13/02/2018 Outside Source

Hello.

This is Outside Source.

America's top intelligence agencies

have been laying out

the threats to the US -

we'll look at the list

and focus on the top

threat they've all named -

Russia.

There should be no doubt

that Russia perceived

that its past efforts

as

successful, and views the 2018

mid-term elections as a potential

target for Russian

influence operations.

Jacob Zuma's own party, the ANC,

tells the South African president

to step down urgently.

We're expecting to hear from him

early tomorrow morning.

A Malaysian newspaper

publishes their checklist

on how to spot gay people.

Activists are angry and say lives

are being put at risk.

If you want to get in touch with us,

the hashtag is #BBCOS.

The top six officials in America's

intelligence services have been

sitting before Senators -

delivering a sobering

assessment of the threats

they say the US faces.

Here's the list:

North Korea's nuclear programme

poses what the US Director

of National Intelligence calls

an "existential threat"

to the United States.

They said China is trying to access

sensitive US technologies

and intellectual property.

But it was Russia that

they all agreed on -

they were unanimous in saying that

Russian attempts to meddle in US

politics were continuing.

Here's Dan Coats on that threat.

Frankly, the United States is under

attack, under attack by entities

that are using cyber to penetrate

virtually

that are using cyber to penetrate

virtually every major action that

takes place in the United States,

persistent and disruptive cyber

operations will continue against the

United States and our European

allies, using elections as

opportunities to undermine

democracy, sowed discord, and

undermine our values.

My colleague Katty Kay was following

this briefing in Washington -

here's how she viewed this briefing.

So there you had it, three hours

long, repeated questions about

Russia, and at one point all of

these six directors, these six white

guys, sitting up there,

they were asked, do you think this

is an ongoing problem?

And each one said, yes,

this is an ongoing problem.

They were also asked

about the President's attitude

to this, and why doesn't

the President come out and say

this is an ongoing problem?

I've just interviewed

Leon Panetta, who was

director of the CIA

under President Obama.

He said that President Trump should

listen to those intelligence

chiefs, that this is a real threat

to American democracy, and that's

chiefs, that this is a real threat

to American democracy, and that

not enough is being

done to address it.

Katty, let's just listen

in to a bit of that interview

you did with the former CIA

director, Leon Panetta, saying how

the president does need to listen.

The president of the United States

needs to listen to his

intelligence chiefs.

They are the ones who testified

today, and they made very

clear that the Russians

are going to attack our election

institutions in this country.

That is a serious issue

that the president of

the United States needs to address.

Katty, how worried are they about

the forthcoming mid-term elections?

Yeah, well, there are already

reports that the Russians are

already meddling.

I've spoken to a couple

of politicians, actually both

from the Republican

and the Democratic side,

who are telling people

who are

running for office, listen, just

because you think you are in a small

state-wide election, nobody has ever

heard of your district,

don't think that makes

you are immune from

Russian meddling or interference.

It's extraordinary to think that it

could go down to that really local

level, but everybody seems to be

convinced that the Russians are

continuing to get involved

in American democratic processes,

perhaps even in the machinery that

does the election processes and the

voting, and the intelligence

agencies so far aren't managing to

do enough and that the social media

companies are not so far regulated

in a way that can prevent this.

Katty, we heard that list

of threats from these six.

I mean, hasn't the US always faced

multiple threats, or

are we really into

different times now?

Of course, this kind

of briefing happens under all

administrations.

This is their chance to see these

are the things we are facing. One

thing that struck me about this

hearing, it lasted for three hours,

and nearly the entire focus was on

North Korea, Russia, as you heard,

and there was quite a lot of talk

about China. There was very little

talk actually about so-called

Islamic State and the threat of

global terrorism. In the United

States at least that is being

perceived as of a lesser threat now

and we know that because the

department of defence put out their

new policies and that is to focus on

the emerging threats of Russia and

China and less so on Islamic

terrorism.

Thank you, Katty Kay.

Israeli police are recommending

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's

indictment for bribery,

fraud and breach of public trust

following long-running

investigations into two cases

of alleged corruption.

James Reynolds took us

through the charges.

They related to two separate

cases that the police

have been investigating.

The first, the police have been

checking whether or not Mr Netanyahu

received lavish gifts in exchange

for offering wealthy

friends special treatment.

And the second involves allegations

that Mr Netanyahu tried to do a deal

with the publisher of a major

Israeli newspaper for favourable

coverage, and in exchange

would curtail the circulation

of a rival paper.

Those are the two separate cases.

There appear to be similar

recommendations from the police.

They say that Mr Netanyahu,

they recommend he faces

charges in both cases.

Fraud, breach of trust, bribery,

and the most important

thing to say is this.

The most important

step is yet to come.

The files now get handed

to Israel's Attorney General,

and it is up to the Attorney General

to decide whether or not to indict

or whether or not to do nothing,

and that decision is expected

to take at least several months.

James, how long has

Benjamin Netanyahu's legal

wars been going on for?

Several years in this case.

The police have interviewed more

than 100 witnesses and the have even

interviewed witnesses from abroad

as well to build up a picture

of his activities in the last

couple of years as relates

these particular cases.

He has known that this

investigation has been going on.

Israelis have known as well,

and sore throated you see a running

commentary by Mr Netanyahu

essentially saying what he has said

tonight, that the charges,

the recommended charges,

the accusations against him,

are baseless, and he will continue

to lead the country.

The recommendation of charges

against a weakened Prime Minister,

a weak Prime Minister,

would be a bit of a death blow,

but Mr Netanyahu still

dominates Israeli politics.

James Reynolds.

Well, the world's been watching

South Africa very closely lately,

but Jacob Zuma is still president -

even though he's officially been

asked to resign for the sake

of the country.

Earlier, in Pretoria -

the governing party,

the ANC announced that its executive

had told Zuma to go

as soon as possible.

The party is clear

about what it wants -

this was said in

the news conference.

The collective of the ANC believe

that indeed President Cyril

Ramaphosa must take over the

presidency. You can't then have

another president who is still

president of the ANC.

Jacob Zuma is expected to respond

to that by Wednesday -

and we're hearing he'll hold a news

conference at 8 GMT tomorrow -

that's 10am local South African

time, but remember -

he's under no legal

obligation to step down

as President - yet, and so far,

says he'll resign in 3 to 6 months -

which isn't what his party wants.

This is the man waiting

in the wings, ready to take

the job of president -

the party's leader, Cyril Ramaphosa.

Our Africa editor Fergal Keane

is following the developments

from Johannesburg.

Well, we're going to

know tomorrow morning.

It's been disclosed here that he

will meet the top six leaders

of the African National Congress,

including the man who would be his

political nemesis, Cyril Ramaphosa,

the organisation's president,

and at that point he

will give his response.

What we do know up until now

is he is saying he will not resign.

If the ANC wants to force him

from office they are

going to have to do that.

He can fight if he wishes,

but this is only going one way.

The question is, does

his clinging on split

the African National Congress?

After car's oldest liberation

movements

After car's oldest liberation

movements. He still has a

substantial degree of support in the

party. The question is over the last

month since Cyril Ramaphosa have

taken over enough people have seen

the way the wind is blowing and will

now why not behind Cyril Ramaphosa,

and critically if it gets to a

motion of no-confidence in the

parliament, will they decide they

can vote along with opposition MPs

to remove Jacob Zuma office?

to remove Jacob Zuma from office?

The foreign minister

of the Netherlands, Halbe Zijlstra

has resigned after admitting

to lying about meeting

Russian President Vladimir Putin

at his dacha in 2006.

He claimed that he overheard

the Russian president talking

about expansionist ambitions

whereby Putin defined

"Greater Russia" as "Russia,

Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic

states", which are Estonia,

Lithuania and Latvia.

But doubts emerged about the story

and he later admitted to lying

about meeting Putin,

in order to protect his source.

He said, "The manner in

which I wanted to protect my source

and underscore my message

about Russia was not sensible,

that is crystal clear."

And today, in an emotional speech

to Parliament, he resigned.

TRANSLATION:

So as not to burden the

position of the Minister of foreign

affairs I see no other option now

than to offer my resignation today

to His Majesty, the King.

I do this with regret in my heart.

But in the full conviction that the

Netherlands deserves a minister of

foreign affairs who is above any

form of doubt.

Hugging the Dutch

Prime Minister there.

Anna Holligan has more

on the reaction to these events.

An extraordinary story indeed. On

Monday we heard from the Dutch

Foreign Minister, admitting he had

lied about this meeting with

President Putin back in 2006, in

which he had claimed the Russian

president had outlined his plans for

a greater Russia, which were said to

include the Baltic states, Ukraine,

bezel -- Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Today Halbe Zijlstra apologised and

he said the Netherlands describes a

Foreign Minister who was beyond

reproach, and it had been the

biggest mistake of his political

career. Initially the Dutch Prime

Minister Mark Rutte had stuck by his

man, saying that although he

shouldn't have claimed to have been

somewhere he was the crux of his

comments were true. And then a

former Shell executive e-mailed a

Dutch newspaper to say he had been

at the meeting, which Halbe Zijlstra

had not attended, and that actually

these comments were made in an

historical context. Halbe Zijlstra

was supposed to be travelling to

Moscow this week to meet his Russian

counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, to

discuss amongst other things the

downing of flight MH17 which left

298 people dead, but his position

despite his attempts to hang on by

the political skin of his teeth

clearly has become untenable and

that is why we have now see them

stand down as the Netherlands

Foreign Minister.

Thank you.

Stay with us on Outside Source -

still to come...

Waging a war on waste -

we'll take a look at how companies

are helping clean up the oceans

by cutting down on plastics.

In Liverpool today the former

football coach Barry Bennell was

found guilty of sex offences against

young boys in the 1980s. The

64-year-old denied 40 charges of

abusing boys in his care while

coaching at major football clubs.

Ben Ando was in court.

This

afternoon the jury started returning

verdicts. Of the 48 counts they were

asked to consider they found him

guilty of 36 charges, involving ten

different victims, boys aged 8-14 at

the time of the abuse that took

place in the 1980s.

There are legal restrictions on what

we can report today.

You're watching Outside Source. The

s... -- the headlines.

America's intelligence agencies have

said that Russia has never stopped

trying to meddle in US politics,

and is a threat to November's

mid-term elections.

A 17-year-old Palestinian girl

who was charged with assault

after a video went viral

showing her hitting two Israeli

soldiers has gone on trial

in a military court.

Ahed Tamimi arrived for her hearing

with her hands and feet shackled.

Proceedings got under way

behind closed doors,

as she is being tried as a minor.

Yesterday we told you about cyclone

Gita heading for Tonga.

Well, now rescue teams

in the Pacific island

state are assessing

the extent of the damage after it

hit the capital, Nuku'alofa.

Many buildings were destroyed,

including a Catholic church

and the main parliament building.

Thousands of Tongans

are in evacuation centres.

And a lot of people have been

reading about a man smuggling

cocaine in fake buttocks.

He was detained in Lisbon's

International Airport after landing

with on a flight from Brazil.

He is accused of carrying 1 kilo

of drugs - enough to make 5,000

individual doses of cocaine.

Yesterday we told you about

the a refugee crisis in Uganda.

It's caused by ethnic clashes

in the Democratic Republic of Congo

that have forced thousands

to flee the country.

People have been crossing

Lake Albert which sits

here on the border with Uganda

after attacks intensified

here in Ituri over the past week.

There are fears of a return

to massacres witnessed in the area

almost 20 years ago,

when tens of thousands were killed

in ethnic clashes in DR Congo.

Anne Soy is at Lake Albert.

The scale of the emergency is clear.

There are more than 16,000 people

who have been waiting here for

registration. Some have been

standing the whole day. It is a slow

process. The humanitarian

organisations say they were not

prepared to handle the kind of

numbers coming, and more people are

still crossing over from the

Democratic Republic of Congo, some

using canoes and boats across Lake

Albert to the Ugandan side. The

eastern side, where they come from

particularly, is deeply troubled and

has been for many years, with

different conflicts happening across

the region. The region is mineral

rich and therefore is important not

only for the Democratic Republic of

Congo, but also this region, the

Eastern African region, and the

interests there, so it is a complex

situation and these people have

found themselves in the midst of

something they say they don't

understand. We ask why they are

here, and they say they have been

attacked but they do not know why

and they do not understand what the

trigger of those attacks was.

Anne

Soy reporting from Uganda.

The United States is set to become

the world's leading oil producer

at some point next year.

That's according to

the International Energy Agency

which says the fracking boom

could lead to the world's

biggest economy overtaking

Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Joe Miller joins us

now from New York.

Hello, Joe. What is fuelling

America's rise as an energy giant?

Put simply, it is economics. Just a

few years ago when oil prices

started to slump because global

demand weakened, it looked like the

American fracking industry, based

mainly in Texas and New Mexico, it

looked to be on its last legs

because it could no longer be

profitable. What has happened since

is they have just got more

efficient, a lot of cost-cutting

measures and a lot of fracking sites

have come back online, and this has

led to a huge increase in supply, so

quite good news I suppose for

America, and we saw a shipment of

oil from the US to the UAE, the

Middle East, topsy-turvy energy

market these days, but what is not

so good is the supply is higher than

the demands of their is still quite

a lot of pressure on energy prices,

oil prices.

I wonder if Donald

Trump's attitude to fossil fuels

which we have heard so much about

over recent months is having an

impact on this?

Well, he certainly

hasn't hindered it. He has relaxed

some of the regulations are planned

to relax some of the regulations

around fracking but what happened

here is really an economic story,

about cost-cutting, and it was

happening before Donald Trump came

into office and it has continued

after he has done so. I doubt that

will perhaps stop him and other

members of his administration is

taking credit, that remains to be

seen, but really what is happening

here is a story in Texas and New

Mexico with new hydraulic techniques

for fracking that brings down the

cost a lot. -- brings the cost down

dramatically.

What impact could this

have on the cost of oil around the

globe?

It is not good for the cost

around the globe because, put

simply, the more oil there is, the

more downward pressure on the price,

and it also means that the oil

cartel Opec and basically most of

the oil producing countries outside

of the USA, they have been trying to

boost the price by pushing down

supply, restricting supply, and

because there is all of this shale

oil out of the US, their efforts are

essentially not working, so it

really means the mechanisms to

control prices other countries have,

they are failing, and the US really

is in the driving seat now, so it

could have quite an effect, quite a

pressurising effect on oil prices.

It remains to be seen of course and

it is all down to how quickly the

world economy grows.

Joe, thank you

very much, from New York.

Plastic is one of the world's

favourite packaging materials.

It's cheap and efficient

for transporting goods.

But only a fraction

of it is recycled.

Vivienne Nunis reports

now on the demand for

greener alternatives.

At least 8 million tonnes of plastic

ends up in the ocean each year. One

of the biggest culprits is the

consumer goods industry. The plastic

packaging is often used just once

before being thrown away.

A tenth of

the plastics in the world is

actually recycled so that leaves 90%

either buried, burned or lost into

the environment.

Now, and number of

companies are trying to stem the

tide.

British firm Recycling Technologies

thinks this machine can be a game

changer. It takes difficult items

like food wrappers, toothpaste

tubes, coffee cups and bin liners,

at very high temperatures, and

breaks down the plastic to its raw

material. And at the end of the

process you get something like this,

and oil that can be sold back to

petrochemical companies to be made

back into plastic once again. Many

plastics and currently only be

recycled ones. This company, which

makes household cleaning products,

once its bottles to be recycled

again and again.

The more

sustainable system we can have on

plastic usage, so everyone use

transparent bottles, because then

all bottles could be recycled back

and any bottle could be used to be

recycled into any other bottle.

As

more companies look for ways to

tackle the problem of plastic waste,

costs will come down. Vivienne

Nunis, BBC News.

A Malaysian newspaper has a check

list on how to spot gay people.

Remember, homosexuality

is illegal in Malaysia.

The article's in Malay

in the Sinar Harian daily newspaper,

but we've translated a bit of it.

It says gay men like to wear tight

clothes to show off their six packs,

have adoptive brothers and adore

beards, moustaches

and branded clothes.

It goes on to say lesbians hate men

and enjoy belittilng them,

love to spend time alone,

and enjoy hugging and holding hands.

It's prompted a backlash

from LGBT groups.

Arwind Kumar is an activist and one

of Malaysia's biggest

social media stars -

he posted this video on YouTube.

There are much more important issues

in this country to be addressed in

this is not one of them. Explain to

them up or molester, a kidnapper, a

murderer, those people who are in of

another. How the hell does a gay

person endanger your life? If you

really want to help this society...

Probably with this article that

could have saved many lives, but

this article will only take away

lives, and if that is what you are

happy doing because you want less

gay people in this country, good job

for you!

I spoke with Boris Dittrich,

Director of the LGBT programme

with the Human Rights Watch,

Berlin - here's his

reaction to the article.

The words that come to mind are

stupidity, ignorance, prejudice, and

possibly dangerous. Because as you

said in the introduction Malaysia is

a country where homosexual conduct

is criminalised and were for

instance cross-dressing is illegal,

many transgender where men are

arrested, for instance, and there is

public hostility towards LGBT

people, so when a newspaper runs a

story like this, so stupid, it could

also maybe incite people to become

aggressive and, you know, try to

target LGBT people.

As well as

offensive, this article is

potentially dangerous?

Yes, because there is so much

ignorance in Malaysia about what it

means to be homosexual, and that is

because, for instance, the media,

and the mainstream newspapers, they

are government controlled. They

never write anything balanced about

homosexuality. They don't provide

honest information. Usually when

there is something about LGBT

people, it is quite scandalous, and

so the general public doesn't know a

lot of facts about LGBT people and

so when such an article is being

published many people might believe

it, so what I think, and what Human

Rights Watch thinks is imported,

sexual education should be taught in

schools so young people will learn

about sexuality, including

homosexuality.

One brief final

question. Do you think this article

and the furore that has accompanied

it, at least outside of Malaysia,

has done anything to open up the

question about homosexuality in

Malaysia?

Well, because the media

are government controlled there will

be some smaller news outlets, yes,

that will pay attention to this, but

I'm afraid that the general public

that reads the Sinar Harian in the

Malay language will not be included

in this public discussion, but

that's why Human Rights Watch

publishes reports about

discrimination of LGBT people, and

hopefully those reports will lead to

a public discussion.

That was Boris

Dittrich of Human Rights Watch. Lets

tell you what is coming up.

The top spy chiefs all lined up

talking to the Senate committee, and

we will be talking about the threat

that they see as opposed to the

United States by North Korea. Stay

with us. We will be back in a few

minutes.

with us. We will be back in a few

minutes. Hello. A relatively quiet

weather story at the moment, but

that said there are two storms to

point out. One is moving away from

the southern Philippines, and this

is starting to weaken as it moves

across cool waters. Further south

and east, this was tropical cyclone

Gita, quite a significant storm

particularly for the island of

Tonga, the biggest they had seen in

70 years. Power lines down, it

completely demolish the parliament

building with significant disruption

across the capital of the island. We

saw sustained winds of 160 mph

gusts, well in excess of that, then

it moved across the islands of Fiji,

but it continues to track in a

westerly direction and continues to

weaken all the time so we are not

concerned about that. It looks like

it will continue to decay. Across to

Australia we will need to keep a

close eye on the Northern

Territories, cluster of showers may

develop into a storm. We are seeing

her frontal system moving away from

Tasmania towards New Zealand.

Elsewhere, heat building but a

relatively quiet story. We can see

this in the five day forecast.

Herath will see some beautiful

weather with temperatures perhaps

into the low 30s. Moving away from

Australia, we have been looking

quite a lot at parts of Korea, all

due to the winter Olympics, and the

winds have been a feature, but I

suspect over the next days the winds

will start to ease slightly and it

will stay dry. Dry weather across

much of China. It looks like this

continues to track and a westerly

direction and may well interact with

Vietnam over the next few days, but

by then not a storm, just bringing

some enhanced rainfall. A good deal

of dry weather in the five-day city

forecasts. It looks like Bangkok

will see some beautiful blue sky and

sunshine through the middle part of

the week. North America stays quite

quiet as well, a southerly breeze

starting to introduce something a

little less cold and some sharp

showers moving out of Texas towards

Tennessee. A weather front end from

the Pacific north-west, snow on the

leading edge of a few scattered

showers perhaps likely in the

southern half of California. That

front in British Columbia may well

bring greater Seattle in the next

few days, and elsewhere it is quite

a quite unsettled story to come. But

certainly not across Europe at the

moment. One storm moving through the

Black Sea and another bringing heavy

rain, strong winds and some rain

across central and southern Italy.

Strong to gale force gusts of wind

and snow with the leading edge of

Scotland moving through France and

over into the Pyrenees. Here it will

stay pretty unsettled but it is a

south-westerly wind so it is

introducing something a little less

cold. Take care.

Hello, I'm Karin Giannone,

this is Outside Source,

and these are the main stories

here in the BBC Newsroom.

America's top intelligence agencies

have been laying out

the threats to the US.

We'll look at the list

and focus on the top

threat they've all named,

Russia.

There should be no doubt Russia

perceives that its past efforts were

successful and will use the 2008 in

US mid-term elections as a potential

target for Russian influence

operations.

Jacob Zuma's own party, the ANC,

tells the South African president

to step down urgently.

We're expecting to hear from him

early tomorrow morning.

Every day, Outside Source features

BBC journalists working

in over 30 languages.

Your questions are always welcome.

#BBCOS is the hashtag.

We started this hour covering

the heads of the US intelligence

services and their concerns

about Russian meddling.

Now I want to turn to

what they said about North Korea.

The CIA Director Mike Pompeo says

North Korea poses a nuclear threat

to the United States.

Here's what he had to say.

Our analysts remain concerned

that Kim Jong-Un is not

hearing the full story,

that is, that those around him

aren't providing nuance,

aren't suggesting to him the tenuous

nature of his position, both

internationally and domestically.

I can bring in Barbara Plett Usher,

our State Department correspondent.

Barbara, we've been focusing a lot

lately on the thawing relations

between North and South Korea

on the sidelines of

the Winter Olympics.

At these intelligence chiefs still

see North Korea as a very real

threat? -- but these.

Yes, they do,

for several reasons, first, North

Korea's determination to be able to

carry out a nuclear attack on the US

and the other is its ability to do

so and those increasingly

sophisticated missile tests we saw

last year showed it was getting

closer and closer to that

capability, to be measured in

months, not years, probably. Also,

the intelligence agencies assessed

that Kim Jong-un is not about to

negotiate away his nuclear weapons

which is what the US is demanding

because he sees it as crucial to the

survival of the regime. You have

defrosting on the Korean peninsula,

diplomacy between North and South

Korea and in the face of the success

of that so far, the US has endorsed

a deeper in gauge went after the

Olympics with the possibility of

talks with the US perhaps come that

is what we had Rex Tillerson and

Mike Pence talking about. But I

think the intelligence agencies are

focusing much more on the chance of

another missile test rather than the

chance of a diplomatic breakthrough.

On the role of the US in this, where

does the thaw, however temporary or

permanent, between North and South

Korea, leave the US?

It is

interesting, isn't it? The US

position has been one of maximum

pressure which means to sanction

North Korea and isolate it, to try

to get it to the negotiating table,

ready to talk about

denuclearisation, whereas instead of

being isolated, it has great

publicity from coming out to the

Olympics with Kim Jong-un's sister,

with the cheerleaders and the

athletes and it has painted a

picture that is hard to go against

in public relations terms. Where it

leaves the US if they have had a

chat with South Korea who have

convinced them that even if they are

talking to North Korea, they won't

give them anything. They won't ease

sanctions or give investment or aid

unless North Korea comes up with

some goods on denuclearisation and

on the basis of that, the US says,

OK, those talks should be able to go

ahead and maybe we will even talk

although we are going to keep

sanctions on as tightly as ever

until we see some results from it.

It has put the US on the back foot a

bit.

Now, I want to follow up on a story

we brought you yesterday,

the Iraq reconstruction

meetings in Kuwait.

The US Secretary of State Rex

Tillerson is there - have a listen.

The enduring defeat of Isis in Iraq

and Syria means all members

of the coalition must support

and sustain the post-Isis

stabilisation efforts.

This means continuing to provide

essential aid and services

to communities which are only now

starting to rebuild.

What is the US actually committing

in order to assist Iraq moving

forward?

Not reconstruction, we have

heard again and again that the

administration does not do

nation-building. It is trying to

encourage Iraq's neighbours,

especially Arab countries in the

Gulf, to come forward with

reconstruction assistance and

especially the private sector. It

has some US companies participating

in this conference, the US

import-export bank has just signed a

$3 billion memo with the finance

ministry saying they will provide

financing to facilitate such

projects. Still quite a big ask for

the private sector to invest in this

kind of climate with security risks

and corruption risks but the US

government says it is focusing its

money on humanitarian aid and also

on what it calls stabilisation, the

areas where Isis has been defeated,

preparing them for people to return

back, like basic services and that

kind of thing. Rex Tillerson said

the US would supply some $200

million extra to Syria for the

stabilisation process.

Thank you for

joining us. Barbara Plett Usher in

Washington.

Well, let's look at North Korea

from their neighbours' perspetive.

That relationship is improving.

North Korea's state media said that

leader Kim Jong-un is delighted

with the outcome of his country's

attendance at the Games.

Accompanying the report was this

unusually relaxed picture of Mr Kim

with his delegation that had just

spent three days in South Korea.

You can see here his sister

Kim Yo-jong and to the left

the North's ceremonial head

of state, Kim Yong-nam.

Both are linking arms

with him and Kim Yong-nam

is practically holding his hand.

The report also says Mr Kim thanks

the South for "specially

prioritising" the North's attendance

at the Games and gave instructions

on how to "liven up the warm climate

of reconciliation and dialogue."

The question is whether this charm

offensive is working

beyond the two Koreas.

Today the South Korean President

President Moon Jae-in said the US

is open to talking with the North.

Laura Bicker is at the Winter

Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Over two months ago,

Kim Jong-un fired his last missile,

and here we are as the two sides

exchanged warm words.

The state media reported

that the North Korean

leader described the way

that the South Korean government

treated his sister and other

North Korean delegates as very

impressive, as sincere.

He also went on to say

that they provided a warm climate

for further dialogue

and further unification.

Now when it comes to that wish,

he has already invited

the South Korean president,

Moon Jae-in, to visit Pyongyang.

That is something that he will have

to mull over and will have to decide

what kind of conditions he will put

on that visit.

Meanwhile, President Moon Jae-in has

confirmed that the US is open

to talks with North Korea.

That is a significant

development and a significant

diplomatic breakthrough

for President Moon Jae-in,

because there had been this wedge

between the US and South Korea.

South Korea wants to pursue a twin

approach to North Korea.

It wants to pursue this approach

of maximum pressure and sanctions

but it also wants to engage

with the North, to talk to them.

At the start of Mike Pence's visit

here during the Winter Olympics,

it seemed that was not something

the US was willing to do.

It now seems that they are at least

willing to talk about talks.

There's a huge hurdle in the way,

though, and that is North Korea's

nuclear programme.

So far, the North has refused to put

that on the table and that will be

something that is difficult

for the international community

to come to terms with.

However, if you look at critics,

people who believe, some people

believe that President Moon Jae-in

is on the wrong track,

that he has given Pyongyang

a propaganda platform at these

Olympics.

The Japanese Foreign Minister

has even described his

approach as naive.

Others, however, believe that he may

be on the brink of something,

including enabling talks

between the US and North Korea,

and that is something that he has

been looking for since he came

to power eight months ago.

Let's get back to this picture

released by the North

Korea's state media.

There have been previous photos

showing affection between members

of the Kim family and even senior

North Korean officials.

This latest photograph

is reminiscent of this old photo

from the 1970s showing Mr Kim's

aunt, Kim Kyong-hui,

with her arm around Kim Il-Sung.

That's Kim Jong-Il on the right.

In this picture, a girl is shown

overwhelmed with emotion

as she holds the arm

of the then-leader Kim Jong-Il.

Kim Jong-un has also held the arms

or hands of elder senior officials

and even civilians before.

These fruit farmers are seen locking

their arms with Kim Jong-un's.

And last year Mr Kim was even

pictured giving an official

a piggyback to celebrate what state

media said was the successful

test of a rocket engine.

Don't forget you can get much

more detail on our top

stories on our website.

It's no secret that jihadi groups

use the internet to recruit.

Their successes in cyberspace have

sucked in many young fighters.

Many of them have left their homes,

even here in Britain,

for bloody wars in Syria and Iraq.

Some are drawn by the grim

videos posted by this

group, the Islamic State.

They're the sort of propaganda

videos that governments are trying

to catch before they enter

the online world.

Well today, the UK unveiled a tool

which it says can do just that -

detect this type of content

and remove it instantly.

It's been tested on thousands

of hours of videos posted

by the Islamic State -

successfully detecting up

to 94% of videos posted,

with almost total accuracy.

It works in the upload process,

so the video is stopped before

reaching the internet.

Research suggests Islamic State used

up to 400 different websites

for propaganda last year.

The challenge now is

predicting which areas

of the internet terror

groups could use next.

Amal Rajan reports.

Militaristic, cinematic and often

shot with high-level production

values, these propaganda videos

for the so-called Islamic State

espouse terror and hatred.

They're also easy to find

on the internet right now.

What we have here are two videos,

one of which is extremist content,

the other which is perfectly

legitimate news coverage.

Now an artificial intelligence firm

in London has used Home Office money

to target such extremist content.

The creators claim the technology,

which is obviously secret,

can spot 94% of IS content online

with an accuracy of 99.995%.

The technology distinguishes

between news and extremism and flags

up examples such as the one

on the right, with a high

probability of being extremist

content, to be vetted by a human.

What we are looking to do is to try

and remove this content

from the public web.

If it requires somebody to have ten

passwords and an incredibly

complicated Tor browser before

they can get access to content,

we see that as a win.

It means that it can't just be

shared between friends on, like,

their mobile phones.

While attention is focused

on big firms like Twitter,

Google and Facebook,

crucially, this technology

will benefit smaller platforms,

who will have free use of it.

Islamic State supporters used over

400 unique platforms last year,

145 of them for the first time.

Like other forms of modern media,

terrorist propaganda

has now shifted online.

What's so striking about this

new tool is both that it's funded

by Government rather than technology

firms, and that it's powered

by artificial intelligence.

In other words, it's an admission

that machines rather than manpower

will be most effective at finding

and removing extremist

material online.

One former jihadist who now works

in counter-radicalisation argues

that terrorists will always

adapt their methods to find

new audiences, and the platforms

need to be willing to take action.

The big players in this area

are taking a lot of action,

but we've found that it's

the smaller companies who aren't

necessarily prepared to play

ball with Government,

sometimes because they're

suspicious of government,

sometimes because they simply don't

regard it as being part

of their business model.

It's not yet clear how widely

the technology will be taken up,

but the Government says its instinct

is to collaborate with industry.

We're not going to rule out

taking legislative action

if we need to do it,

but I remain convinced that the best

way to take real action

to have the best outcomes

is to have an industry-led form

like the one we've got.

Your algorithms are doing that

grooming and that radicalisation.

It's a war of attrition,

but the chair of the Home Affairs

Select Committee says the onus

is still on the biggest

digital companies.

I think it's imperative on the tech

giants, on all of these companies

to do more to operate swiftly

to remove illegal material.

If they don't, there has to be

some form of penalty

on them for not doing this,

because in the end, this

is about illegal material.

It's important to be

realistic about the costs

and consequences of the open web.

While technology and Government

pressure can reduce harm,

the fight against digital extremism

is a war without end.

Amol Rajan, BBC News.

Nakita Malik is the Director

of the Centre for the Response

to Radicalisation and Terrorism.

Let's hear her views

on this new tool.

I don't think it is a game changer

but I do think it is a step in the

right direction. We have to remember

that nothing beats human

intelligence so although the

software is very good in spotting

trends, what we have already begun

to see when we analyse Islamists and

far right propaganda, which we do on

a regular basis at my organisation,

is the Islamists and the jihadists

and extremists are always one step

ahead of the technology already,

they know how to skirt policy

guidelines, to make sure that they

are using certain language or

symbolism that only the insiders of

their group can understand. The

software is good at removing perhaps

the bulk of the material but the

real nuance and the trends and how

this will change remains to be seen

and we also have to remember that

the Islamic State is just one group

which was found through a foundation

of Islamist ideology, starting with

Al-Qaeda, with the Taliban and now

what we see with Islamic State. We

really have to look at the bigger

picture, although it is a step in

the right direction. I don't know

the details of the software but from

what I can understand, it is quite

similar to the way that, say, child

pornography details are seen on the

Internet, how visuals and videos can

be removed in that way so yes, it is

useful and in the past we have seen

unsuspecting smaller websites like

Etsy hosting Islamist material

completely by accident and not

knowing what to do about it so it is

good having said that, however, the

search engines still posed a lots of

handbooks, they host poison manuals,

they housed a lot of disturbing

material which we interact with and

flag up to be social media providers

on a daily basis. So I'd really like

to see changes in that and also in

legislation. We have yet to see what

exactly the government means by

extremism.

The threat of terrorism has hit

the tourist industy in a number

of countries on the continent.

Not least Tunisia, where in 2015,

38 people were shot

dead at a beach resort.

And today, for the first time

since that incident,

a British tour company,

Thomas Cook, is taking tourists

back to the country.

Frank Gardner reports

on the measures that Tunisia has

taken to ensure security.

Tunis by night, and a National Guard

unit prepares to raid

a suspected terrorist hideout.

Since two devastating attacks

in 2015, this country has vowed

to stamp out terrorism and make

Tunisia safe for tourists.

Well, they've just gone

into a house here.

We can hear some shouts.

We're in a tiny little backstreet,

and they're looking for members

of an Isis cell that has been

in Libya, they suspect, so the whole

street is flooded with these armed

National Guard soldiers.

Three years ago, on this beach

near Sousse, an Isis gunman

shot dead 38 people,

30 of them British.

Now, Tunisia is getting training

from Royal Navy instructors

in maritime security,

while Met Police detectives have

been training up hotel staff.

At four key airports,

British aviation experts have

installed new screening equipment.

In this resort town, where Thomas

Cook is taking the first returning

British tourists, I asked the hotel

manager what precautions he is

taking.

We have around 60 cameras

all around the hotel.

The exterior cameras

are all monitored 24 hours

by persons behind the screens.

But Tunisia sits in

a dangerous neighbourhood.

Across this border, Libya

is in chaos, and Isis has bases.

The Manchester bomber trained in

Libya, and so did the Sousse gunman.

Back in the capital Tunis,

the night raid yields results.

Suspects are arrested

and will now face trial.

Tunisia has made huge

progress against terrorism,

but if its tourist industry

is to recover fully,

it will need to stay vigilant.

Frank Gardner, BBC News, Tunisia.

The funeral of prominent

Pakistani human rights

activist and lawyer,

Asma Jahangir, has

been held in Lahore.

Senior government officials

and members of the legal

profession were among

the mourners who attended.

Ms Jahangir - who died on Sunday -

campaigned for women's rights

throughout her career.

BBC Urdu's Henna Saeed

was there and sent us this report.

Hundreds of people came out

here at the Gaddafi Stadium

in Lahore today to pay tribute

to the prominent human rights

activist and lawyer Asma Jahangir.

Asma had a great fan

following in Pakistan,

especially with women,

because she was a voice for women

who were suppressed here.

She fought for the rights of women,

and got them justice.

A large number of such women,

her friends, family, co-workers,

they all came to her house today

to see her for the very last time,

then they formed groups

and came here as they walked

to the stadium in Lahore

where they offered

the final funeral prayers.

For the first time in Pakistan,

men and women stood side by side

in the funeral prayers.

Never has this country seen

this scenario, and this

is what Asma Jahangir wanted

in her life, to see men

and women stand by together.

Asma's last wish has been granted,

although there were voices

from across Pakistan that she should

be given a state funeral,

but nothing was finalised in that,

and now she has been laid to rest

in Bedian graveyard.

Henna Saeed, BBC News, Pakistan.

Let's bring you a story

from Australia now, which is marking

ten years since it said sorry

to its indigenous people

for the wrongs of the past.

This is what the former

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said

to parliament back in 2008.

The pain, suffering and hurt of

these stolen generations, their

descendants and for their families

left behind, we say sorry.

APPLAUSE

It was a defining moment

in Australia's history.

This was the scene in

the capital Canberra that day.

Thousands watched.

Many of them described it

as a watershed moment.

Up until the 1970s,

aboriginal children -

thousands of them -

were taken from their families.

They became known as

the stolen generations.

So ten years on, the question

is are indigenous Australians

still being disadvantaged?

Here's a tweet from an indigenous

rights campaigner,

Roxy Moore who says:.

On Monday the government released

this report, Closing the Gap,

which found that although it's made

some progress in reducing

inequality, it still has a long way

to go in several areas.

One of them is closing

the life-expectancy gap.

More now from our reporter

Hywell Griffiths who is in Canberra.

The apology ten years ago was a

cathartic moment for Australia. It

is hard to overestimate its

significance at the time. I have

been speaking to survivors of the

stolen generations, people who were

taken from their families and they

told me how they cried for hours on

that day ten years ago. A lot of the

focus today has been on progress or

the lack of it. Sadly, we know that

things like life expectancy for

indigenous Australians is far lower

than nonindigenous. When it comes to

employment rates, for example, the

gap has widened in the last decade.

The employment rate for indigenous

Australians is 25% lower. There is

some progress being made but one of

the other concerns we have heard

about is talk of a new stolen

generation, the high number of

children from indigenous families

taken into out of home care. They

account for about 35% of the

children in care although

proportionally, they are only about

5% of all children in Australia so

you can see there are difficult

issues that people are still

grappling with. In terms of

aboriginal community leaders, they

are asking for more

self-determination, for them to come

up with the answers rather than be

dictated to by the government. But

it is a difficult balance for the

Australian Federal government. They

want inclusiveness, to be the

government for all Australians.

We spoke to Warren Mundine,

an aboriginal leader

in northern Queensland,

who told us about what kind

of progress has been

made in his community.

Well, it's a bit of a mixed bag,

to be quite honest, but first of all

I've got to congratulate the former

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

It was a major step.

I was in the parliament that day

and I actually cried when

he made that apology.

So it was a major step forward.

There are many things that

are improving but there

are also many things that

are not moving forward.

I have just...

I'm up in Cairns because

I have just come from

a tour of free remote aboriginal

communities, looking at the

challenges that we need

to face to move ahead,

but I'm very pleased there is more

of a sensible approach

in regard to if we are

going to lift people out

of poverty and bring them in

the mainstream economy

and the global economy,

and we have to be able to deal

with issues of

education, health and housing.

There needs to be

economic development and

that is what the major focus is now.

Before we go - I want to introduce

you to some robots that are getting

everyone's attention.

You may have already seen this and

had a reaction to it.

This is the Spot-Mini Robot.

It was designed by Boston Dynamics -

and it has an extendable

arm that opens doors.

But a lot of people are saying

it's downright creepy.

This clip has been picked up

and shared widely on social media.

The news editor of BuzzFeed says,

"This is one of the most terrifying

things I've seen in all my life".

Comedian and Daily Show host

Trevor Noah @trevornoah

replied to that saying,

"All I see is a robot

being a gentleman."

Thank you very much for watching.

Five. -- goodbye.