wales. it looks pretty messy for the weekend with some longer, heavier spells of rain and then sunday or monday, look what happens there. we start to pick up a northerly wind and temperatures plunge right the way across the uk. spring has not properly set up shop yet. you have been warned, thank you, susan. and that s bbc news at ten on tuesday the 18th of april. there s more analysis of the days main stories on newsnight with victoria derbyshire, which is just getting underway on bbc two. the news continues here on bbc one, as now its time to join our colleagues across the nations and regions for the news where you are but from the ten team, it s goodnight. the police investigation into snp finances widens. another arrest on the day the new first minister hoped to set out his stall to scotland. is the snp now in freefall and, if it is, what, or who, can stop it? can humza yousaf the snp continuity candidate distance himself from the previous sturgeon regime, when he wa
to hand to weigh up the risk. it s basically a risk management decision of weighing up the downsides versus the upsides about taking these calls. so for them to have made a decision based on this approach, that would suggest there is some evidence, some information they re looking at that i think ultimately worries them just a bit too much. but nexperia says it s ruled out any future compound semiconductor development at the newport site and has pledged to block the export of technology overseas. and some fear the government s divestment order will end up damaging, not safeguarding, this important domestic technology cluster. there s certainly a strong feeling from the industry s leaders that the absence of a national semiconductor strategy from the government is deterring vital foreign investment. we ve lost some opportunities for semiconductor companies, including compound semiconductor companies, to locate in the uk and in particular into wales, going instead to germany where there
of a new and forward thinking owner. nexperia have brought lots of benefits. they ve brought bonuses, they ve brought pay rises. they ve brought investment into both the building and the fabrication facility. it s a little bit like being given a christmas present and, suddenly, it s been taken away again and it s being kept in a box out the back and nobody really knows whether we re going to be getting it back again. the local mp thinks the way the government has handled this risks delivering a regional levelling down. we take it very personally that, you know, why is the government seeming to penalise us? yeah, levelling down is a phrase we could use very well to describe what s actually happening here in newport at the moment. if we don t have clear certainty in the next few months, these people are going to go to otherjobs. we will lose this site. there s a much bigger picture here. this newport factory sits at the centre of a welsh cluster
but the decision could mean the factory s closure, at the cost of some 500 high paying jobs. meanwhile, the government has this week again postponed the publication of its long promised and long awaited national semiconductor strategy. that comes as the eu and the us are pushing ahead with their own massive subsidy schemes for this technology, which will likely shape our everyday lives and economic fortunes in the decades to come. is the uk at risk of being left behind? here s ben. britain s largest semiconductor producer. this factory in wales produces some 32,000 silicon wafers every month. what is the newport wafer fab? what do they make here? well, it s not the super sophisticated, minuscule logic chips of south korea or taiwan. they make something here called power semiconductors. these help devices manage power efficiently. you ll find them in things like kettles, tvs and mobile phone chargers. a big buyer is the car industry, which uses them for electric brakes and windows. but
photovoltaics, and that s because of the size, weight and power advantages. there are some really crazy things going on there, some really interesting things. so at the moment, people are doing a lot of research in how to transmit power back from space to the earth safely. and once those issues are solved, you can imagine compound semiconductor, large scale photovoltaics in space, power stations in space, really very exciting. now, the newport wafer fab doesn t at the moment actually produce these cutting edge compound semiconductors that they re experimenting on in cardiff. but the government seems to think the nexperia takeover could mean valuable technological knowhow in this area being extracted from the wider welsh cluster and sent to china, or that attempts to develop it here could be stymied because of the chinese presence at newport. compound semiconductor technologies could have security and defence applications, and some insist there are valid national security reasons to blo