23/08/2016 World News Today

Reporting from Washington, I'm Jane O'Brien.

The headlines: Another blow for the Paralympics -

Team Russia won't be competing after losing an appeal

against a ban imposed for state-sponsored doping.

A new study says women who have children may be paid

up to a third less than men for the same job.

We examine the impact of the gender gap.

across the Syrian border, against Islamic State militants

as some residents on the Turkish side are told to leave their homes.

And how one father's love is taking his son to new heights.

Meet Wil - the flying boy who's raising awareness of Down Syndrome.

Russia's Paralympians have had their last hope

The Court of Arbitration of Sport has rejected a Russian appeal

against a blanket ban imposed earlier this month

by the International Paralympic Committee,

which condemned Russia's state- sanctioned doping of athletes.

But the acting head of the Russian anti-doping agency has told the BBC

that clean athletes should be allowed to compete.

We are trying to prove to the world that we are changing.

We provided access to our doctor to the British anti-doping agency.

But I think that doping is not only a Russian problem.

And all other countries, not all, but many, have

That's why Russian clean athletes should not be

deprived of their right to participate in Rio.

Craig Spence from the International Paralympic Committee

their exclusion from the games. should blame the Russian state for

I think the IPC was very clear on the 7th of August

that our decision here was not about individual athletes

It was a state-sponsored doping system that was

And with the state-sponsored doping system which exists in Russian

sport, which has been found now in two independent Wada reports,

we have no confidence on which Russian athletes are clean

And therefore, we have held our member, the Russian

Paralympic Committee, accountable for not

fulfilling its membership obligations with regard

That's why we have taken this action that we have.

To get an idea of how central the Russian team is

to the Paralympics, take a look at

You can see that Russia finished second with 36 golds

and a total medal count of 102.

Our sports presenter Will Perry joins us now

just what is is going to do to the Paralympics in Rio? Even just from

looking at bad medal table, it will have a huge impact on the medals

that will be dished out in Rio. The International Olympic Committee will

want it to have an enormous impact, a strong statement today, when you

look at the words coming out of the IOC and their president, Sir Philip

Craven, who described the Russian anti-doping system is broken,

corrupted and entirely compromise. He said it puts medals over morals.

He went on to say that he is greatly encouraged by the decision from the

Court of Arbitration for Sport to uphold that choice, that decision,

today. A new beginning, a catalyst for change in Russia, Craven has

talked about. And the McLaren report, this goes back to July, a

detail of a Russian state-sponsored doping programme, and in that report

that said that Russian Hafeez benefited from the "Disappearing or

positive methodology work", where positive tests had gone missing and

this was the case in the Winter Olympics in Michael Moore three in

2000 protein. This is a big global story with only two weeks to go

until the Paralympics get underway in Rio. We don't know if only

athletes have been cheating. There must be some clean athletes in

there. What effect does this have on them, because they have been

training for this although their lives? You must feel when you talk

about five-year cycles, with the Paralympics, it was a regular cycles

for the athletes. Lots of these athletes did not even know these

decisions were being made today. Sir Philip Craven said that it is not a

day for celebration. They have enormous sympathy for the Russian

athletes who will miss out. But with two weeks to go, you have dreams

being crushed. And there's a question of human rights. But the

Russian sports minister says that the ban was political, not with any

legal framework. An eight time Russian Paralympic champion

yesterday said that the mood was great, everything seemed positive,

everyone thought that things were going well and that our guys would

finally go to Rio. Many received their equipment yesterday and now

there's the decision which they describe as absolutely shocking.

Another 16 Paralympic champion from Russia said that they have been

trodden to pieces and have simply had humiliation.

Women who have children can be paid up to a third less than men

That's according to new figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

While the gender pay gap has generally been

falling in recent years, the study found that

mothers who take time out, or work fewer hours,

significantly miss out on wage increases.

Our Economics Editor Kamal Ahmed reports.

The ups and major downs of the gender wage gap.

Yes, it has been reducing over all, but for mothers

and graduates there is still a significant pay penalty.

In this London park opinions were clear.

Having children presented major career challenges, ones that men

Women struggle with the issue of having to

be perfect mothers at home and then having to be

I have taken a pay cut because I changed my career

So, I don't think that's a gender issue.

The gender wage gap has been declining.

In 1993 there was a 28% difference in the hourly income

But there are significant variations.

For mothers the wage gap grows to 33% by the

time the first child reaches 12 years old.

What happens when women reduce their hours of paid work,

for whatever reason at that point a lot of them

find that wage progression shuts down.

That could be because they're genuinely not gathering the skills

and experience that employers value in their jobs.

It could be something to do with a form of discrimination

or power that employers are exercising over those women

She is showing them the correct way to polish.

The workplace has certainly changed since the 1940s.

But the persistent wage gap is still with us.

Before a family arrives there is already a

Some people argue at least part of the

Mothers making the decision to leave work to look after their children.

But although that may partially be true,

is it really a choice when

child care is so prohibitively expensive for many?

Is it a choice when flexible working is not valued

as highly by many businesses as traditional 9-5 working?

a choice that when women return to work they miss out

We have about 750 employees, about...

Laura runs a mother and child clothing firm.

She encourages employees, men and women,

And she welcomes parents back to the office.

If you have been a full-time parent or been

working in a less demanding job for a few years whilst children are

young, you still have a huge amount to offer and I am very keen on

employing people who have had babies and are keen to come back

Businesses will be forced to publish the pay rates for men and women.

More shared parental leave is available

but end the pay gap in a generation?

That lofty target is still a long way from being hit.

A short time ago I spoke to Sam Smathers from the Fawcett Society

which campaigns for women's rights. For a long time, we were told that

things were getting better. This study shows clearly

the motherhood penalty that women pay in the labour market

when they have children. And the 33% gap that you quoted,

which women experience, after 12 years of being a mother,

so 12 years after having a first And it's because of the way

we structure our labour market. Because of the unequal impact

of caring roles that women primarily Well, a number of things

could change. We're looking to the government

to make some of those changes. We could see an opening up

of quality part-time work. The UK economy in particular

is heavily dependent on low-paid, part-time workers.

75% of those are women. And we are really locking them

into low-paid work, and that causes a massive hit on their earning power

that results in this Secondly, we could have leave

entitlement structured At the moment we presume mothers do

the caring and they might share it with others,

but really, if we started from a presumption of a quality,

we would then remove some And dads would take more

of the caring role on. Of course there is a need

for equality. But clearly, one size

doesn't fit all. How can you create blanket policies

for companies that might have different demands

and different needs? We simply talk about removing

barriers to choice. At the moment what we have are

families operating within very tight constraints of the choices

available to them. If you are a woman looking

for part-time work, you can't get managerial or senior roles.

There are very few around. And, actually, what it

would do for companies We are wasting women's talents

and skills in the economy. It's a massive prize,

to employers, actually, If they structured work differently,

they would get much better results for themselves

and their organisations. So, really, it requires

a bit of flexibility and creativity on their part.

And they would reap the rewards. I can imagine some people

listening to this would say, if a woman chooses to take time

out of the labour force and chooses to work part-time,

then why should she be Well, it's not about saying

that they should be getting the same as a full-time worker in terms

of quality of hours, So if you choose to work part time,

which she's doing, she's consigning herself to a smaller choice

of jobs at lower pay. And there's no reason why having

to reduce your hours should mean that you get less pay per hour

for your work. And part-timers are missing out

on training and promotion opportunities because they are not

being taken as seriously in And that is an attitudinal problem

that we need to change. President Obama is in Baton Rouge,

Louisiana, to tour the devastation He is meeting with some

of the thousands of residents who suffered damage to their houses,

schools and businesses. The storm has affected

an estimated 60,000 homes. For more on the President's trip I'm

joined by the BBC's David Willis. The sheer scale of this is hard to

grasp. What is president going to see? He will go to see absolute

devastation. This is an area that the Governor of said had suffered an

unprecedented and historic amount of flooding, 30 inches of rainfall in

the space of a weekend. That is the sort of amount of rain that many

parts of the United States kept in a year. 60,000 homes have been damaged

in that area. 8000 people displaced. More than a dozen deaths as well.

Articulately bad for this area is the fact that one of the worst hit

areas are those of low income people who don't have flood insurance. He

has just arrived and said a few words. What has been his reaction?

He got criticism for continuing with his holiday in Martha's Vineyard and

not rushing back. Enter that a leadership vacuum, if you like,

stepped Donald Trump, the Republican Party nominee, and he made a lot of

his visit down there. The Governor of Louisiana welcomed that visit and

said Donald Trump had helped raise the profile of the situation in

Louisiana. The Governor seemed pleased that there is an Obama did

not come earlier, because that presidential visit sucks up

resources and diverse them from the important work of salvage and relief

and so on. In last few minutes, president Obama, 11 days after these

rains came down, turned up in Baton Rouge and said he was heartbroken by

the loss of life, as put it. He said that the prayers of the nation well

with the people of Louisiana at this time. He said that more than 100,000

people had applied for federal relief. $127 million has been spent

already. And taking issue with the criticism he has attracted for not

going down there earlier, and the publicity Donald Trump has had, he

said this is not a one-off photo Op issue. It is for all Americans to

stay focused on this in the weeks and months ahead. Along the way

ahead for the people of Louisiana. Thank you.

Turkey is stepping up an operation to drive militants

of Jarablus. from the Syrian border town

The Turkish army fired artillery showers into the town,

and Syrian rebel fighters - backed by Turkey -

are reportedly preparing for a ground assault.

A short time ago Turkey told people in the southern town

of Karkamis to leave - after it was hit by shells

from IS militants over the border in Syria.

The BBC's Mark Lowen is in the Turkish border

Turkey were seen as a reluctant part of the US-led coalition against

so-called Islamic State at a time when the bad about one hour away

from here was seen as being porous, allowing Jihadist and weapons across

bullied into Syria. Then there has been a of bombings from IS against

Turkey including one in Gazientep against a wedding party killing more

than 50 people and the sign simply be that that was an attack by IS.

That seems to have woken up the Turkish government to the threat

from IS, so they are holding an offensive against the IS - held

province of Jarablus. Last night the Turkish government opened aerial

bombardment campaigns against IS positions to open up a corridor for

that imminent offensive. At the same time, Turkey is bombing Syrian

Kurdish positions to drive them from the border because Turkey does not

want the Kurds to consolidate territory on the other side of the

border, because that could foster Kurdish separatism in Turkey, so it

is a two pronged attack that Turkey is considering and now watching. The

three of ordinary Turks is that by good prompt more IS revenge attacks

in Turkey, as this country increasingly pays the price of well

that is its own. -- of a war that is not its own.

Now a look at some of the day's other news.

The German government is considering reintroducing a form

of National Service for civilians to help the Army

Conscription was abolished in 2011, but a partial reintroduction

of it is being discussed as part of a new civil defence strategy.

The leaked new plan also advises citizens

to store enough food to last ten days.

Tourism chiefs in Paris are warning of an industrial disaster

following recent terror attacks that have caused a severe drop in

There were a million fewer visitors between January and June compared

The drop is estimated to have cost about 850 million in lost revenue.

A federal judge in the US has ordered a review of nearly 15,000

new emails found on an unauthorised account used by Hillary Clinton

during her time as Secretary of State.

The judge said the US State Department must determine

how much sensitive government information was disclosed.

An earlier investigation by the FBI of more than 30,000 emails

Yesterday we brought you a story about the generation gap in the US

and its impact on the American Dream.

Tonight we revisit those differences to examine the role

of immigration policy in the US presidential election.

The BBC spoke to the Magdaleno family who came from Mexico

I have lived in Kansas probably for about 25 years.

I was born in the centre of Mexico in a city named Guadalajara.

My dad and my mum were very low income.

I wanted to put my kids in a place where they could choose

and they could dream, and I saw that in the United States.

My family was very supportive, so I was able to graduate last year.

I know that having an education in Mexico would not have been

In Mexico, I was able to go only to the seventh grade.

I wasn't allowed to continue to go to school because of the finances

with my parents, but also the sexism that is culturally ingrained -

that women particularly needed to learn how to cook and how

to keep and how to run a family, and I wanted something

It's painful to decide, we're not going back

This is home because it's where our kids need to be.

I understand that one of the hardest or biggest parts

for both you and dad was leaving behind parents.

Sometimes, even I wonder if you guys' sacrifices are worth

When I really questioned the cost is when I couldn't bring my mother.

Being a permanent legal resident and trying to bring her over

Eight years, being told, no, she cannot come to this country.

Being able to bring her just a month before she passed away,

I think that's when I become a little bit resentful.

But the day you graduated, I told you that I feel

I think the sacrifices did, and will continue to,

I hope to eventually get my Masters degree in a few more years,

and I hope for Tristan to continue that same thinking.

I've told him that I want him to become something greater

than what I have, so that when he has his kids,

The pain that families experienced when separated is often cited as a

reason for comprehensive immigration reform. Why does it remain such a

divisive issue in the US? Because Republicans will say that it is

people who have come into the country illegally and they should

not be allowed any form of amnesty, and that you allow people to come

illegally over the border then you give them a pathway to citizenship

legal status to date jobs, that will encourage other people to come as

well. Actually, the numbers of people crossing the border have

declined significantly since 2008. Net migration is now negative across

the border. More people are turning because the Mexican economy has been

doing better and the American economy has been doing worse. It is

interesting that Donald Trump at the moment is struggling with this as a

campaign issue, having made it during the primary season a rallying

point for Conservatives. He is now rolling back his campaign, going

back on one of the more controversial planks of his

immigration platform, which was that he would deport those people who are

here illegally. His campaign say that is still to be determined.

Interesting to talk about reverse migration. Maria there was

questioning whether the sacrifices of her mother were worth it. How is

the Clinton campaign treating this? They are more open to immigrants

generally and would like some pathway to legal status for people

who are here in the country as workers. They, too, and president

Obama has struggled with what they can do legally, because President

Obama tried to allow some five, six million people who have

American-born children to get legal status here with an executive order

but the Republicans in Congress shut that down, they were not allowed to

do it, and if the Republicans hang on to Congress, immigration is going

to be another of those issues. How much will a President Clinton, if

you gets elected be able to influence this if they Republicans

still control Congress? A two-year-old boy in Utah has

become an internet sensation for a most impressive skill -

the ability to fly. Little Wil has Down

Syndrome, but has been given taken by his dad, Alan Lawrence.

What started as a bit of fun has taken on a deeper meaning and made

Wil a star on social media. Alan

spoke to the BBC about the awareness Flying is obviously symbolic

of being free and not It's that big dream that, wow,

what if we could fly? We could do anything

we put our minds to - My name is Alan Lawrence and I am

a photographer Wil is my two-year-old son

and he is my second youngest. When I originally found out that Wil

had Down's syndrome, As I started to think more

about these flying pictures of Wil, I really started to recognise

that there was a deeper meaning to these pictures,

understanding that One day, I had the idea to just

take him out into the yard I was holding Wil in a pose that

looks like he was flying, then, using Photoshop,

I would mask myself out of the photo, so it looked like Wil

was just flying on his own. I decided to push the photos

a little bit more and I started posting them to my Instagram

account, using the hashtag #downsyndrome and different things

like that and it just kind We joke that he knows he's

a celebrity because when we're out in public, he's always saying hi

and trying to shake people's hands or give them a high five and we joke

that it's his celebrity status that For anyone else who is just

starting down this journey, I would say, understanding that

it's not going to be easy, but it's going to be worth

it, is a big part of it. He is teaching us, even at a very

small age, how to be patient, how to be non-judgemental,

how to be unconditional in our love. We know that Wil, even though

he has Down's syndrome, is going to be able to do anything

he puts his mind to, and that he will fly -

and that he can fly. Magical photos of a truly magical

child. And an inspiring story to end the programme. Next, the weather.

But for now, it is goodbye from me and the rest of the team.

But for now, it is goodbye from me and the rest of the team. Good

evening. It has been significantly warmer

today across England and Wales, 31 Celsius around London and Cambridge,

and contrast that with a more typical 16 for Scotland and Northern

Ireland with cloud and a little rain. The dividing line is this

weather front that will