Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20170828

Honour the victims of the grenfell fire. And in half an hour, newsbeat asks if its time for change to attitudes to the legalisation of cannabis good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. Ten of thousands of People Living in the us state of texas have been ordered to leave their homes, as flooding, caused by Tropical Storm harvey, continues to cause devastation. Its expected up to 30,000 people may need temporary emergency shelters, with more than two and a half feet of rain fallen on the city of houston alone. Unconfirmed reports suggest up to five people may have drowned, but Officials Say they cant confirm figures until the flood waters recede. Thousands of people have had to be rescued, many plucked from rooftops by helicopter. 0ur correspondent Laura Trevelyan is in la grange, 100 miles west of houston in texas for us. Welcome to this Small Community la grange is about 100 miles west of houston. This is a microcosm here of the devastating, catastrophic flooding which is ravaging this region. Behind me you can see the Colorado River has broken its banks and flooded the main street. The actual river is about a quarter of a mile away from here. But whats happened is that with the extremely heavy rainfall in the wake of Hurricane Harvey making landfall on friday, the river hasjust Hurricane Harvey making landfall on friday, the river has just increased and increased and finally burst its banks. You can see that homes, businesses are flooded. Some of them almost submerged. You can see the mailbox there, just exactly the level of the flooding. Normally the river is at about eight feet. Now its 53 feet high. Quite extraordinary levels of water rising and whats more the water isnt going to crest, were told, for at least another three to four hours. In the time that we have been here, the water level has risen by at least a foot. Heres my colleague richard liser. Taking only what they can hold, the people of houston are trying to escape the deluge. Three days of torrential rain and the most powerful hurricane in 50 years have left this city struggling to cope. An armada of rescue boats is patrolling the streets. More than 2,000 people have been rescued so far, but the Emergency Services say they have had at least 5,000 calls from people who are trapped. We have a two storey home, and on the first floor, its up to here, and all the furniture is just floating. Everything. Mattresses, all. With the roads flooded and dangerous, people have been told to stay in their homes and wait for rescue there, but inevitably many have been trying to flee on their own, risking their lives to find higher ground. But those at the edge of the floods reach know that they will be next as the rain keeps falling. They are getting out while they can. 0ne lady wont come out. She is handicapped. Shes over here on the left side. So we know shes there. We know a couple of houses saying they are going to ride it out. The owner of this care home photographed the rising flood. Her daughter tweeted it, pleading for help. She said within ten to 15 minutes, the water went from ankle high to waist high, so immediately they were under water and floating. The National Guard saw the photo, and eventually everyone was led to safety. But there are many others still waiting for rescue, perched on rooftops, calling for help. Helicopters are patrolling the city to coordinate the rescue effort. They have been pulling people from the flood, too, but it is a slow and dangerous process. And houstons problems are only going to get worse. Parts of those regions will continue to receive incredibly heavy rain that will lead to even more flooding and more danger for texans. Emergency centres have been set up for those forced out of their homes. The authorities estimate in coming days theyll need shelter space for some 30,000 people. More are being made homeless all the time and some are concerned about the governments response. The mayor is giving a press conference. Lets listen in. We are scheduled to talk again somewhere around noon. I do want to highlight that situation. They are releasing water, but its gradual release. What theyre indicating if they dont do it, lets say they hold back the water and it builds up, and then it will be force, it will go around and the situation would be worse. This is a gradual release. Steve, you are more familiar. Do you want to speak to it . Steve costello. Yes, we were advised yesterday that they were going to start discharging out of both attics and barker. Before a flood, generally the gates are closed so that they can contain the water coming closed so that they can contain the watercoming in closed so that they can contain the water coming in from upstream so the down stream flooding can continue. So the issue here has to be the pct that there theyre getting a lot of water upstream of the dams. Theyre concerned about the water levels rising very, very quickly. What theyre doing now is what we would call a controlled release rate. At the same time, while theyre releasing the water out of the reservoir theyre Real Time Monitoring the water levels. Theyre going to maintain what is happening there today. You wont see a decrease at buffalo bayou, you will see it at the level it is today. If they get water upstream thats going to change. But were not anticipating an increase in flooding cowboy stream there. There was a flooding down stream there. There was a comment about where they live what to what bayou, if youre next toa what to what bayou, if youre next to a stream in between i 10 and then thats buffalo bayou. That was the mayor of houston there giving us an update on the latest situation in houston, which isjust100 miles west of where i am in la grange. You can see how fast the water levels are rising and just how fast theyre moving here. Joining me now to talk about this is ann rigdon. Shes lived here all her life, a retired teacher. Welcome to the bbc. Thank you. Can you describe for us what the last 2a hours have been like . Its been really scary for a lot of people. A lot of the people have businesses here. Theyve been evacuating. Everybody in the area has been coming together to help people get out of their homes, get out of their businesses, save as much as they can. Can you give us some sense of how much the water levels have risen here . This is a street normally. Yes. Ive lived here my whole life. Im almost 60 and its never been this high. Weve seen devastation on the golf course before, because thats right by the river. But never up this high. I think in the 30s, it had gotten up to the square. But this is like never. Youve had mandatory evacuations here. People were told yesterday that they had to get out. The hurricane made landfall on friday. Yes, yes. People werejust waiting to see, as soon as people we re waiting to see, as soon as people were told to evacuate. Here come trucks and people helping each other. It was really kind of cool for our community to see the love and the coming together. But devastating for the people who have to go through this. What do you think its going to be like when the waters recede . Well, years ago, a friend of ours was on the back side of the golf course and we went to help after the waters had receded. There is mud, three feet high. It will have to be shovelled out. Theres going to be a lot of labour and work and a lot of people coming together to help these businesses out. In houston theres a debate about whether or not there should have been a mandatory evacuation of a city of more than two million. Here, do you feel that you were given enough warning to evacuate . Here, do you feel that you were given enough warning to evacuate . |j think we were constantly being updated. People were told. Its been so updated. People were told. Its been so gradual. Its been so slow. So people had enough time to get out and get their stuff out. I think we we re well and get their stuff out. I think we were well aware and informed, yes. The other thing, youre a teacher. We know that Climate Change is happening here. That the water levels are getting warmer, that means more moisture in the air. Do you think that means we can expect more moisture feeding more hurricanes . We certainly hope not. It has the potential to be there. 0ur schools have been put off until thursday for sure, for the kids. So were just hoping everything will stop so that we can get to the clean up stage. Stop so that we can get to the cleanup stage. Thank you so much for joining cleanup stage. Thank you so much forjoining us. Thank you. So that was ann rigdon a life long resident here. We are told the water levels here, already so high, are not due to peak for at least another three to peak for at least another three to four hours. The situation here is just a microcosm of whats happening in the wider texas region, in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and this catastrophic rainfall. The brexit secretary and government officials are arriving in brussels today, for the latest round of brexit negotiations. David davis has said hed like the eu to show more flexibility and imagination in the talks. Lets hear what hes been saying in the last few moments. Ive pleased to be back in brussels for the third round of negotiations. Weve had a busy few weeks since the last round of talks. The uk government has published a large number of papers, covering important issues related to our withdrawal and our vision for a deep and special partnership we want with the European Union in the future. They are the products of ha rd future. They are the products of hard work and detailed thinking, going on behind the scenes, notjust in the last few weeks, but for the last 12 months, and should form the basis for a construct ever week of talks between constructive week of talks between the European Commission and the united kingdom. For the united kingdom, the week ahead is about driving forward the technical discussions across all the issues. We want to look in the points where we agree, unpick the areas where we disagree and make further progress on the whole range of issues. But in order to do that will require flexibility and imagination from both sides, something i think the council asked for on some subjects. Our goal remains the same we want to agree a deal that works in the best interests of both the European Union and the united kingdom. People and businesses right across europe as well. Were ready to roll up our sleeves and get down to work again once more. So, with that, lets do it. So that was david davis speaking before the talking began. 0ur correspondent adam fleming is there. How big a challenge is round three here . Yes, what david davis was doing was two things. Ill unpick what he meant when he made that statement. First of all, the British Government are pushing against the allegation that dogged them in the last round of talks that they werent prepared enough, that infamous photo with Michel Barnier with a pile of papers and david davis empty handed on the other side. They wanted to point out the fa ct side. They wanted to point out the fact that theyve published loads of position papers on a range of issues to do with brexit. Theyre not unprepared is their message. The code words there about being flexible and imagine tiff. They feel that imaginative, they feel that Michel Barnier is sticking too rigidly to things. David davis wants to broaden out the discussion from the original priorities, like the bill and Northern Ireland and Citizens Rights to talk about more grandly about what the future eu uk trade relationship might look like at the end of the process. Now you can geta at the end of the process. Now you can get a bit of a clue how that went down with Michel Barnier, whos been speaking a couple of minutes ago. We must start negotiating seriously. We need uk papers that are clear in order to have constructive negotiations. And the sooner we remove the ambiguity, the sooner we remove the ambiguity, the sooner we remove the ambiguity, the sooner we will be in a position to discuss the future relationship and a transitional period. The European Council guidelines are clear that what is expected on separation and transition and on conditions for the future relationship. The eu 27 and the European Parliament stand united. They will not accept that separation issues are not addressed properly. So what Michel Barnier is saying there to david davis is that youve got to agross these three big Priority Issues that hes identified. The eu side are not particularly impressed with the british position on those three areas. With Citizens Rights, the eu insist that the European Court of justice should be the guarantor of the rights of eu citizens living in the rights of eu citizens living in the uk after brexit. The British Government say no way. A big Sticking Point there. On the issue of the Northern Ireland border are the republic of ireland, which the uk published a paper on, that was dismissed as magical thinking last week by an eu official in private. 0n the financial settlement, the so called brexit bill, whats going to happen this week is that the uk side is going to pick apart the eus legal case for asking for a bill at all. In their words, legal case for asking for a bill at all. In theirwords, michel legal case for asking for a bill at all. In their words, Michel Barnier has massively overegged his demands for money. Thats why both men today saying they want to get down to work, but not suggesting theres going to be any dramatic breakthroughs by the end of this third round of official brexit negotiations. Thanks very much. The headlines on bbc news the authorities in houston have warned that the severe flooding, thats forced thousands of people from their homes is likely to get worse. The third round much brexit talks are taking place in brussels this afternoon, with british negotiators urging the eu to show flexibility and imagination. A lorry driver has been remanded in custody in connection with saturdays minibus crash on the m 1. He was charged with 20 counts of drink driving and dangerous driving. The latest from the sports centre. England and west indies are finally poised. England have a lead of over 200 runs against the visitors. Joe root, the first to go for 72. Malan went, having put on a Strong Partnership with ben stokes. Roston chase, who soon had jonny ba i rstow roston chase, who soon had Jonny Bairstow as well. Bowled playing on forjust bairstow as well. Bowled playing on for just 18, bairstow as well. Bowled playing on forjust18, his third wicket of the day. England on 382 7. Johanna konta leads the british contingent on day one of the us open in new york. Andy murray isnt playing after his withdrawal with a hip injury. Konta is one of four british players in action, as she takes on serbias aleksandra krunic. Konta is one of eight women who could become world number one at the end of the tournament. World number two simona halep is up against former champion maria sharapova, playing herfirst grand slam tournament since completing a 15 month doping suspension. Also in action today, Heather Watson is looking to avoid a seventh successive first round defeat at flushing liverpool have agreed a Club Record Deal to sign leipzig midfielder naby keita, with the player officially joining on july 1, 2018. The reds have agreed to pay the £48 million release clause that will allow him to move next summer. The fee will easily surpass the £35 million liverpool spent on striker andy carroll in 2011. Frenchman 0usmane dembele has become the second most expensive footballer of all time after he joined barcelona today from Borussia Dortmund for an initial £96. 8 million. The 20 year Old French International has signed a five Year Contract with the club. And the deal could rise to £135. 5 million barca spending some of the £200 million they received from Paris Saint Germain for neymar scotland and aberdeen winger Gary Mackay Steven is recovering after he was rescued from the river kelvin in the early hours of sunday. Mackay steven was pulled from the river by firefighters and treated for hypothermia. The 26 year old was on the bench for aberdeens win over partick on saturday. Great britains Ashley Mckenzie was eliminated at the first hurdle on day one at the world Judo Championships in budapest. The two time 0lympian lost by a hold down ippon to japans under 21 World Champion Nagayama Ryuju in the under 60kg category. Britishjudo has sent a team of 12 athletes to the event in hungary including rio 0lympic bronze medallist sally conway who fights on friday in the under 70kg class. Thats all sport for now. Ill have more in the next hour. Thats the thing with judo. As soon as you make one mistake, its over. I made that mistake. I tried to do a move and it was over from there. He pinned me. Itried my hardest move and it was over from there. He pinned me. I tried my hardest to get out. Unfortunately i didnt. England are current 391 7. A lead of 222. More a bit later on for you. A lorry driver has appeared in Court Following a crash on the m1 motorway in which eight people died. Two lorries and a minibus were involved in the collision near Newport Pagnell on saturday. 0ur correspondent andy moore reports. Ryszard masierak blinked back the tears and was given a tissue as all 20 charges were put to him through an interpreter. That process took some time. Court proceedings lasted about half an hour. He was denied bail. He will appear before a crown court in aylesbury next month. S afterwards, Thames Valley police made a brief statement. Six men and two women died. Four people who were injured remain in a serious condition in hospital. Weve had full cooperation from the two Freight Companies involved, and they are fully supporting us with our enquiries. Our thoughts remain very much with those affected by this tragedy. Mr masierak was driving an aim logistics lorry at the time of the crash. 12 people were in the minibus when the collision happened in the early hours of saturday morning. Tributes have been paid to the driver, cyriacjoseph. Hes been described as an extraordinary father and a great leader within the southern Indian Community in nottingham. His passengers were a group of people from india about to start a tour of europe. Three of the dead worked for an it company. The other lorry driver, david wagstaff, whos 53 and from stoke on trent, has been bailed to appear before magistrates next month. Hes been charged with 12 counts of causing death or serious injury by dangerous driving. Andy moore, bbc news. Lets get more now on the floods which have caused devastation in parts of the us state of texas. Its expected up to 30,000 people may need temporary emergency shelters with more than two and a half feet of rain fallen on the city of houston alone. I can speak now to phillip truitt, Public Information officer for the texas a M Forest Service that has been helping with rescue and relief efforts. Thank you very much for coming on. Tell us about the help youve been able to offer people here. Some of our biggest things right now has been focussing on life safety, you know getting in there, supporting the responders, trying to get people out of the flooded zones and impact zones. Out of the flooded zones and impact zones. Right now thats our number one priority. What sort of difficulties have people been facing this their homes before you and others have arrived . Besides the flooding, not having power, water, sewer. Things we take for granted. When you dont have those, its a lot different lifestyle. Often, floodwaters rising really quickly here. Yeah, floodwaters can rise fast and overtake you quickly. It only takes a few inches of water to make a road impassable. It can go from you feeling safe to fighting for your life in a matter of minutes. What are some of the rescues that youve been able to help with that particularly stick in your mind in the last 2a hours or so . I think some of the biggest things that ive seen is texans helping tetch abz. The texans, the general public helping fellow neighbours. Everybody working together as a team to save lives. Cast your mind forward. This is going to get more difficult, in a way, before it gets easier. Yeah were still getting more rain and expecting to get more rain for several days. So were going to keep having these flooding issues. Were going to have riverflooding issues. This isnt going to go away any time soon. Its going to take a long time for us to recover. A word on how this compares with previous events such as this . Is this as bad as youve ever seen it in texas . Such as this . Is this as bad as youve ever seen it in texas . This is as bad as ive ever seen it in texas. Ive been in firefighting for about 15 years. This is the worst ive ever seen it. About 15 years. This is the worst ive ever seen it. We appreciate your coming on. Thank you very much indeed. German prosecutors say a nurse who is serving a life sentence for murdering two patients, may have killed 84 others. Niels hoegel was convicted and jailed two years ago for giving lethal drug injections to intensive care patients. Investigators have exhumed more than a hundred bodies of patients who died in clinics where hoegel worked. 0ur correspondent told me how details of this case first emerged. Well the cases date back to 2005. As you said in 2015, this man was convicted to life sentence for the two murders. Now, evidence was shown that he had indeed murdered patients who were in his care, in this intensive care unit, but it later transpires that since that trial in 2015, prosecutors carried out an investigation. During that investigation, they exhumed and examined around 130 bodies of people who died while this nurse was working in the intensive care unit. They found traces of a drug in those bodies that. Was the drug which this nurse had administered through injection to patients, apparently his motive appears to have been that he wanted to create or he wanted to really ensure that these people would have a cardiac collapse, that then he would swoop in as a saviour and he would resuscitate them. All of that was really to attempt to gain recognition from his colleagues. It seems to have become quite an obsession. Of course, many of the people died. He didnt manage many of the people. Earlier today, prosecutors said, yeah, almost 90 people died in this way. But theres another 90 cases which they suspect also happened and they dont have evidence. They cant prove it. Thats because those bodies have been cremated. Its impossible to see the drug. Its likely well never know for sure exactly how many people were killed by this man. Dreadful for the families of these people whove suddenly had this news brought to them. Yeah, thats right. Thats one of the debates were seeing now in germany. 0n the one hand, this investigations been going on for a few years. The court case took a few years to come trial in 2015. There are questions about why it took so long. About how other hospital staff reacted at the time. Because the case only came to light because reporters started digging and because family members started asking a lot of questions. There are likely to be further trials now of hospital staff who are accused of looking away or turning a blind eye because it seems that people knew what was happening or suspected what was happening and that now there is talk here in germany of setting up a whistle blowing system in order for people to really calls the authorities attention when Something Like this happens. There is outrage of the murders themself but also why it took so long to uncover what happened to the people or the relatives of people who died. Volkswagens premium carmaker audi has announced the biggest management shake up in recent years. Audi, which is the biggest contributor of profits to vw, said it was replacing its heads of finance, production, hr and sales. Theyve tried to recover from the diesel scandal. The chief executive, rupert stadler, however, remains in office. The notting hill carnivalfell silent this afternoon to remember the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. Firefighters who helped tackle blaze were among thousands who held a minutes silence for the 80 people who died. The route of the parade passes near the tower in west london. Its the carnivals 51st year. Now the weather. First across texas. We have the radar here. This is Tropical Storm harvey, obviously, the rains been terrible. Weve seen that. I want to tell you why its raining so heavily and why it will continue. This is the centre of the storm. The centre is where all that wind is spiralling around. Its drifting out to sea again, which is not good news, because it means it could restrengthen a bit and its drawing yet more moisture off the sea and then dumping it back inland. It would have been better if this storm drifted further north and dried out. Thats not happening. Its dried out. Thats not happening. Its stalled. Hence were seeing yet more rain to come over the next few days. Very, very bad situation, more or less the worst Case Scenario for folks there. Here in the uk, its been a pretty warm day. Temperatures, well very warm in fa ct. Temperatures, well very warm in fact. Up to 28 degrees celsius by 7pm, its still 26 in london. Most of usa 7pm, its still 26 in london. Most of us a lot fresher than that. Lovely enough across yorkshire. However we have had cloud and rain across northern areas. Its not been across northern areas. Its not been a great day everywhere. It has been raining and been cloudy across the la ke raining and been cloudy across the Lake District and southern parts of scotland. Now some of this cloud and rain is going to move further southwards to affect wales and maybe areas across yorkshire as well. In the south, its still warm. 17 overnight. Tomorrow this weather front will move further southwards. That means more cloud across the midlands. Generally a little bit more cloud tomorrow across many parts of the uk. Still warm in the south east. This is bbc news. The headlines at four floodwater levels continue to rise in the us city of houston in texas tens of thousands more people are told to leave their homes. Brexit talks resume in brussels the eu chief negotiator calls for britain to start negotiating seriously. A lorry driver is charged with 20 counts of drink driving and dangerous driving in connection with saturdays minibus crash on the m1. He was charged with 20