12/02/2018 Outside Source

This is Outside Source.

Jacob Zuma's political

life looks as though

it's coming to an end,

but at this stage he's

refusing to resign.

We'll look at the options for him

and the governing ANC.

Could the Winter Olympics bring

with them a thaw in relations

between the US and North Korea,

as Washington hints that

it's willing to talk.

The Oxfam charity is in crisis talks

with the UK Government,

over the scandal of aid workers

using prostitutes in Haiti.

There was a lot of rumours on the

ground about management and leaders

exploring the locals sexually and in

other ways.

Peter Rabbit is facing

boycott calls from people

suffering from allergies -

as a scene in a new film

deliberately pelts an allergic

character with blackberries.

Welcome to Outside Source.

Leaders of South Africa's governing

ANC party are meeting

to decide the future

of President Jacob Zuma.

This is where it's happening -

in Pretoria - and it's likely

they're asking him to step down.

Mr Zuma faces a number of corruption

charges and ANC president

Cyril Ramaphosa says the issue

is causing "disunity and discord".

The leaders have been locked

in talks for hours now,

but as South African

Radio host points out,

these are tricky

waters to navigate...

Milton Nkosi has this

update from Pretoria

on where things stand now.

I am just standing outside the hotel

where the National League executive

committee is to meet to decide

President Zuma's fate. All we know

is they are deliberating on what

decision to take on President Zuma's

future. We know that yesterday the

president of the ANC Cyril Ramaposa

said that the matter will be

finalised today. We are waiting and

we know that inside the meeting

there are many ANC leaders who have

called for President Zuma to be

recalled from his position. There is

a proportional representation

electoral system here and sell

public, so people who vote in a

general election for the party, not

the individual, like they do in

America. So here they vote for the

ANC, they win the election and they

appoint President Zuma to go to be

the candidate for presidency. They

will be calling him back, replacing

him with Cyril Ramaposa, but it is

not yet confirmed, that is what we

wait to hear.

Some may be worried

wondering why Mr Zuma is refusing to

go.

President Zuma is reported to be

refusing to go because

constitutionally he can be in power

until 2019, so the ANC's election

cycle for its own leaders is out of

sync with the country's electoral

cycle. In other words, the elections

for the general population here is

coming in about 18 months' time,

whereas the ANC in December already

elected a new leader. So now you

have two centres of power, there is

President Zuma at the Government

office as president of the public,

then you have Cyril Ramaposa at

party headquarters, being the boss

of President Zuma, so we are waiting

to hear what the decision they have

taken tonight to end all of this

waiting where the country is

waiting, business people are waiting

and the EEA -- ANC are waiting for

the announcement.

Thank you. Stay

with the BBC, we will bring you it

when it comes.

It appears the Winter Olympics has

helped thaw tensions

between North Korea

and the United States.

I want to show you this article in

the Washington Post.

A dramatic political shift from only

FUD is the go.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

was asked about it.

Here's what he said.

As to the comments about potentially

having parks, it is too early to

judge. As we have said, it is up to

the North Koreans to decide when

they are ready to engage with us in

a sincere way, a meaningful way.

They know what has to be on the

table for conversations.

Well, what we have seen

from the North Koreans is a charm

offensive in Pyeongchang

during these games.

You may have seen some of these

pictures on the weekend.

This is Kim Jong-Un's

sister, Kim Yo-Jong.

She has been part of a delegation

sent to the Games by her brother,

and she has been seen

at a number of events.

She is always smiling.

She met with South Korea's

President Moon Jae-in.

This was in Seoul on Saturday.

She invited him for

talks in North Korea.

If that were to happen,

it would be the first meeting

of Korean leaders in more

than a decade.

Following that meeting,

Moon Jae-in spoke to Mike Pence.

The pair are said to have agreed

to terms about engaging

further with North Korea.

Let's take a look at what was said.

Earlier, I asked Barbara Plett Usher

what exactly Mr Pence means

by "maximum pressure"...

What he said was a little bit what

Secretary Tillerson offered last

year. He said let's get into the

same room, we can talk about

whatever, we can talk about the

shape of the table, just breaking

the ice, getting to know each other,

but nothing substantive for the

first talks. It sounds a little bit

like what Mr p is saying. He says we

can talk, but there will be no

rewards for the talk unless the

North Koreans are willing to do

important things like talk about

denuclearise in the peninsula,

getting rid of the nuclear weapons,

taking steps in that direction.

Until that happens, there will be no

easing of sanctions, no aid, no

investment, but we can talk. That is

what it would look like to have a

strict sanctions programme continue

but alongside about the in the same

room discussing.

It doesn't seem

like quite a turnaround, from just a

few days ago where we hear that Mike

pence was skipping dinner so he can

avoid the North Koreans to a point

of possibly, even if it is just

talking about weather, being in the

same room.

Certainly the messaging

seems to be quite different and you

have had for example the successful

North Korean charm offensive with

Kim Jong-un sister, smiling, being

wined and dined by the South

Koreans, watching events. With them

being in the same area as Mike

pence, he was avoiding eye contact.

You have the atmosphere created and

you have the South Koreans who want

to try and build on this something

more significance and they have been

talking to the Americans about it.

It seems off the back of that

conversation and the optics and

dynamics of what happened at the

Olympics is that what was decided.

According to Mike Pence, the north

Koreans would be told that they are

not good to get anything for the

talks would you talk to us or the

US, you will get any reward unless

you talk about getting rid of your

nuclear weapons. The Web attempt to

talks about it, it sounded as if the

South Koreans would hold the summit

first, to which Moon Jae-in was

invited, and the back of that, if

the North Koreans were interested,

potentially the Americans may hold

talks will stop that is something

the South Koreans have been pressing

the north to do.

Thank you very much

for that.

Oxfam's deputy chief

executive has resigned over

the handling of a sex scandal

involving aid workers.

The alleged misconduct happened

in Haiti back in 2011.

It came to light when this

report was published

by the Times newspaper last week.

The article accuses

Roland van Hauwermeiren,

who was Oxfam's Haiti director

at the time, and others,

of using prostitutes at a villa

rented by the charity.

Oxfam were in Haiti as part

of the relief effort

after an earthquake in 2010.

More than 200,000 people

were killed in the disaster.

Today, Penny Lawrence

stepped down saying...

This former Oxfam employee

in Haiti says she raised

concerns at the time.

There was a lot of rumours on the

ground about management and leaders

exploring the locals, sexually and

in other ways to get jobs, to get

good standing. These were ongoing

rumours that would come to me

through the drivers and other

employees. So on many occasions, I

would share those rumours with my

boss.

Oxfam launched its own investigation

into the claims 2011.

It led to four people being sacked

and three others resigning,

including Mr van Hauwermeiren.

Today, the charity's chief executive

admitted changes in the organisation

hadn't gone far enough.

Straight after Haiti, Oxfam took

forceful step. We committed to, a

whistle-blowing liner that brings

the person not into the country

level, it straight through to our

headquarters, we have increased the

training of our staff significantly

and we have taken a range of steps

to improve the selection and

management of our staff. They have

not been sufficient and that is why

we have accepted that we have to go

further and we have made commitments

to go further and we have started

bad work.

That is the response

there.

Amidst the scandal, there's also

the separate issue of funding,

because Oxfam received £32 million

from the UK Government last year.

Today, the charity was summoned

to explain why that

support should continue.

Pollsters at YouGov have been

gauging public opinion on this.

Let me bring you this Tweet.

Will Grant is in Port-au-Prince,

and gave us this view on how people

there are reacting to this news.

There are lots of people here who

would argue that in recent years it

might not make a huge difference in

the sense that one of the key

complaints here, not just about

Oxfam, but many aid agencies, is

that the vast sums of money that

were donated in the wake of the 2010

earthquake never made it onto the

ground and the big aid agencies

require such huge operating costs,

that the money is then not the

distributed to local partners and

does not make it to the people.

Naturally, if a big chunk of money

is taken away from Oxfam, that will

hurt its programmes, Haiti included.

The general feeling is of anger

towards Oxfam and of great distrust.

People are not prepared to talk at

the moment, they worried about what

might happen to them, those who used

to work for the organisation, they

are fearful of retribution post-op

we have been struggling to get

people to talk on camera about this

and worry what the scandal will mean

for them as employees and former

employees.

Thank you to will

grandfather.

Stay with us on Outside Source -

still to come...

We will discuss President

Trump plans to revamp

America's infrastructure.

He wants one-and-a-half-trillion

dollars to spend on roads, bridges,

sea ports and airports.

Theresa May and her Irish

counterpart, Leo Varadkar,

have appeared together in Belfast,

following a series of meetings with

Sinn Fein and the DUP at Stormont.

Both leaders were optimistic that

an agreement regarding

a new power-sharing executive can be

reached in the coming days.

Northern Ireland has been

without a devolved assembly

for more than a year.

That is after the political

coalition collapsed previously.

And

while some differences remain, I

believe that it is possible to CD

cases of an agreement, there is the

basis, and it should be possible to

see an executive up and running in

Northern Ireland very soon.

The

differences that exist between the

DUP and Sinn Fein are not

insurmountable and we are hopeful

that those two parties can come to

an agreement and then include other

parties because it is our strong

view that an inclusive executive

including as many parties as

possible would be more sustainable

and beneficial for the country.

This is Outside Source,

live from the BBC newsroom.

Our lead story...

Leaders of the governing ANC have

been locked in talks about President

Zuma Howell has been been refusing

to stand down.

The second lack box

founder from the plane found in

Russia. There is a continuing search

for bodies on the airliner became

down the minutes after taking off

from a Moscow airport. Police are

there as well have freed a

72-year-old mum. She was kidnapped

on Thursday and her son is a catcher

for the Pittsburgh Pirates in

baseball. They are popular targets

for kidnappers because of a large

salaries. London City Airport has

been closed all of Monday after a

World War II bomb was discovered

near the airport was a bit at all

flights were cancelled, affecting up

to 16,000 passengers.

Many people have been crossing here,

Lake Albert, it sits on the border

with Uganda. After attacks

intensified. There are fears of a

return to massacres witnessed in the

area almost 20 years ago. That is

when tens of thousands were killed

in ethnic clashes. We will hear from

two correspondence. First who is

with the police patrol on the lake.

It is a perilous journey from the

border. Some of these people are

using vessels but I'm not very safe

and some cases the lake is rough. We

have had reports of bowls like this

one capsizing.

That is our reporter. Now to another

reporter on the shores.

They tell us when they leave home,

they have to leave in a hurry so

they grab what ever they can do is

start their new life, so that could

be food, mattresses, clothes, it

even livestock like cows and goats.

This is to help them to be able to

have a hot meal but also start their

new lives because they do not know

how long it will be before they can

get back home. This is the point

where the refugees crossing over

officially enter the reliever

system. Anyone claiming to be a

refugee is given a blue wristband.

This allows them to be able to get

onto buses and trucks heading on to

the bigger refugee settlement. That

way they will be able to get food,

water, medication, shelter and even

a plot of land where they can settle

down with their families. Uganda is

posting 1 million refugees from

South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and the

Democratic Republic of Congo.

However the oven at officials and

members of the UN agencies are

accused of stealing a funding meant

for these refugees and already

donors are questioning whether they

should be giving more money to help

refugees in this country.

Thank you to our reporters.

President Trump has promised

what he's calling the biggest

and boldest infrastructure

investment in American history.

Announcing his budget plans,

he said he wanted to spend

$1.5 trillion on roads,

highways, ports and airports.

But only $200 billion

will come from public funds.

Joe Miller joins us now

from New York for more.

Is this all about?

We have been

hearing about this for months and

months, the drug administration has

been promising a big announcement on

infrastructure -- trompe

administration. All parties in

America agree on this, but

America's's bridges, roads, they are

crumbling and need more investment.

There was a big campaign promise of

Donald Trump to pour money into

this, and where they are not aligned

is where the money will come from.

To take's announcement does not

remedy that. There are only 200

billion coming from Washington is

self, federal funds, and that is a

drop in the ocean. The rest will

have to come through the private

sector are from cities and states,

and the thing is cities and states,

they say they do not have the money

and it is harder for them to borrow

money than the federal Government.

They are much more restricted when

it comes to that. They are arguing

they will never be able to make up

with the shortfall that will get

them to $1.5 trillion in investment.

Could any of those projects that Mr

Trump's mentioned, will they ever

get done? Will they ever get built

if he uses this statement of

expecting private funds, investors

to come up with the money?

I suppose that is the 1.5 trillion

question. You do not have to go far

from where I am sitting in a

downtown New York to find some think

the Gateway project which is an

infrastructure project that will

update the well ways across the

Northeast corridor and that stalled

because of a fight over funding

between the states and Washington.

Who knows? Maybe Trump with his

rhetoric and Twitter account will be

able to coerce both the private

sector and cities and states to put

more money behind the structure

projects, but it is remains to be

seen.

Interesting one, one that was a big

part of the campaign trail. Let's

stay with business now.

The entertainment arm of the Chinese

e-commerce giant Alibaba has signed

a deal with Walt Disney to show

thousands of its animations

on its streaming service.

Disney shut its own

streaming service in 2016.

Monica Miller in Singapore has more.

My knees the Chinese will get their

fill of Winnie the to and Elsa from

Frozen. They signed a deal with

Disney to stream their animated

works. They announced that they

would not say how much this would

be, that it will be streamed on the

entertainment stream. They will

release over 1000 Disney episodes.

It comes after Disney has been

trained to get into the mainland and

they did have a venture that lasted

that opened in 2016, it was the

companies Disney online content that

was not under a licensing deal but

it lasted five months. It is just

unclear as to why authorities have

pulled the plug on it. They are

hoping that this time they may have

better luck, and to give you an idea

of how large the audience is for

this, it has a better following than

Netflix, it had 17 million members.

The Chinese video streaming platform

goes to 580 million devices. Alibaba

has a similar love licensing deal

with other channels.

Let's turn to Tonga now,

where a state of emergency has been

declared after one of the biggest

storms to ever make

landfall in the tiny

South Pacific Island kingdom.

This is the satellite

image of Cyclone Gita -

a category-four storm -

as it barrelled towards Tonga.

It made landfall on Monday.

It's now moving towards Fiji.

These are some of the pictures that

are coming in on social media.

You see some damage.

This was the scene earlier.

Damage to buildings, and trees down.

Strong winds picking up

at the capital Nukualofa.

We know there have been gusts

recorded of 231 kilometres.

These are some of the pictures

coming in from there.

People hunkered down in evacuation

centres as the storm intensified.

A little bit of electricity that is

still there, but we have heard that

power was cut to the entire main

island off Tonga.

And I want to show you this.

A group of women waiting out

the storm by singing.

The video has gone viral.

Let's listen in.

THEY SING IN UNISON

So some singing in the midst of the

storm.

Former president Barack Obama

and former First Lady Michelle Obama

unveiled their official portraits.

Here's Michelle's,

alongside her portrait.

Here's Mr Obama's.

The former President explained why

he chose Kehinde Wiley for the job.

I was always struck by whenever I

saw his portraits was the degree to

which they challenged our

conventional views of power and

privilege and the way that he would

take extraordinary care and

precision and vision in recognising

the beauty and the grace and the

dignity of people who were so often

invisible in our lives and put them

on a grand stage.

Another half an

hour of Outside Source to come. Do

stay with us on the BBC. Your next

UK

stay with us on the BBC. Your next

UK forecast is coming about half an

hour, but at this time we go beyond

our shores and take a look at the

weather happening elsewhere in the

world, starting in the Pacific with

this area of cloud, a tropical storm

on the Philippines. We come back to

that because there is a bigger

tropical cyclone, a more powerful

weather system in the South Pacific,

you see the area of cloud and the

spec right at the middle of it, the

island of Tonga, right underneath

the cyclone with winds gusting in

excess of 150 mph and flooding rain

as well, and extremely dangerous

situation. Tuesday, this will pull

away westward so the situation will

improve, but we have to wait and see

what impact there will have been.

The system may strengthen as it

edges westwards in the coming days,

but overwater rather than impacting

the land. In Australia, this over

the next few days will pull in

towards the south-eastward storms.

It is about the heat at this time of

year, temperatures about a goal up

in Perth, near 40 Celsius in Alice

Springs. Destination Sydney, the

temperature comes down a little bit

this week, temperature will spike in

Perth on Thursday and she can seek

there is plenty of sunshine. Eastern

China will see temperatures edging

up after a chilly spell, lots of

wind in South Korea, Pyeongchang for

the Winter Olympics, wind a feature,

and on the satellite picture, you

can see this tropical storm on the

Philippines. This is the rain, a

soaking through central and southern

parts of the Philippines in the

coming days. In Tokyo, the

temperature is a bit up and down, in

Hong Kong, the only way is up. After

the cold spell, getting back into

the low 20s. That will feel very

different. A wet start across

eastern part of the USA and Canada,

but the weather system for Tuesday

is pulling out into the Atlantic, a

bit of fine weather behind, for some

of the eastern USA, it will turn

less cold in the coming days. At

times there will be showers into

Vancouver and Seattle, and there is

a chance of getting a few showers in

LA over the next couple of days

before the sunshine and warmth comes

back in the week. This is the

picture for your reply Tuesday the

stops heavy snow affecting parts of

the south-east, a weather system

from the Atlantic running into cold

air in France, so more snow on here,

but ahead of the weather system,

there is a clear resort, says

sunshine into Germany and Austria

and Switzerland. There is fine

weather across southernmost parts of

Spain, though not particularly

wobbles up in the UK, there will be

weather systems bringing spells of

rain and it will often be windy and

less cold by the end of the week.

More in half an hour.

Hello, this is Outside Source,

and these are the main stories

here in the BBC Newsroom.

Jacob Zuma's political

life looks as though

it's coming to an end -

but at this stage he's

refusing to resign -

we'll look at the options for him

and the governing ANC.

Could the Winter Olympics bring

with them a thaw in relations

between the US and North Korea,

as Washington hints that

it's willing to talk?

How much will it cost

to rebuild Iraq after

the onslaught of fighting IS?

The government has come up

with a figure - it's massive -

we'll find out why it

will take $90 billion.

Every day, Outside Source features

BBC journalists working

in over 30 languages.

Your questions are always welcome.

#BBCos is the hashtag.

Welcome to Outside Source...

New York police say

President Trump's daughter-in-law

at her apartment in the city.

The letter was addressed

to the President's son.

The police and Secret Service

are investigating.

Nada Tawfik is following

the story in New York.

Hello, what do we know?

Well,

basically we know that she opened

the letter at 10am in New York, and

when she opened it, she found a

white powder. Now, she was

immediately decontaminated on the

scene, along with two others, by

firefighters who responded, but they

didn't show any kind of physical

reaction to the powder, and in fact

when it was later tested, the New

York police department said it came

back as nonhazardous, so really a

scary moment there for her, but it

ended up being nonhazardous. Now,

she along with her mother-in-law and

another person were taken to

hospital just for evaluation, and

now the New York police department

along with the Secret Service are

investigating the full incident.

Good to hear it was nonhazardous.

Thank you for that update.

New York prosecutors

have filed a lawsuit

against The Weinstein Company,

alleging that the studio

failed to protect staff

from Harvey Weinstein.

The film producer is facing dozens

of allegations of sexual

abuse, including rape,

but denies non-consensual sex.

How much of a surprise was this

particular move by the New York

prosecutors?

Well, we always knew

that Harvey Weinstein was under

investigation, and this

investigation by the New York

Attorney General's Office is ongoing

still. They have been going through

the records of the company, speaking

with employees. It has been pretty

horrific. There are allegations of

what we have heard before in the

press and media reports. But to have

them outlined in this detail has

been quite interesting, to say the

least. So for example they allege

that Harvey Weinstein had his female

employees facilitate his sexual

conquests. He basically forced them

to make sure that he had personal

time on his schedule for sexual

activity, and if they tried to

complain about his behaviour towards

them as well, they would often get

reprimanded. So human re-sources in

one case forwarded a woman's

complain to Harvey Weinstein, so

instead of her getting protection,

she instead got more retribution by

Harvey Weinstein. The resource

stories about how he would tell

them, I will kill you, I will kill

your family, and threats to women as

well who complained about sexual

advances towards them and what they

were being asked to do in their

employment. This was an ongoing

investigation. We knew that the

authorities were looking into the

company, so not too much of a shock

that it came out.

I want to bring

out a tweet from Slave, the online

magazine. So fierce will have far

reaching consequences, if, in fact,

they are successful.

Yes some of the

wine steam company has been trying

to battle -- the Weinstein Company,

that sale was really imminent, so

that is why the Attorney General

decided to have the court intervene

with this lawsuit to try to put a

stop to those sale negotiations

because he was concerned victims

would not get proper compensation,

that employees would not get

protection. And those who they

alleged to be response will should

not make windfall profits from a

cell like this. It could well

scupper the deal but we'll have to

see how far this lawsuit goes and

what kind of a final it is with the

investor group.

Iraq is asking the

international community

for almost $90 billion.

It's to help it rebuild

after years of war against

so-called Islamic State.

The city of Mosul right

here is the hardest-hit area.

These pictures show

the destruction there.

The city was taken by IS in 2014.

The Iraqi forces recaptured it with

the help of Iranian-backed Shiite

militias and a US-led

coalition in July 2017.

Victory came at a massive

cost - just how massive

is a question the government needed

to answer before a week-long

conference that started today,

which is seeking aid

for the country's reconstruction.

With the help of the World Bank,

it came up with $88.2 billion.

The conference is hosted

by neighbouring Kuwait.

The head of the delegation in Iraq

for the International Committee

of the Red Cross is Katharina Ritz -

she's there and explains why

this money is necessary.

If you are in Iraq, and new work on

the ground, and you see the

destruction, what happened over

these last years, but not just the

infrastructure destruction, it is

also the rebuilding of the

community, which needs to be

invested, and I think in this sense

it is a massive amount, and I think

it is not something which is being

done over one year. But the needs

are extremely vague, and it is, at

this time we have to get it right.

Yes?

I think many would agree that

the need is great, as we looked at

those pictures, but I just want to

bring out a tweet coming in from the

US president, Donald Trump. He said

this will be a big week for

infrastructure, talking about the

US.

I think that illustrates the

difficulty you may have getting

nations to commit to giving money at

this point to Iraq.

It is definitely

one of the big challenge is to have

countries coming back to Iraq and

interesting and helping to rebuild

the country. On the other hand, the

Iraqi people have gone through years

of conflict. The community has been

torn apart. We are the National

committee of the Red Cross, we are

definitely committed to contribute

to long-lasting and hopefully a

peace winning process in Iraq. Now

that is the moment where we need to

engage.

But are you getting a

feeling that people are ready to put

their hands in their pockets, some

lines I was really on social media,

it tells into it, even Kuwaitis

don't want their government to

invest in Iraq. You would avenge and

they would have a stake in it, being

geographically so close.

I think all

of us have a stake in it. For the

Iraqi people, to help them recover,

to have a sustainable approach, to

get back to the origins, to their

homes, to their houses, I think all

the neighbours and the neighbours

beyond have a stake in Iraq and

beyond. This is where we are here to

call for looking maybe, behind the

numbers, we have to look at the

people. We can talk about

infrastructure, the money, but we

also have to talk about the people's

lives, for the children, the next

generation who are today without

schools and houses and toys. That is

where we have to invest today.

Don't forget, you can get much more

detail on our top stories

on our website.

There is full coverage

on our top story -

those crucial talks

in South Africa to decide the fate

of President Jacob Zuma.

Follow the link in the article to go

to the Africa live page to get

all the updates as they happen.

Since the birth of modern

medicine, human life

expectancy has almost doubled.

But living longer often

comes at a cost, both

physically and financially.

Some health care systems

are struggling to treat

ageing populations.

Instead of treating the diseases

of ageing, why not ageing itself?

That's what a small group

of pioneering scientists

have been trying to do.

I watch my step mother died. There

was nothing dignified or beautiful

about that, he forgot who he was

caught not to we were -- my

stepfather. My view is that anyone

who tells you ageing is beautiful

and something to embrace is either

being dishonest with you or

dishonest with themselves. I see no

beauty in it.

It somehow doesn't

make sense, you know, we are

beautifully adapted by natural

selection, everything in our bodies

works fantastically well, and every

system you look at, you kind of

understand its purpose. And then you

look at ageing, and you think what's

that for? What is the purpose of

ageing, why would natural selection

let the adults just fall apart?

Ageing is something all of us, rich

and poor, in developed nations,

developing nations, it is something

all of us face, and it is the single

largest factor that drives human

disease and suffering.

Before about

20 years ago, it was really

generally accepted that there was

nothing you could do about ageing. I

mean, maybe you could exercise, eat

a little better, but that's it. And

there has really been a revolution

in science since that time,

scientists have found that there are

actually genes that control the rate

of ageing, and if you change these

genes, you can really slow down the

rate of ageing and extend life span

a lot.

There is a great community of

scientists right now, who are all

looking at different aspects of

ageing, including telomeres and

mitochondria and protein shake and

many others, and I think that they

are all onto the right way, if you

like, to approach ageing. That

ageing is all of these things, it is

affecting all of the systems in our

body.

We at Unity, while we believe

there are multiple mechanisms of

ageing, we choose to focus on a

particular Makas is that we think is

uniquely amenable -- particular

mechanism to creating drugs to

impact it. It works like this, at

conception you are a single cell,

that's you. Over the arc of your

life, new, the cell, will divide as

many as 50 times. And as you, the

cell, approach 50 cell divisions,

you will encounter some form of

cellular stress, and you will stop

divining forever. This emergency

brake is super important. It is an

anti-cancer system. So you don't

want to mess with the emergency

brake. However, these cells when

they pull the emergency brake, do

something very bad. They begin

making all these molecules that they

secrete, which drive features of

ageing, and no one knew what would

happen if you simply eliminated the

cells. And when we did this,

something astonishing happened.

These mice had a profoundly extended

period of something called health

span. This is the period of time

that these animals live free of

chronic diseases of ageing. They had

increased heart function, they had

increased bone deposition, the head

reduce to arthritis. They had

registered cataract formation. They

even behaved like younger animals

and advanced age. As a side effect

they did live longer but we think

that is the boring part. The really

cool part is that a bunch of these

things that you think of as

inescapable aspect of ageing, they

didn't occur.

So we are at a point

right now where we are seriously

talking, for the first time, and I

have been doing this ageing research

for a long time now, we are talking

for the first time about clinical

trials with drugs that could slow

down the ageing process. That is

something incredibly exciting and

something I didn't really expect to

see in my lifetime.

Think about

this: most biotech products treat a

disease you've never heard of that

someone you do not now suffers from.

Everyone knew now suffers from

ageing. Everyone. -- everyone you

know. Our drugs, you don't take them

everyday, you might them once a

year, and what this means is that

you get to have a market size that

includes all human beings, OK, and

you don't have to make lots of the

drugs. So as a consequence these

could be the cheapest drugs ever

made. Now investors don't really

like to hear that, but when you talk

about the total cost of health care,

and who is ultimately going to pay

for health care, particularly in

nation states that use single-payer,

like the UK, this is a powerful idea

to reduce health care costs.

Normally you don't talk about new

drugs taking costs out. These will

be drugs that take costs out.

To me,

and to most of us in the field, the

ultimate goal is to have a really

healthy life, and a useful life,

where you don't become frail and

unable to function. You stay

physically young for a long time,

you know? And then you pass away.

My

prediction is that people, their

median life span will probably be,

if you are an American white male,

rather than being 79, might be 103.

And many people you know, rather

than dying at aged 83, demented,

catheterised in their bed, muttering

to themselves, they would die at

106, on the tennis court, while

winning. Or killed by a jealous

lover at 113.

Food for thought, right? Very

interesting about ageing. Now a

place with a lot of light.

More than a 1.5 million tourists

have joined Brazilians

at the world's largest carnival

in Rio de Janeiro.

The run-up to this year's event

has been controversial,

the city's mayor was there

for the opening but he's

been under fire for slashing funding

to the top samba schools.

Our South America correspondent

Katy Watson reports

from Rio de Janeiro.

On it anime beach, the crowds danced

in defiance. This street parade was

dedicated to the man many people

hate. Marcello Trotta Vella, the

city's Mayor, a conservative

evangelical who says he is not a fan

of the carnival. That in itself is a

cardinal sin for many Brazilians.

TRANSLATION:

He turns his back on

popular culture, every cultural

activity that does not interest his

church will stop we would put up

with this, we won't let it happen.

Which is why

to some people this is

the time to make a noise. For many,

it is a time to dress up and show

off, or just have fun with loved

ones. And some costumes came with a

deeper message than you think.

TRANSLATION:

I am dressed up as a

clown because the mayor is a liar,

is a joke. Dressing up as a way to

be critical of politics that

Brazilians don't go out on the

street in protest but they should.

They don't know the power they could

have.

Amid a wave of violence in the

city, 17,000 military lease were on

hand. -- military police force top

security concerns, though, were not

stopping the tourists from having

fun.

I am carrying my little old

camera instead of my iPhone, but

yes, otherwise I have felt great

everywhere, no problems.

As long as

you read through all the fluff, it

is a relief great place. And yes, it

is risky, but if you are smart, stay

alert, not alarmed.

While the street

party is true of the crowds, the big

money and the extravagances in the

Sambu room. But there was a big

point when the big samba schools

questioned whether they would get

this far, after the mayor cut their

funding by nearly 50% faster most

found a way round it, but it ruffled

their carnival feathers. Despite the

troubles, the show goes on, and it

is as decadent as ever. Some of the

top performers have not been stopped

from having a little fun and getting

their own breakfast up some of the

samba schools are using Brazil's

dirty politics as a theme of their

parade. Amid all these Buchel and

glitter, carnival has managed to

skilfully address a more serious

side of Brazil too. As the samba

fades out, the politics will get

louder. It is countdown to October,

which will see one of the most

uncertain presidential elections in

decades.

UK-led team of scientists

are about begin an expedition

to explore an ecosystem hidden

for tens-of-thousands of years.

The team is headed for

Antarctica and the Antarctic

Peninsula where a giant iceberg

broke off last year.

This is it in orange.

This is it in orange.

It was 6000 square kilometres.

You can see how it compares

to the city of London,

here in light grey,

at 1500 kilometres.

By calving off it exposed

the seabed underneath it.

That's what team

is hoping to explore.

Our science correspondent

Victoria Gill reports.

A new perspective on a 6,000 square

kilometre swathe of floating ice.

So the iceberg is 150 kilometres

long, 50 kilometres wide,

and will be about 150 metres deep.

You will be able to see the first

20-30 metres above the water,

and everything else is underneath.

The trillion-tonne, A-68 iceberg

is gradually drifting away

from the Antarctic continent

and into the sea.

It's these ice-filled waters

and the sea floor beneath them that

scientists are now eager to explore.

In the British Antarctic Survey

vessel, the James Clark Ross,

a team will spend three weeks

studying the marine life that has

been locked away here for millennia.

They've described it

as a treacherous but urgent mission.

There are likely to be

new species discovered,

as researchers seek out

the creatures that make their home

beneath the vast ice sheet.

We have no idea what's living

underneath these huge ice shelves.

We assume it is animals that

are specially adapted to life

without green food and vegetarian,

so we have a lot of

scavengers and carnivores.

So we expect animals

like in the deep sea,

that doesn't have light as well.

But the team also hopes

to understand the processes that

caused the iceberg to break away.

This could reveal more

about just how this fragile,

frozen wilderness at the bottom

of the world will change

as the climate warms.

Victoria Gill, BBC News.

A new Peter Rabbit film is out.

If you haven't seen it,

here's a taste of it.

Most of us are aware

of the tale of the resourceful

rabbit and his adventures

in Mr McGregor's vegetable garden.

But this film is getting a lot

of unwanted attention.

That's because of this scene.

When a group of rabbits pelt

Mr McGregor's nephew -

allergy sufferer -

with the berries he's allergic to.

Here's one reaction.

From the New York Times.

"I was really afraid about the one

part where they shot

the blackberries,"

said Brayden Drey, 7,

who has severe allergies.

"I was upset because he had

to use his EpiPen."

That counteracts allergic reactions.

Well, Sony Pictures

and the filmmakers have apologised.

In a statement, they said...

Dr Pooja Newman started a petition

to Sony Pictures for that apology.

She spoke to the BBC earlier.

To give blatant deliberate harm to

another human being known to have a

food allergy is something that

should not be depicted in children's

movies. The food allergy, the

leading and deliberate intentional

harm to another person who has a

life-threatening condition, which is

a disability and a restriction on

their lifestyle is something that

absolutely should have the

spotlight, and Peter Rabbit the

movie has done that, and we have a

unified voice of people that

collectively want to stamp out this

practice. Amongst our children, and

in a society at large. I don't think

slapstick comedy really cut it in a

kids movie, and to be actually

showing such footage to children,

where children are the most at risk

of a life ending we action from

accidental or deliberate exposure to

an allergen that they have serious

allergic reactions to, it actually

shows the ignorance in our worldwide

community for the suffering, the

struggle and the anguish that people

with anaphylaxis and their loved

ones go through on a daily basis.

And it has absolutely disregard and

disrespect for the people that have

lost their lives.

I want to update

you on this story now, we have been

following it throughout the hour.

Leaders have said Africa Posavec

governing ANC Patiala meeting to

decide the future of President Jacob

Zuma. A couple of lines coming in

from the South African broadcasting

Corporation. The ANC leader Cyril

Ramaphosa has left the ANC national

exit meeting to inform President

Zuma the party decision. And it is

that the ANC gave President Jacob

Zuma 48 hours to resign as head of

state on Monday, after an eight hour

meeting of the party's top leaders.

I leave you with those headlines on

Outside Source.