This is bbc news. The headlines at 8pm a state of emergency is declared in south east australia amid warnings of more bushfires. Its the largest forced evacuation New South Wales has seen as thousands flee the path of the flames. The fireball just came through at about 80 kph. Hit the house and we ran into the lake and all the embers and everything were hitting us, burned our hair little bit. Theres anger over the governments handling of the emergency, as the Prime Ministerfound out when he toured the area. How come we only had four trucks to defend our town . Because our town doesnt have a lot of money, but we have hearts of gold, mr Prime Minister. Delays and cancellations on the railways, but fares still go
up from today by an average of nearly 3 . Researchers say Artificial Intelligence can be better than doctors at diagnosing Breast Cancer from scans. Talks aimed at breaking almost three years of political deadlock in Northern Ireland have resumed. And coming up, why conservationists say bringing back the beavers to a devon river is a success, both for them and for us. In an hours time, a state of emergency will come into effect in the australian state of New South Wales, the area worst affected by raging bushfires. This will enable the authorities
to carry out forced evacuations. Already, many thousands are fleeing their homes. This map shows the fires that have been burning since monday. There are new ones breaking out all the time. Theyre concentrated in and around australias coastline, where 90 of the countrys population lives. Our sydney correspondent Shaima Khalil is in milton town, one of the areas under the evacuation order, and sent us this report. A mass exodus from the devastation on the Southern Coast and a race to escape the dangerous fire conditions ahead. Thousands of holiday makers inching their way to safety with a 48 hour deadline. Families have heeded the calls to evacuate, but because the conditions on the road are still very dangerous, there have been closures in Different Directions and now they tell us they feel stranded, having evacuated those fire risk towns, now unable to get home. You kind of have a feeling that you cant go forward, you cant go backwards. And really, you know, stuck between a burning rock and a burning rock, arent you . Just have to sit it out and hopefully, you know, not get caught in the middle ofa fire. Some families were able to get away early in the morning before the road closures. This couple lost their house and had to take refuge in the lake across the road. The fireball came over the hill just opposite the lake. We thought we had a few minutes at least. We were hosing down the house and everything, doing the gutters, what they say to do, and within two or three minutes, the fireball just came through at about 80kph, hit the house, and then we ran into the lake and all the embers and everything were hitting us, burnt our hair a little bit, and we were in there for about an hour before we got rescued. This is what theyre escaping. Burning since september, these bushfires have destroyed more than 1200 homes. The Prime Minister, who has been a staunch supporter of fossil fuels, insisted that government policy struck the right balance between supporting the economy and protecting the environment. How come we only had four trucks to defend our town . Because our town doesnt have a lot of money, but we have hearts of gold, mr Prime Minister but he got an angry reception from the residents of cobargo when he visited their town. No, hes an idiot, mate. Lake conjola is a popular holiday destination. Now it looks like a conflict zone. When kim harper came back to her house, she couldnt recognise the neighbourhood. It feels like im in the middle of the apocalypse. Like, i think someones dropped a bomb on us, basically. Thats what it feels like. In the neighbouring state of victoria, the navy has been helping evacuate people. So far, 18 people have lost their lives in the fires. Volunteer firefighter Geoffrey Keaton was one of them. Today was his funeral, where his i9 month old son harvey was presented with his fathers medal for bravery. Gusty winds and temperatures soaring above a0 degrees are set to create hazardous fire conditions in the coming days. Shaimaa khalil, bbc news, lake conjola, New South Wales. Bushfires have always been a feature of australian summers, but, as were reporting, this season has seen some of the most intense and extensive fires ever. Experts say its difficult to pinpoint a single cause, but three years of dry weather and the hottest tempertaures on record last year clearly played a part, as our science editor David Shukman reports. On a terrifying scale and burning in too many different
areas to be stopped, the flames are causing a massive shock. Even in a country that is used to fire. Usually, the blazes strike scrubland. These are instead tearing into the forests, which means the fires are hotter and taller and harder to tackle. For a sense of their size, on a map of the uk, here is the vast area in australia thats burned so far. The impact has been devastating. With lives lost among firefighters and residents, more than 1000 homes destroyed and an estimated death toll among animals of 500 million. So, whats behind these fires . Well, 2019 was the countrys hottest year on record, and the higher the temperatures, the greater the risk, because fires start more easily and plants and soils dry out. So, no surprise that australia has just come through its driest spring on record, leaving a lot of vegetation ready to burn. And this was partly caused by the waters of the indian ocean being relatively warm in the west and cooler in the east, which has the effect of leaving australia dry, and all the time the global average temperature is heading up. Scientists researching the fires say conditions have created a perfect storm, with Climate Change heating the planet and adding to the dangers. Clearly, the warmer, drier weather that we expect to see with Climate Change, and what we have probably already seen in australia, leads to more vegetation being available to burn and more vegetation being available to burn earlier in the year. So, the fire seasons have lengthened, beginning earlier and also finishing later as a result of Climate Change. The past year saw fires around the world. In the amazon rainforest, they were started deliberately to create farmland. And in california, they encroached on urban areas. A view from space of
the australian fires. The smoke drifting to new zealand, where on this glacier, the ice and the sky turned dark. The sense of threat is far from over. David shukman, bbc news. And well find out how this story and many others are covered in tomorrows front pages at 11 30pm this evening in the papers. 0ur guestsjoining me tonight are madeline grant, the deputy comment editor of the telegraph, and the Financial TimesPolitical Correspondent laura hughes. Despite delays and poor performance from some train operators, millions of commuters in england and wales will have to pay an average of 2. 7 more for their tickets from today. It means some passengers face a rise of more than £100 for their annual passes. Prices in scotland are also going up. The rail delivery group, which represents the train companies, claims average fare increases have been kept to below inflation for the third year in a row. Emma simpson reports. Back to work today and not much to smile about. As usual, train fares are going up, and it has become a january ritual. My travel in particular is affected every day because i have late trains every day and they literally crawl into london waterloo, so it makes it very difficult for me to plan, so it makes it harderfor me to understand the justification of an increase in price, when i do not see any improvements. We have had a year of bad service, but i have just come to expect now. Ijust get on with it. The service has not been particularly good over the past two or three years, so i think youll find that a lot of people are annoyed about it. Todays increases are all about regulated fares which cover around 40 of journeys, including season tickets, for instance, the annual commute from reading to london is going up by £132. From gloucester to birmingham,
it is going up by £118. And edinburgh to glasgow, its not that far behind. All these season tickets are now well over £4000 per year. Nobody wants to pay more for their fares, we understand that, but by keeping the increase just below the rate of inflation, it allows us to cover the day to day running costs of the rail industry, which then frees up billions of pounds of public and private cash which is needed to upgrade the system. But it hasnt all gone to plan. For Northern Rail commuters, 2019 saw another year of misery, delays, cancellations and overcrowding. The transport secretary says Northern Rail is no longer fit for purpose and confirmed it may be stripped of its franchise. I dont think its right that people are unable to rely on their train services, particularly in places like northern, where it has been notably bad. I will absolutely bring that situation to an end. Today, he also announced two new trials on flexible tickets, including better value fares aimed at part time commuters. We think there needs to be a huge overhaul of the system, easier to work out and also has to offer better value. That will include tickets that reflect we live now. Change could be on the way, a big long awaited review of the railway commissioned by the government is due to be published in the coming weeks. Lets pick up that point about Northern Rail. Henri murison is the director of the Northern Powerhouse partnership. He joins us from ilkley in west yorkshire. Lets start with the comments from the transport secretary there which said the performance of Northern Rail has been unacceptable. Do you agree . I think we had been in this if you know for a number of months since the may timetable debacle back in 2018. Both Northern Rail and others have had bad times in
performance terms. The only thing confusing to the commuters is the tra nsfer confusing to the commuters is the transfer secretary issuing this on the day of the fair increases. Weve known this is under review for a number of weeks and the only question is why they are not doing anything about trance pin on. They had an awful december timetable back last year was put to use chaos across the north will be will try to get home for christmas and in the run up to Christmas Day and day. There are real questions about that franchise as well as of course areva who may be stripped of the franchisor may also be given a short Term Contract to continuing the trains which is the other alternative open to the traveller terry wa nts alternative open to the traveller terry wants to process is concluded. I will ask you about the options in a moment but pick up on the point you made there, he was cynical about the fact that this came with a tame same point as the railfare increase and it was perhaps an attempt to divert attention away from the government on that one. That is true and i think my concern is the money in the budget for Northern Rail, finds being paid by the current operator, which should be spent on improvements to ensure we get better reliability because about 10 million and sort of Small Projects and medium term initiatives that would make a practical difference to commuters. But we have got transport for the north who advised government on the franchise which is a Partnership Approach but the secretary of state and the department and what do sign off and that spending but it seems to us that spending but it seems to us that not enough effort is being made by whitehall to improve the service considering they hold many of the power to do this. It was given to Northern Leaders like andy burnham and others on the yorkshire side and in the northeast who are responsible for their local areas and be able to drive and improve service we would not have seen the situation getting to the point it has gotten to. There are many parties responsible for the current chaos in the north of england on the real service and im afraid the government at the end of the day still has a lot of
responsibility and knows it couldve done more to avoid situation we are in the could also be spending more on new trains. We need more new trades and on the mainland and lessening the department is unwilling to consider because that would be something of the capacitors real value for the additional money they are being asked to pay for this year. Quickly, are you saying it is short sighted to strip arriva given the fact that arriva tends to do very well with chiltern railways. The reality if situation is long term and i think the current Franchise Agreement to by the government is fit for purpose and need a replacement and some of our politicians here would like Public Ownership and others have advocated the other way. I think he misses immunity feels we need to see action but the real risk is we do something about Northern Rail but dont deal with trance pin i when the reality is stations like Manchester Victoria and a crossing point for liverpool to newcastle across the north of england, if you are behind trance
pin nine, does not matter how good northern operators are handling their trains, they cannot run reliable behind other trains. The issues had to be sought across both operators in partnership with network rail and perhaps a bit cynical of this was put him of the government to say over the next few weeks we will see more credible analysis of government notjust about capturing headlines but doing their bit to use money that is already in the system to start putting these problems right as well as committing to put the fair rise to good use especially as passengers are putting up with pay services which were never the previous track 400 terry. The current government have got a lot of form of this issue and if theyre not going to lose a commitment of for this issue and if theyre not going to lose agreement other new found strongholds, the blue walk on the need to be a lot more careful about how to present themselves on issues like rail service. Interesting stuff. We should come back to you as things develop, thank you very much indeed. An early and accurate diagnosis of Breast Cancer is quite often
the key to successful treatment. Now researchers at Google Health and Imperial College in london have developed an Artificial IntelligenceComputer Programme that is more accurate at assessing a mammogram than one radiologist working alone and as good as two experts working together. As our medical correspondent fergus walsh reports, this use of whats called ai could well improve all cancer care. This is painstaking work. It takes more than a decade of training to become a radiologist and have the skill to read a mammogram. In the nhs, two doctors analyse every womans x rays. Now, Artificial Intelligence, a Machine Learning computer designed by Google Health, can do itjust as well as humans. This went far beyond my expectations. It will have a Significant Impact in improving the quality of the reporting and also freeing up radiologists to do even more important things. Women aged between 50 and 70 are invited for breast screening every three years. The study in the journal nature showed al was actually better than one doctor working alone at reading mammograms. It produced 1. 2 fewer false positives, where a healthy mammogram is wrongly labelled as abnormal. And there were 2. 7 fewer cases where a cancer was missed. And ai will only get better. This study shows us that in the future it might be possible to make that Screening Programme more accurate and more efficient, which means less worrying time waiting for patients for results and Better Outcomes overall. Helen edwards from surrey has been clear of Breast Cancer for 15 years. She was a patient representative on the panel which had to approve Google Healths access to the mammograms, all of which were anonymised. Initially, i was concerned
google, what are they going to do with this information . What are they going to do with the data . But when i thought about it, longer term, it can only benefit women in having less recalls when you havent got a cancer. This is a breakthrough moment for Artificial Intelligence, which seems certain to play a major role in the diagnosis of Breast Cancer in years to come. And ai has already proved its ability to read other types of patient scan, showing itself as good as leading ophthalmologists in diagnosing more than 50 different eye conditions. The nhs needs another 1000 radiologists, so using al to replace one of the two doctors who read mammograms would ease that pressure and speed up diagnosis. Fergus walsh, bbc news. And later this hour, well speak to a specialist in Artificial Intelligence in medicine to