12/05/2017 World News Today

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is currently

A very warm welcome. We will continue listening to this press

briefing. Yesterday, we were told that the president expects the FBI

investigation will be wrapped up with integrity. Today the president

tweeted and called it a witchhunt. How does that help wrap that

investigation up with integrity? The President... He wants to know very

clearly... There is two pieces of this. What was not a's involvement.

The President's concerned about any entity is attempting to influence

the election and the second is this false narrative that we continue to

fight every day that has been debunked by intelligence

individuals, members of Congress who have been briefed over and over

again. That is where I think he is concerned as well as many American

people who are concerned that there is this false narrative being

perpetuated out there. That is the knot of this. I talked to a former

FBI official today who said that the President's implicit threat to

former FBI director James Comey indicates that the president is in

head words out of control. I would like you to respond to that. Is he?

That is frankly offensive. Two questions about the FBI's director

selection process. You said the names are coming from the Justice

Department right now. Is the president consulting with Democratic

congressional leaders as well, or Republican congressional leaders on

this, or is he just getting names? That is a good question. I know that

obviously he will take input from them. I do not know what

conversations he has had so I will be glad to check on who he has

spoken to or maybe speaking to. So that is Sean Spicer, the White

House press secretary speaking there and refusing to comment on a lot of

questions that have been put to him by the press that are gathered,

mainly saying that he cannot comment on these tapes that President Trump

himself mentioned on Twitter. No further comment from Mr Trump on

James Comey, the head of the FBI and his firing and not aware of any

recordings that were made either. So here is some of what Sean Spicer had

to say earlier. Did President Trump record his conversations with former

FBI director James Comey? I assume you are referring to the tweet and I

have spoken to the president and he has nothing further to add on that.

Why did he say that and what should we interpret from that? As I said,

he has nothing further to add on that. Are their recording devices in

the oval office? For a third time, there is nothing further to add on

that. Does he think it is appropriate to threaten someone like

James Comey? I did not dig it is a direct. He has simply stated a fact.

-- I do not think it is a threat. We now go to our correspondence. I

think the tweet warned James Comey against linking any information

because he would have hoped there were not any recordings. That sounds

and read like a threat to the rest of the world so it is not clear what

was meant by that and what he was intending on whether he has any

tapes of these conversations and certainly the whole mention of

takes, even in quotation marks in his tweet, is absolutely reminiscent

of the next in Iraq, something he has been accused of emulating this

week in the treatment of James Comey himself. -- emulating the Nixon era.

Were shocked by the tweet saying he was thinking of cancelling the White

House briefings, because up until recently we did not know this was

going to happen? The tweet went out first thing on Friday morning. No, I

am not shocked by that because he has an absolute love- hate

relationship with the publicity machine, with the media machine. It

is something he drives off of and also something that he despises as

per players of fake news, as he would put it. I think was more

shocking was the other tweaks this morning where he said there will --

although I am an active president, you can't expect people to go one

speak on my heart and to always speak with perfect accuracy. In

other words, inviting people to be sceptical or doubtful about what

they hear coming out of the spokesman's mouth. Now, journalists

tend to be doubtful and sceptical people. That is in the nature of the

job. But you do not normally you the other side saying, "Don't believe

every word we say." We heard anything further about James Comey

and his firing, because he is now saying that it was all his decision.

James Comey has not given any interview since his firing and I

would be surprised if he does any time soon. Some of his friends have

been suggesting that any dinner back in January the president asked him

for a pledge of loyalty, which he declined to give. That is also the

dinner where the president says James Comey gave him an assurance he

was not being investigated and there is lots of disagreement there but we

will certainly wait with bated breath for any account that James

Comey decides to give of his firing because so far we have had just a

letter that he wrote to his staff saying presidents can sack FBI

director is for no reason or any reason. OK, we will leave it there

for now. The United States and China have

announced a trade deal. The unexpected agreement gives US

farmers, energy companies and financial services access

to China's huge market. It also reflects the warming

in relations between Our business correspondent

Karishma Vaswani has more. broadly speaking it gives American

credit rating agencies and credit card companies, financial services

basically, access to China's all-important market,

the middle-class. In particular, American beef

exporters will also be able to sell their products in China

after years of being banned and China will also accept shipments

of US liquefied natural gas. Now, in return, China

gets to sell its cooked poultry products to the US,

but frankly, this isn't just a deal Now, typically the criticism

from foreign investors who are doing business in China, they

say that it is usually China that It is what President Trump

has been saying on the campaign trail,

and he has promise to make China play by

the rules again and open up its markets

to American businesses. This deal looks like

he has gone some way to getting what he wants,

but Beijing isn't one to give This weekend, China is hosting

the one belt, one road Basically its coming out party

to the world, if you will. And it wants global

recognition for this Now, part of this trade deal

includes the US sending some of its representatives to the summit,

something that previous Soldiers in Ivory Coast have opened

fire in at least five military They're shooting in the air

in protest at a deal made with the government to scrap plans

to give them back pay and bonuses. It follows a televised apology

by a spokesman for the soldiers Candidates in Iran's presidential

election exchanged barbs in their final debate on Friday,

accusing each other of corruption The current president Hassan Rouhani

is contesting the election, to be held next week,

along with five other candidates. European officials are discussing

with the US whether to broaden The US brought in restrictions

in March forbidding passengers from carrying laptops in their hand

luggage if they were travelling The UK announced

a similar ban soon after. US officials have already

warned that the ban Hospitals across England have

been simultaneously hit Hospitals across England have

been simultaneously hit A short time ago, the Incident

Director of the National Health service issued a statement

to reassure patients they WILL be able to access emergency services

in the same way they normally A computer virus has caused IT

systems to fail and has led to many of hospitals having

to divert emergency patients. It appears organisations

in other countries may have A major incident has been declared

by NHS leaders in England and hospitals like this one

in Colchester have been experiencing serious computer problems

after a cyber attack. inside the door said that

all the computers have gone down, and they are not sure

whether the doctors can If it is x-rays,

breakages, what have you, hospital trust covering

North Lincolnshire, IT systems were closed for three days

as the result of a cyber attack last Hundreds of operations and patient

appointments were postponed, people were told to get to A

only if it was really necessary, there were warnings that

NHS IT was And today staff looking in at other

hospitals found this on their screens, with a message

saying, your files are encrypted, if you want to recover them,

you need to pay up. Ransomware, a hidden

programme used by criminal The NHS is vulnerable,

because typically it has not invested enough in computer

security, using old computers and systems and if they don't keep them

properly patched they will keep In a statement, NHS Digital,

responsible for IT, has said: One doctor at this hospital

in Mansfield told us how it was a patient with severe back pain,

which could potentially And we had to divert her

to another hospital, Queens It is getting a bit

difficult for us. It takes an awful lot of time

for us to process the Some hospitals warned

local people they were experiencing significant IT

and telephone problems. Some GP practices have also reported

significant problems. We will bring you some breaking news

and it appears that Italy's highest court has upheld the 16 year jail

sentence that was imposed on the captain of the shipwrecked cruise

liner, the Costa Concordia. 32 people died when the vessel hit the

rocks of the Italian island in January 2000 and 12. The captain was

also convicted of abandoning ship before his passengers and crew were

clear of the Costa Concordia itself. James Reynolds is in Rome for us.

James, just tell us what took place today in court. This was the

definitive ruling by Italy's highest court. It had to consider an earlier

ruling by a lower court, which had convicted the captain on multiple

counts of manslaughter, on causing a maritime accident and abandoning a

ship before its passengers and crew were safe. Italy's highest court has

decided that that sentence and verdict is sound. That comment of

Italy's justice system, is that. It now means that the captain will

begin to serve his 16 year sentence. Under the way that Italian law

works, you did not have deserved his sentence until it was finally

concluded. It has now been concluded. His lawyer says that he

is on his way to hand himself in to begin serving his sentence. Have we

had any reaction yet from the family of those who died? A lawyer spoke on

the steps of the court, saying that this is finally justice at last.

They're in mind, of course, this was more than five years ago that this

happened and the captain throughout the time has suggested that he was

not to blame. The families disagreed. Now, essentially, the

court has sided with the families, saying that the captain's bad

handling of the ship, his decision not to steal it properly, his

decision to abandon the ship before everyone was safe, is an issue for

which he has deserved 16 years in prison. And Italy itself, of course,

I am just thinking ahead to the sort of reaction that would have been put

into place in terms of safety of other cruise liners. Has there been

any such reaction since the incident? There have been a lot of

investigations and thoughts about how the cruise industry might try to

work and that particular operator was fined 1 million euros. But by

and large, this court's verdict was about the actions of one man. It was

about his bad decision-making on that night and Italy's justice

system has concluded that his actions caused the death of 32

people. James Reynolds in Rome. Thank you for that.

In Venezuela people are continuing to take to the streets

in their thousands to protest against the government.

The situation is becoming increasingly violent as riot police

Over the past month nearly 40 people have been killed.

Vladimir Hernandez has spent a day out on the streets

Scenes like these in Caracas are happening almost every day.

Thousands of Venezuelans are taking to the streets all around the

These people are asking for a fresh election against President

The inflation rate is estimated to be at over 700%, and

"I am angry because of the economic crisis," this man says.

"I want to recover the country where I grew up," this woman says.

And this young student says she doesn't want

more young people dying in the protests.

But, like so often, it is not long before things turn nasty.

And this is what protesters here in Caracas get every time

The National Guard throwing tear gas at them.

The Government says they are cracking

down on unauthorised protests and accused the political

down on unauthorised protests and accused the political

This man is the latest victim of Venezuelan's

"You Are a hero," shouts and protest is. His Friends Say He Loved Playing

Football. HE WAS ALLEGEDLY SHOT IN THE CHEST. Scenes of anger and

frustration as another young man loses his life as a result of the

political unrest here. Away from the protest, I have come to one of

Caracas most deprived areas. I am here to meet a demonstrator who lost

a kidney over a week ago after he says being shot at a protest. When I

reached his home, we watch the video which showed the moment of death of

a fellow protest. He later told me that this had been the first time he

had cried in a decade. TRANSLATION: We need to keep

fighting, but we need to find an alternative, because they are

killing us. It is guns against rocks. Despite the rising

casualties, more protests are planned for the coming days, and

with the economy in such dire straits, more and more Venezuelans

say they are willing to take the risk because they have nothing left

to lose. South Africa has been hit by violent

demonstrations this week. Protestors demanding houses and jobs

have been clashing with police in several townships south

of Johannesburg, putting pressure of President Jacob Zuma's government

to deliver on election promises. At least 70 people have been

arrested for public violence. The government has admitted

that the issues behind the latest wave of protests are genuine

and deserve a response. Nomsa Maseko reports

from Johannesburg. A sense of calm returns

following days of protests. The demonstrations were led

by communities who feel marginalised and neglected,

protesters up in arms over The week-long unrest,

dubbed service delivery protests, Poverty and stubbornly high

unemployment 23 years after the end of apartheid has angered many,

piling pressure on Labelled coloured under apartheid,

not black, not white, the community of Eldorado Park south

of Johannesburg feels unheard Some have even openly declared that

life was better under white minority rule while others say

the protests are justified. The government must act to build

houses firstly, then the community, but take the government seriously,

but if they don't start, we will not stop until our

demands have been met. But our protests in South Africa

is to start to build. Locate the streets, no cars pass,

no-one goes to work, That is how we put this

government in action. This woman has been on the housing

waiting list for more than 20 years. She lives in a one-bedroom house

with family members. I feel frustrated, I feel very

disappointed in all of this. Now because of us young people

who can't get houses, we have You vote for houses

you don't get the house, you vote for jobs, you don't get

a job so it hasn't helped. I don't know what to say but I'm

struggling with my children. It's only my disability grant

for this little money. There are concerns that

criminal elements are infiltrating these protests

but the grievances remain genuine. Like many communities

in South Africa, most people just want a piece of land to build

a house on - a simple request that successive administrations

have failed to address. Corruption is often cited

as the reason why the government appears unable to deliver

on the many promises NASA's 200th spacewalk outside

the International Space Station has been marred by problems

after failing battery power and an oxygen leak in a spacesuit

forced delays and part Two US astronauts were tasked

to replace an electronics box and install equipment to fix

a cooling system problem during the walk which was expected

to last 6-and-a-half hours. The mission was shortened

because of reduced battery NASA says the two astronaughts

had to share a vital cable supplying power,

oxygen, cooling water and communications, after one

of the spacesuits developed a leak. Europe's most extravagant

pop-music competition - the Eurovision song contest -

reaches its climax on Saturday. It's fair to say that

the United Kingdom has not done well in recent years,

but what affect will Brexit have? Even the prime minister has

warned that British fans Steve Rosenberg is in

the Ukrainian capital Kiev, Love it or hate it, here's one

European institution the UK It's the final of the Eurovision

Song contest this Saturday in Kiev. Lucie Jones is flying the UK's flag,

but will Brexit mean that it meets In recent years it

has been hard enough for the United Kingdom to get points

from our European neighbours when we have been

on speaking terms with But now that we are leaving

the EU in an atmosphere of acute disharmony,

will that condemn the UK to eternal They may be excited

about Eurovision in Kiev, but Britain's Prime

Minister Theresa May has warned that Brexit could scupper

the UK's Eurovision party. Well, is the Prime

Minister a Eurovision I can't imagine her sat

with her flag at home. Brexit is so far out

of my hands and my control. The signs are that

Europe has not fallen We have discovered that

even the French love Well - so that France

wouldn't come last. France is very bad,

but England is worse, And being happy is what

Eurovision is all about. The UK hasn't won the

contest for 20 years. Let's turn now to some live pictures

from central Portugal, where Pope Francis has

arrived from Rome. He is on his way to

Fatima's Sanctuary Square, where tens of thousands of Catholics

are waiting to welcome him as starts Tomorrow he will be making saints

of two children who had repeated visions of the Virgin Mary exactly

100 years ago, during A reminder of our top story: in the

past hour, the White House press secretary has refused to comment on

President Trump's tweets that appeared to be a thinly veiled

warning to the sacked former FBI director James Comey. And in the

last few minutes, the UK Prime Minister to read MA has said that

the massive cyber attack on the National Health Service in England

as part of a wider international attack and there is no evidence that

patient data has been compromised. More on this right here on BBC News.

Goodbye. Hello. The weekend is nearly upon us

and we will see sunshine and showers. Some areas will escape

showers and remained dry, particularly across the South. We

have the influence of some low pressure through the week across

northern and western areas. Saturday morning will start cloudy. Most will

be across northern and western areas. Sunshine across the South and

the East. Showers developing in the afternoon across the Midlands. There

will be a lot of dry weather and temperatures touching 12 feet -- 20

Celsius in some places. Most of the cloud across western areas. More

rain turning to the far south-west later in the day. Most of the

showers will be across Scotland and Northern Ireland on both Saturday

and Sunday. It is possible we could see the old heavy, thundery won in

western Scotland. Also chilly across this North East corner of Scotland

with a strong breeze. During Saturday evening and overnight, the

next pulse of rain moving to the south-west. This weather front will

go northwards and may bring some rain to parts of the country. Maybe

the odd heavy burst. As it moves through, it brings fresh air. We

have lost that you midfield to things. Sunday quite a nice day for

many places. The odd shower around. Most across the North