19/02/2017 BBC Weekend News

The Battle for Mosul - a new push on the last Iraq

stronghold of so-called Islamic State.

Iraqi forces push towards the part of the city still held by IS,

Armoured vehicles are lining up, getting ready for the Islamic State,

who are only a couple of kilometres that way, and they know

They're dug in, and the assault on western Mosul has started.

We'll have the latest on the effort to liberate nearly a million people

Thousands of prison officers in England are to get a big pay rise -

but will it be enough to keep staff in problem jails?

You look at what's happening last night in Sweden.

After President Trump appears to speak of a security incident

that never happened, Sweden asks the United States

And Angelina Jolie talks exclusively to us

about her new film - set in Cambodia -

And we are a family, and we will always be a family,

and we will get through this time, and hopefully be

Iraqi security forces have been pushing forward today in a major

offensive aimed at taking full control of their second

largest city - Mosul - from so-called Islamic State.

The city was seized more than two years ago as IS moved

The offensive to remove them began last October,

with Iraqi troops securing the eastern part

But the western half of the city is home to around three quarters

of a million civilians, and stiff resistance

Our Middle East correspondent, Quentin Sommerville,

and cameraman Nik Millard, are the only television journalists

Just after sunrise, Iraq began what it hopes is its last major

battle against the so-called Islamic State.

Thousands of men and hundreds of armoured vehicles in a line

The Iraqi army are starting their assault on western Mosul.

Armoured vehicles are lining up, getting ready for the Islamic State.

They are only a couple of kilometres over that way,

They are dug in, and the assault in western Mosul has started.

Leading the attack, Iraq's emergency response division,

Some of these men were surrounded by IS two years ago.

Today, they threw everything they had at IS.

We are now above the village which is their main target.

and they're about to call in some artillery strikes.

The captain tells me there are three IS fighters in a yellow building

They had set up a whole bunch of rifles, but as you can see here,

they're getting ready with another RPG just in case.

There were four car bombs in total, but soon government

They killed 13 IS fighters and sustained only one casualty.

TRANSLATION: We are very glad to have liberated this area. We have

killed lots of IES, and we will soon get civilians back to their homes.

-- IS. We will continue to push forward and follow IS to the border.

Here, there were no white flags and no black IS flags. For the first

time in years, the Iraqi flag flew above this village.

This village is small, but it's important, it's

the gateway to Mosul proper and the city's airport.

As we discovered, Holmes had become fortresses. Here, IS weapons. And

hidden inside a house, away from surveillance aircraft, another car

bomb disguised as an ambulance. The bomb inside was still live. In the

street, though, a critical advantage - though were no civilians. In West

Mosul there are three quarters of a million people and thousands of IS

vitals. -- fighters. It took them in just six hours to take this village,

their target. They made good progress but with overwhelming

force. Beyond here is another town and another village. That town

overlooks Mosul airport and the city itself. From here on in, though, the

going would be nearly so fast. This was a victory two years in the

making. But it's more than that. These troops, once humiliated by IS,

today celebrated, a moment of redemption for them and for Iraq.

Quentin Somerville, BBC News, on Mosul's southern front.

Well, the wider fight against so-called Islamic State,

and the security of the region has been discussed today at a major

security conference in Munich, and our chief international

correspondent, Lyse Doucet, is there.

What sense that you get of the wider fight? Everyone here, including

British officials, warned the Iraqi administration that the fight was

not just military. Who is going to run Mosul once IS is defeated there?

You have various groups on the ground. Without a power-sharing

agreement now, Mosul will be plunged into another wave of violence and

extremism. There are questions too about what happens in Syria, where

IS is in control of rack up. We heard calls here for American

special forces to go in on the ground. Others say that will just

inflame tensions. One UN official to me that if President Trump has an

America first policy, it has to be rack up first. There are IS gun men

holed up there, in front of their computers, plotting 911- style

attacks. Here in Munich, a lot of talk about accelerating the fight

against IS, but a lot of worry that the right strategies are not in

place. Lee's Doucet, thank you. The Prison Officers Association has

dismissed Government plans to increase the pay of some

of its members as a sticking plaster Thousands of officers at jails

in London and the south-east of England will be offered a rise

of between ?3000 and ?5000. Ministers say it will boost

recruitment and retention, but the union says all its members

face the same risks Here's our home affairs

correspondent, June Kelly. This is how many officers it takes

to contain one violent prisoner. Every working day, staff

are battling simply to keep control. The ?12 million in

extra pay announced today is aimed at bringing in new

recruits and paying some existing Here in Wandsworth jail in south

London, officers will The offer is limited to prisons

in the capital and the south-east, a divisive move,

according to the Prison Officers We're going to welcome additional

money for our members, of course we are, but we

don't think this goes far enough to solving

the We believe it needs

to be a national issue. The offer is for standard

grade three prison officers, not for more senior

supervisors or specialists. Each will receive

a pay hike of at least For new recruits, their pay package

will be increased by ?5,000, The Panorama programme recently went

undercover at Northumberland jail, Staff constantly having to search

for banned substances. There is no more money

for officers here in One needed medical

treatment for a seizure because he'd inhaled

the synthetic drug Spice. The Justice Secretary

Liz Truss has already announced plans to significantly

boost officer numbers. It's not something you

can sort out in weeks It takes time to recruit people,

to bring those people on. But I'm absolutely determined

to deal with that. But prison reform campaigners,

including those who have been inside, say there has

to be more focused on retaining There is a peculiar

invisible chemistry of where a mutual respect

between experienced prison officers who know how to keep difficult

prisoners under control from inexperienced

officers who don't quite understand that you don't need

to take out your truncheon necessarily to sort out

a Eventually, the plan is for 2500

extra officers in England and Wales. But they won't all be

in place until 2018. President Trump has made a strong

defence of his first four weeks in office,

saying a new spirit of optimism Addressing thousands

of supporters in Florida, he repeated pledges to create jobs

and improve the nation's security. But he also appeared to refer

to an incident in Sweden The Swedish government has

asked for an explanation. From Florida, our correspondent

Laura Bicker reports. This is a US holiday weekend to

celebrate past presidents, but in New York and elsewhere, some decided

to hold protests about the new one. It has been a tough first month for

Donald Trump. He took time to step into the sunshine state and hold a

rally with supporters. This is more firm, more familiar ground. The

president of the United States... He promised to get more work done,

including releasing a new immigration order this week to

replace his controversial travel ban, but some of his reasoning

caused more controversy. You look at what's happening last night in

Sweden. Sweden! Who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large

numbers, they're having problems like they never thought possible.

The Swedish Embassy in the US asked for an explanation. There have been

no terror attacks there this week. The White House said he was

referring to reports of rising crime, which he may have seen on Fox

News. It is the kind of distraction from his message that Mr Trump

blames on the media. I also want to speak to you without the filter of

the fake news. CHEERING

They have become a big part of the problem. They are part of the

corrupt system. President Trump accused major US networks of being

an enemy of the people. One senior Republican says that lessons need to

be learned from history. If you want to preserve democracy as we know it,

you have to have a free and many times adversarial press and without

it, I'm afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties

over time. That's how dictators get started. But the President's chief

of staff says the media is constantly making up news. Talking

about Russian spies, about the intelligence community, about how me

and Steve Bannon don't like each other and what is Kelly and doingall

of this total garbage, unsourced stuff. Donald Trump help this rally

to revive his message, but it's also a reminder - there is work to do.

President Trump seems far more comfortable at the campaign podium

than he does in the Oval Office right now. He seems to feed from the

energy of this crowd, but he doesn't need to win friends here in Florida,

he needs them in Capitol Hill. If he is to get his agenda through

Congress. He also needs to find a new national security adviser after

his first choice resigned and the second turns down the job. He's

holding interviews today. The rally will have helped Donald Trump

reconnect with his voting base, but now it's time to get on with

governing. Laura Becker, BBC News, Florida.

The American-owned food and beverage firm, Kraft Heinz,

has "amicably agreed" to withdraw its proposal

for a takeover of Britain's third largest company,

Unilever had turned down its approach, describing it

as having "no merit, strategic or financial,"

but it was thought the US giant would return with a higher offer.

Our business correspondent, Joe Lynam, is here.

Joe, what happened to stop this takeover?

this is an extraordinary U-turn. Within hours of this bid being

submitted, they are walking away. It would have been one of the biggest

corporate takeovers, bringing together global brands. But it is

not to be. I understand the two bosses spoke over the weekend and

became patently clear that Kraft Heinz would have to launch a hostile

takeover, which would have been very expensive. I think the seven and a

half thousand Unilever staff will be glad tonight. There were fears over

cutting costs and jobs. Thank you. Over the last two weeks we've been

reporting in our Health Check series on the growing

pressures on hospitals. Those pressures are also

intensifying in general practice, with the latest figures showing

a slight fall over 12 months in the number

of GP posts in England. It's getting harder to fill GP

vacancies, and doctors are seeing a growing caseload

of more complex conditions. Our health editor,

Hugh Pym, explains. Three doctors and three stories

illustrating the pressures on GPs. More patients with difficult

conditions, finances not keeping up, and a job that they say

is increasingly stressful. This used to be a surgery

in the West Midlands, The GPs running it

couldn't make the sums A high workload needed more staff,

which increased costs. They had to cut their

own pay, so they This was one of

the hardest decisions I went into medicine

to look after people and help people, and to be in a position

where you feel like you can't do that job, it's not something

I ever wanted to do. But at the end of the day,

I've got to do what's right for Local patients have

had to move to nearby GPs accept they are relatively

well-paid, but some now feel it's no longer worth

running a practice. We hope that in due course we'll be

able to accommodate trainees... It's hardly traditional for a

medical job advert, but this doctor has taken to social media

to advertise a GP vacancy which has He says other local

practices have the same problem, and in their part

of rural Essex, his concern is for We're now four GPs down

from the 12 we ought to have. If you have more than about 2000

patients per GP, access to general People can't get the

appointments that they need, and the burden on the GPs

that remain becomes very Many GPs are now

part-time, like this She says she works several more

hours each week than she's paid for, seeing or phoning

more than 40 patients a day. I'm just wondering if I'd

be able to discuss... The cases are getting

more complex and more The problem that happens

when we're working at pressure is that you never have that

time and space to sit and think, I need to read through

the note, read through the letters from the hospital,

read through what I know about these But often, you just don't

have the time or space to do that, because the moment you've

finished with one patient, the door Some might say you're

a highly paid professional, that there are others who work very

hard in the public sector, that you just have

to get on with it. If this was an easy job

that was so highly paid that anyone wanted to do it,

then why do a third of GP surgeries currently have

unfilled vacancies? NHS England says more of the budget

is being shifted to GP care. Ministers say some surgeries aren't

opening for long enough each day, but this GP feels they're

working all the hours they possibly The Hollywood actor-director

Angelina Jolie says she hopes her new film

about Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge will help educate the world

about the brutality of the regime. "First They Killed My Father"

is based on the childhood experiences of Cambodian human

rights activist Loung Ung Ms Jolie has also spoken

for the first time about her highly She's been talking exclusively

to our correspondent Yalda Hakim, whose report contains flash

photography from the start. Hollywood royalty meets

Cambodian royalty. It's the biggest movie premiere this

country has ever seen. The director, Angelina Jolie, says

the film speaks to this nation's Their actors, their

language, their story. This war that happened

40 years ago, and what happened to these people, was not

properly understood, and not just for the world, but for the people

of the country, I felt that I wanted them to be able to reflect on it

in a way that they could absorb, so it's through the eyes of a child,

and it's a lot about love. The Khmer Rouge, a radical communist

movement, vowed to take Millions were forced out

of the cities in an attempt You could be killed

for practising religion, showing In four years, 2

million people died. Speaking to people here, I get

the sense that they don't want to remember the past,

but they also can't forget it. There are 20,000 mass graves

across this country, A visual reminder of

what this nation has been The haunting portraits of death -

hundreds of images of those who were tortured at

the notorious S21 prison. More than 12,000 people

were killed here. 86-year-old Chung Mai

is one of them. They beat me for 12 days

and 12 nights, he tells I was so hungry, when I would see

a cockroach, lizard or mouse, I If they caught me,

they'd beat me up again. Angelina Jolie is keen to tell this

story and focus on this country and But it's been difficult to keep

the spotlight off her own We know that an incident

occurred which led to your We also know you haven't said

anything about this. I don't want to say

very much about that. Except to say that it was a very

difficult time, and... And we are a family,

and we will always be a family, and we will get through this time,

and hopefully be But this moment

is about Cambodia and remembering the time when this

ancient culture was almost wiped A first look at tomorrow morning's

papers is coming up