this is bbc news. the headlines at 11.003m: the conservative mp, charlie elphicke, denies any wrongdoing after being the headlines at 11.00am: the conservative mp for dover, charlie elphicke, denies any wrongdoing after being suspended by the party over serious allegations. as the westminster harassment scandal deepens political parties consider how to strengthen codes of conduct for mps. police in new york say they have a viable case against film producer harvey weinstein after an actress accused him of raping her seven years ago. the white house downplays a major report on climate change compiled by us government scientists. also in the next hour: they play an essential role in catching traffic offenders. but only half of fixed speed cameras in the uk are actually switched on, a freedom of information request reveals. and i'll be discussing the sleaze scandals engulfing westminster and hollywood with my guests in dateline london in half an hour. hello and good morning.

the conservative mp charlie elphicke has denied any wrongdoing after being suspended by the party for what officials say are serious allegations which have been passed to the police. the party didn't give any details about what the allegations are, or who had made them. it comes amid growing concern in westminster over the conduct of politicians following a string of allegations of sexual abuse in parliament. the conservatives have published a new code of conduct for mps and other elected representatives, while labour has introduced a new complaints procedure. it has been described as a torrid week here in westminster with what feels like decades of sexual misconduct coming to life. there are a number of mps facing allegations and many are being strenuously

denied. theresa may and jeremy corbyn are both under pressure and that this. many feel that what we are seeing here is a culture change in british politics and it is long overdue. new allegations are emerging frequently. this is charlie elphicke, conservative mp for dover since 2010, who wakes up this morning no longer a tory mp, at least for now. that is because tonight the man in charge of discipline amongst conservative mps, the new chief whip, issued a statement. i have suspended the conservative party from charlie m —— charlie elphicke, mp, following serious accusations that have been referred to the police. charlie elphicke added, i am not aware of what the alleged crimes are and i deny any wrongdoing. meanwhile the

labourmp deny any wrongdoing. meanwhile the labour mp clive lewis has strongly denied an allegation of impropriety at the labour party conference in september. i don't, as a role, at packed labour party conferences grope peoples bottoms when i greet them. this isjust not grope peoples bottoms when i greet them. this is just not how i roll, it is not what i do. labour is also under pressure over labour's kelvin hopkins who was suspended on thursday following allegations of misconduct from a lee young labour activists. jeremy corbyn is being called to answer why mr hopkins was previously promoted to the shadow cabinet after this came to life —— light. mr hopkins denies the allegations. ivan lewis has apologised for making female collea g u es apologised for making female colleagues uncomfortable but says he never made any sexual advances to women. this place is gripped with trepidation of what may come next. individuals therefore for their own

reputations and others are fearful for the very reputational politics itself. just to add to all of that the fine —— the times newspaper reported this morning the anna soubry has told them that an unnamed person came forward to the prime minister ‘s team alleging asexual allegation against sir michael fallon, the former defence secretary who designed this week. —— resigned this week. michael fallon has denied these allegations and the bbc spoke to anna soubry and they have not had any more details about who made this claim or the nature of it. as you can see, these allegations are gathering pace and hour by hour and day by day they are getting more serious in nature. this morning we heard the veteran conservative mp sir roger gale say that we should hang ona sir roger gale say that we should hang on a moment and take stock and put the brakes on. he says it is danger of turning into a witch hunt and mps must be seen as innocent until proven guilty. i would suggest

that until we rush to judgment and eve ryo ne that until we rush to judgment and everyone is guilty until proven innocent we should look at the facts and aside and allow responsible people with access to the evidence to decide whether they are actually isa to decide whether they are actually is a accusation that has to be a nswered is a accusation that has to be answered and if so, if someone has done something very wrong, then by all means throw the book at them, but do not throw the book at them until the case is proven. what we are seeing here with the sex scandal unfolding is that some people are comparing it to the expenses scandal which rocked bridge politics back in 2009 and there is a sense that party officials are now braced for perhaps more allegations to emerge. they do not know where the next scandal could come from. earlier the labour mp rupa huq, who has spoken publicly in recent days about some of the historical abuse she has suffered, said parliament lacked the hr procedures that are present in other in other big organisations.

it does feel as though a pandora's box has been opened and a genius come out of a bottle because a lot of stuff that has been suppressed for yea rs of stuff that has been suppressed for years is coming out now. there are 600 mps and most of us want the best for our constituents in the country said this idea of everyone being at it, i think we need to get a sense of perspective but at the same time serious wrongdoing has happened and we need to sort it out at the same time as well. in the organisation such as the bbc as well, in a lot of places this kind of stuff goes on and has gone on but the difference in the house of commons and parliament is that there are commons and parliament is that there a re rules commons and parliament is that there are rules that are lax, if not nonexistent. i have had in my office disgruntled constituents phoning up and saying they would like to complain about the empty but there is no real structure or overarching hr department that a member of the public could make a complaint to, so if that is what we could get out of

it it is a good thing, a light has been shown on this murky goings—on and the house of commons is an unusual workplace for an adult place of work and in this sense it needs to get into line. 0ther of work and in this sense it needs to get into line. other big companies have a sexual harassment policy and the staff handbook and all of these things do not exist with mps and you have so many levels of this such as hr things that need to be sorted out and a whole political culture that has thrived on favours and bullying. the whips office, you could say that bullying is at the heart of that and there is a lot of stuff that goes on. you have the whole party dimension as well but people are very loyal to their political parties and so stuff is lost under us swirl of partisan one—upmanship, who had the better week, arsenal then? to quote david cameron, we are all in this together really. police in new york say they have a viable case against the hollywood producer, harvey weinstein. the announcement came after actress paz de la huerta claimed that mr weinstein raped her twice in 2010.

she is among dozens of women who have come forward since october to accuse the 65—year—old of sexual misconduct. he has denied all allegations of non—consensual sex. david willis reports. recent weeks have seen a torrent of allegations against harvey weinstein. now comes the first word of a possible arrest. new york detectives following up a call to the department last week are investigating an actress's claimed that the former movie mogul claim that the former movie mogul raped her twice back in 2010. they say the woman's account is detailed and credible. we have an actual case here. we are happy with where the investigation is right now. mr weinstein is out of state. we would need an arrest warrant to arrest him. so right now we're gathering our evidence, we continue to do so every day. and some of hollywood's biggest names, among them biggest names, amongst them

gwyneth paltrow and angelina jolie, came forward to accuse harvey weinstein of sexual harassment he issued a statement emphatically denying any allegation of nonconsensual sex. he's now under investigation here, in los angeles and in the uk as well. like ripples in a pond, the accusations of misconduct against men of wealth and influence appear to be growing rapidly. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. netflix has cut all ties with kevin spacey, who plays the lead role in one of its most successful programmes, house of cards. the company said it would no longer be involved in the series if the actor continued to be part of it. the announcement came after mr spacey faced allegations of sexual misconduct from a number of men. the white house has attempted to downplay the findings of a report which goes against the trump administration's view on climate change. the study, compiled by us government scientists, said it was extremely likely, with 95—100% certainty, that global warming is man—made, mostly from carbon dioxide through the burning of coal,

oil and natural gas. earlier i spoke to a professor from imperial college london and asked about the significance of the report. importantly, their significance is that the white house has allowed it to be released, because it is more emphatic than ever that global warming is due to human activity and, as you say, the burning of fossilfuels. the human activity and, as you say, the burning of fossil fuels. the white house could have just refuse to publish it but they have let it come out and issued these rather strange state m e nts out and issued these rather strange statements to say that they do not really believe it themselves. the science is pretty unequivocal. the quote that struck me most is that average temperatures in recent decades over much of the world have been higher and risen more in this time period than any time during the past 1700 years or more and it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the warming —— warming

since the mid—20th century. they are categoric and the white house is sceptical and the public opinion is still divided on the issue. do these reports move us any further forward? what this report is doing is going into more depth. it focuses on the you ass of course but it goes into more depth in terms of regional change. it is accepted we have global warming due to human activity but we need to know how this will affect regional weather and how it will affect me in london people living in dry parts of the world. in terms of persuading people, it is difficult, isn't it? because the white house is saying that climate has always changed and it will carry on changing and this isjust a natural, they are implying, but what the report shows very is that this

is not a normal situation. you have rightly pointed out the sharp increase in temperature that we have had. we have more heavy rain and heat waves and the evidence is building and building. the policy implications of this are important. u nless implications of this are important. unless policy changes, if there is this impact there are no options for having any impact on that. do you think that it will persuade people in the administration, if not the president himself, that maybe the approach, for example, to the climate accord that was reached in paris, that the president signalled he would pull out of, and i now see it is more complicated than pulling out of it, but it might call for some of these things to be rethought? there are a whole load of issues that are notjust rethought? there are a whole load of issues that are not just about rethought? there are a whole load of issues that are notjust about being worried about the climate. it will impact the economy across the world and there must be advisers in the white house to tell president trump that if he does not do anything the economic impact of these extreme weather events will be huge. we have already seen the impact of forest fires this year and those will get

more numerous. to sit back and say we will wait and see if it is natural is irresponsible. why'd you think there was still a very strong group of people, some scientists and many are not, who take the view that this claim is not substantiated to their satisfaction. why is that resista nce their satisfaction. why is that resistance there? it is almost entirely vested interests, and when you say scientists are in this group, the people who know the atmospheric science are very few and they offer information and other people show it is not the case. the people show it is not the case. the people who deny it is happening have interest in the coal industry or they do not want to change their way of life and they are in denial, or whatever it is, they are certainly not on the scientific side. us president donald trump kicks off

an 11—day trip to asia this weekend, taking in south korea, japan and china. it will be the longest tour of asia by a us president in 25 years. before setting out, he visited hawaii's pearl harbor to see a us battleship sunk by japanese bombers in the second world war, and received a security briefing from the us pacific command on issues including north korea's nuclear programme. 0ur correspondent stephen mcdonnell is in tokyo. here in tokyo people are expecting the visit from donald trump to be com pletely the visit from donald trump to be completely dominated by security issues emanating from the north korean nuclear threat. in theory the united states and japan do have a lot to talk about. trade for example. everybody knows that all of these other issues are going to be com pletely these other issues are going to be completely swamped by north korea. 0n completely swamped by north korea. on his way to asia, donald trump also travelled to pearl harbor in hawaii, where, at the sight of the sunken ship uss arizona, he had a

wreath laying ceremony. perhaps more crucially in hawaii he also had a briefing from the general that the us pacific command, speaking about regional security. no prizes for guessing what they would have been talking about. again, north korea. when donald trump arrives injapan he will be meeting us troops based here. the same in south korea. perhaps this is a way of sending a message in terms of american capabilities in this part of the world. he will also be trying to build a coalition of asian governments in an attempt to pile even more pressure on to north korea to get them to give up their nuclear weapons. that includes beijing. some a nalysts weapons. that includes beijing. some analysts have said that china has not done enough in this regard, but donald trump says, of his chinese counterpart, that his effort so far has been pretty terrific. the headlines on bbc news: the conservative mp charlie elphicke

denies any wrongdoing after being suspended by the party over serious allegations. police in new york say they have a viable case against film producer harvey weinstein after an actress accused him of raping her seven years ago. the white house downplays a major climate change report, compiled by 13 us federal agencies, which concludes that human activity is the main cause of global warming. a spanishjudge has issued european arrest warrants for the sacked catalan leader carles puigdemont and four of his allies who went to belgium. the five failed to attend a high court hearing in madrid on thursday, when nine other ex—members of the regional government were taken into custody. mr puigdemont has said he will not return to spain unless he receives guarantees of a fair trial. nick vamos is the former head of extradition at the crown prosecution service and now partner at peters and peters law firm. thank you for being with us this

morning. let me ask you first of all, about the prospects of extradition. the principle of the european arrest warrant seems quite simple, that countries with the same sort of legal arrangements to our partners and trust each other‘s standards of justice, should partners and trust each other‘s standards ofjustice, should quickly be able to extradite a suspect to face charges. how does it work in practice? that is the way it works in practice for straightforward offences but the problem in this case is that the offences are not straightforward and they arise out ofa straightforward and they arise out of a very intense and heated political situation in spain, so this is the kind of case where the tort —— court would be entitled and actually obliged to go behind the spanish warrant and actually explore whether it was issued for a political purpose and whether carles puigdemont could get a fair trial.

the very first question they have two a nswer the very first question they have two answer is actually whether what he is accused of doing in spain would be an offence in belgian, that is the dual criminality test. that is the dual criminality test. that is farfrom is the dual criminality test. that is far from straightforward. there are charges of sedition and rebellion against the spanish state. how are the belgian authorities, particularly the belgian courts, particularly the belgian courts, particularly likely to look on that? ido particularly likely to look on that? i do not think it is straightforward at all. certainly if it was being looked at in the uk i don't think we have any comparable offences, trees and probably wouldn't fit. belgium has its own federal system and their own separatist movement so it is a very sensitive area for them. a belgian court being obliged to decide whether somebody fuelling a separatist movement amounts to a crime is, as you can imagine, a very hot potato and i do not know whether under belgian law it would meet ——

amount toa under belgian law it would meet —— amount to a crime but it becomes a very sensitivejudicial amount to a crime but it becomes a very sensitive judicial decision. ca rles very sensitive judicial decision. carles puigdemont says he will not go back unless he has guarantees of afair go back unless he has guarantees of a fair trial but for one eu country to say to another, i am sorry but we are not confident that you can actually give this suspect a fair trial and so we will not extradite him would be quite a challenge to how the eu operates. him would be quite a challenge to how the eu operateslj him would be quite a challenge to how the eu operates. i think it would be a very profound and significant thing for a belgian court to say and i do not think they will go that far but i think what they may say is that the underlying purpose of this arrest warrant is political, not just that purpose of this arrest warrant is political, notjust that it purpose of this arrest warrant is political, not just that it arises from a political situation, which is obvious, but that the reason it is being issued and the reason mr puigdemont is being pursued is for political ends and that would be a reason not to grant the arrest warrant. the other problem is that spain do not have a good track record when it comes european arrest

warrants. there are previous decisions at the european court of human rights even at british coursed against suspected eta terrorists wed the spanish courts have been accused of breaching human rights so they do not have a spotless record. of breaching human rights so they do not have a spotless recordlj not have a spotless record.” suspect carles puigdemont would've thought very carefully about where he chose to go from instead of spain when he moved out of barcelona. thank you very much. thank you. 0nly around half of fixed speed cameras in the uk are actually switched on, according to figures obtained through a freedom of information request. and at least four police forces don't have any fixed speed cameras at all. alan clayton reports. for motorists caught out by them, they infuriate and bring a hefty fine. safety campaigners argue speed cameras are lifesavers. new research suggests only around half of the luminous boxes throughout the uk are operational. the press association sent a freedom of information request

to all of the 45 forces asking how many fixed speed cameras they had and how many were active. the 36 which responded had a total of 2838 cameras, of which only 52% were working. forces in cleveland, durham and north yorkshire said none of their fixed speed cameras were active. while northants said it turned its cameras off six years ago but left them in place to deter speeding. those than replied said they used mobile speed cameras and regularly reviewed which cameras were turned on. i suspect in this case there thinking that the yellow boxes are there, they're sending out the message that motorists ought to be recognising about risky roads, but they're also increasingly looking to more advanced technology such as average speed cameras, or indeed better engineering of the road, which might have a more beneficial affect. the national police chiefs council said the decision to use cameras

was an operational matter and that all forces have individual responsibility for their use of the cameras. alan clayton, bbc news. teignmouth it has been finding out why there are major water leaks. disruptive...

all the roads are blocked off and traffic was maimed, to be honest. and expensive. customers can't come to the shop because we have the flood. when water leaks the impact can be huge. it took four months to repair this road in birmingham last year. sometimes leaks are easy to spot. underground, they can go undetected for months or years. this is a new approach to a very old problem. we've got the drone attached to a really sensitive thermal camera that's going to be flying the length of the pipe, where we need to trace the leak. this is a demonstration, but anglian water will next week begin trialling a new way of finding leaks. with heat detecting drones in the air, a mix of hydrogen and nitrogen will be pumped into pipes. by putting the gas inside the pipe we can then see that outside the pipe, as if it were emitting from a pinprick in a balloon, and we can see the gas inside the soil. and that's much more easy to pick up on a thermal imaging camera than, say, the escaping water. images of pipes will be carefully a nalysed. it is hoped the tiniest of leaks will be picked up by the thermal cameras on the drones.

it's a far cry from the traditional method of finding leaks that's still widely used. damien, what are you listening for? i'm listening for water escaping out of a pipe under pressure, which will make a whooshing sound. some leaks are caused by old, corroded pipes, sometimes low temperatures and ground movement are to blame. it's a very, very old—fashioned piece of technology, isn't it? this just gives you an idea that there's a leak within the vicinity of where you're working. it doesn't pinpoint exactly where. new attempt to tackle the problem have been welcomed by the consumer council for water, which represents customers. what we see is big companies that make a lot of profit wasting water and that just really winds customers up. next month the consumer council will publish its annual report on leakage across england and wales. leakages have gone up by about 1%. there was a lot of progress immediately after privatisation in the early 90s, but that progress has now stopped. some companies have improved leakage rates and different criteria are used to measure progress, but when it comes to cubic metres of water leaked per kilometre of pipe, the worst performers are united utilities in the north—west of england, third from bottom, then south staffordshire water and in last place thames water.

its leakage rate is over twice the national average. all three companies told us that reducing leakage was a priority and that more resources were being committed to tackling the problem. but with more than three billion litres leaking from uk water pipes each day, the challenge won't be draining away any time soon. tim muffett, bbc news. it has been a soggy day for some of you so far but brighter conditions on the way. there is colder air and speckled cloud that indicate showers. the cloud has produced the wet weather so far today but by early afternoon it will be limited to the eastern counties of england and slowly starting to ease. eastern areas turn dry and brighter after a wet day. in the west sunshine and

showers and feeling colder. there could be hale and thunder and even sleet and snow over higher ground. you will feel the chill and this evening for the fireworks stipulates you will need warm and waterproofs oval north and west scotland. showers also spread into other areas. hit and showers also spread into other areas. hitand miss showers also spread into other areas. hit and miss and showers also spread into other areas. hitand miss and it showers also spread into other areas. hit and miss and it eastern areas. hit and miss and it eastern areas have had a lot of rain today but prospects look better with a very small chance of a shower and most very small chance of a shower and m ost pla ces very small chance of a shower and most places will be drying clear. crisp and clear between the showers across parts of southwest england amway is. the showers continue into the night across northern and western parts. the breeze picks up and the east of england has the clearest conditions through the night. we all have temperatures in single figures and there could be a frost in scotland and eastern england in particular. a chilly start to sunday but brighter for eastern england compared to today.

sunshine at best. lots of showers in wales and west of england to begin with on sunday with a strong breeze. the showers become fewer in number but a few crop up towards the north sea coasts. a chilly wind and a lovely pleasant day out of the wind. when the wind is in your face and you lose the sunshine it will feel colder and that is what you will notice on sunday evening and the guy fawkes night displays. most of you will be dry. it turns cool quickly. trust initially in scotland but police later in the night. apache frost develops on england amway is. there could be seems like this for some in eastern england on monday morning. it will be driest for longest here on monday but then the breeze freshens up and it brings cloud and rain and it is wettest in the highlands and islands of scotland. hello, i'm shaun ley and this is dateline london.

they do say politics is showbiz for ugly people... this week, british politics was found to have something in common with hollywood, sexual sleaze. in washington it was financial sleaze under the spotlight. the special prosecutor investigating whether donald trump's presidential campaign was influenced by the russians laid his first charges, but is he any closer to proving a link? with me to discuss all that are: marc roche, of le soir, a belgian daily newspaper, and the french magazine le point; bronwen maddox, director of the institute for government; the portuguese writer eunice goes; and henry chu, international editor of variety. good to have you with us today. michael fallon was britain's defence secretary in more ways than one. the minister in charge of the armed forces was also the first man over the top when political flak started to fly, the "safe pair of hands" when the government needed a reassuring presence at the microphone.

those hands and that voice cost him his job this week. he resigned abruptly because, he said, his behaviour towards women had fallen short of what modern life dictates. he's the most prominent political casualty of the campaign against men using power to extract sexual favours which began with claims against harvey weinstein, one of the most powerful figures in hollywood. he is under criminal investigation. michael fallon faces no such allegations. the only thing he said he had done wrong was repeatedly put his hand on a woman journalist's knee until she told him she would