Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20171230

Good morning and welcome to bbc news. The former beatles drummer ringo starr, barry gibb of the bee gees, and the former deputy prime minister, nick clegg, have all been knighted in the new year honours list. Starr said it was great to be acknowledged for his music, while gibb said the knighthood was as much his brothers as it is mine. Stars from the world of sport who are recognised include the wales and Lions Rugby Union captain, Sam Warburton, and the world cup winning england cricket captain Heather Knight, who both receive an obe. Our entertainment correspondent lizo mzimba has more details. Twist and shout twist and shout. More than 50 years after beatlemania, the fab fours drummer has been honoured with a knighthood. What would you do if i sang. Recognising ringo starrs half a century long contribution to music. I get by with a little help from my friends. Tragedy former bee Gee Barry Gibb said he was humbled and very proud to be made sir barry. With no one to love you, youre going nowhere. War horse author and one time childrens laureate michael morpurgo, who too has been made a knight, hopes his award highlights the importance of literature for young people. Reading is a great bastion against stupidity and bigotry and ignorance. It is the greatest weapon we have, really. And the greatest assistance we can give them is to make them readers. Strictlyjudge darcey bussell, who has occasionally performed on the programme too, is to be made a dame. Im dickie roper. Im the night manager. Those being made cbes, the next highest level of award, include actor hugh laurie for services to drama, and best selling riders authorjilly cooper. Absolutely knocked out. Knocked out i was thrilled. I couldnt believe it. I mean, suddenly to get a letter, you know, and one thinks ooh, god, its a bill, a gas bill or something. And its this heavenly thing, saying youre a cbe. Its wonderful. Ive got to run away. Singer and campaigner marc almond is made an obe for services to arts and culture. Musician and producer wiley, known as the godfather of grime, is made an mbe. Commentator pass to warburton. Brilliant catch by the captain in the world of sport, Sam Warburton, who has captained wales and the british lions, is made an obe. Most of those being honoured are ordinary people doing extraordinary work, like efe ezekiel, who acts as a mentorfor young people. Of course, young people are everything to me. Im passionate about them and passionate their life, their well being and their welfare, so for me to be recognised for my passion is one of the greatest honours ever, so im in complete gratitude and appreciation. The majority of honours do go to people who are not in the public eye but who have given exceptional service. And in 2018, the Honours Committee say they will be looking to particularly recognise individuals who were involved in the response to, and the aftermath of, the london and manchester terror attacks, and the fire at grenfell tower. Lizo mzimba, bbc news, buckingham palace. Lord adonis, whos resigned as the governments infrastructure adviser, has accused ministers of becoming hypersensitive to any criticism. The former labour cabinet minister says that brexit has infected the entire conduct of whitehall and has vowed to relentlessly oppose the eu withdrawal bill in the house of lords. A government source said he went before he was pushed. It would speak volumes about how they value independent advice if they were indeed proposing to dismiss me. The whole point about the National Infrastructure commission is that its an independent body giving advice to the government without the favour. Without fear or favour. One of the really depressing things about the government at the moment, which i think is unfortunate reflection of the brexit malaise sweeping whitehall, is the government has become hypersensitive to any criticism, anyone who criticises them on brexit or anyone else. Even if they are supposedly independent advisers. So michael heseltine, who was on my commission, he got sacked, even though it is an independent commission, because he opposed brexit. Now they say they were thinking of dismissing me for expressing perfectly legitimate concerns. Lord adonis. Emma vardy has been explaining he did not hold back on his comments. He gave it with both barrels to the government. Accusing theresa may of acceding to the tory far right. He has been an outspoken critic of brexit. He has attacked the government again and again. It seems his differences had become so great he had no choice but to go. Number 10 said if he had not tried to resign, they would have pushed out the door. It is clear from his interviews this morning that he is bitter about how his resignation was handled. There was a draft Resignation Letter that leaked out. Then number 10 started leaking the media. Briefing the media. He has lashed out at the government this morning, saying that for anybody who wa nts to morning, saying that for anybody who wants to stand against brexit, whitehall may be a difficult place to be. The government says he would jump to be. The government says he would jump before he was pushed. He also said he was going to go anywhere because he is unhappy about the rail franchise . Yes, he had a big followed with the government over this. Something he believes was the wrong decision by chris grayling, to allow stagecoach to get out of the franchise arrangement some years early. He said that was a bail out costing the taxpayers millions if not billions of pounds. The government says that is not a bailout. Crucially, lord adonis says his opposition to Chris Graylings decision, he wanted to shout it from the rooftops. Life was made difficult for him. He was told things could get awkward if he kept attacking the government position. That was another key part of it. Last month the government announced the bail out of stagecoach and virgin, the private sector operators of the east coast rail franchise. I believe that was a huge mistake. The government has been trying to silence me since then for criticising it, even though im an independent adviser, and i thought that position had become unsustainable. This will not be the last we see of him. The eu withdrawal bill comes to the house of lords next month and he says he will relentlessly oppose it, trying to work with other parties to inflict defeat on the government. There are those in the tory party who say his clashes with the government had become so great his resignation was long overdue. Emma vardy. Egypts former president Mohamed Morsi has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined over half a Million Dollars for insulting the judiciary. 17 other defendants will also be jailed. They were all accused of inciting demonstrations, defaming judicial personnel, and attempting to topple the state using twitter accounts. Mr morsi is already serving a life sentence for allegedly conspiring to commit terrorist acts. A fifth person has been arrested in South Yorkshire in an ongoing terror investigation. The 21 year old man was arrested last night in the firth park area of sheffield, and follows the arrests of four men in the city and nearby chesterfield in derbyshire on december 19. Younger people will enjoy the biggest inheritance boom of any post war generation thats according to the think tank, the resolution foundation, which analyses Living Standards. Those born in the 80s and early 90s, so called millenials, will have to wait for the windfall though. The study estimates that the average age they will inherit something will be 6 years old. Heres more from our business correspondentjoe lynam. Young people aged between 17 and 35 hoping to get on the housing ladder could be set to inherit a lot of money from their parents. But it may come too late for some. According to the resolution foundation, the value of inheritances is set to double over the next 20 years, thanks to baby boomers aged between 50 and 70 leaving behind expensive property. But the think tank says the average age someone inherits is now 61, meaning too late for many of todays house hunters. Across the piece, the financial situation, the Living Standards picture for millenials is quite concerning. Theyre earning less than those 15 or 10 or 15 years before them were at the same age. They are much less likely to own a home, and while they might be saving into a pension, it is much less likely to be one of those gold plated final salary pensions. So in the round, quite a concerning picture forfar too many millenials today. So, i7 35 year olds inheriting more money than any previous generation will only be able to use it in their old age, or by passing it onto their own grandchildren. Joe lynam, bbc news. Lets talk to laura gardiner, senior policy analyst at the resolution foundation. Thanks for being with us. In some ways this is a very lucky generation. But i suppose the question is, how the luck is distributed . I think in most reckonings below the generation would probably be the one now in their 50s and 60s, what we often call the baby boomers, it is that group that got the best of the house price boom and the rise and fall of final salary pensions. What the analysis looks at is what will happen to all of that money they have accumulated as they age and die. It is not surprising that their children will benefit from that. But we should not see this as a silver bullet. The Living Standards challenges that face millennials, it will come too late for those who will come too late for those who will inherit. At the family stage family raising stage of life. The millennials are much the millennials are much the millennial haves much likely to inherit than the millennials have nots. Presumably the older they are inheriting, the less likely there is to be much of an inheritance, because the way policy is going their parents, the people they are inheriting from, are likely to have to spend more of their money on living, because they are living longer . Exactly. There are a lot of unknowns in terms of what happens to the wealth accumulated by older generations in the next decades, and how much of it is left at the end of life. The biggest unknown is probably social care costs. We have not modelled those directly in the analysis partly because it is not clear what the regime will be in yea rs clear what the regime will be in years to come macro. But there are things like social care costs and other costs that could change the picture over time. Less, other costs that could change the picture overtime. Less, it other costs that could change the picture over time. Less, it seems pretty clear that inheritance will play a bigger role in the future than in the past. I think it is really important to think about who is getting them, when they are getting them and other policies could make things a bit more evenly shared. Is there a need for more creativity in terms of treasury thinking to open hope opportunities for people, to disperse some of this inheritance at an early stage, what people are still alive . Yeah, there area people are still alive . Yeah, there are a lot of areas in which policymakers could be thinking creatively. Given that a of niall 0neills will inherit, it is important to think about how some of that money can be passed on earlier when it is more needed. Things like equity release that some people want to explore but is perhaps underdeveloped. Then i think it is also the important to think about the redistributive role of inheritance taxation. And analysis has shown there is quite a clear divide between those who will and wont inherit, and it is largely those who have assets who are likely to inherit more. We also need to be thinking about what you might call social inheritance. How much infrastructure will be leave for the next generation, how are we leaving the planet . There is too little discussed in these conversations about who has the money and who hasnt. It is a wider social responsibility to pass the environment onto the next generation. Thank you very much. Laura gardner talking to me about the new report on the prospects for millennial to and inheritance. Thousands of iranians have gathered across the country in support of the government and the supreme leader, ayatollah ali khamenei. Pro government demonstrations are taking place in iran today, following days of unrest from Anti Government protests. Jon ironmonger reports. Iran is beset by the worst public unrest for almost a decade. There have been two days of widespread protests and outbreaks of violence, particularly in the western city of kermanshah, where police used force to disperse the crowd. And the capital tehran, with reportedly dozens of arrests. What began as frustrations about the rising cost of living, have escalated, becoming a Broader Campaign of defiance against irans clerical rule. Videos posted on social media showed demonstrators chanting death to president rouhani, and death to the dictator, referring to ayatollah khamenei. The United States has become one of the first countries to respond publicly to the protest. A white house statement said irans leaders have turned a wealthy country into an economically depleted rogue state, whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed and chaos. Iran has suggested government opponents are behind the protests, and historically the regime has sought to repress political uprisings. There hasnt been the style and the precedent of authorities to really listen to what people want, and to cave in to their demands. The style and the precedent seems to be, crack down as forcefully as you can, crush it, make sure it doesnt really tip things over. And then wait until the next time that things erupt. And it is a powderkeg. Sooner or later, something will have to give in. In spite of the protests, Iranian State tv says pro government rallies would go ahead this weekend to commemorate the support in 2009 of president ahmadinejad, raising the prospect of bitter counterdemonstrations. John ironmonger, bbc news. Were joined now by Aniseh Bassiri tabrizi, Research Fellow and specialist on iranian domestic policy at Foreign Affairs think tank, rusi. Thank you very much for being with us. Thank you very much for being with us. We know, because it happens every year since 2009, that there are these organised government demonstrations, pro government demonstrations. Is there any indication that the Anti Government demonstrations were also organised . It is still unclear. The most important thing to understand is whether. Inaudible. Were not at this stage of understanding the reasons, and also the organisations. It is too soon also the organisations. It is too soon to know. I think today is a key day to understand whether there is more of a drive towards a social movement, or whether this was more a disorganised protest. There are reports today that there were also some relatively small scale demonstrations against the government taking place in tehran are particularly around the university. Is that a place where one would expect to find Anti Government sentiment . One would expect to find antigovernment sentiment . Yes, i think so. Inaudible. Im sorry to interrupt you. We are having real problems with the line at the moment. I think we will have to leave it there. If we can get you back later, we will speak again. Thank you for being with us. A candlelight vigil has been talking place at a makeshift memorial in new york, where 12 people lost their lives when fire ripped through an apartment block. Police in the bronx say the fire appears to have been started by a young boy playing with a stove. These pictures released by the new York Fire Department show the scale of the damage within the building much of the interior reduced to a charred shell, still dripping with water. Five Indian Officials have been suspended, after a huge fire killed at least 11 people in mumbai. Most of the victims were young women. The fire, at the kamala mills compound in the city, is reported to have started in a restaurant. 2 people are being treated in hospital. If the cold weather has got you thinking about summer sunshine, theres a warning today from the Consumer Group which . That holiday firms may be misleading consumers. Many tour operators promote money off deals, providing travellers book by a certain date. But a study found that half the holidays advertised were the same price or even cheaper after the offer expired. The firms involved have all denied misleading their customers. These power workers in china are responsible for maintaining what is thought to be the worlds highest power cables, hundreds of metres up above a gorge. The line gets rather steep at points, meaning they need excellent balance and quite a bit of nerve as well as strength to get back safely again. But it is a magnificent view, isnt it . The headlines on bbc news more than 1100 people are recognised in the new year honours, with knighthoods for the beatles drummer, ringo starr, and bee gees singer barry gibb, and strictly come dancing judge, darcey bussell, is made a dame. The labour peer, lord adonis, says attempts to silence his criticism of the government, forced him to step down as its infrastructure adviser. Thousands of iranian government supporters have attended rallies across the country today after two days of Anti Government protests. Sport now, and for a full round up from the bbc sport centre, heres katherine downes. Good afternoon. We start in melbourne, where australia held england to a draw in the fourth ashes test. England had been hopeful of a first win of the series, thanks to an unbeaten 244 from alistair cook, but australian captain steve smith dug in to bat out the final day with yet another century. The good news for england it wont be a whitewash. Patrick gearey is in melbourne for us. The day on which england will have hoped to complete a dramatic and exciting first victory of this ashes series, ended in an anti climactic draw. The familiar obstacle of steve smith, the thrilling captain, who scored his third century in this series. He has now scored more than 600 runs in the series. He batted australia through to see at a draw. England had a glimmer of hope earlier in the day when david warner tried to slog joe roots bowling. It gave joe root a wicket tried to slog joe roots bowling. It gavejoe root a wicket on his birthday. England got rid of shaun marsh before lunch thanks to a good catch from jonny bairstow. They had hope of getting into the australia lower order, bob smith batted alongside Mitchell Marsh to see australia through the rest of the day. The scoring was slow. The pitch was lifeless. And the atmosphere drained out of the mcg. There will not be a 5 0 ashes win for australia as two of the previous three england trips over here have seen. But england did not get the morale boosting win either. We know go to syd ney to boosting win either. We know go to sydney to see a thing that can pick up sydney to see a thing that can pick up theirfirst sydney to see a thing that can pick up their first victory of the series. We will all hold it is a bit more exciting than this one. Id love to keep winning. Id say we probably let ourselves down a little bit in the first innings. We were in a pretty good position after the first day, three down, then we lost 74 80. From then we were probably behind the game. 350 was not enough in the first innings. Credit to england. I thought they bowled really well. The main focus of this group is to win this week and go to sydney and win this week and go to sydney and win there. That mentality wasnt ha rd win there. That mentality wasnt hard to get the guys in the right frame of mind for that. They have a lot of disappointment coming away from perth. You can see the way they we nt from perth. You can see the way they went about training that they are desperate to prove a lot of people wrong and make sure that we get something good out of this tour. Staying with cricket, the england women skipper Heather Knight has received an 0be in the queens new years honours list. Her team mates, Tammy Beaumont and bowler anya shrubsole, are awarded mbes. Shrubsole wasnt even the first person in herfamily to find out. I had ihada i had a letter through the post that mum gave me when i came back. She had actually accidentally opened it. She could see the address. I think she knew a debut for me. What were your feelings when you read that . First that i might get an opportunity to meet the queen. I love the queen. But no, obviously i was surprised. It took a couple of minutes to take it all in. Also in the new years honours list, british and irish lions captain Sam Warburton has been awarded an 0be. The welshman led the lions in the drawn test series against World Champions new zealand during the summer. A full list of honours can be found on the bbc website. Celtics long domestic unbeaten run may be over, but nothing would give them greater satisfaction than a seasonal victory over rangers this afternoon. The leaders will move 14 points clear of their old firm rivals with victory at parkhead this lunchtime. They are always great fixtures to be involved in. It will be special its special to play these games at celtic park. It being the last game ofan celtic park. It being the last game of an incredible year, we want to win it. They are always pressure games, games you look forward to. But in this cycle of games we have been so busy. We only played a few days ago on boxing day. All our focus is always on those games. But the minute that finishes, then of course we look forward to this. And World Champion Bianca Walkden has rounded out her outstanding year with gold at the tae kwon do series in china by defeating Jackie Galloway in the final. She won the title and with that victory a £52,000 prize pot. The largest ever in tae kwon do. She now plans to buy a house. 2018 could be even betterfor a Bianca Walkden. Thats all the sport for now. Now the weather. Hello. Wintry weather for many. Wintry weather will take a back seat for many. Slightly milder air. Not for many. Slightly milder air. Not for everything yet. We have still got some chilly conditions across scotland. Areas of rain, sleet and snow. A few centimetres of snow over the Higher Ground as the system moves north. Temperatures between two and three degrees. Elsewhere, 8 degrees across parts of dumfries and galloway, and are sure. The rumble of thunder. The same for northern ireland. Not too many showers. A better afternoon for a northern england. The rest of england and wales, lots of sunshine into the afternoon. Strong and gusty winds in the south and south west. Temperatures in double figures are not the teens. After the sunshine, we finish with cloud and outbreaks of rain. Wetter weather pushes north overnight. The risk of minor flooding towards the south west. Winds strengthening across the board. The exception being the far north of scotland. Frost and ice here. The return of snow over the grampians. The big story tonight into tomorrow is this. The development of storm dylan. Named by the irish weather service. The republic of ireland bearing the brunt. We could still see damaging winds in northern ireland, northern scotla nd winds in northern ireland, northern scotland and north wales. There could be some travel disruption. Check with the weather warnings online. Also bbc local radio. 0utbreaks online. Also bbc local radio. Outbreaks of rain quite widely. Snow over the mountains. Winds extending into southern scotland and north wales. A blustery day across the board. Any rain for most will cure to sunshine and showers. It takes longerfor to sunshine and showers. It takes longer for things to sunshine and showers. It takes longerfor things to to sunshine and showers. It takes longer for things to brighton up to sunshine and showers. It takes longerfor things to brighton up in eastern scotland. Temperatures similarto eastern scotland. Temperatures similar to today. Strong winds to end the day. That will bring showers across the board as we head towards midnightand across the board as we head towards midnight and the start of 2018. Temperatures should be clear. Wherever you are, take a waterproof just encase. Could be showery. Clear skies in between. Into the start of new years day, the risk of heavy and persistent rain moving through the english channel. That will depart. Sunshine and wintry showers in the north and the west. Hello, and welcome to dateline london, imjane hill. Were taking time today to look ahead to the world in 2018, in britain, the rest of europe, the us and around the world. With me is the british commentator and columnist for the sunday telegraph, janet daley, the writer on arab affairs, abdel bari atwan, from germanys die welt, stephanie bolzen, and from the us, Stryker Mcguire from bloomberg. A warm welcome to you all. Thank you for joining a warm welcome to you all. Thank you forjoining us. We begin in europe. January is a time for talks phase two of the brexit negotiations will finally get underway between the uk and eu, while in germany Angela Merkel has to resume discussions about forming a government, after her attempts to do so failed in the wake of septembers election. Janet, it took a very long time to get through phase one of the brexit talks. How optimistic are you going into the next round