evening

with heightened security. And amid an ongoing

police operation to find While we are on air, the German

Federal prosecutor has said one arrest has been made and that there

are two suspects. One of those suspects has Islamist links and they

are now rolling out this claim by a far left organisation. Also inside

there were metal fragments, so it seems the investigation in the past

few minutes is moving quickly. Unemployment has fallen

to its lowest level in a decade. The number of people out of work

fell by 45,000, to 1.56 million - the unemployment rate

remained at 4.7%. Our Economics Correspondent

Jonty Bloom is with me. You have been looking at the numbers

and that is a positive headline story with unemployment but we

should also be looking at earnings? It is unusual at this point in a

cycle where we have unemployment at its lowest level in ten years, the

number of people in work at the highest level since records began

and yet average earnings only increasing by 2.2% each year. You

would expect it to be more as employers have do pay more to find

the best workers. It is only 2.2%. Inflation is very nearly at that

level, meaning anyone who got a pay rise in the last year has seen that

virtually wiped out by increases in prices in the shops. And that is

indicative of living costs? Yes, some people such as civil servants

have seen their wages frozen, so they are worse off last year than

this year. We are expecting inflation to increased an average

earnings not to go up. Inflation will increase because of the

weakness in the pound, higher energy prices, higher travel prices, which

we know are in the pipeline, so that will push up inflation and people

will feel the squeeze. They will not have as much money to spend as they

did last year as those prices wipe out their salaries and to put that

in context, it has been going on a very long time. People are still

paid slightly less than they were ten years ago and that is

unprecedented. Because of the credit crunch, the recession and the

squeeze on salaries and spending we have seen ever since then. Thank you

very much, Jonty Bloom. Tesco has reported its first annual

sales growth in seven years. But the supermarket giant's pre-tax

profits fell by nearly a third, to ?145 million,

because of fines and compensation Our business correspondent

Emma Simpson explains. Tesco is still paying the costs

of its past mistakes, but things are moving in the right

direction for Britain's Sales up, so to are profits, once

you exclude its penalties and costs. The boss also told me

he had detected a shift What we see our customers doing

is being, as they have always been, very savvy about what they buy

and when they buy it. So there's a subtle move

back to more fresh food, back to more sort of everyday

essentials and some subtle savings on what might have been

luxuries in the past, being things they have

chosen in the first part After years of falling prices,

the cost of food is now on the rise. All retailers are having to cope

with the fall in the pound, Tesco says it is passing on less

inflation than its competitors. The current trend we're seeing

from the supermarkets are that they are putting up prices

of nonessential items, so for example items

like candles and light bulbs. We have seen a 13% increase

since last October. The reason they are putting up

the price of the nonessentials is that customers are less likely

to notice these price increases. But if the retailer was to put up

the price of the essential everyday items like milk or bread,

customers will notice straightaway and they might

take their shop elsewhere. Are you using stealth tactics

to pass on price rises? I'm familiar with the claim, that

is not at all how we look at it. We measure all of our price basket

and what we have been trying to do over the past two and a half years

that I have been here is to lower prices, make them more stable,

make them more predictable, not to be playing with promotions

in a way which actually skews So our intention is to keep

inflation away as best we possibly But can he do that and also keep

improving Tesco's profits? This is a business that still has

an awful lot of hard work ahead. High level talks in

Moscow get underway - as President Putin says relations

between Russia and the US have deteriorated since

Donald Trump was elected. Still to come, can the fairy tale

continues for Leicester City against the pro-Madrid tonight in the

quarterfinals of the Champions League?

Johanna Konta will lead Great Britain's Fed Cup team

in their qualifier against Romania next week, aiming to return

to the top level of the competition for the first time since 1993.

The Chief Executive of United Airlines has apologised again -

for what he's described as the truly horrific removal of a passenger

He promised it would never happen again.

Oscar Munoz had been under growing pressure -

after initially defending what happened.

The family of the passenger say he's being treated in hospital -

and they're grateful for the outpouring of

It's the footage that has gone viral, caused

widespread revulsion, and led to shares in

David Dao is dragged from a plane in Chicago after he refuses to obey

officials who tell him he must give up his seat.

United insisted it needed four seats for crew members.

There has been condemnation on social media.

The video clips have now been viewed more than 100 million times.

And people have protested outside Chicago airport calling

The boss had at first defended what happened,

saying the passenger had been disrupted and belligerent.

The first thing I think is important to say is to apologise

His family, the passengers on that flight.

That is not who are family at United is.

And you saw us at a bad moment and this can never,

That is my promise, that is my promise.

The family of David Dao have issued a statement expressing gratitude

He is undergoing treatment at a Chicago hospital.

But some passengers want convincing that the airline

I hope this never happens again to anyone.

And I will continue to fly United, I will continue to also check

I just got asked to volunteer to give up, but travelling

So I'm hoping it is a better situation today.

PR experts believe the belated apology should

They have done all the wrong things really, really well.

And I think, you know, people in PR will be looking back

at this for many years as the perfect way to explain

Performing together with a single, United purpose.

The slick adverts seemed a world away from what was

The company now needs to unite to limit damage.

America's first Lady Melania Trump is to receive damages and a public

apology from the Daily Mail after it published a story questioning the

nature of her work when she was a professional model. The newspaper

ran an article including allegations that she provided services beyond

simply modelling. It later retracted the story and apologised. The sum of

damages has not been disclosed. With me is our Entertainment

Correspondent Lizo Mzimba. Blarney and trampled proceedings at

the High Court in London over claims made in the Daily Mail newspaper,

the print edition, in August 2016, over two pages. As you said the

newspaper claimed, make claims about her modelling work in the 1990s

especially that she provided services beyond modelling. It also

made allegations that she may have met Donald Trump three years earlier

than has previously been reported. And that their actual meeting was a

ruse. This morning the High Court in London, Associated Newspapers which

publishes the Daily Mail as well as printing the online edition, said

they wished to apologise to Melania Trump. That now accept that those

allegations were untrue and they wished to stay sorry to her in open

court, and they regret any embarrassment the articles may have

caused her. And similar allegations in the United States? Yes because

the High Court in London has no jurisdiction over the United States

but the Daily Mail online also publish similar allegations in the

United States and it appears simultaneously the Daily Mail online

said they wanted to attract those allegations. So she's had an apology

in the High Court in London, the Daily Mail print edition will print

an apology and in the United States the mail online will also print an

apology retracting those allegations. The mail online and

Daily Mail also agreed to pay legal costs for her and pay her an

undisclosed sum in damages bringing the story to an end.

Thank you very much. President Trump's spokesman,

Sean Spicer, has apologised - after saying that Hitler didn't

use chemical weapons. Sean Spicer made the remark

during a White House press briefing, as he answered questions

about the war in Syria. Journalists pointed out to him that

gas was used to murder millions of Jewish people,

and others, during the Holocaust. David Willis reports

from Washington. Asked about the Syrian government

use of chemical weapons the president press spokesman made the

surprising assertion. We didn't use chemical

weapons in World War Two. You know, someone as despicable

as Hitler who didn't Asked to clarify those remarks, Sean

Spicer dug himself in even deeper. To the Holocaust centre,

I understand that. But what I'm saying,

in the way that Assad used them where he went into towns,

dropped them down to innocent... ..Into the middle of

towns, it was brought. So the use of it, I appreciate

the clarification. In a statement the Anne Frank Centre

on mutual respect accused Sean Spicer of engaging in what it called

the most offensive form of fake news imaginable by denying Hitler gassed

millions of Jewish people to death. Calls mounting for his dismissal,

the spokesman went back in front of the cameras to offer this apology.

I was obviously trying to make a point about the heinous

acts that Assad had made against his own people last week,

And frankly, I mistakenly used an inappropriate and insensitive

reference to the Holocaust for which, frankly,

there is no comparison and for that, I apologise.

On Monday Sean Spicer suggested the use of barrel bombs by the Syrian

regime could merit renewed military action on the part of the United

States. Only for the White House to deny its policy had changed. Now the

Tramp administration is facing further unflattering headlines amid

suggestions that this man but days of the lecture and could now

numbered. A terminally-ill man has won

the right to bring a High Court challenge over the law on assisted

dying. Retired college lecturer Noel Conway

who has motor neurone disease took his case to the Court of Appeal

after he was refused permission to bring a judicial review over

the blanket ban on providing He told judges he feared becoming

entombed inside his body. The ruling means there will be

a full hearing of the case Pauline Cafferkey, the British nurse

who survived a bowler is returning to Sierra Leone. She contracted the

disease there in 2014 while volunteering. She said she hopes the

trip will give closure after what she described as a pretty tough

couple of years. I think psychologically it's

important as well that I go back. That's where things kind of standard

from E and I had a terrible couple of years since then so it would be

good to go back, just for things to come full circle for me

and a little bit of closure. And end up with something good,

something positive as well. The Leicester City

fairytale continues - with probably the biggest night

in the club's history to come, as they face Atletico Madrid

in the Champions League. But there were some ugly scenes

involving Leicester fans overnight, leading to eight arrests,

and with last night's attack in Dortmund, there will be

extra police on duty. Our Sports Correspondent Joe

Wilson is in Madrid. Here we are, lads,

just eight teams left in the European Champions League

and Leicester, yes, The club's captain, currently unfit,

filmed his own entrance into the stadium last night,

as if to be sure it As Leicester trained here, other

events were unfolding in Dortmund. As the training session concluded,

police guarded and searched the Leicester team bus outside

the grounds before the players And so Atletico Madrid

twice recently finalists in the Champions League,

welcome a man who was once In charge of just his eighth game

as Leicester manager. Well, I think in terms

of life experiences, you use them as you go along

and you know, sometimes you have new experiences of which this season

is for us in the Champions League. But we have enjoyed it,

but make no mistake, we are there to compete and not

there just to make the numbers up. And I think that's important,

these players have Playing in the quarterfinals

of the Champions League still seems almost surreal for Leicester City

but you know, they have 20 years ago they lost

to Atletico Madrid in the Uefa cup. Did manage a goal on this ground,

and the goal-scorer was immortalised in the next match day programme,

there he is. What could be more Spanish

than Ian Marshall, with paella? But the current Leicester team

is famous in Britain, in Madrid, The Leicester effect

is crossing Europe. The Champions of England,

it's called Leicester City. We all became Leicester fans for one

day last season, it was amazing. It's a team we want to play

against because we think it's going to be a great game

for the fans. This city has dominated the

Champions League in recent years. Leicester are not tourists,

they are contenders and tonight A steam locomotive has been driven

at 100 miles an hour - for the first time since steam power

was abandoned by British Rail, The new steam locomotive,

Tornado, reached the speed as part of an experiment,

to assess whether steam trains can safely run faster than the current

limit of 75 miles an hour. It may look like something from a

bygone era but the Tornado steam locomotive is a very modern train.

To run competitively on the railways today it must hit top speeds. Which

is why in the middle of the night, its volunteer crew did something

that has not been done since 1966. On the line between Newcastle and

Doncaster, they took the train to the maximum, past the normal running

speed, past 90 miles an hour and beyond. Right up to the top of the

dial. We did what we set out to do. We need to see, we have not got it

home yet so it really only counts when you get a terrible. But the

guys had an inspection and we seem to be all right. It is all about

gathering data, that is the difference with this, then we will

take the engine to the shed and put to bed and put ourselves to bed.

This class of steam train was common throughout the 1950s until the end

of the 1960s when it was scrapped in favour of diesel. The Tornado was

built in 2008 at a cost of ?3 million and it runs a charter

service. But to fit into the modern railway network timetable the crew

had to show that it could cope at more than 90 miles an hour. A lucky

few were on board last night as the train hit the 100 mile an hour mark.

I have every confidence and faith in them to be honest, they're wonderful

people and they have done us proud. Absolutely incredible. She's the

only locomotive that could have done it. Brilliant. If there was any

problem they would have backed off immediately and they were just

cruising in the high 90s. As smooth as silk, amazing. It is an

achievement built on soot, steam and sweat and for the group huge cause

for celebration. Rather than champagne though they were gasping

for a cup of tea. The tornado was the first steam locomotive to

reintroduce a timetabled service to England. Now it has shown what it

can really do and the hope is that by the end of this year it will

operate regularly at express speeds. And viewers in Yorkshire can see

more about that story in tonight's edition of Look North,

at 6.30 on BBC1. It is full steam ahead with the

weather forecast! A look ahead to Easter in just a moment. There is

cloud across central portions of the UK, this is a weak weather front

that has brought some rain, most falling across Northern Ireland,

northern England and the north of Wales. Behind that in Scotland a

mixture of sunshine and showers. Rainbows across the Highlands of

Scotland caused by the showers. A different picture across North

Wales, some clout and spots of rain and also cloud across Dorset but

that will break up to give some sunshine. So some decent weather to

be had, temperatures reaching a high of 16 degrees in London. But more

cloud and rain moving across Wales. It could be a showery picture

crossed Cumbria -- Cumbria. The showers continued to feed him on the

brisk north-westerly wind. Overnight the showers tend to fade away and we

have clearing skies. It will be a cold night for the northern part of

the UK. Cold enough for some frost in the coldest locations in the

north of the country. Some showers around coastal area. Temperatures

around six or 7 degrees in towns and cities. On Thursday we start off on

a fine and sunny note but things cloud over from the West and the

cloud big enough to bring some showers. Notably across western

areas in Scotland were again it stays breezy. For the temperatures,

a little bit cooler towards the south of England, temperatures just

rising by the odd degree so across Ward northern parts of the country.

Into Good Friday, a lot of cloud for England and Wales, some patchy

outbreaks of rain possible. But no huge amounts. Brighter skies further

north and with some sunny spells and passing showers. Into the weekend,

low pressure never far away from the UK especially to the north as we go

through towards the weekend. High pressure in the South keeping the

worst of the weather at bay. But for the Easter break things not looking

too bad. Most of us seeing some spells of sunshine, we could have an

area of rain working across Scotland as we get through Sunday. Then

brightening up again through Monday but there is some uncertainty about

that. Find out more on the BBC website.

That's all from the BBC News at One - so it's goodbye from me -