07/09/2017 Outside Source

Hello, I'm Karin Giannone - welcome to Outside Source.

At least ten people are dead after Hurricane Irma wreaked

the extent of the destruction and Barbuda is unprecedented. I'm of the

view that as it stands now Barbuda is barely habitable.

Irma is still a Category 5 hurricane - and next it's heading

Our reporter in Myanmar says entire swathes of Rakhine state

are depopulated and burning, as the mass exodus of Rohingya

The German elections are just over two weeks away -

Ros Atkins is seeing how the land lies in Cologne.

Every day Outside Source features BBC journalists working

Hurricane Irma continues to devastate the Caribbean.

We have been getting pictures in from all over.

What you see here is the Caribbean islands being battered

That's the highest possible level - which makes Irma the most powerful

This is the island of Saint Martin - officials

warn most of the area is all but destroyed.

This is Antigua, very severe, home to 80,000 - luckily

the islanders escaped major damage to their homes, and there

In Puerto Rico, more than half of the island's

3.5 million residents were without power amid heavy

Look at the scene is facing them as Irma swept through, heavy downpours

and strong winds. And Anguilla and the British Virgin

Islands have also been hit The hurricane sustained

wind speeds of 285km/h, reducing buildings to rubble

and left at least ten people dead. The tiny island there, as you can

see. You can see here the widespread

devastation to people's The residents on the Island have

been speaking to us. My whole house caved in, and there

were Lee Mack are seven of us, and all we had to do was pray and call

for help -- and their are seven of us. I didn't know what would happen

to me. Last night was the most devastating experience I have ever

had in my life, and I am almost 60. Me and my family of seven including

an infant of two months, we had a shelter in the closet.

Here is the Prime Minister of Barbuda speaking

This was absolutely devastating, heart-wrenching. Some properties

have lost roofs, part roofs, all roofs, some have been totally

demolished. It is absolutely heart-wrenching, the extent of the

destruction in Barbuda, it is unprecedented. In fact I am of the

view that as it stands now Barbuda is barely habitable.

Irma is currently north of the Dominican Republic,

and is on course for the low-lying Turks and Caicos islands.

It is due to move onto the Bahamas and Cuba on Saturday

Here, they have declared a state of emergency and mobilised federal

The head of the US emergency agency says Hurricane Irma "will be truly

devastating" when it hits the southern coastal

Storm Jose will revisit all these areas already hit by Hurricane Irma,

and Storm Katia will thunder along the coast of the Mexican

Meanwhile on Turks and Caicos Islands, emergency officials

preparing to ride out the out the storm.

Dr John Freeman is the Governor of the British territory.

Of course everyone is nervous and anxious here, but we have made their

preparations we should do. We've evacuated to Islands, all the

evacuation of two Islands, our shelters are operating and people

are going into them. We are messaging out as best we can to make

sure people do that. Our number one concern is safety. Yesterday we

spent a lot of time encouraging visiting tourists to get on flights

out of Turks and Caicos Islands, and we have reduced the number of people

who don't live here and don't need to be here. So, yes, we are anxious

and we will have to ride it out. This is a country that has been hit

by hurricanes before. These are very low-lying islands. We are very

vulnerable, and therefore, you know, a surge means more water coming here

which means more flooding, which causes more problems in terms of

utilities and the functioning of the islands. Those are the most

low-lying areas, the ones who also have vulnerable structures, and we

have been encouraging them to move into the structures which can take

care of them. As I say, they are moving into the shelters now. Along

with the surge you mentioned, it is the wind speed, we are waiting to

see what the impact of that is, and I'm afraid we will not really know

this until of course it has hit us, but already we can see it is very

windy here. The sea is very choppy. We are already within her frame,

Irma, she is already touching us. So we have the hurricanes developing

more or less in the same place, and it is not uncommon at this time of

year, but rare to see them so powerful.

Our science editor David Shukman explains.

How do hurricanes become so destructive?

The strongest form off the coast of West Africa,

warm waters cause the air to rise, triggering thunderstorms

and that is when the winds can circulate and as this weather system

crosses the Atlantic it grows and becomes stronger.

If the winds are moving in the same direction

at all levels, as with Irma, they reach devastating speeds.

But closer to the Caribbean, the hurricane gets another boost

as it passes over yet more warm water.

And ocean temperatures are unusually high this year, making the winds

On top of this, the low pressure inside the hurricane

creates a storm surge, a huge wave that strikes the coast.

As climate change is raising the level of the sea,

Let's go back to a developing story we've been covering for some time

now - the mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar.

On Wednesday, Bangladesh summoned Myanmar's ambassador in Dhaka

to protest against the planting of landmines along this border

This is the border that over 164,000 Rohingya Muslims have

been fleeing across over the last few weeks.

Bangladesh says Myanmar is planting mines to prevent the Rohingya

returning to their villages - Myanmar denies this.

At the moment, though, people are still flowing

More Rohingya refugees have come today from Bangladesh to Myanmar and

you can see how congested it has become, no space, all on the road.

Over here they have brought in bamboo, to construct new tents for

the fresh arrivals. The camps themselves are in dreadful shape.

Extremely crowded, the conditions unhygienic. Aid agencies are very

concerned. They say apart from food there is an urgent need for medical

support. Medecins Sans Frontieres see many of the refugees have

gunshot wound injuries, and therefore they need as much support

as possible. They are all coming in from Myanmar because they are

fleeing violence. They say their villages are being attacked, set on

fire. A BBC colleague has managed to get into Rakhine State and he has

witnessed a Muslim village being set on fire by Rakhine youths. Our

correspondent Jonathan Head was in Rakhine State and tweeted this

earlier... He's written a fuller

account on our website - but an important line

to pick out is this: And these pictures

are what a cameraman Now bear in mind the Myanmar

government says that it's Rohingya militants and the Muslim

villagers themselves causing But many in the international

community aren't convinced. Earlier the BBC spoke

to Andrea Gittleman, from the Centre for the Prevention

of Genocide at the US Holocaust What we are seeing is so sustained,

it appears to be systematic. What it appears to be an mass atrocities

committed by the state of Myanmar against the Rohingya minority

community. Genocide has a very specific definition, but we might

not have enough evidence until investigators can access the areas

where these crimes are taking place. That is something that the Myanmar

government has time and time again refused to allow. So with the

information at hand we can see that it appears that crimes against

humanity are happening against the Rohingya population. All states have

the responsibility to protect their people from crimes like this. So the

Myanmar government is failing to protect its own civilians. This

called upon all countries, countries within Asia, South East Asia,

Europe, all over the world, to call upon leaders of the country to bring

these atrocities to a halt. It should be known that the military

seems to be the primary perpetrator of these atrocities and should be

held to account for these crimes against humanity. That kind of

effort and signalling from the international community would be

necessary for those crimes to cease. Stay with us on Outside Source -

still to come: One of the sons of the Philippine President denies

involvement in a multi-million-dollar drug smuggling

operation. Earlier we spoke to Baroness Amos,

who is the Director of SOAS University of London and is a former

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs

and Emergency Relief Coordination. She told us the Uk's response

to the disaster created From my perspective having dealt

with many of these disasters around the world when I was at the United

Nations, it is always the people on the ground to respond first. And

they are looking to their national governments, but they are also

looking outside for as much help to come as quickly as possible. And

certainly we are now a couple of days in and I think people are

feeling that Britain did not respond quickly enough, given that we know

that this is hurricane season, given that we know that sometimes these

hurricanes can shift and hit islands that were not expected to be in the

way, and of course there are concerns that there is

another hurricane coming that could have even more devastating

consequences. This is Outside Source live

from the BBC newsroom. Hurricane Irma has left

a trail of destruction across the Caribbean -

and it's still going strong as it heads towards Turks and Caicos,

the Bahamas and the US mainland. A vote on legalising same-sex

marriage in Australia will proceed after a court dismissed

two legal challenges. The non-binding postal vote

is due to begin next week. Pope Francis is in Colombia -

he's there to express support Thousands of people lined

the route the Popemobile took through the streets of the capital,

Bogota. Amongst our most read

articles on the website - Roald Dahl's final children's book

has been illustrated by his longtime collaborator Sir Quentin Blake, 26

years after it was first published. It had been the only Roald Dahl

book not to have been The book is called

Billy and the Minpins - it was originally published

with illustrations Let's head to Germany now

because the country's general election is just under

three weeks away. Yes, the 24th of September is the

date of the election, when Angela Merkel will sit to solidify her

support, and I am speaking to you from Cologne, Germany's

fourth-largest city, and you can see this here, the Gothic cathedral of

Cologne. It sits on the River Rhine and contributes a huge amount to the

German economy, the fourth biggest city, but is also significant in

terms of immigration. It is in the state of North Rhine Westphalia

which has 20% of all the migrants in Germany. We have angular Merkel

leading the CDU, the Christian Democrats, and we think they will be

the biggest party -- Angela Merkel. She is up against Martin Schulze

used to be president of the European Parliament and the now read to the

Social Democrats. He is having a difficult campaign, to be honest.

The latest poll shows that Christian catlike Democrats and Angela Merkel

have a significant lead, and it does look like Martin Schultz will have

the second biggest party, but because all-German elections end in

a coalition, the other parties who could get representation, we also

need to take note of them. We have the Free Democrats, the FDP. We have

the Greens, and we also have the party that came out of the Communist

party in East Germany, Die Linke, and on the right you have the

Alternative for Germany, the AfD, with their anti-immigration and

anti-Islam policies, which I came to look at here earlier. We will have

to see what effect their policies have on a coalition, but we do know

that immigration is a significant issue. You might think that is as

maybe but what should I care when the polls suggest Angela Merkel will

get a fourth term and we know that she will stay in power. There are a

few reasons. She is a hugely significant player in terms of the

world's responds to a number of major issues. On climate change,

Outside Source was at the G20 watching Angela Merkel shape the

world's response to that while Donald Trump went his own way. On

the future of the European Union you could argue there is no more

significant figure. And for those of you watch on the BBC News channel we

also need to take note of Brexit, because nothing the EU does in those

negotiations happens, certainly not of significance, without Angela

Merkel agreeing to it. She is very important in terms of the form that

Brexit will take. 18 months ago on Outside Source we met a man from the

Federation of Islamic organisations in Europe. Good to see you again,

how are you doing? We were just chatting when you arrived, and you

said to me the big TV debate on Sunday between Martin Schultz and

Angela Merkel was a disaster. Can you tell us via? It was a disaster

from the point of view that people have seen that there is no real

choice -- can you tell us why? No real choice between the first and

second party so no real alternative with political content, because

Angela Merkel as well as Martin Schultz have a lot of the same

standpoint and views on a lot of issues, so whoever got the biggest

benefit of that, most probably the AfD, the right-wing parties. Despite

the fact that when we last met on Outside Source AfD was doing much

better in the polls. Now it is around 9% but when we met before it

was 15-16%. Anyhow it depends... When you look into the

circumstances. When we met before, the refugee issue was much more

relevant to the people now when the elections come closer, it is obvious

that people start to look at things in a different manner. But anyhow

AfD is gaining a lot of ground. When you look at about 3-4 months ago

they even had about 6-7%. It already has representation in the majority

of state parliaments but it looks like it could have representation in

the Bundestag for the first time and I guess symbolically that is a big

moment for Germany. Absolutely, the first time a right wing extremist

party will take the floor on the German Bundestag, the German

parliament, and this is something that will change the political

landscape in Germany in general. What would you like Martin Schultz

and Angela Merkel, the two most high profile politicians in this

campaign, what would you like them to be saying to take on the AfD? I

think the situation is really complicated and it is also not too

easy for them to have a clear position, but I think that they need

to be completely clear about what they stand for and what they don't,

and it is pitifully, that the AfD has already achieved a lot of its

goals by putting a lot of it is contact into the mainstream. Its

sister party in Bavaria has taken a lot of the content that AfD was

campaigning for, so it looks like the right-wing agenda already found

its place in mainstream politics. Good to speak to you, Ibrahim, and

as Ibrahim was giving me his last answer there, I thought, if AfD has

influenced German politics despite the fact that the polls do not

suggest that there are some comparisons with Ukip in the UK, the

UK Independence Party, in the way it has failed to translate its support

in two places in Parliament but it undoubtedly had a huge influence on

the calling of the Brexit referendum and the result of that referendum.

And Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip, has today been here in

Germany, speaking at a rally for the AfD. Thank you very much. Ros will

be back from Germany a little later. Let's turn to business... The retail

giant Amazon has announced plans to build a second headquarters in North

America, kicking off a competition among cities to attract investment.

The 5,000,000,000-dollar project could create up to 50,000 jobs.

Chicago, Dallas, and Toronto have immediately expressed an interest.

Samira Hussain joins us from New York. How significant is this second

Amazon HQ? This is massive. As you pointed out we are talking about

50,000 jobs, and as Amazon have said, the average income from these

jobs will be around $100,000. Of course there are all kinds of cities

coming out of the woodwork saying, we will make a bid for Amazon to

come and have their headquarters in our particular city. What is really

interesting is that Amazon has said not the United States but North

America, so really opening it up to Canada or even to Mexico, since they

said they are open to opening a new headquarters in North America. Why

is that so important? Remember, the president of the United States

Donald Trump said he is absolutely a jobs maker, so imagine if your

president of the United States and you have this monstrous conglomerate

that says we will open up a new headquarters, but it is not going to

be in the United States. That would be really bad. However, the

relationship between Donald Trump and the head of Amazon, well, it is

not really very good. Given that relationship, Samira, being

notoriously not a good one, I wonder if there will be a political element

to all of this? Yes, if you are Donald Trump and you sort of put

yourself up as the job creator, the one who will bring companies back to

the United States, well, to have this go to a city like Vancouver,

Toronto or even Mexico City, that would really be pretty bad. How much

of this really is just about irking the president in some way by saying,

we are opening it up to North America, or how true is it that they

are actually considering other cities? That remains to be seen, but

certainly some very interesting language being used by the head of

Amazon. Thank you, Samira Hussain in New York. Let's stay in the USA...

The country's opioid crisis is causing a lot of concern.

Addiction rates are soaring - and every day around 100 people

Much of the addiction starts with legally prescribed medications.

Now a Canadian drug firm is developing what it says

is a safer alternative based on cannabis.

Somewhere between 10-15% of the population experiences chronic pain

at some point in their life. To the extent that cannabinoids go on to be

recognised in more effective dosage forms, then they could compete, if

you like, for a significant share of that market. And that in the United

States is a multi-billion dollar market. The purity and the potency

of cannabis varies, so how difficult is it to get the dosing right, to

know what doses to apply? When someone in heels a cigarette or a

vaporiser, the amount they take -- when someone inhales a cigarette.

The amount could be tenfold depending on how deeply they inhale,

how long they hold their breath and other factors as well. That is

certainly very inconsistent with the way that we look at medications for

the treatment of virtually all other conditions, where we are pretty

precise in our initial dosage recommendations. What are the risks

associated with medicinal cannabis? Some more serious potential

side-effects are that in certain cases it has been shown that

cannabinoids can induce more severe disorders in patients with

pre-existing central nervous system psychiatric conditions, so that is

something that most prescribers are quite aware of and would proceed

cautiously with, if at all, in dealing with their patients. Is

there an irony, that you used to run a maker of one of the leading opioid

drugs, and now here you are talking about creating a market for a

product that might displace, or replace, some of those? I don't

think the cannabinoids will ever totally replace the opioids. There

are places where opioids will work, and I don't see evidence that

cannabinoids will, but they may in fact as you see wind up displacing

some of those prescriptions. One of the sons of the Philippine

President has denied involvement in a multi-million-dollar

drug smuggling operation. Here he is Appearing

alongside the president's He read a prepared statement

to insist that the allegations I can now deny all baseless

allegations made of me. Every dog has its day. In a few minutes' time

here on Outside Source we will be live to Miami because Florida is

making preparations for the arrival of Hurricane Irma, still a category

numeric 5 at the minute. Stay with first night.