05/12/2017 BBC News at Six

Tonight at Six.

A new front in the battle against

the online grooming of children.

Police warn that abusers are turning

to live streaming apps

to manipulate children.

We go undercover -

posing as a teenage girl -

within minutes she's targeted.

HE WHISPERS:

She's 14 and yet someone has just

asked her to take her shirt and her

bra off.

We have a special investigation -

and look at what parents can do.

Also tonight.

The terror threat in Britain -

an official report asks

whether the Manchester bombing

could have been prevented.

Theresa May is facing a backlash

from allies and opponents alike

as she tries to rescue

the Brexit talks.

The steelworker who's lost hundreds

of thousands from his pension pot.

He blames incorrect

financial advice.

While Root is at the crease

England still have a chance

against Australia -

it could be a fightback

for the history books.

Coming up on Sportsday later

in the hour on BBC News.

Will the IOC decide

on the ultimate sanction and

ban Russia from the Winter

Olympics next year?

Hello and welcome to

the BBC News at Six.

A BBC investigation has found that

online streaming apps used

by children to make live broadcasts

are being infiltrated by men

trying to groom them.

It comes as the National Crime

Agency says it arrested more

than 190 men across the UK

in a single week in connection with

sexual offences against children.

In this special report

Angus Crawford discovered how

quickly suspects try to target

children using the streaming apps -

the latest front in the battle

against online sexual abuse.

Meet this 20-year-old

online safety campaigner,

who we've transformed

into 14-year-old Samira.

She is going to try some of the most

popular live streaming apps to see

what it's really like to be

a teenage girl online.

First, Periscope, Twitter's live

video app used by children

all over the world.

So there are quite a few people,

within seconds - five, six,

seven people joining.

In minutes, the conversation

turned sexual.

She is 14, and yet someone has just

asked her to take her

shirt and her bra off.

Next is Live.me, only launched

last year, now with more

than 20 million users.

Some send Samira direct messages

no one else can see -

clearly trying to groom her.

Omegle is a one-to-one video

chat app that randomly

connects her to users

around the world.

Most are men, some

expose themselves.

I just said hi.

He said, may I show it?

I said, what?

He has got it out.

Pretty much as soon as I started,

all I said was hi.

I'm 14 and a girl.

And then I was inundated.

Here is a guy going on cam.

What's he doing?

He was naked.

He was naked?

And you told him you were 14?

Can you imagine if you had

been a 14-year-old girl?

My first reaction would

be to be confused.

For a second, it is nice having

the attention of the hearts,

and then it gets quite

dark, quite quickly.

And it is happening to real

children right now.

Look at this broadcast on Periscope.

Two girls we cannot identify,

around 11 years old.

2000 people are watching.

Some dare them to lift their shirts.

Read the comments as men

ask them to go further.

For those girls, it may

have seemed like fun,

but it can be devastating.

I found her inconsolable.

This is an actress,

but the words are true.

Those of a mother whose ten-year-old

daughter tried out Omegle for fun.

He switched his webcam on.

Showed her his private parts

and asked her to take photos

of herself, which she did.

He was never located.

This mother says parents have

to talk to their children

about the dangers.

Hi, I'm Sam.

That is also the message behind this

video launched today.

But for some in law enforcement,

that is not enough.

The tech companies

also need to do more.

The industry has emerged rapidly.

I think it is important to reflect

on how they are ensuring

younger children are not

using their services

and age verification,

maybe thinking about the moderation

techniques they might be

able to use.

No one from these app companies

would be interviewed.

But Periscope says it does not

tolerate this behaviour.

Omegle and Live.me did not

respond to our requests.

When children can broadcast to

the world from their own bedrooms,

whose job is it to keep them safe?

And Angus is here now.

You can imagine how worried parents

would be watching your report.

There

are two important messages. The

first to parents, get to know these

apps. Get to know how they can be

used safely and talk to your

children and to their schools. The

other important message is a wake-up

call for tech companies. They have

effectively created a means for

children to broadcast from their

bedroom to the world but the world

can look back into those bedrooms

and now the authorities are

effectively saying it is time tech

companies policed this space

properly and effectively.

An independent review

into the security services has

concluded that it's conceivable

that the Manchester terror attack

could have been prevented.

The report details how agents

received intelligence

about the bomber, Salman Abedi,

before he killed 22 people

at the Manchester Arena.

Despite this, the assessment

concludes there is "no case

for despair", saying most terror

plots are foiled.

Here's our security

correspondent, Gordon Corera.

Four terror attacks in three months,

with some of those responsible known

to the authorities, raising

questions as to whether they could

have been prevented. Today a review

said the bombing at Manchester Arena

that killed 22 in May was the only

one that might have been stopped.

The bomber Salman Abedi had been

known to the authorities in the past

but was not under active

investigation, however data analysis

of 20,000 former suspects flagged

him as one of a few dozen for

further investigation but nine days

before a meeting about this he

carried out his attack and in the

months leading up to that,

intelligence came in which if

assessed differently may have made a

priority.

In hindsight it is obvious

having received that intelligence

MI5 should have opened an

investigation and who knows what

that would have found. The fact is

they did not interpret the

intelligence that way, the

opportunity was missed.

15-year-old

Olivia Campbell-Hardy was killed in

Manchester. Her grandfather said he

did not blame the security services.

They will do the best they can with

the information they gather. Assess

the situation, make decisions and

act on it. I will not fault anyone

for doing their job.

On the other

attacks, in the case of London

Bridge, the ringleader was under

active investigation but there were

no signs of what he planned. At

Westminster Bridge, this man was a

former subject of interest but there

were no formal warning signs and in

Finsbury park, not intelligence on

the man charged. This year's attacks

were shocked to MI5 and the report

makes clear there needs to be

changes. There are 126

recommendations, perhaps the most

important that information from here

needs to be shared more freely with

police and others. The Home

Secretary said police would have the

money they needed.

We will announce

the budgets for policing for 2017-18

and I am clear we must ensure

counterterrorism has the resources

needed to deal with the threats we

face.

As well as these attacks, nine

more plots have been stopped in the

past year and officials warned the

threat remains unprecedented.

Theresa May is under growing

pressure to find a way forward

after Brexit talks broke down

yesterday over the future

of Northern Ireland.

A deal on this first phase

of negotiations has to be in place

before next week's summit so talks

can move on to trade.

Labour has called Theresa May's

efforts an embarrassment.

Now, former Tory leader

Iain Duncan Smith says it's nearly

time to walk away from the talks -

as our political

editor Laura Kuenssberg.

You can shake hands as much as you

like. Are you confident of a deal?

But it does not mean there will be a

deal, the Spanish leader one of

dozens she has to get onside.

There

are a couple of issues we need to

work on, but I will be reconvening

in Brussels later this week.

It is

this band they indeed right now, the

DUP's ten MPs, feeling their power

in every step. They refuse to back

Theresa May's deal in Brussels over

Ireland border which is they feel

will put Northern Ireland on a

different path to the rest of the

UK.

The text we were shown late

yesterday did not translate what we

had been told in general

conversations into reality.

Would

you be willing to see the deal

failed?

We do not want to see the

talks fail and we do not want to see

no deal, we want a sensible Brexit.

Yesterday's collapse provoked

arguments on all science with some

believing Scotland, Wales and some

sectors of the economy should get

special status but in Dublin a clear

message, not budging, clinging to

the agreement that the North and

south with mirror each other's

regulations.

The ball is in London's

court, the Prime Minister and the

European Commission and negotiating

teams have asked for more time.

Number 10 believes it could be back

on by the end of the week, sorted by

Christmas. But the failure yesterday

meant a barrage of attacks in the

Commons.

What an embarrassment. If

the price of the Prime Minister's

approaches the break-up of the union

and reopening of bitter divides in

Northern Ireland the price is too

high.

The suggestion we might depart

the European Union but leave one

part of the UK inside the single

market and customs union is

emphatically not something the UK

Government is considering.

But there

is no agreement in camber that about

the -- in cabinet about what happens

next. The former leader telling the

BBC it might be time to walk away.

It is a game played out over power

and the answer boils down to who

will call the shots on this? Right

now, we have to say not good enough,

we cannot pay this price.

You are

saying to Brussels, back off, or we

will walk?

The statement is more

straightforward, you need to change

this process and to back off,

otherwise we get on with other

arrangements.

The Prime Minister and

DUP are yet to talk directly today.

Theresa May is not in total control

of her relationships with friends or

rivals.

Our Ireland correspondent

Chris Buckler is in Stormont now.

This border issue is turning out to

be hugely complex, what are the

prospects of the solution?

Everybody

has the same goal, nobody wants a

hard border, customs posts, but how

you achieve that they cannot agree

and the Irish government are

determined they had a deal that saw

no regulatory differences between

the two parts, Northern Ireland and

the Republic, but the DUP say they

will not accept differences between

Northern Ireland and the rest of the

UK. One solution has been put

forward by Ruth Davidson, for the

whole of the UK to stick to some

rules and regulations the EU will

have. Some within government are

against that because it could tie

their hands in the trade talks they

are desperately trying to get to.

Meanwhile this has left

relationships between Belfast and

Dublin antagonistic with the DUP

accusing the Irish government of

putting Anglo Irish relationships in

jeopardy and they are getting worse.

They accused the Irish government is

stopping British negotiators from

letting them see the controversial

text of the deal. As a result a

close focus on whatever words are

put forward in the future. You get

the impression Theresa May is

involved in two Brexit negotiations,

with the EU and with the DUP.

Rail passengers are facing

the largest hike in

fares in five years.

Prices will rise by an average

of 3.4% on the 2nd January.

Our transport correspondent,

Richard Westcott, is at Croydon

station in south London.

I am guessing there is a lot of

anger among commuters.

There

certainly is, always when you talk

to people, nobody likes to pay more

and it seems to be the time of year

when we find out what the rail fare

rise will be starting in January and

then there is a row. An example of

what it will mean, if you are a

commuter between Brighton and

London, hit by strikes and delays on

that line, the annual ticket costs

over £4000 and it will go up by

almost £150. Between Liverpool and

Manchester, that ticket costs over

£3000 and will go up by more than

£100. The average across Britain,

fares will go up by 3.4%. And the

latest wage figures we have is the

average wage is going up by about

2%, which is critical because

campaigners say for years rail fares

have gone up higher wage rises and

it adds to the feeling of working as

hard but being that little bit worse

off every year. The government and

train companies would argue they are

investing billions in the network.

There are new stations and new

trains coming on board and new

seats, but every year I think we

will keep getting this row because

of the bigger proportion of the

money used to pay for better

equipment will come from ticket

cells. It will come into effect on

January the 2nd.

Our top story this evening:

A new warning about the online

grooming of children

through live streaming apps.

Still to come:

The low calorie liquid diet helping

to reverse Type 2 diabetes.

Coming up on Sportsday on BBC News

in the next 15 minutes.

We'll look ahead

to tonight's Champions League

matches with three British clubs

involved, including Manchester

United, who can book a place

in the knockout stage.

The financial regulator has taken

action after a BBC investigation

into misleading advice given

to British steelworkers,

many have found their pensions have

been substantially reduced.

Under a deal to save the troubled

plants, steelworkers have been given

until December 22nd to sort

out their future

pension arrangements.

But, as Sian Lloyd reports,

incorrect advice has resulted

in some losing hundreds

of thousands of pounds.

The giant Port Talbot

Steelworks the biggest of the Tata

plants.

The company said the old gold plated

British Steel pension

scheme was unsustainable,

leaving workers here and at other

sites a range of options, including

transferring out altogether.

With around 130,000 workers

affected, huge pension pots

and lucrative commissions

for financial advisors

have been at stake.

It's cost me in the region

of £200,000, so it's a lot of money.

Richard Bevan is one

of those workers.

After 39 years at the Trostre

Steelworks, near Llanelli,

he wanted a secure future.

He went to this local firm,

Celtic Wealth Management,

who he thought were regulated

financial advisors, but they're not.

They introduced clients to a firm

of regulated advisors

based in the Midlands,

called Active Wealth UK.

Between them, they failed to give

Richard a suitability report

on which he could properly

base his decision and advised him

to transfer his pension out

of the company scheme even though

a recalculation was due

which would have substantially

increased his pension pot.

We're aware that other

steelworkers are also unhappy

about their treatment

by the two companies.

I'm not a gullible sort of person,

but I've obviously been led

into doing something that wasn't

right for me by a financial

advisor, you know.

And it's not a nice place

to be at the moment.

Both companies deny

Richard's claims, but after

we passed our findings

to the Financial Conduct Authority,

the regulator intervened

and Active Wealth is no longer

allowed to give pensions advice.

But this issue extends far beyond

the steelworkers of South Wales.

Gary Clement has worked

at the Scunthorpe Steelworks for 40

years, he'd planned to retire at 55.

He paid a team of financial

advisors, called Lighthouse,

a fee of more than £10,000

for advice which included

information about when he could

access his pension, which they've

since admitted was wrong.

You go to a financial advisor

for financial advice.

He says - this is what you do,

this is in your best interest.

You listen.

I don't believe they have anybody's

best interests at heart.

I believe it's just about money.

Gary has received a letter

from his advisors accepting

he wasn't given the correct

information, but they say

they believe he would have reached

the same decision to leave

the fund anyway.

Gary believes transferring out

of the scheme when he did has

cost him hundreds of thousands.

The City watchdog,

the Financial Conduct Authority,

is worried that steelworkers

are particularly at risk.

This is a group of people,

thousands of people,

who have to make a decision one way

or the other, that gives rise

to particular complexities.

So, yes, they are particularly

vulnerable I think at this stage.

There is growing concern that

hundreds of steelworkers could be

affected by a feeding frenzy

surrounding the British Steel

pension scheme and millions

of pounds of their hard-earned

savings potentially at risk.

Sian Lloyd, BBC News, Port Talbot.

Treating Type 2 diabetes costs

the NHS billions of pounds a year.

The condition is normally controlled

with medication, but a new trial,

carried out in Newcastle

and Glasgow, has shown

be reversed through dieting.

Our health correspondent,

James Gallagher, has been

looking at the findings.

Isobel Murray thought she was facing

a lifetime of Type 2 diabetes,

but she's lost more than four stone

on the trial and has now completely

changed her relationship with food.

Her disease is in remission.

It's freedom to live your life again

and know that you're not in that

cycle any more and know that I can

control this, and I will

never go there again.

Never will I be taking

diabetic medication again.

She spent 17 weeks drinking these.

They're nutritionally balanced

soups and shakes to help

trigger weight loss.

And that's it, there's 200 calories

in a glass and you're allowed

four of them every day.

That's just sweet, really,

but that's your lot,

for up to five months.

How does the diet work?

The pancreas is critical

in Type 2 diabetes.

If excess body fat is stored

around the organ, then it

reduces the production

of the hormone insulin.

That leads to levels of sugar

in the blood getting

dangerously out of control.

Losing weight makes the fat cells

disappear and the pancreas

work properly again.

Doctors say 46% of patients

on the trial put their

Type 2 into remission.

We now have clear evidence that

weight loss of 10 or 15

kilograms is enough to turn

this disease around.

It's hugely exciting that we can do

that in routine practice,

with ordinary nurses,

ordinary dieticians,

ordinary GPs and ordinary patients.

Treating diabetes costs

the NHS £10 billion a year.

Type 2 is normally

controlled with medication,

but in the long-term the disease

causes damage throughout the body,

leading to organ failure,

blindness and limb amputations.

Isobel has enjoyed a normal diet

and kept the weight off

for nearly two years now.

I don't feel like a diabetic because

I don't think about it any more.

I've got my life back.

She says if she can beat

Type 2, then anyone can.

James Gallagher, BBC News.

Cricket, and England have

continued their fightback

in the second Ashes Test.

At the close of play

they were 176-4, still needing 178

to win, on what could be

a nail-biting final day.

Our sports correspondent,

Andy Swiss, reports from Adelaide.

Was this the day England's

flickering Ashes hopes

were gloriously rekindled?

First by the bowlers,

they had to skittle Australia

to have any chance and they did,

thanks to a five wicket masterclass

from Jimmy Anderson.

That still left England a record run

chase, 354, and after a good

start they faltered.

Both openers went before James Vince

wafted his wicket away,

and it seemed England's chances.

COMMENTATOR:

Edged and gone.

Handscomb takes the chance.

But under the floodlights

and the fiercest pressure,

Dawid Malan and Joe Root

hung in there.

Australia kept appealing,

England kept surviving - just.

It was pure sporting theatre.

But moments before

the close, Malan fell.

Australia are still favourites,

but England 178 runs

from something very special.

Well, this has been some

fightback from England.

Barely 24-hours ago they looked

beaten, the Ashes all but gone,

and yet they still have a chance

of a remarkable win.

Root will resume on 67.

If he can produce a captain's

innings, England just might conjure

one cricket's greatest comebacks.

Andy Swiss, BBC News, Adelaide.

This week we've been profiling five

contenders in the running to become

UK City of Culture 2021.

Tonight we look at

Stoke-on-Trent, most famous

for its ceramics industry.

The city is up against Coventry,

Paisley, Sunderland and Swansea.

The winner, to be announced

on Thursday, will host a year-long

celebration of arts and performance.

Sima Kotecha reports.

Six towns brought together

in the early 20th Century

to form Stoke-on-Trent.

Fondly known as The Potteries,

for centuries ceramics has been

at the heart of what they do here,

giving its bid as the City

of Culture a creative backdrop.

Today, hundreds of businesses

still make carefully crafted pieces

for a global clientele.

It's been sort of the last 300 years

that we've had a significant pottery

industry and when an industry

is that important and a city is that

reliant on a particular industry,

then it obviously has a big impact

on culture and everything

that's about us.

But other than pottery, what more

does the city have to offer?

Some of the people living

here in Stoke say that

its image is tainted

by its post-industrial past.

There are streets and roads

here lined with empty

warehouses and factories,

arguably giving an impression

of a city that is tired and old.

The art sector bills itself as rich,

vibrant, unique, a contradiction

to any negative perception.

It's a rough diamond,

isn't it and that's part

of its industrial heritage.

It's one of the reasons

we all love it, to be honest.

It's got this gnarly beauty

that appeals to us all.

It's one of the reasons why it's

brilliant to make art here.

Artists can afford to come to this

city and live here and make work

and find spaces to make

that work in.

Famous faces from here include

singer Robbie Williams,

the footballer, Sir Stanley Matthews

and designer of the Spitfire,

Reginald Mitchell.

But a huge mosaic in the centre,

made up of thousands of local faces,

aims to celebrate its identity

as the city of the people.

We're people who really understand

how to make art just from the ground

we're standing on and that's

the miraculous thing about the city.

That's why we think,

as a hidden gem of the UK,

that we need to be recognised.

Stoke-on-Trent has a colourful past,

but this place wants a future, too.

They hope the City of Culture tag

will fire up that future just

as much as the kilns did

in the pottery past.

Sima Kotecha, BBC

News, Stoke-on-Trent.

Time for a look at the weather.

Here's Sarah Keith Lucas.

Thank you. We have lots going on in

terms of the weather through the

course of this week. Storm Caroline

has been named by the Met office,

sitting in the Atlantic at the

moment, it will move in towards

northern parts of the UK during the

course of Thursday. Storm Caroline

likely to bring gusts of 80mph and

strongest winds to the north of

Scotland. We will see significant

disruption to travel, I think. Back

to the here and now. A much quieter

picture out there at the minute.

Lots of cloud up-and-down the

country. The cloud producing rain

for the north-west of Scotland

elsewhere the odd patches of

drizzle. It will be mild tonight,

temperatures not far off what they

have been this afternoon. Across

England and Wales tomorrow we should

see breaks in the cloud. A little

bit of brightness breaking through.

A few spots of drizzle to the west

and persistent rain for Scotland and

Northern Ireland and pushing into

the north-west of England. Mild but

windy day on Wednesday. The winds

will pick up on Wednesday night when

we will see gales or severe gales

particularly around these Irish Sea

coasts aged cross Scotland too and

also pretty heavy bursts of rain

working in and heading

south-eastwards across the country.

Thursday the strongest of the winds

in association with Storm Caroline,

80mph possible across the north of

Scotland and through the central

lowlands there could be severe

gales. Rain will clear from the

south-east. More sunshine, but a

real drop in temperatures. Back into

single figures for all of us. Once

Storm Caroline clears to the

north-east we have a northerly flow

of air. It will turn colder as