25/01/2016 BBC Wales Today

Welcome to Wales Today - our top stories It has been compared

Tonight, Asylum seekers in Cardiff will no longer have to wear

wristbands to receive their meals. Also tonight, a man charged

with helping a teenager travel to Syria to fight with Islamic

I compare it to the situation where you brand animals to go to market.

with helping a teenager travel to Syria to fight with Islamic

extremists tells the Old Bailey he's totally against extremism.

Calls for the immediate publication of a review of a major inquiry.

A tale of two cities, why do Newport and Swansea have some

of the UK's highest levels of welfare spending

"Extremely disappointing and worrying."

A view from the Wales management after another season with no regions

in the knockout stages of Europe's elite competition.

Its been compared to the branding of animals.

Tonight, asylum seekers living in temporary housing in Cardiff

will no longer have to wear wristbands in order

It comes after some residents claimed it singled them

The company that runs Lynx House on behalf of the Home Office says

they'll find alternative ways of providing food.

They were still wearing the controversial wristbands this

Without them, they told me, they might be refused food.

Lynx House is one of the places asylum seekers are sent to live

while their status is being processed.

Because people here are not allowed to work or to claim benefits

they they are dependent on meals provided here and paid

Eric Ngalle lived here for a month he told me how walking along this

road the wristbands would mark him out and people in passing cars

If you got to Lynx House without the band, you would not be able to eat

for the day. If the staff recognised due, they would send you back to

your hotel room to look for your label all wait until the food was

done and see if there was any left. This is how militant they were in

terms of implementing these bands. months ago and nothing was done.

The Clearsprings Group, I just compare it with the situation

where you brand cattle or sheep to go to the market.

the company which runs Lynx House, has now said the wristband scheme

will be scrapped from now on and they're looking

for an alternative way of providing support.

But David Davies, the Conservative MP for Monmouth, has likened wearing

these bands to the ones he wears on holiday.

It was a perfectly reasonable system that allowed them to obtain three

square meals a day and it was reasonable for people to be

identified in some way. I go on holiday every year to a holiday

resort in Hungary where you have to wear wristbands to get a free meal.

Do I feel dehumanised? I'm wearing my ID here.

Chloe Marong works at the Trinity Centre in Cardiff,

a voluntary run organisation, and says such treatment

is dehumanising, but the problems facing the people she works

It is one aspect of a worrying trend of dehumanising asylum seekers. I

think it is particularly a problem because asylum seekers have been

paying secluded from mainstream society from so long. -- have been

excluded. a statement saying it expects

the highest standards BBC Wales has discovered that Tata

Steel wishes to make many savings. Our business correspondence has been

looking at the numbers. What more can you tell us? This comes from a

leaked document from Tata Steel. We know that 400 white-collar workers

will be made redundant and around 330 blue-collar industrial workers

will be made redundant as part of this. Engineering takes the heavy

blow. 40% of that department is going to be cut as part of these job

losses. You mentioned it is about saving that money and the survival

of the plant. About 50 odd million pounds is going to come from these

job losses and around ?50 million also comes from what we saw last

year. Big changes. This is a survival plan for the company. Are

you able to give us any idea of the timescale of the job losses? They

have a consultation process, a statutory process lasting 45 days.

Whatever Tata Steel have dealed with the union, they have extended that

beyond the legal period. The document is clear there is not a lot

of room for manoeuvre any more so we might expect it to go a little bit

more towards those 45 days or soon after before we see those losses. It

is also worth saying that some of those contractors are already having

to make people redundant so we are already seeing job losses in the

industry. A man who's alleged to have

helped his teenage Jihadi friend travel to Syria to fight

alongside his brother with Islamic terrorists has told the Old Bailey

he's totally against extremism. 20-year-old Kristen Brekke

from Cardiff is accused, along with two other men,

of assisting Aseel Muthana From the Central Criminal Court

in London, Nick Palit. Two weeks into this trial

at the Old Bailey, Kristen Brekke arrived at court two days

for the start of his defence. Also known by the name

Mohammed Kaleem, the Muslim convert is accused of helping

17-year-old Aseel Muthana travel to Syria to fight

with so-called Islamic state. Aseel's brother had already gone

some months earlier and appeared in a much-publicised

IS propaganda video entitled This has already been shown

to the jury. After swearing on the Koran,

Brekke's barrister asked him, what is your view on being a jihadi

and going to Syria? He told the court he had become

a Muslim while a pupil And took the declaration of faith

that the local Riverside mosque. That mosque, he told the court,

is totally against extremism. When asked what Aseel had thought

that his brother being a jihadi, There was no want to support him

or go with him. When he left I thought he had

gone to study in Egypt. The court heard how Brekke first met

Muthana in 2012 when they worked Asked what Muthana was like,

Brekke described him as friendly, At the beginning of the trial,

the jury was shown a video of the two on what has been called

Asda Hill. Shot on the mobile phone,

the two fantasise that what they are seeing below them

isn't Cardiff but a checkpoint Brekke is seen waving a replica gun

and Muthana is heard saying, if you are watching this,

I am probably dead like Asked about this in court,

Brekke said he had brought the pellet gun about a year

previously on a market for ?16. He said they had gone up the hill

to shoot at bottles and cans He told the jury that army surplus

clothes found at his home where his and hadn't been

brought for Muthana. He said a passport application

he made was also for himself, not Muthana, because he wanted

to take a trip to Barcelona. But the prosecution claim Mr Brekke,

along with his co-accused, did help the teenager become

a jihadis like his brother. They said Brekke, along

with his two co-accused, bought and stored the combat

clothing for him, provided him with tactical advice and equipment

he needs and paid for his travel from Cardiff to Gatwick,

his flight to Cyprus All three men deny the charges

of assisting in the preparation Three activists from Powys

who were part of a group who chained themselves together on a runway

at Heathrow have been told Rebecca Sanderson, Richard Hawkins

and Kara Moses from Machynlleth were among 13 people found guilty

after 25 flights were cancelled during the protest against climate

change and expansion last July. The judge said the cost

of the disruption was "absolutely Three years ago, following fresh

allegations, a top judge was tasked with looking again at

the Waterhouse Inquiry into child Just before Christmas,

Lady Justice Macure handed her findings to the UK government

who promised to publish them Well, there's still no date and now

concerns have been raised about when, and how much

of the report will be made public. The government will also ask

a senior independent figure to lead an investigation into

whether the Waterhouse enquiry was properly constituted

and did its job. If the Home Secretary's aim

was to bury the ghosts, for now, at least,

she has come up short. The importance of our enquiry

is underlined by the fact that this is only the fourth such tribunal

in the past 30 years. Starting in 1997, it took

Sir Ronald Waterhouse three years to publish his report into child

abuse in North Wales. It has now taken Lady Justice Macur

about the same time to come up with her review of that same report,

and patience is beginning She was commissioned

following a string of fresh allegations and suggestion

of establishment cover-up. She delivered her report

in December, it still The Labour MP for Cynon Valley,

Ann Clwyd, wanted to know why. It is being considered by law

enforcement agencies, I think what we got with the review

is that we know it was sent to the Secretary of State

for Justice, the secretary It was commissioned back in November

2012 and it is referring to the Waterhouse enquiry

which was in 1996 to 2000. That in itself was referring

to events that went back We need to have public trust

in our institutions. We need to be clear about what went

wrong in North Wales. We need to understand

whether the Waterhouse tribunal did its job properly

or whether it drew its terms There is here a massive

problem of trust. There may well be some very good

reasons why publication Why bits of it may need to be

redacted, blanked out. What if, for example,

its name is someone facing a trial? That trial could easily be

prejudiced. But delay brings suspicion

and suspicion brings that thought

that something is being covered up. This man is a former children's home

resident and survivor of abuse. It is frustrating because as

a former victim of We thought we were

getting justice from it. People, victims and survivors,

are not getting that at all. The frustration,

we want it over now. Sir Ronald Waterhouse

called his report Lost In Care. More than one decade ago,

it was supposed to draw the line under events which scarred the lives

of so many young people. Another disappointing

season for Welsh sides in European Rugby's

Elite competition. And the storm that hit east coast

America, New York and Washington, No snow for us, but two to four

inches of rain and gales. Subsidising the tuition fees

of Welsh students at universities in the rest of the UK is a gimmick,

that's accoding to the Welsh Opposition parties and Labour have

clashed over their plans to fund higher education after

May's Assembly election. At the moment, students pay

just over ?3,810 a year The rest, which can be more

than ?5,000, is paid by the Welsh government, wherever

in the UK students study. But it's all being reviewed

and could change after Our political correspondent Daniel

Davies is in the Senedd tonight. Today's row comes after

the Education Minister said Labour would continue to fund Welsh

students, regardless The education Minister has said that

when the Welsh government spends its money, students should be first in

the queue. They should come first, not the needs of universities.

Wherever they want to study, the Welsh government should be there

ready to help them regardless of whether because they do is in Wales

some other part of the UK. Few Lewis the education minister won't be here

to make sure that will be the case after the election because he is

standing down but his comments yesterday have riled the opposition.

When asked whether he thought funding to students should be means

tested, he said you would have to wait for the Labour manifesto. Today

the Labour Party has said it does not want to pre-judge the findings

of a review that went be published until after the election. So some

uncertainty about where all this is headache. Meanwhile, opponents and

some critics don't like the fact that Welsh students can take their

funding over the border to universities elsewhere. The Tories

say Welsh money is being dumped in England. I think it is reasonable

for the Welsh government to support students on because that is best for

them but the policy we have at the moment is completely an affordable.

It takes about ?90 million out of Wales as it is given to students who

may not necessarily need it. What do universities want? They say they

make a huge contribution to the economy. They want to bring in a

means tested grants to help students with the cost of living. The Tories

say they would do that, the Lib Dems say they would spend money on living

costs as well although it wouldn't be means tested and Plaid Cymru have

said the way money is spent should be refocused so it stays in Wales

and so universities and colleges benefit to.

All education policy, including tuition fees,

is devolved to the Welsh Government in Cardiff Bay.

And with just over three months until Wales goes to the polls

in the Assembly election, BBC Wales is looking at what makes

us different to the other nations in the UK.

It's part of a series called How Wales Works which you can follow

across BBC Wales TV and radio programmes and online.

Two of Wales' cities are under performing,

according to a report from a think tank.

Centre for Cities found that Swansea has the fourth highest level

of welfare spending per person in Britain, and Newport

Both cities, and Cardiff, also pay weekly wages

Here's our economics correspondent, Sarah Dickins.

The centre of Newport, one of the latest examples of a city

Cities have been held up as the engines of economic growth

where change can and does happen and then, in theory,

But latest analysis shows that Newport and Swansea

are underperforming with lower wages and higher levels

The jobs that we tend to find within those two cities tend to be

lower skilled, lower paid, so there needs to be a push

One, increasing the number of jobs available, but also trying

In Newport, average wages in 2014 were ?441 a week and nearly ?3800

was spent per person per year on welfare.

In Swansea, wages were ?7 a week more but welfare spending

Cardiff performs better, not surprising for a capital.

But wages were still below the British city average.

But there were lower levels of welfare payments.

It highlights cities need to do more to attract higher skilled jobs.

Social economist Dr Mark Lang has criticised the theory that cities

made a priority and that neighbours win if cities prosper.

What I have been saying for years is that cities aren't this kind

If we give them more powers, give them more investment,

then we suddenly end up with these areas where everyone has

It is quite clear in this report that there are huge inequalities

In both south-east Wales and the Swansea Bay area,

city region groups are developing policies to help their communities.

The report's authors argue cities should be given further devolution

and should be able to keep any savings from the welfare bill

Does want to take you back to our main story this evening.

Let's talk to the Labour MP for Cardiff Central,

Jo Stevens, in our Westminster studio.

Some might say the reaction's been a little over the top.

The wristbands were just to ensure people who needed it were given

food, not to single out asylum seekers.

I think if that was the case, then the private contractor who run Lynx

House on behalf of the Home Office wouldn't have agreed with me

yesterday when I spoke to them, saying they would abandon the policy

of wristbands that can't be taken off and if they are taken off, they

can't get any food. I am glad this has been scrapped today.

possibly involving ID cards, inevitably be more expensive

and therefore take money away from the people who need it?

Not necessarily. When I spoke to the operations director yesterday he

agreed that a very simple photo ID card that they produce on-site was a

perfectly suitable alternative and that is what they will implement.

We've heard the complaints started months ago.

Why has it taken so long to do anything about it?

That is something I asked the Home Office minister this afternoon. Why

if complaints were being made since May last year, did it take a phone

call from me yesterday to get something done about it?

Extremely disappointing and worrying.

That's the view from the Wales Camp after another season without any

Welsh regions in the knock-out stages of European Rugby's elite

It's now six years since a team from Wales reached

A bonus point would have been enough for the Ospreys to progress

into the quarter finals of top flight European Rugby for the first

A try for Hanno Dirksen in the opening period against Exeter

But it wasn't to be, losing 33-17, the Welsh region

There won't be an Irish or a Scottish side represented

in the last eight of the Champions Cup either.

Is a bit worrying, isn't it? It is hugely disappointed. Five English

and Greek French. Hugely disappointing. -- three French.

Jenkins was speaking as the Wales camp gathered for the first time

today, getting the Six Nations Preparations underway.

He confirmed that Liam Williams will probably be released

from the Wales camp to feature for the Scarlets on Saturday.

He hasn't played since injuring his foot in October. If he comes

through, he may well be wearing the fullbacks Jersey.

And the reigning champions will be hoping they have star fly half

Sexton will face more tests tomorrow after being taken off

with concussion early in Leinster's defeat against Wasps on Saturday.

Losing the number 10 would be a blow for Ireland.

He has an outstanding number ten and when he plays he is a threat to any

side. Wales travel to the Aviva Stadium

and face Ireland on 7th February. And looking further ahead,

Wales will face Japan at the Principality

Stadium in November. Japan beat Wales for the first time

ever in Tokyo three years ago. Wales will also face Australia,

Argentina and South Africa The new Swansea City head coach,

Francesco Guidolin, does not yet know whether he'll be able to bring

in any new players before The Italian oversaw a 2-1 win

at Everton in his first The Swans started the game

without a recognised striker. Gylfi Sigurdsson, who opened

the scoring with a penalty, played just behind forward

Andre Ayew, who scored Swansea's The first match in Premier League

away against a team, a very strong team, like Everton,

and to win is fantastic. The Wales midfielder, Dave Edwards,

will miss the friendlies against Northern Ireland and Ukraine

in March after breaking a bone in his foot playing

for Wolves on Saturday. The club says he'll need

surgery and will be out Welshman Elfyn Evans finished first

place in the second tier of the World Rally

Championship in Monte Carlo. The driver from Dolgellau ended

the event 8th overall. The storm that hit America

is heading our way. This picture was taken in New York

today by Mark Hampton from The low pressure that brought

the snow is now hurtling across the Atlantic blown

along by the jet stream. But the waters of the Atlantic

are still relatively warm at this That means we won't get

snow but plenty of rain, There is a Met Office warning in

force for tomorrow into Wednesday. Two to four inches in Upland Areas

with a risk of some flooding. Now it was windy earlier today

for St Dwynwen's Day. This evening calmer

and dry with broken cloud. But overnight the wind

will increase again. Gales through the Irish Sea

with rain in the far NW Temperatures falling

as low as 5 or 6 Celsius. Parts of the south and east

still dry at this stage During the morning rain will spread

across the rest of the country. Poor travelling conditions

with strong to gale force winds. Temperature above average but it

won't feel that mild Tomorrow night, further outbreaks

of rain and drizzle. Heavy rain on the

Snowdonia mountains. The wind easing for a time but then

increasing again later in the night. Rain will clear followed by drier,

brighter weather and one Thursday will start dry,

bright and chilly. Some sunshine but the wind

will pick-up with more rain arriving Friday, milder with more

heavy rain and gales. So our weather coming

in from the Atlantic this week. Wet and windy at times

with a risk of some flooding Princes William and Harry have led

tributes to the British explorer Hendley Worsley -- Henry Worsley who

diet while attempting to cross the Antarctic unaided. And asylum

seekers living in temporary accommodation in Cardiff will no

longer have to wear wristbands in order to receive their meals.

I'll have an update for you here at 8 o'clock and again after the BBC

From all of us on the programme, good evening.

On your marks, get set... Bake for Sport Relief.

sift and whip their way through the Bake Off tent...