:00:00. > :00:10.This is BBC World News Today with me, Geeta Guru-Murthy.
:00:11. > :00:12.The headlines: Relations between Donald Trump
:00:13. > :00:14.and America's spies under severe strain.
:00:15. > :00:20.to the intelligence services gives strong backing
:00:21. > :00:27.and condemns what he calls Russia's "aggressive action".
:00:28. > :00:33.It's pretty clear about what took place, among Russian involvement and
:00:34. > :00:37.efforts to hack information and have an impact on American democracy.
:00:38. > :00:40.of allegations against Mr Trump who reportedly compiled the dossier
:00:41. > :00:42.has disappeared from his home near London.
:00:43. > :00:44.Also coming up, Moscow describes a deployment of thousands
:00:45. > :00:53.of American troops and tanks in Poland
:00:54. > :00:54.as a threat to their national security.
:00:55. > :00:57.Not so much a robot - more an "electronic person".
:00:58. > :00:59.Europe draws up rules for how humans might get along with
:01:00. > :01:15.their growing band of android cousins.
:01:16. > :01:17.A week tomorrow, Donald Trump will become
:01:18. > :01:19.President of the United States.
:01:20. > :01:22.The febrile countdown to January 20th has seen increasing alarm
:01:23. > :01:23.and speculation about the exact nature
:01:24. > :01:34.of Mr Trump's relationship with Russia.
:01:35. > :01:37.But some of those he has picked for the top jobs
:01:38. > :01:42.in his administration have been sounding
:01:43. > :01:47.much more traditionally hawkish.
:01:48. > :01:53.They continue to regard Russia with a high degree of suspicion.
:01:54. > :01:59.A week before inauguration day this usually an air of expectancy.
:02:00. > :02:03.The stage is being set for Donald Trump to take the oath of office.
:02:04. > :02:06.But the mood is much more feverish and electric.
:02:07. > :02:09.As allegation swirl that Russia has compromising information
:02:10. > :02:10.about the President-elect that could make him
:02:11. > :02:21.Today Trump's choice as CIA Director agreed
:02:22. > :02:27.the Kremlin tried to interfere with the election.
:02:28. > :02:30.It is pretty clear about Russian involvement in efforts to hack
:02:31. > :02:35.information and to have an impact on American democracy.
:02:36. > :02:37.I'm clear eyed about what that intelligence report says.
:02:38. > :02:40.And I have every expectation that as we continue to develop
:02:41. > :02:48.the facts that I will relay those to the president and the team around
:02:49. > :02:53.him and to you all so we can have a robust discussion
:02:54. > :02:57.As to the latest allegations in the dossier...
:02:58. > :03:01.I will pursue the facts wherever they take us.
:03:02. > :03:04.And the incoming Defense Secretary took aim at Vladimir Putin,
:03:05. > :03:08.I'm all for engagement, than his new boss.
:03:09. > :03:18.but we have to recognise reality in what Russia is up to.
:03:19. > :03:23.There is a decreasing number of areas where we can engage
:03:24. > :03:31.And an increasing number of areas where we are going to have to
:03:32. > :03:33.confront Russia. Yesterday the President-elect
:03:34. > :03:34.rejected the unverified allegations You're fake news.
:03:35. > :03:37.Go ahead. After speaking last night
:03:38. > :03:40.to America's director of National Intelligence,
:03:41. > :03:42.James Clapper, Intelligence chiefs have made no
:03:43. > :04:13.judgments on the claim. Team Trump is defiant,
:04:14. > :04:19.saying the allegations are not true. What struck me most in Mr Clapper's
:04:20. > :04:23.public statement that I'm sure your viewers can access,
:04:24. > :04:25.is Mr Clapper reemphasising that the intelligence
:04:26. > :04:33.community gave no credibility Washington is a city used
:04:34. > :04:41.to intrigue and alleged scandal, but not
:04:42. > :04:52.on the eve of an inauguration. Barbara Plett usher is in
:04:53. > :05:00.Washington. What's coming out in the last 24 hours. These new appointees
:05:01. > :05:08.to the Cabinet, are they genuine about Russia in terms of their
:05:09. > :05:12.history on the subject, traditional Republican and hawkish, but if there
:05:13. > :05:16.was a struggle between Donald Trump and his appointees, who wins? Does
:05:17. > :05:21.the power still reside in the White House? Yes, they have a history of
:05:22. > :05:29.believing that Russia is one of the key dangers, national security
:05:30. > :05:33.threats to the United States. General Mattis elaborated on those
:05:34. > :05:38.views in his speech, that he thought Vladimir Putin was trying to build
:05:39. > :05:44.up a circle of unstable states around Russia, that he was trying to
:05:45. > :05:53.attack all week in Nato and that Nato needed to be strongly supported
:05:54. > :06:00.because of that. It was also said that Russia is a real threat. He
:06:01. > :06:05.then said today in his speech that it was quite aggressive and needed
:06:06. > :06:08.to be counted. Those positions are held, they are well known and Mr
:06:09. > :06:12.Trump knew that when he appointed them. What that means in the
:06:13. > :06:17.Cabinet, we don't really know. The president will make the main
:06:18. > :06:21.decisions on policy relations with Russia but he has placed in his
:06:22. > :06:26.Cabinet people who have quite different views two years. He has a
:06:27. > :06:31.National Security Adviser who is very pro-Russian. We understand Mr
:06:32. > :06:35.Trump likes to operate like this in the business world, he likes to have
:06:36. > :06:39.different competing views around him and he will go with what he feels he
:06:40. > :06:44.wants to. But this is government and national security, and these are
:06:45. > :06:48.views strongly held and held by larger constituencies, by
:06:49. > :06:54.Republicans but many Democrats have these views of Russia as well, so it
:06:55. > :07:00.is not clear how this will play out. These testimonies are reassuring the
:07:01. > :07:04.senators who are listening to them. We have the background of the
:07:05. > :07:09.British spy, former spy, that was involved in this. If these
:07:10. > :07:16.allegations were true, would any of them affect Donald Trump's ability
:07:17. > :07:20.to govern? Are they legal or against the American Constitution? How much
:07:21. > :07:28.do they matter? It is difficult to say. I think the allegation that
:07:29. > :07:32.concerns people on Capitol Hill is the one that operatives from his
:07:33. > :07:38.campaign had contacts with the Russians about the cyber attacks on
:07:39. > :07:46.Hillary Clinton 's and the Democrats' operation. That raises
:07:47. > :07:51.all sorts of difficulties. That is something that could be quite
:07:52. > :07:57.damaging. But I don't know. It's quite unprecedented, really, that
:07:58. > :08:03.this sort of development, right before an inauguration and the
:08:04. > :08:06.scepticism of the intelligence agencies expressed so far, they say
:08:07. > :08:11.that they don't know whether this information is reliable. They are
:08:12. > :08:15.not coming forward and saying what the details would be of these would
:08:16. > :08:19.be proved to be correct. But certainly, the sort of atmosphere
:08:20. > :08:23.and the allegations themselves do strengthen a perception around Mr
:08:24. > :08:27.Trump which has been worrying for many people here.
:08:28. > :08:29.The former British intelligence officer who is named as the source
:08:30. > :08:31.of the latest allegations against Mr Trump
:08:32. > :08:39.Christopher Steele produced a dossier last year which included
:08:40. > :08:40.the allegations that Mr Trump had been caught
:08:41. > :08:42.in compromising financial and sexual activities.
:08:43. > :08:44.The allegations are unproven and the CIA says
:08:45. > :08:46.it has made no judgment about their credibility.
:08:47. > :08:48.Here's our security correspondent Gordon Corera
:08:49. > :08:56.The murky world of intelligence-gathering in Moscow.
:08:57. > :08:58.A secret dossier of allegations about Trump and Russia.
:08:59. > :09:05.All written by a former member of MI6.
:09:06. > :09:14.This is Christopher Steele,
:09:15. > :09:17.used to a low profile but now at the centre of controversy.
:09:18. > :09:20.He is supposed to have told neighbours to look after
:09:21. > :09:24.his cats and he is said to be lying low, fearing for his safety.
:09:25. > :09:25.What do we know about Christopher Steele?
:09:26. > :09:35.In the nineties he worked for MI6 in Moscow.
:09:36. > :09:41.He founded a private intelligence company called Orbis.
:09:42. > :09:46.Last year he was commissioned by Trump's
:09:47. > :09:51.opponents to look into Russian connections.
:09:52. > :09:57.He came up with 35 pages of allegations.
:09:58. > :10:03.There is no sign of Chris Steele. He is a man with contacts in Moscow.
:10:04. > :10:05.But so far there has been no confirmation that the
:10:06. > :10:08.extraordinary allegations he dug up there are definitely true.
:10:09. > :10:12.Thanks to his past as a spy, Steele is unlikely to have
:10:13. > :10:19.been able to travel to Moscow himself
:10:20. > :10:21.and will have relied on intermediaries
:10:22. > :10:29.Moscow's a difficult place to work in.
:10:30. > :10:36.The ruckses have a habit, of secrecy and deception.
:10:37. > :10:38.The other complicating factor is money.
:10:39. > :10:40.If you're going to give somebody money to tell you
:10:41. > :10:43.something, there is a strong possibility they will tell you
:10:44. > :10:46.Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian agent
:10:47. > :10:47.who fled to London, investigated powerful
:10:48. > :10:49.figures in Moscow and was killed
:10:50. > :10:59.It is alleged, on the orders of the Kremlin. His widow told me that such
:11:00. > :11:00.allegations carry risks. I believe it is dangerous,
:11:01. > :11:03.particularly after the death of my husband, because when you just
:11:04. > :11:05.approach specific information, particularly when this
:11:06. > :11:06.information very close might be in this line and you just
:11:07. > :11:12.easily might be killed. The Russian dossier
:11:13. > :11:13.was not written But American spies have briefed
:11:14. > :11:27.its outlines to man it is about, Its author never expected
:11:28. > :11:30.to be in the spotlight. But in the atmosphere
:11:31. > :11:34.of American politics secrets are no longer
:11:35. > :11:46.The attitude of the President-elect to the Nato alliance will be watched
:11:47. > :11:49.around the world. Especially if he departs from current US policy.
:11:50. > :11:51.Thousands of American troops, tanks, and armoured vehicles
:11:52. > :11:55.in the biggest such operation Nato's eastern frontier
:11:56. > :11:57.by the US since the end of the Cold War.
:11:58. > :11:59.These American military reinforcements in Europe are part
:12:00. > :12:01.of President Barack Obama's response to reassure Nato allies
:12:02. > :12:08.who are concerned about a more aggressive Russia.
:12:09. > :12:15.Within the next few days, our soldiers will be showcasing their
:12:16. > :12:20.lethal abilities as they begin to train on the bygone ranges. To
:12:21. > :12:25.arrive at this point so swiftly as proof that, when we work as a team,
:12:26. > :12:32.not only within the ranks of our tireless US Army but also as allied
:12:33. > :12:35.nations, a team of teams, no challenges to to overcome, no
:12:36. > :12:37.distance is too far to cross when the need arises.
:12:38. > :12:39.Russia has called the presence of American tanks and troops
:12:40. > :12:41.in Poland as a threat to national security.
:12:42. > :12:43.The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson described
:12:44. > :12:56.TRANSLATION: It is always the goal of these efforts of hasty deployment
:12:57. > :12:59.of military assets in Europe is an attempt of the outgoing Obama
:13:00. > :13:03.Administration to complicate as much as possible the bilateral relations
:13:04. > :13:08.and make the new American administration a hostage of
:13:09. > :13:14.continuous to put it mildly unfriendly policy towards Russia.
:13:15. > :13:16.Now a look at some of the day's other news.
:13:17. > :13:18.Shares in the Italian-American car-maker, Fiat Chrysler,
:13:19. > :13:20.fell by over 15% after the US authorities said
:13:21. > :13:23.They said Fiat Chrysler used software that allowed
:13:24. > :13:25.excess diesel emissions in over 100,000 vehicles.
:13:26. > :13:33.The company's boss has denied the allegations,
:13:34. > :13:35.The first aircraft Iran has bought directly from a western manufacturer
:13:36. > :13:41.The arrival of the Airbus plane is being seen as symbolic
:13:42. > :13:43.of Iran's emergence from decades of economic
:13:44. > :13:45.isolation, after economic sanctions were lifted.
:13:46. > :13:47.There's been a call in the British Parliament
:13:48. > :13:50.for a suspension of the sale of UK-made weapons to Saudi Arabia.
:13:51. > :13:53.The chairman of the Committees on Arms Export Controls said
:13:54. > :13:55.the sales should stop until the UN can investigate alleged breaches
:13:56. > :14:06.of humanitarian law by Saudi forces in the war in Yemen.
:14:07. > :14:10.from Donald Trump's press conference yesterday.
:14:11. > :14:11.It was his first in several months,
:14:12. > :14:17.and the first since he became president-elect.
:14:18. > :14:26.He had an exchange with CNN correspondent and would not allow
:14:27. > :14:33.him to ask a question. Go ahead, not you, not you, your organisation
:14:34. > :14:43.is... Can I just asked the question, so? Go-ahead. Don't be rude. Don't
:14:44. > :14:51.be rude. Can you give us a question? You're not getting a question. You
:14:52. > :14:53.are fake news. Donald Trump in that press conference yesterday.
:14:54. > :14:55.Someone who's covered a few presidencies in his time,
:14:56. > :14:58.and seen more than a few press conferences, is the White House
:14:59. > :15:00.correspondent for the National Journal, George Condon.
:15:01. > :15:02.He joins me now from our Washington studio.
:15:03. > :15:11.What did you make of yesterday, first of all Which? That was a great
:15:12. > :15:17.start. It is going to be a wonderful relationship. We have a lot of work
:15:18. > :15:22.to do. How damaging and incredible is it, really, that Donald Trump is
:15:23. > :15:28.taking on established broadcasters, for example? It is not knew that a
:15:29. > :15:36.president or President-elect doesn't like his coverage. That goes back to
:15:37. > :15:42.George Washington. But there is a personal element to it this time,
:15:43. > :15:46.and a lack of institutional knowledge of how the system is
:15:47. > :15:50.supposed to work that makes it particularly troubling. In terms of
:15:51. > :15:56.the way that covering the White House works, there is a White House
:15:57. > :16:02.court, a lobby group, is that going to happen under the Trump leadership
:16:03. > :16:08.because that has all -- always been about the close scrutiny of the
:16:09. > :16:10.president. We have what the House correspondents Association and
:16:11. > :16:15.former than 100 years we have been the group that deals with the White
:16:16. > :16:20.House on press relations. Can a president totally ignore us and try
:16:21. > :16:26.to crack down? Sure. He's a president. But the presidents who
:16:27. > :16:32.have tried that have all, without exception, come to regret it.
:16:33. > :16:37.Whether they think that all they need is Twitter and 140 characters
:16:38. > :16:47.to communicate American policy, they soon discover that they do need what
:16:48. > :16:51.has been called the dishonest establishment. Is it true that there
:16:52. > :16:58.has been some unhealthy collaboration? In many countries,
:16:59. > :17:02.those at the top of journalism, politics and business, where people
:17:03. > :17:08.outside might think that, actually, that system should be smashed apart.
:17:09. > :17:12.The people who say that frankly don't have the faintest idea what
:17:13. > :17:20.they are talking about. Our system is built on the foundation that you
:17:21. > :17:28.question government, you question power, and the people who do that
:17:29. > :17:34.questioning day in and day out, 24 hours a day is the press corps that
:17:35. > :17:38.follows the president, that knows the policy. That doesn't mean you
:17:39. > :17:43.cant have other questioners and other communication devices. Every
:17:44. > :17:49.president looked for different ways of doing it. But you still need that
:17:50. > :17:52.questioning. You cannot do away with the daily press briefing, for
:17:53. > :17:59.example and vigour that you are too powerful to be questioned. That is
:18:00. > :18:03.not the American system. -- and figure that you are to par four.
:18:04. > :18:07.Killer whales and humans are two of only three species
:18:08. > :18:13.Now, a 40-year study of a population of orcas is helping researchers
:18:14. > :18:15.understand why any species, including us, might have evolved
:18:16. > :18:18.to stop having babies at a certain point in life.
:18:19. > :18:22.Here's our science reporter, Victoria Gill.
:18:23. > :18:29.These researchers have been documenting
:18:30. > :18:31.the lives of killer whales here for four decades.
:18:32. > :18:37.Their findings have revealed new insight into something we humans
:18:38. > :18:39.share with a mammal so very different from us.
:18:40. > :18:48.Orcas and humans are two of only three mammals on the planet
:18:49. > :18:52.which stop reproducing part way through our lives.
:18:53. > :18:54.This 40 year study of killer whales has already
:18:55. > :18:56.shown grandmothers play a crucial role, leading the pod
:18:57. > :19:08.Scientists have now used this unique dataset, which has
:19:09. > :19:11.recorded births and deaths in every orca family here,
:19:12. > :19:12.here, to prove that when
:19:13. > :19:14.grandmothers stop having babies of their own, their daughter's
:19:15. > :19:16.offspring have a significantly higher chance of survival.
:19:17. > :19:18.The benefits of grandmothering are not enough
:19:19. > :19:19.to explain why human menopause has evolved.
:19:20. > :19:21.It's only when you consider the conflict and
:19:22. > :19:23.competition in the family group you can understand
:19:24. > :19:28.and explain why menopause has evolved.
:19:29. > :19:30.Avoiding this so-called reproductive conflict between
:19:31. > :19:33.the generations seems to give the babies the best possible chance.
:19:34. > :19:36.It would be really interesting to see just how
:19:37. > :19:38.That is something which could finally
:19:39. > :19:46.explain the evolutionary story of human menopause.
:19:47. > :19:49.Like us, these highly intelligent, now endangered animals,
:19:50. > :19:54.have close family bonds and this long observation of killer whale
:19:55. > :19:58.society could change our perspective on our own.
:19:59. > :20:03.The European Parliament has raised the issue
:20:04. > :20:09.of whether to give robots legal status as "electronic persons".
:20:10. > :20:13.Some of them take inspiration and robots should interact.
:20:14. > :20:14.from the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.
:20:15. > :20:16.Today's report says that robots could eventually
:20:17. > :20:18.become so intelligent, that they could challenge
:20:19. > :20:20.humanity's capacity to be in charge of its own destiny.
:20:21. > :20:24.Jennifer Neville is Associate Professor of Computer Science
:20:25. > :20:28.and Statistics at Purdue University and joins me live from Indiana.
:20:29. > :20:40.Thank you for joining us. Goodness knows what it must be like to think
:20:41. > :20:47.of a robot that is much smarter than humans. What are the challenges that
:20:48. > :20:54.people are worried about? To focus on robots is a little narrower at
:20:55. > :20:58.this point. We should be focused on general, autonomous AI systems that
:20:59. > :21:02.are being rolled out in a great aspect of our lives right now, from
:21:03. > :21:06.how we read information online to treatments developed for us when we
:21:07. > :21:12.go to the doctor, and things like that. There are two primary concern
:21:13. > :21:18.is that people are concerned about, fairness and safety. From a fairness
:21:19. > :21:22.perspective, what that means is we want these systems to treat
:21:23. > :21:33.everybody equally and fairly, but the systems themselves learn from
:21:34. > :21:40.data in the world of algorithms and human bias is reflected in that
:21:41. > :21:43.data, so what is on online and on Twitter is not always the truth and
:21:44. > :21:48.reflects individual buyers. If you look at data about arrest and
:21:49. > :21:55.sentencing that owns in judicial systems, that is going to reflect
:21:56. > :22:00.the inherent bias of police officers, judges and lawyers in the
:22:01. > :22:04.system, and so, when the systems are trained on data that has bias in it,
:22:05. > :22:11.it's inevitable that that buyers will show up in the systems later on
:22:12. > :22:13.and to be able to adjust for that's algorithmically, to ensure that the
:22:14. > :22:18.systems make the kind of decisions we would like them to, is a really
:22:19. > :22:24.important concern right now in the research. The ideal of electronic
:22:25. > :22:31.persons, we've heard about people having robots in the home and
:22:32. > :22:35.everything in the home being electronic and feeding data back
:22:36. > :22:38.into bigger systems, so what is it that people are most concerned
:22:39. > :22:48.about? Can you give as practical examples? Is an example, you could
:22:49. > :22:55.think of a personal assistant with AI, not an actual robot but
:22:56. > :22:58.something like Siri or an online system that is gathering information
:22:59. > :23:03.and presenting it to you to read everyday. We have already seen the
:23:04. > :23:10.impact that fake news can have on our political process, so one
:23:11. > :23:13.concern would be if a system is deciding what information to give
:23:14. > :23:20.you in order to help improve your life, the system could also be
:23:21. > :23:29.guiding the information that you see in that system to make you behave in
:23:30. > :23:34.ways that it wants to. So, if the AI system taking over the world could
:23:35. > :23:37.do it much more suddenly just by propaganda... We're out of time.
:23:38. > :23:40.Thank you so much for filling us in. The romantic musical comedy
:23:41. > :23:43.La La Land has already won seven Golden Globe awards
:23:44. > :23:45.and 11 Bafta nominations. Our Arts editor Will Gompertz has
:23:46. > :23:47.spoken to the film's writer # Are you
:23:48. > :23:56.shining just for me? Welcome to La La Land,
:23:57. > :24:01.the Hollywood musical starring Anna Stone and Ryan Gosling
:24:02. > :24:04.which looks like it's going to sing It is a genre of
:24:05. > :24:13.film-making which its 31-year-old director
:24:14. > :24:15.thinks is unfairly derided I don't think musicals
:24:16. > :24:18.are this outdated thing They're also not just a purely
:24:19. > :24:25.fantastical thing that people I think musicals can
:24:26. > :24:36.say a greal deal about real life and human
:24:37. > :24:38.emotions and humanity # Here's to the ones who dream
:24:39. > :24:47.And the need for dreams. From a writer and a director's point
:24:48. > :24:55.of view, what can you do any song
:24:56. > :24:59.that you can't do in a script? I think of a song in a musical
:25:00. > :25:02.as a reflection of It is feelings that can't be
:25:03. > :25:19.described in dialogue It is feelings that
:25:20. > :25:26.need the outlet of a song. We had about a 3-4 month rehearsal
:25:27. > :25:29.period of Prep where everyday Ryan and Emma were in dance lessons,
:25:30. > :25:34.singing lessons, piano lessons. I think it's also kind of fun,
:25:35. > :25:37.if you're going to work with movie stars, put them outside
:25:38. > :25:39.their comfort zone, Damien Chisell is not yet
:25:40. > :25:49.32 but already being lauded and applauded
:25:50. > :25:51.for his talents, he is a young director
:25:52. > :26:01.living La La Land's dream. That's all from the team here for
:26:02. > :26:14.now. Goodbye. Good evening. Lots of very
:26:15. > :26:17.unpleasant weather around, around the country. A wash-out in the south
:26:18. > :26:22.with some of their brain now turning to snow. The risk of ice in many
:26:23. > :26:23.parts of the UK. Further snow showers expected