12/01/2018 BBC News at Six

Donald Trump says

he won't come to the UK after all -

he doesn't like the new US embassy.

He tweeted he wasn't happy

about the building's new location

in a different part of London.

But has the president

pulled out of his visit

because he was worried

about the reception he might get?

Mr President, are you a racist?

Meanwhile, alleged comments

by the president about African

countries land him in hot

water at home.

And the UN weighs in also,

saying the President's reported

comments are racist.

Also tonight...

A report into the Manchester

bombing finds some relatives

of the victims suffered

from media intrusion.

A fine of £10,000 for the surgeon

who branded his initials

onto his patients' livers.

The government is urged

to bring construction giant

Carillion into public control

amid fears it could collapse.

You can't look down to read this

speech, you have to take the speech

up, because if you did, your neck

would break.

And weighty reflections

on the crown.

The Queen as you've

never heard or seen her before.

Coming up on Sportsday on BBC News:

Exit Alexis from the Emirates.

Arsene Wenger admits

defeat in the battle

to retain his star striker,

starting a bidding war.

Good evening and welcome

to the BBC News at Six.

President Trump's visit

to Britain next month is off.

He had been due to attend

the official opening of the new US

embassy in south London.

But he tweeted he

was not a "big fan"

of the new embassy and blamed

Barack Obama's administration

for a "bad deal".

Downing Street says

an invitation for a state visit

will still take place,

although no date has been set.

Our diplomatic correspondent

James Landale has more.

The new US embassy, on the south

bank of the River Thames in London.

A monument, we are told, to

America's commitment to London that

the US ambassador had hoped would be

formally opened by Donald Trump next

month. Yes, I do hope, and we are

going to welcome him when he comes.

Except that he is not coming. Mr

Trump said that he cancelled the

trip because he opposed the sale of

Mr Obama...

A decision that was welcomed by his

critics.

Here you have the head of

state of another country who has not

only promoted hatred and division in

his own country, but is surely due

to his online activity guilty of

doing the same in our country as

well.

Actually the decision to sell

the old embassy was initially taken

by President Bush in order to find a

new location. The old embassy had

also been the scene of many

demonstrations in the past and

diplomats said it was the threat of

similar protests that had spooked

the White House. The Mayoral London

Sadiq Khan said there would be mass

protests like these, but peaceful

ones. The Foreign Secretary Boris

Johnson accused Mr Khan of putting

UK US relations at risk, a view that

Downing Street didn't echo, but

others did.

In this country, we have

the Mayoral London, Jeremy Corbyn

and others encouraging large-scale

street protests against him. I feel

that must be part of his decision.

And that is the point. In his first

year of office, Mr Trump has

troubled the world -- travelled the

world, including France, Germany and

Belgium. The UK is notable for its

absence. The US ambassador has said

that this fortress of glass

represents a new era in friendship

between the US and the UK, a

strengthening of the relationship.

But fear among diplomats is that the

president's decision not to open

this building signals that actually

for him at least Britain is not a

priority. So, for now, the closest

we will get to seeing Mr Trump at

the new embassy is this waxwork, as

ministers say they look forward to a

visit at some point in the future.

Well, it is for the US president to

determine his travel priorities.

Obviously, it's an important

diplomatic partner for the UK. We

want the closest possible

relationship with the US.

Tonight,

as Mr Trump honoured Martin Luther

King, he was caught up in yet

another row, having to deny making

racist remarks about African

countries. Home or abroad, this

president is rarely free from

controversy. James Landale, BBC

News.

Nick Bryant is at the Whitehouse.

Let's talk about those comments

James was referring to you at the

end of his piece. What is the

president alleged to have said.

At a

meeting in the Oval Office yesterday

with Republican and Democratic

lawmakers about immigration, he is

alleged to have used a slur directed

against Haiti and other African

nations. Mr Trump denies using the

slur, I will not use it on air,

although he used strong language. A

Democrat present in the room said

not only did he use that language,

he used it repeatedly. In my mind,

this is unprecedented. A sitting

president in the West Wing of the

White House being asked if he is

racist in that unfortunate and

contradictory setting where he was

signing in honour of Martin Luther

King.

And there has been quite a

reaction to this, not least from the

UN?

That has been a barrage of

criticism. We have had African

countries like Botswana condemning

it and even contacting the Trump

administration saying, does that

apply to us? But the White House, in

the aftermath of the first reports

of this alleged slur came out with a

statement last night that didn't

deny that the president had said it,

indeed, it almost seemed to double

down. Some were telling reporters

that the president believed this

would play well with his base and

that he was taking a victory lap in

the West Wing. It's another example

of where this America first rhetoric

often means that America is alone.

Nick Bryant at the White House,

thank you.

Families searching for missing

relatives after the Manchester Arena

bombing were subjected to intrusive

media attention,

according to a report.

It's part of a progress review

by Lord Kerslake into the response

to the bombing in May last year

in which 22 people were killed.

Our north of England correspondent

has been speaking to one of the

families affected.

With in moments of the Manchester

Arena bombing, the attack was

international news. Phone footage

were shared immediately. Camera

crews and journalists provided

round-the-clock coverage for days

afterwards and there were countless

posts on social media as well. There

was huge interest in the stories of

those most closely affected,

including the family of Martin

Hecht, one of those killed in the

blast. Martin had a large online

following and had previously been on

TV. His relatives quickly found

themselves in the spotlight. Breast

reporters arrived at their house

with -- press reporters arrived at

their house before the family knew

that Martin had died.

We had people

ringing the bell, basically saying,

sorry for your loss, but would you

like to comment. He wasn't even

officially dead yet. How can anyone

be so cruel and say, sorry for your

loss? We didn't find out officially

until that evening that he was dead.

The way the emergency services

responded to the attack is already

being reviewed by an independent

panel. Now it will also examine the

role in which the media played in

the aftermath.

Much of the media

handled families in a very

respectful way. What we have heard

examples where that wasn't the case

and we feel that needs to be

explored and understood.

The

families of those who died in the

Hillsborough disaster lost their

relatives in very different but

equally public circumstances. Their

struggle has inspired a chart of

families bereaved free public

tragedy.

There are elements of the

response that could have been

better.

The arena review asks

organisations to sign up to it and

put the needs of such families

before their own reputations.

I want

anyone who works in our emergency

services to know that they will be

supported in coming forward to tell

it exactly as it was, because that

is what we need. We need the

families to have the truth as

quickly as possible so that they can

take that on board and that will

help with the grieving process.

In

March, the full review into the

attack will be published, eight

months after these 22 people died,

as their families lives are still

dominated by the tragedy.

A surgeon who branded his

initials onto the livers of two

transplant patients has been fined

and given a community service order.

Simon Bramhall pleaded guilty to two

counts of assault in December.

His crimes - carried out at Queen

Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham -

were discovered when the patients

returned to hospital for further

surgery as Sima Kotecha reports.

REPORTER:

Mr Bramhall,

what's your reaction?

Simon Bramhall, once

a respected surgeon,

now a convicted criminal.

What would you like to say

to the patients, Mr Bramhall?

Today, he was fined £10,000

after pleading guilty to assaulting

two patients by marking his initials

on their livers.

His victims were undergoing liver

transplants at the time.

In court, Judge Paul

Farrer QC told him:

Well, it was here at

the Queen Elizabeth Hospital

in Birmingham where Bramhall

committed his offences.

He marked the livers in 2013

and it was a year later,

after a disciplinary hearing,

that he resigned from his post.

Another of his patients, who also

underwent a liver transplant by him,

says he shouldn't be punished.

Signing his work is just his way

of showing the artwork he's done.

The fact that he's saved so many

lives through all the operations

he's carried out, mine included,

because without him I wouldn't be

here, just makes me think he needs

to carry on doing what he's good at.

Bramhall branded SB on the organs

with an argon beam machine,

a heat projecting device usually

used to stop any bleeding.

The Crown Prosecution Service

compared its imprint

to a minor burn.

What happened was a crime.

The rule of law applies equally

to everybody, including doctors,

so it's important to hold people

to account when they commit a crime

of assault, and that's

what's happened here.

The markings were discovered

after other surgeons noticed

them during operations.

Bramhall betrayed the trust

of his patients and took advantage

of them when they were

at their most vulnerable.

The General Medical Council,

which has already issued him

with a formal warning,

will now decide whether to take any

further action against the surgeon.

Sima Kotecha, BBC News, Birmingham.

Over 60 firefighters have been

tackling a large blaze

at Nottingham railway station,

which is thought to have

started in a toilet block

early this morning.

The fire quickly spread

through the station,

which has been recently renovated.

The flames have been

brought under control

but the station will remain closed.

A joint police and fire

investigation has now revealed

they are treating the fire as arson.

Young women with the faulty

BRCA genes who have gone

on to develop breast cancer

have the same survival chances

as those who don't have the genes.

A study of almost 3,000

women also found outcomes

were the same whatever kind

of treatment the young women had -

including mastectomies.

Mutations in the BRCA genes can

significantly increase a woman's

chance of developing breast cancer.

Our medical correspondent

Fergus Walsh has more.

Diagnosed with breast cancer when

she was just 35 years old and five

months pregnant, Laura faced

childbirth and then cancer

treatment. She carries a BRCA gene

mutation and so, like many women in

her position, she opted to have both

breasts removed.

I decided to have a

double mastectomy. My oncologist was

keen for me to have it and I was as

well because I was told that the

risk of me getting cancer again was

50%, so it didn't seem worth the

risk, really.

A new study followed

nearly 3000 women aged 40 or younger

diagnosed with breast cancer in

Britain.

It found no difference in survival

between those who carried

the BRCA breast cancer genes

and those who didn't.

And it found no survival benefit

from a double mastectomy.

After ten years, around seven in ten

women survived in all groups.

So what does this mean for women

carrying a BRCA gene?

I think the key message is that it

allows them time to consider

all of their options,

so they may still need to go ahead

and have a double mastectomy

because of their risk

and for long-term survival.

But I think it encourages us

to think that they can

take their time and discuss

and consider all of

their options and make

the right decision for them.

This study didn't

look at prevention.

One in 450 women carry

faulty BRCA genes.

It means they have a 45-90% chance

of getting breast cancer,

and many women with a strong family

history of breast cancer

opt for preventative

double mastectomies,

which almost eliminate the risk.

Like Angelina Jolie, the actress and

campaigner who revealed she had

preventative surgery, which led to

greatly raised awareness of BRCA

gene mutations. This study looked

only at young women like Laura. 97%

of breast cancers are in the over

40s. Laura says if she had her time

again, she might have delayed having

a double mastectomy, but she has no

regrets. Fergus Walsh, BBC News.

Our top story this evening.

Donald Trump says he won't be coming

to London and he's accused of racism

over alleged comments

about African countries.

Still to come...

MUSIC

And taking the airwaves by storm -

the 21-year-old from Norway who's

the BBC's Sound of 2018.

Coming up on Sportsday on BBC News.

Johanna Konta carries British hopes

at the first tennis Major of 2018,

but there's a row off the court

about a court ahead

of the first round of

Australian Open in Melbourne.

It's the Queen as you've never seen

or heard her before.

To mark the 65th anniversary

of her Coronation in 1953,

Her Majesty has been giving a unique

insight into the day

and what it meant to her.

She's been speaking to the royal

commentator Alastair Bruce

for a BBC programme.

A key piece of advice

for any would be Monarch

don't look down, as our

Royal Correspondent

Nicholas Witchell reports.

She famously doesn't do interviews.

This is probably as

close as she'll get,

a conversation with questions about

the Coronation, the Crown Jewels,

and the Imperial State Crown worn

by her and her father,

King George VI.

Fortunately, my father and I have

about the same sort of shaped head.

Once you put it on, it stays.

It just remains itself.

You have to keep your

head very still?

Yes.

It was huge then.

Yes.

Very unwieldy.

You can't look down to read

a speech,

you have take

the speech up

because if you did, your neck

would break, it would fall off.

It's difficult to always

remember that diamonds

are stones, so very heavy.

Yes.

So there are some

disadvantages to crowns.

But otherwise, they're

quite important things.

She rode to her coronation

in the gold State Coach.

It weighs four tons.

It's not built for comfort.

Horrible.

It's not meant for

travelling in at all.

It's only sprung on leather.

So it rocks around a lot.

It's not very comfortable.

Were you in it for a long time?

Halfway round London.

Really?

We must have gone about

four or five miles -

we could only go at a walking pace.

The horses couldn't

possibly go any faster.

It's so heavy.

65 years after the event,

a monarch talking

about her coronation -

the Crown - the real one.

Nicholas Witchell, BBC News.

And you can see The Coronation

on Sunday evening

at 8 o'clock on BBC One.

There's been a breakthrough

in the talks aimed at forming

a new coalition government

in Germany between the Chancellor,

Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats

and their rivals,

the Social Democrats.

After the general election back

in September, the two sides have

at last reached a preliminary deal

and are now expected to discuss

a detailed programme for government.

It's expected to include a pledge

to work closely with France

to strengthen the Eurozone.

A sex offender is alleged to have

carried out a serious assault

in jail on a female officer

he barricaded his cell.

BBC News understands the prison

officer was attacked

during a routine cell

check at Littlehey jail.

Cambridgeshire Police

said a 27-year-old man

was "under investigation".

The Government is being

urged to bring contracts

from the construction giant

Carillion back into public control

amid fears it could collapse.

It's a major supplier

to the Government and has contracts

in the rail industry -

including building HS2 -

education and the NHS.

It's struggled since reporting

half-year losses of over £1 billion

and a significant pension deficit.

Our business editor

Simon Jack is here.

If Carillion goes under,

so do many huge government projects.

Yes, Carillion is no ordinary

private company.

It's got some very

sensitive public service contracts

with prisons, schools and hospitals.

It's in big trouble. The BBC has

learned that the Ministry of Justice

is drawing up plans to bring a £200

million contract for maintenance and

prisons back under public control.

Perhaps unsurprising given the fact

this company has been struggling for

its life all week. On Wednesday it

met the banks to is Sikh whom it

owes money to detail plans, it was

rejected. On Thursday there was a

meeting with the Department for

Transport to look at the options if

it got into trouble. Today they talk

to the pension regulators to look at

what happens to the 28,000 pension

scheme members who would receive

reduced benefits if it fell into

administration. The really bad news

would be if it did go under, that

army of subcontractors who rely on

Carillion for payment of supply. It

also brings up the question of

farming out public sector contracts

to the private sector. Is Carillion

too sensitive to fail? No? Will the

government 11 he can to stop that

happening? Yes.

Facebook says it's changing its news

feed to make users' time

on the social media

site more meaningful.

Here's our Media Editor, Amol Rajan.

Mark Zuckerberg's social network has

become of the biggest distributors

of news in history. Today the

company went back to its social

roots. He said he wants to make sure

the time we spend on Facebook is

time well spent.

time well spent. Facebook's founder

admits users are being fed a heavy

diet of news and adverts. Together

with the more personal posts from

friends and family. In Bristol

today, many young Facebook users

agreed.

It's full of adverts for

shopping and baby things at the

moment, stuff I search on Google. So

I think it would be a lot better if

it was just based around friends and

family without any adverts.

I just

feel like I'm being sold to the

whole time. People are making

assumptions about my opinions, my

tastes, things I'm interested in.

Mark Zuckerberg says he's changing

the goal to make you have more

meaningful social interactions. That

means less news and more friends and

family. This is the biggest change

to Facebook for many years. It

follows controversy over the

promotion of fake news with the of

the platform is being used by

foreign powers to subvert democracy.

Today's changes aren't being driven

by those concerns but are clearly an

attempt to restore trust in a global

brand, and the impact on our news

ecosystem could be huge. Mark

Zuckerberg now accepts multiple news

is of equal value but his changes

could damage some reputable news

providers who have come to rely on

his platform.

The elephant in the

rim is fake news and how they are

trying to clean up the timelines.

The fear for publishers like us is

that the baby gets thrown out with a

bath water and we lose the really

important real journalism along with

the fake news that they are trying

to get rid of.

Google is often

described as part of a duopoly that

is swallowing the industries

together with Facebook. Today in a

rare interview, Google's most senior

British executives seem to see this

as an opportunity.

There's an upside

to traditional media moving to the

digital world. You can reach 5

billion people, you can use video.

You know yourself as a journalist,

there's a huge ability to tell the

important stories in new ways and

people are turning to the digital

world more than ever before to

understand the news.

For Facebook's

young missionary founder, a

short-term hit in revenues is worth

it to lay accusations that it's

becoming the anti-social network.

Winning the coveted BBC Music Sound

of The Year prize can be an early

predictor of chart success

and critical acclaim.

Artists like Sam Smith and Adele

have won it in the past.

This year, it's gone

to a 21-year-old singer called

Sigrid, as our entertainment

correspondent Lizo Mzimba explains.

MUSIC: "Strangers" by Sigrid.

# Like strangers

# Perfect pretenders...#.

The infectious pop sound of Sigrid.

# We're falling head over heels

# For something that ain't real

# It could never be us...#.

The 21-year-old Norwegian

singer has been writing

and performing for years.

# I don't want you,

all you want is someone...#.

Now, she's won one of music's most

important awards for new talent.

In the BBC Sound of 2018 list,

Sigrid, you are the winner.

What?!

Number one.

What does it mean to

you to have won this?

Oh God, of course you're

asking that question right

when I'm about to cry!

How to describe that?

It means a lot.

We welcome Sigrid!

MUSIC: "Don't Kill

My Vibe" by Sigrid.

She's been steadily gaining support

for the last 12 months,

gathering fans from Jools Holland...

# Oh-oh-oh, ooh, ooh

# Don't kill my vibe...#.

To thousands at Glastonbury.

# Just like in the movies...#.

Like Robyn and Zara Larsson

before her, Sigrid is another huge

talent to emerge from Scandinavia.

I think Scandinavian musicians

are good at melodies,

because English is our second

language, and I think that creates

that barrier where you have

to concentrate a lot

about the melody.

Melodies that have helped her win

this industry accolade.

I'm very lucky and happy, and it's

a great way to start this year.

Lizo Mzimba, BBC News.

Time for a look at the weather.

Here's Helen Willetts.

It just seems to have been graver

days, is that going to

It just seems to have been graver

days, is that going to change?

Yes

it is. I'm fed up of the fog and

grey weather.

We are going to clear

it away but by clearing it away we

will get colder next week because

it's windy. Frequent showers will

fall as sleet and snow and even

later in the week there is a good

chance we could see some snow

further south. We have had some

lovely pictures of sunshine in today

where we've had it across parts of

Wales and Southwest. For many it's

been dreary and then we've got a

more substantial weather front

coming into Northern Ireland through

the night. It will cross the Irish

Sea into western fringes of England

and Wales. There will be an awful

lot of low cloud. Misty grey weather

tomorrow morning, fog over the

hills. After the sunshine today we

wake up to some rather grey skies

and some leaden skies with rain

across the South West of England and

the south-west of Wales. For Central

and eastern areas, pretty much as

today. There might be a bit of

sunshine across East Anglia but we

have that week weather front around

so a bit of drizzly rain around.

Something more substantial than

Northern Ireland, and western

Scotland eventually. For most of

Scotland it is a cold and frosty

start. Here we will see the lion's

share of the sunshine across the

Highland region tomorrow. For most

of us even though the breeze will

lift the cloud to make it a bit less

grey, it will still be a cloudy day

for most. The rain starts to move a

bit further east so it will be

dumper by the end of the day for the

south-west of Scotland. Then that

weather front doesn't make much

progress further east. It tends to

fizzle out. A bit odd smattering of

snow in the Scottish islands. We are

seeing cloudier shies, largely frost

free. Once again on Sunday we've got

the remnants of two-week weather

fronts. There's going to be a lot of

cloud again. Chances are we will see

some brightness but not that much.

If you look to the north-west,

that's the sign of a change. This is

quite a large area of low pressure

dominating the North Atlantic which

will push a spell of wet and windy

weather through into Sunday night

and Monday. Behind that will get the

cold air in. Quite a significant

wind chill but at least we'll see

some sunshine returning.

A reminder of our main story.

A reminder of our main story.

Donald Trump says he won't be coming

to London and he is accused of

racism over alleged comments about

African countries.

That's all from the BBC News at Six,

so it's goodbye from me -