22/02/2018 BBC News at One

Theresa May holds crucial talks

with ministers to agree

a united approach to Brexit.

Senior ministers are at Chequers

this afternoon as the Prime Minister

tries to get Cabinet

consensus on Brexit.

We'll have the very latest

from our correspondent at Chequers.

Also this lunchtime: The number

of EU citizens leaving the UK

is at its highest for a decade.

President Trump suggests giving

guns to some teachers

as he meets survivors

of the Florida school shooting.

Scientists say anti-depressants

do work, and more of

us should be on them.

And up, up and away

at the Winter Olympics -

it's gold for America in the men's

skiing half pipe.

And coming up in the

sport on BBC News...

Team GB's men are out of the curling

at the Winter Olympics.

The silver medallists from four

years ago lost 9-5 to Switzerland

in their play-off match.

Hello, welcome to the news out on.

There's a crucial meeting this

afternoon of the government's

inner cabinet on Brexit.

The Prime Minister is holding talks

with senior ministers at Chequers,

in an attempt to secure a common

approach on Britain's negotiating

position with the European Union.

The meeting begins in an hour,

but with significant

differences to be resolved,

it could go on until

late into the evening.

Here's our political

correspondent, Chris Mason.

The official country residence of

British prime ministers since 1921.

Checkers in the Buckinghamshire

countryside, hosting a meeting of

the Government's most senior figures

involved in making Brexit happen.

The chance for them to work out what

they see our long-term relationship

with the EU looking like.

Questions

to the Secretary of State for

International Trade.

Back at

Westminster, Brexit dominates

everything. Liam Fox faced questions

this morning, as did the Prime

Minister's de facto deputy, who

tried to talk things down.

This is

one of a number of meetings of

Cabinet ministers to talk through

how we approach the forthcoming

negotiations. Obviously everybody

brings their particular departmental

interests to the table but if you

look at what happened back before

the December European summit there

was a lot of speculation the Cabinet

would not reach agreement. We all

agreed the position the Prime

Minister took to Brussels and got a

successful outcome and we are

determined to get the best possible

deal.

But there are continuing rows

about precisely how long the

transition period immediately after

Brexit next year should be. And

crucially there are differences of

instinct around the Cabinet table

about what the UK's long-term

relationship with the EU after

Brexit should look like and those

differences won't melt away easily.

The Prime Minister has got to keep

Brexiteer backbenchers onside.

The

Brexit Cabinet all fought the last

election on a manifesto of leaving

the European Union and that's

basically what they are talking

about, the structure as to how we do

that. The Prime Minister enunciated

yesterday the main principles about

taking back control of our laws and

money, leaving the single market and

customs union.

Labour has faced

criticism is itself about a lack of

clarity about what it wants but is

now saying...

We have been evolving

and deepening our policy over the

last few months. The key issue is to

say to the Government you got to

have the transition period of these

two years, but also for the

long-term look at the potential of a

customs union.

The cameras won't get

much closer to checkers than this

today. Spectacular views, yes, but

don't expect spectacular political

theatre. The process of negotiating

Brexit and home -- at home and

abroad is a slow and grinding on.

Our Political Correspondent Alex

Forsyth is at Chequers.

How important is this meeting?

It is pretty crucial because, as

Chris was outlining, the whole point

of it is to try to get some

agreement among Theresa May's top

team about what the long-term

relationship between the UK and the

EU will be. The tricky aspect of

that is trade. The Prime Minister

has been clear it's her view of the

UK will be leaving the single market

and customs union. The question is

what kind of trading relationship

replaces that and crucially how

closely aligned the UK will state of

the EU with its

rules and regulations, and what it

is prepared to trade off in terms of

the UK's own sovereignty in order to

gain access to the markets. The

difficulty is there are

significantly different views about

that, not just between parties but

between the ministers who will be

meeting here today. Some of course

whom campaigned for Brexit, some of

whom wanted the UK to stay in the

European Union. This meeting this

afternoon could be tricky, could be

very long, and they will have to try

to agree some sort of compromise. We

may get detail later about what that

looks like but we are also expecting

a speech from the Prime Minister

next week outlining what the UK

hopes to achieve. When they get

through the negotiations here, once

they agree what they want, they have

to agree it with Brussels too.

Alex,

thank you.

The EU appears to have rejected

a key British proposal

for the future relationship

after Brexit, according

to documents published

by the European Commission.

Our reporter Adam Fleming has

been looking at them.

Adam, what has the EU been saying?

A

couple of weeks ago EU officials

have a private meeting to discuss

this proposal put forward by the

British government, that you have

some areas where the UK keeps EU

rules and regulations, other areas

of the economy where they have the

same goal but get there using

different rules and regulations, and

areas where things are totally

different between the two. A

document published last night shows

the European Commission's Brexit

negotiators said that concept would

be incompatible with the EU ground

rules for Brexit which are all about

protecting the integrity of the

single market, the internal market

as they call it here in Brussels.

This morning a senior EU diplomat

said it looks like the UK was trying

to pick bits of the single market it

liked and reject bits it didn't like

which to them is not an acceptable

course of action. This meeting at

Chequers today is all about the UK

agreeing an opening position for the

next phase of Brexit talks which is

all about trade and the future

relationship. If we have learned

anything about the process,

anything about the process, all of

these meetings here with Michel

Barnier and David Davies are about

finding a compromise between the

British and Brussels position which

they are happy with in Brussels and

end up being happy with in Britain.

Adam, thank you.

The number of European Union

nationals leaving the UK

is at its highest level

for a decade.

New figures show that 130,000

EU nationals emigrated

in the year to last September.

Our home affairs correspondent

Danny Shaw is here.

Danny, how significant

are these statistics?

These figures from the office for

National Statistics appear to

indicate to me is certainly that

Brexit is having an impact on

whether EU nationals want to live in

the UK. If you look at the

referendum June 2016, since then

every quarter these figures are

published there's been a drop in the

number of EU nationals coming to

live here and there's been a rise in

the number of EU citizens leaving

Britain. The latest numbers we have

got, 130,000 people leaving, that's

the highest since 2008, and 220,000

arriving, the lowest for almost four

years. At the same time we are

seeing a rise in the number of

people from outside Europe coming to

Britain, the highest number since

September 2011. What does this do

for the controversial target to cut

net migration, the difference

between overall numbers coming and

leaving to less than 100,000? They

are still way off that target at 240

4000.

Danny, thank you very much

indeed.

The UK economy expanded by less

than previously thought in the final

three months of last year,

official figures reveal.

Gross domestic product -

or GDP - grew by 0.4%

in the October-to-December period,

down from the initial

estimate of 0.5%.

The Office for National Statistics

said the downgrade was due to slower

growth in production industries.

Donald Trump has suggested that

giving guns to some teachers

would stop massacres like last

week's high school shooting

in Florida, in which 17 pupils

and staff were killed.

The president said teachers

with firearms training could have

concealed weapons in the classroom.

His comments came as he met

survivors of the Florida massacre

and other shootings.

Barbara Plett-Usher

reports from Florida.

The people demand a hearing.

In Florida telling their lawmakers

loud and clear, they don't want this

mass shooting to drop off

the political agenda

like all the others have.

At the White House, President Trump

was listening, to victims

of the Parkland school attack,

but also those that came before it.

Andrew Pollack's 18-year-old

daughter Meadow was

killed last week.

It doesn't make sense, fix it,

should have been one school shooting

and we should have fixed it.

And I'm kissed.

Because my daughter I'm

not going to see again.

She's not here, she's not here.

She's in North Lauderdale

at whatever it is,

King David Cemetery,

that's where I go to see my kid now.

It doesn't make sense

to her schoolmate Samuel Zeif

either, especially the gunman's

access to a semiautomatic rifle.

I don't understand.

I turned 18 the day after,

woke up to the news that my best

friend was gone and I don't

understand why I could still go

in a store and buy a weapon of war.

The president has responded to calls

for tougher gun laws with promises

of strong background checks,

but also more guns.

It's called concealed

carry, where a teacher

would have a concealed gun on them.

They'd go for special training.

They would be there and you would no

longer have a gun-free zone.

There is some support for that

argument, but students who survived

the attack flooded Florida's state

legislature, demanding a ban

on assault rifles.

Lawmakers may make it harder

for a teenager to buy one,

but not more than that.

ALL:

Never again!

Still, that's movement

in an unmoving debate.

The students aim to harness that

momentum and turn it

into a national campaign.

This feels like something new.

The students seem to

have captured a moment.

They're giving a face and a voice

to widespread anger and frustration

about mass shootings.

But whether their movement has

the power to bring real

change will be the story

of the coming months.

Barbara Plett-Usher, BBC News,

Tallahassee, Florida.

Our Correspondent Gary O'Donghue

is in Maryland where

later today the head

of the National Rifle Association

is making his first speech

since the Florida school shooting.

Gary, what's he likely to say?

That is interesting because the NRA

has a pattern of these things, when

the shootings happened. It goes very

quiet in the immediate aftermath of

that and that's exactly what's

happened this time. This will be the

first public comments by the head of

the NRA since the Parkland shooting

and there's a lot of things for him

to address. There is pressure for

example for a ban on assault rifles,

something they won't support at all.

There is pressure to raise the age

at which you can buy such guns,

that's one of the suggestions in the

Florida house at the moment. Then

there's the question of what you do

about people with mental health

problems and their access to guns.

He will be talking among friends,

this is a right-wing conference so

he will I think get a lot of support

here. But bear in mind his

organisation is extraordinarily

powerful. It spends a lot of money

lobbying and politically giving

money to congressmen for their runs

and they know that. In terms of the

president himself, he is saying this

morning it does have to be the time

when teachers get guns in ordered to

stop what he calls sickos shooting

in schools.

Thank you.

The United Nations Security Council

will today consider a resolution

calling for a ceasefire in Syria.

It comes as government

forces in the country

continue their intense bombardment

of the rebel enclave

of Eastern Ghouta,

on the outskirts of Damascus.

The UN have described

the enclave as "hell on earth",

and in the last few days hundreds

of civilians, including many

children, have been killed there.

This report from Paul Adams does

include some distressing images.

A massacre, hell on earth, a

monstrous campaign of annihilation.

The world is running out of ways to

describe what's happening in eastern

Ghouta, but the bombs are still

falling and the toll is dreadful.

And medical facilities are not being

spread. This Children's Hospital now

wrapped.

TRANSLATION:

The clinical care and

surgery unit is out, the incubator

unit is out, the paediatric section

is out. All of the departments of

hospital are out of service, the

destruction is total.

Elsewhere

medical staff tried desperately to

keep up with hundreds of casualties.

The siege of eastern Ghouta began

five years ago. The situation was

intolerable long before this

terrible week.

TRANSLATION:

These are hopeless

cases, there's nothing we can do to

save them. These victims have

suffered head and brain injuries.

This one has stopped breathing. I'm

worried about this boy too, both

need intensive care but we cannot

operate because the bombing is

relentless.

Where are the Arabs?

Where are the Muslims? Do we have to

appeal to Israel instead to help?

Shame on you, this is just a little

boy who wants freedom. Why are you

doing this? I don't know what to do.

Can any of this be stopped through

diplomacy? The UN wants a ceasefire

and there's a meeting at the UN

Security Council this afternoon, but

in Geneva its envoy for Syria

doesn't sound optimistic.

Comment on whether you think there

will be a deal today on a ceasefire

resolution?

I hope it will, but it

is uphill, it is very urgent.

If

there isn't one, what happens?

We

will have to push for it to take

place as soon as possible because

there is no alternative to a

ceasefire and humanitarian access.

Russia says the real blame lies with

terrorists firing out of Ghouta into

the capital. Jihadi fighters

including some connected with

Al-Qaeda have been active in the

area since the siege began. This for

President Assad is about securing

Damascus, there's no immediate sign

of him stopping. Britain is halfway

towards its target of resettling the

most vulnerable refugees from the

Syrian civil war. The Home Secretary

says 10,000 refugees have already

come here and she's looking to see

what to do after the scheme ends in

two years' time. Daniel Sandford

reports.

Far from the horrors

of the war in Syria,

we found Khaled Kara Hasan playing

football in his garden in Coventry

with his sons, Mahmood and Zid.

His family are some of the 10,000

people now given refuge in Britain

under the vulnerable person

resettlement scheme.

Khaled, who was a pharmacy

assistant in Syria, now works

part-time in Waitrose.

He told me he fled Homs in 2012

after Syrian government forces

bombed first his neighbourhood

and then a second area,

where he'd taken refuge.

I decided with my family

to leave Syria, Turkey,

because I like my family.

To protect them.

I remember my brothers,

I remember my friend, my neighbours.

Here it's more safe, more safe,

but in Syria it's like,

you know in Syria it's

like fighting, but it's

still my country.

You miss it a bit, yeah?

Yeah.

But the old Syria is gone.

This mobile phone footage sent

by a friend shows what their flat

in Homs looks like today.

The scheme to resettle refugees

from Syria is overseen

by the Home Secretary,

Amber Rudd, who was in a camp

in Lebanon this week.

The UK has promised to give homes

to 20,000 of the most vulnerable

by the end of 2020 and is now

halfway to that target.

I think that the British public can

be very proud of that,

proud of the fact they've been able

to reach that commitment,

that these families are being

resettled in the community

and are being looked after.

But campaigners say Britain

could still be doing much more.

There are more than 5 million

Syrian refugees living

in neighbouring countries,

some in terrible conditions.

Like this woman, who has

three children under ten

and whose husband is missing.

A couple of years ago she had

the chance to go to Germany.

I was afraid at the time,

as my children were still young,

so I declined the offer,

she told the BBC.

With a return to Syria

still impossible, it's a decision

she now bitterly regrets.

Daniel Sandford, BBC News.

Our top story this lunchtime.

Theresa May is holding crucial

talks with her ministers

at Chequers this afternoon,

to agree a united approach

for the Brexit negotiations.

And still to come.

More disappointment for Team GB

in the Winter Olympics -

men's curling is the latest to be

knocked out, with the skipper

Coming up in sport...

Mercedes reveal their new car

for the Formula One season.

Lewis Hamilton says he'll quickly

get used to the new halo

designed to protect drivers.

New research shows

antidepressants are effective -

and that many more people

could benefit from taking them.

The study, in the medical journal

the Lancet, found 21 common

antidepressants were more effective

than placebos at reducing symptoms

of acute depression.

Here's our health correspondent,

James Gallagher.

How did the chicken cross the road?

Comedian Christian Talbot makes

a career out of making people laugh.

..to feel safe.

But off the stage he takes

antidepressants in order to get

from one day to the next.

It did feel literally

like a weight off my shoulders.

I was less anxious.

And I sort of felt just more even,

you know, not happy, but even.

Antidepressants are some of our most

commonly-used drugs.

64 million prescriptions were handed

out in England in 2016 and, yet,

they are the source of huge debate.

So many people take antidepressants

that it seems remarkable

there could be serious questions

about whether they work,

but some trials have hinted

they have no affect,

and for the fiercest critics,

antidepressants are snake oil.

But scientists think

they have finally answered

the question in a huge study.

They analysed more than 500 clinical

trials, including previously

unpublished data held

by drug companies.

We found that all the most commonly

prescribed antidepressants work

for major depression and for people

with moderate to severe depression

and also we found that some of them

are more effective than others,

or better tolerated than others.

The study assessed whether these

drugs are effective

in the short term.

More work is underway to see how

long any benefits last.

However, there are still

patients that don't respond

to any form of treatment.

The patient can be reassured that

if they need antidepressants

and they take antidepressants

they are doing the right

thing, but we can move

on to the new most important

questions, which is what we do

with patients who don't respond

to all available antidepressants.

The study included 21 drugs,

yet some to patients do not

respond to any of them.

How can we help them?

Another concern is too few people

with depression get treatment.

Researchers estimate at least

one million more people

in the UK would benefit

from therapies including

antidepressants.

James Gallagher, BBC News.

University lecturers across the UK

are beginning a series of strikes.

The action will affect

around a million students.

Members of the University

and College Union are walking out

in protest at planned changes

to their pension scheme,

which they say will leave them

worse off in retirement.

Our correspondent Tomos Morgan has

this report from Cardiff -

where hundreds of university staff

are taking action.

Know ifs, no buts, no pension cuts.

Picket lines, protests, the scene at

universities across the country.

Staff walking out in a dispute over

pensions. Institutions say there's a

£6.1 billion deficit in the current

scheme, which is unsustainable. They

say changes must be made. But after

35 meetings over the past year, the

University and College Union says

the strikes were inevitable is the

proposed new scheme would be far

less generous.

We are saying changes

to the scheme should be fair. We are

in the scheme which the staff and

employers are committed to. They

employers have now junked that

approach and are going for something

where the staff are being shoved

aside.

With lectures being affected

by the strikes there a danger that

student degrees will be impacted.

There are suggestions exams may have

to be modified marking relaxed. The

thousands of students that have come

out today to protest across the

country are doing so alongside their

lecturers. Their frustration is

aimed at their institutions. They

are seen as consumers in the eyes of

regulators and the courts and if

this deadlock continues students

believe they deserve some

compensation from universities for

the loss of teaching time. Students

across the country have begun

petitions, calling for universities

to recognise that they are not

receiving a service paid for by

their tuition fees. The petition

here in Cardiff has already had

almost 5000 the glitches.

It's an

opportunity to focus on financial

compensation, we believe that

academic compensation is more

beneficial. We don't believe in the

long-running financial compensation

will benefit students and changes to

exam feedback or deadlines benefits

is more.

The union says senior

lecturers could be £10,000 a year

worse off under the proposed new

scheme. Universities UK, the body

that represents institutions, says

that they are making every effort to

minimise the impact of industrial

action on students, adding that

changes proposed will make the

pension scheme secure and

sustainable, safeguarding the future

of universities. Currently, 14 days

of protests are planned. But unless

a deal can be reached soon, unions

say more strike action stretching

into the summer exam period is

inevitable. Tomos Morgan, BBC News,

Cardiff.

Britain's biggest energy supplier,

Centrica, says it's cutting 4000

jobs over the next couple of years.

It follows a big drop in profits,

down by 17 % last year.

The group - which owns British Gas -

has blamed its performance

in North America as well in the UK.

Our business correspondent

Emma Simpson reports.

It's been a disappointing year for

Britain's biggest energy supplier.

Today, the hard numbers will stop

Centrica's group profits down 17%

come at a £1.25 billion. It also

lost 1.4 million British Gas

customer accounts and more

cost-cutting is on the way, with

4000 jobs to go. And those cuts, the

boss told me, are partly down to the

government's looming price cap on

bills.

It's about competition and

what customers are wanting, but

there's a third reason. There is a

link between our cost efficiency

programme and preparing for price

cap in the UK. We've got to be

competitive and this measure means

that we've got to drive more

efficiency.

The posts will go over

the next three years, mainly in its

UK residential business.

It's only a

couple of years ago that I was

talking to the Chief Executive

around 5500 job losses and that

being the necessary action required,

and now here we are again with a

further 4000 job cuts being

announced. It's very, very

concerning.

The government says

Britain's energy market isn't

working. Customers are being

overcharged. That's why it wants to

cap the most expensive energy bills.

A move which could put another

squeeze on Centrica's profits, so

our price rises on the cards?

I

can't make any guarantees others and

we watch the input costs closely and

we are trying to make our energy as

competitive as possible.

From

government intervention to

increasing competition, the whole

industry is in the midst of change,

but will it come at a price, and for

whom? Emma Simpson, BBC News.

In the Winter Olympics,

British skier Dave Ryding finished

ninth in the men's slalom.

The GB men's curling team failed

to reach the semifinals,

after Switzerland beat them

in their tie-break match.

In the men's skiing half pipe,

some spectacular aerial acrobatics -

as you'll see in David Ornstein's

report from Pyeongchang.

COMMENTATOR:

From Great Britain

and Northern Ireland,

Dave "The Rocket" Ryding.

At the gateway to Olympic glory.

From a dry ski slope in Lancashire

to the real stuff in South Korea,

Dave Ryding has followed

an unconventional path,

but now finds himself battling

against the world's best.

The Rocket starts to get

acceleration on the flat.

Ryding's final run here propelled

him to a ninth place finish -

Britain's best Olympic Alpine skiing

result in 30 years.

That's a superb performance

by Dave Ryding, but it won't quite

be enough to get him on the podium,

and Britain's wait for another medal

at these Games goes on.

I'm 31, but still life

in the old dog yet, and it

motivates me for another four years

and I know I can

improve on that still.

Curling has become one

of the country's main sources

of Olympic success -

the men taking silver

in Sochi four years ago.

This, however, is a new team

and they leave empty-handed,

after an agonising defeat by

Switzerland.

Leading 5-4 with just two ends to go

and a semifinals place at stake,

the Brits capitulated to lose 9-5.

We had a good game today,

but it wasn't to be, sadly.

A couple of things didn't go our way

and a couple of half shots

and that's all it takes

against a team as good as them.

Meanwhile there was confirmation

today that the Russian mixed doubles

pair of Alexander Krushelnitskiy

and his wife Anastasia Bryzgalova

have been stripped of their curling

bronze medal after Krushelnitskiy

was found guilty of doping.

In the women's ice hockey

there was incredible drama

as the United States and Canada went

to a sudden-death shoot out.

COMMENTATOR:

Saved,

the USA win gold.

Having claimed each of the last four

titles, Canada were left devastated

as the USA celebrated

a famous victory.

There was more American joy

in the men's ski half pipe.

Defending champion David Wise making

the spectacular look simple,

to triumphant again

with a near-perfect final run.

COMMENTATOR:

Oh, that's it!

David Ornstein, BBC

News, Pyeongchang.

Time for a look at the weather.

Here's Stav.

We are in for some Winter Olympics

temperatures?

Indeed we are, the story is

unfolding. Good afternoon. I'll

start with the European map and the

temperature contrast, you can see

the blues pouring out from Siberia

into western Russia, spreading

across the continent and reaching

our shores, particularly into next

week you really will notice the

bitterly cold conditions. It's going

to feel extremely bitter,

particularly if you add on the wind.

Widespread morning frosts. There's

the chance of some snow in some

areas, but uncertainty in that

detail. Keep tuned to the forecast

the weather snow will fall. Here and

now, we have high pressure in

control. Its finance settled. A lot

of dry weather around through the

afternoon. The best of the sunshine

across eastern side of England,

eastern Scotland and some glimmers

elsewhere, but there will be a tough

cloud and disappointingly chilly

where you have the cloud. Not too

bad in the sunshine. 5-7dC. As we

had through this evening and

overnight, the skies clear quite

widely. It looks like temperatures

will plummet. It will be a dry one

for where the skies are clear,

particularly in England and the fund

into parts of Scotland it will be a

really cold one, much colder than

last night, with a hard frost down

to maybe minus five Celsius in a few

places. One thing is for sure, it

will be a cold start tomorrow

morning. You'll be scraping the car

if you are heading out early. Like

today, because high

pressure is in control, it will be

largely financed right, variable

amounts of cloud and good spells of

sunshine, the best of it in

Scotland, parts of England and why,

a bit of cloud rolling in off the

North Sea for north-east England.

Temperatures 4-7. That's the trend

as we head into the weekend. The

temperatures continue to fall away

as we pick up the south-easterly

wind bringing the cold air, which is

already across the near continent.

Again, high pressure in control for

Saturday. A lot of fine and dry

weather. Wrap up well and head out,

it should be quite nice, good sunny

spells around. A bit more of a

breeze. It will start to knock the

temperatures down further. Ranging

from 4-7dC. A similar picture on

Sunday, with a lot of dry weather

around. Temperatures continue to

fall, particularly after Sunday. At

the start of next week we're looking

at highs a couple of degrees above

freezing. Add on the wind and it

will feel colder. There should be

quite a bit of sunshine around as

well but there is some snow in the

forecast, so keep tuned to the

weather forecast for the next few

days.

That's all from the BBC News at One.

That's all from the BBC News at One.