:00:09. > :00:13.Hello, I'm Ros Atkins, this is Outside Source.
:00:14. > :00:34.Bill Cosby will stand trial for sexual allegations.
:00:35. > :00:37.We'll be live in Beirut for full details.
:00:38. > :00:40.I'll also update you on the battle to retake Falluja from IS -
:00:41. > :00:45.Of the smoke is going up, there is a battle going on as these forces
:00:46. > :00:53.moving on Fallujah from different investigations. And a BBC
:00:54. > :00:57.investigation about dogfights in the UK. And Facebook and Twitter have
:00:58. > :00:58.both announced changes to how they do things. We will get into what
:00:59. > :01:17.they have done and why. Three hours ago, this came through
:01:18. > :01:23.from Pennsylvania concerning Bill Cosby. We understood he had been
:01:24. > :01:27.ordered to stand trial in a criminal sex assault case that dates back to
:01:28. > :01:34.2004 encounter. This has been happening today in a place called
:01:35. > :01:38.Norristown in Pennsylvania. Laura Becker was in court, she stepped
:01:39. > :01:43.outside to speak to me after the news broke. The judge has ordered
:01:44. > :01:49.that criminal proceedings can progress. There will be a further
:01:50. > :01:52.hearing in July. That is when Bill Cosby will start these criminal
:01:53. > :02:00.proceedings and face these criminal proceedings against three counts of
:02:01. > :02:08.sexual misconduct. This dates back to 2004 and involves a woman called
:02:09. > :02:13.Andrea Constant. She was a former employee at Temple University, she
:02:14. > :02:17.alleges she went to Cosby's Harris for advise where he gave three
:02:18. > :02:26.unidentified blue pills. She said those pills made her blurry eyed.
:02:27. > :02:34.She said she felt frozen and was unable to talk and had to lie down.
:02:35. > :02:39.She said she was in and out of it. And she said during that time on the
:02:40. > :02:43.couch she was sexually assaulted. Bill Cosby in his statement to the
:02:44. > :02:49.police which was also read out said that any sexual conduct was
:02:50. > :02:53.consensual, that she agreed to it. But he does admit that she doesn't
:02:54. > :03:00.say yes, but he says she didn't say no. Certainly Andrea Constant's
:03:01. > :03:06.story is that there was no consent. This will be the basis now for this
:03:07. > :03:10.criminal trial, and certainly it is the only criminal proceedings
:03:11. > :03:15.against Bill Cosby. There are a further 56 women who have come
:03:16. > :03:19.forward since these allegations arose, all with similar stories, and
:03:20. > :03:24.we are expecting several press conferences to follow the
:03:25. > :03:28.announcement today. That is one story that has been developing, and
:03:29. > :03:37.this is another, concerning Syria and in particular what is happening
:03:38. > :03:40.just north of Iraq. -- Raqqa. We understand that a Kurdish led
:03:41. > :03:51.alliance of Armed Forces in north-eastern Syria has begun to try
:03:52. > :04:00.to push forces out of Raqqa. It sees Raqqa as the capital of its
:04:01. > :04:03.self-declared caliphate. This is not a move on the so-called Islamic
:04:04. > :04:08.State's de facto capital Raqqa itself. They say they are going to
:04:09. > :04:12.liberate the countryside north of Raqqa. They haven't set a date on
:04:13. > :04:16.when they are going to attack that city, that will be a very tall
:04:17. > :04:23.order, and it will be hard fought over. It is important to Islamic
:04:24. > :04:30.State. We are also hearing they are making ample reparations for a
:04:31. > :04:35.sophisticated network of tunnels underneath Raqqa. It is worth
:04:36. > :04:41.remembering Kobane, the large town on the border between Syria and
:04:42. > :04:46.Turkey, which was pummelled by American air strikes after it was
:04:47. > :04:48.overrun by Islamic State. It took months to retake, because the
:04:49. > :04:54.fighters were able to take cover, and they put up quite a tough fight,
:04:55. > :04:57.despite facing well armed guards on the might of the US Air Force and
:04:58. > :05:01.its allies. You mentioned the Americans. Was there a prospect that
:05:02. > :05:10.America and Russia could help this? Certainly, the Russian foreign
:05:11. > :05:11.minister, Mr Lavrov, has acknowledged that Russia
:05:12. > :05:14.is willing to play a part. How involved it will
:05:15. > :05:16.be, we don't know. We suspect there has already been
:05:17. > :05:18.a coordination between Russian and coalition aircraft
:05:19. > :05:19.over parts of Syria. Some of the operations that have
:05:20. > :05:31.been going on would have ended in chaos otherwise,
:05:32. > :05:33.if there wasn't some kind of communication -
:05:34. > :05:35.whether that is through the Kurds, Arab forces on the ground
:05:36. > :05:37.or directly between Russian and American forces,
:05:38. > :05:39.we're not entirely sure. There has clearly already been
:05:40. > :05:42.a level of corporation and it seems like that will have to increase,
:05:43. > :05:44.though, if a move is made around Raqqa
:05:45. > :05:58.and eventually to Raqqa itself. Lets you talk about another
:05:59. > :06:04.significant development in Syria today concerning the Diaz airbase.
:06:05. > :06:09.Satellite images that have been shown to the BBC reveal extensive
:06:10. > :06:13.damage at this airbase, and we know that the Russians have been using
:06:14. > :06:20.it. It appears to have been attacked by Islamic State. Here are four of
:06:21. > :06:24.those satellite images. You can see 20 lorries here, this satellite
:06:25. > :06:32.image is from before the attack, this is the same angle after the
:06:33. > :06:36.attack. You don't mean me -- need me to describe the extent of the
:06:37. > :06:43.damage. The next is a satellite image of a set of helicopters, this
:06:44. > :06:47.before the attack, that afterwards. And again you can see these
:06:48. > :06:52.helicopters have been destroyed to an extent that they will not be used
:06:53. > :06:59.again. A global intelligence company who gave us these image has showed
:07:00. > :07:03.them exclusively to BBC Arabic's ram Iraq Ayane.
:07:04. > :07:08.The before or on the 14th of May and the after are on the 17th.
:07:09. > :07:11.So Stratfor can only say they believe the attack happened
:07:12. > :07:13.in between these two dates, without knowing exactly
:07:14. > :07:19.They saw the first report of this fire on the base,
:07:20. > :07:21.ironically coming out of the IS news agency Amaq,
:07:22. > :07:23.which quite strangely said that there is a fire and that
:07:24. > :07:27.20 helicopters are on fire and 20 trucks are on fire, and they didn't
:07:28. > :07:36.They didn't say it was IS, even though they had announced
:07:37. > :07:39.on the same day an attack by IS on the T4 Syrian air base.
:07:40. > :07:41.Stratfor investigated, got these images and found
:07:42. > :07:44.that the IS report of this kind of damage was very accurate.
:07:45. > :07:48.Is this evidence that Islamic State is becoming more powerful
:07:49. > :07:58.It is two different areas - Homs, central Syria,
:07:59. > :08:03.They have attacked this airbase before.
:08:04. > :08:05.They have been in the vicinity of Palmyra, even though
:08:06. > :08:10.What they are trying to do is keep the regime
:08:11. > :08:12.and its allied factions, and the Russians, busy
:08:13. > :08:15.in the central part of Syria, so they don't go after their own
:08:16. > :08:18.supply lines in the east and in the north in Raqqa.
:08:19. > :08:21.On the coast, it is a different kind of thing -
:08:22. > :08:23.it is suicide attacks, what they have been doing in Iraq,
:08:24. > :08:28.They are able to go into areas which are not necessarily war zones,
:08:29. > :08:31.such as these two cities on the Syrian coast, and wreak
:08:32. > :08:37.importance of this to IS, but strategically doesn't really
:08:38. > :08:40.Well, perhaps this battle for central Homs,
:08:41. > :08:41.central Syria, the Homs province in particular,
:08:42. > :08:45.And as long as the Islamic State group managed to keep the
:08:46. > :08:48.regime and the factions allied with that preoccupied in central Homs
:08:49. > :08:51.maybe they think it would delay any kind of offensives by the regime
:08:52. > :09:03.So, we have brought you to stories from Syria.
:09:04. > :09:06.From Syria to Iraq - because government forces continue
:09:07. > :09:13.Jim Muir has just returned from the front line.
:09:14. > :09:16.Pounding away at the self-styled Islamic State in Fallujah.
:09:17. > :09:19.Day two of this offensive saw heavy bombardments being Meted out
:09:20. > :09:22.as ground forces pushed forward towards the outskirts of the city,
:09:23. > :09:40.The front-line effort was the result of a huge mobilisation.
:09:41. > :09:43.Thousands of army and police troops, backed by Shia militias and Sunni
:09:44. > :09:48.tribal irregularses massed against the militants.
:09:49. > :09:51.We have come from other cities in Baghdad or in the south.
:09:52. > :10:03.The Shia militias who are playing a prominent backup role
:10:04. > :10:05.are in jubilant mood after initial advances.
:10:06. > :10:12.One of their leaders was also upbeat?
:10:13. > :10:14.TRANSLATION: It is going according to plan and we have
:10:15. > :10:19.In a few days we expect to have Fallujah completely surrounded.
:10:20. > :10:22.Then we have the presence of so many civilians in the town being used
:10:23. > :10:36.The frontline advance is seeing thousands of regular troops
:10:37. > :10:38.and militias pushing in towards the town being defended
:10:39. > :10:49.Also there are an estimated 50,000 civilians.
:10:50. > :10:51.There is great concern for the civilians who are believed
:10:52. > :10:56.The next phase would be a major assault on the town it evil is.
:10:57. > :11:02.That is when it is believed the civilians, if they cannot get
:11:03. > :11:11.The final assault on the actual city of Fallujah is
:11:12. > :11:16.It's not yet clear how much of a fight
:11:17. > :11:20.If they do fight to the death there are fears that not much
:11:21. > :11:29.In a few minutes, we will be getting into big announcements from Twitter
:11:30. > :11:30.and Facebook today. We will explain what they have done and why they
:11:31. > :11:38.have done them. Birmingham City Council
:11:39. > :11:43.is handing over control of its children's services -
:11:44. > :11:45.which were recently described as a 'national disgrace' -
:11:46. > :11:48.to a new voluntary trust. In recent years, the deaths
:11:49. > :11:50.of a number of children have been blamed partly on failings
:11:51. > :11:52.within the department. For the last four years,
:11:53. > :11:54.inspectors have consistently judged Councillor Brigid Jones,
:11:55. > :11:57.Member for Children's Services said improvements have been made,
:11:58. > :12:12.but further help was needed. Birmingham City Council has a long
:12:13. > :12:18.history of failure, but for the last two years, we have been pushing away
:12:19. > :12:21.from that. We have caseloads down to 15 on average, staff turnover is
:12:22. > :12:26.down and agency staffing has gone down from one third to under one
:12:27. > :12:29.quarter. Things are pushing in the right direction, but in order to
:12:30. > :12:33.sustain that address and take it to the next level, we need to think
:12:34. > :12:35.about new ways of working, and we really think the trust could be the
:12:36. > :12:40.way to do that. This is Outside Source live
:12:41. > :12:42.from the BBC newsroom. Bill Cosby will stand
:12:43. > :12:49.trial over sexual He's accused of assaulting a woman
:12:50. > :13:01.at his home in 2004, And we can bring you some of the
:13:02. > :13:03.main stories from the BBC One service as well.
:13:04. > :13:06.Ukraine says seven of its soldiers have been killed in the east
:13:07. > :13:09.of the country over a period of 24 hours -
:13:10. > :13:11.that's the highest number of casualties on a single
:13:12. > :13:14.Over 8000 people have died in over two years during this
:13:15. > :13:18.Turkey's new prime minister has named his new cabinet.
:13:19. > :13:20.Looks like gender equality has a way to go.
:13:21. > :13:32.The new prime minister says he'll immediately start working
:13:33. > :13:34.to increase the power of the president,
:13:35. > :13:38.You can imagine how that's gone down in some quarters.
:13:39. > :13:58.Facebook is changing how it's trending topics are produced. It was
:13:59. > :14:04.accused of restricting right-wing stories. An investigation has
:14:05. > :14:09.revealed no evidence of systemic political bias in the selection or
:14:10. > :14:14.prominence of stories. Nonetheless, Facebook is going to change how it
:14:15. > :14:21.does trending topics. I have been talking to Zoe Clyde and, EBC tech
:14:22. > :14:27.reporter, about why. It was relying on an algorithm and human
:14:28. > :14:33.suggestion. It turns out more than half of the stuff being suggested
:14:34. > :14:38.algorithmic was not making the cut, and they were relying on news
:14:39. > :14:44.outlets such as us, the Washington Post, Buzzfeed, to validate and see
:14:45. > :14:48.whether those were big enough discussion points. They will throw
:14:49. > :14:52.that out now, so they're giving more control back to be humans. The
:14:53. > :14:56.problem here is that Facebook say they don't do contend they are just
:14:57. > :15:00.a platform, but it is getting involved in content. Once you start
:15:01. > :15:05.curating something, whether you like it or not you are taking on more
:15:06. > :15:07.responsibility. They are saying that people are increasingly getting
:15:08. > :15:14.their news from Facebook, and they want to compete with the likes of us
:15:15. > :15:18.as somewhere you can go to get that. But it is hard to get the right mix
:15:19. > :15:23.of stories for an individual. Don't go anywhere, because we are going to
:15:24. > :15:31.talk about Twitter as well. It has also announced some changes designed
:15:32. > :15:35.to bring in new users. They add an image, and then the character count
:15:36. > :15:40.goes down, and that doesn't make sense, because they don't see any
:15:41. > :15:45.other text, they see an image, so we removed counting against any time
:15:46. > :15:53.you add an image or media, and again making it a lot more visible and
:15:54. > :15:58.intuitive. So that is one, removing some of the hidden rules that don't
:15:59. > :16:03.make sense. And we know that people use Twitter to talk a lot, and when
:16:04. > :16:09.you are in a conversation, you have more people come in, and then you
:16:10. > :16:14.have four or five handles in that tweet, and suddenly it starts taking
:16:15. > :16:18.away the amount you can say. So as more people join the conversation,
:16:19. > :16:22.you can say less. And that doesn't make sense, and that is not great,
:16:23. > :16:25.so we are not counting those characters any more either, so you
:16:26. > :16:31.have the full 140 characters to have a conversation. I can recognise all
:16:32. > :16:34.of the things he is talking about, I think it does make sense, but the
:16:35. > :16:40.context here is that Twitter is on the back foot in terms of getting
:16:41. > :16:44.new users to come on board. It has stagnated, we were talking about
:16:45. > :16:49.Facebook just now, they are booming, 1.6 billion people now using it.
:16:50. > :16:55.Twitter has stuck at around 320 million, and it needs more, it needs
:16:56. > :16:58.to grow. This has been going on too long, so one of the common
:16:59. > :17:02.frustrations is 140 characters is not enough to say what you want to
:17:03. > :17:06.say. They thought about making it longer, opening it up completely,
:17:07. > :17:10.but when would be below the stock? There is a good thing about keeping
:17:11. > :17:16.something short, so these tweaks might make things easier, but it is
:17:17. > :17:19.not revolutionary. I think we were all watching our thinking, these are
:17:20. > :17:23.good ideas, but we have all known these things need to be improved for
:17:24. > :17:25.a while. It is mysterious White has taken so long. Let's turn to OS
:17:26. > :17:27.business. This was in Marseille outside
:17:28. > :17:32.an oil refinery - striking This is part of a series of strikes
:17:33. > :17:37.and demonstrations Here's the knock-on effect -
:17:38. > :17:57.fuel stations are We spotted one blog jotting down
:17:58. > :18:01.with an orange marker every place where a user was saying they had
:18:02. > :18:03.trouble filling up. You get the idea, this was a national story in
:18:04. > :18:04.France today. Lucy Williamson went
:18:05. > :18:13.to one of the stations. Motorists have been queueing up here
:18:14. > :18:16.at this petrol station in Paris this morning searching for petrol, but
:18:17. > :18:20.the staff here have told us they only have about an hour's worth of
:18:21. > :18:26.petrol left, and they are completely out of diesel. Once they are out,
:18:27. > :18:29.they will have to close until they get more deliveries, and they are
:18:30. > :18:33.expecting deliveries this evening, but until then, they will have to
:18:34. > :18:38.close, and the deliveries themselves are dependent on getting the petrol
:18:39. > :18:41.out of the refineries. Six out of eight of France's refineries at the
:18:42. > :18:47.moment rather being blockaded by protesters or they have striking
:18:48. > :18:54.workers forcing a slowdown, so the Government is sending people in --
:18:55. > :18:57.police in to clear the blockade to get the petrol moving, but there is
:18:58. > :18:59.no doubt, of all the projects that have taken place in the last few
:19:00. > :19:07.weeks, this one is really making itself felt. These new labour laws
:19:08. > :19:11.will allow an employer to more easily change an employee's hours or
:19:12. > :19:12.let them go, so this is why some people in France are upset and
:19:13. > :19:20.protesting. I want to show you a story that came
:19:21. > :19:28.up yesterday. This from the Wall Street Journal:
:19:29. > :19:30.Monsanto rejects Bayer's It describes the offer
:19:31. > :19:33.as "incomplete and But that may not be
:19:34. > :19:38.the end of the matter. Monsanto says it's open to talking
:19:39. > :19:44.further about the matter. The offices of Google in Paris have
:19:45. > :19:50.been raided as part of a tax Reports say about 100 tax officials
:19:51. > :20:05.entered Google's offices in central Why did they go in and what were
:20:06. > :20:11.they looking for? Evidence in terms of what exactly happens within that
:20:12. > :20:15.office. You will remember we have talked about this before, many
:20:16. > :20:19.European nations are critical of tech giants like Google and Yahoo,
:20:20. > :20:24.who operate within Europe, but they actually hold their main offices in
:20:25. > :20:31.Ireland, where the corporate tax rate is much lower, and so what many
:20:32. > :20:35.of these companies argue is that all these offices you will find in
:20:36. > :20:37.London or Paris operate more as satellite offices, and that
:20:38. > :20:42.everything really happens in the main office in Ireland. And that
:20:43. > :20:47.way, they get to take advantage of the lower corporate tax rate. What
:20:48. > :20:52.France is arguing is that that is in fact not the case, and they said
:20:53. > :21:00.back in February that they want Google to pay a $1.8 billion in back
:21:01. > :21:07.tax, so this investigation is part of that, to get to the bottom to see
:21:08. > :21:08.if really what Google is saying that it hardly uses its Paris office, is
:21:09. > :21:17.really the case. Thank you. A report now from Tom Symonds
:21:18. > :21:20.on dog fighting in the UK. There are claims they are now
:21:21. > :21:32.a daily event - with dogs used Not a sport. Bloody cruelty. This
:21:33. > :21:35.organised fight behind closed doors was filmed by an undercover BBC
:21:36. > :21:40.investigation. But the league against cruel sports claims
:21:41. > :21:45.increasingly dogfighting is coming out into the open. This sort of
:21:46. > :21:49.confrontation, known as a role, in streets and parks, but it is no less
:21:50. > :21:55.cruel. This is cupcake. A vet believes she was used as so-called
:21:56. > :22:00.bait for training a fighting dog. Here is one of the signs. Her teeth
:22:01. > :22:05.are filed down so she can't bite back. Now her scars have healed, her
:22:06. > :22:09.mental recovery is under way, but her rescuer, who has asked us not to
:22:10. > :22:16.show her face, is furious at those responsible. To victimise and
:22:17. > :22:23.torture a vulnerable creature is despicable. Man up, and if you have
:22:24. > :22:30.a lust for fighting, go out and fight yourself. We are seeing very
:22:31. > :22:36.few prosecutions taking place, and those that are prosecuted lead to
:22:37. > :22:40.low custodial sentences, if at all. The charity wants them increased, a
:22:41. > :22:46.register of banned owners and a review of the 1991 Dangerous Dogs
:22:47. > :22:49.Act. The Government says that law is designed to help with animals out of
:22:50. > :22:49.control, and the new requirement of microchip dogs will also make a
:22:50. > :22:54.difference. You can also find that report
:22:55. > :22:57.online. I had no idea until today that
:22:58. > :23:00.North Korea runs around 130 It does, and South Korea is claiming
:23:01. > :23:05.that the staff at one Perhaps - but this appears
:23:06. > :23:13.to the second restaurant Now you can find these North Korean
:23:14. > :23:18.restaurants in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai,
:23:19. > :23:26.amongst other places. You can also find in Mongolia, in
:23:27. > :23:30.Ulan Bator. One TripAdvisor user says:
:23:31. > :23:32."We went for karaoke night, which was a live show performed
:23:33. > :23:34.by all the waitresses. While another user says: "This
:23:35. > :23:46.restaurant isn't somewhere you'd go It's more of a bizarre banquet hall
:23:47. > :23:50.with live shows every night." The BBC's Celia Hatton
:23:51. > :23:57.has been to one. Well, for a few years
:23:58. > :23:59.in Beijing it was actually quite fashionable to go
:24:00. > :24:08.to the North Korean restaurants. Chinese diplomats really
:24:09. > :24:10.like going to North Korean restaurants because it kind
:24:11. > :24:11.of underlines China's When the food comes it is a lot
:24:12. > :24:15.like South Korean food. It is not really that
:24:16. > :24:17.special or different, so there is a lot of beef on offer,
:24:18. > :24:24.a lot of rice, a lot of kimchi. It wasn't really that remarkable,
:24:25. > :24:26.then the strangest part is that every hour the waitresses would stop
:24:27. > :24:29.serving for a few minutes and then go up to a little stage
:24:30. > :24:32.at the front of the restaurant and pick up tiny guitars,
:24:33. > :24:34.and they would play There are a few different theories
:24:35. > :24:49.as to why this is happening. Some people say, well,
:24:50. > :24:51.North Korea really wants This is an easy way for it to do so,
:24:52. > :25:09.and it is also a way for North Korea to make some
:25:10. > :25:12.money at the same time. North Korea really needs sources
:25:13. > :25:14.of hard currency, and this is a way for North Korea
:25:15. > :25:17.to continue bringing in money to its There are also some
:25:18. > :25:20.people who are quite cynical, and they think that these
:25:21. > :25:23.restaurants are actually a great cover to get North Korean spies
:25:24. > :25:26.into different countries, or they are just great ways
:25:27. > :25:27.for North Korea to launder money, to bring more
:25:28. > :25:35.money back to Pyongyang. Now just to quickly mention that in
:25:36. > :25:39.about 20 minutes time we will be talking US politics with the US news
:25:40. > :25:46.anchor Keith Oberman. I don't know if you have seen the latest poll of
:25:47. > :25:49.polls, because for the first time, all Trump is being put ahead of
:25:50. > :25:55.Hillary Clinton won all of the polls but together. If you have questions,
:25:56. > :26:09.BBC OS is the hashtag to use. Speak to you in a minute.
:26:10. > :26:13.Welcome to our regular look at the weather stories from around the
:26:14. > :26:20.world, and we will start with El Nino. It has been responsible for
:26:21. > :26:22.weather extremes around the globe this year. At