06/04/2017 Outside Source

These are some of the main story is here in the BBC newsroom, the US

government says it has no doubt President Assad is responsible for

the chemical gas attack in Syria, they also say they should not remain

in power. With the acts he has taken it would seem there is no role for

him to govern the Syrian people. The nuclear option means there is a

long history of consensus. An enquiry into Russian interference in

the US election has seen its head step aside. And we be live to

Augusta Fardy one of the Masters, the world number one is out of the

tournament. As we have discussed many times,

Neil Gorsuch chair is Donald Trump Australia Beck for the Supreme Court

and he is now as good as confirmed but not before there was plenty of

drama and what is being called the nuclear option. Republicans needed

60 votes to pass the nomination. They could not get them. So they

changed the rules. To needing just 51. A simple majority. 52

Republicans in the Senate so once the rules are changed it's a done

deal and we expect the vote later in the week. This is the reaction of a

senior Democrat. The nuclear option means the end of a long history of

consensus on Supreme Court nominations. It weakens the standing

of the Senate as a whole. As a check on the President's ability to shape

the judiciary. In a postnatal world if the Senate and the presidency are

in the hands of the same party there is no incentive to even speak to the

Senate minority. That is a recipe for more conflict and bad blood

between the parties, not less. A post nuclear world, no shortage of

melodramatic language, Jane O'Brien in the newsroom has been talking me

through what this means. First of all the war now loud explosions over

the capital, the world did not come to an end. However Chuck Schumer is

making a very valid point that some Republicans agree with, that this is

the end of bipartisan ship, being able to cut a deal between two

fighting parties over a very important nominations like who

should sit on the Supreme Court because that is a life position. The

Supreme Court as we know rules on all sorts of things. So it is a

really important thing. By seeing a simple majority based on who

controls the Senate will now get these people into place is a very,

very big step. It might be news to some who have been watching American

politics to hear bipartisanship still existed in Washington. It was

supposed to exist in the Senate and that's the problem, it is supposed

to be the grown-up chamber of Congress. They are supposed to be

able to reach across the aisle. Senators have much longer terms so

they are not constantly in real election mode. We have seen

bipartisan cooperation over the years, not much recently and pretty

much none today. Don't go anywhere, I want to talk about the man I have

just brought up, Devin Nunes who has been overseeing the House of

Representatives investigation into link between the Trump campaign and

Russia but he has stepped aside after allegation information he bit

into the public domain came from the White House and was designed to help

President Trump. That has been denied, today he has said:

lets get the perspective of a house speaker, Paul Ryan. Devin Lillis has

earned my trust over many years for his integrity and dedication to the

critical work of the intelligent community to keep Americans safe. He

continues to have that trust and I know he's eager to demonstrate he

has followed all proper guidelines and laws. In the meantime it clear

this process would be a distraction to the house intelligence committee

's investigation into Russian interference in our election so he

has offered to step aside as the lead Republican on this probe and I

support his decision. If he has done nothing wrong why has he gone? It's

a matter of appearances. Devin Nunes was in charge of the committee

heading the investigation into Russian hacking. Separately to that

and this is where it gets complicated, he was tipped off by

somebody there was a possibility the Trump campaign team had been caught

up in surveillance of foreigners. He rushed to the White House, discussed

it and then came back and held a press conference and then told the

house intelligence committee and that is where the problem started

because it gave the appearance that instead of going to the house

intelligence committee like he should have he went first to the

White House which gave everyone the perception he is to close with the

people he has been charged to investigate. There is a big sigh of

relief, Paul Ryan says he supports but I think it was becoming a

distraction and Devin Nunes himself was becoming bigger than the story.

Thank you for those updates Jane. Let's start the sport with the

report about a young footballer from Afghanistan who lives in the UK and

has made it into the Arsenal disability team.

A country which is rarely much more than a land of feuding tribes anyway

has collapsed into anarchy and blood-letting. I am an amputee

football player. I lost my leg at the age of six. I

have basically no hope especially Afghanistan, it's very difficult

situation there because I was little and unable to play with my friends

and go out but because of the passion I had with football I never

gave up. The people were struggling to work

and eat food basically. I was not able to afford to buy a football so

I took some cloth and some plastic and made, just like this size, and

everybody was so surprised at what I was doing with the football. I have

my Afghan crutches which were so heavy and not very secure. So it

took me so many years to learn. But the only thing which I never lost

was hope. I didn't know about amputee football

in England. Every football club has a disabled team and they are

supporting us with kit, transport and the pitch. On Facebook there are

a lot of people sending me messages, how did you make it to Arsenal, but

if they come here then Arsenal or other football clubs are always

welcoming foreign. If you are a hard worker you can get anywhere you

want. But if you are like OK, I will do it today, maybe tomorrow, you are

not going to get anywhere. Good luck to him with his studies

and his football. I hope to speak to Ian Carter at the US Masters but

some technical problems, fingers crossed we can do it in a few

moments. Jason Dufner and William McGirt in the lead on three under,

frustrating time for Rory McIlroy, three mac over after nine.

A future Labour government would introduce free school meals in all

primary schools in England to try to improve the health and performance

of young children. Jeremy Corbyn is proposing to cover the cost by

introducing VAT on private school fees. Ellie Price reports. Soggy

Brussels sprouts and lumpy mashed potato are as a general rule of

thing of the past in school dinners these days. In fact they are

healthier and more appealing. Labour want free school meals to be

available to every primary school pupil in England and they will pay

for it by imposing VAT on private school fees. We want all children to

get it and all the evidence from those councils who do provide free

school meals is there are higher levels of attainment, better levels

of concentration and better health for all the children. Launching the

policy Labour estimated it would cost up to ?900 million a year

whilst introducing VAT on private school fees would raise about 1.5

billion annually. Critics say it doesn't add up. This would put up an

independent school fees could, so hard-working parents would no longer

be able to afford those so smaller schools would have to close and that

would move pupils out of our system into the state system. At the moment

all children up to the age of about eight are eligible for free school

meals. After that eligibility depends on if a family receives

certain benefits. Latest figures showed just under 14.5% of pupils in

year 3-6 are known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals.

I would much rather see extra money being derived from extra taxation

whether it is on private schools or other sources, given to the poorest

children and not necessarily subsidising parents who can afford

free school meals. The policy might sound familiar because it was in the

Lib Dems election manifesto in 2015 but they did not suggest putting VAT

on private school fees. Before that Gordon Brown promised to pilot the

idea at the 2010 election. What is new about the policy today is the

idea of raising the Monday to fund it to private school fees. The pitch

from Jeremy Corbyn is taxing the rich to feed the poor. He said it's

about Furnas message she hope this will appeal beyond Labour core base.

-- it's about Furnas. The lead story, Rex Tillerson is

saying he believes the Syrian government is responsible for the

chemical attack on Tuesday and he also says President Assad should not

remain in power. Let's look ahead to what is coming up after us, if

you're watching outside the UK, Russia has seen the arrest of

several men from central Asia after finding home-made explosives in

their buildings. They are thought to be linked to the prime suspect in

Monday's bomb attack on the St Petersburg Metro. BBC World Service

is reporting the entire town of edge come in New Zealand's North Ireland

has been evacuated. And a Dutch retailer has apologised after

unwittingly selling a colour by numbers book with a picture of Adolf

Hitler. The book was produced in India and it remains unclear why

Hitler was included. Next if you are watching on BBC

world news is world News America, on the BBC News Channel it is the news

at ten. Earlier this week we reported Russia's Supreme Court is

considering whether to ban the Jehovah's Witnesses religious

movement. Let's talk to our correspondent in Moscow who has been

looking into the motivation behind the move and how it might affect

people who are not Jehovah's Witnesses.

Every evening in Moscow Jehovah's Witnesses gather to pray. But soon

services like this could be banned. It's because these believers claim

they are faith is the only truth. Russian prosecutors say that makes

them extremists. Filled by undercover police this footage was

an attempt to gather evidence. The man leading the service was charged

with extremism. He shows me where the policeman sat.

He said nobody suspected a thing. He was acquitted at first but added to

a list of extremists and now the case against him has been returned

to court for a retrial. TRANSLATION: Jehovah's Witnesses have never done

anything to cause harm. We try to help people. So to be accused of all

these absurd violations of the law is really upsetting. If the Supreme

Court does ban the job as witnesses then hauls like this one across the

country will have to close and people think that's an extreme

application of Russian Andrey extremism laws -- anti-extreme as

laws. This man is an atheist with the popular video blogs. He's been

charged with inciting hatred for playing Pokemon Go in a church.

Activists who monitor extremism here say the laws to prevent it are

increasingly miscued touched -- misused. There are foreign groups,

extremist groups, there is a danger. But the instrument is bad and on the

other hand if political leadership needs to put pressure on political

opposition, this tool may also be used for this. For this man it is

disturbingly familiar. He tells me his own parents were among thousands

of Jehovah's Witnesses sent to Siberia by Stalin. They were exiled

just for practising their religion, for reading the Bible, for sharing

Bible truths with their neighbours. That's all. And now we can see for

the same reason in modern Russia we are facing the same situation. The

court decision will affect more than 170,000 Russians who say it cannot

change their faith but could force it underground.

An exclusive BBC interview has been generating a lot of interest. The

reason it is generating a lot of interest is because it is the first

she has given this year and she hasn't spoken extensively about what

is happening, the alleged ethnic cleansing in my and Mark's Rakhine

State. As you will see Aung San Suu Kyi denies this is happening and you

will also see the article about setting up the interview and what he

made about her and if you haven't seen it yet is how the conversation

went. It is a relic of the absurdity and paranoia of military rule. It is

designed to keep the general safe, but where the new democratic

government is trying to consolidate its hold on power. Its leader Aung

San Suu Kyi has undergone a rapid transition from pro-democracy icon.

A period of intense scrutiny and criticism. For the first time this

year she has agreed to a face-to-face interview. In terms of

changing the lives of ordinary people, one of the things that has

happened in South Africa is a massive disappointment when a

liberation movement comes into power. What have you done to make

lives better? You go through the list of things we have done, miles

of roads and bridges and so much electrification. We started out last

year by saying that at the top of priorities was job creation. We

discovered over this one year that if you start constructing

all-weather roads and if you provide electrification then people start

creating jobs for themselves. There have been advances in health care

and more free elections. But all of this has been overshadowed by the

terror in Rakhine State, where tens of thousands of Muslims have fled

what human rights groups call ethnic cleansing. And about which Aung San

Suu Kyi has been condemned for failing to speak out. What exactly

is that they are condemning? They want you to allow in a UN

fact-finding mission into the Rakhine State. That is what they

asked for last month but what have they condemned over the last year?

Many people including those who would be sympathetic to you look at

the situation and save why has she not spoken out, here is an icon of

human rights. This question has been asked since 2013 when the last round

of troubles broke out in Rakhine State. They would ask questions and

I would answer them and people would say I said nothing simpler because I

didn't make a kind of statement, to condemn one community or another, so

what we're trying to go for is reconciliation, not condemnation. Do

you ever worry that you will be remembered as the champion of human

rights, the Nobel laureate, who failed to stand up to ethnic

cleansing? I don't think that is ethnic cleansing going on. I think

it is too strong an expression to use for what is happening. I think

there's a lot of hostility and as I pointed out just now, if Muslims

killing Muslims just now, so it is not just a matter of ethnic

cleansing as you put it. It is a matter of people on different sides

of the divide. She remains the most popular politician here by a very

long way and her goal remains to negotiate the military out of

politics with people power wrap her back and a steely interior payments

-- determination. Do you think people misjudged you, expecting you

to be this amalgam of Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa, for example, and

actually maybe you are closer than your determination and steeliness to

someone like Margaret Thatcher? I am just a politician. I am not quite

like Margaret Thatcher but on the other I am no Mother Teresa either.

From Myanmar to Taki where we have been looking at the referendum

coming up that effort delivers a jest vote will give President

AhmetErdogan far greater powers. Through the haze above the Black Sea

coast is Ahmet Erdogan land. The President's family hails from this

region. And it is fertile territory for votes before the referendum to

boost his powers. He will always back the local boy. Recep Tayyip

Erdogan is one of us. All the past leaders were rich virtuality, but he

speaks our language. He tells the world what we want to save. With

that common touch hears the voice of pious Turks who felt looked over in

a one secular Arab dominated country. Every vote counts as he

pushes to scrap the Prime Minister, choose the Cabinet and issue

decrees, his fans desperate to be blessed. They will return the

favour. He launches a typical Thai lead against supported enemies,

denouncing Western leaders for pressing the Turkish nation. The

Black Sea boy has risen to the top but to become more powerful he needs

to consolidate his support base. For that, he sets his voters against his

opponents, internal and external. It is classic divide and conquer. The

president is moulding generations in his image, like those at Recep

Tayyip Erdogan University, a personality cult one might say. His

lifting of the headscarf ban is still a vote winner. I am proud of

my president and I am proud of my university's name. The judge to you

according to your belief, according to your appearance. From the centre,

the villagers lead upstream towards that rare thing, opposition to

Erdogan. He faces three years in prison for Facebook posts. The

opposition fears that if the measure passes the clamp-down will

intensify. I sheared personal freedom of speech. We can't go

further than this. This is just nonsense. Champion of Muslims,

builder of infrastructure, President Erdogan is revered and reviled and

now comes a test of which side of polarised Turkey will get its way.

From one strong man to another, one minute left in the programme to tell

you this image has been banned by the Russian justice ministry. This

is a list of extremist material and the ministry lists it as being an

inappropriate image and tells the seat post...

It is not the only image, plenty online that you can find, not quite

clear how this new band will be policed, but it is bands none the

less, thank you so much watching, goodbye.