09/08/2016 Outside Source

Let's look through some of the main stories here in the BBC Newsroom.

In from the cold - Turkey's president Erdogan travels

to St Petersburg to repair relations with Russia's President Putin.

After months of uneasy relations between the two countries,

the leaders pledge to restore economic ties -

and find common ground on resolving the crisis in Syria.

The UN calls for an immediate ceasefire in Syria's

It warns that more than two million residents there have no access

to running water or electricity - because of heavy fighting.

Pakistan in mourning - the country's lawyers

launch a nationwide strike following a suicide attack in Quetta

that killed at least 70 people - including many of their colleagues.

And Donald Trump - slipping in the polls,

The UN is warning that more than two million people

in the Syrian city of Aleppo have no access to running

There've been days of heavy fighting with two sides of

The UN has called for an urgent humanitarian ceasefire to allow

electricity and water networks to be repaired.

Unicef's representative in Syria said "Children and families

in Aleppo are facing a catastrophic situation,"

"Getting clean water running again cannot wait

Children's lives are in serious danger."

And all this while there is a heatwave going on.

Aleppo, formerly a big commercial centre in Syria,

but much of it has been destroyed over the past five years.

This is a map which shows you in a bit more detail

Generally speaking - it is confusing -

these purple areas are under rebel control - while the blue areas

But don't be mistaken there's no free movement, each side has

the other surrounded at the moment, in a mutual strangelhold,

the other surrounded at the moment, in a mutual stranglehold,

with the people of Aleppo trapped in the middle.

Here's our diplomatic correspondent James Robbins.

GUNFIRE It's a city of ruins. Aleppo has

been fought over a cross four years but still neither Syrian government

forces nor the anti-Assad rebels can dislodge their enemy. Now the 2

million residents are at greater risk than ever. Electricity and

water pumping stations are so damaged by bombardment the UN says

ceasefires, even short ones, are vital to allow in humanitarian

supplies. Clean water has been running for less than 24 hours since

the end of last month. These cuts are coming amid a heatwave putting

children in Aleppo at grave risk of waterborne diseases and getting

clean water running again cannot wait for the fighting to stop.

GUNFIRE Opposition fighters have been

celebrating their ability to hang on, but for now Aleppo and its

people are trapped in a disastrous deadlock. If the city does

eventually fall it could be a pivotal moment in the civil war

which has laid waste so much of Syria and forced millions to flee.

James Robbins, BBC News. Dreadful scenes in Syria. There is

more about that on the BBC website. I showed you at the beginning

of the programme the medals table as it was but it is

changing all the time. America at the top, United States

when I showed you last command now China up to the top position. One of

those golds is the female weightlifter from China who has just

taken gold. I suspect the United States might take another gold in

the next hour because the women's gymnastics is underway and they are

very strong in that. Great Britain, we have gone down to 12, I thought

we were in the top ten but that is 12th, we badly need some golds, come

on, Great Britain. Plenty of social media comments around the events at

Rio, these are the quirky things that have been catching our eye.

Now you see him, now you don't. Daniel Goodfellow and diving partner

Tom Daley won a bronze medal for Team GB in the men's synchronised

ten meter platform dive on Monday. But on Tuesday, only Tom Daley

appeared on the front and back pages. Daniel Potts 's mum Sharon

tweeted her disappointment at the coverage and plenty backed her up.

The editor of The Times joked it was a brilliant achievement to win a

solo medal in a synchronised event. The Times did at least change

aspects of its coverage in later editions to focus equally on

Daniel's achievement. Now, is this the oddest job at the Olympics?

Trained lifeguard to watch over a pool filled with some of the

greatest swimmers in history. Brazilian law states that any public

pool over a certain size must have them there, and about 75 lifeguards

have been hired to attempt to the various swimming, diving, water polo

and whitewater kayaking events. Probably a refreshing change to

watching kids go headfirst down the water slide! This is already being

called the most iconic photo of the Games. North and South Korea

gymnasts post for a selfie during a warm up. Relations have long been

frosty between the two countries who are technically still at war with

each other but this was a brief moment of unity and it has been

widely praised as capturing the Olympic spirit. Great photo.

20 years ago Nigeria won its first Olympic gold medal

and since then it's only won two more.

It's a relatively small total isn't it given that Nigeria is Africa's

So why it is failing on the biggest stage.

So why it is failing on the biggest stage?

Long jumper Chioma Ajunwa understands better than anyone.

She won that very first medal for Nigeria, while still working her

What I remember about that day in the long jump competition in Atlanta

96, when I came up, I saw all of the professional athletes they were

jogging. I happen to be the smallest among them. As they were jogging in

and out, in and out, something struck my brain. I said, look, get

up, their legs are not made of iron, they are human beings like you. And

by the time they called us for the long jump finals my mind was like a

stone. I was not afraid any longer. And my first jump. We were told in

Atlanta this made $50,000, and for that reason I know that if it gets

into the wrong hands they can sell it. So because of that I kept it in

the bank of Nigeria. Here in Nigeria we don't have the attitude of, you

know, going into planning, we don't take it seriously stop its not that

we don't have talent, it's not that we can't have the likes of Usain

Bolt. We can have them because we have great talent here in the

country, but our problem is we don't want to go to the grassroots, we

don't want to spend money on the athletes. We don't want to give them

the platform where they could start from.

Denis Gargaud Chanut, Nigeria's first gold medalist -- Chioma

Ajunwa. A little non-Olympic news

for you now because four years after Paul Pogba went to Juventus,

Manchester United has bought him back -

for a world record transfer fee It's an unprecedented deal in a new

era of Premier League access. Four years after he left Manchester

United Paul Pogba returns as the most expensive footballer. The

transfer which dragged on all summer was brought to an end in the middle

of the night when Manchester United received Dunne released a series of

videos on social media. Many supporters in England would have

missed the announcement which was surely timed to serve the club's

global fan base and sponsors. As for the player it feels like a

homecoming. There is no words to be honest, when I just came back to

Carrington it was like I just came back home. Pogba joined united in

2009 as a highly rated 16-year-old. He made his Premier League debut

three years later. And on comes the highly sought after Paul Pogba.

Having made just seven appearances he rejected a new contract and move

to Juventus for next Dunne next to nothing. The left me out and said

you want to leave, and they said go command that is disrespectful stock

in Italy he won four league titles before helping France to the final

of the European Championships. The 23-year-old is regarded as one of

the top midfielders in world football and his former youth coach

believes there is more to come. You could see that he had potential to

be a really top player. I think that still is. Potentially. Is not the

finished article, E23, Paul Scholes said the other day this money is

crazy for someone who is only 23 and not really commending the whole game

-- he's 23. Pogba returns for a world-record ?89 million surpassing

the fee that real Madrid signed Gareth Bale fourth in 2013 and

Cristiano Ronaldo four years earlier. It's an eye watering sum

for a player they let slip from their grasp but Manchester United

believe Popper is the man to spark a revival. Their fans will hope he

will prove worth the wait and cost. Katie Gornall reporting.

Donald Trump is not having the best of times.

It's seems elements of the Republican party are at war

Today it's the turn of Maine Senator Susan Collins,

who highlighted Mr Trump's inability to admit error or to apologise.

It comes after an open letter was signed by 50 Republican national

security experts warning the Republican nominee

"would be the most reckless president" in US history."

They said: "He appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief

in the US Constitution, US laws, and US institutions."

Mr Trump dismissed his critics as the 'establishment elite'.

"I am running against the Washington insiders."

Just like I did in the Republican primaries. These other people that

have made the United States is. Our correspondent is in Washington and

he explained which national security experts were included on the open

letter and which were not. You don't see prominent names like Colin

Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Henry Kissinger. If any of those broke

towards Hillary Clinton those names lots of Americans would recognise.

But it does represent the foreign policy establishment of this

country, pretty much universally being against Donald Trump. Anthony,

what do you think? Does it play well for him being the antiestablishment

figure? It seems to work on the left and it worked here in Britain with

the Brexit debate. Yes. A list with 50 experts, national security

experts coming on the heels of another list that came out with a

letter in March with 150 experts, talk to Donald Trump supporters and

it is water off a duck's back for them, they don't care what the

experts think they think they are to blame for the problems. Donald Trump

hit on it exactly in his response. The people who got him the

nomination are not people who will listen to veteran foreign policy

hands, or experts of any type. There are the people who would fall in

line behind Donald Trump because he's running against the

establishment. They think the whole thing is corrupt, they think the

whole thing is falling apart and want someone totally

outside the system to shake it up. Tomorrow we are looking forward to

Hillary Clinton, I think on Thursday, in fact, she sets out her

economic platform. He did that yesterday, has there been any

reaction to that in the morning papers? There has been lots of fact

checking of his speech, looking at some of the things he talked about,

the Michigan economy and Detroit's economy in particular and some of

the things he said about Hillary Clinton. The analysis of his speech

largely seems to be it was a pretty standard Republican economic speech

that had a bit of Donald Trump grafted onto it, his talk about

trade and immigration was added in to traditional conservative

boilerplate. Whether that changes the equation at all I don't think

there has been a whole lot of impact so far. Stay with us.

Coming up we'll be finding out why one of India's best-known political

activists has decided to end a hunger strike -

a hunger strike that has lasted 16 years.

British athletes have enjoyed a largely positive start of the fourth

day of the real Olympics although there was some disappointment. Let's

look at some of the day was my main events.

Great Britain have started their men's sevens campaign with two wins

after beating Kenya earlier. They followed up with a dramatic win over

Japan this evening. They looked to be heading for a win when Marcus

Watson broke away for a try in the last minute giving GB 821-14 lead,

however the Japanese crossed the line with the last play of the game

meaning a successful conversion would give them a 21-21 draw but

they missed and Britain win and look well on course to reach the last

eight, the last group game is against New Zealand who lost to

Japan earlier. There was a great win for Johanna Konta in the women's

singles of tennis this evening. She came from a set down to beat

Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia. Kuznetsova and won the first set 6-3

but the British 11 broke the Russian to take the second 7-5. Konta had

five match points before coming through 7-5 in the decider to win in

more than three hours. She will face the Australian Open champion

Angelique Kerber. Sam Stosur of Australia in the quarterfinals. Andy

Murray breezed into the third round with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over

Argentina's Juan Monaco. He's dropped nine games in the tournament

so far and is favourite to retain his title with Novak Djokovic having

already gone out. Monaco looked like he had had enough and give away his

racket after the match. Marie was content to fire off a few signed

balls. It's been a disappointing day for Great Britain in Rio when it

comes to medals so far. David Florence didn't make the podium in

the sea one canoe slalom. He qualified third fastest but it was a

night to forget for the 34-year-old from Aberdeen. -- C1. A flawless

round is needed to win in the final but Florence made a mistake and Mr

gait and paddled back upstream. He never really recovered, Florence

finished tenth overall and has to concentrate on the sea to category

with Richard Hounslow in two days' time. There are four medal races in

the pool of the night but the action is under way. Great Britain's Duncan

Scott got off to a flyer in the heats of the 100m freestyle. The

19-year-old from Glasgow broke the British record. 48.01 seconds the

time, to finish first. Scott was third quickest overall with the best

16 going through. That is all of the sport for now.

This is Outside Source live from the BBC newsroom.

Our lead story: Turkey's president makes his first foreign trip

since the attempted coup - to rebuild damaged

One of India's best-known political activists, Irom Sharmila,

has told a court that she is ending a sixteen-year hunger strike -

during much of which she's been force fed in hospital.

She was protesting against a law that gives the Indian army

sweeping powers to tackle an insurgency in Manipur.

Our correspondent Sanjoy Majumder is in Manipur and filed this report.

These are some of Irom Sharmila's supporters, upset at her decision to

end her fast after nearly 16 years. They believe it is a step she should

not have taken, especially as because she was fighting for, the

removal of a law that grants security forces sweeping powers and

it Dunne in Manipal is still on the books. Inside the court Irom

Sharmila told the judge she was standing by her decision to end her

fast. Today Irom Sharmila has said she wants to break the fast. After

that she was asked to sign the bail bond. Now she has signed the bail

bond, the PR bond and the cheque was found correct and accepted and we

have the bond here so technically Irom Sharmila is out on bail.

She was physically upset at the kind of pressure and criticism she

received over the past few days, not just from supporters but even her

family who made a last-ditch attempt to have her change her mind. She

said: why can't anybody treat me like a human being? She is now being

taken back to hospital to be checked medically to try and see if she is

healthy enough to leave medical supervision. She has furnished her

bail and will eventually be set free. As for her political battle

it's very obvious looking at the scene is here that there is a very,

very long and difficult path for her.

Lawyers across Pakistan have been staging a strike in protest

at a suicide attack in Quetta that killed at least 70 people.

In Balochistan - Quetta is the provincial capital -

markets and schools have been closed today.

Shaimaa Khalil reports from Islamabad.

Paying respects to a grieving family. Five of its members were

killed in a bombing at Quetta's main hospital. Today their loved ones are

mourning them. Abdul Malik lost his son in the blast. My feeling is

those people who buried their sons. This was the moment when the blast

hit. As lawyers gather to pay tribute to their slain colleague.

Some lawyers have gathered in prayer. Remembering those who died

as tributes from across the country brought in on social and mainstream

media. Many saying Pakistan has lost a generation of lawyers. Others have

taken to the streets of Quetta and other major cities to condemn the

targeting of their colleagues and what they describe as a security

failure. TRANSLATION: Those who believe the lawyers or the nation

will become scared or nervous, that they will succeed in their nefarious

designs, we want to give them this message that we will follow them to

their last breath, their last resort, the last rathole. At the

hospital the aftermath of the attack is still quite visible. A splinter

group of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the

blast. Also reports that the so-called Islamic State said they

were behind the bombing. There was no official confirmation of which

group was responsible but ten point Baluchistan has been a long term

problematic area. All of these elements make it one of the most

sensitive areas in Pakistan. But with that comes intense security and

military presence. The authorities are now under pressure to explain

how an attack of this magnitude happened in a city in a province so

heavily controlled by security forces. Shaimaa Khalil, BBC News,

Islamabad. You might not know this fact. The highest mountain range in

the UK is underwater. Scientists have just returned

from an expedition exploring the hidden peaks off

the Coast of Scotland. Their mission was to log the marine

life they discovered there - and along the way they think they've

discovered a new species. Our science correspondent

Rebecca Morelle reports. Plunging hundreds of meters beneath

the waves. A submarine heading to Britain's

mountains of the deep. This expedition has revealed that

life there is thriving. Coral grows in abundance

on the mountain tops, teaming with creatures in these

cold, dark waters. They are living on the UK's

highest mountains. The biggest is 1700 metres tall,

dwarfing Ben Nevis, Located off the West Coast

of Scotland, they were explored over On board the ship, the scientist

controlled underwater robots, It's so exciting to do

this type of research. You see the sea floor coming out

of the gloom and you don't know This is the first time that anybody

has seen this mountain. The first end they have seen these

animals, how they live and what they live on,

who lives with them, It is docked in Southampton

and getting unpacked. During their six weeks at sea,

scientists collected They are being unloaded now, but

here is a small selection of them. We've got a coral species

here that is possibly This one can grow

several metres tall. A sponge with tiny little

creatures growing inside. It's going to take months to analyse

all of this, but, even now, the team thinks that some of these

species may be new to science. The researchers say these sea mounts

are a biodiversity hotspot. Lots of people think of the deep sea

as being a desert of mud when in fact these mountain

structures are far from that. The scientists need to work out

exactly what it is they've found. Understanding what's living

on Britain's deep sea mountains will be vital

for protecting them in the future. Fascinating story. That's it from

us. We will be back at the same time tomorrow evening. John is for that.

From me and the rest of the team, thank you for watching.