31/03/2017 Newsnight

We are with the BBC journalist as he visits his shattered home

city for the first time since IS swept in.

But the fight with IS continues in Western Mosul, where hundreds

of thousands of civilians are caught between the murderous terrorists

I will ask an Iraqi brigadier if many more civilian casualties in

Mosul are inevitable. The talks which are about to start

will be difficult, complex and sometimes even confrontational.

On the day that Donald Tusk laid out the EU's negotiating guidelines,

we look at the the road ahead for Brexit.

And will we all by cyborgs any century soon?

The answer is yes, if the tranhumanists have their way.

IS - or Daesh's - tentacles have spread across the globe,

but tonight we focus our attention on where it all began.

Iraq's second city, Mosul, has, for the past three years,

been under the vicious heel of IS, who visited unimaginable horror

It was in Mosul where the IS leader, Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi,

declared an Islamic Caliphate, but now the Iraqi army,

aided by coalition forces, have liberated much of the city

and backed IS fighters into neighbourhoods

in West Mosul's Old City, along with around

There is little doubt IS will eventually be routed in Mosul,

but the human cost of the liberation is high, with accusations that

coalition strikes involving UK and US jets called in by the Iraqis

In a moment we have a film from inside Mosul.

But first, this primer from John Sweeney.

To defeat this man, al-Baghdadi, are the Iraqi army and the Americans

- and British backing them - killing too many innocent

Last summer, Isis was in full control of Mosul.

In October, the Iraqi army, mostly Shia, launched its offensive,

trying to win back the country's second city, mostly Sunni.

This battle is being fought along the fault line

East Mosul fell relatively swiftly but Isis fighters,

who have nowhere to go, were reportedly using human shields

and have been shooting civilians in the back

But West Mosul is believed to be home to 300,000 people.

You cannot bomb or shell a packed city centre

In the last six weeks, 700 civilians have been killed

and the Pentagon says that within the last week it has dropped

The Americans and the British are confident the rules

of engagement have not been changed, but as casualties mount,

is the human cost of this liberation becoming too high?

BBC journalist Basheer Al Zaidi grew up in East Mosul -

the part of the city that has been liberated from IS control.

He returned recently to meet his old friends and see how

This is his film from his shattered home city.

It's been over ten years since my last visit.

I grew up on these streets with my 11 brothers and sisters.

It's a weird feeling, to come back here, after all these years.

My hometown is now effectively split into two.

I'm in the East, which was recaptured a few months ago,

but just across the river, in the West, fighting continues.

It's quite different, quite difficult, to be honest.

Most of the buildings in the centre of the city are damaged.

It's clear that anybody who still lives here doesn't feel

This is me, on the left, with my oldest friend, Karim.

Growing up, we were inseparable, but staying in touch whilst he lived

I am here to pay him a surprise visit.

For the first time, I meet his kids, and it soon becomes clear his family

My best friend tells me he initially welcomed the idea

It's a real shock, but his support was short lived.

Karim's attitude towards IS is echoed across the city.

There was deep anger aimed at the government before IS arrived.

Protesters came out on the streets, and the army and the police force

were accused of widespread corruption, sectarianism and abuse.

The Sunni city had come to hate the practices

By the time IS entered Mosul the anger had reached its peak.

Today, the big challenge is to restore security without

We have joined these agents from the Iraqi National Security Service.

They are about to raid addresses all across Mosul.

Their aim is to move out IS sleeper cells that have launched

Three suspects are rounded up at this address,

It seems in this area everyone is treated with suspicion.

Today, the agents arrested six men, but in total they've detained over

It's difficult for me to see the people of Mosul become used

Today the army is all too aware of its past reputation.

I am taking a tour of the city with a Field Marshal.

He says the operation in Mosul has already restored

A lot is riding on this new-found goodwill towards the army

and police, but I wonder how long it will last.

Many people across the city are too scared to talk openly

One family who want to speak out are friends from my time at university.

Omar and his mother have invited me for breakfast.

Omar might be concerned about the future, but there is one

We are on our way to pick up his two daughters from school.

Like so many parents, he refused to allow IS to educate his children.

So this is the girls' first week back at school,

and they are pretty excited about it.

This is overwhelming, this is really overwhelming,

It's a special moment for their kids because normal life is maybe

back again for them, kind of a quietness.

It is something new for them, a new start.

My friends Omar and Karim might be certain about what's ahead,

but seeing these young girls back in school, I know there is at least

And you can see a longer version of that film on Our World on the BBC

News Channel at 9.30pm tomorrow night or Sunday.

Now, one of the biggest problems for Iraqi commanders calling

in coalition air strikes in Western Mosul -

where the fighting is still raging - is described as "the most

significant urban combat to take place since World War II"

is that IS fighters are threaded in among hundreds of

Last week, one strike is thought to have destroyed a building,

The US military has launched an inquiry into what happened.

Earlier this evening I spoke to Brigadier Tahseen Ibrahim

in Baghdad, spokesman for the Iraqi military.

The crisis in Mosul right now it is severe, Isis, they use civilians in

the front of the fighters, the problem is, those fighters and

terrorists do not care about any human material, they used to

civilians in front of them, sometimes they put those civilians

inside the houses and put one or two snipers on the roof as they start

shooting our troops and we saw them, we have drones watching everything,

they also saw them. There was a particular incident last week where

there was a series of coalition air strikes in a particular

neighbourhood and it is estimated that in that air strike,

coincidental but that air strike, more than 100 people died. What is

your response? There is a formal investigation. The coalition forces

said that we were responsible for that and we hit that target, they

did hit that target according to our request, the coalition forces took

the request from the Iraqi troops and after that, they shot any

target. The problem is, when the coalition forces set out in front,

they said, we hit that neighbourhood and there is a target for Isis in

that neighbourhood and we hit that but they never said, we hit that

house, they said we hit or killed those civilians because they said we

hate maybe one or two houses around that, they started to open a big

investigation from their side. Also, the MoD and the Prime Minister and

also my ministry, immediately opened a big investigation to give the

result about that. Our responsibility is to take care of

the civilians, everything is maybe during three days, and we clear that

in front of the media. This neighbourhood was very tight with

narrow streets, we know that civilians are there in their houses.

It is perfectly possible that the air strike hit civilians?

If you see and checked that neighbourhood, you would see how it

is destroyed, the houses. You would think one or two bombs destroyed

maybe ten or 15 houses. Amnesty International says the Iraqi army

are telling people not to leave their houses in western Mosul. Is

that true? All the houses on the right side, it's old and small.

There are more people in those houses. For that, any air strike or

any missiles or sometimes any car bombs, they take more damage, that

neighbourhood. For that we also changed our rules of engagement for

the humanitarian. Are your local commanders on the ground, they call

in a coalition air strike becomes very quickly. Is it possible your

commanders don't always know how many civilians are in the houses

around about? That depends about our information, the intelligence of our

information. We never shoot any houses. Without any information

coming from our guys. Some guys they work between the Isis fighters.

They're mainly Sunni population is concerned about the level of care

that an army led by Shia is going to give them. It's important for the

kind of piece that the city has, the way you win Mosul. Isis defeat. We

don't need any inside Mosul. The people who live in Mosul, they were

responsible, it's their responsibility to take care about

their cities. No militia, no Shia inside the city of Mosul. They take

care of city of Mosul police, Iraqi police, Iraqi army and, by the way,

Iraqi army when deliberate Mosul, will leave outside Mosul. Brigadier

Tahseen Ibrahim, thank you for joining us.

It feels as if we have come through the opening thundering

salvos of Brexit and we are now, really and truly,

But what does the route to that exit actually look like?

Today Donald Tusk issued guidelines at the EU summit in Malta,

and there was an early change in the mood music, indications that

after all, if sufficient progress is made towards the divorce,

Both sides have started laying out their stalls.

Today, Donald Tusk, the EU Council President,

set out the EU 27's draft guidance on what happens now.

The talks which are about to start will be difficult, complex

The EU 27 does not and will not pursue a punitive approach.

Brexit in itself is already punitive enough.

The most significant part of Donald Tusk's statement today

was about sequencing of the forthcoming talks.

Specifically, he said we'd have to make significant headway

on our divorce arrangements from the EU, before we are allowed

to start talking about our future trading relationship with it.

And that really matters, because the order in which we talk

about these things is likely to change the outcome.

This means, first of all, we could get an arrangements

on rights for EU citizens in the UK, for example, very fast.

They're also be principles around what will happen to EU 27 companies

dealing with the UK, and the fate of the Irish border.

It also means discussion of any exit bills will move up the ticket.

An eminent Brussels think tank thinks the bill could be as low

as low as ?27 billion, or as much as ?65 billion.

As soon as the UK leaves, let's say it's the 1st of April 2019,

legally the UK is not bound to pay anything.

Up until then it is legally bound, and I am expecting the UK

is going to honour this, but there have been things that have

been preagreed upon, and the UK has agreed upon,

for a number of bills that will come after that.

The question is, how far can these bills extend?

So payment is a political question about our willingness to pay

Brussels for goodwill from the member states.

The sequencing means it will be an early hurdle for us to clear.

Sequencing, though, also affects the balance of power.

The sequencing decision matters because if Britain could just do

it all in its own way, it would put all the issues

on the table and start linking them and doing deals across Europe,

which match specific interests with different

European states interests', and try and minimise

But Britain hasn't got the luxury of doing that.

It's launched the Article 50 process, the European Union

now gets to determine, as it did this morning,

that it wants real progress on the divorce agreement first.

It's important to stress that the negotiation will quickly turn

to very big questions, like what kind of country

We'll probably end up keeping some EU regulation at the very least.

The thing to remember is in the modern and trading world,

rules and regulations matter far more than tariffs.

So at the moment, we have the same rules and regulations as every

to checkout the border, we can just assume that our

However, after we leave, we're going to have a choice to make.

Do we continue to converge with European standards

now I'm going forwards, as to facilitate trade between both

us and the EU, or do we diverged, in the knowledge that divergences

will lead to more checks at ports, increase compliance issues

There are some very thorny issues that, until now, have received

Like the specification that we need to agree with Spain on Gibraltar.

A really major problem, though, is time.

I think in two years Britain can expect to have a clear

It's probably going to have to be generous in that agreement,

in order to have willing European partners putting in place transition

arrangements, and talking about a subsequent trade deal.

I think the final arrangement, it took Switzerland 14 years

to do its arrangements with the European Union.

There is strong political pressure to pay nothing

and accept few EU rules, so trust no one who says they can

Now, people have been trying to battle the human condition for

thousands of years. Since 1200BC when legend has it

that the Sumarian King, Gilgamesh, travelled to the edge of the world

in search of immortality. It's the stuff of literature,

sci fi movies, and scientific research but might it

become a reality? Could we really use technology

to control the future The use of technology to prolong

and enhance life has a name. It's called Transhumanism and I'll

be talking to the human author of a book on the "transhumanism

movement" in a moment. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him,

we have the technology. We have the capability to make

the world's first bionic man. Writers and cinematographers have

been obsessed with creating life, transcending death, and now,

more than ever, merging In his book, Mark O'Connell

examines transhumanism. He examines a future where we no

longer agree to live under the fear of ageing,

infirmity and death. Where technological

enhancements augment our powers Where we don't accept

the limitations of evolution, and choose our bodily form

and function, and where we are no longer limited to the confines

of our carbon-based biology. What was once the stuff

of sci-fi and legend, is becoming more believable

with every technological advance. In times of three parent babies,

bionic arms and facial transplants, is it really sensible to rule out

a future where our minds are uploaded to a cloud

and we finally conquered death? Mark O'Connell has travelled widely

to meet aspiring transhumanists for his new book on the subject

and he joins me now. It has been an eternal obsession,

why is that? It goes back to, as you say, at least as far as Gilgamesh. I

think transhumanism comes from the same place as many religions, this

dissatisfaction we are in these fleshy human body and we die. We

say, why is that? It's difficult to accept the fact we die. We've always

been uncomfortable with it, understandably. Do you think in the

next century or two it will be enough to be humans or will humans

be second-class citizens? This is one of the ideas of the

transhumanist movement, the idea we have to merge with technology or

become obsolete. I think part of this thinking of the movement comes

from, I think, and over identification with machines. This

sort of idea that we are already machines and we have to become more

sophisticated machines. Now it's been taken one stage further,

because in a way fiction and sci-fi lead to a lot of scientific

research. There are now organisations trying to cheat

mortality, were you surprised to the extent of that? Yes, I knew this

stuff was there and then I investigated it. I kept seeing Peter

Teal again and again, he's involved in a lot of this stuff. And this

announcement during the week. What kind of experimentation did you come

across? I spent some time with a guy called Randall:. His entire life's

work has been trying to figure out how to upload minds to machines.

We're talking about sort of mapping the neurons, mapping the brain to

such a degree of detail and granularity that it can be

transferred to another substrate. The idea is this body, although this

is how we live under what we live in right now, our minds can

theoretically at least be transferred to a different substrate

and we could live as robots or disembodied beings. Calling our

minds down from the clouds. That sounds like what you are writing

about in your book, this idea that we can... How would our brains

continue to develop and grow? They would just be uploaded every so

often? The idea is we would merge with artificial intelligence. Reach

another evolutionary leap by merging with super intelligent AI. The other

one I thought, another one that is quite advanced is bio hacking. I

didn't realise to the extent people did their own bio hacking. This is

an element of the transhumanist movement, practical transhumanists.

They're doing this stuff already. Designing technologies for

implanting under the skin. I spent a while Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with

some guys who called some self cyborgs and build large implants and

put them in themselves. These implants that go in... They can

trigger an extreme movement or do something? The capabilities right

now are fairly primitive, in that they would allow them to do things

like cents magnetic North or open a door of a laboratory. It's stuff you

could quite easily do with technology, that you wouldn't have

to have surgery for, but it's a gesture towards the post-human

future, the cyborg future. At the moment it's a rich man's game and

you wonder if it does develop, if there are progressions that do mean

that people can live in different ways and live longer, then it's

going to be a societal imbalance in favour of the people who can afford

to do it. This is one of the major dimensions of my book. I see

transhumanism as a very extreme intensification of tendencies that

are already there in terms of capitalism, like wealth and

equality. If you look at the research into life extension

technologies come at the people who are going to benefit from it are

clearly the super-rich. So you're looking at some pretty radical

socioeconomic implications. You are also looking at the idea we won't

die when we are meant to die. There are people that think they could

live for thousands of years. We will have an overpopulation of the

planet, more than the moment. Not if we are all uploaded to the cloud. We

won't all be physically present. In the future, is it something you'd be

interested in, uploaded to the cloud? Not right now, maybe at 85!

Thank you very much indeed. That is about all we have time for

this evening. But before we go, commercial space

companies have long wanted to make space travel cheap enough for anyone

with a few tens of millions of dollars hanging around,

and that's pretty difficult if you have to build a whole

new rocket every time SpaceX have just made a big

step forward to that. Here's the first ever

relaunch and landing Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five,

four, three two, one... Hello. Improvements on the way for

Sunday but starting the weekend with sunshine and April showers. Perhaps