28/08/2017 Outside Source

Hello. To Outside Source. Donald Trump has taken about catastrophic

flooding in Texas. It is an historic amount of water,

there has never been anything like it. The people are handling it

amazingly well. We will be live in Washington in a minute to get more

on how the President is handling the first natural disaster of his term.

And Indian Guru has been given 20 years for a double rape, although

there was no repeat of the deadly riots that followed his conviction,

the situation remains tense. The French President Emmanuel Macron has

announced a 3-point plan to curb the flow of migrants across the

Mediterranean. He is hosting a meeting of European and African

leaders in France. A gruesome story from South Africa, five men

suspected of involvement in cannibalism have appeared in court

to face charges of murder, conspiracy to murder and possession

of human body parts. In sport we have a report about boxing

pensioners in South Africa. Welcome back to Outside Source.

Let's begin by returning to our top story, the unfolding storm situation

in Texas, there is lots of attention on how Donald Trump will handle the

biggest natural disaster of his presidency so far. He is due to

visit Texas on Tuesday. Here is what he has been saying a little while

ago. To the people of Texas and Louisiana, we are 100% with you. We

are praying for you, working closely with your leaders and officials, and

I will visit the impact zone tomorrow to ensure you are receiving

full support and cooperation from the federal government, and on

Saturday we think we are going back to Texas and also we will be going

to Louisiana. As Donald Trump tends to do he

tweets his thoughts. There has been quite a lot about Hurricane Harvey,

like this one. Grey coordination, he says, between agencies and all

levels of government. Continuing rains and flash floods are being

dealt with. Thousands rescued. In the past few days he has tweeted

about the hurricane more than 20 times but it has been interspersed

with things, Nafta, trade deal, the Mexican border and a recommendation

for a friend's book. It raised some eyebrows but this is a tweet from a

Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro. If Trump is doing well

enough with Federal hurricane response then all you can moan about

artist tweets, he is doing fine. Let's go over to Anthony Zurcher who

is in Washington, who is from Texas itself. How involved has President

Trump been so far? We have seen instances of photo ups where he has

participated in conferences, disaster relief efforts, the Federal

emergency management agency and he said he has been keeping a prized of

it and he will go to Texas tomorrow and go back to Texas and Louisiana,

he just said, later in the week. The federal government obviously has an

oversight coordinating role in the initial stages of a natural disaster

like this, a lot of the responsibility falls on local and

state facilities but the federal government should serve as a

backstop, coordinating agency, and to provide any additional supplies

needed for the immediate response. Where the federal government really

steps in his father down the line in the rebuilding and construction and

bringing aid to the people affected. We will see what happens with the

administration at that point which will be a big test. How big a test

is a natural disaster like this for a President. We all remember what

happened to George Bush with Hurricane Katrina who just flew over

the scene and that was met with condemnation by many. The problem

with George W Bush's response was the apparent disorganisation at

federal level, Fema, the emergency management agency, was not doing a

very good job of coordinating between the different state agency

and government and there was an optics problem as well, George W

Bush captured playing the guitar when the hurricane was hitting,

flying over the disaster area, he appeared looking out of the window,

not taking it as seriously as many people wanted him to. It's obvious

Donald Trump has tried to learn from those lessons and been active on

Twitter with his comments today, going there twice, these are the

sorts of things a President can do to reassure the nation that he is on

top of the situation. We forget, though, that George W Bush earlier

had overseen some successful disaster relief efforts in Florida

during the 2003, early 2004. So it's not impossible to manage this, even

for somebody like George W Bush. The potential for stumbling and

potential pitfalls are great and we saw what happened and it essentially

wrecked George W Bush's Presidency. Is there a sense in Washington that

everybody for the moment is watching this on fold and being dealt with

before the criticism of how the President might be handling it

really begins? That's right. I think we are hearing some criticism of

local officials about whether Houston should have been evacuated

or not. Mind you, Houston is a city of upwards of 6 million people and

to introduce widespread evacuation in the city would have been

difficult to impossible but that will not stop people from

second-guessing him. After any disaster they should be an amount of

analysis on what did and did not work, how to improve force of the

real test as I mentioned for the Trump administration, however, will

be the rebuilding re-efforts, what to do with these people who have

been evacuated and displaced and where to put them. That was the

problem after Sandy hit New Jersey and New York, people were in

trailers for a long time and it was a sore spot for the residents

displaced. Anthony Zurcher, thank you, with us from Washington.

The French President Emmanuel Macron announced that European and African

leaders meeting in Paris have agreed a plan to curb the flow of migrants

across the Mediterranean. We have more details on that coming up. To

put this into context first, 120,000 people are thought to have entered

Europe by sea so far this year according to the UN. More than 2400

are thought to have died trying to reach Europe like that. This map we

can show you has been put together from the EU emergencies response

coordination Centre and it shows the central Mediterranean migration

routes by many on their way into Europe. To find out what came out of

today's talks I've spoken to the BBC's regional Europe editor. It is

essentially a 3-point plan, some things we have heard before, they

want to tackle people smuggling may delete coming from Libya, so they

want to tackle people smugglers in Libya. The second point is to

bolster security and the rule of law in Libya as well. There are about

800,000 people in camps waiting for smugglers to take them across the

Mediterranean, and many of these camps are run by the smuggling gangs

themselves and criminals, and they want to do something about that. The

third element would be providing more development aid to the

countries downstream of Libya to stop the migrants coming through

Libya in the first place, and that means places like Nigeria and Chad

whose presidents were both present at today's meeting. We didn't just

have European leaders, we also had African leaders present as well

listening in and helping to make decisions -- new

They were pressed into the big Europe- Africa Summit in Valletta

when they came up for another plan for development aid. The fact they

were there to really stressed that matter that you've got to tackle the

problem at its root, and that means, as President of Niger said, you've

got to give the people who do the smuggling another means of living

otherwise why would they give it up? When you consider the state a

country like Libya is in it is a difficult situation. They have the

government in Tripoli and the alternative government controlling

most of eastern Libya and they have not really reached a solution yet.

That is a major problem. You have also got the problem that if they do

institute some kind of centres to process asylum applications in Niger

and Chad, won't the migrants simply try and evade those if they realise

they have no chance of being accepted and find even more

dangerous routes of getting across the Mediterranean into Europe? Mike

Sanders. Now, let's start the sport on

Outside Source with tennis because the US open is under way at Flushing

Meadows. On the men's side of the draw Rafael Nadal is number one

seed. In the women's Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic is

the number one player at the tournament and all eyes will be on

this player, Maria Sharapova, who takes to the Court in a few hours'

time. What is her first Grand Slam appearance since serving a drugs

ban. It is a really big occasion for her, isn't it? It is a big occasion

for Maria Sharapova. Back to Sunday before we get a Maria Sharapova. The

world number seven Johanna Konta has been knocked out in the first round

by Aleksandra Krunic, beating her in three sets. Konta R1 the opening set

but lost the next two, Krunic ranked 78 in the world, only the second

time ever she has beaten a player inside the top ten. After making the

Wimbledon semifinals last month Johanna Konta has gone out in the

first round in New York at the US Open. Maria Sharapova has form at

the US Open, in 2006 she won the event and plays world number two

Simona Halep in a couple of hours' time. Coming back from those 15

month drugs ban, this is her first Grand Slam. She pulled out of

Wimbledon with injury, the French Open did not give her a wild card,

so this is going to be her first Grand Slam of the season. The last

couple of years after coming back from the 15 months drugs ban.

Garbine Muguruza went through beating Varvara Lepchenko in

straight sets rather easily. She moves through to the second round

and will play two and Ying-Ying Duan stop in the women's game plenty to

look forward to, no doubt whatsoever.

Thank you very much from the BBC sports Centre.

Boxing is a tough sport, not one you would normally associate with

pensioners but in the South African township of Cosmo City one local gym

is working hard to train grannies how to protect themselves while

improving their fitness. Take a look at these ladies.

One, two. If somebody tried to attack me I

would punch them really, really I would hit him badly.

Just go one, two, one, two. Right now we have more than about 30

ladies, we take them from 60 and above. On your guard. On your guard.

I have never trained somebody that old. I have always thought they are

fragile, only to realise there is more to them and more to what they

wanted to do so I gave them the opportunity and they ended up

training me instead of me training them because their energy level was

just too high. You know, I have found the team helped me a lot

because I have diabetes, and I have asthma, high blood, and I found my

diabetes and my high blood coming back to normal. I would like to say,

support your elders, they need your support, wherever you see them,

encourage them because at home that they are more than what you think

they are and the more life you give them to give you fulfilment within

yourself as well. Let's move. Let's move. Do not mess

with them, that was brilliant. Stay with us on Outside Source. Still to

come: we will take you to Iraq where government forces say they are on

the brink of defeating so-called Islamic state in one of the last

remaining strongholds. It's been the hottest late August

bank holiday for 50 years in parts of the UK, which means hundreds of

thousands of revellers have been enjoying the sunshine at the Notting

Hill Carnival in London. Even as some people were enjoying

festivities today, some carnival participants were already planning

for next year's revelries. Elaine Dunkley has been in west London all

day soaking up the atmosphere there. Everyone can be a king

or queen at carnival. It's flamboyant,

eccentric, extravagant. The heroes of the sound

system, playing to crowds There was fierce competition

amongst the DJs. This sound system, we're

giving a message, yeah? A message of love and

unity for everybody. But, as I hear the music,

and that bass line resonates through my body, like I say,

it's a spirit that wakes up, and it's just higher, higher,

higher, until you just go, oh! Carnival is the Caribbean,

with its culture and music. A celebration born out

of the struggle of the West Indian immigrants living in London

in the 1960s. They refused to be beaten, and so,

with colour and pride, they marched proudly

through the streets of Notting Hill. Today, it's the biggest

street party in Europe. In terms of visitor numbers,

Notting Hill is ten times There are 70 performing stages,

and 40 sound systems. But, yeah, I really

enjoy Carnival here. It is a one-year thing, the people

that make the costumes. We've been doing it for 24 years

now, it's part of our life. Once this is done, we start

planning next year. And so, as the sun sets on another

Notting Hill Carnival, You're watching Outside Source live

from the BBC newsroom. The top story: and there is already

catastrophic flooding in the US state of Texas, being described as

unprecedented, and the water level is expected to rise even further

over the coming days. Let's move to Iraq, because the

government says it is preparing to reclaim the city of Tal Afar from

so-called Islamic State after a week of intense fighting. It lies to the

north of the country near the Syrian border, it is one of the militant

group's last remaining strongholds and we can show you the latest

pictures from the battle ground and you might be able to see some of the

government troops making a V shape with their fingers indicating

victory. Military officials said they faced tough resistance from IS

on Monday and say they are being slowed by snipers, booby traps and

roadside bombs. I have been speaking to BBC Arabic's reporter about the

difficulty of getting Tal Afar back under government control. Tal Afar,

according to the Iraqi government, is already back to the Iraqi army.

The important thing now is that the battle has moved from Tal Afar to

another smaller town and that town is basically 15 kilometres from Tal

Afar, it is smaller but it is more important as it is closer to Raqqa,

the town in Syria considered to be the caliphate of so-called Islamic

State. The importance of that is according to the Iraqi government,

Tal Afar has fallen under the Iraqi government in one week, which

considers to be very fast falling back under the Iraqi government. If

this proves to be right it will be like a landmark for the Iraqi

government given that its 2000 fighters of Isis being defeated in

one week. Because battles in other strategic towns and cities we have

heard the news they were about to retake it and then it has been a big

delay and weeks or months before they actually did. Yes, the Iraqi

army say they have been using light weaponry, which is very

strategically important for them to be using that, but there is one

factor that we might be looking into with importance, which is that most

of the fighters of Isis ran from Mosul, especially western Mosul, two

Tal Afar, where foreigners running from this town to that town, so

foreigners are really easy to define from the Iraqi Turkmen is living in

Tal Afar. That was one point that made it easy to target them if that

proves to be right. When these towns fall, as they continue to do, where

does this leave so-called Islamic State? Thereafter two ways for them

to go. Either for them to run into the tunnels and reappear in Raqqa in

Syria, which is a little difficult for them to do now, because the way

to do that is really not easy, or appear somewhere else in Iraq, which

is very difficult for them to go. So we can say that by the end of the

battle in Mosul, the end of the Islamic State in, we cannot say that

it already ended, but it is about to end. By the end of Islamic State in,

in Mosul, Tal Afar and a few other pockets in Iraq, the end of Islamic

State in is about to happen in probably a few months. The problem

is, they can form other pockets under other names of the Islamic

State, and probably with different strategies, if you'd like to name

it. So these people might pop up with a different flag that still

prisoners and colour problem for the Iraqi government? Absolutely, and

with different strategies as well. The problem is, according to a

report that we played on BBC News on BBC Arabic a few years ago -- a few

days ago, they are changing their strategies and reappearing in

Europe, which is really dangerous now, because they are using

different tactics. They might change their tactics and reappear in

Europe, which means that the preparations in Europe and in the

United States are going to increase, like their defences in those places,

because they cannot follow the same strategies that they have been

following since 2014 in the Middle East.

BBC Arabic's Newsnight presenter. To South Africa now where five men

appeared in court facing murder and conspiracy to murder charges in the

story of alleged cannibalism that has gripped the country. They were

arrested after one of them believed to be a traditional healer handed

himself over to police told them he was tired of eating human flesh. Our

correspondent was in court. Five men appearing in a South

African court facing murder and cannibalism charges. The family of

the young woman they allegedly murdered wants justice. The suspects

are accused of killing 25-year-old Zanele Hlatshwayo, cutting her up,

and eating parts of her body. Apparently to make themselves

wealthy. One of the suspects, a traditional healer, went to the

local police station and confessed to being tired of eating human

flesh. He showed the police officers a hand and a foot as evidence. It

had been days since Zanele Hlatshwayo disappeared and her

dismembered body was found here, buried under these rocks. South

Africa's traditional healers organisation has condemned these

acts saying ritual killings are not part of healing. It is shocking to

the country and it is not healing, of course not, it is cannibalism, if

anything is associated with cannibalism should be criminality.

This house was rented by the traditional healer accused of

cannibalism. TRANSLATION: Tenants often complained of the foul smell

which came from the traditional healer's house. I was shocked by his

arrest, I still cannot believe that my brother is also implicated.

And today, hundreds protested outside the court demanding to see

the five suspects. The accused who abandoned the place were taken to a

nearby prison for their own safety. Some of these protesters are

demanding that the suspects be denied bail. They say it is time for

them to take the law into their own hands, and yet not too far from here

the family is grieving the loss of one of their own.

TRANSLATION: Her bloodied clothes showed that she died a horrific

death. I can only imagine how she begged her killers to spare her

life. BBC News, KwaZulu-Natal.

More on that story on the BBC website and also more on the

situation in Texas as the fallout from storm Harvey continues. The

flood levels unprecedented are still rising and expected to keep doing so

over the next few days. I will be back at the same time tomorrow. From

me and the rest of the team in London, goodbye.

Hello, some mixed weather on the way over the next ten days. We are

unlikely to break records whether it be for rainfall or temperatures,