15/03/2018 Beyond 100 Days

You're watching

Beyond 100 Days on PBS.

Donald Trump slaps sanctions

on Russia and offers a rare

criticism of Moscow,

after a conversation

with Theresa May.

On both the poisoning

of Sergei Skripal and Russian

meddling in the US election,

the White House is pushed to take

a tougher line on Putin.

As tests continues at Skripal's

house in Salisbury -

Britain, France, Germany and the US

issue a rare joint

statement condemning

the Kremlin for the attack.

Meanwhile Russia denies it made

the nerve agent used in that attack

and promises to retaliate

against both Britain and America.

In Miami a pedestrian bridge has

collapsed. We are getting reports of

multiple fatalities. We'll bring you

the latest.

Also on the programme.

New reports in Washington that

Special Counsel Bob Mueller has

subpoenaed Donald Trump's business

records.

The President has said that

would be a red line.

Long dark winters and summers

bathed in continual light

might drive some mad,

but the people of Finland are in

fact the happiest in the world.

Get in touch with us using

the hashtag Beyond-One-Hundred-Days.

Hello and welcome -

I'm Katty Kay in Washington

and Christian Fraser is in London.

The West today came together

in an unusual, coordinated criticism

of Russia's aggressive behaviour.

There was a joint statement

from Britain's allies

and new sanctions from Washington.

After a string of what are

being called malicious

actions from Moscow,

it sounds like Western

allies have had enough.

Even Donald Trump, normally loathe

to criticise President Putin,

has been pushed to drop

the ambiguity, blaming Moscow

for the events in Salisbury.

In response to Russia's

interference in the US election,

his own Treasury Department added

more sanctions

against Russians today.

And yet there is still the very real

question of how much tougher

the West is really prepared to be

against the Kremlin.

Here's James Landale.

This was Theresa May's

first visit to Salisbury

since the nerve agent attack.

A chance to be briefed by the police

and public health experts,

but a chance to meet and reassure

members of the public,

whose lives have been so disrupted.

The spirit of those that live

here has been fantastic.

She visited the scene of the attack

on the former Russian intelligence

officer and his daughter

11 days ago.

The restaurant where they ate

and a park bench, under a tent,

where they were found.

The Prime Minister thanked some

of the police officers who first

responded to the call.

Thank you, what you did

is what the police do

day in and day out.

You go to a routine call,

you don't know what you find.

Then at the local hospital

she met and thanked

Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey,

who is still recovering

from exposure to the nerve agent.

Russia, she said, was guilty

of a brazen and despicable attack.

She expelled 23 of its diplomats,

but is ready to do more.

There are other things

we're looking at.

If we face further provocation from

Russia there are other measures we

can deploy.

What is important in

the international arena and we have

taken this into Nato,

the United Nations and we will be

taking it into the European Union,

allies are standing alongside us.

That came in a joint statement

from the leaders of Britain,

France, Germany and the US,

blaming Russia for what they called

an assault on UK sovereignty.

I spoke with the Prime Minister

and we are in deep discussions,

very sad situation and it looks

like the Russians are behind it.

Something that should never,

ever happen and we are taking it

very seriously, as I think

are many others.

The joint statement is significant

because it shows the Foreign Office

and Downing Street are convincing

Britain's allies that the Salisbury

attack is different,

it represents an escalation

of Russia's hostile behaviour.

And as such, those allies are ready

to crank up the pressure on Moscow.

That diplomacy continued today

in Brussels, where British security

officials briefed Nato allies.

The head of the alliance said Russia

had clearly breached

international agreements.

It is important to express

strong, political support

to the United Kingdom,

sending a clear message that

the United Kingdom is not alone.

We stand together with them.

In Moscow, President Putin

discussed the Salisbury

case with his ministers,

who denied Russia and the Soviet

Union had ever run a Novichok nerve

agent programme and promised

to respond soon to the expulsion

of its diplomats.

The Porton Down military

research laboratory,

which identified the nerve agent,

is to get an extra £48

million in funding.

Ministers confirmed it would provide

a sample to the chemical watchdog.

Ministers, whose diplomacy is not

extending to Russia.

If you are a nation and another

nation has launched a nerve agent

attack on your people,

you have every right to tell Russia

to shut up and go away.

Meanwhile, this afternoon

near Salisbury, the investigation

continued with the Army recovering

a car from the village near the home

of Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey.

We'll get more on this story in a

minute.

We are getting breaking news

from Miami, where a pedestrian

bridge at Florida International

University has collapsed. There are

reports that several people have

been killed in the accident.

These

are live pictures from Miami. At

least three vehicles, we understand,

are underneath the bridge and a

number of injured people have been

treated. The bridge, which was only

opened on Saturday, connected the

university to a student housing

area. The Miami Herald is reporting

that those firemen you can see their

around the bridge have been working

through a hole, so they are getting

some access to the vehicles

underneath, and we've seen pictures

in the last few minutes of

paramedics also treating people on

the road close to the bridge.

Police

are telling people to stay away from

the area now, of course. Does remind

our viewers it's about 3pm on the

east coast in Miami. There would

have been a lot of people travelling

on the highway and that bridge has

just been opened for a few days.

We'll have more on this story as we

get it. Let's return to the story,

straight to Moscow, because our

colleague Lucy Hawking is is there.

We're still awaiting a response from

the Russian authorities. It will

come, it will be no surprise. What

are we expecting?

It's snowing on us

here in Moscow and we really should,

I suppose, use a metaphor and an

analogy because relations between

Britain and Russia are really in the

deep freeze, the worst they've been

for the past 30 years and Christian

Kimura right, it we're expecting

that response from the Kremlin some

time soon -- Christian, you are

right. We've had some indications as

to what it could be. Sergei Lavrov

suggesting some British diplomatic

staff will be expelled from Russia,

possibly. They said that when this

response comes it will be different

from how they we heard from the

British, they will behave like

gentlemen and will let the British

here through official channels

before the public here. We can show

some pictures of Vladimir Putin,

he's been taking this into

consideration today, meeting with

his Security Council and the line we

had from this meeting is that great

concern was expressed about the

destructive and provocative stance

taken by Britain. The other thing

that has constantly been stressed

here is they are still wanting and

waiting for evidence to be produced

by the British, to back up these

allegations.

We've been hearing on

the programme over the last couple

of days that the actions Theresa May

has so far announced won't

necessarily worry the Kremlin.

What's your sense of whether people

in the Russian government are

feeling the heat over this one?

It's

a great question and I think that

one of the interesting things,

listening to the state television

today, is that there are some

analysts here who thought that

Theresa May would have gone further,

that these sanctions aren't as

strong as they could have been, and

maybe she's got others up her

sleeve, particularly into if we get

into a tit-for-tat situation and

she's still holding on for some

measures. If you speak to people on

the streets, there is a massive

sense of indignation here. They

believe Russia has been falsely

accused of something and people have

all sorts of interesting allegations

to toss Britain's way. For instance,

they say that this is Britain

wanting to interfere in Russia's

build-up to the World Cup, wanting

to interfere in the elections which

are taking place in a few days'

time, wanting to belittle Russia and

make Britain look great game, at a

time when they feel Britain looks on

its knees because of Brexit. Just a

few hours ago, state television said

this was about Britain's centuries

old imperial rivalry with brusher

>> weather-macro: Russia. They gave

ten examples, in 1917 King George V

refused to receive the far's family

in London, that's the kind of

rhetoric we are seeing on state

television this evening -- King

George V refused to receive the

tsar's family in London.

Let's look

at the joint statement from Nato

allies. It says...

How are Putin's

supporters responding?

Natalia Narochnitskaya

is the former Vice Chair of

the International Affairs Committee

in the Russian State Duma

and is currently campaigning

across the country for President

Putin.

He's up for re-election. Thanks very

much for joining the programme. Is

it plausible for the Russian

government at this stage after the

Brits have investigated what has

happened and this nerve agent to say

really we had nothing to do with

this?

Well, I believe, I don't know

whether my participation has any

sense, because I remember the

episodes in the British House of

Commons when Jeremy Corbyn was

silenced when he was asking

legitimate questions, but of course

I will try, since I come here to the

studio. As far as I understand, as I

know, there's still nobody has seen

real proof of that was Russia behind

and it would take someone insane, I

mean in Russia's authorities circle,

to organise such an event just

before the election. The legitimate

question, the first question we

always ask ourselves when we

investigate, when we face similar

cases, who is profiting? Is Russia

profiting from this? I think it

would be insane to... As we proved,

our Foreign Minister has said they

were asking just give us the

material.

What the British Prime

Minister is saying is there is no

plausible alternative explanation

and you have now Germany, France,

the United Kingdom and the United

States all saying that the Kremlin

is responsible for this and has

behaved in a way that is outrageous.

Well, that's not cricket, because

the allies are just supporting, they

don't know anything about the case.

You know, my only relative, the

brother of my father, perished in

Stalin's concentration camp and what

I saw in the British House of

Commons reminds me of how the trial

in the Soviet Union of Stalin's time

went, when the prosecutor general

was accusing crime is absolutely

unbelievable scale and all the rest

were competing in loyalty, you know,

pronouncing ardent speeches. There's

only one person to ask for the

proof.

This is quite extraordinary,

that you are about to have election

on Sunday where there is no

opposition and the opposition isn't

allowed to stand and you are picking

holes in British democracy where

people are having a legitimate

debate.

We have a position, we have

eight candidates and for instance

the latest several rounds of debates

on TV, people even slapped each

other and were accusing Putin and

the current authorities of all sorts

of... Etc, etc. You call opposition

only someone in the street, you

know, that means that for instance

your Labour Party is not opposition,

etc, so opposition in some marginals

only. We have opposition, we have

eight candidates, and I'm sure they

will gain some votes. For instance,

the Communist Party, candidates, who

is not a member of the party, will

get 10%, I'm sure. Another will get

not less than 6% and all the rest,

two or three.

I'm sorry, we have to

leave it there. But thank you very

much for coming into the studio. We

are out of time.

As we mentioned, the US has slapped

sanctions on 19 Russian

individuals and five groups,

including Moscow's intelligence

services, for meddling in the US

presidential election.

For more we can cross

now to the BBC's North

America Editor, Jon Sopel.

It's extraordinary, listening to the

indignant is from Moscow. Quite

strong feelings there. There were

people who were concerned that maybe

President Trump wouldn't put his

name to this condemnation. What

we've seen today is him standing.

Behind the Prime Minister.

Well, it

looks as though Theresa May has

managed to pull something off that

all the US intelligence services

have singular Lee failed to do. And

that's to bring the President onside

into believing that the Russians

were responsible for something that

was not good and I think it was very

striking, when I saw the statement

classmate issued by Sarah Sanders,

the press secretary to the

president, condemning the Russian

activity, accepting that Russia was

likely responsible, accepting that

it was the right thing to do to

expel those diplomats and perhaps

taking further action, then this

morning Donald Trump doing something

rather Trump, which was to sign a

joint letter with the leaders of the

UK, France and Germany, in

condemnation of what Russia was

doing and saying was offending the

norms of international behaviour and

destabilising, and he's also

repeated that in terms in his

meeting with the Taoiseach. These

are things we haven't seen from the

president before.

Stay with us,

because I want to get your reaction

to another story that's breaking

here about Russia will stop

The New York Times is reporting

that the special counsel Bob Mueller

has subpoenaed Mr Trump's financial

records to do with any Russian

business activities.

It's the first time

the investigation has subpoenaed

Trump's business records.

Here's the White House press

secretary a few moments ago.

as we've maintained all along and as

the president has said numerous

times, there was no collusion

between the campaign and Russia for

specific questions regarding the

Trump Organisation, I'd refuse you

to them.

How significant is this

news breaking in the New York Times?

It is significant for tit reasons.

It shows the Bob Mueller

investigation is going on, it's not

coming to a close, it's not pack up

and go home and a couple of weeks'

time. This is going on. The second

reason it is significant is that

Donald Trump gave an interview to

the New York Times last summer in

which he said, look, if you start

coming after my family's finances,

that would be crossing a red line.

All of which leaves open the

question has the Bob Mueller

investigation with the supreme

crossed one of those red line that

Donald Trump set, so potentially

dangerous moment for the

investigation. We had Sarah Sanders

say I refer you to the Trump

organisation. Let me tell you what

they have said in the last few

moments. Since July 2017 we've

advised the public that the Trump

organisation is fully cooperative

with all investigations, including

the Special Counsel, and is

responding to their requests. This

is old news and our assistance in

cooperation with the various

investigations remain the same

today. I suppose my only question I

would throw in, if they'd been

cooperating so fully with the Bob

Mueller organisation, why would

there have been a need for a

subpoena?

Yeah, I've been asking

that question as well. What do Mr

Trump supporters make of this news?

Kayleigh McEnany is

the spokesperson for

the Republican National Committee.

I want to get the reaction to the

news in the New York Times that Bob

Mueller has subpoenaed the Trump

Organisation for the business

records. How significant is it?

Not

very significant. The Trump

organisation has been cooperating

and will co-operate further and Bob

Mueller has subpoenaed these

documents. They've already been

given 20,000 documents from the

Trump organisation, from the White

House, from the campaign. They've

got 37 witnesses. The Trump

Administration, campaign and

organisation of been fully

cooperating. There are hundreds of

thousands of pages of documents that

they found no collusion. There will

be no collusion that is found and we

hope...

If Bob Mueller is

investigating President Trump's

business dealings and looking at

those and he finds something there,

the president has said this would be

crossing a red line. What does that

actually mean in terms of the

investigation? Could he fire Bob

Mueller over this?

I think President

Trump trusts Mr Muller to stay

within his jurisdiction and that was

what he was indicating, that it

should not be a free rein to look

into anyone with the name Trump.

Everything the Trump organisation

has done has been aboveboard and

that's what Bob Mueller will find,

he'll not find any evidence of

collusion, any bad financial

transactions here, so they will

co-operate as they indicated. There

will be nothing found and all

President Trump wants is for this to

wrap up quickly and fairly.

We've

had an announcement today, we have a

new national economic adviser Larry

Kudlow, who is coming to the

building, Rex Tillerson on his way

out of course, he'll be gone in a

few weeks' time and the rumours are

starting to circulate about who else

might go, HR McMaster, the National

Security adviser. It looks pretty

chaotic from over here.

It's not

chaotic at all. Here's what Trump

supporters look at and Americans

generally are the results coming out

of the Administration and their

staff changes, yes, there is a lot

of power century in our mainstream

media, but look at the results, the

economy, the fact North Korea is

willing to temporarily stop their

missile testing and pursues a

meeting with the president. That's

what Trump supporters and Americans

are looking at. The staff changes

are in a footnote to a bigger story.

It does give an impression there

have been more people leaving this

Administration in the first year

that -- that -- than is customary

and it's understandable as reports

of chaos because so many people are

coming and going.

President Trump is

a very high standard and if someone

isn't meeting that standard,

President Trump...

Does everyone

else in the White House meeting

standard at the moment?

I think at

the moment, yes, if someone loses

the confidence and they will know.

President Trump did push back

reports that other people would be

leaving. Mr McMaster stays for now.

We'll see if it changes by next

week. We'll get you back in if it

does because it changes a lot.

The appointment of Larry Kudlow is

interesting, he's somebody who is a

conservatives television commentator

and here's what he did last night,

Christian, when he was on television

himself. He spoke very unusual this

about how he was called and asked to

be in the Trump Administration. His

answer was the president called me,

told him he'd seen him on television

and said that he was very handsome.

Opec smack there is hope for us all.

You should be sending in your

resume. You look handsome on TV.

Do

you think he'd read it?

I think it

would have to be a picture of you on

television.

Lycos is all real, my

bad clips.

There a valid point to be

made that the president needs to

have around him any president needs

to have around them a team with

which they are comfortable and we've

seen the changes in the State

Department. He was clearly not

comfortable with Rex Tillerson. He

was clearly not comfortable either

with Gary Cohen, so having a new

person running the economic side of

things makes an awful lot of sense

in terms of how you're going to

operate the White House. If you can

get the team with him that he's

comfortable with we may see less of

this churn in the White House.

And

yet five months ago this was the

most remarkable group of people he'd

ever brought together in the Cabinet

and if you read the papers, and I

know some of it is speculation, the

atmosphere, both within the Cabinet

and within the White House in

general, I mean people don't have

any confidence they're going to be

there next week.

No, he was elected

because he didn't have experience of

running politics and political

organisations. Well, part of that

leads to a certain amount of players

in the stuffing I guess, so that's

perhaps to be expected from what is

voters wanted from him -- a certain

amount of chaos in the stuffing.

I want to share some spectacular

pictures coming to us from Finland.

They are the Northern Lights

of course, and Christian,

I want you take a good look them.

How do they make you feel?

Humbled perhaps?

Maybe there's a happy-go-lucky and

feeling when you look at the aurora

borealis.

I just feel rather green!

Do you? Apparently you can see it

from England tonight, from

Gloucestershire. We'll have to find

out tomorrow if the people of

Gloucestershire are happy tomorrow.

Maybe there's something in it. Shall

we get back to Finland? You were

meant to say you feel very happy.

That's the reason we are showing

these pictures, not because they are

beautiful but because they come from

the happiest country on earth.

Apart from economic factors, life

expectancy and freedom of choice -

the countries were also ranked based

on the happiness of

immigrants in the country.

Scandinavia is well

represented in the top five.

Apart from other European countries,

Canada, New Zealand and Australia

round out the top ten.

As for the US and the UK -

18th and 19th respectively.

I don't understand, I'm always

hearing people in Scandinavian

countries, don't they have high

suicide rates?

That was always the

feeling about Finland, because of

the dark nights, the long, dark

nights and the Vari-Lite Summers,

that they had a higher than average

suicide rate. -- very light source.

America's subjective well-being is

being systematically undermined by

three interrelated epidemic

diseases. Notable obesity, substance

abuse, especially opioid addiction,

and depression, and that's why they

think America is slipping down the

table. Also notable that when we

talk about income and society of the

way society interacts, Venezuela has

dropped 20 places to 102 on the

list.

They didn't have our studio,

which of course is the happiest

place on the planet, right?

And

Burnley, as well, seventh in the

league and doing well! Anyway...

This is.

This is Beyond 100

Days from the BBC.

Coming up for viewers on the BBC

News Channel and BBC World News -

a sombre anniversary in Syria -

seven years since the outbreak

of civil war, what's

the world doing about it?

And the changing face

of National Geographic -

why its editor wants to talk to us

about its racist past.

That's still to come.

Welcome to how the weather is going

to pan out in the British Isles. In

the short term we are looking to the

Atlantic, to see low-pressure

driving frontal systems towards the

British Isles. If you spend the day

in northern and eastern parts it's

been one of those, it's been wet,

cold, pretty miserable affairs, snow

across the high ground of Scotland.

We're watching another feature

running into the south-western

quarter of the British Isles, so as

we start the new day on Friday not a

particularly cold start the day but

it will be for some of you are

really quite wet one. This front

towards the north and east of

Scotland producing quite a bit of

rain and significant snowfall across

the high and then Northern Ireland

down through the North West of

England towards north-eastern Wales,

the Midlands, on towards the

south-east, really quite heavy rain

in its own right there. The snowfall

totals really mounting up across the

higher ground of Scotland here. It

really will be a high ground

feature, I think. Similar prospect

perhaps across the highest ground at

the top end of the Pennines. Don't

discount this more southerly

feature. It looks rather more patchy

but even so I think there will be

the moderate burst of rain. Further

south than that is where you get

sunshine but some pretty sharp

showers as well. As you sleep into

the start of the weekend marked

transformation. We start importing

some really cold air. There will be

a widespread frost on Saturday.

Thanks to the importation of some

really cold air and that big area of

high pressure over Scandinavia

throwing the cold air towards the

British Isles, no signs of mild air

we are all in this similar boat. And

on that noticeable very keen

easterly wind there will be plenty

of snow showers running into the

Wash and through towards the

Midlands, into East Anglia, into the

eastern side of Pennines and eastern

Scotland and you add in the strength

of the wind, my word it will feel

bitterly cold full stop considering

that some of you had around 13-14 on

Friday, it will be a shock to the

system. We start Sunday, there could

well be more widespread snowfall

rather than showers. The northern

boundary of that is difficult to pin

down at the moment. Further north

than that yes, there will still be

wintry showers to be had. Simply

because it is going to be that cold.

Take care, goodbye.

This is Beyond 100 Days, with me,

Katty Kay in Washington.

Christian Fraser's in London.

Our top stories:

As tests continue at the home

of the poisoned former

Russia spy Sergei Skripal,

Britain, France, Germany and the US

issue a rare joint statement

condemning the Kremlin

for the attack.

Russia denies it made the nerve

agent used in that attack

and promises to retaliate

against Britain for expelling

23 Russian diplomats.

More on that shortly.

Also coming up in

the next half hour:

We'll get the latest from Florida

where a new pedestrian

bridge has collapsed,

reportedly killing

a number of people.

These are live pictures

from the scene in Miami.

It's an industry worth

£28 billion to the UK economy -

but what impact will Brexit have

on British fashion?

We'll talk to leading

designer Maria Grachvogel.

Let us know your thoughts

by using the hashtag #Beyond100Days.

Let's return to our

breaking news this hour.

A pedestrian bridge at

Florida's International University

in Miami has collapsed,

killing several people.

These are live pictures from Miami -

at least three vehicles were trapped

underneath and a number of injured

people have been treated.

Luis Fajado from BBC

Monitoring is in Miami.

What more can you tell us?

There has

been this major accident, a 900

tonne bridge has collapsed on a

major Miami Avenue in the early

afternoon with heavy traffic,

several cars have been trapped

inside the structure. Florida

highway police have told local media

there have been confirmed fatalities

and they also say a number of people

are being treated in hospital. This

bridge had only been set up this

weekend, it was considered a safety

hazard for university students

moving from the main campus to their

residences across the Avenue and now

they are facing this major accident.

Thank you for bringing us the latest

from Miami.

It's only three days until Russians

go to the polls and today

the country's conflicts

with the West are centre stage.

Moscow has called Britain's

expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats

over the poisoning of a former spy

in southern England irresponsible.

While here in the US,

the government has slapped sanctions

on 19 Russians for interfering

in the US election.

Here to discuss all of these

developments is Thomas Pickering,

former US Ambassador to both Russia

and the UN.

Thank you for coming in. Earlier on

we were speaking to somebody who was

a strong supporter of President

Putin, who expressed outrage at the

suggestion that Russia was involved

in the poisoning of this former spy

and said they wanted proof before

they would contemplate this. Is that

what you would expect?

I would, they

are very defensive about these kind

of things, but using novichok, that

Russian nerve agent, and the

tell-tale that has left, is

something interesting because they

have seemingly left a trace and you

wonder why, and my sense is that

when Putin was asked a year ago, was

there something unforgivable, he

said the trail, and while this is

not clear, there is an interesting

tie-up here between these two people

that have been poisoned, the

Alexander Litvinenko case, both of

which the Russians would have a

reason to feel represented the

trailers, the tradition among

released spies is that they work

beyond farm. I'm not sure what is

going on but Putin could be sending

a message to his folks are aware of

the fact they are targets for

western intelligence and wanting to

tighten the reins.

If we were to go

down the line of Jeremy Corbyn and

not point the finger directly at the

state and hypothesise that maybe

there was a Black Ops operation in

Russia, is that possible? We think

President Putin is our strong man

and no one can touch but how much

power do these groups around him

have?

We saw some things like that

in the middle of the Boris Yeltsin

period where things were more at

tumultuous and out of work. Putin

knows this business, he has been

around for a long time and the last

thing he would want is some kind of

black operation put him in a

difficult position. The

juxtaposition with the election is

something but nobody has ever had

the view that Putin would lose this

election. His popularity is up, the

notion he controls the vote count is

not far from reality so it may be a

late night if it is close but it is

hard to believe it will not be a

landslide for him.

Do you think

there is anything different about

this occasion to the Alexander

Litvinenko murder that would make

you think there will be a tough

retaliation?

That unrolled slowly,

and it took a longer time to come to

a conclusion. Polonium 2010 was a

harder element to find so that may

have done it but this is the second

time, maybe more if there are truths

to some of the other cases that have

popped up but not been fully

explored, so why think the notion

that how much further can it go on,

the British Prime Minister is under

pressure for all kinds of things so

it is a good time to be tough.

Thank

you for coming in.

Seven years after the civil war

in Syria broke out today

the bloodshed continues.

Thousands of people are fleeing

the rebel held enclave

of Eastern Ghouta as government

forces step up their

bombardment of the suburb.

One doctor has told the BBC

that the streets and hospitals

are full of injured people.

And there are not enough medical

staff or supplies to help them all.

As our Middle East editor

Jeremy Bowen reports,

after years of resistance,

it looks like the Damascus

suburb is about to fall.

Thousands of people are fleeing

parts of Eastern Ghouta,

going into an uncertain future that

looks better now than

the deadly present.

These are the people

who have spent weeks hiding

in basements from the shelling.

Eastern Ghouta is a big area

and this isn't happening everywhere.

Many tens of thousands

are still besieged.

This was filmed by Omar, a cameraman

who gives his material to the BBC.

The attack happened

outside his building.

A small boy was caught up in it.

He is deaf, so he hadn't heard

warnings to take cover.

Omar, the cameraman,

worried the boy would bleed to death

and told us the eight minutes it

took for the ambulance to arrive

were the worst he had

endured since the battle

for Eastern Ghouta had began.

Omar carried him to the ambulance

where he was squeezed in

next to the bodies of the dead.

Omar has seen a lot of death.

He said the boy was a soul

he wanted to save.

We have been following this doctor,

a paediatrician in an underground

hospital, who spends every day

with the wounded and the dying.

In that place, they are all fighting

fear, where regime soldiers

are advancing into the Eastern

Ghouta.

The doctor sent a message.

TRANSLATION:

It is the worst it

has been for many days,

the shelling is brutal,

bombs, rockets,

all kinds of weapons.

This may be my last message.

The injured are everywhere,

the operating theatres

are full of wounded people.

We don't have enough

doctors to help them

and our own homes are being shelved.

A small amount of aid is being

brought into Eastern Ghouta.

All the talk of a humanitarian

ceasefire is being ignored.

This war started seven years ago.

Its horror goes on.

Jeremy Bowen, BBC News.

When the violence in Syria first

broke out seven years ago,

journalist Rania Abouzeid

was on the ground, and for years

continued her reporting

despite being banned

from entering the country.

She's written a new book

about her experiences

called No Turning Back.

She joined us a short time ago.

You've told the story of the Syrian

civil war through portraits

of people you met over the years,

four of them, and I wanted

you to start by telling us a little

about the girl you met six for seven

years ago, what's happened

to her life in the last few years?

I wanted to explain war

through the eyes of a child and show

the impact it had on a regular

family, so you see Ruha absorbing

what's happening around her,

trying to understand it,

and some of the challenges

she faces as a child

living in tumultuous times,

like the small things for a little

girl, not being able to go out

into the courtyard because she fears

snipers, not being able

to play on the streets.

She says we used to play

on the streets then

we feared we would be shot,

this is a nine-year-old girl who has

these concerns so it gives

you an idea how it impacts everyone

and how even a nine-year-old can

absorb everything happening

around her and she's trying

to understand it in her own ways.

One of the political things we have

seen in Syria over the course

of this war has been the growth

of radicalisation,

of Islamic extremists.

It wasn't necessarily

there at the beginning

of the protest but it has emerged

in the country.

You tell the story of Muhammad,

who became radicalised - how?

I tell the story of three Al-Qaeda

members in this book and that's

to illustrate the Islamisation

of the uprising and all three

characters were radicalised

at different times

and in different ways.

Muhammad was radicalised

because his family suffered

from the older Assad's crackdown

against an earlier Islamist

insurrection in the 1980s and that,

to use Muhammad's words,

planted hatred in his heart,

which he carried with him

until he saw a chance in 2011

to take revenge against the regime

and his vehicle for revenge

was Islamic radicalism.

The characters you follow

through your book and their life

stories that you bring to us

are important because I worry that

after seven years of the pictures

and horror we see on our screens,

the world has become inured

to what is happening in Syria.

Do you worry that the international

community has switched off?

That's why I chose to follow

a number of characters and do so not

just for a minute where you see them

after a battle but to follow them

over years so you can get

the context of their experience

and in following them

you will understand something

about what happened in Syria

on a political level,

a military level, on a social level.

That's why I structured it the way

it is, because it is complex

and difficult to understand

and there is an alphabet soup

of rebel groups that keeps changing

but in my experience of covering

a place like the Middle East,

if you focus on people and tell

the story through people,

you can untangle those ideologies

and the complicated nature

of the story.

It becomes easier to understand.

Briefly, have you been

back to Syria?

I haven't been back since late

2016, just because

it's so difficult to get into.

It's near impossible

to get into Syria now.

Which is why there is

so little coverage of it.

The book is no turning back.

Thank you for coming in.

Keeping the world interesting in

what is going on is a real battle.

It reminded me of a tweet I saw a

month ago from Unicef who sent out a

blank tweet, no words will do

justice to the children killed,

their mothers, fathers and loved

ones, pointing out that all these

pictures are not working because the

international community is not doing

enough.

And you met some of the

Syrian refugees who came out, those

people had tough lives, then once

you met on the border with Greece.

It's two years ago this week, and it

is those personal stories that stick

with you, the pictures and videos

pale compared to the people I listen

to on the border. This family had a

farm outside Damascus that they sold

because they wanted a wooden boat

from Turkey to Greece because the

rubber ones were sinking, but before

they got to Greece, they chose --

the border was closed, so they

couldn't go forwards or backwards,

and that night I went home and had a

warm shower. It rained and rained

and it was really miserable.

And

they had nothing left because they

had sold it all.

Stella McCartney, Vivenne Westwood,

Alexander McQueen -

some of the biggest names in global

fashion are British and in the last

ten year the size of the business

in the UK has taken off

as never before.

At the last count, fashion

was worth more than to

£28 billion to the UK economy.

And fashion is as about

as international a business

as you can get, so what difference

will Brexit make?

On the day that the Creative

Industries Federation

hosts a major conference,

and as part of our own Business

of Brexit series, we've been talking

to the leading UK fashion designer

Maria Grachvogel.

Almost a year to go until Brexit,

does your industry think it has

enough information about what will

happen?

Absolutely not. On a human

level, there is concern among

designers and manufacturers in the

UK, to see exactly what that will

mean. I think we have a huge design

skill here in the UK and our skills

are some of the best but we are in

some ways, we have relied on a

certain pool of immigration for the

people that do the work, the

machinists, we aren't training those

in the UK, we don't have those

skills and the risk concern as to

what happens next for the industry.

When I lived in Italy, it was a huge

frustration to designers who had

made a brand that sold around the

world that some of their skills were

disappearing because they were

bringing in people from abroad to

keep down the cost. When Brexiteer

is saved those are the sort of

people we need to start retraining,

building up a British brand?

That's

all well and good but it's whether

they want to. Students come in to my

work for placements and we offer a

good technical placement because I

believe in making clothes, I can

make something from beginning to end

that not many people are interested

in learning to be a machinist.

People are interested in being a

designer and that is different, we

in the UK have to say it is gorgeous

to be a pattern cutter or a

machinist and have that pride as

opposed to purely in design.

Beyond

the idea of labour and raw materials

which use a lot of imported

materials, fashion is very global.

Christian wear something that is

fabulous, we try and copy it, but

that idea of a globalised creative

spirit, how does that get affected,

or does it, when Britain leaves the

EU?

It's not so much to design side

of things although there are

questions about, right now I could

go and potentially have a job in the

design house in Paris, how easy

would that be after Brexit remains

to be seen. Somebody at my level may

not have the issues, the issues are

further down the food chain.

What do

you need to hear next week when the

European governments get together?

Harass any materials?

That's super

important because we're bringing

things in from the EU all the time

and what that looks like in terms of

the finished price of goods because

we have an amazing design industry

and we need to support it.

This is Beyond 100 Days.

Still to come:

The changing face of

National Geographic -

What these pictures tell us about

its past and its future.

The police investigation

into the Grenfell Tower blaze has

revealed a fire door has failed

a fire test.

Experts said it was supposed

to resist fire for 30 minutes,

but lasted for only 15.

Tom Symonds reports.

Could what happened

here be the result of

corporate manslaughter?

That is what the police

are investigating.

Highly technical work,

including the test of a door

from a Grenfell flat.

One that was undamaged in the fire.

In this standard test,

heat is applied to one side

and the door must

hold for 30 minutes.

Here, there's some smoke, but this

door easily passes the test.

The sample from Grenfell

lasted 15 minutes.

The police informed the government,

which has consulted its own experts.

The response:

There is no change

to fire safety advice

that the public should follow.

I, nevertheless, fully appreciate

that this news will be

troubling for many people,

not least all those affected

by the Grenfell tragedy.

That is why, based on expert advice,

we have begun the process

of conducting further tests

and we will continue to consult

with the expert panel

to identify the implications

of these further tests.

This picture is from

before the fire.

Flats appear to have

had a variety of doors,

but they were fairly new.

The doors were replaced in 2012,

not as part as the major

refurbishment of Grenfell Tower.

After that work there

was a safety inspection.

The investigators will want to know

were the doors properly assessed?

For the survivors, understanding why

it happened is vital.

It's very important for Grenfell

survivors and the bereaved families

to feel that we can honour

the memory of those who have died.

One way we can bring justice

is to make sure that regulations

and progressive policies ensure that

people feel safe in their homes

once again and that means

tightening the regulations.

But those questions will come later.

For now, this is still the scene

of a criminal investigation.

Tom Symonds, BBC News,

at Grenfell Tower.

You're watching Beyond 100 Days.

It's famous for its glossy pages

of photos and stories

from around the world,

but National Geographic Magazine

is taking a moment

to re-think its past.

The publication has said

its previous coverage was racist

by showing different groups

as exotic or savage

and reproducing a racial hierarchy.

Now the latest issue

of the 130-year-old publication

is confronting its troubled history

by being entirely dedicated

to the issue of race.

With us now to discuss it

all is National Geographic's

editor in chief, Susan Goldberg.

What made you decide to look not

just at the issue of race, it is the

50th anniversary of the

assassination of Martin Luther King,

but National Geographic's role in

that?

I thought if we were going to

speak credibly about race, we should

look at her own history because I

have heard that the pages of our

magazine was the first place that

readers were exposed to community is

different to them.

So you look back

and what did you find?

Until the

time of the civil rights movement in

the US, we didn't capture people of

colour living in the US, did not

acknowledge their roles beyond being

labourers or domestics, then when we

went overseas we portrayed people as

exotic.

You gave an example of a

1962 addition for your team went to

South Africa, just a little while

after the massacre in Sharpeville,

how did National Geographic cover

that story?

There were really not

voices of black South Africans and

the story did not even mention the

Sharpeville shootings, which

horrified the world. What was

encouraging is that in 1977 when we

went by, that story talks about the

opposition leaders, we have pictures

of Winnie Mandela and we are talking

about apartheid and capturing the

problems, so you can see how much

the coverage changed after the civil

rights movement.

Do you think in the

way that you represented cultures

abroad you didn't so much teach

people in the US because you didn't

talk about black culture, did you in

some ways through the photographs

reinforce the prejudice?

We asked

our historian to help us undertake

this and he is an expert here, he

said he thought our coverage

reinforced a colonial view of the

world. You have National Geographic,

founded in 1888 at the height of

colonialism and for a long time that

was the view that was reinforced.

There is much of our history we are

proud of, how we brought people into

the broader world, but we didn't do

everything right.

How conscious are

you now of this issue of unintended

pious?

We tried to make sure we are

covering a diverse world with a

diverse group of photographers and

writers, so people go into

situations where they will not fall

into easy cliches, so we are more

able to provide context and

perspective. We are also giving

people in their communities cameras

so they can document their own

lives, which we would never have

done 15 years ago.

Thank you for

coming in, it's a great bit of

research.

Do you like fish and chips?

Yes, of course.

I used to make fish and chips -

in another life.

It was my Saturday job.

But here's the thing,

all the fish we sold on a Saturday

afternoon was haddock and cod.

But now we are being

encouraged to eat other fish.

Brexit fish.

Fish from our own local waters,

partly to help the British

fishing industry but largely

because it is much more sustainable.

You are seriously going to call them

Brexit feis? I'm going to give you

the numbers.

Britain exports 75% of the fish

it catches and imports

70% of its consumption.

That's because the Brits don't

like the fish from their own waters.

Take that one, Christian! We don't

like our own feis.

You will know why

in the second.

So let me show you the top three

fish the Marine Conservation Society

wants us to start eating.

No real painting. Any man who fished

as a boy used to catch these. When I

caught one of these, I would stick

it in the frying pan and it tasted

pretty good but if you put that in

the deep fat fryer and have it with

fish and chips, it will be to bone

and skin me.

I wouldn't buy it even

from you.

This is hate, rather more

good looking. And herrings, we do