08/03/2018 BBC News at Six

Tonight at 6...

The attempted murder of a former

Russian spy was brazen

says the Government,

as investigations continue

into who was behind it.

38-year-old Detective Sergeant

Nick Bailey is named

as the police officer -

taken seriously ill after rushing

to help Sergei Skripal

and his daughter.

He is well. He has sat up. He is not

the neck I know that he is receiving

a high level of treatment.

The bench where they were found

in Salisbury remains cordoned off

as specialist teams try to establish

when they were exposed

to the nerve gas.

A doctor who found them tells

the BBC of the shocking state

they were in and says Yulia Skripal

had stopped breathing.

We'll have the latest

on the investigation.

Also on the programme...

The Old Bailey hears from passengers

who were on board this tube

When it partially exploded at

Parsons Green.

A shortage of beds means tens

of thousands of operations

were cancelled in England

in December and January.

And the superagers.

How these long distance cyclists -

some of them in their 80s -

have the immune system

of a 20-year-old.

I do it for all reasons.

For health, because I enjoy it,

because it's sociable.

It's just a wonderful life.

And coming up on Sportsday

on BBC News:

Snowboarder Owen Pick will be

Great Britain's flag bearer

at tomorrow's Winter Paralympics

opening ceremony in South Korea.

Pick lost his leg while

serving in Afghanistan.

Good evening and welcome

to the BBC News at Six.

The police officer who rushed

to the aid of a former Russian

spy and his daughter,

after they'd been poisoned by nerve

gas, is still in a serious

condition in hospital.

But Wiltshire Police say

Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey,

who's 38, is now able to sit

up and talk.

Investigations are continuing

in Salisbury into how and why

Sergei Skripal and his 33 year

old daughter were exposed to nerve

gas on Sunday afternoon.

A doctor who was first on the scene

has told the BBC that Yulia Skripal

had stopped breathing

and was in a terrible state.

Our home affairs correspondent,

Tom Symonds, reports.

Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey is 38

years old, a decorated officer

with plenty of experience

on the front line of policing.

He's still in a serious condition

but the good news today

is he is awake and talking.

Here's a great character. He is a

huge presence in Wiltshire Police,

well loved and massively dedicated

officer. He is clearly receiving

high, specialist treatment. He is

well, sat up. He not been Nick I

know that he is receiving a high

level of treatment.

The inquiry's not letting up.

Police began what appeared

to be a major search

and possible decontamination

of Sergei Skripal's house today.

For a while, they even taped off

the graves of his wife and son.

We are committed to doing

all we can to bring

the perpetrators to justice,

whoever they are and

wherever they may be.

The investigation is moving

at pace and this government

will act without hesitation

as the facts become clearer.

The BBC's been told the nerve agent

used was not sarin or VX,

which have been used as weapons

in the past, but rarer.

Decontamination teams were heavily

protected on Sunday.

Look at this picture

from earlier that day.

No respirators or suits.

These officers could not have known

they were about to deal with the use

of a chemical weapon in their city.

I guess it really brings home to us

and the public again

that we run towards danger

while others walk away.

Sometimes we run to

something we don't know.

The risk they face became

obvious today when a bench,

on which the Skripals were sitting,

was exposed by gusts of wind.

Just look at the operation needed

to go in and peg it down again,

four days on from the incident.

And it wasn't just police

officers who risked being

exposed that afternoon.

I've spoken to a doctor

who was there.

She's asked us not to name her

but she says she came

across Yulia Skripal slumped over

the bench, unconscious,

not breathing, vomiting

and having a fit.

She stepped in.

She got Yulia onto the floor,

she got her breathing

and handed her patient

over to paramedics.

She's concerned about what she's

come into contact with,

but she feels fine.

Sergei and Yulia Skripal,

attacked as she came to Britain

from Russia to visit him,

are not getting better.

They remain in a critical

condition, as the race

to find their assailant -

or assailants - continues.

Tom Symonds, BBC News, Salisbury.

Suggestions that Moscow may be

involved in the attack have

sparked anger in Russia.

The state media has complained

of an anti-Russian campaign

by the West, and amongst the Russian

people there's little

sympathy for the former Russian spy,

Sergei Skripal, as our Moscow

correspondent, Steve

Rosenberg, reports.

Moscow feels a world away

from the drama of Salisbury.

Relaxed Russians are out

enjoying a public holiday,

determined not to allow a spy

scandal to spoil their day.

People here are short

on sympathy for Sergei Skripal.

TRANSLATION:

The fewer secrets

you sell, the longer you'll live.

TRANSLATION:

Don't

betray your motherland.

Then you'll have no problems.

TRANSLATION:

When he was in prison

in Russia, he was healthy.

He goes to Britain

and gets poisoned.

He should have stayed here.

It's a similar message

from Russian TV.

The Kremlin controlled media have

been mocking Boris Johnson

and making fun of Britain.

If you're a professional traitor,

he says, my advice,

don't move to England.

Something's not right there,

the climate, perhaps.

But too many bad things go on there,

people are hanged, poisoned,

helicopter crashes or they fall

out of windows.

Under Vladimir Putin,

the Kremlin has sent a very clear

message to the Russian people

that their country is a besieged

fortress, threatened by enemies

abroad and traitors at home.

That's why there is little sympathy

here for Sergei Skripal.

And if Moscow did target

Sergei Skripal...

Most Russian people, not me,

of course, most Russian people

would take pride in it

because there is a very

black and white world,

it's us against them.

Putin has brought us

back in a big way.

Today, the president

delivered a special address.

No mention of spies.

He congratulated Russian women

on International Women's Day.

Moscow knows it's under suspicion

that the Kremlin is acting

as if it's business as usual.

Steve Rosenberg, BBC News, Moscow.

We can join our Security

Correspondent, Gordon Corera,

from outside MI6 headquarters.

Now, are we any closer to finding

out how and why the Skripals were

poisoned?

The identity of the nerve

agent described as very rare is

crucial. It may point to which

country, which laboratory, is

involved in the manufacturer.

Government institutions are being

careful about pointing the finger at

Russia until the facts are clearer.

In terms of why, there has been

speculation that perhaps after he

came here, Sergei Skripal was still

actively involved in intelligence

work I had picked up no signs of

that from people I have been

speaking to. There was speculation

he might have been involved in the

famous dossier on Donald Trump drawn

up by a former MI6 officer, Chris

Steele. Sources close to his

companies said they had no link

whatsoever with Sergei Skripal. That

still leaves the most plausible

motive as revenge, revenge for his

working for British intelligence,

MI6, behind me for that there will

have been a lot of meetings that MI6

in the last few days, a lot of

concern about the potential

perception that it cannot protect

the lives of its agents, even when

they are in the UK.

Thank you.

Tens of thousands of patients

in England had their

non-urgent operations -

like hip and knee replacements -

postponed in December and January

because of a shortage

of hospital beds.

New figures also show that A and E

performance last month

fell to its lowest level

since records began.

Our health editor, Hugh Pym reports.

New Year brought extraordinary

pressure, illustrated in the new BBC

hospital series filmed

at Nottingham University

Hospitals Trust.

Today we have run out of space.

We are being asked to cancel any

nonessential activities.

So not cancer, not clinically

urgent, but pretty

much anything else.

I can't see the sense

in cancelling...

Word has come through from NHS

leaders that all nonurgent surgery

should be cancelled for the month

to free up beds for emergencies.

I'm very sorry, but I don't know

if you've heard the recent news,

we have a bed crisis

in the hospital.

We're going to have to cancel

operations at this moment.

I'm afraid it's bad news.

We are going to have

to cancel tomorrow.

I'm really sorry.

Sometimes that meant operating

theatres remaining empty.

We don't know when we can start

operating again at the moment.

We've never had it

as bad as this before.

We're just left,

largely, at a loose end.

We're being paid to work,

but just trying to find

something constructive to do.

There was improvement in February.

But patients elsewhere, like Scott,

are still facing delays.

He was told the day before his back

operation it had been put off,

and he doesn't know

when it will happen.

Very, very frustrated.

I'm annoyed and I'm hurt,

because now I've got to go

through this all over again.

This isn't something that you think,

oh, well, I'm going to go

and have a filling done.

This is a very invasive operation.

Figures out today revealed the scale

of the consolations.

-- cancellations.

In December there were many 27,000

fewer routine operations carried out

in England and the same month

a year earlier.

In January, there was

a drop of nearly 14,500.

And for the most recent

two-week period, bed

occupancy in hospitals,

at more than 95%, was

the highest this winter.

They are going to be suffering pain,

discomfort, difficulties

with mobility and most

of the elective conditions

which we are waiting

to operate on can deteriorate

and develop convocations.

-- complications.

NHS England said February

was the most pressurised month

in the history of the service,

with high levels of flu -

the background to another

deterioration in A&E performance.

Hugh Pym, BBC News.

And you can see more from that

documentary - Hospital -

on BBC 2 at 9 o'clock

on Monday 26th March.

The latest aid convoy due to take

desperately needed supplies

into the Syrian rebel-held enclave

of eastern Ghouta

has been postponed.

The International Red Cross told

the BBC it was simply "too

dangerous" to deliver the aid.

The Syrian Army claims it

has virtually sliced

the rebel-held suburb in two.

Two 17-year-old boys have died,

and seven people have been injured,

in an accident involving three cars

near Thirsk in North Yorkshire.

Police say the vehicles

collided on the A61 shortly

before 9:30pm last night.

Five adults and two children

were taken to hospital.

A jury at the Old Bailey has seen

the moment a bomb partially exploded

on a tube in South West London.

Some of the passengers on board have

been describing how their hair

and clothes caught fire when it went

off in a packed carriage

last September.

30 people were injured in the

incident at Parsons Green station.

18-year-old Ahmed Hassan

denies attempted murder.

From the Old Bailey,

here's June Kelly.

This was a day of dramatic

and distressing evidence

as the court heard from those

who were on the train under attack.

A bomb had been left in a bag.

It failed to fully go off but it

created a ball of flame

which terrified scores of early

morning commuters as it

rolled down the carriage.

One, Amy Coalville,

described to the court how

her hair caught fire.

She said she'd heard a loud bang

and seen a wall of glass.

A flame came over

her right hand side.

Earlier the evidence focused

on the movements that

morning of Ahmed Hassan,

the teenager on trial

for the attack.

Here he is setting off on his

journey with his bomb in a Lidl bag,

the court's been told.

One passenger, Victoria Holloway,

told the jury there was a whooshing

sound as if someone had

lit a Bunsen burner.

She said the flames

were touching her legs

and wrapping around her skin.

In his evidence, an Army explosives

expert, Craig Palmer,

who was further down the train,

went to the scene of the blast.

He said...

Two of the passengers were in tears

as they gave their evidence.

They testified from behind

a screen and could be

seen by only the judge,

jury and lawyers.

One of them, known only as Miss S,

described how on that

morning her coat was burning

and her tights were melting.

She has been left scarred after

burns to her hands, legs and face.

June Kelly, BBC News,

at the Old Bailey.

Our top story this evening:

The Government say the attempted

murder of a former Russian spy

was brazen and reckless

as investigations continue

into who was behind it.

And still to come:

Are you ever too old

to start exercising?

How this cyclist has

amazed researchers.

It's exercise were a pill, everybody

would be taking an exercise pill.

Coming up on Sportsday on BBC News:

Owen Farrell will captain

England for the first time

in Saturday's Six Nations

match against France,

with regular skipper Dylan Hartley

ruled out through injury.

Cuts to bin collections,

local libraries closing down,

big cuts to the amount of money

spent fixing our roads -

those are just some of

the consequences of the continuing

squeeze on council

funding in England.

The National Audit Office says

funding for local authorities

from central government has fallen

by nearly 50% since 2011.

And they say the increasing

demands of social care -

for the elderly, children

and disabled people -

means that many councils face

running out of cash.

Alison Holt reports.

Do you want to do something

different?

An afternoon art class is

a chance for people with learning

disabilities and other conditions to

develop their skills and socialise.

For most here, the support is paid

for by the County Council. But

today's report says with local

authorities facing such major cuts

from central Government, they're

struggling to cope.

You like its

legs?

Sue, who has multiple

sclerosis, describes this centre as

a lifeline.

I come here only twice a

week. I would come more if there was

the funding for it.

Councils like

Surrey have a statutory duty to

support people who are older and

disabled as well as providing

children's services and across the

board demand is increasing. Today's

report calculates that on average

councils in England pay 54% of their

budgets on social care for children

and adults. Many other services have

been cut. Since 2010, more than 33%

fewer homes get weekly bin

collections and 10% of libraries

have closed. The report warns with

council also using savings to

balance the books, one in ten will

have exhausted their reserves within

three years. In Surrey, one of the

wealthiest parts of the country,

they're dipping into their savings

again.

It has been really difficult

to make sure we could come in this

year with a budget that had the

minimum tax level increases. We have

had to use £24 of our reserves and

15 million of our capital receipts.

The report says there needs to be a

long-term central government plan

for the bins, roads and other

services that people need.

What we

want local Government do and make

funding available. Alongside that,

social care needs a funding solution

as well.

The Government says a new

funding settlement has been approved

for council and that will mean a

real terms increase in the money

they get.

Two 18-years-old have been arrested

after a video was posted on social

media appearing to show a group

of people chanting racist

abuse outside the room

of a black female student.

It happened in an accommodation

block at Nottingham Trent University

earlier this week.

From Nottingham,

Elaine Dunkley reports.

# We hate the blacks

# We hate

the blacks

# We hate the blacks

# We hate

the blacks

# We are the blacks haters!

Recorded on a mobile phone

by student Rufaro Chisango.

We hate blacks!

We hate blacks!

What appears to be racist chanting

outside her door in halls

of residence at Nottingham Trent

University.

I heard shouting from outside my

door. I was shocked. I was really

shocked. I felt isolated and

uncomfortable.

The incident took place

on Monday evening.

Her friends say it has

left her traumatised

and tarnished their experience

of university life.

I know these things do happen,

but to think it was so close

to home, being in my university,

I was appalled.

We know that people might not

like who we are, might not

like where we come from,

our race, our religion, our creed.

But it's something that we just

kind of power through.

Just knowing that maybe

they like us, that we do our best

to just be ourselves.

Rufaro Chisango has now been offered

a new accommodation and two

18-year-old men have been arrested

in connection with racially

aggravated offences.

The university says it accepts

that it did not act quickly enough.

There was a delay, a significant

delay, we acknowledge that.

It's vile behaviour,

absolutely abhorrent.

We are really, shocked.

This is not the NTU positive culture

for students and staff

that we all recognise.

The footage was posted

on Twitter and has gone viral.

Nottingham Trent University says

it has learned lessons

from the incident, but this has

prompted wider questions about how

allegations of racism are dealt

with on campuses across the UK.

Nottingham Trent University is

reassuring students this was an

isolated incident. But the national

students union say they receive

phone calls from students who have

been racially abused and this will

only end when there is zero

tolerance on university campuses.

The Irish Cabinet has approved plans

to hold a referendum in May

on whether the country's abortion

laws should be changed.

Currently, terminations are only

allowed when the life of the mother

is at risk and the maximum penalty

for accessing an illegal abortion

is 14 years in prison.

Chris Page reports from Dublin.

This is a nation which was

once seen as the most

socially conservative

in

western Europe, but it feels

like change has been swift.

In the next few months,

Ireland will make a

defining decision.

Tens of thousands of Irish

women have travelled to

other countries to have abortions.

Gaye Edward's baby,

who she and her husband

named Joshua, had a fatal

condition called anencephaly.

She says having to go

away to end her

pregnancy magnified her grief.

While I knew that I had

come to the right

decision for me,

it made me feel that society

viewed my decision as

being somehow wrong.

When you really need to be

taken care of you feel

like you're just...

Pushed aside and into a corner.

Stories like Gaye's have

helped to bring about

the referendum.

Voters will decide whether

to remove the Eighth

Amendment of the Irish Constitution,

which gives an unborn child and a

pregnant woman an equal

right-to-life.

These canvassers are campaigning

to repeal the Eighth.

Abortions are happening in Ireland,

they're happening dangerously and

they're happening illegally.

We are on the shoulders

of generations of

women who have been organising

and working for this shift forward.

If the change to the

Constitution is approved

in the referendum,

the

Parliament in Dublin will determine

how available terminations will be.

Ministers want to allow

abortions up to 12 weeks

into a pregnancy and

in

some limited

circumstances afterwards.

But the Government does

haven't a majority.

The two main parties

are divided on the issue.

The Catholic Church's strongly

defending the Eighth Amendment.

Its power has iminished,

but it certainly hasn't disappeared.

Life begins at conception and ends

and death and we have to protect

all life.

If it's repealed, all the rights

are gone from the baby.

Women who support

the current law are

speaking about their

experiences too.

Vicky's daughter, Liandan,

was still-born at 32 weeks.

She recalls what happened

when a doctor told her he

didn't expect her baby to live.

He said that my only

option was to pop

to England -

insinuating an abortion.

That was never going

to be an option.

We spent the summer

just being with her.

The Eighth Amendment showed to me

that not only did we

value her, but our country

valued her like that.

For people on both sides,

the referendum's about what

sort of society

they want to live in.

It is a personal,

passionate emotive debate.

Chris Page, BBC News, Dublin.

Running a marathon or long

distance cycling -

how often do you hear older people

saying such sports

are just for the young?

Well, it seems that's not the case.

Researchers have been

following a big group

of older cyclists -

some in their 80s -

who've all remained highly active.

And the results are very surprising

as our medical correspondent

Fergus Walsh has been finding out.

I've arranged a 60-mile ride

through the Surrey hills.

This is what healthy

ageing looks like.

These cyclists - aged 64

to 82 - think nothing

of spending five hours

or more in the saddle.

Room for one more?

Yeah, welcome.

I do it all for reasons -

for health, because

I enjoy it, because

it's sociable.

It's just a wonderful life.

They have all been examined as part

of a trial which is challenging

perceptions of ageing.

One of the first results

I got from the medical

study, I was told my

body fat was comparable

to that of a 19-year-old.

Leading the peleton

is Professor Norman Lazarus - at 82,

a prime example of healthy ageing.

If exercise was a pill, everybody

in the world would be taking an

exercise pill.

Really good, Norman.

He not only took part

in the study, but

helped lead the research.

This test shows his

excellent lung function.

Last little bit now, keep pushing.

An MRI scan gives another indication

of how well Norman is ageing.

These are his thighs.

Now compare Norman's muscly leg

on the the right with

that of a sedentary

50-year-old on left -

which is mostly fat.

Ready, push!

If more of us could do

the recommended 150 minutes

of moderate physical activity each

week, it

would pay huge dividends.

Across a whole gamut

of different levels,

what exercise is doing in older

individuals is giving them higher

levels of function and

better quality of life.

The most remarkable findings

came when scientists in

Birmingham examined blood

samples from a cyclist.

They found their immune

system, which normally

declines with age, was still

as strong as a young person's.

The immune system is really

key in the body, it

has several roles -

it protects us from infections,

but it also helps us

to

find things like cancer.

So the fact these

cyclists have the immune

system of a 20-year-old and not a 70

or 80-year-old, means they're

protected from infections

and from cancer potentially.

The advantages then

of exercise in later life

are profound.

So if cycling's not your thing,

try another sport, or what about

dancing, gardening,

even brisk walking.

Most of the health benefits of these

sup-agers are easily

achievable if we just did a bit

more physical activity.

Fergus Walsh, BBC News, Surrey.

Time for a look at the weather.

Here's Stav Danaos.

Thanks are warming up. Perfect

weather for cycling?

Thanks are warming up. Perfect

weather for cycling? Yes, in fact it

has been a nice day in many parts

after the snow we had this morning

in northern areas. As we head into

this evening it is set to turn

chilly and there could be some

frost, fog and ice where you have

had the morning snow and rain and

any showers which continue across

Scotland for example. In the far

south-west of England, the cloud's

building there. So it won't be as

cold, four or five degrees in

Plymouth. Elsewhere, sub zero

values. This area of low pressure

will introduce wind and rain, but

also very mild air. Particularly to

England and Wales. To the north we

will continue to see some showers,

they will fall as snow over the

Scottish mountains. But a glorious

day with sunshine, before cloud

pushes into England and Wales.

Temperatures around 10 degrees.

Still cool in the north. As which

head into the weekend, things are

set to turn milder, particularly

Saturday afternoon, given some

sunshine. Some rain spilling

northwards and we could see some

snow on its leading edge. This is

the picture for Saturday, a messy

one, with that front moving north.

Some snow on the higher grouped of

Scotland. But -- ground of Scotland.

Behind it skies brightening and when

the sunshine comes out it will be

very mild. We could see a top

temperature of 16 degrees. So much

milder. Into Sunday, another mild

day. Maybe not as mild as Saturday

and it will be sunny too. Our main

and it will be sunny too. Our main

story.

day. Maybe not as mild as Saturday

and it will be sunny too. Our main

story. Detective sergeant Nick

Bailey is named as the police

officer taken ill after heaping the

former Russian spy