09/05/2016 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today, I'm Karin Giannone.

Hope in Canada as - at last - cooler weather helps contain

But still a vast area is affected - one fifth of Fort McMurray

What looks like a temporary reprieve for Brazil's president

as a last-minute legal challenge throws into doubt the impeachment

Russian military might on show for the Victory Day parade,

as President Putin calls on the West to help defeat terrorism.

A planet the size of Africa - crossing the surface of the sun -

and Britain is one of the best places to view Mercury's transit.

The mass evacuation, the damage, the loss of life,

the likely cost of the wildfires that have raged out of control

Finally, after days of watching scenes like this,

Firefighters hope they've reached a turning point - the weather has

cooled and some much needed rain has started to fall.

For us, this is great firefighting weather,

we can really get in there and really get a handle on this fire

But for the wildfire stuff out in the forest area,

that is going to take us a long time to clean up,

but I feel very buoyed and happy that we are making great progress.

Officials say it might take years before the city is

Let's look at the devastation this catastrophic fire has caused.

About one fifth of the town of Fort McMurray has been destroyed.

More than 100,000 residents living in the town and in the surrounding

areas have been driven out of their homes.

It still isn't safe for them to return home.

Matthew Anderson is a wildfire information officer and he's

on the line from Edmonton, which is the capital

Matthew, tell us the situation. Things looking more favourable now?

Certainly, as you mentioned, we have a in which will really help our

crews make some good headway. Just over a week ago yesterday when it

started, it was 60 hectares. Now today we are sitting at 106 to 1000

hectares. That is about the size of London. So we have had some extreme

fire behaviour that cause this to happen. We had light precipitation

of the winter which led to an early spring, the fields are dry. We have

had one temperatures and strong winds for about a week which has

caused us to grow rapidly. Now we have a drop in the temperatures and

there is remitted the end they are. There is the chance of a little bit

of precipitation coming through. So this could really help us.

How much of the scale of the destruction are beginning to get a

sense of? It is really difficult to say, they

are going in to have a look. The emergency team will be looking at

making assessments right now. We have been assessing and working with

the Mr are party to make sure that the garrisons are in place around

the communities and to make sure that the critical infrastructure is

being protected. -- decibels. It appears to be travelling away, the

fire, in an easterly direction. What is the output in terms of the

weather, while this poll and point a per minute or two things get worse

again? The weather is pretty unpredictable,

especially the way it has been the spring so far. We are looking to

have two or three days downtrend in the weather which would be a help.

After that, it is difficult to predict. But now, things are working

in our favour. Matthew Anderson, thank you very

much and we wish you all the best. The impeachment process against

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff It's after the acting speaker

of the country's lower house annulled a vote that

happened in April. The Senate was due to have its say

on the matter on Wednesday. Let's get more on what this

all means with the BBC's First, what change led to this?

Well, as you have said, everyone in Brazil including the president

herself was expecting that she would be suspended from office later this

week after the vote in the country's Senate to begin a full impeachment

trial against her. "Morning, Another character in this contest, they

enter president or chair of the raw house of Congress has thrown

everything up in the area by declaring that the vote which took

place three weeks ago and the lowest house of Congress should be

annulled. He did a variety of reasons saying that the president

had not been given a full right of defence and that members of Congress

in what was an acrimonious debate athletics be no one what their

voting intentions would be before they actually voted and somehow that

has been deemed to be present -- prejudicial. It has thrown things up

into the air because the Senate has said that it will not accept this

ruling. And that it will carry on regardless. What it does do in this

very important political and economic climate in Brazil, it needs

a laughing stock of the whole process. It throws into doubt what

will happen next. And will not the president have to resign later this

week? It is almost a farcical situation and the Supreme Court will

probably now have to get involved at some stage to determine what happens

next. Just reminds us the meaning of

impeachment. And what Dilma Rousseff was accused of?

It is a good question because the impeachment, the suspension from

office or the potential suspension from office of Dilma Rousseff, it

relates to some very small charges that she somehow manipulated

government accounts to hide the size of the budget deficit. I sat down

with Dilma Rousseff for an interview last week and she told me that she

declared her innocence and rejected all of the charges against her. Her

view is that this impeachment process has more to do with our

enemies in Congress trying to get rid of her. There is absolutely no

doubt that Dilma Rousseff is deeply unpopular in Brazil. The country's

economy is in recession, 10% inflation increasing, unemployment

increasing, there is a very big corruption scandal affecting all big

local parties and some of Brazil's because businesses. So this is a

country in crisis. Dilma Rousseff is no doubt responsible for a lot of

that but whether or not she should be impeached because of that is a

matter of opinion. But there is no doubt whatsoever that the longer

this crisis continues, the longer the impeachment crisis is a

drawn-out, the more that result feels in limbo, incomplete

suspension, and that is doing Brazil and its economy, in particular, no

good at all. Wyre Davies, thank you very much.

Here in Britain, campaigning ahead of the EU referendum kicked

into high gear today with interventions

from two heavyweights of the Stay and Leave camps.

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, warned that quitting the EU

would put peace and stability at risk and hamper the fight

The former London Mayor, Boris Johnson, countered by saying

it was Nato that guaranteed peace in Europe, not the EU.

Our political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, has this report.

The top commanders of the rival campaigns vying to claim the mantle.

The Prime Minister's backdrop was a museum which tells the story

of so many battles lost and won, to give his gravest warning yet,

if you vote to leave the EU, it could be a step

The rows of white headstones in lovingly-tended Commonwealth War

cemeteries stand in silent testament to the price this country

has paid to help restore peace and order in Europe.

Can we be so sure that peace and stability on our

continent are assured beyond any shadow of doubt?

I would never be so rash as to make that assumption.

The lesson from history, he claims, whether Spitfires

in the skies or soldiers in the trenches, Britain was proud

alone, but Europe has been safer United.

As this Prime Minister hoped, and today's leader even quoted

Isn't this warning at best alarmist, and at worst desperate,

given that until three months ago you said you would be

There is no doubt in my mind the European Union has helped bring

Until now, the government was using its full force

to say we would be poorer if we left the EU.

The shiny diplomatic cars parked up at today's speech showed

the argument over our place in the world is well and truly on.

To the anger of some, the In campaign circulated a video

But that argument was turned on its head by the Out

I saw for myself the disaster in the Balkans when the EU

was charged and mandated with sorting out the former

Yugoslavia, and I saw how it was Nato and the American-led

alliance that had to come in and sort it out.

It is now, I am afraid, the EU itself, and it's

that are now a force for instability and alienation.

Do you think David Cameron is telling the truth

when he is telling voters leaving the EU would risk peace

The answer is no, I don't believe that leaving

War Three to break out on the European continent.

This side needs plenty of shoe leather to make their arguments,

not least as Boris Johnson burst into song in German.

Yes, some in German, to kill accusations they are not

just backward looking little Englanders.

But the past does loom over this campaign.

The history of this country and the Tory Party who have split

This is such a big decision about our place in the world.

It is not surprising that both sides want to try and take

But their conflicts are personal as well as political.

This is about war and peace in the Tory Party as well.

As the referendum battle really starts to roar, it is hard to see

To Austria now, where a revolt inside one of the parties that make

up the governing coalition has led to the resignation of

Mr Faymann came to power in 2008 but has faced criticism

within his Social Democratic party since the far right won the first

round of presidential elections last month.

He told a hastily convened press conference that the government needs

Our correspondent Bethany Bell is in Vienna and joins us now live.

Why resign now? Well, the centrist party in Austria,

the social Democrats that Chancellor Werner Faymann belongs to and his

coalition partner the Conservatives, they have been losing ground to the

far right for a long time. Both parties were trounced in the

presidential election, the first round in April, and ever since then,

the Social Democrats have been really split. There has been

soul-searching about how they can stop the rise of the far right. And

Chancellor Werner Faymann has paid the price of that but any party.

There are those in the party who want a move closer to far right,

they want to lift the ban on forming a coalition with them. Others have

said that the Social Democrats have gone way too far to the right, they

have been taking too tough a line on migrants and that they ought to

combat to a more middle position. Chancellor Werner Faymann today said

that he did not have the support of his party, so he was stepping down.

He changed his stance on the migrant crisis to a harder one but to no

avail. Indeed, last summer, when migrants

first started coming across the border from Hungary, he welcomed

them with open arms, telling them that Austria would take them home.

And in fact, watched as they can in 19,000 asylum seekers in the last

few months. But then, the far-right started profiting from this, the

government took a much harsher line, they brought in a very tough law on

asylum, and at the moment it seems it was getting too, located in the

party and Chancellor Werner Faymann is very, very split, and they are

now looking for a new leader. Bethany Bell, briefly if you will,

what do they expect to happen next? The Social Democrats must now decide

who will take over from Chancellor Werner Faymann as party leader, then

they will have to speak to their coalition partners to see if they

will accept him as Chancellor. Then they both will have to decide

whether they will call new elections or not, that would be a risky move

for both of them, because at the moment the far right Freedom party

is topping the polls. And then they will wait to see what happens in the

second round of the presidential election later this month.

Bethany, thank you very much, Bethany Bell in Vienna.

Now a look at some of the day's other news.

A long-awaited report into Britain's involvement in the war in Iraq

The inquiry led by Sir John Chilcot was set up in 2009, and he's been

criticised for taking so long to complete the report.

Tony Blair, who was Britain's Prime Minister at the time,

was twice called to give evidence to inquiry chief Sir John Chilcot.

He's been criticised for taking so long to complete the report.

The families of UK service personnel who died in Iraq,

A tough-talking provincial mayor has established a commanding lead

over his rivals in the vote for the next president

One official monitor says Rodrigo Duterte is well ahead

of his four rivals with almost 40% of the votes counted so far.

The United States and Russia have pledged to step up efforts

to convince the warring parties in Syria to observe the partial

ceasefire currently in force and extend it across the whole

Earlier there were reports of air strikes against rebel

positions in Aleppo, while some government-controlled

Hundreds of passengers on a British cruise ship docked in the US have

fallen ill with a virus that causes vomiting and diarrhoea.

Health officials say more than a quarter of the passengers

on board the Balmoral have the norovirus, which is also

In Moscow, thousands of people have taken part

in the Immortal Regiment march, carrying flags and placards

with images of their relatives who fought and died fighting

Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also taken part in the march,

walking at the front of the column of people entering Red Square.

Earlier in the day, Moscow showed off its military might

with thousands of troops and veterans marching

Our Moscow correspondent, Steve Rosenberg, was also there.

Well, I want to tell you what it is like being on Red Square

It is immensely colourful and as you can probably hear, very loud.

Not just because of the orchestra, there are 10,000 Russian servicemen

They have been practising this for more than two months to make

Now, Victory Day is one of the most important

Not just because it commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany,

More than 27 million Soviet people were killed in what people here call

North Korea has expelled our correspondent,

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes after objecting to his reporting.

Rupert had been part of a BBC team on a visit to Pyongyang.

Our reporter John Sudworth is still in the country

and is being allowed to continue covering the Workers'

Party Congress, which today re-elected the North Korean leader

For the first time, foreign journalists were invited

Before, we had only seen the TV pictures.

But now we could quite literally feel the mass political

And there, a few rows away, was Kim Jong-un.

A young man just given yet another title.

Unanimously, of course, chairman of the Workers' Party.

It is an extraordinary sight, the highest political gathering

of one of the world's most totalitarian regimes.

There at the front, the supreme leader of a country that has

long defied predictions of its imminent demise.

Earlier in the day we were given a glimpse of another enduring fact

of North Korean life, the suppression

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, a BBC colleague who had also been

reporting from Pyongyang was being expelled.

North Korean officials made it clear they objected to his reporting.

And during their coverage they were not very just in terms of not

respecting the local custom, the system in the DPRK,

they even made distorted facts about the realities of the situation,

and they were speaking very ill of the system, the leadership

of the country, when they should have been reporting very fairly,

Rupert was driven to the airport and put on a flight to Beijing.

Foreign media visits are always tightly controlled,

Meanwhile, we have been allowed to continue our reporting trip

with the numerous visits to factories and monuments.

This is a country that cares deeply what the outside

I asked one of the workers about the deep economic crisis.

"Nonsense, that's just a lie," she tells me.

The powerful propaganda has helped this system endure,

with a message of strength and self-reliance.

The outside world is welcome but only on North Korea's terms.

John Sudworth, BBC News, Pyongyang.

Now, it's 60 million miles away and is travelling

The planet Mercury has just finished passing in front

Sky watchers across the globe enjoyed good weather

Many others around the globe turned to the internet

It won't make another transit until 2019 and then 2032.

The BBC's science editor David Shukman reports.

Against the vast fiery backdrop of the Sun,

the tiny shape of Mercury slipping through space and lined up

so that we get a spectacular view of it from Earth.

This only happens about 14 times every century.

The sight is a reminder of how the solar system works.

Are you OK to line it up on the Sun as well?

In London and around the world, people gathered for a glimpse

of the little planet that is closest to the Sun.

The Royal Astronomical Society laid on a variety of

All you can see is a small black dot, but the sight of this distant

Despite being a tiny dot, it has an incredible beauty of its own.

The last time I saw this was back in 2003, so I'm just as excited

Most people here will never have seen anything like this.

The overwhelming majority of the world's population probably

Those things together make it something to celebrate.

A lot about Mercury is still a mystery.

In this image from a Nasa spacecraft, the colours represent

the highs and lows of a landscape battered by meteorites

It's a planet that has long been fascinating.

A couple of hundred years ago, astronomers studied planets

like Mercury to measure their distance from Earth,

and so try to calculate the size of the Solar System.

Today is just about a very exciting sight.

So, from a distance of 48 million miles, we have been able to watch

this strange world racing past the turbulent surface of the Sun.

A journey of seven hours is now almost over.

With me to talk more about this is Doctor Marek Kukula,

Public Astronmer at London's Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

There are 20 minutes left of clear skies a few want to view it. With

the right equipment we can see the planet Mercury moving.

That is what we are looking at now. This is a very clear view. In one

second B will see the planet Mercury going across. Just this tiny dot

that you can make it out on your screens. This is an amazingly fast

transit, even though it might look so do others.

Absolutely, it is an object the size of Africa and you are watching it

moving at 50 kilometres per second as it moves in orbit around the sun.

It really is a chance to see the mechanics of the solar system in

action. It is to do with the alignment of

the planets around the sun. This only comes around a few times each

century. That is correct, the orbits of the

planets are not perfectly circular or perfectly aligned with each

other, so there are only seven points would you can actually see

the sun, Mercury and the Earth precisely lined up like this. It

does not happen every day or even every year.

What can you learn from seeing something like this happen?

Historically, transits like this have been hugely important. In the

17th, 18th and 19th century, it helped astronomers to work out how

big the source of the Moors, giving us an idea of how teeny beware. Now

the use transits to work out how many stars they have around us.

There has been a fuse amount of enthusiasm about this, people have

been looking at this and all sorts of ways.

Absolutely. There have been organised events, not just around

the UK but across the world. A huge chunk of the surface of the Earth

has been able to see this transit. This is the Tadic from the USA, it

is stunning. The European Space Agency... You can

still see the live streaming from the space craft which is above the

clouds. Amazing views. Something that famous astronomers from the

17th century would have given the right and four.

We do not hear an awful lot about Mercury, we hear about Mars, Mercury

has some mystery and is enigmatic. Yes, it is harder to get to because

it is closer to the sun, it has been neglected. That is changing, and the

next few years we will see more missions going to look at that. It

could have helped in the formation of the Earth is, so we could learn

more about ourselves looking at Mercury.

We know on one side it is extremely hot, the side-effects from the sun,

it is extreme hot. The side facing away from the sun is one of the

callers quizzes and solar system. There is now are there to carry the

heat of the sun, so if you can not see the sun, it is extremely cold.

It has a large iron core? That is right, just the Earth has one, Negri

has a iron court. How it came to others enormous squad, it is a huge

mystery. In terms of interest, are you saying

each time there is an event like this with social media, it is

getting even more fascination spread further across the globe, there is

real excitement about events like this?

People have always been interested about astronomy, 250 years of

evidence proves that. But with the Internet, great magazines and TV,

you get a chance to experience it in full colour for yourself. I think

that people will get fed up of space and then something like this happens

and Greenwich has been inundated with people dying to see things

through their telescopes. Another chance to see one in two

years' time? Three years' time. If you missed the

today, you will have an opportunity any few years.

Thank you very much for coming in and speaking to us about that.

You can get in touch with me and some of

the team via Twitter - I'm @KarinBBC.

But for now, from me and the rest of the team, goodbye.