03/01/2018 Outside Source

Hello, I'm Ros Atkins,

this is Outside Source.

Starting in Washington...

President Trump has accused

Steve Bannon of losing his mind.

This after his former chief

strategist reportedly accused

Mr Trump's son and son-in-law

of treasonous and

unpatriotic behaviour.

This phone looks like it's

from another century,

but it's a vital link between North

and South Korea - and it's

just received a call.

The North Koreans have called for

the first time in two years.

The bionic hand with a sense

of touch - we have an exclusive

report on the woman who's been

testing it out for scientists

in the real world.

And Iceland is the first country

in the world to make it illegal

for men to be paid more than women

for doing the same job.

I feel like I have said this to you

a few times, but...

I'm not sure we have ever seen

a statement like this

from a President of America.

Steve Bannon was Donald

Trump's chief strategist.

They campaigned together.

They were in the White

House together.

Now this.

A lengthy statement on Bannon

by Trump in which the President

says, "When he was fired,

Steve not only lost his job,

he lost his mind."

He goes on.

"Steve had very little to do

with our historic victory," and says

"Steve doesn't represent my base -

he's only in it for himself."

That's just the first

two paragraphs.

This isn't a Democrat,

or an old guard Republican,

or the media - this is the guy

who helped him get the Presidency,

the guy who oversaw the policy

priorities at the start

of the Presidency.

If at this point you're thinking,

"What's Trump doing?"

Well, in the short-term,

it's almost certainly to do

with this excerpt of a new book

on Trump by Michael Wolff

that's been published

by New York Magazine today.

And Steve Bannon features heavily.

For matters like this, we tend to

turn to Katty Kay. Here is her view

on Donald Trump's day in the office.

It has been a pretty spectacular 18

hours. We started with President

Trump comparing the size of his

nuclear button to that of Kim Jong

Un, and in the last few hours we

have had him dumping quite

spectacularly Steve Bannon, who was

the brains, really, but I'm

President Trump's election victory.

These two were very close. His

campaign was in a mess, Steve Bannon

was brought in. They were very close

and simpatico, it was always said

Steve Bannon really got President

Trump, understood that they sent her

to connect Donald Trump to the base

and that was white Trump won the

election in 2016. Now they have had

the spectacular falling out in

public. You have to wonder whether

the tweet I started by talking

about, comparing the size of his

nuclear button to North Korea,

whether that didn't actually presage

some kind of stress in the White

House and whether the White House

was not aware that the book excerpt

was about to drop? Before all the

heat

-- before the heat goes on

Donald Trump, Steve Bannon does not

hold back, he does not behave like

somebody on the same side as Trump?

It is pretty spectacular. Michael

Wolff is a journalist who has spoken

at length to Steve Bannon. Steve

Bannon called a meeting between

Donald Trump's son and his campaign

manager and a Russian operative in

June 2016, Steve Bannon said it was

treasonous, they should have gone

straight to the FBI. At one point in

the book he says the authorities are

going to crack open tonal junior

like an egg, he says. This is the

type of language that will really

rattled Donald Trump. He holds

family very dear. Here is Steve

Bannon, his former ally and campaign

manager, his former adviser and

strategist in the White House,

turning directly and publicly on

Donald Trump's son. No wonder the

president is not happy.

Stay with

us, let's explore what you have

spoken about.

The number of treat sent by the

president since the beginning of the

year. It was January the 3rd, he has

sent 20 treats, most of which are

extraordinary. He has said the

Palestinians do not want peace, he

has attacked the wrong nuclear deal

and said Barack Obama provided

millions of dollars of terrorism

through it, he has promised his very

own fake News awards and demanded

the FBI seeks to jail a former

adviser of Hillary Clinton. On top

of this, in an absurd bout of

presidential bully waving, he

responded to Kim Jong Un as saying

will someone tell the man I have a

nuclear button but it is much bigger

and much more powerful than his, and

my button works. Katty, on one level

it is studied, on the other hand

we're talking about highly volatile

men with nuclear weapons? -- on one

level it is funny.

I spoke to one

person who said he wished the

president had not treated that and

does not serve American interests,

one national security and foreign

policy expert says there is a

detriment to America, saying you

could dismiss this as a joke. You

use the language that I would not

use about comparison and combat

between the men. The Kim Jong Un

gave a speech on New Year's Day in

which he talked about having a

nuclear button on his desk. Donald

Trump seems to have been taunted by

that into sending out this rather

extraordinary tweet. There have been

a slew of reports in the US in the

last few days about how the

president can be played by foreign

leaders. National security experts

are worried he can be played by Kim

Jong Un, taunted, effectively, by

the very reckless, unpredictable

leader of North Korea. And if he can

be taunted in this way and both

countries, one of them has a huge

nuclear arsenal, the other is on the

verge of gaining nuclear weapons

that can be delivered, that is a

very combustible mix. It might sound

like a joke, makes everybody laugh,

but we're talking about two

potential nuclear powers and an

awful lot of conflict and the

potential that something could just

go wrong and a mistake be made.

I have not heard anyone say on

either side that this kind of

tweeters helpful to the US or global

security.

Katty Kay and Christian

Fraser are an error couple of hours

before Outside Source Connor Wood

Beyond 100 Days.

In the last hour Sarah Huckabee

Sanders has given a press conference

at the White House. Inevitably Steve

Bannon and Donald Trump came up, and

Steve Bannon's accusation that a

meeting between figures within the

Trump administration and the

Russians during the presidential

campaign was treason. This is what

she said.

I think that is a

ridiculous accusation, one I am

pretty sure we have addressed many

times from here before. If that is

in reference to comments made by Mr

Bannon, I would refer you to the

ones he made previously on 60

Minutes where he called the

collusion with Russia about this

president a total farce, so I would

look back at that. If anybody has

been inconsistent, it has been him.

It has not been the president or the

administration.

REPORTER: Did the

president meet any of Donald Trump

Jr's guests at the June 2016 Trump

Tower meeting?

As the president has

stated many times, no, and he was

not aware of that.

A couple of people have treated

asking if we know about a fire at

Hillary Clinton's home. Not very

much, this is what we can tell you.

We will provide more information as

and when we get it. At the moment,

that a copy from CBS is all we have.

While Donald Trump has been tweeting

about North Korea and

the size of his button,

there was an important phone call

on the Korean peninsula.

This is the hotline

between the North and the South -

looking just as you'd expect

a hotline to look.

South Korea says that

earlier the phone rang

for the first time in two years.

Sophie Long is in Seoul.

A very traditional physical

telephone line was re-established

between North and South Korea. On

the stage and television service in

North Korea today, Pyongyang

announced it would reopen the

so-called Red Cross line. Just after

3:30pm Seoul time this afternoon we

heard from the South Korean

unification ministry that they had

received a telephone call from North

Korea.

That is the first direct telephone

call to take place between the

countries for nearly two years. It

is being seen as another step

towards the opening of dialogue

between North Korea and South Korea.

South Korea offered what it called

high-level talks to the North

yesterday, we still do not know

whether the North will accept the

offer but it has been proposed for

the 9th of January, next Tuesday,

exactly a month ahead of the Winter

Olympics getting under way here in

South Korea.

If those talks take place it is

expected that is what they will

discuss, whether Pyongyang will send

a delegation to the Winter Olympics.

The South Korean president has

previously said he really feels that

those games could mark a turning

point in relations and help the

escalate tensions on the Korean

peninsula.

One of President Trump's many

targets this New Year

is the Palestinians.

He says they show "No appreciation

or respect" for "hundreds

of millions of dollars a year"

and "the Palestinians are no longer

willing to talk peace".

Why should we make any of these

massive future payments to them, he

said.

As you'd expect, the Palestinians

have pushed back.

The PLO tweeted, "By recognizing

Occupied Jerusalem as Israel's

capital Trump has singlehandedly

destroyed the very

foundations of peace."

Two quite different perspectives.

Looking at the figures, the US

provided $260 million of bilateral

aid for Palestinians in 2016.

And it's also the largest single

donor to the UN Agency

for Palestine Refugees,

providing $368 million in 2016 -

which it has threatened to cut

as well after the UN

General Assembly overwhelming

condemning America's recognition

of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

It is very far clear of all the

others, including the EU. But is

this enough to push the Palestinians

to the negotiating table?

Here's Anthony Zurcher.

Early in Donald Trump's presidential

campaign he said he was a negotiator

who could be independent and bring

the sides together. He built himself

as somebody who would not take one

side over the other. As the

presidential campaign proceeded he

more and more embrace the Israeli

side of negotiations to the point

that when he was elected it became

largely his focus. Now we're seeing

about playing into policy, with the

declaration of Jerusalem as the

capital and the intent to move the

US embassy there. It was an

interesting series of tweets last

night, obviously overshadowed by the

North Korea to eat later the talking

about the power of American money

and support cutting off, I think it

was, 600 million that the US gave

the Palestinians in 2016, using that

effectively as a cudgel to bring

them back to the negotiating table.

What is it that Donald Trump would

like the Palestinians to do in order

to not be on the receiving end of

these kind of tweets?

First and foremost the Palestinians

since Thatcher is an announcement

have said they are not going to take

part in any peace negotiations with

the US as the intermediary. So the

first goal is to bring them back

into negotiations. Mike Pence, the

vice president, has planned on going

over to the Middle East, to Israel,

on a state visit at some point this

month. I think they wanted to not be

the subject of mass protests when he

gets there. -- I think they want him

not to be. The goal at the beginning

is to start dialogue and to get the

Palestinians to accept Jerusalem as

Israel's capital and to adjust their

negotiating objectives accordingly.

I was Peter Anthony later about the

various challenges facing Donald

Trump in the coming weeks, both in

Washington and with regard to

foreign policy -- I will speak to

Anthony later.

Once again, Iceland is making

strides on gender equality.

It's now illegal there for men to be

paid more than women

for doing the same job.

Iceland has form in this area.

Every year the World Economic Forum

measures gender equality -

and in recent years Iceland

is always top of the country list.

The study considers factors

like pay, education

and participation in government.

Now, globally, average earnings

between men and women

differ by $9000 a year.

Only 20% of parliamentarians

are women.

And 44% of women are not doing paid

work - though, of course,

many of them are working.

This is the Icelandic journalist

Sigrun Davidsdottir.

The hope is that if this works as

intended it should eradicate gender

bias, which is often somehow built

into pay systems. So the standard

should actually... Well, if it

works, it should eradicate this

bias. I think most women in Iceland

still feel that not enough has been

done, and so on. It is not that we

think that everything is perfect,

far from it, there is still gender

inequality aunts and gender bias,

but we hope this is a step in the

right direction.

In a few minutes we will update you

on the protest in Iran. The head of

the Revolutionary Guard say they are

over, that social media tells a

different story. We will have the

latest on pro-and anti-Government

protests.

The BBC understands one in ten NHS

hospital trusts have

declared a major incident

in the past 24 hours.

Hospitals have reported struggling

to cope with the surge

in patients since Christmas -

and NHS England has cancelled

all non-urgent operations

until the end of the month.

I want to apologise for the fact

that we have had, regrettably, to

postpone a number of operations. We

are trying to do it differently this

year. Last year we cancelled a lot

of operations at the very last

minute, so people got called the day

before to say their operation was

not going ahead. That is obviously

very undesirable, so we want to do

it in a much more planned way. But

our hope is that the total number of

cancelled operations will not be

significantly higher this year than

last. The signs are that we are

managing to keep the occupancy

levels relatively lower than last

year. But we are dealing with an

uptick in fluent respiratory illness

which is creating particular

pressures. -- in flu and respiratory

illness.

This is Outside Source live

from the BBC newsroom.

Our lead story is President Trump

has said his former chief strategist

Steve Bannon has lost his mind

after he reportedly called a meeting

between the Trump team and a Russian

lawyer treasonous and unpatriotic.

These are some of the main stories

on BBC World Service, first from BBC

Hindi.

A general strike by members

of India's low-caste Dalit community

has disrupted business and transport

services in Mumbai.

The strike is a response to violence

involving right-wing Hindu groups

in the city of Pune on Monday.

The French president Emmanuel Macron

says his government will introduce

legislation to combat fake news

during election campaigns.

Mr Macron said such measures

were needed to protect democracies

from determined propaganda.

And thousands of you have been

looking at this footage

of a frustrated passenger

on a Ryanair flight.

After the plane was delayed,

the man decided to leave

through the emergency exit -

and sat on the wing.

As he could have predicted,

he was then arrested

by airport security.

Let's update you on the protests in

Iran.

The head of Iran's revolutionary

guards says the protests of the past

few days have been defeated.

Also state media has been

broadcasting these images of massive

pro-government demonstrations.

Here they are - tens of thousands

of people marching through a number

of towns and cities,

chanting slogans in support

of Iran's Supreme Leader,

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Of course, state media has

been less keen to show

the anti-government demos.

No such problem on social media.

These are the latest images

of protests in Tehran last night.

We know a number of people turned

out to express their frustrations

with different parts of the

Government plasma performance.

I also wanted to show you animation

which uses data from opponents

of the regime to mark the protests,

which they say have been

in almost every province -

even rural ones which tend

to be more conservative.

They have an agenda in suggesting

this is widespread, of course.

The next thing to show

you are the thoughts of AFP's Tehran

correspondent Eric Randolph.

In terms of anti-government

protests, things seem to have come

down quite a bit. It is obviously

very difficult for us to get

verifiable information from the

provinces and even to move around

very much in Teheran during what the

Government calls illegal protests.

What we can see and from what we're

getting on social media and from

contacts around the country, the

anti-regime violence we have seen in

recent days seems to have calmed

down. Today is about the authorities

showing their own show of strength

with these quite impressive and huge

rallies in various cities around the

country. We have been surprised

several times in the past week with

how things have continued, but it

does seem that the wind is up, up

the cells of the protesters for now.

As a result I think the security

forces have taken a wait-and-see

approach to the unrest, did not want

to come from people too strongly.

There were a large number of

arrests, 450 people in Tehran alone,

but they did not unleash the

Revolutionary Guard is yet. As a

result things have stayed relatively

calm in that front. But that is

always there in the background,

should it be needed.

A serious flaw in the design

of Intel's chips will require

Microsoft, Linux and Apple to update

operating systems for

computers around the world.

Shares in Intel were down

almost 6% in US trading

after the issue was revealed.

Let's speak to Yogita Limaye New

York. What is wrong with them?

Intel have responded to this story

now and their take on this is

completely different. Firstly, they

are saying that they are not the

only technology company affected.

They are saying this is not a bug or

a flaw, it is basically a new

software analysis method, which is

what they are saying, but they

admitted has the capability of

accessing sensitive information on

your computer system, your computer

operating system. It says it cannot

delete, modify or correct the

information and what they have also

said as they are working with the

operating system providers and other

technology companies to provide

fixes for this.

Essentially not many details coming

out about how exactly they were made

aware of the problem, but the fact

that Intel says they are not the

only ones, essentially they are

saying the technology industry as a

whole has known about this, this is

a disclosure that they were all

planning to make next week together

along with a way of fixing it. But

because of media reports today which

they claim are incorrect, they have

come out with the statement today.

If somebody is watching us, and

millions of people, frankly, we'll

be watching who use computers with

Intel chips, what should they do,

wait for an update to their OS?

Essentially that is what Intel says,

go to your operating system provider

or manufacturer, ask for the latest

software update and use it. They are

saying there were reports that this

could cause some systems to slow

down. Intel are saying that should

not happen, it depends on how much

you use computer, your computer,

what you use, but it should not slow

your system down. They are saying

find the latest update and

downloaded.

Thank you very much,

Yogita Limaye in New York.

Streaming giant Spotify has been hit

with a $1.6 billion lawsuit -

they're accused of using thousands

of songs without permission.

Some analysts are not

surprised by the lawsuit

I think copyright and intellectual

property can be a grey area, the

ownership of those things. Content

is copyright and sold to other

groups in the sense of ownership can

be diluted overtones. Occasionally

you get legal actions where they

look to clarify and make clear where

the ownership lies. There might be

elements of that. 50 million songs,

songwriters influencing other

songwriters, lots of sampling, it is

inevitable that a lot of banging

together of songs and copyright will

happen from time to time.

Next

report from Theo Leggett. He has

been looking at companies trying to

dominate the self driving car

industry. It is hugely competitive,

as you know. The companies that

brought us Volvo and Google are

involved, so was Renault.

If you have never done this before,

it really feels quite strange. We

doing 115 kph on the motorway, I am

not touching anything. My colleague

has a safety set of in case things

go wrong, but the car is striving

itself. Now I will do something I

have never done before, and I don't

think many people have. We are doing

103 kph on the motorway, and I will

put a virtual reality headset on.

Here we go.

At the moment I know I'm driving

along a motorway, but because I have

the virtual reality headset on, I am

flying over a valley. I can see

lakes beneath me, birds around me, a

large lunar landscape in front. It

is a completely different world.

What Renault are trying to do is

envisage a world in which you are

doing a long journey, you don't need

to drive the car, so you can turn

your mind to other things. Relax,

sit back and enjoy the show.

That report is worth a couple of

watches, you can find it on the BBC

News app BBC News website.

It reminds of the story we began

this edition of Outside Source with,

and absolutely extraordinary attack

from Donald Trump on the man who was

his chief strategist in the White

House until a few months back, the

man who ran his campaign to be

president in the last few months of

the campaign. Look what he has put

out. The context of this is Steve

Bannon has given quotes to a new

book on Mr Trump in which he

describes a meeting between Jared

Kushner and others and the Russians

as treasonous. The president says

when he was fired, Steve not only

lost his job, he lost his mind. To

be honest, the whole statement is

worth reading. You can find it

online now. I will see you in a

couple of minutes.

online now. I will see you in a

couple of minutes.

It is that time of night where we

get you across the big global

weather stories. I want to take you

to North America, where it has been

bitterly cold of late. Another

exceptionally cold night to come to

them. Look at these blue colours

spreading to the Gulf Coast, Dallas

is -4, but further north in

Minneapolis, lows of -23 degrees

overnight. We have very cold air in

place, now we are developing an area

of low pressure. In north easterly

storm which will run up close to the

eastern seaboard, bringing rain,

sleet, freezing rain, lots of ice,

and significant snow, especially

across New England, heading into

Thursday. On the back of the weather

system it will turn even colder.

Temperatures here are maximum

temperatures for Friday and

Saturday. If you are planning a

break in New York or Boston you will

need to wrap up, -10 to maybe minus

15. And those are the daytime highs.

To South America, these pictures

come from Bolivia where over recent

days and weeks we have seen

relentless rainfall. This is the

effect, lots of flooding has caused

the major issues. More rain to come

across Bolivia, then stretch into

central and southern Brazil as well

during Thursday. More intense

downpours and thunderstorms, more

flash flooding looks likely.

Meanwhile a tropical cyclone,

tropical cyclone Ava is ploughing

towards the north east of

Madagascar, very strong, damaging

winds and torrential rain, expect to

hear stories of disruption from this

part of the world. Some stormy

weather in New Zealand, this cloud

hurtling southwards is a developing

area of low pressure. It is of

course in New Zealand, but of people

enjoying outdoor activities,

camping, people have been told

across parts of the North Island to

move to higher ground because lots

of rain will pile with strong brains

in rough seas, that could cause big

issues with flooding. The disruptive

weather at home has come courtesy of

Storm Eleanor. The area of low

pressure responsible is drifting

across northern Europe and starting

to weaken. It will bring strong

gusty winds across the Baltic states

with stronger steep rate. Piling

southwards across France where we

will be seeing significant snowfall,

lots of snow piling up over the next

few days. With temperatures that are

specially low there is the ongoing

risk of avalanches. For taking to

Cyprus, a series of gusty winds.

Back home, rain slides northwards

tomorrow. To the north of that, cold

air showing at hand. How far south

will buy get? Find out in half an

hour. -- cold air showing its hand.

How far south will that get?

Hello, I'm Ros Atkins,

this is Outside Source,

and these are the main stories

here in the BBC Newsroom.

President Trump has accused

Steve Bannon of losing his mind.

This after his former chief

strategist reportedly accused

Mr Trump's son and son-in-law

of treasonous and

unpatriotic behaviour.

This phone looks like it's

from another century,

but it's a vital link between North

and South Korea - and it's

just received a call.

The bionic hand with

a sense of touch -

we have an exclusive report

on the woman who's been testing

it out for scientists

in the real world.

And Iceland is the first country

in the world to make it

illegal for men to be paid more

than women for doing the same job.

@charlottejw "Great

show - thank you!

Keep up the good work.

Mor Anthony Zurcher please!"

Your wish is our command.

Anthony's been looking

ahead at the challenges

Donald Trump's facing in January.

That was before Donald Trump took to

Twitter in a serious way in the last

36 hours.

You can read it online but let me

take you through the key points.

Congress has faced budget showdowns

many times over the last

few months and every time there have

been temporary

approvals to spending.

Anthony, good to see you. Charlotte

will be pleased. Tell us more about

the budget issues.

We have had

several rounds now, where Congress

has to pass a budget to fund the

government the next fiscal year.

They have essentially kicked the

camp down the road. They were

supposed to be the end of September,

then the beginning of December then

the middle of December. Now a new

deadline, 19th of January, and they

have to pass a budget before this

deadline of the want to keep the

government from avoiding a shutdown.

They are making progress here, but

budget is coming up with all sorts

of different priorities, defence

spending, whether to cut social

spending, what to do about Donald

Trump's wall. They will have a tough

time coming up with a solution in

the next two weeks but that is the

goal they have in front of them.

They have to find some way Ofcom

promotion with Democrats to get

something Pastoor extending and

coming up with another deadline.

I

feel like I have covered the story a

fair few times over the years,

almost like a Washington tradition.

They tend to get it done eventually.

It would be pretty remarkable if it

didn't. We have seen a few shutdowns

in the past, some during the Obama

years, some significant lengthy ones

during the Clinton years. But no one

will want that sort of resolution

because the public tends to get

angry when the government is

particularly dysfunctional. The

question, though, is whether they

can wrap these issues with some of

the other policy priorities and if

can get defence spending, raise the

caps, they can avoid these big caps.

Last year there was a lot of talk

about Donald Trump is like budget

and big budget cuts coming from all

of that has been much disappeared.

We are working on a framework about

how much to increase spending.

A

story we covered a lot in September,

when Donald Trump tried to end and

Obama-era programme called Dakar, it

temporarily clinical

Last September Mr

Trump sought to end an Obama-era

programme called DACA -

it temporarily approved immigration

for hundreds of thousands

of undocumented immigrants

who were brought to

the US as children.

No legislation has been passed

though and pressure is building.

Mr Trump tweeted yesterday.

Democrats are doing

nothing for DACA -

just interested in politics.

DACA activists and Hispanics

will go hard against Dems,

will start "falling in love"

with Republicans

and their President!

We are about RESULTS.

I don't accept that anyone is not

interested in politics, everyone is.

Why is the president not able to get

this through?

I think the

President's tweet is a reflection of

the fact there will be a significant

amount of anger among Hispanics that

100 new people a day are getting

pushed back into the economic

shadows because there were no longer

be covered by these DACA

protections. They will not be of to

attend public universities, get

loans from banks, hold regular

American jobs. They will be back

into the margins of society, and by

the time March rolls around, six

months after the President's initial

decision, there will be tens of

thousands of people who are now no

longer covered by their protections.

The Democrats, they say they are not

pushing enough for some customers. A

small children grow up here, not

know any other country than the US

and then get forced out of the

country, it is pretty difficult to

swallow. The thing is there are some

Republicans and the president who

want to lump this in with bigger

immigration issues, like holding

that Mexican wall and reforming

immigration laws to prioritise

skilled immigrants. If they need to

find some sort of ground to come

from eyes on, otherwise this could

end up not getting past because both

sides are standing by their

positions.

We talked about DACA. Now

quickly Iran. The President's

decertified the terms of the nuclear

deal, saying that Iran was not

staying within the strict limits of

its nuclear programme. The president

offered no evidence of that but it

set up a process that allowed the US

Congress to quickly reimpose

sanctions on Iran, but chose not to.

Interestingly, in over a week, Mr

Trump has to decide whether to

sanction it again. The treaty has

been sending about the deal, again

reiterated how much he dislikes it.

Exactly. There were as a whole lot

of fanfare, as you remember, three

months ago when he made this

original decision not to certify a

run's compliance. We thought

Congress might act, but nothing

happened. Here we are where the

president has to make this

determination again. I don't think

there will be as much as much as,

over whether there will be whether

he does or does not decertified.

There could be things he will do

beyond that, and he hinted at it

three months ago when he said he

could take unilateral action if

Congress doesn't do anything. He

could end up not giving a waiver

that suspends existing sanctions on

Iran, essentially reimposing those

sanctions. In the context of all of

this, we have these ongoing protests

in Iran, the administration says

they are watching closely, speaking

out in support of the Iranian cause.

Arguably the most important, the

work of this man, Robert Muller. He

is leading an investigation into

those alleged ties between the Trump

campaign and Russia. We have an

update on that, in the last few

minutes this copy has come into the

newsroom, telling us that Mr Trump's

campaign manager Paul Manafort has

sued Robert Muller, saying it

exceeded his legal authority. Tell

us more, that sounds significant.

As

you remember, Paul Manafort has been

indicted for money laundering and

corruption charges dating back to

when he was before Donald Trump was

my campaign manager to his lobbying

activities on the part of Ukrainian

government officials. Here he is now

attempting to challenge that

indictment, saying Robert Muller had

overstepped his bounds. Saying he

should surely be focusing on this

Russia collusion investigation. It

echoes a lot of what the White House

is saying, that independent

investigation is running wild. Here

we have a legal challenge authority.

I don't think many people believe

Manafort will be successful in this

challenge but it does play into the

larger criticisms of Robert Muller.

We have not heard a lot from him

recently, since the Flynn plea deal

came down in mid-December. But that

is still hanging over the

administration, and it is a ticking

bomb that could go for might not go.

We heard from Steve Bannon, except

in this book earlier today that have

been released, and Steve Bannon

himself things that Robert Muller is

onto something, that he is looking

into money-laundering through people

like Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner

and Donald Trump Junior, and a few

follows the money it could be a

serious challenge to Donald Trump.

That kind of undercut statements

Trish and's position as well, but

this is one of those things where we

can wake up and find that there is

some huge breaking news from the

investigation that there is no

indication of until we find out

about it in the headlines.

Thank you

for your help, we will talk to you

tomorrow, one of the ever presence

on Outside Source, live at us from

Washington, DC.

Don't forget you can get much more

detail on our top stories

on our website.

Huge surprise in Ethiopia today -

the government is going to free

all its political prisoners.

And in Addis Abbaba,

the notorious MALEEKEE

detention centre will shut.

Numerous abuses have

been detailed there.

For example, back in 2013,

Human Rights Watch published

multiple accounts of torture

and ill-treatment -

though the government denied them.

Today the Prime Minister said

this move is "to foster

national reconciliation".

Certainly haven't been doing that

during the crackdown on political

opposition that's been

going on for the last two years.

It took a dim view of

anti-government protests

like this one back in September.

There have been thousands of arrests

- and anti-terrorism laws

were used to jail critics.

That's why they're happy

with today's news,

this from Amnesty International.

"Could this be the dawn

of a new human rights era

in one of the world's

most repressive countries?".

Here's the BBC's Emmanuel Igunza.

It is not clear just how many people

are in jail due to this terrorism

are for being very against the

government. So it is not quite clear

at the moment the numbers involved

here but it is quite a big statement

coming off the back of this huge

protest we have seen over the past

two years, and also just over the

last couple of weeks, we have seen

them spread the universities and the

government now saying, look, we

would free some of these politicians

and some of those who have been

detained over the state of emergency

last year so that they can have this

process of national dialogue that

the Prime Minister says was very

important in moving the country

forward.

A facility in Baltimore,

Maryland they are trying to trace

what leads to neurological disorders

like PTSD and depression.

Over 2,200 brains have been donated

to the Lieber Institute -

it's the largest brain bank

in the world.

Jane O'Brien has more.

Can kill Steen remembers the happy

times, before his wife of 40 years

succumbed to mental illness.

This

was a picture of our first dance

together as husband-and-wife.

Here

still trying to make sense of the

personality changes that lead to

Paula's suicide just a few months

ago. He hopes to dating her brain to

research will help scientists find

the answers.

There are so much that

needs to be known about people who

have psychiatric illnesses and what

is going on with the brain. Research

is the only waif. I am hoping that

hopefully they can find some

information that will prevent

something like this happening so

that people don't have to go through

what we went through and what we are

currently going through.

This is

where Paula's brain is being

studied. The world's largest brain

bank, dedicated to finding

biological causes of mental

illnesses, such as schizophrenia,

depression and post-traumatic stress

disorder.

We understand these are

illnesses that have a physical,

chemical, molecular structural

basis. I think we take it away from

being either a lack of character, a

defect in the will, and understand

that this is a defect in function of

the brain.

It all starts with the

brain itself. Almost all come from

people who have died unexpectedly.

Many victims of the opioid academic.

Scientists look for signs of disease

and other abnormalities and compare

them to the person's mental health

history. And they are starting to

isolate genes that put people at a

higher risk. The man who started

this vast collection of brains hopes

the research will lead to better

treatments, based on the genetic

causes of mental illness.

The genes

for behaviour disorders are not

genes that guarantee you a disorder.

They are not what we call fate

genes, they are risk genes, like

genes for heart attack or stroke,

there is no gene that causes a heart

attack.

Finding new treatments is

becoming increasingly more urgent.

More veterans died from suicide fan

in,, but PTSD affects far more

civilians. One in four of us will

suffer some form of mental disorder

in our lifetimes. Ken's family could

not be spared the tragedy of mental

illness, but he hopes others might

benefit from the death of Paul.

It

is a great picture. One of the

things we try to do at her funeral

will truly celebrate her life. On

some level one of the things I'm

salivating about her life is that

she is doing something now for

science and other people in the

future and I feel and make it feel

very, very positive about that.

Just a few minutes ago, Konstantinos

in London said as this tweet. He

says can you focus on ecological

issues, including ways to reduce the

use of plastic. That is almost as if

we planned this.

I want to play you a report

now by Sanjoy Majumder

on the problem of plastics

and the impact they're

having on our planet.

According to a recent study -

95% of plastic pollution

in the world's oceans comes

from just ten rivers.

One of them is the Ganges in India.

Sanjoy has been to see it

in the holy city of Varanasi.

This looks like a train carrying

sewage, but it is actually a

tributary of the Ganges. The waste

along its banks choking and

contaminating one of the world's

greatest rivers. Every day, rappers,

bottles, cups and other plastic

waste is deposited here, slowly

sliding into the water, and then

eventually flowing into the Ganges.

For centuries, some of India's

greatest cities have been built

along its banks. This is one of

them. It is only when you come to

the ancient city of Farah Nasser the

hurley realise how this mighty river

so central to the Hindu faith that

sustains the lives and beliefs as

nearly half a billion people is as

polluted as it is. The Ganges is

more than a river to Indians, it is

sacred to Hindus who pray and

worship along its banks and cremate

their dead in it. From the time it

flows out of the icy heights of the

Himalayas until it gets here, it's

crystal clear waters give way to a

fetid, muddy flow, contaminated by

the millions that live along its

banks. Five generations of this

family have lived along the Ganges

in Farah Nasser, living witnesses to

its gradual degradation.

TRANSLATION:

There is a saying that

the Ganges along to everyone, you

are free to through whatever you

want, cremate dead bodies, Dave,

wash, and you will achieve

salvation. But we are being

irresponsible, we do not have the

right to pollute the Ganges this

way.

Three years ago the Indian

government pledged $3 billion to

clean up the Ganges, but much of the

money remains unspent and the focus

in any case is on treating sewage

and industrial effluents, so the

only people trying to prevent

plastic waves Dunn -- plastic waste

being dumped by these rubbish

sectors. TRANSLATION:

We have to

segregate the plastic.

It is

estimated every year £1.2 billion of

plastic waste is dumped into the

Ganges, much of it carried into the

Bay of Bengal, where the river

eventually empties out.

On every edition of Outside Source

will try to bring you the biggest

global stories, we have heard from

Ethiopia, Iceland, Italy, France,

Ethiopia and India. Next on the

programme, we are turning to Turkey.

Its religious authority has

issued a ruling that

according to Islamic law,

girls as young as nine can marry.

You can imagine how

that's gone down.

This tweet, Children should play

at the parks not be a bride

at an early age #DiyanetKapatilsin.

This hashtag means 'Religious State

Body should be closed down'.

As well as this, the main

opposition party wants

a parliamentary inquiry.

The context here is that Turkey has

a high rate of child marriage.

Official figures say

15% of girls married

under the age of 18.

That figure may actually be higher

as some marriages in rural

areas are not registered.

The law on this in Turkey is a 17

year old can marry -

but only with their parents'

consent.

Below 17 is illegal.

Evidently, that's not put off

the religious authority.

Here's Cagil Kasapoglu

from BBC Turkish.

Turkey's state religious body has

said any child who has reached

puberty can get married, and girls

can conceive a baby. And when they

talk about puberty, they give the

age as nine for the girls and 12 for

the boys. So this has sparked huge

controversy, particularly on social

media, saying that they are

acquitting child abusers especially,

and they are encouraging underage

marriages. So on social media again

society has been divided, one side

saying the state body should be

closed down, and on the other hand

they are in support of the body,

saying they are shaping a proper,

moral society. But after this

controversy, the state religious

body has issued another statement,

saying they have been misunderstood,

and that they are against early age

marriages but again this has

received criticism, because what

defines early? So what they say is

they are stating Islamic laws.

Again, you have to remember this is

not legally binding. But this body

helps to shape a society. Also, one

of the opposition MPs has called for

a Parliamentary investigation for

the statement the religious body has

made.

Now a remarkable report from Fergus

Walsh.

This is a bionic hand -

and extraordinary thing

about it is that the person wearing

it can feel what they're touching.

In an exclusive report, the BBC's

Medical Correspondent Fergus Walsh

has been to Rome to meet the woman

who's been using it.

A bionic hand,

with a sense of touch.

And here is the proof.

Blindfolded, Almarina Mascarello

knows whether what she's

holding is soft or hard.

She gets it right every time.

Over lunch she told me that nearly

25 years after losing her hand

in a factory accident,

it is almost like it is back again.

TRANSLATION:

The feeling is spontaneous,

as if it were your real hand.

You are finally able to do things

that before or difficult.

Like getting dressed,

putting on shoes.

All mundane but important things.

You feel complete.

The world's first feeling bionic

hand, given to this Danish man,

never left the lab.

The technology was just too bulky.

Now, nearly four years

on, it is portable.

Allowing Almarina to go back

to her hobby of car mechanics.

All the electronics

are in her rucksack.

Here's how it works.

Sensors in the fingertips

are linked to a computer.

This converts the signals into a

language the brain will understand.

The information is relayed to it

via tiny electrodes implanted

in nerves in Almarina's upper arm.

This represents a significant

advance in neuro prosthetics,

the interface between machine

and the human body.

The next patient won't need

to have a rucksack to carry these

electronics, because they're

going to be miniaturised

and implanted under the skin.

And the team here are hoping to do

the same with a bionic leg,

which will have pressure sensors

in the foot.

Engineers, computer scientists

and surgeons from several countries

are involved in this

EU funded research.

A truly humanlike bionic hand

is still decades away.

But the team here

think it will happen.

We feel we are going more and more

in the direction of science fiction

like movies like Star Wars.

With Luke Skywalker,

after the amputation of the hand.

So fully controlled,

fully natural, fully sensorised

prosthesis very similar,

identical to the human hand.

Since we filmed with Almarina,

she has had to give back her bionic

hand because it is still

in the research stage.

But she says when it is

commercialised in a few years,

she wants the feeling bionic hand

back for good.

Fergus Walsh, BBC News, Rome.

You can get more details on Fergus's

story on that bionic hand on the BBC

news website. A quick reminder of

where we started the programme, an

extraordinary attack by Donald Trump

on his former chief strategist,

someone he had called a friend as

well. He says when Steve Bannon was

fired by her maiden just loses job,

he lost his mind. In fact, an

extraordinary attack on a man who

worked very hard to get Donald Trump

into the White House. More on that

tomorrow no doubt, thanks for

watching, I will see you then