tv BBC News at Ten BBC News April 12, 2024 10:00pm-10:31pm BST
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say angela rayner has stop angela rayner says she's stop confident she followed the rules at all times, we'll have the latest. also on the programme a former post office boss tells the public inquiry he'll always regret accusing sub postmasters of having their hands in the till. russia targets ukraine's energy network — we have a special report on how civilians are coping in kharkiv. what is your message to iran in this moment? _ what is your message to iran in this moment? �* president biden vows to support israel, amid fears iran is preparing
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to retaliate for a strike on one of its diplomatic compounds. the kingsmills massacre — an inquest finds the shooting of ten protestant men in northern ireland nearly 50 years ago was a planned ira attack. and, in augusta, tiger woods sets a new record — by reaching the weekend of the masters for the 24th consecutive year. on newsnight at 1030 — the shadow deputy prime minister says she will resign if found to have broken the law after police start to investigate her former living arrangements. what exactly she accused of? what exactly is she accused of? good evening. labour's deputy leader angela rayner has promised to step down if she is found to have committed a crime. she's being investigated by greater manchester police
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about claims she may have broken electoral law, following a complaint by the conservatives' deputy chair; angela rayner has been accused of failing to disclose her main residence in official documents. she said again tonight that she was completely confident she had followed the rules at all times. here's our political correspondent hannah miller. a standout campaigner, with a striking personal history. angela rayner, one of labour's boost well—known figures, now under police investigation as to whether she broke electoral law by giving false information about where she used to live. the inquiry centres here, vicarage road in stockport, where angela rayner bought a property in 2007, eight years before she became an mp. in 2010, she married mark rayner, who owned his own home about two miles away, and appears to have registered a child at his address. but, on the electoral register, she continued to be listed as living at hers, creating confusion
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as to where she legally lived. the law says that a married couple who each have their own property can only choose one to be their main home at any one time. as well as facing an investigation about whether she really lived here on vicarage road, angela rayner continues to face questions about whether she should have paid capital gains tax when she sold her house just before she became an mp. the amounts of money at stake are relatively small. tax experts have estimated up to £3500. but the conservatives are pursuing this because they think that the political cost to labour could be much more significant. we welcome this investigation because it will allow a line to be drawn in relation to this matter. i am fully confident that angela rayner has
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not broken the rules. she will cooperate with the investigation as you would expect, and it is really a matter for the police. greater manchester police confirmed that the complaint had originally come from a conservative mp, and the party is digging in. i think the double standards have been extraordinary. angela rayner herself has spent her political career calling people out for exactly the thing that she seems to be doing now. it is not acceptable to ignore it. angela rayner has previously described that period many people living on this street were fed up of being asked about the story and were reluctant to be on camera though one insisted angela rayner did used to live here. others told us the exact opposite. i rayner did used to live here. others told us the exact opposite.— told us the exact opposite. i would have seen her, _ told us the exact opposite. i would have seen her, especially - told us the exact opposite. i would have seen her, especially being i have seen her, especially being retired. ., ., , retired. under the rain as previously _ retired. under the rain as previously described - retired. under the rain as previously described that | retired. under the rain as - previously described that period of her life difficult and said there was never any question of deceit. as
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a woman at the heart of labour's general election hopes this is one campaign she is prepared to tough out. hannah is with me. where could this go now? to some extent we've _ where could this go now? to some extent we've seen _ where could this go now? to some extent we've seen this _ where could this go now? to some extent we've seen this kind - where could this go now? to some extent we've seen this kind of - where could this go now? to some| extent we've seen this kind of thing play out before. in angela rayner�*s words this is the conservative party reporting political opponents to the police during an election campaign to distract from their record. some might remember beergate, that was the claim that angela rayner and keir starmer had broken the rules. the conservative party talked about it a lot, there was a police investigation and it took up significant amount of airtime. this is why this is a problem for labour at this point. today they wanted to be talking about their defence strategy. not insignificant keir starmer says he is committed to the nuclear deterrent but here we are talking about angela rayner�*s personal life 14 years ago. they are
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confident this is the beginning of the end but from a conservative party point of view, to some extent the damage on this has already been done and it is already working in a way they wanted it to.— a former managing director of the post office, alan cook, has told the public inquiry into the horizon it scandal that he will regret �*for the rest of his life' writing in an email that subpostmasters had their hands in the till. the inquiry also heard today from the former head of royal mail, adam crozier — with both men insisting they didn't know the post office had the power to carry out prosecutions. hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly accused of theft and fraud while they were in charge. zoe conway reports. adam crozier is one of the uk's most significant business figures. he was the chief executive of advertising agency saatchi & saatchi before becoming the boss of the fa, from there to royal mail, then itv, and now chairman of bt, but it's his time
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at royal mail that's under scrutiny today. on his watch, hundreds of sub—postmasters were prosecuted, but, he says, he was not aware of what was happening. i think it is a matter of real regret that all of those checks and balances, the governing systems in both companies, failed. horizon is rolled out in 1999, the first prosecutions came shortly afterwards. adam crozier thenjoined royal mail in 2003. at this time it owned the post office. in 2009, problems with horizon first appeared in the press. by now, hundreds of sub—postmasters had been prosecuted. alan cook has been giving evidence. he was post office managing director from 2006—2010. when alan cook was managing director of the post office, sub—postmasters went to prison.
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yet he has just told the inquiry that he did not know that the company he ran was directly responsible for prosecuting them. do you think you should have known that post office was making those decisions? i think i should, yes. alan cook was shown an email in which he accused sub—postmasters of having their hands in the till. why was your instinct to think that sub—postmasters who alleged that horizon caused shortfalls were stealing from the post office? that's an expression i'll regret for the rest of my life. janet skinner was one of the sub—postmistresses wrongly imprisoned when alan cook was the boss. today he apologised to her. this will be with you for the rest of your life, and with me for the rest of my life. sam steen, representing some of the sub—postmasters, said senior managers had failed to take responsibility for the prosecutions. nobody took oversight of it. nobody at all. are you proud of that?
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no. how much were you paid during your period of time as chair? it's in the millions, isn't it, mr crozier? yes, it probably is, yes. are you ashamed so. many went to prison? what's been striking from the evidence this week is how many senior managers insist they were unaware of how sub—postmasters were being treated. zoe conway — bbc news. in the war in ukraine, over recent weeks russia has been targeting critical civilian infrastructure such as the countries —— targeting critical civilian infrastructure such as the country's main power plants, which is leaving millions without electricity and water. our eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford has travelled to the east of the country to kharkiv — where 10 attacks took place today and more than 200,000 people are without power, to see how ukrainians are coping
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with life with no electricity. russia's war on ukraine has entered a new phase. this power plant in kharkiv was hit with five missiles — part of a massive attack on the energy system across the country. farfrom saving ukrainians, as it still claims, russia is trying to plunge their country into darkness. leading me through the ruins, igor has worked at this plant since soviet times. you don't usually hear engineers talk like this. translation: it's like my home has been destroyed. _ it brings pain and tears. but at the same time, that mobilises us because we know a city of more than a million people is depending on us. they're still assessing the damage here, seeing what they can salvage. this is where just one of the missiles hit, and as you can see, the result
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is completely devastating. this was an extremely precise attack because this power plant was hit by the russians a year ago. the company had just got it repaired, just got it working, and the russians hit again. so ukraine is now pleading with its western allies for more air defences, better protection, because the russian attacks are overwhelming. siren wails. so there's just been another air raid alert and this time, there's information that there's a missile somewhere in the sky heading in this direction, so we're going down into the bunker. there are now long blackouts in kharkiv every day. but among it all, we found a firm making bikinis — a business that's even expanded during the war, adapting to the difficulties and the danger. it's interesting how long
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we can stay independent. olex shows me the car battery that's now keeping the power on here, charged by the sun. we don't think about electricity now. one problem is off. one thing solved ? yeah. but the war is always on people's minds. russia is very close, and the increase in missile attacks is worrying. so victoria tells me keeping the business going is about keeping spirits up, too, giving people faith that there is a future here. when night falls, whole neighborhoods are left in the dark. this is a city that calls itself unbreakable — russia is doing its best to change that. sarah rainsford, bbc news, kharkiv. president biden has tonight warned iran against taking military action against israel amid fears of a retaliation for last week's
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suspected israeli air strike on an iranian diplomatic compound in syria. this was his response when asked by reporters. mr president, what is your message to iran in this moment? _ don't. we are devoted to the defence of israel. we will support israel, we will help defend israel and iran will not succeed. thank you very much. we can talk to our diplomatic correspondent who is injerusalem. james, us officials really talking as if they are concerned an attack could be imminent.— as if they are concerned an attack could be imminent. yes. president biden himself _ could be imminent. yes. president biden himself said _ could be imminent. yes. president biden himself said this _ could be imminent. yes. president biden himself said this evening - could be imminent. yes. president biden himself said this evening he| biden himself said this evening he thought an attack would come sooner rather than later and unnamed us official said it could involve hundreds of drones and missiles against military targets here in israel. that could be an accurate prediction of the future based on hard intelligence but it may also be the us trying to deter iran, to try
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to minimise its retaliation by talking up the threat now. it may also be an attempt to try and shape expectation so that when iran does respond it is seen as less escalator e. iran has said it will punish israel for the attack on its consulate in damascus 12 days ago but iranian ministers have also said they don't wish to widen the scope of this war. a massive missile attack would certainly do that. this evening there has been an attack by hezbollah, several dozens of rockets fired over the border, but this is quite a regular occurrence and there is no evidence yet it is linked in any way to some kind of iranian led retaliation. the mood here in israel is calm but the preparations are being taken very seriously. there is talk even of hospitals being put on standby. tonight israel is on alert,
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the world is watching and waiting to see what tehran does next. the mass shooting of ten protestant workmen in county armagh during northern ireland's troubles was an overtly sectarian attack by the ira. that's the finding of an inquest which has been looking into the shootings, in 1976. the group of textile workers were on their way home when their minibus was ambushed in kingsmills. no—one has ever been prosecuted for the attack. our ireland correspondent, sara girvin, reports. ten murders so horrific they became known as a massacre. ira gunmen lined up each of these men against their work van and opened fire. they shot them again, one by one, following an order to finish them off. there was a sole survivor of the horror, this man, alan black. he was shot 18 times. one bullet grazed his head.
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he survived by pretending to be dead. no—one has ever been convicted for the murders. following an inquest lasting eight years, today a coroner said the ira attack had been overtly sectarian. he said the victims were killed because they were protestants and for no other reason. the coroner said the ira had failed to engage with the inquest and had not acknowledged the utter wrongness of the atrocity. alan black and the victims' families said they were disappointed with the findings. they still have many questions and they want a public inquiry. we're never going to get the truth without it. this has been a band—aid, that's all, and it has left us all so dissatisfied. really, we just felt that we had to see it through. we've seen it through and i think what we would like to do is, at this stage, we'd like to call for a public inquiry. we've had this about ten years now,
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and i was a young 70 when i started out with this. now i'm an old 80 and i'm still as frustrated as i was back then and it's not getting any easier. the government's legacy act comes into force next month. it will stop new inquests into troubles' killings and instead set up a new fact—finding body. families of those who have been killed say the act robs them of the chance to get truth and justice for their loved ones. the government says the act draws a line under the troubles. for those dealing with decades of trauma and loss while still searching for answers, drawing a line is easier said than done. sara girvin, bbc news. britain's economy has grown, though by the smallest of margins. it was up 0.1% in february, boosted by improved manufacturing output. it's another sign that the country
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is slowing edging out of recession, but is the chancellor right to claim that it's finally �*turning a corner?�* here's dharshini david. one of the wettest februaries on record may have been a wash—out for construction, but that can quickly bounce back, and the weather failed to dampen other bigger sectors. this producer of metal components managed to shake off earlier challenges as custom picked up. overall for us, it was very successful, so we did see growth. we saw growth in a number of our key markets, and because we operate in so many markets globally, what we're able to do is really balance out — when one area's performing very well, we're able to kind of pivot to that area, and when we see some markets that are not performing so well, we can kind of step back a little bit. so, a recovery across manufacturing and services, such as transport, more than compensated for a soggy performance on the high street and building sites, so that overall activity,
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gdp, rose by 0.1% compared to january. that's not sparkling. nor was the growth of 0.3% injanuary. but economists say that unless we had a disastrous march, say, output falling by more than 1%, these figures may be enough to say that last year's recession is behind us. but after inflation and population growth, we may still be about £260 each worse off than two years ago, for our performance in recent years has been and remains lacklustre — growth a fraction of what it was on average prior to 2008's financial crisis. this used car dealer in crewe has noticed customers slipping into a more cautious gear. there's not many people coming in now, or at all, wanting to swap just for pleasure. they're coming in because they have to swap their car. so, for example, a failed mot, car crash, divorce, change ofjob, all those different reasons, but not for, "oh,
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i just fancy a change." thatjust seems to be off the table at the moment. many consumer—facing services remain smaller than prior to the pandemic. they may get a boost if, as analysts expect, interest rates start to fall over the summer. but it may take more work to return to a more rewarding pace of growth and avoid being short—changed. dharshini david, bbc news. after six months of war between israel and hamas, medical services in gaza have all but collapsed. the european gaza hospital in the city of khan younis is one of the last functioning healthcare facilities there. and about a small number of british doctors have been allowed in to help there. dr victoria rose is one of them. she's a consultant plastic surgeon at guy's and st thomas's hospital in london — but has just spent the last two weeks in gaza, where much of her work was on children under the age of 16.
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she filmed there for us — to show what life is like. so, here we are, we've made it across the border. the day's been pretty long, actually. we left cairo this morning with the un convoy. i was last here in 2020, and it's completely different. it's like a different entity. inside, they've tried to keep the sort of working areas very clean. the floors are very clean. there's somebody sweeping all the time. but once you get into the corridors, it's full of people in tents. they've made sort of makeshift tents out of sheets and carpets. and it's not clean, and outside it'sjust mayhem. it's like a massive village. it stinks. it's raw sewage. it's unacceptable for
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people to live like this. she's sleeping by the bedside. so we were operating until last night at midnight. we finished our last case but the general surgeons have been going all night. you can hear the drones again. this is my first case. he is a young boy who's been hit by a car, got a scalp laceration and de—gloving. he was taken to theatre last week and his scalp was closed, but unfortunately, now some of the skin has died, so we are going to take him back to theatre and see if we can sort out his scalp. we've had a bit of a delayed start because there's been quite a lot of bombing this evening. so we've. .. we've got quite a lot more work coming to us tomorrow.
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and i'm kind of in that situation now where ijust, i just want a ceasefire so that we can catch up. so, this is the field hospital. there's four wards that were all built during covid. it's tuesday the 2nd of april, and the drones are back. so, i'm walking back to theatre on my own, which is something that the boys don't really like me doing. i don't know whether you can see, i have like a group of children constantly following me and saying hello. hello. and then they will ask me for money or they'll ask me for chocolate. money? yeah. i haven't got money. just walking through the hospital again. i've got three days of operating left and i'm already panicking
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about the fact that we are not going to get through everybody that we need to get through before i go. it is, i know now, it's going to be very difficult to leave, and i'm not looking forward to it. but i've now... i'm now out of all my vac sponge dressings. i've just got canisters. oh, i wish i'd brought more. i really wish i'd brought more. i've just been round to the girls' room, where the female medical students live. this is the best team i've ever worked on in my entire life. thank you. and i've had the best two weeks ever. thank you for your help. i hope they all get to qualify. i don't know, i don't know how...that�*s going to happen. i think they'll all make really good doctors, and god knows,
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gaza needs some doctors right now. dr victoria rose, who's just returned to the uk after two weeks in gaza — she says she's planning to go back. let's turn to the golf. it's day two of the masters at augusta, with the players hoping to make the cut tonight. tiger woods finished 1—over par, which is enough to take him through to the weekend. he's now made the cut in a record 2a consecutive masters tournaments. andy swiss reports. it was the morning rush hour at augusta, as fans hurried for a vantage point of one man in particular. now a8, tiger woods has barely played this year but he can still do this... a birdie! indeed, his toughest challenge was a mini sandstorm on the final hole. but at 1—over par, he'll make
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the halfway cut and, as he's proved, anything is possible. england's danny willet, meanwhile, could be some story. in his first tournament after a long injury break, how's this for a comeback? 0h! willet, remember, won the masters in 2016. he couldn't again, could he? as for rory mcilory, well, once again, it's been a bit of a mixed bag. a few early mistakes means he's still playing catch—up on the leaders, which include this man. bryson dechambeau set the pace yesterday and picked up where he left off. but with the weekend still to come, so is the real drama. andy swiss, bbc news. it's one of the highlights of the horse racing calendar tomorow, the grand national. one of the favourites in the iconic race is kitty s light — trained by formerjockey christian williams. he's been telling our sports correspondent laura scott why winning would be extra special
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for his family. the grand national is a race where everyone looks for a bit of luck, a chink of light. none more so than trainer christian williams, who's hoping kitty's light can fulfil his dreams after the nightmare of his daughter, betsy, being diagnosed with leukaemia last year. i don't think any parent, you know, to say your child's got cancer, it was obviously a big shock to all the family, and to see what the drugs did to betsy mentally was tough for us all. but things are, seeing a bit of light now at the end of the tunnel. kitty's light has shown he thrives on the big occasion, winning the scottish national last year, providing moments of cheer when they were needed the most. he was great last year during a tough time, and notjust for us, for all the other families that we've met since betsy got diagnosed. so he's been a great horse and hopefully the journey�*s still...still not over. to make the trip to liverpool
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even more exciting, betsy and her sister, tilly, were invited to judge the style awards on ladies' day today. from a horse trained on the beach in wales to another hailing from the hills of scotland, last year's winner corach rambler is back to defend his crown. we do have quite a siege mentality, we come down, take on the rest of the world. that's what we like to do. he's got immense ability and i believe that he loves his racing. and he can win it again? i think he can, yeah. at four o'clock tomorrow, this is where the horses will line up for the big race. there will be 3a of them, down from the previous a0 and they'll start standing still — all part of a series of changes aimed at improving the safety of this iconic race. with two equine fatalities at aintree today, the scrutiny on welfare will have only heightened, ahead of millions tuning in for the grand national. it's incumbent on us to protect the race by making sure that it maintains its social license and that we are making it
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as safe as possible, but it certainly doesn't diminish the entertainment in what is a unique spectacle. attention will be paid to how every horse fares and there won't be a dry eye in the house if kitty's light wins, but tomorrow, this family will simply be celebrating being together — their ordeal has made them see everything in a different light. laura scott, bbc news, aintree. time for a look at the weather. here's chris fawkes. hello. we have something but there has been the hottest day of the year so far. a couple of sites in london saw temperatures reached 21.5, that was northolt and also st james's park. we are going to see some slightly cooler weather working through saturday, arriving first of all across scotland and northern ireland. for scotland, also the warmest day of the year so far here,
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with temperatures hitting 20.2 celsius in aberdeenshire. temperatures on saturday will come down significantly, by around 5—6 so you will notice that change for sure. overnight, a few patches of light rain coming and going across northern england, north wales. aside for that, some showers in north scotland, a lot of dry weather with clear spells around. temperature is about 8—10 to take us into the first part of saturday morning because it is a mild start your day. here comes our cold front across scotland and northern ireland. followed by showers, some hailstorms mixed in, and gusting 35—50 miles an hour. it will be a lot cooler. temperatures around 11—13. there could be the odd patch of rain for northern england and wales, but other than that, a lot of dry and bright weather. some hazy sunshine to stop top temperatures reaching around 21 or 22 toward eastern
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