13/04/2016 Outside Source

There's a parliamentary election today.

Only in Government-controlled territory, though.

Meanwhile in Geneva, peace talks are continuing.

I've details on both, plus the BBC gets exclusive access

to a city recently recaptured from the Islamic State group.

It's a disastrous day for America's biggest coal producer -

We'll explain why this is part of a bigger shift

The UK culture secretary is under fire after it was revealed he had

a relationship with a sex worker that several papers knew about.

His impartiality is now being called into question.

this is a sport I'd never heard of until a few hours ago.

You're going to have to wait until OS Sport

If there are questions you want me to address on any of the main

stories, use the BBC OS hashtag I'll get back to you.

In a moment, I've an exclusive report from inside a Syrian town

that's been controlled by Islamic State until recently.

First, let's go through a number of developments relating to Syria.

The other important development is that there is an election in Syria.

A new 250-member parliament is being elected.

This is a polling station in Damascus.

60% of the population can take part - those are the adults living

Not surprisingly the opposition is unimpressed.

One member of the Syrian National Council told the BBC

We hope for the return of security and stability in our country and we

expect that the new parliament will improve the harsh conditions of

displaced and affected people and will focus on the economic

situation. TRANSLATION: Hopefully people's hopes will be met. The

displaced people will return to their homes, the prices will return

to what they were. The situation will stabilise and security will

return to our country. During this crisis we want our candidates to

improve the standard of living and also improve the economic situation

in our country. All we want for our Syria is a return of security and

stability. I think all Syrians would agree with the final point that

woman was making. President Assad has also voted -

the first time he's done that TRANSLATION: It's normal that we

would be here together today. The first contribution of the president

and his wife in this type of election. It's normal that we would

contribute to data these elections, as Syrian citizens, who defended

constitutional elections and all that the constitution represents for

us as two Syrians and Syrians in general. Voting taking place in

government-controlled territory. Of course, there is a lot

of territory controlled BBC Arabic's Feras Kilani managed

to get into a town previously By an air strike. The courthouse,

where sentences were handed down. We meet a man outside committee

witnessed the brutality first-hand, and feels IS will return.

TRANSLATION: Anyone that was sentenced was taken outside the

court. If they were condemned to death, they would be shot or

beheaded. Then they would hang them for three or four days. This man was

one of the Islamic State commanders who tried to defend the city. He was

captured after being injured by a US air strike. Having fought in both

Iraq and Syria, he admits IS are struggling to cope with the aerial

attacks. TRANSLATION: They've affected ocelot, it's had a big

effect to the extent than 2% of our defeats are due to air strikes.

Practically there's nothing we can do. The aeroplanes used thermal

images at night. It easier during day but at night it's a big problem.

Under cover of US and British air strikes, the Kurdish led forces are

slowly advancing in the North. We joined them just outside the

self-declared capital of Islamic State. These fighters are just 30

miles from the city. But it may take months, if not years, before they

make it inside and defeat Islamic State.

Here in the UK it's been revealed that the Culture Secretary had

John Whittingdale says he ended the relationship when he found out

What business is that of anyone's, you may ask.

But the issue here is that John Whittingdale is the man

responsible for many of the laws around the press and media

in the UK, and four newspapers had this story from 2014

Here's our political editor Laura Kuenssberg.

He's in charge of the rules for the press.

Can you really regulate the press after last night's regulations?

But the papers held one of his secrets,

and the Culture Secretary, John Whittingdale,

Before he was in the Cabinet he met a woman on a dating site in 2013,

and then had a six month relationship with her.

He says he simply didn't know she was a sex worker, but others did.

Mr Whittingdale said: Labour believes he should give up some

Labour believes he should give up some

There is a perceived undue influence, possible, upon him,

in his role in the Cabinet, as the person who looks

He ought to excuse himself from making the decisions,

I think that is sensible for him and the Government to do.

If they don't, then the concern is that the press has

It is awkward for Number Ten, but the Prime Minister didn't know

anything about this until last week, but embarrassing rather than career

ending for a politician in the 21st century to be caught in this

Could the Culture Secretary be neutral in his dealings

with the press, when he knew some newspapers had details

He is adamant he was, yet the rules for ministers say

they mustn't just avoid conflicts of interest, but they must steer

well clear of anything that looks that way.

And politicians in the press have been battling in the aftermath

The Leveson Inquiry that heard from its victims,

those familiar faces, promised sweeping changes.

There have been some, but campaigners accuse

the Government of having gone soft, and there are suspicions -

firmly denied - that newspapers might have used their knowledge

of Mr Whittingdale's relationship to persuade him to go slow.

The second part of the Leveson Inquiry into press

Criminal cases are still going on, though.

There still isn't an official press regulator, although the papers have

created their own body and a new law on libel costs is not

Sir Brian Leveson's recommendations have not been carried out

However, they have to gone a long way to meeting his requirements.

They have set up a new regulator, much more independent,

but it has changed the climate, the culture of Fleet Street.

Number ten says John Whittingdale is a single man entitled

For now, the Prime Minister is content to keep him

There will be more an the News at Ten following Outside Source.

If you want a measure how the world's energy

industry is changing, look at this.

The nation's biggest coal company, Peabody Energy,

Here's a news feed on the shale gas industry.

It described coal as being battered by shale and the global slowdown.

And there's reason for confidence in the shale industry.

The US has the largest reserves in the world.

Three years ago coal made up 40% of US energy consumption.

Now it's 33%, and is matched in scale by natural gas.

Consequences for coal producers are severe.

That figure is matched by natural gas. This is having huge

consequences for American coal producers.

Companies that account for 45% of coal output have

Almost half of the industry fundamentally disrupted.

Here's the BBC's environment analyst Roger Harrabin

Cole, the fuel that drove the Industrial Revolution, brought

millions out of poverty. But it's the dirtiest fossil fuel and with

fears about climate change and air pollution, its fortunes have

slumped. Stocks in coal firms are down nearly 80% in just eight years.

Peabody is the grand old man of American coal, producing for more

than a century. Cold by the time. Goosen from its million year old

band, scooped up by the loading machine in minutes to begin its

journey out of the mine. Peabody is the biggest private coal firm in the

world but it lobbied against climate science and didn't foresee the glut

in the cleaner fuel, gas. Orders dried up and Peabody began to sink.

We have a lot of sympathy for the 8000 workers potentially made

redundant but not for the owners and company. They backed climate denial

even last year. As Cole has come under pressure from renewables and

gas, their market has disappeared. Tim - hopes China would provide new

markets but it was a bad bet. As China tackles climate and air

pollution it is shutting 4300 coal mines and cutting annual output by

700 million tonnes. Cheap renewables are also challenging coal. Solar

power is cheaper than coal in sunny countries. In Europe a quarter of

nations are banning coal for electricity because of its harm to

the climate. The headquarters of the world coal Association overlook one

of London's most prestigious streets. They are not ready to give

up the ghost just yet. Coal is playing a big role in the

world's energy today. It's 41% of electricity, 17% of steel, 19% of

the world's cement. It's a key ingredient to the energy mix today

and will be for the foreseeable future. This was to be the future of

coal, a technology to capture carbon emissions and bury them. But the UK

and US governments pulled out of projects to promote it. The coal

industry isn't dead yet. But its dominance of world energy is on the

wane. You're welcome to get in touch with

questions on the stories we're covering. Christopher sent me this

treat. -- Tweet. As we said, coal is going to remain an ingredient in the

energy America users. You'll see more renewables inevitably, wind

power, solar power can huge industry is now in the US. Fundamentally

we're talking about pressure in from another natural resource. Shale gas.

Applying pressure to coal. It's not all going to be about renewables. If

I can't answer a question, quite often it's the case, I have lots of

colleagues who can help. Later this week it's going to be two years

since those girls went missing in Nigeria. They were kidnapped by Boko

Haram. We've been back to the school they were taken

from to hear about what happened that day.

Vote Leave and Britain Stronger in Europe have been designated

the official Leave and Remain campaigns in the EU referendum.

Vote Leave defeated a challenge from a rival campaign

backed by the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage.

Our chief political correspondent, Vicki Young, has more.

The key question here is the fact there has been a rather bewildering

number of groups trying to be the lead campaigner to leave the

European Union. They're been real divisions amongst them. Nigel

Farage, Ukip leader, probably the person and the face most associate

with leaving the European Union, has always felt immigration should be

the main theme for those who want to leave. He thinks it's the only way

they can win this referendum. Others didn't agree so that's why we have

these different groups. Mr Carter was on the losing side of that

argument today. -- mystify rush. He will carry on campaigning, he won't

disappear from TV screens or newspapers. -- Mr Farage.

This is Outside Source live from the BBC newsroom.

Syrian Peace talks are restarted as the country goes to the polls

in parliamentary elections many are calling invalid.

Some of the main stories from BBC World Service.

BBC Mundo is reporting that prosecutors have raided the offices

of Mossack Fonseca - the company at the centre

The company has denied any wrongdoing.

A senior Conservative politician in Germany has said that German must

become the language of mosques in the country, and that funding

the mosques receive from Turkey and Saudi Arabia must stop.

The argument is that political Islam is undermining integration.

This is, quite rightly, in the BBC's most watched list.

This gorilla's balletic moves were recorded by a visitor to a zoo

Viewing numbers have passed the million.

Let's talk about Tesco. The company has had better days.

Shares down on Tesco after a warning that profit growth

Tesco can't be accused of not trying to diversify it's business -

but so far the returns have been limited - or invisible.

Harris and Hoole cafes - last year it reported a loss

It took over loss-making Euphorium Bakeries

It's controlled Dobbies Garden Centres for 8 years.

It lost nearly 70 million dollars last year.

And Fresh Easy was a five year attempt to break into the US -

it was sold in 2013 - with a billion dollar loss attached.

Plenty for Tesco's CEO to think about.

Very, very challenging for a retailer. It's good news for

customers. Prices are deflating, things are getting cheaper. But it's

very uncertain, there's a lot of volatility in the marketplace and

the critical thing for people like ourselves is that we stay focused on

serving our customers a little better.

As the political fallout from the Panama Papers scandal

continues, the anti-corruption organisation Global Witness has said

today that an area more than three times the size of Greater London

is owned by secret companies in offshore tax havens.

The group claims high-end properties in London are being used

by corrupt politicians, drug smugglers and criminals

All aboard for a bus tour like no other in Britain.

It's early morning in central London, and journalists from around

the world have been taken by anti-corruption campaigners

to see a series of multi-million pound properties bought

We want to shine the light onto the flows from global plutocracy.

From Russia, Nigeria, countries in Asia and Latin America.

Where kleptocrats steal from their countries,

launder it in offshore vehicles and bring it here to invest.

Back on the bus the tour continues through the heart of London.

With activists giving details of specific properties whose owners

allegedly include Russians close to President Putin

It's claimed some of the purchasers use dubious money.

What's particularly striking is the scale of what's going on.

According to the campaign group Transparency International,

more than 36,000 properties in London are owned by offshore

companies in places like the British Virgin Islands.

In Westminster the concentration is particularly high,

one in ten of the buildings there belonging to those

Of course many of those London properties will have been bought

by perfectly legitimate offshore companies investing in Britain.

But it is also alleged that London has become a magnet for those

One of the reasons people come to London is that there is an army

of estate agents, lawyers, banks and financial institutions all

I think the time has come when we should consider a sanction

and a penalty on all those advisers, if they knowingly help

On the bus the activists hope the current focus on offshore

companies will lead to action by the government to ensure

the names of the companies' owners are made fully public.

That, they say, could help prevent billions of pounds being

Al Jazeera is ambitious and very expensive. Its network came to an

end in America. The network Twitter feed telling us it is a brat. They

say it's been an honour to tell over 10,000 of your stories. It was

always going to be a long-term game, why has Al Jazeera backed out of

this commitment? It was simply failing to attract enough audience.

In fact, I remember it being launched less than three years ago

with a lot of excitement that the channel would offer serious minded

alternative news on American cable. But there was simply too much

competition with other networks. According to Nielsen, al-Jazeera

America only attracted some 20,000 viewers tuning in every day, which

is quite low. Even though some of its work did win awards and the

bosses last night said the channel still managed to achieve something

special by putting journalism first and ratings second. But it also

meant as of today 700 journalists are out of work. The parent network,

based in Qatar, funded by the Qatari government, said it was an economic

decision to shut its operations. The announcement was only made in

January and many people say it was mainly because of falling oil

prices, which affected the Qatari economy. Some say that while the

Qatari government investment was a very rich at the time three years

ago, the Al Jazeera name proved very hard to be sold to American viewers

as well. Next story comes from BBC Earth -

it's about a study that claims that the idea of monogamy evolved

to protect against sexually The journal Nature

Communications has said that our ancestors may have been

forced to stay in pairs as a way Researchers wanted to understand why

so many of us live in monogamous pairs because from revolutionaries

point of view it doesn't really make sense. Many mammals for instance

prefer to spread their seed around, it provides more optimal chance for

their offspring to survive. Yet so many of us choose to stay together.

They put all these factors as well as looking at transmission of STDs

into a model and decided when societies became larger as

agriculture boomed, people really needed to stay together to protect

the transmission of diseases. Nothing to do with human beings

developing a sense of morality? They didn't look at morality in this

factor, it wasn't always a factor in the day when it was about survival.

STDs impacted fertility and that's the main thing. In small hunter

gatherer groups before that diseases wouldn't have time to spread. In

larger groups 10,000 years ago when agriculture became the norm

committee and began to settle, that is when diseases became more of an

issue. It isn't about a threat to people's lives? It's about a threat

to their ability to procreate. Exactly, their fertility, bacterial

infections like gonorrhoea, syphilis, if you get infected by

them that there is no treatment in the day. Today we have treatment but

in the past it was a real threat and if you couldn't procreate, your line

would die out. At the moment human beings approach relationships

differently to most animals. Going back to the period being looked at

by scientists, are we far closer to other beings on the earth? I think

we've always stood slightly different from the animal kingdom,

always potentially had a sense of morality about it as well. Today,

we're not that different from our ancestors. We're not going to be the

dominant force in so many cultures. Monogamy, staying together for life,

is still that happens. It could have its roots in this time when STDs

were more of a threat. Time for the global weather update.

A look at some of the locations of current meter illogical interest.

One area we are looking at is part of the Arabian Peninsula. Big storms