a former football coach goes on trial, accused of 48 historical sex offences against young boys. the court was told that barry bennell had almost "unfettered access" to boys dreaming of success in the professional game. some of the abuse is alleged to have taken place in the grounds of crewe alexandra, where bennell was coach. and the other main stories on tonight's programme... the newly reshuffled cabinet meets for the first time as theresa may rings more changes among junior ranks to refresh her government. the north london shopkeeper who died after being attacked in a row over cigarette papers. north and south korea hold their first talks in over two years. and the self—propelling suitcase that follows its owner — just one of the marvels at a major tech show in las vegas. coming up on sportsday later in the hour on bbc news, another competition for manchester city — bristol city are the visitors for the first leg of their league cup semifinal. good evening.

a court has heard that the former football coach barry bennell was a "predatory and determined paedophile," who is alleged to have subjected a number of boys to abuse on more than 100 occasions. bennell, who is now known as richard jones, denies multiple historical sex offence charges. the prosecution said that some of the abuse took place in the grounds of crewe alexandra, where bennell was coach, but also at his home. let'sjoin our sports editor dan roan, who's at liverpool crown court. yesterday, we learned that barry bennell had pleaded guilty to seven charges of sexual abuse, but he were

still contesting 48 further counts relating to 11 compliments, all boys aged as young as nine between 1979 and 1991. today, this trial, expected to last eight weeks, got under way as the prosecution opened its case. exercise full former coach in the 19805, exercise full former coach in the 1980s, barry bennell worked with some of the most successful teams like alexandra. he also had linked with stoke city. but today liverpool crown court was told the 63—year—old, who now calls himself richard jones, was also a predatory, determined and dangerous paedophile. for the prosecution, nicholas johnson qc told the jury that bennell, who appeared via video link because of ill—health, engaged in a course of conduct over many years involving systematic and persistent sexual abuse of pre—or prepubescent boys. he had pretty much unfettered access to large numbers of young lads who dreamt of a life in

professional football. although it seemed that mr bennell was a skilled and relatively successful coach, he had a much darker side. the court was told that bennell had previously served to prison sentences both here and in the united states was serious sexual offences againstjunior footballers, but that he insisted the current complainants were maliciously making up stories against him, seeking attention or compensation. the court was told that bennell subjected boys to hundreds of assaults and even carried out some of his crimes here, in one of the changing rooms in the ground of crewe alexandra. but several alleged victims also played for clu bs several alleged victims also played for clubs linked to manchester city. 0ne alleged that he was abused when aged between 11 and 13 more than 100 times after bennell introduced himself as a scout for the club. another claimed he was abused at bennell‘s house and on football tours, where horror movies would be played to soften up

his victims. and one complainant who threatened to report the abuse said bennell told him that nobody would believe him and that "i've got people playing professional football 110w people playing professional football now that i have done these things to — you are nothing". thejury now that i have done these things to — you are nothing". the jury were told they would have to decide between bennell‘s version of events 01’ between bennell‘s version of events or believe the prosecution's case that he committed sexual offences on a large scale against very vulnerable lads. the trial continues. dan roan, bbc news, liverpool. theresa may has appointed more women and mps from ethnic minority backgrounds as ministers, at the end of a two—day reshuffle designed to recharge her government. 0ur deputy political editor john pienaar has more. allowed through the door at number ten today for a quick peek at the new look cabinet. nobody move. almost nobody move yesterday because theresa may couldn't make them. where is she? there she is. jeremy hunt, the health secretary, was in the way and wouldn't budge, just like yesterday. the new faces in the top team were happy enough, though. there's lots of energy, lots of ideas. it was a really important

meeting this morning, with a sense of renewed vigour. and the losers? i thought what i thought right. justine greening, now ex—education secretary, had no regrets. she would not switch jobs. now she is jobbed off. you have to be careful about who you alienate. you can't make too many enemies? no, you can't. that is the truth of all reshuffles. but i do think the prime minister has balanced it well. we have stability at cabinet level and we have new blood coming through into the other layers of government. so the balancing act, she has got right. bringing the tory party closer to people was today's mission, making government to look more like the electorate and somehow retrieving old loyalties that were judged by potential voters. excited about the prospect ofjoining the government? so for thosejudged the prospect ofjoining the government? so for those judged the brightest and the best, the guessing game was over. you live in hope these days.

they left number ten happier than they went in. some couldn't bear to wait for the official announcement before passing on the news. congratulations, what have you got? altogether, 14 mps were given jobs, eight of them women, and five from ethnic minorities. meanwhile, another plan went wrong today. toby young, appointed to the board of a new university regulator, resigned under pressure. he had helped set up free schools, but past inflammatory comments and tweets forced to step down before he could start his new role. an embarrassment to the government, but a relief to critics, including tories. clearly, due diligence wasn't done. i made it clear i thought it was the wrong thing to do because of some very extreme things that toby young had said in the past on eugenics, on the disabled and the way he described working class people. newly appointed unpromoted ministers are looking happy tonight. they always do. but this reshuffle, the

ministers theresa may couldn't move 01’ ministers theresa may couldn't move or sack, has been as much a mark of her political vulnerability as the sign of strength her party wanted. tory mps can only hope for a tighter grip at the top in what will be a defining year. british politics is as volatile as it has been in modern times. unpredictability is the new normal. john pienaar, bbc news, westminster. north and south korea have held their first talks for more than two years, and have agreed to further discussions to ease military tensions in the region. it came after the north confirmed it'll be sending a team to the winter olympics in south korea next month. from seoul, rupert wingfield—hayes reports. the skiers on the slopes of pyeongchang today were moving a little slower than they will be in a month's time. then, the world's best will be flying down these pistes. and now we know that when the 0lympic and now we know that when the olympic games open here on february seven, there will be a full north

korean team competing. they will march in side by side with their south korean compatriots. translation: i think with both, we can put everything aside and eve ryo ne can put everything aside and everyone should do their best to achieve their goals in the competition. —— with sports. achieve their goals in the competition. -- with sports. north korea is just 50 competition. -- with sports. north korea isjust 50 miles competition. -- with sports. north korea is just 50 miles away in that direction, and the north has really com pletely direction, and the north has really completely overshadowed preparations for the olympics here. some teams have threatened to pull out, ticket sales have been slow. you can see this place isn't exactly humming with skiers, so there is immense relief here that the north and the south are now at least talking. this morning, north korea's chief delegate strode across the demarcation line that divides the two koreas. he warmly shook the hand of his south korean counterpart. the weather is cold, he said, but despite the cold, the people's desire for improving relations is frozen. it's hard to overstate how

dramatic and rapid this shift has been. it's only a month since north korea test fired this huge new missile, boasting that it could hit any city in the united states. 0ff the coast of korea, us aircraft carriers massed, their decks swarming with supersonic strike aircraft. it felt like this region was teetering on the brink of war. so is pyongyang's sudden heart real, orjust a tactic to avoid war with america? north korea would like to gain time in order to avoid a potential retaliation by the united states against it and will eventually re—engage in the provocation cycle so that it can threaten the united states. the winter olympics may be a coverfor

kimjong—un, a winter olympics may be a coverfor kim jong—un, a convenient excuse for him to step back from the brink. but here in the south, any chance to talk is better than the terrifying alternative. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in pyeongchang, south korea. five men and a woman have appeared in court charged with belonging to the banned far—right group, national action. the six, who were arrested during raids across england last week, appeared at westminster magistrates court. they'll appear at the old bailey later this month. virgin trains have stopped stocking the daily mail on board their west coast route. the company said concern had been raised by colleagues about the mail's editorial position on issues such as immigration, lgbt rights and unemployment. the daily mail has accused the company of censoring the choice of newspapers offered to passengers. the director—general of the bbc has been asked to appear before mps to answer questions about gender and pay at the corporation. lord hall will face questions by the culture and media select committee. the request comes after the bbc‘s former china editor carrie gracie resigned from her post

after complaining about unequal pay. she's also been asked to appear before mps. the number of people waiting more than four hours in accident and emergency departments in scotland reached a record high in the last week of 2017. new figures show only 78% of patients were seen within the government's four hour target — the lowest proportion since weekly data started being published three years ago. here's our scotland editor sarah smith. busy accident & emergency departments in scotland mean patients are facing their longest recorded waiting times. last week, over 100,000 patients waited more than four hours to be seen, nearly 300 waited nearly 300 waited longer than 12 hours, figures described today as a "disgrace." the figures out today

are for the week ending in hogmanay, a very, very challenging week for our health service, flu really beginning to kick in that week. for example, 40% increase in calls to the scottish ambulance service on hogmanay alone. of course, our staff are working extremely hard on the front—line to keep patients safe. in the week between christmas and new year, only 78% of people visiting a&e were seen within the target of four hours. that's compared to 92% for the same week the year before. the delays are not because of increased patient numbers. only 635 more people attended a&e departments. one reason given for the increased waiting times is a surge in flu infections. cases of flu in scotland are running at more than double the rate in england, more than twice as many as there were last year, and that's now a significant concern. i just wasn't sure. patients with flu take longer to assess and require treatment in individual rooms, as staff try to minimise the spread of infection. the team have had to work extremely hard all the way over christmas and the new year period.

worse than before? i would say so. i've been doing this job for many years and i think it's probably one of the busiest times we've had. the health minister, visiting a hospital in perth, insists the scottish nhs is performing well overall, with far fewer cancelled operations than south of the border. in lanarkshire, some of the nhs admin staff have been volunteering on the wards to help the overstretched nurses. i was a bed buster. what's a bed buster? it was basically going to help the ward staff to strip down the beds after a patient had been discharged so that it's cleaned and made up and ready for the patient to come into, and do that as quickly as possible to save the nursing staff doing it themselves. nhs spending is significantly higher in scotland, about £160 more per person than in england. greater integrated health and social care is meant to mean fewer delayed discharges, less bed—blocking, but today's figures show that the winter health crisis has hit scotland hard. sarah smith, bbc news, perth.

our top story this evening: barry bennell, a former football coach, goes on trial accused of 48 historical sex offences against young boys. still to come... everyone is listening, and i'm in the same room as the royal couple right now. stay tuned to find out what happened when prince harry and meghan markle visited a south london radio station. coming up on sportsday on bbc news: the football association announces a range of measure to improve diversity and increase funding in the game. it's the world's biggest showcase for the gadgets that could become part of our lives in the near future. more than 170,000 people are expected to visit this year's consumer electronics show in las

vegas. the tech companies' latest developments include driverless taxis and new advances in artificial intelligence, including some disturbingly human robots. our technology correspondent, rory cellan—jones, is in las vegas. reeta we come here every year to see thousands of new gadgets launched and spot the new trend. it's not difficult it year it's all about artificial intelligence building it into products to make it smarter to learn as they go along. that's the theory at least. you may see behind me the stand of alibaba. they are in a battle with the americans for leadership in this technology of the future. a powerful and largely invisible technology is on the march, it's learning how to drive. it can recognise individualfaces and it knows an awful lot about our personal preferences. that technology is artificial

intelligence and, in las vegas this week, tech firms are showing off how far it's come. hey sophia, can we shake hands? in a las vegas university lab i'm meeting sofia, a humanoid robot. how sophisticated do you think you are as a robot? i want people to perceive me as the robot i am. however, i wouldn't want to trick people into thinking i'm a human. i just want to communicate with humans in the best possible ways, which includes looking like one. sophia, who's had advance notice of my questions, has few practical uses right now, but her creators believe she represents a big step on the road to artificial intelligence. 0ur aspiration is to bring the machines to life, to create living, intelligent systems and there you'll see the greatest revolution in artificial intelligence. as this giant tech show gets under way, china's spending on al and robotics is much in evidence. this suitcase recognises

and follows its owner. here's china's biggest force in al the search giant baidu, laying on a lavish las vegas event with the slogan — ai is changing the world at china's speed. it calls itself china's google, it's already a leader in technologies like facial recognition and baidu is confident china can challenge america's ai dominance. china is quickly catching up and the gap is closing, but china has a lot more people, much larger scale. it's a big market. so i think that's a foundation for china to prevail in the ai age. google, which usually keeps low profile at this show, has chosen to put its name everywhere a cross las vegas, stressing its leading role in al. there is lots of great competition and lots of excitment. what it means is that there's a lot of investment

going into this area. a lot of the best minds working on it. i think you're going to see the field advance pretty quickly. it's arrival quite slowly out in down town las vegas i booked a ride in a taxi with no steering wheel, pedals or driver. it's not just no steering wheel, pedals or driver. it's notjust america and china rasing to get ahead in al. rory cellan—jones, bbc news, las vegas. a teenager has been arrested on suspicion of murder and two others are being sought by police after a shop worker was attacked in an argument about cigarette papers. officers say when staff refused to serve them because of their age, they became aggressive. the victim, vijay patel, died in hospital yesterday. our special correspondent, lucy manning, reports now from north london. he worked hard in this shop in the quiet suburbs of north london, but one punch was to end vijay patel‘s life. on saturday night, abdullah rahimzai was working alongside mr patel when three teenagers were told they couldn't buy cigarette papers unless they could

prove they were 18. they threatened me to break the window, so that's why i ask him. i wish i didn't send him to the window, but because of the threat the guys made, i asked him only to see. when i reached the door, he was already knocked down. he was hit one punch. the family released this photo of mr patel in hospital before he died to try to help catch those who killed him. for his relatives in slough, disbelief a night at work could end with such violence. he was just the greatest man. he was innocent, he was kind. he loved everyone and that's why we all loved him as well. he was the pillar of the house.

you know how you take out the pillar and the house is not there, it's like this. everyone is broken down. mr patel had come from india a decade ago, working all hours to help his family. he came to this country so he could support his family, so he could support his children. he could give them a better life. so they could get the best education as well. so they could have better lives ahead. a better future ahead as well. police say mr patel was murdered for trying to make others obey the law. it was a completely unprovoked attack on a man just doing hisjob here. the police have now arrested a 16—year—old and are looking for two other teenagers. mr patel‘s nephew, the same age as the boy arrested, can't understand why they attacked him. 0ne punch and one family left with nothing but their grief. lucy manning, bbc news. the government has rewritten its ministerial code of conduct

in light of problems with harassment at westminster which emerged last year. it states that inappropriate behaviour "will not be tolerated." the amended code also sets out ministers' duty to report any meetings they conduct overseas. a year ago today, the late martin mcguinness resigned as stormont‘s deputy first minister. his party, sinn fein, and the democratic unionists have since been unable to reach an agreement to restore the power—sharing coalition. civil servants have been running northern ireland, but they're not able to make any major decisions. 0ur ireland correspondent, chris page, has been looking at the impact of 12 months without government. just like everywhere else in the uk, the health service in northern ireland is under severe pressure this winter, but what's different here is that there's no health minister. three months before it collapsed, the devolved government published a plan to restructure the nhs after a report said the system was at breaking point.

no problem with your blood pressure before? no. this gp says urgent reforms are being held up because ministers are out of office. we already see it with the long waiting lists for secondary care. we see it with the lack of investment in social care. we see it with the issues around the out of hours service and we see it with the heavy demands on access to gp services, and that's where the patients will see it primarily. others who rely on public money to do theirjobs say that uncertainty is unacceptable. you're too neat by nature. this workshop for people with dementia is one of hundreds of programmes run by community arts organisations. they say their future is shaky because of funding cuts, but they feel they've nowhere to go to make their case. we have no government, we have no champion, we have no minister. so we've nobody to turn to to support policy changes, to support the communities here. this is a crisis moment for us. the political crisis is apparently

still as deep as a year ago. martin mcguinness ended sinn fein's uneasy partnership with the democratic unionists when he resigned as deputy first minister. there have since been elections to stormont and westminster and several rounds of talks to restore power—sharing. but many days of negotiations have failed to break the deadlock. the dup and sinn fein increased their dominance in both elections last year and they blame each other for the stormont stalemate. in the meantime, unmade decisions are piling up. half of the construction industry's business comes from public sector projects. workers are concerned about a downturn in demand. within the next few months, unless decisions are made and projects and things start to move forward, i think we could see a situation where we're seeing layoffs in the construction industry. we need to see the executive and the assembly reestablished as soon as possible. the british and irish governments are aiming to restart

talks between the parties in the coming weeks. at the moment, there's no sign of a deal to bring devolution out of the deep freeze. chris page, bbc news, belfast. prince harry and his fiancee meghan markle have visited a youth radio station in brixton, in south london, on their first royal engagement of the year. hundreds of people lined the streets outside the reprezent studios to welcome them. nicholas witchell‘s report contains flash photography. they travel with all the paraphernalia of royalty, but harry and meghan are the new royal couple determined to do things just a little differently. so this was a visit to a radio station, housed in old shipping containers. cheering believe it or not everyone is listening and i'm in the same room as the royal couple right now. this is reprezent fm in brixton, south london, set up 10 years ago

to help tackle inner city issues, like knife crime. it gives young people a purpose and trains them to be broadcasters. i can see why your show‘s so popular because you're so thoughtful in the approach, but also so engaging to listen to. thank you. inside the station, harry and meghan were getting to know the broadcasting class of 2018. 0utside it was apparent that royalty‘s newest recruit is reaching new audiences herself. the support from brixton, it was just a lot of people of colour that were just cheering her on. obviously you could tell that she was quite surprised the reception she got. she looked shocked, didn't she? i thought that, yeah. yeah, because everyone was shouting for meghan and not really harry. get out of the way. we want to see meghan! "we want to see meghan", demanded the crowds in south london. expect to hear a lot of that between now and the wedding in may, and beyond. nicholas witchell, bbc news. time for a look at the weather.

here's chris fawkes. we look at the weather going on in the kalps. a two—day snowstorm that brought huge falls of snow. 160 centimetres of snow, it has shut the resort. it's high across a wide range of alpine resort areas. people have been stranded at times without power. towns are digging out from the huge snowdrifts. we have had low cloud today, mist and fog patches and drizzle widely. there have been brighter spots, cumbria and western scotla nd brighter spots, cumbria and western scotland seeing fine weather and sunshine. we are seeing a change ta ke sunshine. we are seeing a change take place at the moment. this band of rain is edging in off atlantic. there are bumps along this weather front. that is a sign we could see

an area of low pressure form along the front which would slow it down. that heavy rain will get across northern ireland into parts of scotland. the rain lighter in england and wales. tomorrow the complication is if we do get an area of low pressure forming along the front it could really put the brakes on this front, particularly across eastern scotland and north—east england. these are perhaps the favoured areas for the rain lasting into the afternoon. it could be elsewhere across eastern england too. we will see sunshine further east. temperatures five or six, not as cold as it has been in the north, milder to south—west england and wales later in the day. mist and fog to start the day on thursday. some of these will be slow to clear. decent day weather wise. bright or sunny spells. chilly in the north, three or five degrees celsius. cooler further south. that is three or five degrees celsius. coolerfurther south. that is how the weather is shaping up. a reminder of our main story. barry bennell —

a former football coach — goes on trial accused of 48 historical sex offences. the court was told that he had almost "unfettered access" to young boys dreaming of success in the professional game. that's all from the bbc news at six, so it's goodbye from me and on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. bye bye. this is bbc news. i'm clive myrie — our latest headlines... a court has been told the former football coach, barry bennell, was a "predatory and determined" paedophile who engaged in the systematic abuse of young boys. he denies 48 counts of child sexual abuse. theresa may's ministerial reshuffle continues. downing street says the new cabinet is the right team to tackle the challenges ahead. labour has called it lacklustre. north korea has agreed to military talks with the south and to send a delegation to the 2018 winter olympic games there next month. the two countries held their first talks for more than two years. the number of people waiting more than four hours in scotland's accident and emergency units reached record high levels in

the last week of the year. in a moment it will be time for sportsday, but first a look at what else is coming up this evening on bbc news... we'll hear from the south korean ambassador to the uk in beyond 100 days. a robot designed to run a smart home on behalf of its owners proves media shy at its public debut. and they say you should never work with animals... we'll show you what happened when a bbc reporter went to meet a group of lemurs in norfolk. that's all ahead on bbc news! now it's time for sportsday. hello. i'm 0lly foster, these are our headlines tonight: after a weekend of fa cup action, it's now the league cup semi—finals. we'll be at the etihad, where manchester city are back in action.

after a year of controversies and criticism