04/10/2016 BBC News at Six

The Prime Minister tells the BBC she's confident of getting the right

As the IMF warns of a slowdown to come, Mrs May

It's not going to be plain sailing, there will be

I think we should always remember the fundamentals

Sterling is down to a 30-year low, but the FTSE closes just

It comes amid a raft of proposals at the Tory conference -

more doctors, fewer immigrants, we'll

The footballer Ched Evans in court for his retrial -

A Nobel prize for three British born scientists for opening a door

And rescuing the endangered songbirds hunted in their millions

Coming up in Sportsday later in the hour on BBC News,

the five-time grand slam champion Maria Sharapova has her doping ban

reduced by nine months, and can play again next April.

Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at Six.

The Prime Minister has told the BBC the fundamentals of the UK economy

are strong as she acknowledged the risks facing

The International Monetary Fund has warned the British economy is likely

to slow, and sterling plunged today to a 31-year low.

Theresa May said she is expecting bumps along the road as the UK

negotiates to leave the EU, but she's confident

She was talking to our political editor Laura Kuenssberg.

Nothing about leaving the EU is likely to be neat and tidy, but how

much mess does the Prime Minister think the economy might be in? Exit

is an opportunity, but with the pound plunging, a big risk too. The

pound today has sunk to a 31 year low, the International Monetary Fund

is warning there will be a slowdown. How worried are you about the impact

on people's livelihoods as we on the angle ourselves from the EU? The

process of leaving the European Union will take complex negotiations

with the EU. I'm very clear we want to get the right deal for the UK.

It's not going to be plain sailing and there will be some bumps in the

road. We should always remember the fundamentals of the UK economy are

strong. But the pound sinking to a 31 year low is perhaps more than a

bump in the road. The Chancellor suggested yesterday this would be a

roller-coaster. Many people found roller-coaster is terrifying. Are

you worried? I am clear and ambitious

for the sort of deal we will get, the right deal as a result

of these negotiations. That means the maximum opportunity

for businesses in the UK to be able to trade with and operate

within the single market Are you not worried about what has

happened to the pound today? As you have just said,

currencies go up and down. If you stand back and look

at the fundamentals of our economy and look at recent data,

if you look at the most recent forecast that is coming out

for growth in our economy this year, all of that is more positive

than people had expected You have said you will make

a success of Brexit, but unless you acknowledge the real

risk, isn't there a danger that it looks like you're not taking

the risks seriously enough? I have said it will not

be plain sailing. So people should not be worried

about the economy? As we look ahead over the coming

months, and yes the IMF and others have said that they are forecasting

a slowdown in the economy next year, but what the Government needs

to do is to ensure we are taking the right approach, that in terms

of the process of Brexit we are making that

as smooth as possible. You have clearly ruled out having a

general election before 2020. Do you think it is right that the public

has a Prime Minister that they haven't elected for four years? The

public elected Conservative government in May 2015, on a

manifesto which we are putting into place. You are doing a lot of things

that were not in the manifesto. It's a new government, shouldn't there

therefore be a mandate? May elected a Conservative government on a

manifesto which my Conservative government is putting into practice.

We are continuing the work David Cameron started, but of course

circumstances have changed. On June the 23rd we had a significant vote

in the UK and government has to look at whether it needs to do any to

that. The first thing is to deliver on that vote and say we trust the

British people. It is only the Conservative Party saying we trust

the British people and we will ensure Britain comes out of the

European Union. We need stability. You've talked about the economic

situation and markets, actually what markets want is stability and a

general election would give them instability. This week the Prime

Minister wanted the party the notion will take us out of the EU, but also

to show a calm, brave face the rest of the country. Behind closed doors,

ministers don't agree yet on how life outside the EU would look.

Right now, Theresa May is only willing to provide one answer to the

many questions. As we heard in Laura's piece there,

the IMF and the plunge in the value of sterling are sounding warning

bells for the UK economy. But the FTSE 100 share index closed

today just short of a record high. A strong government stance on Brexit

goes in and a weak pound comes out. In spite of all the upbeat economic

figures since the referendum, the currency markets are worried tough

trade negotiations will mean weaker economic growth and that means a

weaker pound. In just over a year, sterling has dropped by 20%, most of

that since the referendum. It is down to its lowest since 1985, yet

at the same time shares in the 100 biggest companies on the stock

market surged. Why? We are seeing markets benefit from the impact of

loose monetary policy, but as far as UK stocks in particular are

concerned, because of the FTSE 100's make-up, where three quarters of its

earnings come from overseas, when they are translated back into the

UK, they are benefiting from the weakness of the currency. The weak

pound has also acted as a stimulus to manufacturers and other

exporters, making their goods cheaper for foreign customers to

buy. There is evidence the weaker pound has been helping large parts

of the economy at least as much as it has been harming, but traders

here are looking to the future and their calculation has to be that if

there is less trade and less economic growth, it is worth

investing in the British economy. In the spring, this Post Brexit future

was expected by the IMS to be pretty bad the very, very bad, with severe

regional and global damage. What they admit they were wrong? I think

it was wise to warn against those possibilities, in fact I think it

would have been malpractice not to think about those possibilities.

Clearly central banks did think about those possibilities, they

prepared for them, markets knew they were preparing for them, and I would

credit that preparation in part for the mild response we ended up

seeing. The IMF's deep anxiety is trade. Restrictions on immigration

could lead to new trade barriers that could make the whole world

worse off. For now though, that anxiety is a long way from being

realised. Let's join Laura at the Conservative

Party Conference in Birmingham. The Prime Minister talking to you

about the economy and the importance of political stability to reassure

the economy, another subject at the Tory conference has been

immigration. Particularly from the Home Secretary? That's right, and

one of the things the referendum showed the most politicians without

doubt is the fact that have been high levels of anxiety about the

levels of immigration, so although most of the banks to the Government

right now is about our relationship with the European Union, today the

Home Secretary Amber Rudd sets out ideas on how they might cut the

numbers for people coming to Britain from other parts of the world. She

suggested tightening the rules, making it harder for foreign

students to study here, making it harder for businesses to bring in

workers and give priority to British people to fill the vacancies they

have got. Pretty quickly, both the business sector and universities

suggested they were worried about that. They are concerned that more

rules and regulations might make it hard for them to achieve what they

want to achieve. But it is clear the new Home Secretary is following in

the footsteps of her predecessor, of course the woman who is now the

Prime Minister, and is pretty determined to try to continue to

make the rules on immigration stricter and stricter. Remember too,

the Government under Theresa May at the Home Office missed their own

immigration target for six long years, and there was nothing

suggested today that will dramatically change that overnight.

Laura, thanks very much. The number of medical school places

to train doctors in England The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt,

says that pledge will result Currently a quarter of NHS

doctors come from abroad. The doctors' union, the BMA,

has welcomed the announcement, but says it falls far

short of what's needed. Training doctors, it is vital for

the future of the NHS but right now there aren't enough of them and

hospitals struggle to fill posts. That's why the Government has

announced new plans to increase the number of places for medical

students. Is it right that we continue to

import so many doctors from much poorer countries that really need

those doctors instead of training our own, home-grown doctors. I think

this is an opportunity to do something we haven't done right for

many decades. The Government wants the NHS to be self-sufficient in

doctors in ten years. There are 6000 places in England every year for new

students to start courses, from 28 team that will be increased to 7500.

Of the qualified doctors now, about 25% are foreign. One university

principal said she welcomed the new policy. In the short term we

continue to rely on expertise from all over the world, and that will

continue. I think we have got to say that moving towards a situation

where we are more self sustainable has to be the right thing and we

have to start somewhere. To try to ensure as many doctors as possible

stay in the NHS ones they have finished their training, the

Government will insist they do at least four years before considering

a move elsewhere, and if not they pay back the taxpayer funded element

of their training. The Government contribution is ?200,000 per student

and I asked these first year medics at Saint Georges University of

London what they thought. On the one hand it is fair because the

Government are subsidising our degree, paying a lot for some of the

things we do, but on the other hand I think maybe we should be looking

at why people don't want to stay in the NHS. Personally I don't plan to

move away, but I feel like if there are people that have options and

plans to move away to other countries, it would cause problems

for them because they would have to wait another four years in the UK.

It is not clear how the new rules will apply to doctors wanting to

move to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The additional doctors

won't be qualified until the middle of the next decade, and the British

Medical Association said the announcement fell far short of what

was needed, and poor planning by the Government meant the health service

was facing huge, predictable staff shortages now.

The man accused of murdering the Labour MP Jo Cox has

Mrs Cox was shot and stabbed outside her constituency

Thomas Mair refused to enter a plea, so the court recorded a plea of not

Three British born scientists have been awarded

David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz were

recognised for their discoveries about unusual forms of matter.

The Nobel Committee said their work has "opened the door

Our science editor, David Shukman, has the story.

From steel strong enough to hold up bridges to the intricate robots on a

production line, to the myriad devices in our everyday lives, we

depend on materials that have qualities that make them useful for

particular tasks. But there is another unseen world of materials

that don't behave in ways you would expect and research into that world

was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics today. Three scientists born

in Britain recognised for making some strange and complicated

discoveries. One of the judges resorted to using pastries to

explain their work. How materials can change their characteristics at

the smallest of scales. One of the winners was Duncan Haldane,

applauded by his students. He said fundamental research could lead to

unpredictable benefits. Science goes by people exploring where they want

to go and sometimes they find something good, and sometimes that

leads the technology so we don't know where it will go, so it is

important people should follow their dream basically, and not be

constrained to work on something that the funding agency thinks is

going to be in the national interest.

So, what's this Nobel Prize for Physics been awarded for?

Well, it's all about revealing that materials can exist in states that

So take water - when heated, it's in the form of steam.

A little cooler and it becomes a liquid that you can drink.

Colder still and it freezes into ice.

But it turns out that when the temperature is even lower,

materials can exist in another whole range of different states

in which they behave in ways that aren't expected.

For example, allowing electricity to flow without stopping.

And if this can be controlled, new, much faster computers

may be on the cards, so this research is seen

It is a theoretical results, but if you want to apply materials to

modern technology for example, future generations of smartphones,

you cannot do it without having an understanding of what these

materials will do. Duncan Haldane and his fellow prizewinners were

once seen out on a limb with their research, now it is seen as

mainstream and they are looking for their next challenge.

The Prime Minister's told the BBC she's confident of getting the right

deal for Britain post Brexit, but there will be bumps on the road.

The Ken Loach film about life on benefits in Newcastle

getting its own premiere in the city.

Coming up in Sportsday on BBC News in the next 15 minutes.

says the England players have to stick together and just

concentrate on football matters following Sam Allardyce's sacking.

Each autumn hundreds of millions of songbirds fly south from Britain

Many of the species are at risk of extinction thanks to loss

They concentrate along what are known as 'migration

highways', but around the Mediterranean an estimated

25 million are killed by hunters, another reason their numbers

The threat's particularly severe in Cyprus where species such

as blackcaps are eaten as an illegal local delicacy.

Our correspondent, Claire Marshall, travelled to one of the island's RAF

airbase where British police are at the heart of efforts

It's 4.30am in the morning in southern Cyprus, but this

is a British police patrol, they're looking for the poachers

killing hundreds of thousands of songbirds on the base here.

They hear what they're looking for, the song of a bird.

But they know these birds don't sing in the dark.

The sound is coming from the speaker.

It's placed on the trees and what this will do,

A short time later, suddenly the convoy picks up speed.

The birds have been resting in these trees over night.

When light comes, when dawn breaks, this is when the hunters put

up their nets and catch them as they take off.

So the police think they've found one.

They gently release almost 70 birds, one net can hold 400.

The panic you cause to this bird by just holding it...

And every night, during the spring and autumn migration seasons,

It's just like seeing a person in captivity.

The bird is in captivity as well and you set it free.

So this is what it's all about, a local dish.

Pickled or roasted and eaten illegally in secret,

As well as the nets, there is another more

sticks covered in glue, it's almost impossible

Activists operating all over Cyprus say the British-controlled area

Basically, we saw an attitude of tolerance and trying

to turn their eyes away from the problem.

People like eating songbirds, as we saw,

I'm going to get my shotgun and shoot.

Recently these locals, including six MPs, blockaded

the road on the British base when the authorities tried to clear

the vegetation the trappers use for their nets.

Crown land covers almost 100 square miles, can the poaching

I don't think we're going to make the issue disappear altogether.

There's a question of supply and demand.

One of our challenges is that restaurants supply these to people

There are now more police, they may not be winning yet,

but at least these birds will be able to continue their journeys.

The retrial of the footballer Ched Evans has begun,

he's accused of raping a woman in May 2011.

The former Manchester City and Sheffield United forward had

already been convicted of raping her, but the case was then

Sian Lloyd reports from Cardiff Crown Court.

Ched Evans arrived at court, his fiancee, Natasha

Capped 13 times for Wales, his career has included playing

for a number of well-known clubs, including Manchester City

He returned to club football with Chesterfield this summer,

but it's events away from the pitch that

The judge, Mrs Justice Nicola Davies, told the jury that this

"Ched Evans had been tried before, his conviction for rape was quashed

This is his retrial and you must ignore anything you've previously

The prosecution took the jury back to the early hours

The court heard that Ched Evans had raped a 19-year-old woman in a hotel

room near Rhuddlan on the north Wales coast.

She was described as being extremely drunk and had no idea

The court heard that footballer Clayton McDonald,

a friend of Ched Evans, had also had sex with the young

He was found not guilty of rape at a previous trial.

Prosecuting, Simon Medland QC, said his acquittal had no

The victim didn't even know that Ched Evans was having sex with her,

he said, and could not have consented.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.

Sian Lloyd, BBC News, Cardiff, Crown Court.

One of the most powerful Atlantic storms of the past decade

Hurricane Matthew has brought torrential rain and winds of more

The country's president has said a number of people have

Forecasters have predicted up to three feet of rain could fall,

Our correspondent, Nick, Bryant, has just arrived in Haiti. A short while

ago he sent this update Hurricane Matthew has been buffeting this

country with winds of up to 140mph. The fear is that it will dump

rainfall of up to flee feet. You can see already the problem of flooding.

There's a worry too about mudslides in this very mountainous area that

has trees. Flash-flooding is happening already. Haiti has so many

problems. It is suffering still from the earthquake that hit it in 2010,

which killed more than 200,000 people. It's suffering from a

cholera outbreak as well. Public health officials fear this will

exacerbate that particular crisis. The conditions here are atrocious.

To step outside is to be drenched within a matter of seconds. Nick

Bryant reporting there from Haiti. It's a film about one man's battle

to get benefits and it took home the coveted Palme D'or

at the Cannes Film Festival. Tonight, Ken Loach's latest movie -

I, Daniel Blake - is being unveiled in Newcastle, where

the film was set and made. Our arts editor, Will Gompertz,

is there for us now. So the red carpet comes

to Newcastle, presumably not Not a red carpet around me. It has

been a beautiful day in Newcastle. It's now chilly for an open-air

premier. Ken Loach said he went to six or seven different cities in the

North, choosing one where to set this movie and selected Newcastle

because of its heritage, history, resilience and its people. Tonight's

showing is a homecoming for a movie which has already been fated in

France. No, mate, if I was going to create

a scene, you'd know A single mother on housing benefit

has been moved from London Do you mind if this

young lass signs on Enter Daniel Blake, the film's

59-year-old protagonist. He's a joiner

recovering from a heart attack who also finds the welfare

systems designed to support him We were really lucky

in that the two main actors have a great, I think, I say it as

director, sensitivity and nusiance. them, which I think

is quite touching. The film's about friendship and it's

about two people trapped in CV? You still don't get this, do you

Mr Blake. This is an agreement between you and the state. Do you

ever worry with your films that people won't go because they think -

it's a Ken Loach film, we know what he has to say. It's the same old

thing? Yes, I think it's not helpful, but because every story is

different, people situations are different. I mean, I guess Jane

Austin has a tougher time. All she is telling us about is a vicarage.

There's more to it. My kids. You're not... Ken Loach made his name 50

years ago with the moving television drama, Cathy Come Home. It wouldn't

be made today. It would be stopped. It wouldn't get beyond the script

stage. Is there a problem for British directors and writers to get

their work on to screen? It's a huge problem. It means we're not really

telling our stories. Good film directors, good writers could tell

our stories and they're not being heard. They're not being

commissioned. I think you said you were going to stop making movies? I

said it in a moment of weakness. How am I going to get through this

again? Actually, I did. Then you... Well, there are so many stories to

tell, aren't there, really? It sounds like the 80-year-old director

will continue to tell them. We hear it. If you do it realistically, it

sounds right. Will Gompertz, BBC News, Newcastle.

Time for a look at the weather, here's John Hammond.

I guess that picture is referring to Haiti? Absolutely. There is only one

story in the Caribbean at the moment. Hurricane Math hue is

closing in on eastern Cuba and onwards towards the about Hamas

leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. We will keep a close eye

on Matthew over the next few hours and days. At home it's tranquil

there is cloud to the west of us. They are being kept to the west of

us due to high pressure over Scandinavia. That is feeding air in

off the near continent. That air is relatively dry. I'm not ruling out

drizzly hour overnight as the cloud thickens up. The cloud and the

breeds will keep a benefit up. Not as cold as it has been across the

last couple of nights. One or two rural spots down to single figures.

A fresh start. It could be a dull start where you are. I think the

breeze will have to break up the cloud with time. There will be

increasing amounts of sunshine. The sun will vary from place to place.

Some will be cloudier than others. Not a bad day if you get out of the

breeze. Temperatures lower than they have been in the last couple of

days. In the sunshine, not feeling too bad. The high pressure will be

during the week. We will import cooler air. Temperatures will be

falling away through the second-half of this week. There will be an edge

to that breeze, the cloud thicker too. One or two showers to southern

and eastern parts of the UK. Still a lot of dry weather. Out of the

breeze OK, yes, beginning to feeling chilly. To sum the rest of this

week, a lot of dry weather. It will be quite breezy at times and will

feel colder as well. Fiona. Thank you very much.

That's all from the BBC News at Six, so it's goodbye from me, and,