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tv   BBC News  BBC News  January 24, 2017 4:00am-4:31am GMT

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a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's gavin grey. our top stories: calling time on free trade: president trump pulls out of a proposed mega—deal with pacific rim countries. a great thing for the american worker, what we just did. the syrian government and rebels trade insults — on the first day of fresh talks to end the six year civil war. the british government is accused of a cover—up over its trident nuclear weapons deterrent — after a missile test went wrong last year. and how the world's smallest mri scanner could bring relief to the parents of premature babies. hello: president donald trump has marked the start of his first full
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week in office with a decisive shift in america's dealings with the rest of the world. he has pulled out of a giant free trade deal with pacific rim countries, and has warned he will impose a border tax on us companies that move jobs overseas then seek to import goods. from washington, david willis reports. withdrawal of the united states from the trans—pacific partnership. with that and a stroke of the pen, donald trump made good on a campaign promise to pull america out of the trans—pacific partnership. a symbolic gesture given that the deal negotiated by the obama administration had yet to receive congressional approval. great thing for the american worker what wejust did. but it was nonetheless a reinforcement of the president's campaign trail commitment to put americanjobs first. the 12—nation tpp, which does not include china, was seen as a curb
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on chinese influence in the region. america's withdrawal may therefore have the effect of distancing the us from its asian allies, but mr trump believes the future lies in one—on—one trade deals with individual countries as a means of achieving terms more favourable to the us. the white house press secretary sean spicer. this executive action ushers in a new era of us trade policy in which the trump administration will pursue bilateral trade opportunities with allies around the globe. this is a strong signal the trump administration wants free and fair trade throughout the world. president trump also wants to renegotiate the north american free trade agreement between the us, mexico and canada and has talks lined up with the canadian and mexican leaders in the next few weeks. he believes international trade deals have hurt the usjobs market. economists believe more jobs are being lost to automation
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than to unfavourable trade agreements. at a gathering of business leaders, mexico's president said his country may now pursue more bilateral agreements. translation: it is clear that the united states has a new vision for its foreign policy. given this reality, mexico is obliged to take action to defend its national interests. neither confrontation or submission. the solution is dialogue and negotiation. president trump also signed an executive order reinstating a controversial ban on us funding for international groups that perform or discuss abortion as a family planning option. mr trump opposes abortion but critics say the move will hinder women in poorer countries who seek access to reproductive health services. david willis, bbc news, washington. earlier i got some reaction from — new zealand's minister of trade — todd mcclay — on the line
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from wellington. it's not too surprising. president trump's views on the tpp have been known but it is disappointing. new zealand stands in favour of trade liberalisation, our economy showing the benefits of business to citizens with their rules and getting on their blockages out of the ways over their blockages out of the ways over the next week or two, i will be talking to a number of my cou nterpa rts talking to a number of my counterparts in the other tpp countries about other steps forward and we are seeing from australia and other countries and desire to have a conversation on whether there is still value in the tpp agreement without the us. that is yet to be determined but it is a wealth while conversation. i was going to say, that seems to be the suggestion among many experts but it would be a very much decreased type of deal, wouldn't it? that's right. it would
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not be as valuable without the world's largest economy in bold. new zealand already has a fairly good trading profile, which is quite well—balanced, with the us. we still expect we will have access and to be able to sell our products into the us markets. us goods and services will be welcome in new zealand but the original countries which came together to consider tpp did so without america's involvement so i guess the question might be oral tpp countries, if america had never been asked to be involved, would we still have wa nted asked to be involved, would we still have wanted to negotiate with each other? the answer is probably yes but we have to get together over the next month or two and have ministerial conversation to see what steps remain before us. i do not think tpp is dead but the signal from the us is concerning one and it is clear they are not going to be involved. you mentioned saying it is
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not dead but it is severely damaged. might there be an open door for china tojoin in, which wasn't part of the original block? letsjust wait and see. new zealand is involved in talks with china and india. negotiations are coming together quite soon and ministers will be talking about that trade pact. once additional life is breathed into the india — china agreement, very much the asia—pacific, but it is too early to be talking about other countries which could bejoining the be talking about other countries which could be joining the existing tpp agreement. the remaining countries, there will be conversation around it. there is not urgency in the sense we must do something this week, we always foresaw another year before full ratification so new zealand will be
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taking stock, entering a conversation and in the meantime, continuing to advocate the benefits of trade liberalisation and looking to do deals in europe and asia and other parts of the world. earlier, a us senate committee narrowly approved donald trump's pick for secretary of state, the former exxonmobil chief rex tillerson. members voted along party lines 11 to ten, clearing the way for his confirmation vote by the full senate. our state department correspondent barbara plett usher explained the challenges around his nomination. well, donald trump likes to appoint billionaire businessmen to his cabinet, but the democratic members on this committee weren't convinced an oil executive was the best choice for the nation's top diplomat. they said they were concerned he would continue to view the world through a corporate lens, that he hadn't been convincing enough about the importance of american values in forming foreign policy. that his past business deals could present conflicts of interest. this kind of sharp partisan split is quite unusual when it comes to secretary of state nominees. traditionally they are approved with overwhelming support from both parties.
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there were a number of republicans who did also oppose mr tillerson, expressed concerns about his nomination, but eventually they backed down from their challenges. one of the big concerns expressed was mr tillerson‘s past business dealings with the kremlin and questions about whether he was committed to maintaining sanctions on russia over the annexation of crimea. he did oppose those sanctions when he was head of exxon but he said as secretary of state he would represent america's national interests. mike pompeo — a congressman from the state of kansas —has been confirmed as the new director of the cia. the us senate confirmed president trump's nominee — he will be responsible for the united states' worldwide network of spies. mike pompeo has called russian attempts to influence the presidential election an "aggressive action". a new round of peace talks started on monday to try to end the war in syria, this time in the capital of kazakhstan. for the first time, they're being brokered by russia, turkey and iran, instead
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of the united nations. our chief international correspondent lyse doucet is there and has more details. for the very first time in the past six years, you had rebel fighters and syrian generals sitting at the same table in public and they didn't walk out. and they agreed that the biggest priority now is to cement a shaky ceasefire across syria. and what's even more crucial is what's been happening on the battlefield. in the past year, russia has emerged as the most important military player and it has turned the tide of the war in president assad's favour and then teamed up with turkey, a main rebel backer, to try to bring this war to an end. it doesn't mean it's going to be any easier. the toughest problems of all still have to be sorted, most of all the role of president assad in any
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future political transition. but step—by—step they're beginning to wrestle with some of the outstanding issues of this conflict. so maybe there is a hope that syria can at least start moving away from war, but it will still take a long time before it is actually on the brink of peace, most of all because there are many of the military players and the groups who are determined to continue the fight, and they include so—called islamic state. the british prime minister theresa may has again refused to say whether an unarmed trident missile veered off course during a test last year. the government's defence secretary sir michael fallon told parliament that the system was ‘successfully tested' lastjune, but he wouldn't provide any other details for reasons of national security. the opposition accused the government of keeping parliament and the public in the dark. our political editor laura kuenssberg has the latest. set condition 150 for weapons system readiness test. aye aye, sir.
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pressing the nuclear button. a process that is practised and practised. the hope it never happens for real. butjust before theresa may took charge, a test like this of a missile maintained in the us didn't go according to plan. yesterday, theresa may refused to say if she knew. prime minister, did you know? there were tests that take place all the time regularly for our nuclear deterrents. what we were talking about in that... ok, i'm not going to get an answer to this. it matters because the trial appears to have gone wrong with just weeks before her new government asked mps to approve billions of pounds to keep the weapons. we're launching the strategy here... having failed to answer yesterday, today on a cabinet visit, the prime minister had to admit she did know. i'm regularly briefed on national security issues. i was briefed on the successful certification of hms vengeance and her crew.
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we don't comment on the operational details for national security reasons. this spectacular misfire in the late 80s of an american trident missile is rare. the vast majority of tests have been successful. and it's not clear what went wrong with this weapons trial. but labour has found a lot wrong with the government's handling of the facts. at the heart of this issue is a worrying lack of transparency and a prime minister who's chosen to cover up a serious incident rather than coming clean with the british public. this house, and more importantly the british public, deserve better. the details of the demonstration and shakedown operation i am not going to discuss publicly on the floor of this house. we simply want to know was this test successful or not? should we believe the white house official who, while we've been sitting here debating, has confirmed to cnn that the missile did
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auto self—destruct off the coast of florida? once stories get out there that a missile may have failed, isn't it better to be quite frank about it? there are always some things that government wants to keep from mps and the rest of us, but this time, theresa may's hope of staying quiet seems to have backfired. the most straightforward questions, like who knew what, can be the trickiest of all. the political arguments over whether we need nuclear weapons are controversial enough. a fight over whether they work is a battle ministers would rather not have. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: silenced by the taliban, now gracing the world stage. the sounds of afghanistan's first all—female orchestra. the shuttle challenger
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exploded soon after liftoff. there were seven astronauts on board, one of them a woman school teacher. all of them are believed to have been killed. by the evening, tahrir square, the heart of official cairo, was in the hands of the demonstrators. they were using the word "revolution". the earthquake singled out buildings, and brought them down in seconds. tonight, the search for any survivors has an increasing desperation about it as the hours pass. the new government is firmly in control of the entire republic of uganda. moscow got its first taste of western fast food, as mcdonald's opened their biggest restaurant, in pushkin square. but the hundreds of muscovites who queued up today won't find it cheap, with a big mac costing half the day's wages for the average this is bbc news, i'm gavin grey.
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the latest headlines: with the stroke of a pen, donald trump has cancelled us involvement in a massive free trade deal. the syrian government and rebels trade insults on the first day of fresh talks to end the six—year civil war. despite the flurry of activity by the trump team on day one, we have yet to hear any action on the so—called ‘dreamers'. those are the young people, around 750,000, who arrived in the us illegally with their parents. the now—former—president obama gave them the right to work and study legally, but mr trump has vowed to revoke that order. laura trevelyan met some of the dreamers in new york. 19—year—old ruben is dreaming big. taking the subway to his job in the office of a new york
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lawmaker, he plans a future as a politician. smuggled here from honduras by his mother when he was five, ruben came out of the shadows when the last administration granted him temporary legal status. i felt happy, i felt comfortable, and i felt that i'm finally being accepted in this nation for who i am and what i am doing. this honours student and star of high school debate class has seized the chance to work and go to college. now, he doesn't know what the future holds under president trump. what would it mean for you personally if your work permit was taken away? for me personally, you know, i would say my voice would be taken away, my dreams will be shattered. marie came to the us from guinea as a child, and lost her legal status as a teenager. she worries that the new president might abolish her work permit, which enables her to be a barista in brooklyn and audition for acting roles.
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what is it like now, being in limbo, not knowing what president trump will do? for me, personally... it's a little scary, it's a little scary. but i'm not a person who believes in giving into fear. what to do about rubin and marie and the hundreds of thousands people across america in their situation is one of the first big tests for donald trump. he was elected to take a tough stance on immigration but, after coming under pressure on this one, he has said there will be a solution that will make people happy and proud. the question is, what does that mean in practice? ruben hopes president trump will see how invested he and others like him are in this nation they consider their own. this is a country i call home. i ask him not to deport people, i ask him to see the good in this programme, to see that we are the next generation of this country. we are the future of this country,
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or we are the leaders of tomorrow. while marie, who just auditioned for a hollywood movie, longs one day to be a us citizen. if they have a pathway for us to get there, i think a lot of us are willing to do the work that's necessary to get there. just give us that pathway, and we'll show you. all marie and ruben can do now is wait to learn their fate, dreaming of making it in manhattan, hoping not to be sent back into the twilight world of the undocumented immigrant. hopes have been raised of finding survivors trapped by an avalanche which destroyed an italian hotel. three puppies were rescued alive from the ruins of the building in abruzzo, which was engulfed by the avalanche last wednesday. doctors in the uk are pioneering the use of a small mri brain scanner, designed for premature babies. there are only two such machines in the world, and doctors say the equipment produces images which are far more detailed than an ultrasound scan. our medical correspondent fergus walsh has this exclusive report. isaac was severely premature,
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and needs a scan to check the swelling on his brain. ultrasound like this is how all premature babies are scanned, but it doesn't always reveal what has gone wrong. another premature baby, alice rose, born at 2a weeks, is on her way to have an mri scan. newborns are usually too fragile to be moved, but at the royal hallamshire, the purpose—built baby mri isjust metres from the special care unit. the white bits on that section, you can see, are a little bit wider than they should be. the mri confirms two bleeds on her brain, but crucially shows no further damage. for her parents, it is comforting news. i think it's a lot easier to understand with this kind
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of scan, as opposed to the ultrasound that she had before. it's a lot crisper visual images. it is reassuring that you get a better look at it. it makes you feel better. lower down in the brain, for example, it's very difficult to make out these structures lowdown, whereas on the mri examination, we see the brainstem and the cerebellum. these two images prove the point. on the left is an ultrasound scan of alice rose's brain. on the right, an mri scan. it is much more detailed, and gives doctors more diagnostic information. all parts of the brain and the surrounding structures can be viewed very clearly, which is sometimes not the case in ultrasound. and also, the range of brain abnormalities that can result from haemorrhage, or lack of blood supply to the brain, are much more clearly shown. there are only two of these machines in the world. the other is in boston, in the united states. they are still experimental
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prototypes, not yet cleared for routine clinical use, but could represent the future for imaging newborns. two months after she was born, alice rose still weighs less than 3lb. she is not out of the woods yet, but the mri scan has given her parents hope that, for their tiny baby daughter, things are beginning to look a little brighter. fergus walsh, bbc news, sheffield. china brought in the one child policy to limit population growth but wants to replenish the country's shrinking workforce. an actor has been killed in australia during the
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making of a music video. the man who has not been named was on set in brisbane when he died. queensland police have begun an investigation to see if it was an accident. and bernie ecclestone has been removed as chief executive of formula one, bringing his a0 year reign in the sport to an end. the move was announced by american company liberty media, which has completed its $8 billion takeover of the sport. mr ecclestone, who is 86, claimed he had been forced out. they faced death threats and intimidation for daring to perform, but afghanistan's first all—female orchestra are charting a new destiny for themselves through music. the 35 musicians made their debut at the world economic forum recently, in davos, and go by the name zohra. but reaching the global stage has often proved an uphill battle. elainejung has their story. the sounds of afghanistan's music coming back to the fore. once silenced under the taliban, it has taken years for afghans to reclaim, and these
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are the young women at its helm. the all—female orchestra is named zohra, and is largely made up of sitars, violins and hand—drums. zarifa abida is the country's first woman conductor. it was really hard for me to tell my family that i want to study music, and i want to start music. so ijust told my mum and dad that i really want to learn music. and my mum is a great supporter of me, and she has always been behind me and supporting me. and also my dad, he's also like a big mountain behind me. like zarifa, many here are from poor families, and battle conservative views, some even islamist death threats and intimidation. negin is from an orphanage, and started learning music in secret. i didn't see any girl
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playing instruments, music instruments, so i decided i have to play it, and it will be good, and it will be, like, amazing, that i am playing some instrument. and i passed the exam in music school, so i came to music school. despite the challenges, zohra made its global debut at the world economic forum in switzerland. naser sarmast is the movement's brainchild. he believes the female orchestra is the best response to extremists. afghanistan needs more than anything else to benefit from the healing power of music. and our students, yes, they're living in a tough environment. there's a lot of pressure, there's a lot of concern about security and safety. but by the end of the day, it's music which makes them very
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strong, and gives them hope for the future, and allows them to be the wonderful role model for other young afghan girls. there is a shared vision among these young women, of growing the orchestra, and making afghan music heard around the world. a reminder of our top story: donald trump has marked the start of his first full week in office with a decisive shift in america's dealings with the rest of the world. mr trump has pulled out of a giant free trade deal with pacific rim countries, negotiated by president obama but never ratified, and he has warned of penalties for us companies that move jobs overseas. 20 more analysis of that story and oui’ 20 more analysis of that story and our other main news on our website. —— plenty more. hello there.
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well, as forecast, dense, freezing fog caused some problems to travel for monday morning, and it really was quite extensive and dense in places, like this photograph proves in eccleshall, in staffordshire, and it lingered on across some parts of the south—east. and where it did linger, it really felt quite cold, temperatures hovering around freezing. but there was some sunshine around, and the return of clear skies overnight means that freezing fog will make a return, so we're likely to see some further travel disruptions again for tuesday morning. keep tuned to your bbc local radio and head online for the latest update. so widespread, freezing fog developing overnight across england and wales. more of a breeze across scotland and northern ireland, and some milder air pushing in here, with outbreaks of rain. but it really will be a cold start across england and wales. you can see, for most of us, temperatures are freezing or below, and that fog really will be dense, so take care, give yourself time if you are heading out on the roads. a bit more of a breeze, though, for western parts of england
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and western wales, so i think fog—free here, maybe a little bit of brightness. and quite a contrast across scotland and northern ireland, a milder start to the day than what we saw yesterday morning, temperatures in high single—figures. but there will be a lot of cloud, quite a breeze, and outbreaks of rain, certainly across western upslopes of scotland. and through the day it remains quite cloudy and dull here, maybe some further spits and spots of light rain, some of that pushing towards western wales and the south—west of england. but here, where we hold onto the cloud, then it is going to be relatively mild, temperatures maybe ten, 11 celsius. but further east that you are, we should see the fog lifting to sunshine, but it will feel quite cold. and where the fog lingers all day it is going to feel very cold, temperatures around freezing. the fog makes a return again on wednesday morning for east and south—eastern areas. and i think it will lift into low cloud, so staying quite grey and cold here. a little bit of sunshine further north and west, and remaining breezy and cloudy for scotland and northern ireland, with further outbreaks of rain. just making double—figures here, but feeling quite cold elsewhere, particularly across the south—east.
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and that's the theme as we head on into thursday. what happens is we pick up a strong south—easterly wind, and that will feed in a lot of cold and very dry air off the near continent, and it's going to feel pretty bitter if you add on the strength of that wind, with that cold air. now, because it is dryer air, we should start to see the clouds in the morning breaking up, so a bit of a grey start, but then the sunshine will break through across central and southern areas, maybe some spots of rain just getting into western scotland and northern ireland once again. here, temperatures around five or six degrees, but across eastern areas 1—5 celsius. add on that bitterly cold wind, it is going to feel more like —3 to —5. the latest headlines from bbc news. i'm gavin grey. president trump has cancelled a massive free trade deal, the tra ns—pacific partnership. it's a decisive shift in america's dealings with the rest of the world. the deal negotiated by the obama administration was never ratified. mr trump said the move was "great for the american worker". the first day of talks
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between the syrian government and the rebels in kazakhstan has ended with both sides trading insults. for the first time, rebel commanders sat at the same table with a government delegation and didn't walk out. both sides called for the consolidation of a fragile ceasefire. the british prime minister theresa may has again refused to say whether an unarmed trident missile veered off course during a test last year. officials say the system was ‘successfully tested' lastjune, but haven't given more details. the opposition has accused the government of a cover up. now it's time for hardtalk.
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