21/03/2018 BBC World News America

This is BBC World News America,

reporting from Washington. Mark

Zuckerberg admits Facebook made

mistakes in protecting the data of

its users. After reports that

millions of people had their

information used for political ends.

The suspect in the Austin, Texas

bombings blows himself up as police

close in. And the question is, what

motivated 23-year-old Mark Anthony

Conditt? And they are using their

billions to become space parents.

How an elite, ambitious group on a

quest to find frontiers. -- space

pioneers.

Welcome to our viewers on public

television in America and around the

globe. After increasing pressure,

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has

broken his silence on the

controversy surrounding his company.

In a statement tonight he admitted

they had made mistakes. He allowed

the data of tens of millions to be

shared with UK political consultancy

Cambridge Analytica. Action was

taken years ago that would prevent

this happening again, said

Zuckerberg. Meanwhile, a former

Facebook MP testified before

Parliament committee. He was

impressed by British MPs on how the

company handled user information.

Would that be a fair analogy, for

the way in which Facebook has

approached data, that it has

approached it like the West

frontier?

I think its approach to

regulating data was the wild West,

is an appropriate analogy.

It's

those descriptions that have raised

even greater concerns on Capitol

Hill. While lawmakers are keen to

have a from Mark Zuckerberg and

those at Cambridge Analytica. Early

today my colleague Katty Kay spoke

to a Democratic congressman who sits

on the intelligence committee for

her programme beyond 100 days.

Congressman Castro, you have had

members of Facebook staff coming to

speak to people on the intelligence

committee on Capitol Hill today. Are

you getting any more answers from

them than we have had so far about

what was going on in their role, in

terms of their users' data being

used in political campaigns?

I can't

speak directly to what they have

told us, or the committee, but I can

tell you there are still a lot of

unanswered questions we have about,

for example, how many different

groups may have got access to the

same data that Cambridge Analytica

got, and whether Cambridge

Analytica, to the best of Facebook's

knowledge, shed that information

with any other groups, and what

safeguards they have now put in

place to that happening again in

future.

Do you think Facebook now

recognise the seriousness of this

situation?

I think they have come a

long way from where they started

right after the election when the

CEO and executives really denied

that Facebook as a platform was

abused or misused in anyway. I think

it's become very clear that if they

are going to continue being a news

source, and major news source, in

the United States and around the

world, then they will have to

safeguard their platform a lot

better than they have.

They sat on

this information Cambridge Analytica

had 50 million users' profiles for

two years. What prompted a change of

heart on the part of the company?

I

think all the revelations that have

come out, the wonderful journalism,

the reporting about how exactly the

platform was misused. And also the

investigation is conducted in public

and in classified settings. Our

investigation was not classified,

but it was a sensitive setting. All

of that work has been helpful in

getting Facebook to come to the

table and realise that they have a

real role to play in helping protect

American democracy.

At one point in

the latest report from Channel 4

News, one of the members, and I

think it was Alexander Nix says, we

went to speak to members of

Congress, but frankly, you know

what, they didn't even know what

questions to ask us. They were

ignorant and didn't understand the

technology. Is that a therapist and

patient on why it has taken

lawmakers, not just on this side of

the Atlantic, but in the UK as well,

so long to address this situation?

I

think part of the challenge we had

with some witnesses is that they

have not been honest and they have

not been candid, and they have

played hide the ball. I would put

Alexander Nix in that category. The

problem is, when we have asked

questions, the majority of the

committee, which is controlled by

Republicans, have been unwilling to

issue subpoenas for phone records,

travel records, to verify what has

been told to us or to contradict

anything that has been told us.

When

I watch these two reports, I caned

came away, and it sounds grandiose,

that Western democracy has

fundamentally changed. The way votes

are cast, the way elections are won

lost has changed fundamentally, in a

way that is worrying and degrades

the concept of one person, one vote.

Is that too extreme, or is that the

direction we are heading?

I think

the big concern many of us had was

that for bad actors, whether it's

Russian operatives who plays

Facebook adverts, fake Facebook

adverts, or Cambridge Analytica,

social media has become a perfect

platform for their propaganda. And

we are in a full social media age

now where people get more of their

information from the social media

companies than they do from

traditional sources in broadcast and

print. So, to the extent that these

platforms can and are being abused,

that's a big hit to our democracy.

Congressman Castro, thank you for

joining us. We are in a full social

media age. Thank you. STUDIO: In

part of the statement released by

Mark Zuckerberg today he urged users

to stay with the company as they

work through these issues. He will

appear on US television tonight. The

suspect linked to a series of deadly

package bombs in Austin, Texas has

died. The man identified as

23-year-old Mark Anthony Conditt,

blew up an explosive as police

closed in on him earlier today.

Officials say other completed

devices had been removed from the

suspect's home, but there is a

reasonable level of certainty no

more bombs remain out in the public

domain. Two people were killed in

six separate attacks in the state

this month. The BBC's Gary

O'Donoghue reports.

Police closed in on the suspected

bomber in the early hours,

tracking him down to a hotel

north of Austin.

While they waited for extra back-up,

he drove off and then

pulled into a ditch

at the side of the road.

As the police approached his car,

he set off another bomb.

As members of the Austin police

Department SWAT team

approached the vehicle,

the suspect detonated

a bomb inside the vehicle.

Knocking one of our SWAT officers

back, and one of our SWAT officers

fired at the suspect as well.

The suspect is deceased,

and has significant injuries

from a blast that occurred

from detonating a bomb

inside his vehicle.

CCTV in the past couple of days

appears to show the man believed

to be the suspect dropping off

a package at a FedEx office

in Southwest Austin.

He has not been named officially,

but thought to be a 23-year-old

man called Mark Anthony Conditt.

He lived in Pflugerville,

just outside the city.

Since the beginning of the month,

there have been six separate bombs,

five of which have exploded.

School friend of the suspect I spoke

to did not want to be identified but

said he seemed like a normal boy.

I

would definitely say I am completely

surprised. I wouldn't have been this

shocked if it was somebody I didn't

know, but seeing as this is somebody

who I share memories with, even

though it is just a little bit, is

crazy to me. Regardless of his

personal reasoning, it was an act of

evil and not excusable.

Since the

beginning of the month there have

been six separate bombs, five of

which have exploded. Two men have

died and half a dozen people have

suffered serious injuries. A number

are still in hospital. During the

day, the police, with dogs, searched

a number of addresses associated

with Mark Conditt, evacuating

buildings and cordoning off areas.

They questioned both flatmates, but

neither has been arrested or

charged. Police still don't know the

motive for this bombing spree, that

has categorised Austin for the past

three weeks. They are also telling

the public they don't know where the

suspect has been for the past 24

hours, so there could still be

devices out there. Gary O'Donoghue,

BBC News, Austin, Texas.

STUDIO: Boko Haram militants have

returned most of the schoolgirls

abducted in north-east Nigeria in

February. Parents say the insurgents

drove into the town of Dapchi and

dropped off at least 76 students

outside the school. Local media

reports the girls are exhausted and

underfed. It's reported five of the

110 students kidnapped may have

died. For the first time, Israel has

admitted destroying a suspected

Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007 with

fighter jets. Israel has never fully

acknowledged it was behind the

attack on the facility. Syria has

denied it was a nuclear rector. A

statement from the Israeli military

said the strike in the desert area

of north-eastern Syria removed and

emerging existential threat to

Israel and the entire region.

Everyone else may have had a snow

day in Washington, but not the

Federal reserve. They raised the

interest rates by a quarter of a

percent. The economic outlook has

strengthened, said the all powerful

economic body, and inflation is

expected to move up in the coming

months. To explain a living, our

business correspondent joins us now.

Kim, is this the first of several

rate rises we can expect this year?

This is the sixth interest rate rise

we have seen in the Federal reserve

since 2015 so many people expected

Jerome Powell full will continue his

predecessor's Janet Yellen's mission

to slowly but surely raise interest

rates as the economic situation

gathers steam. The main Dummett was

about Kammy times they should raise

interest rates this year. Eight

members of the policy committee

thought they should raise rates

three times, seven thought they

should increase four times this

year. Essentially it shows the Fed

is a little divided over how strong

the US economy is and whether or not

it needs to put the brakes on more

forcefully.

What did the new

chairman have to say about tariffs?

We are hearing the White House might

announce new tariffs against China

later tomorrow. What impact could

that have the otherwise extremely

healthy US economy?

Jerome Powell

said this is one of the main risks

that they weren't quite paying

attention to act the Fed until

recently. Now they have increased

their attention to what it might do.

Many members of the open market

committee of the Fed were hearing

from business community leaders

saying they were worried about the

prospect of a trade war, and the Fed

is paying attention to the trade

policies coming from the White House

but it is not a cause for concern

yet.

What is the worry for business

leaders speaking to the Fed about

tariffs?

It's tit-for-tat,

retaliation. If the US was to have

significant tariffs on imported

Chinese electronics, then China

would retaliate in kind, which could

hurt many American industries that

are significant on the Chinese

economy for a significant portion of

their business.

How did the new Fed

chairman do at their press

conference question mark for once

you are succinct and to the point.

He said the Fed does not do trade

policy. Five words in a sentence,

you almost never get that from a Fed

chair. He earns marks for being

clear that we will see how he does

with investors down the road.

Anything bothering him apart from

tariffs and the risk of inflation?

He seems happy with the US economy,

which echoes what we have heard from

investors, the US economy is doing

well, unemployment is at a record

low, and wages are increasing slowly

but surely. Not an increase of

concern, not yet.

You are watching

BBC World News America. Still to

come... Fleeing violence at home to

find prostitution abroad, a special

BBC investigation into the

trafficking of Rohingya girls in

Bangladesh.

North Koreans have been told by

state media that the country's

relationship with the United States

is changing. It comes as informal

talks between the US, South Korea

and North Korea have concluded in

Finland. Officials describing them

as constructive. Laura Bicker as

more from Seoul.

We have been

monitoring the output from the state

media agencies in North Korea

looking to see if there would be a

change in tone or any mention of a

meeting with either the United

States or South Korea. And there

hasn't been much over the past week

and a half. The language has

remained the same. And yet, in the

last 24 hours, we have seen a slight

change in tone. Again, it mentioned

a dramatic atmosphere of

reconciliation with South Korea. We

have heard that before. But then it

goes on to say that there are signs

of change with the United States.

There were no mention is made of any

summits of any kind. No mention is

made of any meetings of any kind.

But it did go on to say that this

had been a peace-loving proposal on

behalf of North Korea and that it

was all down to proactive measures

by North Korea that has brought all

sides to this stage. They said it

was not international sanctions nor

pressure from the US, Japan nor

elsewhere that has brought North

Korea to the negotiating table. And

it warned critics, certainly, that

they should exercise prudence when

it came to that kind of rubbish

talk, as they put it. A lot of

colourful language, as ever, from

the state-run media agency. To give

a health warning, when it comes to

KCNA, as we know it, we are not sure

if it speaks exactly for the state

itself, or how much people are aware

of what's going on.

A BBC investigation has revealed

that girls from Myanmar's Rohingya

Muslim minority are being trafficked

into prostitution in neighbouring

Bangladesh. The undercover team

filmed traffic is openly offering

the young women for sex in Cox's

Bazar. The town nearest to the

refugee camps, where hundreds of

thousands of Rohingya have ended up

after fleeing Myanmar. The BBC's as

this story. A small city on the Bay

of Bengal where the main business

was tourism, is now the hub for aid

agencies working in the nearby

refugee camps. But alongside the

shop fronts, the beach-side bars,

and the hotels of Cox's Bazar,

there's an open secret. After

hearing repeated stories about

children trafficked into

prostitution, we went in search of

the evidence. 114-year-old Rohingya

girl we met in the camps, and whose

identity we have protected, told me

what happened to her as she crossed

from Myanmar to Bangladesh. -- one

14-year-old. TRANSLATION:

Women came

with Ah Van. They asked me if I

would go with them. Not long after

that in a building in Cox's Bazar,

they brought two boys to me. They

showed me a knife and punched me in

my tummy and beat me because I

wasn't cooperating. Then the boys

raped me. I wasn't willing to have

sex, but they kept going.

We heard

other accounts from girls of a

similar age. A 13-year-old told me

she was lured out of the camp by a

woman from within the Rohingya

community offering her work. With

the desperate conditions the

refugees are living in, her family

agreed to let her go. TRANSLATION:

She came to my home. We know her.

She said, you are not being fed

properly, come with me to Cox's

Bazar and I will give you a job.

When we got there, she put me in a

Hotel in the morning. By the

afternoon, a boy was put in my room.

He beat me, and raped me. I asked

the woman, why should I do this. She

told me, if you don't do this, I

will kill you.

After only 48 hours

on the ground, our team had

identified a number of people

offering children for sex. This was

one of them, not only boasting about

his own collection of women and

children, but of a network of

traffickers, all of whom had more

than ten girls under their control.

We had to be careful not to create a

demand, and asked for girls who were

immediately available. We were

offered these three, and told they

were all Rohingyas aged between 13

and 17. We went to the police and

told them what we had found. They

agreed to conduct an operation that

same evening. Our undercover

investigator posed as a client who

wanted to have sex with children.

And arranged with the traffic for

the delivery of two young girls to

the hotel. But as he waited, the

traffic sent a scout.

About eight

o'clock, the red hoodie.

He asked

our investigator to go with him, but

we needed the traffic to come to us.

He appeared to change his mind. But

when the girls arrived, it was a

driver who was with them and who

collected the money.

How's it going?

14, 15, 16... And two for Q.

Can you

ask, if tonight is good, can you get

more.

We handed over around £140. As

soon as the deal was done, the

police moved in. The girls were two

of those we had seen in the

photograph. As they were taken aside

and into safety, they told us they

were 15 and 21 and their families

depended on the money they made from

sex work. What the two girls told me

here tonight reveals so much about

how they and others like them get

trapped in the sex industry in Cox's

Bazar. They had never been to school

and had no idea how they would

support themselves without this

work. And with the arrival of so

many refugees in the nearby camps,

there are even more vulnerable young

people for the traffickers to prey

upon. Childcare professionals and

trafficking experts helped for us to

arrange care for the girls

afterwards. The younger one went in

the care of social services, but the

21-year-old refused. We handed over

all the information we had to the

police. But the trafficker is still

at large, part of an established

network that put buts children into

sex work here, and is also further

afield in the likes of Nepal. The

refugees are providing easy pickings

for the traffickers and another

danger for the Rohingya people.

STUDIO: 50 years ago, the space race

captivated millions around the

globe. But after Americans put a man

on the moon, the next decade didn't

fulfil the dreams of the early

years. It could be changing with the

new class of billionaire like Elon

Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff

Bezos, who are using their wealth to

try to reach new frontiers.

Christiaan Davenport has written

about this phenomena. Why are

billionaires drawn to the space

race?

We haven't gone far since the

Apollo era. We went to the moon in

1969, and since then we go to the

International Space Station, an

amazing orbiting lab rhetoric, but

it is only 250 miles away. Right

now, Nasa and the US government does

not have the ability to fly

astronauts from US soil. I think

these billionaires are looking at

the pace of progress. They are used

rapid innovation and thought they

should do something about it.

And

they are. Elon Musk of SpaceX says

if you get to the moon and make it

your home, you can get to Mars more

easily.

I think he ultimately wants

to get to Mars. The moon is seen as

a good stepping stone for that

because there is water on the moon,

hydrogen and oxygen, and that's

rocket fuel. It's a good stepping

stone. We went there and planted a

flag in the 60s and left some

footprints but then we left. The

idea now, particularly among the

Trump administration, is to go there

and stay there.

Your blog is so

interesting, how it goes into ego,

ambition and Twitter wars,

especially between Elon Musk and

Jeff Bezos. Why is that relationship

so confrontational?

It is important.

They have toned it down since then,

but there is a long history there

and they know they need each other.

Competition is good. Competition got

us to the Moon and the Apollo era,

the race against the Soviet Union.

These billionaires know they are

competing against each other on many

different fronts in order to do

that. Elon Musk told me when I sat

down with him, if he had a button,

despite the twitter wars you talk

about, if he could press it and make

Jeff Bezos's company blue origin go

away, he wouldn't press the button.

You do reference the concerns about

safety and accountability, if we are

basically outsourcing the space race

to these billionaires. There was

that virgin Galactic crash.

There

was in 2014. That's a huge concern,

and for all the progress these guys

have made flying to space,

particularly with SpaceX. We have

seen dramatic launches and landings,

bringing the boosters back to Earth.

The fact is that SpaceX has not yet

flown human being and that will be a

huge challenge. Flying cargo and

satellites is one thing, but putting

a human being on board as a whole

different ball game.

President Trump

spoke recently about creating a

space Force and may be going to

Mars. Can Nasa compete?

What Nasa

wants to do is partner up with these

guys. They have a lot of money and

resources and attract an enormous

amount of talent to their companies.

Nasa has essentially had a flat

budget for many years. Different

administrations come in. They say

that one year they will go to the

moon, the next administration wants

to go to Mars, and they want to

partner with companies to do that.

Is there something incredibly

American about this story?

I think

so. American entrepreneurs are doing

things nobody thought possible.

Thank you so much, Christian

Davenport, it's a fascinating story

of the space billionaires trying to

reach new frontiers. Thank you for

watching BBC World News America.