After he allegedly made derogatory and vulgar references to african countries at a meeting in the oval office. President trump has denied making the remarks, including the use of an expletive. A democratic senator, who sat next to mr trump, insists the president did use the phrase, repeatedly. From washington, nick bryant reports. This is a great and important day to Martin Luther kinng. The forces of American History seemed to collide at the white house today. Donald trump signing a proclamation in honour of the civil rights leader, Martin Luther king, at the moment he stands accused of using a slur directed at african nations. Here though he stuck to his script. Today we celebrate dr king for standing up for that self evident truth americans hold so dear that, no matter the colour of our skin or the place of our birth, we are all created equal by god. Reporter mr president , will you give an apology for the statement yesterday . After the ceremony came a very unceremonious commotion. Mr president , are you a racist . A sitting president being asked by a reporter if he is racist. Answer serious questions about your statement, sir . Man no. Thats a lie. Im talking to the president , not you, sir. Im talking to you. Mr president , are you a racist . It was behind closed doors in the oval office that donald trump allegedly claimed that immigrants from haiti, el salvador and african nations came from shithole countries. Donald trump said he used Strong Language during the meeting on immigration reform, with senators, though not that word. But he has been fiercely contradicted by a senior democrat who was present. I cannot believe that in the history of the white house and that oval office, any president has ever spoken the words that i personally heard our president speak yesterday. To no surprise, the president started tweeting this morning, denying that he used those words. It is not true. He said these hateful things and he said them repeatedly. From the united nation, in geneva, came the stiffest of rebukes. These are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the united states. I am sorry but there is no other word one can use but racist. You can not dismiss entire countries and continents as shitholes. Across africa there has been a furious response. The botswana government called Donald Trumps comments reprehensible and racist. It may be just words, maybe in another part of the world, but on this continent, that word is an insult. Chant build the wall, build the wall. Build the wall was the cry of voters who loved Donald Trumps hardline stance on immigration during the election. We are going to build the wall, folks, dont worry about it. And he was said to be doing a victory lap at the white house last night, believing this row will rev up his base. Donald trump launched his campaign for the white house with an attack on mexican immigrants and rose to political prominence by claiming, falsely, that barack obama was not an american. This latest racial controversy will doubtless please at least some of his supporters at home but it undercuts us leadership abroad and shows again how America First can mean america alone. Nick bryant, bbc news, washington. President trump has warned that hell re impose sanctions on iran in less than four months a move that would undermine the agreement under which tehran curbed its nuclear programme. He now wants the us and its european allies to impose new restrictions on the iranians. Iran has said the deal isnt negotiable. Bill hayton reports. Is it goodbye to the Iran Nuclear Deal . As President Trump departed for another weekend at his florida estate, he left the fate of the 2. 5 year old agreement hanging in the air. In a statement he announced this is the last time he will hold in a statement he announced this was the last time he will hold off on reimposing major sanctions on iran, but one former american diplomat says this is just a negotiating tactic. He wants to do something to improve the environment of the agreement but he does not necessarily want to pull out of it because he will not get support in the international community. So what he said is, i will do it this time, the next time this comes up which is four months from now i want an agreement with britain, france and germany. On thursday, irans foreign minister held talks with those three governments and the european union, who all signed the agreement. Together they praised the deal, saying it was making the world safer. Mr trumps latest move is intended to break up this cosy club. In effect, hes saying he will tear up the agreement unless there are three big changes. He wants restrictions on irans Ballistic Missile programmes, a tightening up of the agreed inspection arrangements, and he wants to make the agreement permanent rather than expiring in 2026. But irans response has been defiant, calling the trump move a desperate attempt to undermine the agreement. Mr trump has flown off into the sunset, leaving the ball firmly in the european court. They have 120 days to decide whether to agree to his demands or risk the end of a deal that took three years to negotiate. Bill hayton, bbc news. Lets take a look at some of the other stories making the news rescue efforts are continuing in Southern California to try to find five people still missing after a deadly mudslide. Eighteen people are now known to have died in the mudslides which hit on tuesday. Supporters of the recently pardoned, former peruvian president Alberto Fujimori have staged a rally in the capital lima. They counter mass demonstrations that have taken place against the pardon over recent days. Mr fujimori was serving 25 years for human rights abuses and corruption, but was controversially pardoned by perus current president on christmas eve. Police in los angeles say theyre investigating Sexual Assault allegations against the action movie star steven seagal. He hasnt commented on the claim, which dates from 2005. The 65 year old actor has faced allegations by several actresses in the wake of increased scrutiny on hollywood since the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke last year. Steven seagal has denied those earlier claims. Facebook has announced what it says is a major change to its news feed prioritising posts from family and friends, over those from advertisers and media organisations. The change follows criticism that too much fake news and misinformation has been ending up on the social network. Our media editor amol rajan reports. Mark zuckerbergs social network has become of the biggest distributors of news in history. Today, the company went back to its social roots. He said, one of our big focus areas for 2018 is making sure the time we all spend on facebook is time well spent. Facebooks founder admits users are being fed a heavy diet of news and adverts, together with the more personal posts from friends and family. In bristol today, many Young Facebook users agreed. Its quite clogged up with adverts for shopping and baby things at the moment, stuff i search on google. So i think it would be a lot better if it was just based around friends and family, without any adverts. Ijust feel like im being sold to the whole time. People are making assumptions about my opinions, my tastes, the things im interested in. Zuckerberg says, im changing the goal i give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content, to helping you have more meaningful social interactions. This is the biggest change to facebook for many years. It follows controversy over the promotion of fake news, with fears the platform has been used by foreign powers to subvert democracy. Todays changes arent driven by those concerns over disinformation, but theyre clearly an attempt to restore trust in a global brand and the impact on our news ecosystem could be huge. Mark zuckerberg clearly accepts that not all news is of equal value, but his changes could seriously damage some reputable news providers that have come to rely on his platform for both eyeballs and income. Brands like huffpost need the ad revenue facebook can drive. The elephant in the room is fake news and how theyre trying to clean up the timelines. The fear for publishers like us is that the baby gets thrown out with the bath water and we lose the really important real journalism, along with the fake news that theyre trying to get rid of. Google is often described as part of a duopoly that is swallowing the advertising and news industries, together with facebook. Today, in a rare interview, googles most senior british executive seemed to see this as an opportunity. Theres an upside to traditional media moving to the Digital World. You can reach 5 billion people on any device, you can use video if you come from the print industry and vice versa. You know yourself as a journalist, theres a huge ability to tell the important stories in new ways, and people are turning to the Digital World more than ever before to understand the news. For facebooks young missionary founder, a short term hit in revenues is worth it to allay accusations that its becoming the anti social network. Amol rajan, bbc news. Tunisias leaders say they will help the countrys poorest families cope with the rising cost of living, following days of protests against the governments austerity programme. The bbcs tim allman reports. For days now, in cities across the country, the protests have continued. This was the capital, tunis, with some demonstrators waving yellow cards. They are angry about an economy which is in dire straits and a government they feel is doing nothing to help. Translation this protest is against the budget, which is leading to poverty and hunger for people. Our protest is completely peaceful. We are not calling for the overthrow of the government. We are calling for the overthrow of this budget. Despite those claims there were some scuffles with police. The Prime Minister has condemned the demonstrators, accusing them of trying to destabilise the state. It is notjust tunis. This protest took place in the coastal city of sfax. Discontent is spreading. How did this come about . At the beginning ofjanuary a new austerity budget came into effect, raising taxes and leading to higher prices. Within days, people had taken to the streets. Hundreds were arrested. Now the president and Prime Minister say they will try to help low income families with new measures coming into effect in the next few days. Fresh protests have been called for sunday, the seventh anniversary of the fall of the countrys former dictator. Tunisia has long been called the one true Success Story of the arab spring, but not everybody is convinced. Stay with us on bbc world news, still to come another fine mess the discovery of rare film footage of stan without ollie is set to delight laurel and hardy fans. Day one of Operation Desert Storm to force the iraqis out of kuwait has seen the most intense air attacks since the second world war. Tobacco is americas oldest industry, and its one of its biggest, but the industry is nervous of this report. This may tend to make people want to stop smoking cigarettes. There is not a street that is unaffected. Huge parts of kobe were simply demolished as buildings crashed into one another. This woman said shed been given no help and no advice by the authorities. She stood outside the ruins of her business. Tens of thousands of black children in south africa have taken advantage of laws, passed by the countrys new multiracial government, and enrolled at formerly white schools. Tonight sees the 9,610th performance of her long running play, the mousetrap. When they heard about her death today, the management considered whether to cancel tonights performance, but Agatha Christie would have been the last person to want such a thing. This is bbc news. The latest headlines the African Union has expressed outrage and demanded an apology from donald trump, after he allegedly made derogatory references to african countries. President trump has said he wont pull out of the deal aimed at curbing Irans Nuclear programme for now but it has to change. Lets stay with our top story now on the comments by donald trump on immigration. Peter bowes is our north america correspondent with more on the reaction. Yes, universal outrage, shock and dismay from the African Union, which is the most recent group to explain how it feels about what the president is alleged to have said. This group, which represents african nations, demanding an apology and a retraction from the president. In fact, the group went as far as to say he should issue an apology to africans and all people of african descent around the world. Also today, peter, the president has undergone, we understand, his First Official health check up something which is an annual event, but his first one was today. What was the reaction to that . Little reaction so far because we dont really know a huge amount about whats happened at the health check, apart from the doctor coming out and saying that it went exceptionally well and that the president is in excellent health. The doctor saying that he will reveal more details and take questions from reporters on tuesday. This is the normal course of events when president s have their annual check up. There is nothing different here that didnt happen with president obama and previous president s. The results will be made public at least as much as President Trump wants them to be. He has the final say over all the details. Generally we get details about blood pressure, maybe cholesterol numbers, that sort of thing. Here in britian a surgeon who branded his initials onto the livers of two transplant patients has been fined and Given Community service by a court. Simon bramhall pleaded guilty to two counts of assault in december. His crimes carried out at a hospital in birmingham were discovered when the patients returned to hospital for further surgery, as sima kotecha reports. Reporter mr bramhall, whats your reaction . Simon bramhall, once a respected surgeon, now a convicted criminal. What would you like to say to the patients, mr bramhall . Today, he was fined £10,000 after pleading guilty to assaulting two patients by marking his initials on their livers. His victims were undergoing liver transplants at the time. In court, judge paul farrer qc told him well, it was here at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in birmingham where bramhall committed his offences. He marked the livers in 2013 and it was a year later, after a disciplinary hearing, that he resigned from his post. Another of his patients, who also underwent a liver transplant by him, says he shouldnt be punished. Signing his work is just his way of showing the artwork hes done. The fact that hes saved so many lives through all the operations hes carried out, mine included, because without him i wouldnt be here, just makes me think he needs to carry on doing what hes good at. Bramhall branded sb on the organs with an argon beam machine, a heat projecting device usually used to stop any bleeding. The Crown Prosecution Service compared its imprint to a minor burn. What happened was a crime. The rule of law applies equally to everybody, including doctors, so its important to hold people to account when they commit a crime of assault, and thats whats happened here. The markings were discovered after other surgeons noticed them during operations. Bramhall betrayed the trust of his patients and took advantage of them when they were at their most vulnerable. The general medical council, which has already issued him with a formal warning, will now decide whether to take any further action against the surgeon. Sima kotecha, bbc news, birmingham. Families searching for missing relatives after the Manchester Arena bombing were subjected to intrusive media attention, according to a report. Its part of a review by Lord Kerslake into the response to the bombing in may last year in which 22 people were killed. Our north of england correspondent Judith Moritz has been speaking to one of the families affected. Within moments of the Manchester Arena explosion, the attack was worldwide news. Phone footage was shared immediately. Camera crews and journalists provided round the clock coverage for days afterwards. And there were countless posts on social media, as well. There was huge interest in the stories of those most closely affected. They included the family of martyn hett, one of those killed in the blast. Martyn had a large online following and had previously been on tv. His relatives quickly found themselves in the spotlight. Press reporters arrived at their house, before the family knew that martyn had died. We had people coming round, knocking on the door, ringing the bell, basically saying, sorry for your loss, but would you like to comment . He wasnt even officially dead yet. How can anybody be so cruel and say, sorry for your loss . We didnt find out officially until that evening that he was dead. The way the Emergency Services responded to the arena attack is already being reviewed by an independent panel. Now, it will also examine the role which the media played during the aftermath. Much of the media handled families in a very respectful way. But weve heard examples where that wasnt the case and we think that needs to be explored and understood. Walk on. The long struggle of those whose loved ones died at hillsborough has recently inspired a charter for families bereaved through public tragedy. There are elements of the response that could have been better. The arena review asks organisations to sign up to it and put the needs of such families before their own reputations. I want anybody who works in our Emergency Services to know that they will be supported in coming forward to tell it exactly as it was. Because that is what we need. We need the families to have the truth as quickly as possible. In march, the full review into the attack will be published. Eight months after these 22 people died, their families lives are still dominated by the tragedy. Judith moritz, bbc news, manchester. A small family run tattoo parlour injerusalem is believed to be the oldest in the world stretching back some 700 years and spanning 25 generations. Wassim razzouk is a coptic christian and considers his family custodians of the traditional art form. We consider ourselves the custodians of this beautiful tradition of tattooing pilgrims and that is very honourable for us, we are very proud of it. We have been here in the holy land for the past 500 years. My great ancestors came from egypt we are coptic christians. When my great great great ancestor came here as a pilgrim himself, since tattooing was his profession, he continued tattooing pilgrims. 0k. So. This is the oldest block that we have. We know its about 500 years old because this stamp, which has broken a little bit, was used to do this tattoo in 1669. It is a cross because my first time in jerusalem and want it to be a very symbolic thing and im christian, so for me, its really, really important, and i wanted this to be in my skin and to never forget my faith. A lot of people tell me you know, i never really thought i would ever get a tattoo, but when i heard the story of your shop and the history of your family, i thought this is the right time and this is the right place. Thats very special, you know . Done laurel and hardy were one of hollywoods most loved slapstick double acts. Now, a New Discovery is being celebrated by their legions of fans. Fragments from the british actor stan laurels solo film detained, which were thought to have been lost, have been found. Its believed to be the only existing copy in the world. Anna holligan reports. Do you recognise this man . Look a little closer. Because that is exactly what this archivist did. Jurjen enzing had been stocktaking old nitrate films when he realised hed stumbled upon one of the silent movie worlds most captivating characters. The rediscovered scene shows stan laurel playing a prisoner, and eventually exacting a typically absurd escape. This early experiment with special effects ended up on the cutting room floor. These scenes on these fragments that we found were thought to be missing. Ted okuda and James Neibaur wrote a book about the solo years of stan laurel of which this movie is part and they described this film as being only surviving in a version 01 14 minutes and now we found the second reel of the full version so its very exciting news. Their diligence has meant this little lost movie gem has been restored. When we discovered this, we first had to make sure that its digital and when we made contact, he said it was a very exciting moment for comedy movie history and he was very glad we found the scene so the film can be a little bit more whole again. And now a digital copy of the entire 192a film detained has been released, including these missing scenes. Anna holligan, bbc news. Dont forget you can get more on all the stories we are covering and much more on the bbc news website. And you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. Hello there. For many of us, the weather has not changed a great deal over the last couple of days. Look at the satellite picture from thursday and i will show you what i mean. A largely cloudy day across many areas of the british isles. Heres a satellite picture from yesterday again showing extensive cloud cover. Well leave the satellite picture behind for a moment. Todays headline, can you guess what itll be . Yes, another cloudy day. But the weather is not that straightforward. A weather front in the west is bringing outbreaks of rain for some of us. Theres at least one change. Now, the weather will be fairly slow moving again on saturday because this weather front is coming in off the atlantic and is running into this massive area of high pressure, thats influencing the weather across much of northern and central europe, so the front will not make much progress against that massive blocking area of high pressure. It means where we start off with outbreaks of rain in Western Areas, that rain band will probably be in the same kind of errors right way through the day. But further across central and Eastern England and central and eastern scotland, for the vast majority of us for much of the day its going to be drive extensively cloudy, but a bit of breeze around. A few gaps in the cloud to allow some brighter moments. There is the forecast through saturday night. This weather front in the west will fizzle overnight with a bit of rain going in across north west england, into central and eastern areas of scotland. The winds fall light across england. We could get some mist and fog patches, with maybe the cloud thickening up a bit to allow drizzle on sunday. But for sunday, another cloudy one for most of us. A change coming into the north west. We will see another atlantic fronts moving in. This one bringing some heavy rain and fairly strong winds with it, but this one will be a big player to finally break our spell of cloudy weather. This is what happens. Sunday night and on into monday, the front swings its way southwards and eastwards across the british isles. Behind this cold front, the air gets colder. Starting to come in with a more north westerly direction and the skies will brighten up. Down go the temperatures. Through monday afternoon, highs of four or five celsius for northern and Western Areas of the british isles, cold enough for snow in the hills of scotland. Colder air on the way for next week, which means more in the way of sunshine. It means the weather will be getting colder and at times it could turn very windy, but it also means there is the risk of some snow next week, particularly in the north down to low levels, but the hills further south could also see some snow at times. This is bbc news, the headlines the African Union has expressed outrage and demanded an apology from donald trump, after he allegedly made derogatory and vulgar references to african countries. President trump has denied making the remarks, including the use of an expletive. President trump has warned that hell re impose sanctions on iran in less than four months a move that would undermine the agreement under which tehran curbed its nuclear programme. He now wants the us and europe to impose new restrictions on the iranians. Facebook has announced what it says is a major change to its news feed prioritising posts from family and friends, over those from advertisers and media organisations. The change follows criticism that too much fake news and misinformation has been ending up on the social network. Now on bbc news, its the travel show. Looking at the front pages of beforehand. The guardian
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