23/11/2017 Beyond 100 Days

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Beyond One Hundred Days.

The Ritz Carlton in Riyadh,

now a five star holding

centre for Princes and rich Saudis.

They are part of a corruption

investigation that is now

into its third week.

It could endanger the stability and

reforms his Kingdom so badly needs.

The Argentinian navy say satellites

detected an explosion

on the day the sub went missing.

Brussels says Brexit Britain

will not be hosting

the European Capital of Culture

in 2023 despite the scheme

being open to countries

that aren't in the EU.

Just how influential is Russia's

relationship with Donald Trump?

We'll be talking to the author

of the new book, Collusion.

Get in touch with us

using the hashtag

Beyond-One-Hundred-Days.

For almost three weeks now,

some of the most privileged members

of Saudi society have been held

in the Ritz Cartlon Hotel in Riyadh

and interrogated on the orders

of the Crown Prince.

Muhammed Bin Salman has

presented the arrests

as a crackdown against corruption,

though it would also seem

to consolidate his position

as the most powerful man

in the Kingdom.

Among those held is the country's

richest investor, billionaire

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal,

and his most potent remaining rival

to the Crown Prince's power,

Prince Mutaib bin Abdullah,

son of the late King.

Very few have been allowed

into the hotel, turned prison,

but our international correspondent,

Lyse Doucet, was given rare access.

We drive in under police escort,

just past midnight.

No one enters here now

without official permission,

the world's most talked about hotel.

Riyadh's most palatial, most

prestigious, now a gilded prison.

I'm taken in by Saudi officials

and told, don't film faces and don't

record conversations.

Here in the early hours

of the morning, there's still people

in the lobby drinking coffee,

as you would find in any of

the 5-star hotels

here in the capital.

Most of the people who have

now been forced to stay

here are keeping to themselves.

Trying to limit any further damage

to their reputation.

Their mobile phones have been

taken away from them,

but there is a hotline

that is available to them.

They can call their lawyers,

family members, even leading

members of the companies

they're still trying

to keep running.

The world's most pampered prisoners

have every comfort except freedom.

The state is picking up this bill.

As far as detention centres go,

this one is beyond compare.

Luxury swimming pool,

restaurants, a gym.

Everything is glittering.

There's even a bowling alley,

but most prisoners just

stay in their rooms.

I'm taken to meet one suspect,

he doesn't give me his name.

He says he spends his

time with his lawyer,

focusing on his case.

I'm told not to ask about it.

But I get a briefing.

Senior officials conducting this

crackdown say it's not a formal

investigation just yet.

They called it a friendly process,

but it's clearly fraught.

We're being told that

when people were brought here,

around midnight on November 4th,

they were understandably angry.

Some of them thought this would just

be a show and it wouldn't last.

And then when they realised

they were here to stay,

they were furious.

Almost everyone here,

95% I was told, are willing to make

a deal, to give back what are said

to be substantial sums of money

in order to get out here.

The Crown Prince, 32 years old,

is taking on fellow princes,

senior ministers, some

of the biggest billionaires,

tackling corruption,

concentrating power.

Weeks on, many are still asking

questions about why this purge

happened here and now.

Outside this gilded prison,

it certainly has gone down well.

Many Saudis welcome

an end to the rampant

corruption in the Kingdom.

There are risks, too.

The ambitious Crown Prince risks

creating enemies and uncertainty,

which could endanger the very

stability and reforms

he knows his kingdom so badly needs.

The Crown Prince hopes everyone

will be checking out

by the end of this year.

The longer this ordeal drags on,

the more questions will be asked,

here and abroad, about what's

going on inside.

Lyse Doucet, BBC News,

at the Ritz-Carlton, Riyadh.

It's a big gamble. In terms of how

he's perceived at home and by the

Kingdom's key eyes?

I spoke to many

Saudis who welcomed a crackdown on

corruption. One man who is a wealthy

real estate developer said it's like

as if you lost your watch and you

found it. You are happy because the

watch has been given back to you. He

said, this money belongs be to us.

Several people said to me that the

bribery they had seen before in

judicial and financial institutions

has stopped. That everyone is scared

to do anything unless they end up in

the hotel. There are questions to be

asked - why are are some people in

the purge and not others. What is in

the files? They have gathered the

files, evidence, for the last two

years. Is it about corruption or

about power? The Crown Prince

supporters you ask if it's a power

grab. They say he already has the

power. He doesn't need

power. He doesn't need to

consolidate. He wouldn't have done

it if he didn't feel he had the

power.

There are starting to emerge

reports of torture. Stories of

people being hung upside down. What

do you make of the reports?

Impossible to confirm. When we went

into the hotel there were reports of

people falling ill. I asked about

that. There was a person from the

Human Rights Society there, there

were no complaints. Whether he is

telling the full story or not it's

hard to say. They said that people

had diabetes. There were heart

conditions. People are old. There is

obviously an enormous amount of

stress. There were medical teams on

stand by. Heart doctors had been

moved. In they are clearly

suffering. Whether or not the

so-called interrogations have to go

to the extent of what the Mail said,

that people are being hung upside

down, torture is what they described

it. There certainly is pressure.

It's the pressure of the documents.

I was told the files are like this.

They have gone through all the bank

statements, all the financial

records. In fact, seven people have

walked free because they looked at

the files and said, that hes a not

my money. That went to someone else.

They challenged the evidence. They

are no longer held in the prison.

They have an ability with their

lawyers to work through the files.

Most of them it seems are being

told, they are saying now, they

realise there is no way out of the

hotel until they prove their

innocence, go to trial. 4% will go

to trial, apparently. Or pay up the

money. When it comes to people being

detained longer than they would

like, one of them we believe,

alleged. Is the Prime Minister of

Lebanon. Talk to me about this.

Lebanon said he was being held

against his wishes. Emmanuel Macron

flies in unannounced on Thursday. He

goes to Paris, back to Lebanon,

suddenly - I'm not retiring. Has

Macron gone to the Crown Prince and

said you have overreached. We are

the former colonial power you need

to think again.

I was there in

November when it happened. When he

announced he was stepping down. I

was with government ministers,

senior officials, they said it

didn't sound like his language. He

play may have considered he

wasn'tens will his position wasn't

working in the unity government or

could take on Hezbollah. The Saudis,

for months in advance, were worried

that he could not control Hezbollah

and this unity government. The idea

was, you take him out of the

government, therefore you can say

it's been captured by the Lebanese

state has been captured by

Hezbollah. It justifies pressure on

Lebanon, diplomatic, trade,

financial pressures. It was talked

at the time of a Qatar-style

blockade the pressures of Saudi and

emirates have put on the Gulf state

of Qatar. They are talking

differently. Whether it was through

President Macron or the Lebanese who

said - if you weaken Lebanon,

Lebanon be will collapse. This is

not the way to go about taking on

the most powerful political and

military player in Lebanon. He is

more popular than ever. Saudi

officials were saying, he has gone

back, more popular, and will be in a

better position to take on

Hezbollah. The second chapter and

let's see how it unfold.

Always

delicate in Lek none. Extraordinary

access to the hotel. Lovely to talk

to you. Thank you for coming in.

Thank you.

The navy in Argentina has confirmed

that a sound consistent

with an explosion was detected

in an area where a submarine went

missing eight days ago.

The international rescue

operation is ongoing

in the South Atlantic close

to where the submarine disappeared.

There are 44 crew on board.

This woman's husband

is on the San Juan.

A clue to what might have happened.

Rescuers say an unusual sound, heard

when the submarine sent its last

signal, suggests there may have been

a catastrophic problem on board.

TRANSLATION:

We received information

that it was an abnormal, singular,

short, violent and nonnuclear event

consistent with an explosion.

The

Argentine navy had said earlier the

mission to find the sub had reached

a critical phase. There was concern

the crew could be using up the last

of its oxygen supply. So far,

there's been no sign of the missing

vessel. The Reuter's news agency

says a US Navy plane detected an

object near the area where the sub

sent that signal, but it couldn't be

identified. For a week now,

relatives of the 44 crew members

have been coming to the naval base

to pray for the safe return of their

loved ones, but with today's news,

many have become angry, accusing the

Navy of lying and raising false

hopes.

TRANSLATION:

I feel cheated. They

say it's 3,000 meters below sea. So,

no, they don't tell you anything.

That's why I say they are swines.

For me, they are wicked and have

manipulated us. They knew about it

and they are wicked.

With each day

that passes now, rescuing anyone

alive seems more and more unlikely.

Riley Karlsson, BBC News. Desperate

for the families. The last time a

submarine was rescued or people on

board were rescued on a sunken

vessel was years ago.

In other news:

Zimbabwe's incoming President,

Emmerson Mnangagwa, is urging

citizens to remain patient

and peaceful and not to take part

in any "vengeful retribution"

against Robert Mugabe.

Robert Mugabe's replacement

will be officially sworn

into office on Friday.

Bangladesh has signed a deal

with Myanmar to return hundreds

of thousands of Rohingya Muslims

who fled a violent army crackdown.

They can start returning

home within two months,

but Amnesty International says

the plans are premature

when hundreds of Rohingya are still

fleeing persecution every day.

US Republican Joe Barton has

apologized for an explicit nude

photo of him which has been

circulated widely on social media,

but he isn't resigning.

The 68-year-old Texan

politican says...

Collusion, the new book

written by the Guardian

journalist Luke Harding,

has the feel of a John

Le Carre spy novel.

Except in this case, the characters

in the book are all real,

members past and present

of the Trump campaign.

The stories of Kremlin espionage,

money laundering, computer hacking

are all currently being investigated

by special council Robert Mueller,

and in some cases charges

have already been made.

Earlier this week, Katty

and I caught up with Luke Harding

in Berlin, I started by asking him

about one of his prime sources,

the former MI6 agent

Christopher Steele, who compiled

the intelligence dossier that

sparked the Russian invesigation.

Luke Harding, your book starts

with a meeting you had in December

2016 with the former MI6 agent

Christopher Steele, whose dossier

of course began this

Russia investigation.

Why do you think the intelligence

agencies put such

trust in him at the beginning?

Well, I mean, Christopher Steele

is a professional guy.

He spent 22 years working

for British intelligence.

He served in Moscow undercover

at the British Embassy there,

then he went into private business.

I think he has a pretty

good track record.

Intelligence sources I've

spoken to describe him

as solid, as reliable.

What you have to understand

is that the sources he used for this

dossier over Trump and Russia

were the same sources that had

proven themselves in other areas.

In other words, they were people

who had a kind of track record

which was credible and which kind

of help up.

Luke, there are tonnes

of dodgy characters,

emails, money involved,

beauty pagents, much of which has

been reported before.

If you had to point to the single

most suspect thing that you

uncovered that would put the Trump

campaign under the spotlight,

what would it be?

I mean, the thing is about

this story is that it

goes back a long way.

The single most important

episode is summer 1987,

when Donald Trump, for the first

time, goes to Moscow

at the invitation of

the Soviet government.

Ostensibly to discuss

building a hotel in Moscow,

but what we know is that the trip

was basically arranged by the Soviet

ambassador and he was brought

over by a travel agency,

a state travel agency.

Now, defectors I've spoken

to said this was the KJB.

I can say without exaggeration

that the KJB more or less brought

Donald Trump to Moscow

as what you wide was a kind

of classic cultivation exercise.

Now I'm not saying that

Donald Trump was somehow a KJB

spy back in the 1980s,

but I think what we can say

for certainty is that there

were repeated attempts,

both in the Soviet period,

and in the Russian period,

to cultivate Donald Trump to get

close to him and his associates

and to try and exploit him for ways

which would help Moscow

and Moscow's purposes.

You also point us Luke

towards the oligarchs,

these very power men

in Russia, billionaires.

There's probably around

100 of them or so.

What your' really saying

is there is no separation

between them and the Kremlin

because they owe their allegiance

to Vladimir Putin?

Being a billionaire brings

privileges, but it also brings

certain obligations.

Threading through this story we see

oligarchs doing things perhaps

at the behest of the Kremlin

and the Russian state.

We see one oligarch buy

Donald Trump's mansion in Florida.

Donald Trump bought it

$40 million in 2004 and this

oligarch buys it a few

years later for $95 million,

which is kind of very curious.

We also see oligarchs kind

of interacting with people

in the Trump campaign team,

especially Paul Manford.

Luke an alternative theory

to all of this was the Trump

campaign was the most chaotic

campaign I've ever covered in

the American presidential elections.

People were freelancing.

Carter Paige may or may not have

been meeting Russian spies in

Moscows. It's plausible that Donald

Trump knew nothing about that from

the top down. You haven't actually

uncovered evidence that they

promised to offer sanction relief if

the Russians gave them dirt on

Hillary Clinton?

There was a

longstanding transactional

relationship going back five or six

years between Trump and powerful

Russian state interests. There was a

flow in both directions. There was

information going from America to

Russia about Russian oligarchs

living in the United States. There

was politically helpful material

flowing back to Trump. We have to

look at what happened in the US

election. What happened was that US

intelligence stole tens of thousands

of Democratic Party emails and

dumped them out to help Trump and to

seriously damage Hillary Clinton.

Now, what we now know, thanks to the

indictments by the special

prosecutor looking at all of this,

the Trump campaign were told this as

early as April 2016, well before

Hillary Clinton had any idea her

servers had been hacked. If you look

at the story there is a degree of

co-ordination between the two camps

to maximise damage to Hillary.

It's

a fascinating read. Luke Harding,

thank you very much for being with

us.

This year the European Capital of

Culture is the English city of Hull.

Recognition that brings with it

tourism, funding and the arts.

But Liverpool will be the last.

The EU Commission has confirmed

the UK will no longer be

considered after Brexit,

disappointing these five cities

that have already bid

to hold the title in 2023.

Now you might think that is not

entirely surprising given that

Britain is leaving the EU.

But, outside countries

have hosted the capital,

including Iceland and Norway,

though they are in the EEA,

the European Economic Area.

Earlier I spoke to the Lord Mayor

of Belfast, Nuala McAllister,

who's involved in the Belfast-Derry

2023 bid.

So it's absolutely bitterly

disappointing from hearing this from

the European Commission over the

past 24-hours. It's disappointing

from our perspective, Belfast in

partnership with Derry because

Northern Ireland has unique

circumstances. The European

Commission itself said this. Doors

are being closed on us. With regards

to what we are being told, very

little in fact. We need a little bit

more political leadership from DCMS

over this issue. Instead, we are in

crisis mode in regards to civil

servants. We have not heard from the

Secretary of State herself. We need

a little bit more clarification.

It

may be that the Secretary of State

had asewerances from the European

Union. It seems to have been an

unexpected move by the Commission?

Yeah unexpected obviously we would

not have been going ahead. We seeked

assurances many times, they assured

us, yes, we are still elible. Upon

today when we have been discussing

with them what happens next, what

happens now? There is no answer.

The

taxpayers in Belfast have paid into

this?

We have actually received

quite a lot of confidence and input

from the public in Belfast and Derry

specifically who are actually very

excited about this. At a time when

we really need to strengthen our

cultural links with Europe, we are

now faced with doors being closed on

us. It's a time when we need to show

we can remain part of Europe and we

can still feel European.

Some people

watching might say - it's hardly

surprising given we are leaving the

European Union we can't have the

European Capital of Country. There

are other countries outside the

European Union that have been

considered?

Exactly there are three

countries that I can think of off

the top my head.

Turkey.

Iceland and

Norway. The Brexit negotiations are

not finalised. We do feel this has

been used as leverage from the

European Commission.

Do you think

the EU is punishing the UK?

What the

EU are doing, rightly so, is during

negotiations they are trying to find

leverage. Also what we need to do in

the UK and also what we think we

need to do within Northern Ireland.

As I said, we are in a unique

situation were we share that border

with the Republic of Ireland, who

will remain within the EU.

What

would happen if you dego it? Have

you estimated what sort of money

would come into the city?

If we look

at Liverpool, who were the last UK

city who did host the European

Capital of Culture, they saw over

£750 million. We are talking about

over the next few years they saw £4

billion of infrastructure in

culture, arts and tourism. That

would be a huge potential and

opportunity for any one of the five

UK cities who could potentially win

this bid had the door not been

closed.

Nuala McAllister. They certainly had

a good chance as it was 25 years on

from the Good Friday Agreement 2023.

There's some good news

for coffee drinkers.

A review published in

the British Medical Journal suggest

drinking three or four cups a day

may lower the risk of liver disease,

some cancers and the likelihood

of developing heart problems.

However, public health experts say

there is still uncertainty

about the impact of drinking

more than that.

Sima Kotecha reports.

An espresso, a cappuccino

or just instant.

More than 50 million cups of coffee

are drunk every day here in the UK

and today there's another

debate about whether it's

good or bad for you.

It's after a review has suggested

drinking moderate amounts of coffee

is more likely to benefit health

than cause it harm.

I think I enjoy the smell of it

mostly, which makes me sort of feel

- especially when you're

in a country like

Italy or something,

waking up in the morning smelling

coffee, it just makes me,

I don't know, I really love it.

I think it's probably

a placebo effect.

You feel sort of energised

by having drunk it.

It gives me a bit of a kick

is the main thing and,

from different blends,

you can slightly taste

different things.

Sometimes they're chocolatey,

sometimes they're fruity.

The University of Southampton went

through 200 studies looking at how

coffee affects the body

and concluded three or four cups

of it a day could lead to a lower

risk of developing health problems.

However, it also said too much of it

while pregnant can be dangerous.

In some cases, a small amount

of coffee can cause anxiety,

and there are studies that suggest

children, adolescents

and the elderly are particularly

vulnerable to the adverse

effects of caffeine.

It gives me kind of...

It brings my anxiety

levels up a bit.

My gears are always grinding

and I think sometimes I can

have a caffeine overload,

so I try to stay away from it

as much as when I was younger

when I worked in construction.

I was drinking it, you know,

nonstop all the time.

Critics say the finding of this

particular review could be skewed

because those evaluated may have

been healthy before

starting to drink coffee.

I tend to ignore this kind of advice

because from one day to the next it

tends to differ, so I wouldn't be

surprised if in a week or two we got

some other report saying that coffee

is bad for you after all.

But I guess everything

in moderation.

Researchers are now calling

for rigorous clinical trials

to explore the drink's true effects.

And a last bit of advice

from them - opt for milk

with your coffee rather than cream.

Sima Kotecha, BBC News, Birmingham.

That's good, mine's a latte.

We've all been there.

A phone call you'd rather not be on,

suddenly there's a bit

of inteference, you lose the signal.

Line goes dead.

Oh dear, what a shame.

Who knows, maybe you even faked it.

Well, if you did, then rest

assured you're not alone.

The Delaware Senator Tom Carper

reveals that Chief White House

adviser Gary Cohn did just that

while talking recently

to Donald Trump.

Apparently, it was so that Cohn

and Carper could continue

a productive conversation

they were having about taxes

without the President

getting in the way.

The White House has denied

Carper's version of events.

The Senator is sticking to it.

Now Katty is not with us today,

it is of course Thanksgiving,

but if you were with us yesterday

you'll know that she had signed up

for the annual Turkey Trot.

And, I'm pleased to report,

she's made it to the other end

in good time, with a photo

to prove it.

Apparently, this is the 2km mark.

There's Katty, second from right,

with her lovely family.

And, no, that is not Rocky Balboa

their in the middle, in the hat.

You might recognise that character,

the BBC's very own Jon Sopel.