27/02/2018 BBC News at One

Freezing temperatures and heavy snow

cause disruption

across large parts of the country.

Hundreds of schools are closed,

roads are blocked, trains

and flights delayed or cancelled -

and there are amber warnings of more

severe weather ahead.

Here on the North York Moors we have

had several centimetres of snow and

it keeps on falling. Snowploughs and

gritting teams have done their best

to keep the main routes open.

We'll have the latest from our

correspondents round the country.

Also this lunchtime...

The International Trade Secretary

says a customs union would prevent

Britain doing other trade

deals after Brexit.

It would be a complete sell-out

of Britain's national interest

and a betrayal of the voters

in the referendum.

A temporary ceasefire in the Syrian

enclave of Eastern Ghouta

appears to have collapsed,

with more air strikes and shelling.

A mother and her two sons are among

the victims after the explosion

in Leicester that left

five people dead.

And a takeover tussle for Sky.

Now an American media giant joins

the fight to buy the TV network.

And coming up

in the sport on BBC News...

Women and men will play together

at a European Tour golf event

for the first time later this year

as the new GolfSixes

event is launched.

Good afternoon and welcome

to the BBC News at One.

Heavy snowfall is hitting parts

of the UK, causing road,

rail and flight disruption

in many areas.

Police say driving conditions

are "treacherous" in places -

three people have died

in Lincolnshire after a crash

involving a car and a lorry.

Many schools are shut,

and forecasters say some rural

communities may be cut off.

The Met Office has issued amber

warnings for swathes

of the country as cold air sweeps

in from the East.

Up to 10cm of snow

is expected today,

and as much as 20cm is predicted

in some parts of eastern England,

Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The transport network has

been badly affected,

with many cancellations and delays.

Robert Hall reports.

The East Coast had time to prepare

but the snowfall sweeping in from

Europe gave travellers a taste of

what this week has in store. Kent

had declared a snow emergency with

the gritting shifts working flat

out. The lack of traffic overnight

meant that salt couldn't do its work

and by the time the morning rush

arrived, accidents and ice had

closed a series of routes including

the M 20 motorway which became in

effect a lorry park. Elsewhere,

conditions added hours to journey

times.

Make sure you are only taking

the journey if it is absolutely

necessary. You can be assured that

the motorways and major trunk roads

are going to be cleared and treated

but other areas are going to have

snow on the ground and it may affect

traction and the way your vehicle

handles.

Up to ten centimetres of

snow fell across Kent, Surrey and

East Sussex. Farmers were on

stand-by to keep minor routes open.

Many heeded advice to stay at home

until conditions improved as some

towns stage their own Winter

Olympics. The greater hazards lie

away from main roads where there is

less traffic and the snow has had

time to settle and to freeze. That

brought a series of accidents which

began before dawn and disrupted bus

services and caused the closure of

dozens of schools. In Norfolk, where

36 schools were closed, the freezing

conditions also disrupted rail

services. Greater Anglia trains said

they were forced to cancel services.

Our trains have to go slower, the

points can freeze, the signals can

freeze. That means that if the

points freeze, the train can't go in

the right direction.

The amber

warning also covers north-east

England where the problems caused by

snow and ice mirrored those further

south. Crawling traffic, pedestrians

slithering through their daily

routines. But on Tynemouth beach,

the swimmers defied subzero

temperatures for a dip that was

rather more than just bracing. In

East Yorkshire, the snow swept

across York's millennium Bridge.

White and the sands of Scarborough

Beach, scenes that will become all

too familiar.

The wind is going to

change and push the heaviest snow

across north-east England and

Northern and eastern parts of

Scotland. There could be some areas

that 25-40 centimetres over the next

couple of days alone.

Back in Kent,

the snow showers have eased but the

dangers remain. Ice is likely to

form later and further every snow

will bring growing challenges in the

coming days. Robert Hall reporting.

In a moment we'll speak to Ben Ando,

who's in Colchester in Essex,

and to our Transport Correspondent

Victoria Fritz

at London Bridge Station.

First to North Yorkshire

and our correspondent

there - Phil Bodmer.

What is the picture there? The snow

keeps on falling, it comes in waves.

We have an hour or two without it

and then a real downfall. Several

centimetres here on the North York

Moors. This is the a 170 between

Pickering and Whitby. It is normally

busier than this. Drivers are not

using it like they would ordinarily

but gritting teams and snowploughs

have been doing their best to keep

this route over the North York Moors

clear. There has been disruption

across the region. The police have

been busy in Lincolnshire, three

people died in a crash between a car

and a lorry. They dealt with half a

dozen accidents before 6:30am. There

have been reports from Merseyside

Police dealing with collisions on

icy surfaces and on the M 62, the

Northwest Medway police have had a

busy day. If you are heading to the

airport, regional airports are

operating but the airlines advise is

to check in early if you can and

allow extra time for your journey

from home to the airport. Here in

Yorkshire, several hundred schools

are closed today. The disruption

wasn't perhaps as bad as initially

anticipated but nonetheless with

more snow anticipated tonight,

conditions could deteriorate and

drivers are being warned to take

extra care.

Phil Bodmer in Levisham

in North Yorkshire.

Ben Ando is in Colchester in Essex.

How much disruption has there been

there? There has been a fair amount.

Greater Anglia who run trains from

this station into London normally

packed with rush-hour commuters were

running barely half the number of

services. The snow levels weren't as

high as anticipated but the

temperatures were very cold. Some

commuters were asking if the beast

from the East was the least from the

East. The difficulty for the rail

network is they need to plan for the

worse. Snowy conditions can cause

signals and points to fail and all

sorts of difficulties and they can't

run as many trains and those that do

run have to run more slowly. They

are looking to reinstate some

services, particularly to rural

lines. They are aware that tonight

the forecast is for more snow and

there could be more disruption to

come over the next few days. Staff

here have been helping out. There

have been engineering workers,

people who normally work in

Administration coming down to help

passengers. Although passengers were

frustrated most appreciated the fact

that there was an early warning of

problems and they could plan

accordingly. They understood

pragmatically that there were

difficulties. Thank you very much

indeed.

Our Transport Correspondent Victoria

Fritz is at London Bridge Station.

One of the busiest stations in the

country. How are things there? It

has been a busy day at many of the

main hotspots for travel because

resource has been chucked at the

arterial routes in and out of major

cities, London being one. As we've

been hearing, the bulk of the snow

has been hitting the eastern flank

of the country so the services that

have been affected the most are in

Essex, Kent, Sussex and Surrey, for

example. Some of them come through

here at London Bridge. There have

been services disrupted and

cancelled. Lots of customers coming

and saying, what is the fuss about?

Surely, this is just the great

British flake out, rather than the

beast from the East, to quote a

newspaper this morning. The real

problem is the cold weather, not

necessarily the snow. Although

drifts and falling icicles do cause

problems. The low temperatures mean

the tracks can stick and the points

can't move and that means signals

stay red and trains cannot pass

through. Network Rail, amongst other

things have been trying to heat the

points, they have massive heaters

that they are trying to use to keep

the points want to keep signals

green. They have been running trains

through the night to keep the lines

clean. We have seen more disruption

as the beast from the East heads

West. Thanks to all our

correspondence.

And you can keep up to date

with the weather and travel

situation in your area,

by visiting the BBC News Live page.

The International Trade Secretary

Liam Fox has been delivering

a speech about Brexit.

He talked about future trade

opportunities and restated

the government's intention to leave

the customs union.

He also claimed it's not

in the interests of the UK or the EU

to put in place barriers to trade.

Our Political Correspondent Alex

Forsyth reports from Westminster.

He came to explain which way Brexit

is heading. In front of business

leaders, the international trade

secretary restated the government's

case, arguing that staying in the

customs union would bind the UK to

EU rules and limit trade

opportunities.

It would be a

complete sell-out of Britain's

national interest and a betrayal of

voters in the referendum. Then there

is the issue of constraints on the

ability to negotiate independent

range arrangements. A customs union

would remove the bulk of incentives

for other countries to enter into

comprehensive free trade agreements

with the UK.

But only hours earlier,

this man who was until recently be

most senior civil servant in the

Department for trade warned that

leaving the customs union would

damage the economy.

With market

access through Europe and

preferential trade deals against

bilateral trade deals with smaller

markets, it's like giving up a three

course meal for the promise of a

packet of crisps.

A customs union

means a single set of tariffs are

charged on goods moving from outside

the EU. They can move freely around

the block but members cannot trade

independently with other countries.

The government says that leaving

gives scope to trade deals outside

the EU. But that's not to everyone's

taste. Labour says that the UK

should stay in a customs union after

Brexit so there is a clear

difference between them and the

government and some conservative MPs

agree with Labour, making the

politics of this as tricky as the

practicalities. One of the questions

is what happens with the Irish

border. It will be the frontier

between the EU and UK. The question,

how to avoid border checks. The

Foreign Secretary claimed a solution

was possible but was criticised for

com pairing it to the London

congestion charge.

When I was Mayor

of London, we and is politically and

invisibly took hundreds of millions

of pounds from the accounts of

people travelling between the

borough 's without the need for

border checks whatever.

For him to

say that the Irish border is similar

to two London boroughs is grotesque.

The arguments on both sides continue

as this complex negotiation about

Britain's future heads towards

crunch time.

Our Assistant Political Editor

Norman Smith is in Central London -

What did you make of the trade

Secretary's speech? I think we

learned that the customs union is

shaping up to be one of the key

battle grounds over Brexit.

Probably, most others had never

heard of the customs union before

this blew up. Now it is a central

plank of the government's case for

leaving the U. Leaving it will

enable us to forge new trade deals

with countries in different parts of

the world where the growth in the

global economy is. Essential to our

economic future. However, we then

heard from the man who used to run

Liam Fox's department until March

last year saying pretty much the

exact opposite. It's such a bad idea

that we'll have two as to rejoin the

customs union and the single market

and will place the British economy

at a competitive disadvantage,

discourage inward investment and

turned Britain from one of the most

open economies into one of the most

bureaucratic economies. Why this

intervention matters is because it

follows a series of other

interventions on the customs union.

Yesterday we heard from Jeremy

Corbyn saying Labour was going to

back staying in a customs union. The

CBI, the bosses organisation, said

that they would really like to stay

in the customs union. A number of

Tory Remainer is also signalling

they want to stay. After Easter, the

likelihood is that there will be a

vote in Parliament on whether we

should stay in a customs union.

should stay in a customs union. Le

crunch is looming. Thank you,

Norman.

The ceasefire in Syria

is feared to have collapsed -

with reports of continued fighting

in Eastern Ghouta,

the enclave of Damascus

controlled by Syrian rebels.

The brief pause was ordered

by Syria's ally, Russia,

which said it would be repeated

daily to allow civilians to leave.

An estimated 400,000 people

are trapped in Eastern Ghouta,

and in the last week more than 560

people have been killed.

Martin Patience is in Beirut,

in neighbouring Lebanon.

Does it look like the ceasefire has

been shattered?

Yes, I think it

does. At last -- it lasted briefly,

a brief period of relative calm, but

it broke down with counterclaims on

both sides, the government accusing

the rebels of firing mortar shells

on a fluctuation corridors which was

meant to be used by civilians trying

to flee the besieged area. In the

end, not a single civilian left

Eastern Ghouta this morning. We also

have not seen any access,

humanitarian access. Hundreds have

been killed, hundreds injured.

International organisations are

saying they need to get into Eastern

Ghouta to provide assistance. In

terms of the government's part,

monitoring group said the Syrian

government itself also carried out

air strikes. A brief pause but a

collapse under the weight of

violence.

What happens next? What

are the prospects for a lasting

ceasefire?

It is very difficult to

see. I think we will see all sides

trying again tomorrow, but the big

issue in Syria, the story of the

country is a complete lack of trust

and a complete lack of consensus in

the international community about

what to do in Syria and on the local

ground. We hear talks are under way

between... Negotiations between the

rebel factions and the Syrian

government. Whether that leads to a

ceasefire tomorrow or the day after,

we simply do not know.

Many thanks.

The Foreign Secretary,

Boris Johnson, says the Government

won't fund any aid agency that

allows the exploitation

of women in Southern Syria.

It follows evidence given to the BBC

that some women in the south

of the country have been exploited

by men delivering aid on behalf

of the United Nations

and international charities.

Here's our diplomatic

correspondent, James Landale.

The fighting in Syria continues.

Here, in rebel-held

Eastern Ghouta and elsewhere.

And it has now emerged that some

refugees fleeing the conflict have

faced demands for sex from local

Syrian officials delivering aid on

behalf of international charities.

They were withholding the aid that

had been delivered and then

using these women for sex.

So, this was a range

of women, there were women

of different ages in the group.

Some had experienced it themselves.

Some were very distraught.

Danielle Spencer's

an experienced aid worker.

She heard these stories from women

who had fled to Jordan

and they told her that many refused

to go to distribution centres

because people would assume they had

offered their bodies for aid.

Two charities, Care and

the International Rescue Committee,

warned about this abuse three years

ago and tightened

up their procedures.

But a report from the UN

Population Fund late last

year confirmed that sex

was still being traded for aid.

Sexual exploitation and abuse

of women and girls has been ignored.

It's been known about and it's been

ignored for seven years.

This war is seven years old.

The UN and the system,

as it currently stands,

have chosen for women's bodies

to be sacrificed.

The Department for International

Development said it was not aware

of any cases like this involving UK

aid, and if there were,

the Foreign Secretary said

the funding would be stopped.

Obviously, we have talked a great

deal about this in the last few

weeks, since the whole business

broke with Oxfam and so on,

and Penny Mordaunt and I are

absolutely committed

to a zero-tolerance approach.

Can it be stopped?

Well, we will not support

agencies that engage

in that kind of activity.

UN agencies and charities said

they had zero tolerance

of exploitation but were not aware

of any cases of abuse

by their own partner organisations,

and one UN spokesman played down

the reports, saying

they were incomplete,

fragmented and unsubstantiated.

James Landale, BBC News.

Our top story this lunchtime...

Freezing temperatures and heavy

snow cause disruption

across large parts of the UK,

with amber warnings of more

severe weather ahead.

And still to come...

Penguins in peril -

why global warming is threatening

the survival of these birds.

Coming up in sport...

Manchester United fan and eight-time

Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt

will play at Old Trafford in June,

as captain of a World XI

in the Soccer Aid match.

The emergency services say

there are no more survivors

in the ruins of a building

in Leicester that was destroyed

by an explosion on Sunday.

Police have now named the five

people who died in the blast,

including a mother and her

two teenage sons.

It's not yet known what caused

the explosion, which some residents

said sounded like an earthquake.

James Waterhouse is in Leicester.

What is the latest?

Quite a lot of

activity on this quite fortified

police cordon at the moment. A press

conference taking place. Police have

announced they no longer expect to

find survivors from within the

rubble of the blast site. They are

using specialist cameras and sniffer

dogs to look for other human

remains. We have lent their names of

those who are thought to have died.

46-year-old Mary Ragoobar and her

two sons, Shane and Sean. It was

thought they lived in the flat above

the supermarket. And Leah Beth Reek,

Shane's girlfriend, and Viktorija

Ljevleva who worked in the

supermarket. Five other people are

still being treated in hospital and

one is described as having

life-threatening injuries. The

cause, until this point, the

priority had been search and rescue,

looking for survivors. The

authorities are not saying the

information as to the cause at this

stage. Vehicles have been signed in

and out, and active scene, and this

operation has a different emphasis.

Thank you very much, James

Waterhouse reporting.

An armed police officer who failed

to confront the gunman at last

week's Florida school shooting has

spoken out after being called

a coward by President Trump.

Scot Peterson said he believed

the shots were coming

from outside the school,

rather than inside, and claimed

he was following his training

by taking up what he called

a tactical position.

But at a meeting on gun

control at the White House,

Mr Trump said he would have

acted more bravely.

You know, I really believe,

you don't know until you are tested,

but I think I really believe

I would run into it,

even if I didn't have a weapon,

and I think most of the people

in this room would have done that

too because I know most of you.

But the way they performed

was really a disgrace.

Police in Northern Ireland say

at least three people have died

in a house fire in County Fermanagh.

Emergency services remain at the

scene at the property in Derrylin.

Police have arrested a 27-year-old

man on suspicion of murder.

German cities will be

allowed to ban older diesel

vehicles from some areas,

following a landmark court ruling.

The court said the cities

of Stuttgart and Dusseldorf

could legally ban particularly dirty

diesel cars from zones worst

affected by pollution.

Both the government and the car

industry have opposed the move.

Diesel emissions containing nitrogen

oxide have been linked

with respiratory disease.

America's biggest cable operator

is trying to buy Sky television.

Comcast, which owns the US TV

network NBC and Universal Pictures,

has put in a bid of £22 billion.

The offer challenges an existing bid

from 21st Century Fox,

which has a minority stake in Sky.

Our media editor,

Amol Rajan, is here.

Quite the takeover tussle looming

for Sky?

There are now three

separate bids involving Sky, the

British broadcaster. The bid by 21st

Century Fox, Rupert Murdoch's

company for the 61% of Sky it does

not already own. That has taken a

long time, stuck with regulators

concerned about media plurality, the

Murdochs having too much power. Now

there is a fresh bid from Comcast,

which owns universal studios and

NBC, the broadcast network, and it

is a cash offer and it is the £22.1

billion. This will be attracted to

the shareholders because it is not

likely to have

likely to have the same regulator

considerations. And there is a

separate bid by Disney for the whole

of Fox. There is massive disruption

going on in the media, the internet

has changed the game, traditional TV

broadcasters are struggling and this

is a desperate bid for scale and the

people who own the content, they are

desperately trying to get together

with the people who own the pipes

and the distribution, in that

context, Sky's customers in Europe

are attractive.

What does it mean

for Sky customers?

It is an

endorsement of Sky as a company, if

you are one of the 22 million Sky

customers in Europe, it is good

news, it means people are continued

to continue investing in new and one

of these companies, Fox, Comcast,

Disney, with huge libraries of

content, they want to give you more

stuff. If you are Sky customer,

reasons to be cheerful this week.

Thank you very much.

The retrial is under way

of the director of a yachting

management company charged

with the manslaughter

of four sailors who died

when the Cheeki Rafiki capsized

in the North Atlantic in May, 2014.

The jury has been hearing how

Douglas Innes carried on drinking

after receiving an email saying

the yacht was in trouble.

Duncan Kennedy reports

from Winchester Crown Court.

This was the Cheeki Rafiki

long before the incident

at the centre of this retrial.

She was a 15-tonne racing yacht,

but one that had not been inspected

for the three years before

she capsized in May, 2014.

Four men died when she sank -

Andrew Bridge, the skipper,

James Male, the first mate,

Steve Warren and Paul Goslin.

Their bodies were never found.

The prosecution say Douglas Innes,

whose company manage

the Cheeki Rafiki, was responsible

for their deaths because he had

failed to carry out proper

maintenance and didn't provide

enough safety kit.

The court heard he had been

in the pub when he received e-mails

and calls from the yacht,

saying they were taking on water

1,000 miles off the Canadian coast.

A huge search was launched

and combed thousands

of square miles of ocean.

Eventually, the Cheeki was found,

overturned, with its keel missing,

and no sign of the men.

The prosecution say the keel came

off because some of the bolts

holding it to the hull were rusty.

The prosecution say that

Douglas Innes was so negligent that

he created the conditions for death.

They say what he did was criminal.

They say his errors and omissions

were exceptionally bad and that

the Cheeki Rafiki was broken.

The prosecution also say

the Cheeki Rafiki should never have

taken a northerly route

across the Atlantic

because of bad weather.

Douglas Innes denies four

counts of manslaughter

by gross negligence.

The trial is due

to last until Easter.

Duncan Kennedy, BBC News,

at Winchester Crown Court.

Scientists are warning that global

warming could have a devastating

impact on king penguins.

Researchers say climate change

is shifting the ocean currents

the penguins depend on for food.

70% of them may be forced

to move from their current

nesting sites or die.

Here's our science

correspondent, Jonathan Amos.

Splashing ashore after another

successful outing to find food

in the Southern Ocean.

These are king penguins,

one of the biggest of

the 17 penguin species.

The animals are currently doing

well, but their notoriously fussy

habits could soon get them

into trouble, say scientists.

The birds will only nest on smooth,

sandy or pebble beaches,

away from sea ice.

That restricts king

penguin colonies.

At the moment, their nesting sites

are limited to a specific

series of islands that

surround the Antarctic.

That is fine, for the moment,

because these islands are close

to nutrient-rich upwelling waters

that support lots of fish and squid.

The problem is that as the climate

warms, these foraging waters

are moving southward and away

from current nesting sites.

In a few decades, the penguins

could have to swim too far to feed

themselves and their chicks.

French scientists are warning that

unless the birds can

adapt and find new homes,

their numbers will see a dramatic

fall by the century's end.

Jonathan Amos, BBC News.

Time for a look at the weather.

Here's Darren Bett.

You have even got snowflakes on your

tie!

The severe weather this morning, the

amber snow warnings, they have now

expired. Some heavy snow in the

south-east of England, notably Kent.

Sevenoaks, and around

Sevenoaks, and around Maidstone, a

lot earlier. Snow coming and going

through the rest of the day as well.

And through the rest of the week.

More severe weather to come, more

weather warnings from the Met

Office, more travel disruption,

significant wind-chill. If you think

it is called now, wait until

tomorrow. The winds from Siberia,

the beast from the east, heading our

way. These are the snow showers we

have seen over the past few hours.

Temperatures barely above freezing

in most areas. The snow in Wales

should move away. The snow pushing

west. Overnight, more Eastern areas

seeing more frequent snow showers.

Some further west but also clear

skies as well. The snow easing in

the south-east of England, heading

through the English Channel to parts

of Devon and Cornwall later in the

night. Other widespread frost. Down

to -8 last night. The focus of the

heavy snow shifts north, Met Office

amber snow warnings into Thursday

and tomorrow in eastern Scotland and

the central Belt and north-eastern

parts of England, significant snow,

particularly over the hills. Snow

shower after snow shower for this

area is driven by strong to gale

force easterly winds. Snow showers

elsewhere. The temperature is a bit

lower than today. Add on the

strength of the wind, significant

wind-chill. It will feel more like

-9, minus ten. Really cold day to

come. It stays that way into

Thursday too. Low-pressure coming

up, into the cold air. Snow showers

overnight in the north but we will

find snow developing in the south,

pushing its way across the

south-western corner of the UK,

south-west England, Wales, another

snow warning, amber warning, from

the Met Office through the latter

part of Thursday. That is where the

heaviest snowfall will be in England

and Wales. Those are the

temperatures, but we still have the

bitterly cold easterly winds, so

again, wrap up well, if you have to

go out, it will feel like -9, minus

ten.

The weather is the main story this

lunchtime. Causing disruption across

large parts of the UK, with amber

warnings for more severe weather

ahead.

That's all from the BBC News at One,

so it's goodbye from me.