13/12/2017 BBC News at One

A blow for President Trump

as his Republican candidate

is defeated in a key election.

For the first time in 25 years -

the deeply conservative state

of Alabama has voted in a Democrat

for a US Senate seat.

As Dr King liked to quote:

"The moral arch of the universe

is long but it bends

towards justice."

We'll be assessing

the political impact

of the defeat on Donald Trump.

Also this lunchtime...

Four time Tour de France winner,

Chris Froome, is being investigated

over an apparent breach

of anti-doping rules.

The Prime Minister promises MPs

they will be given a vote on any

final Brexit deal as she tries

to avert a possible

government defeat tonight.

Jailed - Briton's most prolific

prison smuggling gang -

which used drones to get weapons

and drugs into prisons.

A man and a woman in their early 20s

appear in court in Manchester

charged with murdering

three children in a house fire.

And needing at least

a draw to save the Ashes -

it's make or break for England -

as they prepare to face Australia

in the third test tomorrow.

And coming up in the sport on BBC

News, Tyson Fury could be given a

licence to fight as soon as January.

The British boxing board of control

will review his case after he served

a ban for doping.

Good afternoon and welcome

to the BBC News at One.

It's being seen as a big blow

and personal embarrassment

for President Trump.

For the first time in 25 years,

the Democratic Party

has won a Senate seat in the deeply

Conservative US state of Alabama.

President Trump had publicly backed

the Republican candidate,

Roy Moore, despite allegations

of past sexual misconduct

with teenage girls.

The result reduces President Trump's

majority in the Senate

to the slimmest possible margin,

as David Willis reports.

It was a stunning political upset.

Doug Jones, a former federal

prosecutor, is the first Democrat

to be elected to the Senate

in this conservative southern state

in a quarter of a century.

His victory reduces the already

razor thin Republican majority

in the Senate to just one seat.

As Dr King liked to quote:

"The moral arch of the universe

is long but it bends

towards justice."

CHEERING.

If Trump is losing

in his deepest of Red states,

in his Republican states,

then the swing states,

the Blue states,

this should send an ominous warning

to Mr Donald Trump

that this is not your country.

I think they destroyed a good man.

So I'm feeling bad for Roy Moore.

Because Roy Moore

was a good Christian person.

And I believe he would have

been a great senator.

More, perhaps, than the strengths

of the victor this defeat points

to the weaknesses of his opponent,

Republican candidate Roy Moore.

A firebrand evangelical who believes

homosexuality is immoral

and Muslims should not be allowed

to serve in Congress.

He saw his sizeable lead

in the polls start to falter

after a string of women came forward

to claim that he had sexually

assaulted them, in one case,

when the accuser was just 14.

Roy Moore denies the allegations.

Part of the problem with this

campaign is we've been painted

in an unfavourable

and un...faithful light.

We've been put in the

hole, if you will,...

Despite calls from senior

members of his own party

for him to withdraw from the race,

Mr Moore continued to enjoy

the support of President Trump

who tweeted tonight,

"Congratulations to Doug Jones

on a hard-fought victory.

"The write-in votes played a very

big factor, but a win is a win."

Those so-called write-in votes

could prove significant.

In a further twist to

a long and often ugly campaign,

the vanquished candidate

is refusing to concede defeat.

For this Deep South state

to prefer a pro-choice,

pro-gay rights candidate

like Doug Jones

over a hardline conservative

such as Roy Moore is a reflection,

not only of the weakness

of the Republican candidate

but a major snub to the president

who backed him.

It will also be seen by some

as a victory for the victims

of sexual assault whose claims

Roy Moore has consistently

dismissed as "fake news".

David Willis, BBC News, Washington.

In a moment we'll speak

to Laura Bicker at the Senate

in Washington, but first

to Gary O'Donoghue in

Alabama.

Has Roy Moore conceded defeat yet?

No, he hasn't. But he is clutching

at straws. He is still 1.5% still

behind in the overall tally. He is

20,000 votes a jerk. The last time

-- 20,000 votes a drift. The

Republican party in Alabama has said

that they respect the voting process

and that suggests they are not

prepared to pay for a recount. He

would have to be within half a

percentage point for the state to

decide to do that so he is nowhere

near that. He may not concede for a

few days but I think his Senate run

is over at this stage. Alabama has

its first democratic senator in a

quarter of a century.

President

Trump has already taken to Twitter

trying to distance himself from Roy

Moore. How significant is this

defeat for him.

He said he didn't

back Roy Moore in the first place

because he knew he wouldn't win. You

are right he is trying to distance

himself. The Republican Party will

see this as a weak candidate rather

than a referendum on President

Trump's policies and his presidency.

It does leave him without problem,

the majority in the Senate is now

down to just one. Things like tax

reform, health reform, building the

border wall all just got much

harder. The president is going to

have to work very closely with the

Republican Party. Establishment

Republicans may be breathing a sigh

of relief, a controversial candidate

like Roy Moore taking a Senate seat

here would be difficult for many to

stomach. There were already talks of

an investigation into those sexual

allegations and now all that has

been avoided.

Thank you to you both.

The four times Tour de France

champion, Chris Froome,

is being investigated by cycling's

world governing body

after an adverse drugs test.

Analysis of a urine sample showed

the cyclist had more than double

the allowed level of an asthma drug

in his system, during this year's

Grand Tour of Spain.

Richard Conway reports.

He stands alone as

Britain's best cyclist.

A fourth Tour de France title

was claimed earlier this year,

swiftly followed by an historic

victory in the Spanish grand tour.

But Chris Froome's reputation is

now under threat, like never before.

That's because the Team Sky

rider was found to have

exceeded the permitted level

of the asthma drug Salbutamol

when tested in September.

Froome says, on doctors' advice,

he did increase his dosage due

to asthma but insists it was still

within the legal limits.

In a statement, he said...

Team Sky says Froome

has had asthma since childhood

and regularly uses an inhaler.

Salbutamol is permitted under

anti-doping rules when inhaled

up to a limit of 1600 micrograms

over a 24-hour period.

And no more than

800 micrograms over 12 hours.

Froome is said to have tested

at 2000 nanograms but his team say

the complex way the body processes

the substance can sometimes give

results from Europe

that require further explanation.

Different people respond

to Salbutamol differently.

If you gave the same dose

to ten different people,

you'd get different

concentrations in their urine.

So, that's part of the problem,

they'll certainly be bringing that

forward as a defence but I think,

actually, Sky have quite a serious

problem and I think they may

struggle to make it go away.

Scrutiny on Team Sky involving

Parliamentary hearings

has increased this year.

It follows an ultimately

inconclusive investigation

into allegations, all denied,

that centred on Sir Bradley Wiggins

and performance enhancing

drug use in 2011.

Froome, though, has taken a strong

moral stance on doping issues

and has been outspoken on the matter

of gaining medical exemptions,

known as TUEs, for usually

banned substances.

I didn't feel as if having

a TUE in the last week

of the Tour de France

was something I was prepared to...

It just didn't

sit well morally with me.

That was something

I was going to do.

2018 was billed as the year

Chris Froome would attempt to seal

a famous hat-trick of Grand Tour

wins in Italy, France, and Spain.

Instead, the potential ban

and the loss of his Spanish

title both possible,

he is merely riding

into an uncertain future.

Richard Conway, BBC News.

David Ornstein is in Manchester

at the home of British Cycling.

Just how serious is this, not just

for Chris Froome but also for Team

Sky?

I'm not sure if you can hear me

but this is a huge day for Team Sky

and cycling as a whole and

especially Chris Froome. The

ramifications could be huge, this is

a four-time Tour de France champion,

the first British rider to win the

Vuelta and he was going for

the-year-old Italia next year. What

he needs to do now is provide some

significant evidence to the UCI,

detailed records as to what has gone

on and perhaps potentially be tested

or if found guilty he would be

stripped of the Vuelta title and

could face a lengthy ban. The Vuelta

organisers say their position is one

of extreme caution and this isn't

the first scandal involving cycling

and Team Sky and it is an episode

they will want to get to the bottom

of quickly that it could run on for

some time yet.

David, thank you.

The Prime Minister has promised that

both MPs and the House of Lords

will get a vote on a final

Brexit deal.

Ministers are trying to avert

a possible defeat on its Brexit

legislation tonight.

Conservative rebels want to insert

a legal guarantee that MPs

will have a vote on the Brexit deal.

Here's our Political

Correspondent Ben Wright.

Fired up in the cold

and ready for a fight.

This morning MPs from opposition

parties were demanding Parliament

has the final say on how

Britain leaves the EU.

All we are asking on behalf of our

constituents is for the ability

to sign off on what our withdrawal

arrangements from the EU are.

Whether you voted Leave or Remain,

I think that is a very

reasonable demand.

But the reason ministers

are sweating is because a number

of Conservative MPs seem likely

to vote with the opposition

this evening.

They are urging ministers

to guarantee in law a meaningful

vote for MPs and peers on the final

deal done with Brussels.

And a former Tory Attorney General

is leading the charge.

Putting down the crucial amendment

that will be voted upon later.

The government should show great

flexibility in the way it approached

MPs raising legitimate issues

and I am quite sure

that if we do that,

we should be able to resolve this

without my having to rebel

against the government,

something which on an issue

of national importance,

I have never done in

the course of my career.

A defeat for the government

this evening would not

mean Brexit is derailed,

but it would beef up the power

of Parliament to scrutinise,

approve or even reject the Brexit

deal Theresa May is hoping

to get with the EU.

And at the moment, potential Tory

rebels are not backing down.

Which is why ministers

are trying to turn the screws,

persuade and cajole Tory MPs

to stay in line.

And this morning the Brexit

secretary David Davis wrote this

letter to his colleagues,

promising them a meaningful vote

as soon as the negotiations

in Brussels are done.

The government has also promised

that there will be a separate bill

on the final withdrawal agreement.

Are you facing defeat,

Prime Minister?

And this lunchtime Theresa May tried

to reassure her own side.

We will put the final withdrawal

agreement between the UK and the EU

to a vote in both Houses

of Parliament before

it comes into force.

As we have said, we expect the UK

Parliament to vote ahead

of the European Parliament,

so we fully expect Parliament

to vote well before March 2019.

But with no overall majority

in the Commons, just a handful

of Tory rebels could inflict defeat

on the Prime Minister

and potentially change

the course Brexit will take.

Ben Wright, BBC News, Westminster.

Let's speak to our Assistant

Political Editor Norman Smith.

The Prime Minister has promised a

vote, will it stave off a rebellion?

I think we are in showdown country.

Tory rebels are saying they won't

back off and the government say they

won't back off and in the Commons

Mrs May rebuffed an offer from one

of the rebels to except their key

amendment. The vote could be very

close and if Mrs May loses she risks

surrendering her grip on the Brexit

process because MPs would gain the

power not simply to approve any deal

before it is signed off but also to

amend that deal. More than that, it

would be a significant defeat for

Mrs May just when she had got back

on her feet after getting that deal

in Brussels last week. And the day

before she has got to go back to

Brussels to carry on the

negotiations. For Mrs May, yes,

victory would be wind in her sales,

the mojo would be back and defeat

she is back on the canvas looking

pretty weak.

The ringleader of the most prolific

gang to be caught smuggling drugs

and phones into prisons using drones

has been sentenced to more

than seven years in prison.

The group, run from inside prison

by former armed robber

Craig Hickinbottom, he organised

at least 49 flights,

and smuggled contraband estimated

to be worth more than a million

pounds into prisons as far apart

as the West Midlands

and Perth in Scotland.

Our Home Affairs Correspondent

Daniel Sandford has

this exclusive report.

Cameras originally set up to take

pictures of wildlife,

catching instead Britain's most

prolific drug smuggling gang.

-- drone smuggling.

Recording the pilot Mervyn Foster

time and again flying a drone

from a field outside Hewell

prison in Worcestershire.

Its illegal cargo hanging

underneath on fishing line.

From the field, the smugglers had

a view directly into the jail

and the prison block

where the drone's cargo was pulled

in through the windows.

Over the months the gang grew

in confidence and sophistication.

They had started by simply throwing

the drugs over the prison wall.

But then they started using drones

and they added to the contraband,

mobile phones, weapons,

screwdrivers, and even a Freeview

box with a remote control.

Cameras inside Hewell prison caught

one of the ringleaders,

John Hickinbottom,

with an improvised hook used

to catch the fishing line

and recover the contraband.

The contents of the loads were

specifically ordered by inmates.

The officer who caught the gang

told me they had organised the least

49 flights into jails as far

away as Scotland.

It was across like I say,

the West Midlands region primarily,

HMP Featherstone, Birmingham,

Stoke Heath, obviously here.

But we have also had stuff

up in HMP Manchester,

Liverpool and like I say,

as far north as HMP Perth.

All from the same group of people?

Yes.

The epidemic of drones being used

to airlift contraband

into prison grew from nothing

in just four years.

We didn't see this one

coming so the drones

literally came from nowhere.

They were flown in and it actually

just was a game changer for us.

So we had to relook at our systems,

our procedures and methods

of gathering intelligence.

And it gave the gangs an opportunity

to actually breach the secure

perimeters almost effortlessly.

To crack this case, officers

downloaded the memories

of the drones they seized and linked

that to the mobile phone calls

the smugglers were making.

The prisons ministers had to invest

millions of pounds in a new national

network of police and prison

officers working together,

which helped catch this gang.

What we have shown here is this

is the most prolific gang we have

come across and we have been able

to deal with them.

They're going to be serving jail

time and that is a huge success.

The gang, led by armed

robber Craig Hickinbottom,

is thought to have smuggled

contraband worth between £600,000

and over £1 million,

continuing even after they had been

arrested and charged.

With such huge profits being made,

keeping drones away from prisons

is going to be a lengthy battle.

Daniel Sandford, BBC News,

at HMP Hewell in Worcestershire.

Our top story this lunchtime.

A blow for President Trump -

for the first time in 25 years,

the deeply conservative state

of Alabama has voted in a Democrat

for a US senate seat.

And coming up -

cracking down on fraud -

banks say a new scheme

to combat scams has led

to more than 100 arrests.

Coming up in sport.

More on Chris Froome's

adverse drugs test -

after he's found to have twice

the allowed level of a legal

asthma drug in his urine.

He's responded on social

media this morning.

A man and a woman have

appeared in court charged

with the murder of three children,

who died in a fire at a house

in Greater Manchester on Monday.

They're also accused of four counts

of attempted murder. But pair were

remanded in custody.

Dave Guest is at Manchester

and Salford Magistrates'

Court this lunchtime.

As you say Zac Bolland and Courtney

Brierley faced three charges of

murder. The charges relating to the

deaths of 14-year-old Demi Pearson,

her eight-year-old brother Brandon

and sister Lacey, age seven. They

died as far swept through their home

in the early hours of Monday morning

in Greater Manchester. The pair in

the dock today are accused of arson

and attempting to murder the mother

of the dead children, Michelle

Pierson who is currently seriously

ill in hospital. There are three

further charges of attempted murder

relating to a three-year-old girl

and two boys aged 16 who were also

in the house at the time of the

fire. We're not allowed to identify

those three for legal reasons. The

district Judge Khalid Qureshi said

that is what too serious to be dealt

with at the magistrates court and

remanded in custody for further

appearance at Manchester Crown Court

which will happen tomorrow.

Is the Great British jobs

boom coming to an end?

The latest figures show that

unemployment has fallen again -

this time by 26,000

between August and October.

It now stands at 1.43 million.

The jobless rate remained

at 4.3%, the lowest

in more than four decades.

But the figures also show

that the UK workforce is shrinking.

Our economics correspondent

Andy Verity is here.

The workforce is shrinking yet

unemployment is falling?

It is a

puzzling situation, we now have been

used for a long time to the

workforce expanding every month,

every year going right back to the

1980s with a few exceptions like the

1990s recession and post crashed

2008. The workforce has been

continually expanding. One reason is

women during the workforce and 1980s

and 1990s and then the admission of

the accession states to the European

Union. If that is going into reverse

and we cannot say that for sure,

that is a significant change. So

looking at the total number of

people in employment, 32.1 million

people, that is down by 56,000, that

is how it fell between August and

October and that has happened in

spite of what is going on with

vacancies. The tightest labour

market we have seen in a long time,

798,000 vacancies. The pre-Brexit

bowed you would have expected that

many vacancies to attract migrant

workers wanting to fill the

vacancies. But that's not happening

as much any more, we know

immigration has slowed down and

therefore there are fewer people

joining the workforce from the EU.

So we have a strange situation of

what we have this ultra-tight labour

market and yet wages are not rising

in response.

A 15-year-old boy has pleaded guilty

to causing death by dangerous

driving of five people who died

when a stolen car crashed

into a tree in Leeds.

The teenager, who cannot be

named for legal reasons,

appeared via video link

at Leeds Crown Court this morning.

He was remanded in custody

for reports to be prepared ahead

of sentencing next month.

Five people, including

three children, died

in the crash in November.

Banks say a rapid response scheme

aimed at combating fraud has already

saved customers millions of pounds

in its first year, and led to more

than a hundred arrests.

Under the scheme, police arrive

at a bank branch within an hour,

if staff fear someone

is being tricked into

taking out a large sum

of money to pay a criminal.

Simon Gompertz reports.

A Rolls-Royce.

Some people have their heart so set

on getting one that things like this

are prime bait used by criminals

to get hold of your cash.

When I came into this bit

of inheritance, I thought right,

I've always wanted a Rolls-Royce.

Let's have a look.

It was a dream car for you?

It's a dream car and they are

so comfortable and so easy to drive.

Barry Fox in Essex

had a lucky escape.

Thanks to swift action from his bank

when he went to withdraw the money

to buy another fictional Rolls-Royce

in an eBay scam.

The fraudsters tried to lure him

into bringing cash to a pick-up

in the middle of the countryside.

So what was the danger, then?

You might have gone there?

I might have gone there...

With ten grand in your pocket?

With £10,000 in my pocket and been

knocked over the head

with a stick or something.

No car there at all?

And no car there at all.

Warned off by the bank,

he then got this car instead,

from a local dealer.

When Barry popped into his local

bank and asked for £10,000 in cash,

there was immediately

concern about him.

Now banks often find it difficult

to explain to customers

that they might be being scammed.

But under the new arrangements,

they were able to call 999,

quote banking protocol,

and get a police officer

round here within half an hour.

While in the branch,

the police checked out the car.

The situation just

didn't seem right.

It wasn't where it should have been.

This was all happening in Blackpool

and the car was then

registered in Bristol.

And also we made checks to

the business details against eBay.

It was the correct business

name but the contact

details didn't match.

Banks say they have stopped

customers being defrauded

of £9 million in a year.

However that is just the ones

going into branches.

£100 million has been lost in just

six months by people unwittingly

paying fraudsters online.

This is obviously really good news

for those that use their branch.

They are often the most vulnerable,

so everything that banks can do

to help is good news.

However, more and more of us now

back online and certainly have

to bank online because bank

branches are closing.

So we want to see more done

to protect consumers

from being scammed online.

Automatic, preowned...

But with the internet

playing such a big part,

it is still a good lesson to be wary

of sellers asking for cash.

I would tell people

if they want cash, don't buy.

The bank-police tie-up which meant

Barry did get his dream car,

will soon be in place

across the country.

Simon Gompertz, BBC News, in Essex.

The comedian, Peter Kay,

has cancelled his first stand-up

tour for eight years and all other

personal appearances.

He's blamed what he called

"unforeseen family circumstances",

and asked for privacy.

Tickets for the tour, which had been

due to start in April,

sold out almost immediately,

and extra dates had been added.

Social media companies could face

legal action to prevent what's been

called "vile and threatening

behaviour" aimed at people

standing for public office.

An independent ethics committee

report, commissioned

by the Prime Minister,

found that social media

was "the most significant factor"

in driving harassment,

abuse and intimidation of candidates

in the General Election

earlier this year.

Here's our Media Editor Amol Rajan.

Many MPs have faced horrific abuse

on social media platforms.

And Twitter in particular.

Stella Creasy endured a torrent

of hatred after supporting

a campaign for Jane Austen to be

on the new £10 note.

After posters of Maria Caulfield MP

were defaced, she too suffered

a sustained campaign of intimidation

on social media.

I guess it started around

the time of that Syria vote.

And it really ramped up then

and the election we just had

earlier this year is kind

of when it really peaked.

But you know on a day-to-day basis,

it is routine to get abuse, threats,

I've had several death threats.

I've had my tyres

slashed outside my home.

I've had my office

graffitied with threats.

The man who leads the committee

on standards in Public life wants

to see tech companies

take greater responsibility.

We were not impressed

by their takedown rates,

we were not impressed

by their performance data.

We do know that they are trying

to do some good things but we think

there has to be at least

a discussion

in Parliament about the way

in which they actually operate.

Twitter says it has introduced

new tools to help users.

The company is now taking action

on ten times the number of accounts

every day compared to the same

time last year.

And using new technology to suspend

thousands of abuse of accounts.

-- abusive.

But while the report contains

familiar statements about doing more

to remove offensive material,

it doesn't make clear how shifting

vehicle responsibility for harmful

content onto the companies

would actually work.

The sheer scale of material uploaded

online, with 400 hours

going on Google owned YouTube every

single minute, means that this stuff

is impossible to control fully.

And even if it were practical,

asking the likes of Facebook

to censor material before

it is published would fundamentally

change the nature of the open web.

The report's recommendations will

now be considered by the government,

who will then decide what if any

action to take.

A consensus is emerging that tech

giants should take greater

responsibility for harmful material,

but there is no consensus on how.

Amol Rajan, BBC News.

It's make or break for the England

cricket team as they face Australia

in the third test in Perth tomorrow.

Already 2-nil down and under

the spotlight for incidents off

the pitch, they need a draw

to keep their Ashes hopes alive.

Andy Swiss has just

sent this report.

In one of the most isolated

cities in the world,

one of the loneliest places

for English cricket.

The Waca is where so many

Ashes dreams have died.

So many decades of

disappointment for England's

players, and their fans.

But here a team trailing

on the pitch and in turmoil off it

know they need something

extraordinary.

It's an opportunity

to create history.

It's a real chance to flip

the dynamics of this series

on its head and if we do come away

2-1 from this game, then it does

blow the series wide open.

Well, for England over the years

the Waca has normally

lived up to its name.

They've lost their last seven tests

here and have arrived for this one

with not just their cricket

but their conduct

under the spotlight.

The latest barroom incident,

in which bowler Jimmy Anderson had

a drink poured over him,

has given Australia's headline

writers another field day.

And some believe the culture

of the team needs to change.

They do behave like students.

You know, when they go out

they think they're students.

They are not, they're

England cricketers.

The perception is that

they drink too much.

In terms of everything that's

happened to the team,

the performance levels,

the off field antics,

I would be staggered if England got

a victory this week.

And at a ground famed as a paradise

for its pace bowlers,

Australia are ramping

up the pressure.

England are only a couple of bad

sessions away from losing

the Ashes, essentially.

So you know, we've got to do

the basics really well and start

this Test match well and yeah,

as I said, hopefully

we can get the result

we are after at the end

of this week.

This will be the last Ashes Test

at this atmospheric ground,

for so long Australia's Western

stronghold, but for one

final time it could watch

the sunset on England's hopes.

Andy Swiss, BBC News, Perth.

Time for a look at the weather.

Here's Louise Lear.

Here's Louise Lear.

Good job the schools have gone back

because this is what happens to your

beautifully crafted snowmen.

Slightly less cold air has arrived

and things are melting thick and

fast and in fact we have got heavy

rain. Lots of rain around pushing in

from the West and some of that quite

heavy. As we go through the

afternoon some rain down into the

south-east corner. Some brighter

weather and then showers, getting

wintry as we go through the evening.

From the M4 corridor north you go

see combination of rain, sleet and

snow, the snow will be quite wet, we

do not expect it to cause much

disruption but not pleasant to drive

in and it might make for tricky

rush-hour conditions. So some of

those snow showers are little more

frequent, settling chiefly above 200

metres. But overnight it will be

windy, with gale force wind on

exposed coasts. And temperatures

falling away. The ice could be more

of a concern tomorrow morning so

worth bearing in mind, there will be

some icy stretches out there with

temperatures hovering close to

freezing. As we go through the day

tomorrow, not quite so messy. The

wind falling lighter and most of the

showers confining themselves towards

the west facing coast. Central and

eastern areas seeing some decent

sunny weather and not a bad day

although still quite chilly. As we

move out of Thursday and into Friday

the ice bars are vertical, the wind

coming from the north yet again. A

cold day but a quiet day, just a few

scattered showers and there will be

some sunshine around. Hopefully

helping to compensate a little. The

cold air remains with us at the

start of the weekend but look at

Sunday, milder air returning from

the West. So on Saturday we see

sunny weather conditions and by

Sunday it looks as if it will be

cloudy and wet from the West. And

the mild conditions stay with us for

the early part of next week.