tv BBC News BBC News October 21, 2018 3:00pm-3:31pm BST
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this is bbc news, i'm annita mcvey. the headlines at 3pm. the brexit secretary dominic raab says the uk could agree to extend the brexit transition period by about 3 months— but only if the eu drops its demand for a northern ireland ‘backstop' we do not accept this proposition it's that or no deal, and it's notjust us. these are the only outstanding issues. the good news is, actually, on the vast range of other issues, we are close to getting there. the coastguard says that everyone has been accounted for, after an isle of wight car ferry hit at least two yachts while trying to dock at cowes in heavy fog. president trump says the united states will pull out of a nuclear weapons treaty it signed with russia more than 30 years ago — because moscow has repeatedly violated the terms. russia has not, unfortunately, honoured the agreement. so, we're going to terminate the agreement. we're going to pull out. ryanair says it will ban unruly passengers from travel in future, after video shows a man racially abusing a black woman on a flight to stansted airport.
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and coming up, ryanair says it will ban unruly passengers from travel in future after video appeared to show a man racially abusing a black woman on a flight to stansted airport. and click meets the man who launched the level landed a space probe on an asteroid. good afternoon. the brexit secretary dominic raab has said that any agreement to allow an extended brexit transition should be instead of, not as well as, a "backstop" to avoid the return to border checks in ireland. the 2i—month transition is currently expected to end on 31 december 2020. mr raab says an extension would only be for around three months. 0ur political correspondent tom barton reports. what we want? people's vote, when to
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be wanted, now! people's vote, when to be wanted, now! a day after hundreds of thousands of anti—brexit campaigners took to the streets to call for another referendum, today, the focus is back on theresa may. suggestions that a leadership challenge could be imminent, backbenchers warning that her administration cannot function. but as brexit negotiations intensified, a warning from the man in charge of speaking to the eu that the conservative party needs to pull together. we are at the end stage of the negotiation. i think there is understandable jitters on all sides of this debate. we need to hold our nerve. the end is in sight in terms of the good deal, the prize we want, a good deal with the eu. and i think colleagues should wait and see what that looks like. it won't be a question of a fait accompli. dominic raab suggested that a proposed extension to the transition period could last for around three months, but that the eu would need to drop
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demands for a backstop over the irish border. and he said a deal would need to be struck by the end of november, but his european counterparts say the ball is in britain's court. this agreement is almost ready but we still have to fix the question of the irish border and we have to have definitive answer or at least no temporary measures which disappear and we do not know what to do after that. this is the question that we have. whatever deal theresa may agrees with the eu will need to be signed off by parliament. with many of her backbenchers opposed to the proposals that are currently on the table, she could be forced to ask labourfor support. the opposition suggesting, today, that would be unlikely to be forthcoming. we have always said any support we give would be conditional which is why we set out a number of tests at the beginning of the exercise, and we will obviouslyjudge the deal against those conditions when it comes back.
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but we have equally never accepted and are not going to accept this argument it is either my deal or no deal because on that logic you would be putting to me that the labour party should back anything the prime minister brings back. as the deadline for a deal approaches, the rhetoric on all sides is getting tougher. tom barton, bbc news. a ferry has hit at least two yachts while trying to dock at cowes harbour on the isle of wight. the red funnel operated vessel, with 56 people on board, ran aground at the entrance to the harbour in heavy fog. the coastguard said that no one has been injured and the ferry has been refloated. the ferry company has since apologised to the yacht owners. andy moore reports. mid—morning, after the fog had lifted, the red falcon was towed from the spot where it went aground back into harbour. all 56 people on board were said to be safe and well. but further out in the middle of this image, you canjust about see the mast of a yacht that sank in the collision. the ferry hit several vessels
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and shouts for help were heard. it was incredibly thick fog. you could see maximum five metres in front of you. i heard shouting and a sort of clanging, like a metallic clanging sound and then nothing. later, the coastguard said the sound of shouting was somebody raising the alarm. but at the time, there were fears several people might have been thrown into the water. a major search was launched involving three lifeboats. a coastguard helicopter had to turn back because of the poor visibility. as the ferry finally came into port, red funnel said it wanted to apologise for any disruption. last month, another of the company's vessels was involved in a similar incident in fog in cowes harbour. but on that occasion, there was only what was called "light contact" with the yacht. andy moore, bbc news. 0ur reporter matt graveling sent us this update from cowes harbour. some of these cars currently
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being loaded on to red 0sprey have been waiting in cowes for as much as six hours and that delay was caused when the previous ferry, red falcon, ran aground at around 8am this morning. it happened in amongst dense fog and the coastguard and rescue search team immediately went out because they were told they'd heard cries for help in the water. they later told me it turns out there were no casualties, but on the way to its grounding the ferry did hit a boat called greylag, private vessel owned by a man called nigel minchin. it's now at the bottom of the water and its mast is visible just above it. as you can see, cars continue to be loaded onto the ferry here behind me. these are the people who were hoping to catch the 8:30am to southampton. obviously it a lot later than that now and it has caused delays, which will continue for the rest of the day. russia has warned of the dangers of president trump's
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decision to pull out of a landmark nuclear weapons treaty — calling it unacceptable and dangerous. the treaty signed thirty years ago eliminated short to intermediate range nuclear missiles. mr trump has accused moscow of developing a weapons system that violates the agreement. here's our moscow correspondent sarah rainsford. it is more than three decades since this landmark moment, the soviet and us leaders signing a treaty that's been key to curbing the nuclear arms race, ever since. the intermediate—range nuclear forces treaty, or inf, led to the destruction of a whole class of weapons, capable of a nuclear strike in europe with barely any warning. but the us has long suspected today's russia, undeeradimir putin, of violating the treaty. now, donald trump says he's had enough. the us president declared that america will withdraw from the deal. we're not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we're not allowed to. we're the ones that have stayed in the agreement and we've honoured the agreement,
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but russia has not, unfortunately, honoured the agreement. so, we're going to terminate the agreement, we're going to pull out. russia's foreign ministry has condemned that as unacceptable and dangerous. moscow denies it's violated the arms treaty, calling washington's conduct crude and clumsy. if this goes on, the deputy foreign minister warned russia will have no choice but to respond. the us national security adviser, john bolton, is due back in moscow this week. and russia's looking to that visit for an explanation of president trump's move. some, though, are already warning of a new arms race. well let's get more now from our washington correspondent, chris buckler. president trump has something of a track record of pulling the us out of various agreements, how much backing does he have for this step? to be fair, if you look at this,
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it's not just frustration to be fair, if you look at this, it's notjust frustration with this administration, but the administration, but the administration before. russia has developed and deployed a cruise missile, which does breach this agreement. the white house has been saying for some time, that russia needs to address that. it shouldn't be developing or using these missiles. that's something the us has been telling the russians time and time again. there's also a frustration may feel that their hands have been tied, whereas russia can do what it wants. this is a bilateral treaty, so it doesn't apply to other countries. there are some within the administration that are looking at china and saying, ultimately, if these other countries are allowed to develop missiles, why isn't america? they are discussing a
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whole range of issues, and they have been these growing speculation is that he would take this message, ultimately, the us will pull out of this historic treaty. president 0bama was persuaded not to pull out of the treaty because of concerns that such a move could restart a n concerns that such a move could restart an arms race. they must be that concern again. a second part to this question if you like, how much of what president trump has done has played to his supporters?” of what president trump has done has played to his supporters? i think there is a concern about an arms race. i think that falls into the category of concerns in the us about china as well as russia. there is the danger of people trying to develop and build arms in order to almost worry the others, or say they are standing against the others. everybody suddenly find themselves ina everybody suddenly find themselves in a position of trying to develop weapons. that's a concern, and this was ultimately about trying to
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ensure that did not happen. that's why even the likes of me gorbachev was involved in the signing of art with ronald reagan has ultimately said this could be a very bad thing and people should think twice. but on the point of his own supporters they will be some people looking at this and saying, there are midterms coming up, president trump wants to be seen as hard on russia, despite the language that he is reaching out to vladimir putin. ultimately that will play very well with his support base. there are others who are saying if you look at president trump, sometimes he negotiates like this, he says he's doing something to push a country into a position of coming back and saying, can we not about this. he's got this quite belligerent negotiating style. he said we are withdrawing from this treaty. up until now america has been trying to talk to russia, this is something different. it might
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well be another attempt to get russia to think twice. thank you very much. at least 17 people have died after a passenger train derailed and flipped over in taiwan. more than 70 people have been injured in the accident in northeastern yilan county. images from the scene show the high—speed express train completely derailed and lying zig—zagged across the railway tracks. the eu has described the death of journalist jamal khashoggi inside the saudi consulate in istanbul as ‘deeply troubling'. it comes as pressure grows on the saudi authorities to explain the circumstances surrounding the death of the prominent critic. turkish officials say they have evidence he was murdered, but saudi arabia is claiming he died in a fist fight. meanwhile, the us president has said he is "not satisfied" with saudi arabia's account of the death ofjamal khashoggi. president trump had previously called saudi's explanation "credible" and termed it an "important first step." well i spoke to professor scott lucas —— a professor of international studies at the university of birmingham ——
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and asked him what might have caused trump to change his stance. well, he's been spinning a bit like a weather vane, it is not exactly a change, there is a couple of constants here. 0n the one side, you've got trump who's putting it a priority, and he is a businessman. 0n the idea that america must have this $110 billion arms deal with saudi arabia that he announced last year when he visited riyadh. so whatever has happened, he has reconfirmed the us wants to maintain that relationship and indeed, the treasury secretary, steve mnuchin, is going to riyadh on thursday for discussions with the saudis despite the khashoggi affair. add to that the fact that trump's son—in—lanared kushner, who is the main washington contact for the saudis is sort of saying, this will all pass, we have to maintain support of the saudi monarchy. but on the other side, trump is under pressure, he's under pressure from legislators and his own agencies who are saying, we have the evidence of saudi responsibility for what is a murder.
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whether or not it was a deliberate murder or an abduction gone wrong and you simplyjust can't let this go unchecked. so now what i think you get is, you get trump on the one hand saying it's serious, we will await the report and look at what we can do. 0ne bottom line is, he really intends to change very little, i think in terms of this substantial us relationship with the saudis. and we often see donald trump flip his position, or at least what he's saying publicly on a whole range of issues. so bearing in mind those billions of dollars worth of deals that you were alluding to and the pressure at home, what is the biggest factor for donald trump there? i think the biggest factor, if you are talking about donald trump personally, is that donald trump likes regimes who give him adulation and the saudis have done that. he likes the idea of businesses that will deal with the us one on one and the saudis have done that. and he likes the idea of ties between his family and those overseas and the saudis have checked that. 0n the other hand, donald trump
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is a politician who does not want to continually take criticism and so i think he'll continue to try to limit that over the next week or two, by saying i am really concerned. one other factor here as well, although this is not a huge factor in the us congressional elections on november the 6th, i think donald trump and his allies were concerned that attention to this issue is sucking oxygen out of the elections, when they'd rather be talking say about the us economy orjust about how wonderful the president is. what do you think is the most plausible explanation of what has happened to jamal khashoggi? i happen to have a couple of contacts who are in the saudi system and they said at the start of this, we've abducted people and put their hands up and said we've done that. we've never killed anyone before in one of our diplomatic missions. taking that at face value and then adding the evidence without saying i'm definitive about this, i do believe that khashoggi
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was going to be abducted, taken back to saudi arabia and detained and an something went wrong. he winds up dead and then they had to get rid of the body. the headlines on bbc news: the brexit secretary dominic raab says the uk could agree to extend the brexit transition period by about three months — but only if the eu drops its demand for a northern ireland backstop. the coastguard says that everyone has been accounted for, after an isle of wight car ferry hit at least two yachts while trying to dock at cowes in heavy fog. president trump says the united states will pull out of a nuclear weapons treaty it signed with russia more than 30 years ago — because moscow has repeatedly violated the terms. us grand prix that starts later today.
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victory in texas would see him win the tirle for a fifth time, with three races to spare newcastle falcons have made it two wins out of two in rugby union's champions cup. callum chick with the winning try in the 89th minute against montpellier. and in the women's super league , leaders arsenal going to make it 6 wins out of 6, they are currently beating reading a—nil in the second half i'll be back with more on those stories later. an investigation is under way after a woman died in a suspected gas explosion at a flat in north—west london. a baby was among three people who were rescued from the first floor of the building in harrow during the early hours of this morning. part of the building collapsed after the blast. about a0 people were asked to leave their homes nearby as a precaution. a man has died after the car he was driving hit a lorry
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on the north circular in london — after failing to stop the collision happened in the early hours of sunday morning. emergency services attended the scene and driver of the car, believed to be aged in his 30s, was pronounced dead at the scene. nobody else was injured and the independent 0ffice for police conduct has launched an independent investigation children with life—limiting conditions have been let down by the nhs and local councils across england, according to a new report. a cross party group of mps says as many as one in three clinical commissioning groups do not provide specialist out—of—hours care. the department of health says it remains dedicated to improving patient choice for everyone through their end of life care commitment. hundreds of central american migrants have used rafts and boats to cross the river marking the border between guatemala and mexico, in an attempt to continue theirjourney to the united states. thousands of people were left stranded on the frontier bridge after mexican police stopped them entering the country on friday.
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aleem maqbool reports. it is a bridge that, for the white house, is now an immigration battlefield. straddling guatemala and mexico, it is currently home to thousands of migrants who have trekked from honduras wanting to get to the us. though they still have to get through mexico which is not letting them in, president trump has described "we plead to donald trump," this woman told us, "may god soften his heart so we can enter the us, children are sleeping on the floor and we don't know how long we'll be here, it's not fair." it has been a heartbreaking time for some. we met this man who got split up from his 13—year—old son five days ago and has not seen him since. translation: i am upset and don't know what to do. should i continue and hope
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he arrives or should i turn back? i need him so much. they have all been risking the dangers, desperate for a better life in the states. small numbers of people have been allowed across the border — but for the most part, the mexican gate has remained shut. with living conditions here on the bridge getting more difficult, we are seeing many trying other means of trying to get to mexico. after a week of threats from washington, central american governments have come to an agreement, to transport people back to their home country for free if they sign up. reluctantly, nearly 600 have already put their names forward. translation: we are sad because we thought we would make it to the us. when you come from poverty, you try to be optimistic but it's been difficult.
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we are returning to suffering. for some americans, the sight of migrants giving up is a welcome one. for others, it's an embarrassment that their country, built on the idea of taking in those seeking prosperity, now delights in turn them away. but some migrants just won't take no for an answer. we saw some of the hundreds who have decided to cross into mexico by boat, determined and desperate enough to continue theirjourney to the usa by any means. aleem maqbool, bbc news, on the guatemala—mexico border. afghans who were unable to vote in saturday's parliamentary election, have been given another chance to cast their ballot. voting times were extended to a second day due to security threats and warnings of fraud. according to officials around three million afghans voted on saturday, but there were complaints that polling stations remained closed, often because staff failed to turn up.
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0ur correspondent secunder kermani's is in kabul and has the latest. turnout, it seems according to afghan officials, around 3 million voters went to polling stations yesterday to cast their vote. the election commission has been criticised for delays that led to voting being extended but they said that yesterday 3 million cast their vote. it was decided a while back that one third of all polling stations across the country would have to remain closed because of security concerns. there had been dozens security concerns. there had been d oze ns of security concerns. there had been dozens of attacks across afghanistan over the past two days. most of them had been fairly small—scale. there hasn't been quite the disruption many feared they would be. especially when you bear in mind that a lot of people in afghanistan, until recently, thought there was a chance elections would have to be
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delayed. in terms of what happens next we aren't expecting final results until december. in previous elections the results have been furiously disputed with widespread allegations of fraud. there are fears that the same could happen again, despite the last—minute introduction of biometric voter registration systems. nevertheless, afg ha n registration systems. nevertheless, afghan officials will feel that these elections have been something ofa these elections have been something of a success. there are a positive sign that next year's more politically significant presidential elections will go ahead as scheduled. ryanair has been criticised forfailing to remove a passenger from a flight after racial abuse of a woman in her 70s. the incident, on a flight from barcelona to stansted on friday, was recorded by a fellow passenger and shared on social media. many people said ryanair should have removed the man from the flight and have threatened to boycott the airline. ryanair said it "will not tolerate unruly behaviour like this". let's talk to david lawrence, who was on the flight returning from a business trip and filmed what happened... thank you very much for your time
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seat, two rows behind me and her daughter was further behind. i made myself comfortable, and then passengers were still coming on the flight. i passengers were still coming on the flight. i heard a man's voice behind me shout at the woman, no, i'll move you. i turned around, i turned around, and the man was standing over the elderly woman shouting and telling her to get out of the weight because he wanted to sit down. her daughter came up to the scene, telling the man not to speak to her mother like that. then the abuse started to come out. i grabbed my phone, and i started to fill it, because it seems as though the cabin crew weren't around. they weren't getting involved. this went on for a few minutes and the gentleman behind the lady stood up and tried to calm the lady stood up and tried to calm
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the situation down. the man then came up with a lot of racial slurs and abuse. a cabin assistant turned up and abuse. a cabin assistant turned up and tried to calm the situation. i looked around, and no one was saying anything. the passengers were all giggling, and all sorts of things. their reaction will shock me to this day. how long did it take the cabin crew to arrive and intervene? it took them too long. it went on, i think in the footage, it went on for two or three minutes. it was very loud. it was, you could see that the whole plane knew something was going on. and this man had a very loud voice. so everyone could hear what he was saying quite clearly. voice. so everyone could hear what he was saying quite clearlym
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voice. so everyone could hear what he was saying quite clearly. it was clear to you that what began as a very rude response from him quickly turned into racially abusive language? it was very ugly, very ugly. he was saying things that are unrepeatable. he referred to the woman's looks as being too ugly to sit next to. he said don't speak to me in a foreign language. these types of things, it was disgusting. as i said, he said a lot worse. did the crew seem equipped, did you get any sense that they were trained to cope with a scenario like this? this was part of my amazement. i thought that an airline as big as ryanair, they would have these types of procedures in place. i was shocked to see that there was none.
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they were young attendants, you know, they didn't know how to deal with the situation and it went and checked. it just felt as though they we re checked. it just felt as though they were unprofessional on their part. the man wasn't removed from the flight, the man wasn't removed from the flight, do you think you ought to have been? 0h, absolutely. in fact, they move the lady! which is quite astounding. if you look at the reaction on social media people are gobsmacked by that, that she was the one that had to move. exactly. what was the atmosphere like for the rest of the flight? it was. i mean... itjust seemed as though nothing had happened. everyone continued their flight. it was a regular occurrence, i everyone continued their flight. it was a regular occurrence, ifelt everyone continued their flight. it was a regular occurrence, i felt so uncomfortable the whole flight. 0ne
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passenger said to me during the filming, don't you think what you are doing is wrong, filming this. did you see what happens to this man when he throttled when you got to sta nsted and people when he throttled when you got to stansted and people were getting off the flight? no... apologies, we've lost that connection just as we were coming to the end of the interview with david lawrence fulfilled to the abuse on the ryanair lawrence fulfilled to the abuse on the rya nair flight from lawrence fulfilled to the abuse on the ryanairflight from barcelona. ryanair has the ryanairflight from barcelona. rya nair has issued the ryanairflight from barcelona. ryanair has issued a short statement saying that they have alerted essex police to the incident, that was david lawrence whose film of that incident has been shed millions of times on social media. it's time now for a quick look at the weather forecast. hello. call it has been
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arriving across scotland and northern ireland today. 20 degrees yesterday, temperatures this afternoon more typically about 12 degrees. a few showers as well. this cloud is the cold front bringing some rain. it's light and patchy and pushes southwards for the best part of the night. followed by clear skies and a cold night. temperatures in towns and cities get down to two orfour in towns and cities get down to two or four celsius, in towns and cities get down to two orfour celsius, in the in towns and cities get down to two or four celsius, in the countryside we could see pockets of frosts just about anywhere. it's going to be a cold start on monday, but clear blue skies for many of us find plenty of sunshine. heavy rain at that pushing across 0rkney and shetland where it's thought it's going to be quite windy. the cool air arrives across england and wales, so temperatures not as high as they have been today. looking at highs typically of around iii celsius.
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