09/01/2017 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me Tom Donkin, broadcasting in the UK

More than 30 people are now known to have died as icy temperatures

The extreme conditions have caused big disruptions,

while aid agencies have warned of the dangers faced by thousands

of vulnerable people across the continent.

Here especially, people are suffering too much and having

respiratory infections, they are quickly going down because of

pneumonia and bronchitis, it can be really bad.

Protests in Turkey as the country's parliament debates constitutional

changes that'll give President Erdogan more powers.

Opponents say it'll turn a democratic system

Is a visit to the dentist about to become a thing of the past?

There's hope - because scientists discover a drug that encourages

Meryl Streep hits out at Donald Trump in her

He fires back by calling her one of the most 'overrated'

More than 30 people have died over the weekend as a cold snap

from the Arctic Circle took hold in much of central

Temperatures dropped to as little as minus 30 celsius.

In Kosovo for example many areas are without power.

This is the Mirusha waterfall, a popular tourist attraction.

Two people have died in Moscow, nearly 200 others are in hospital

after suffering from severe hypothermia.

And charities are concerned for refugees crossing

the continent on foot or living in informal settlements.

There are 2000 of them in the Serbian capital, Belgrade,

where temperatures are down to minus 20.

The fourth consecutive day of snow here has

closed this area to shipping and given the area's ferry operators

Traffic on another major waterway, the Danube, has also

been suspended because of ice flows in Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria.

In the major Romanian port city of Constanza,

the Black Sea has frozen far out from the shore.

Most affected by the cold are the poor in

The homeless and migrants have been particularly hard hit.

In this abandoned Belgrade warehouse, several hundred migrants

and refugees have been living for months.

These are the latest pictures from what was once called

Yes, actually, the cold is too much and last night, all

the people were around the fire and it was too cold.

Until now, we are here because the situation is too

There are 13 official refugee centres in Serbia with around 7,000

Hungary is only allowing in 100 a week.

Those near the top of the list wait here in

Hungarian police and soldiers patrol on the far side.

Meanwhile, in Italy, there are Christmas card

Only a few years ago, such images were commonplace

in January across Europe, but after five years of global

warming, many people had forgotten how hard a real winter can be.

Turkey's parliament began debating controversial changes

to the constitution that would hugely increase the power

He says they're needed to maintain 'stability'.

The opposition accuse the government of trying to introduce

If approved, the changes would give President Erdogan the power

to appoint his government and declare 'states of emergency'

They would also mean President Erdogan could serve two

more five-year terms - potentially - keeping him

He would also have more say over finances and budgets.

As I mentioned, those proposals still need to go through Parliament

twice and then to a public vote, how likely is that? The process would be

longer than two weeks but the main opposition parties are saying they

are going to be making some oppositions against changes to the

consideration, so in two weeks, the parliament will be discussing the

changes to the Constitution. 2016 was one of the bloodiest years for

Turkey in recent memory, president and again would say that the country

needs a strong leader in order to combat terrorism for what do Turks

think about that argument? There are a lot of parties saying that, this

change will bring more stability, so the people who are going to be, if

the can changes, there will be a referendum so people who would be

voting for the concert you should, they will be saying yes or no.

People will be thinking more about whether supporting it, they will be

thinking about that when they go to the polls. Surely they will be some

in the country saying that the president has promised to crack down

and tighten security, and all the string of attacks which continue to

happen, that hasn't happened yet? In 2016, the past year, we have seen an

attempted coup, so now the president is elected in Turkey. Beforehand

they were not elections for the president. So right now, the parties

are saying that, the president would be more powerful, and democracy will

be more powerful so the terrorist attacks, and the two, they will be

less in the future. Is this debate about the concert you shall have

anything to do with the failed coup? This has been debated, for so long,

even before the attempt. But after they could attack, after these

attacks, they will be saying that this change will be to the system in

Turkey. Now it's time to look at some

of the days other news. Russia has called accusations by US

intelligence agencies that it ran a programme of cyber hacking

to influence the American presidential election

"groundless and amateurish". The Kremlin said the accusations

resembled a witch-hunt - A new US intelligence report warns

that the risk of conflicts between and within nations

will increase over the next five years to levels not

seen since the Cold War. Analysts say slow growth along

with the use of greater technology in job markets will threaten poverty

reduction and drive tensions within countries for years to come,

leading to nationalism. Talks on reunification between

Turkish and Greek site in Cyprus have begun in Geneva, seen as the

best chance in a decade to end the 42 year division in the

Mediterranean island. Donald Trump appears to have

stolen the headlines He's called Meryl Streep 'overrated'

The actress had accused Mr Trump of 'divisive rhetoric',

at last night's awards in California, from where

James Cook reports. Yet again Hollywood has been invaded

by British acting royalty. In film and in television,

stars from the UK are wowing And what could be more

British than the Queen? She has been at the centre

of the world for the past 63 years and I think the world could do

with a few more women at the centre There were three awards

for the cast of the BBC Its star, Tom Hiddleston,

told us he couldn't believe it. I did not expect to win

a Golden Globe tonight and I was sat next to Hugh Laurie when he won

and I thought, I can go home happy. And then when it came

to my category, I was up Another British winner was absent,

Olivia Colman is preparing But Hugh Laurie was there to pick

up his award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association with a dig

at Donald Trump. I suppose made more amazing

by the fact that I will be able to say that I won this at the last

ever Golden Globes. I don't mean to be gloomy,

it's just that it has the words Hollywood,

foreign and press in the title, Receiving a lifetime achievement

award, Meryl Streep also lambasted Disrespect invites disrespect,

violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position

to bully others, we all lose. In the most predictable plot twists,

Donald Trump responded on Twitter. On the night, though,

it was not politics There were a record seven

Golden Globes for the old-fashioned musical La La Land, including acting

awards for its stars, And I think that hope and creativity

are two of the most important things in the world and that is what this

movie is about. Hollywood can be fun and frivolous

but it also prides itself on tackling serious subjects

and many stars here on the red carpet are predicting a surge

in political films this year following the most

divisive of elections. James Cook, BBC News,

at the Golden Globes in Angeles. The Golden Globe awards also

recognise achievements in television, and the biggest

winner for the small screen was The Night Manager,

an adaptation of a novel by spy novelist John Le Carre,

which was co-produced by the BBC. Joining me live from Los Angeles

is the show's executive Huge congratulations on the win, I'm

only on the first episode of the series. This is essentially a spy

story, isn't it? And not a Cold War won but a modern take. You think the

spy genre is having a renaissance? I don't think it's ever going away.

The Night Manager was adapted from a novel by John Omran, it was his

first post Cold War model, and as the good Godfather of the genre, he

set the template for everything we have come to know as the

quintessential spy story. We taciturn Brits have a worrying

talent for the city and reserve. -- duplicity. At the spy story works so

well because it's about people who not only have two... Have to lie in

their lives, but also to their nearest and dearest. I don't think

that's gone to go away and the moral ambiguity that also is championed by

Le Carre, head of his time, is increasing a something of the

zeitgeist. I think we're seeing a renascent and we will go on seeing a

recent in spy stories, they are fun to watch and fun to make. Huge

congratulations for the many wins, the executive producer of the

Brilliant Beginnings, which won a slew of awards including acting

gongs for Tom Fulston and Hugh Laurie.

In the last hour, it's been annoucned that Donald Trump has

appointed his son in law Jared Kushner as a Special Advisor

Anthony Zurcher joins us from Washington.

How legal is this? There are none was against nepotism that dates back

to the 1960s that they can't put on that of your family -- laws against

nepotism. Reports are coming out that the Trump administration's

lawyers have come up with a walk around, they could look at the

language of the law that talks about appointing two and agency and say

the White House isn't a government agency therefore not covered by

this, and then there was an outlandish proposal suggested that

Donald Trump appoints him, and then pardons amusingly presidential

pardon looks as if they will try and take advantage of this grey area and

getting in there. The reality is that Jared Kushner has had Donald

Trump's ear, he has had his ear throughout the campaign, whether or

not he had an official position, he would be looking to him for advice.

We often see him by Donald Trump's side, many of these meetings, I just

want to ask why that is, why does he want so badly in his illustration?

He has an interesting ground and a lot in common with Donald Trump,

they were both children of real estate, he inherited his father's

business business, he has ties to the more established political

people in Manhattan, said Donald Trump feels he is a go-between

between Donald Trump and some of the establishment figures that he wants

to curry favour with but the bottom line is that he trusts Jared Kushner

and he stood by him throughout the campaign so you want to keep them

close. Thank you. Donald Trump has announced that his son-in-law Jared

Kushner is to be senior adviser. Northern Ireland's power-sharing

agreement is under threat after the most senior Republican

politician in the as Deputy First Minister,

in protest at the handling of His Sinn Fein party,

which favours unification with the Republic of Ireland,

currently shares power with a pro-British party

in a system established Just put this in context and explain

to our viewers what this means for the Northern Ireland peace process.

Essentially, the peace process itself is still intact, what we're

talking about tonight is the political process, Northern Ireland

is run by a Northern Ireland executive which is made up of

essentially two parties, the DUP, pro-British and Sinn Fein,

pro-Irish, the institutions were set up as a result of the good Friday

agreement, a peace agreement, and it operates on the power-sharing, so

you have a First Minister from one party and the Deputy First Minister

from the other party. The power-sharing can't exist unless you

have two people going together, what has happened the night is Martin

McGuinness, the Deputy First Minister, has resigned and that

basically means power-sharing cannot continue. They have a week to try

and sort it out and nominate another Deputy First Minister, and then the

British Secretary of State in London has a big decision to make, he can

ask for elections and then they would be new elections to the

Northern Ireland assembly. These two parties in the power-sharing

agreement share power, they are the highest elected parties in the land,

they become the two highest voted for parties, what happens then? That

is highly likely, if you look at the statistics, it is likely that both

DUP and Sinn Fein could come back again as the top two parties and

technically, you could have a DUP First Minister and a Sinn Fein

Deputy First Minister. What it means is that all the problems we were

talking about, the energy scheme, the mass debating, they haven't gone

away, they will have to sit down and come up with some sort of system to

sort out this mess. It means that the old problems simply haven't gone

away. A fund for the family

of the Polish lorry driver killed in the Berlin Christmas

market attack has reached Fellow lorry driver David Duncan

was so shocked by what happened Today Mr Duncan was personally

thanked by the Polish Ambassador to London,

as Kasia Madera reports. When Dave Duncan heard

about Lukasz Urban's killing in the attack on the Christmas

market in Berlin, he felt compelled to help the deceased

man's family in some way. So he set up an online fundraising

campaign to raise money. It was just something I'd seen

on the TV or something and thought "Why not?

Why not me?" Actions speak louder

than words, so they say. It's been incredible, amazing that

people responded to it, yeah. The campaign has been welcomed

by Mr Urban's family Please accept my gratitude

for your remarkable work. Today, the Polish ambassador Arkady,

Rzegocki, met up with Mr Duncan Here are some Polish

products, just for you. The money raised by Mr Duncan

will go to Lucasz Urban's widow and teenage son,

and he hopes to visit them in Poland Now, if you're like me you'll do

just about anything to get out of going to the dentist -

but pretty soon we might not have Scientists say teeth can be

encouraged to repair themselves, meaning potentially -

an end to fillings. A team of researchers

from King's College here in London showed that a chemical can encourage

cells to heal small If you would be able to explain how

this works? We insert a small sponge, that is soaked in a drug,

into the cavity in the tooth, that's prepared in the normal way by a

dentist, and the drug of the sponge stimulant is the stem cells in the

tooth to begin to repair the damage. Specifically that means making new

mineralised tissue called dentine. As I understand the drug can only

help very small cavities, in the future, will they be able to repair

larger holes and maybe recruited entirely? It can repair larger

cavities, what it does is it enhances a natural process, that

itself can only repair small lesions. When we add the drug, it

enhances that process and so we're able to naturally repair larger

lesions. So the tooth is the related to repair itself. -- stimulator.

That's not related to growing the new tooth, when it's to do with

dental decay Andrew trauma Kouyate damage to teeth. How long do you

think it might be before you and I benefit from this? We have quite a

few additional things to do, as you might imagine, mice teeth are very

small, so the damage is small but is repaired, so we have to look at how

we can scale up to the equivalent size of a human tooth. Once that is

done, hopefully we will be in a position to start thinking and

preparing for testing this in patients. I mentioned we might not

have to go to the dentist so often, is there any truth in that? How

common feelings, is that one of the reasons people have to go to the

dentist? -- billings. There is some truth in that, we think this process

restores normal structure of the truth rather than having something

artificial put in such is a filling or cement of some kind, there is

less chance for failure in the future and conventional fillings do

fail and you have to go back to the dentist. This system essentially

recreates the normal tooth structure. Thank you for all of that

interesting detail. He led the study into regrowing teeth and the new

potential future for dentistry. Divorce can often be a painfully

long and drawn out process. But in India, a Muslim practice

grants men instant divorce if they say "talaq",

meaning "divorce", three times. The practice, known as "triple

talaq", is completely legal but is now facing a strong challenge

at India's highest court which could declare

the practice unconstitutional. Yogita Limaye has this

report from from Mumbai. Three words changed

her life forever. Shavista Sheikh says her husband

divorced her during a phone call by simply saying,

"Talaq, talaq, talaq." Her son is now four years

old and she has been doing odd TRANSLATION: Men think they can say

the three words and shake off all responsibility but they don't

stop to think that somebody's life In India, different religious groups

are allowed to have their own rules governing personal affairs including

marriage and divorce. That's why, for Muslim

men in this country, so-called triple talaq

is perfectly legal. It is, though, a practice

that's banned across much But it is being

challenged in India now. Women offended by triple talaq

from across the country One by one, they describe

how their world fell apart in an instant,

losing not just marriage but also This group has asked India's highest

court to ban the practice. All of this is not

sanctioned by the Koran. And it is not sanctioned

by the Constitution of India, also. So we are demanding

our Koranic rights. It's a move supported

by India's government, but with its Hindu nationalists

links, minority groups are often There's strong opposition from some

prominent Muslim bodies. Triple talaq is a part

of our religious belief. There is no compromise as far

as the religous laws are concerned. The Islam is for the people

who have the faith in it. If you have the faith in it,

you follow the religion. If you don't have the faith

in it, who is asking India's constitution gives

people the right to freely practise any religion,

but it also guarantees The court will now have to decide

which is more important. One of the world's most

challenging dog sled races has Set among snow-capped

mountains between Savoie riders and their dogs travel 1,000

kilometres over 11 days. Contestants from seven countries

are taking place in the race. Extreme weather in Europe has left

30 people dead. It agencies have warned of the dangers faced by

thousands of honourable people across the continent. In Turkey,

protests are occurring as the country's parliament debate and

additional changes that will give the president much more powers.

Opponents say it will create a dysentery and regime. --

totalitarian regime. But for now from me and the rest

of the team, goodbye.