19/07/2017 World News Today

A second undisclosed meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin

The two leaders reportedly had an hour-long conversation

at the G20 with only a Russian interpreter present.

But the White House says the reaction is overblown.

many are crossing into Brazil and unrest on the rise,

which is now struggling to cope with the arrivals.

Families are slipping on a floor of the gymnasium. More than 300. But

with more arrivals every week some families are having to sleep

outside. A zoo in the UK is joining the fight

to save the northern white rhino. We'll show you what is being done

before it's too late. Hello and welcome

to World News Today. On the current political stage

there is perhaps no relationship and Vladimir Putin -

between Donald Trump which explains why their first face

to face meeting at the G20 earlier they held another undisclosed

meeting later that day. It happened just hours

after their first encounter at When reports came out about it last

night however the president Fake News story of secret dinner

with Putin is "sick." All G20 leaders, and

spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany.

Press knew! Well, yes, the fact the dinner

happened was public but it's what transpired there

which Ian Bremmer from the Eurasia Society described

to the BBC earlier today. There was a three and a half hour

long meeting, or dinner, not all of the seats were filled, and about

halfway in, apparently, Donald Trump stands up, goes around a table, sits

down next to Vladimir Putin with the Kremlin translator, nobody else

there, everyone is watching and proceeds to have an incredibly

convivial and engaged conversation for about one hour. It was remarked

upon and thought quite unusual by several of the participants at this

meeting, especially because he clearly wasn't doing that with

anybody else at this dinner at any other point during the course of the

jee 20. -- G20. And joining me now from Washington

is veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering who formerly served as US Ambassador

to Russia. The White House says the meeting was

perfectly normal. In your years of experience, would you agree with

that? I would think it is more normal than the press in the yes is

allowing Mr Trump to convince us, but unusual in the sense that he

used only do translation services of the Russian side and did,

apparently, from that rather vivid and useful description, not spent

time with others. I thought he was sitting next to perhaps the Japanese

Prime Minister Abe, where he had a Japanese interpreter ready to serve

him, but moving around is a very big New York habit even if it isn't,

much, in diplomacy, and opportunities that heads of state

have, often, to do what we would call stop bys is not so unusual that

it doesn't happen at all. I would expect that, in some ways, this is a

little bit overblown on back side, and on the blown on the side that

the president didn't seem to have any help, there and one wonders

whether the Russian interpreter will be a reliable reporter of all of

this. That is the point that some are picking up on, there were no

other US officials present at that meeting. Is it normal for other

years of visuals to be at these meetings, whether it is a Secretary

of State, or someone else? It is, but it is not absolutely required,

and I can think of many occasions when at meetings at the White House

the president but have a group meeting then a one-on-one, or a

one-on-one first then a group meeting, often with an interpreter

present but no one else, provides the US notes which is

why the absence of an interpreter at this meeting does raise some

questions about, was this a good way to do business, and with anybody

else know exactly what was said on the US side, and when we get into

that kind of chat that Sergei Lavrov and Rex Tillerson had, what they

agreed to I didn't agree to on the question of pushing back on election

intervention, all of which doesn't help in a relationship that is

extremely important now and one that should be carefully worked at, to

get it right. The US- Russian relationship has dangers in it and

what we would call sort of amateurism and mistakes can

certainly lead to more than just press anger, it can lead to things

that are more seriously confrontation between these two

countries. This is a relationship which needs to be carefully worked

at matter what advice would you have to the White House about how they

are approaching this? I would say that talking to Mr Bruton was a good

idea at the jee 20 conference, they spent more time than was expected to

be spent -- the G20. My advice is, for goodness' sake, let's have a

period of time when these two meet and discuss the major elements of

this relationship across the board. Secondly, the idea that doing no

harm should be the first principle of repairing a relationship is very

important. And thirdly, neither side should be saying things that worsen

the relationship. Those should be kept for confidential

communications. And fourthly, the relationship between these

presidents needs to be bolstered by more frequent contacts between the

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Foreign Minister surrogate Alaba, do

flesh out and strengthen whatever it is that they are working on that can

make a contribution to, in fact, turning what has been described as

the worst state of US - Russian relations into something that is

hopefully a little better, as time goes on. Thank you for joining us on

the programme. Now to the biggest domestic

challenge in the US This week has been a rocky one

for the Republican Party which had vowed to repeal and replace

Obamacare. Right now the Senate doesn't look

like it has the votes to do either. But that didn't stop

the president from inviting all 52 Republican Senators

to the White House for lunch. He told them they shouldn't leave

town until action is taken and this

is what he said should happen. We have no choice. We have to repeal

and replace Obamacare. We can repeal it, but the best is repeal and

replace, and let's get going. I intend to keep my promise and I know

that you will, too. Joining me now is our North America

reporter Anthony Zurcher. It is hard to keep track of what the

president wants. One minute it is repeal, the next minute, repeal and

the place. Where do you think things stand at the moment? We have come

full circle in 48 hours. It began as repeal and replace. That is what

Donald Trump has been urging for the past few months. When the replace

Bill Villa Park it became repeal only. Then it became do nothing.

Yesterday he was saying he would let Obamacare collapse on its own and

the Democrats would come crawling to him to try to negotiate some sort of

replacement plan. Now we are back to repeal and replace. But the key

thing to watch is what the Republican senators are going to do.

After Donald Trump gators lunchtime address, the planets have a straight

up repeal bill next week at some point. That probably is going to

fail, but the idea is to get this on the floor somehow, get people

offering amendments and try to come up with some sort of plan on the

floor of the Senate. That is a strange strategy. Like trying to

build the parachute after you have already jumped off the bridge. I

don't know if it is going to succeed. It might not even get to

that point. The president needs to get his own senators on board. That

was the purpose of this much. How successful do you think he's going

to be, and broader Republican senators rally around him? Is that

even a possibility? It is showing that is a challenge for him, to

wrangle any sort of working majority in the Senate not just for health

care but for anything significant he wants to do. If this all falls apart

after the bill next week, they might rebut something that Republicans are

more in line with, that they can agree on, like tax cuts, but to do

that he would have to pass the budget first or 2018. That is

difficult to do. Each major piece of legislation will require lots of

work on the part of the president to try to build an operating coalition

within his own party and, six months into his presidency, we have not

seen any evidence yet that he is able to do that.

from the authorities in Minneapolis is demanding answers

after a police officer fatally shot a woman from Sydney on Saturday.

Malcolm Turnbull has called the incident

Justine Damond died from a single gunshot wound fired through

At dawn in Sydney, hundreds gathered at the silent vigil.

Mourners threw pink flowers into the ocean.

It was Justine Damond's favourite colour.

Across the globe in Minneapolis, friends

and neighbours left flowers and tributes with a simple question

- why did police shoot the 40-year-old yoga teacher?

Australia's Prime Minister is one of those demanding answers

to what he described as an inexplicable killing.

How can a woman out on the street in her pyjamas seeking assistance

Ms Damond had called police to report what she thought may have

been a sexual assault in the alley behind her house.

When she approached the police car, one of the officers, Mohamed Noor,

who was sitting in the passenger seat, shot and killed her.

It was possible he was startled by a loud noise, but as yet,

he has declined to be interviewed by investigators.

We do have more information now, though it is frustrating to have

some of the picture but not all of it.

We cannot compel Officer Noor to make a statement.

Minnesota's bureau of criminal apprehension has taken charge

of the investigation to work out what happened.

It has already confirmed Ms Damond was unarmed.

Why did Officer Noor draw and fire his gun?

What happened from the time the officers arrived on the scene

Why don't we have footage from body cameras?

We all want answers to those questions.

The Australian had relocated to the US to marry her

The wedding would have been next month.

Now, her friends and family are left to wonder how it came to this,

how a woman described as kind-hearted and loving

was killed by someone meant to protect her.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been dealt a blow after the

head of the country's armed forces tendered his resignation.

It follows a very public row over cuts to France's defence budget.

General Pierre de Villiers said he was no longer able to guarantee

enough troops to ensure France's security.

Let's speak to Nicholas Vinocur, politics reporter,

Thank you for joining us. Firstly, why has he quit? He has quit because

he wanted to make a protest against the president over this budget cut

which we should say is a budget cut for 2017, the overall trajectory of

military and defence spending is rising until 2025. This was a

political challenge to the new president. And that is the way it is

being taken today. A political challenge, you say. How politically

damaging is this for Emmanuelle Macron? Certainly, on the day it

doesn't look good. Although the opposition forces from the far right

National Front to the far left, piled onto the president and accused

him of forcing out what they call a military man with great integrity

and a good reputation. So this is not a good day for president Macron,

and when you take other sectors, professional sectors that are also

starting to protest against budget cuts, it does put him in some

difficulty. We should put this in some perspective. This is the first

test of the President's authority, after a first three months in power

which have been almost surreally positive for him. This is domestic

issues coming back to bite. He's making a major cut to the French

budget. It is not so surprising that there is going to be some turbulence

in these first months, and there will be more. What does this say

about his chances of pushing other parts of his policy agenda through?

He says he's only new individual, three months in. We should keep an

eye on the fundamentals here. Emmanuelle Macron was elected with a

wide mandate to reform. He was explicit about not just that budget

cuts but his plans to reform the Labour system, to reform the pension

system, the unemployment benefit system. None of this was concealed

or minimised during his campaign. So, voters know exactly what they

will get. Secondly, he has a broad majority in Parliament. He doesn't

need to enlist any support from other political groups to push

through these reforms. And on the very difficult ones he is using

executive decree, to push them through Parliament. What we are

getting is commentary which could be damaging and could affect his

popularity. It is having an affect on his popularity, which was very

high, to some degree, but on the whole, the president will whether

this. It is General Pierre de Villiers left. He was replaced

within the day, within a few hours of his resignation. I would suggest

that this episode is going to pass. It was a test for the president.

But, by no means, as it knocked him out or really undermined his

determination to push through the reforms. Thank you very much but

joining us. -- for joining us. For the first time the BBC has

published the salaries of its highest paid employees,

who are earning more than ?150,000 -

or $195,000 - a year. It comes as the government forced

the disclosure as part of the BBC's annual report,

which details the salaries The BBC's Director General,

Lord Hall, said the corporation and warned that making the details

public would drive up wages. Of the 96 on the list,

only a third are women. The highest earner was revealed

to be Radio Presenter and ex-Top

Gear host Chris Evans who earns In Venezuela the economy

is on the verge of collapse and as protests against

the government grow, the threat of a larger humanitarian

crisis is spilling over So far this year 52,000

Venezuelans have Our South America correspondent

Katy Watson has this report from the Brazilian state of Roraima

- on the Venezuelan border - It's a simple meal but one that

people here are grateful for. The lunch queue at the shelter

in Boa Vista The shelter has been open

for just over six months. They are offering medical

help, vaccinations, Families are sleeping on the floor

of the gymnasium, more than 300. With more and more arrivals

every week, some families Oscar says his family

came here to find work. He shows me around his new home,

a piece of tarpaulin under which he, his four children and wife

eat and sleep. He is a member of the

indigenous Warao tribe. He, like hundreds in his community,

says they are having to flee But hunger is not the only thing

driving Venezuelans out. TRANSLATION: What we've seen

this month is people arriving here very scared,

traumatised, they tell us stories Some have mental health issues

because they've had to leave Together with her friends,

with a degree in education. she's having to resort to asking

for work the traffic lights. Washing windscreens is one

way to make ends meet. TRANSLATION: I was thinking

of my children's future, to give them food so they wouldn't

die of malnutrition, to pay for their medicine,

if they're ill. In Venezuela, they don't

give you anything. The number of Venezuelan sex workers

in Boa Vista is also on the rise. I spoke to a 22-year-old

mother of three who says she can now support her family,

who live with her in Brazil. Three hours up the road

is the border with Venezuela, William has brought this mountain

of cash to buy 14 sacks of sugar He comes through every three

days and it's a 12-hour

car journey each way. Leaving it any longer would mean

carrying even more cash than this and robberies on the road

are common, he tells me. TRANSLATION: In Venezuela,

you don't live, you survive. In order to live, you have

to go to another country. Sleeping on the streets of Brazil

is more about survival than living. For these Venezuelans, they say it's

still better than back home. While some stay put,

many others continue the long journey to find a better

quality of life. The four Arab nations leading

a boycott on the Gulf state of Qatar are no longer insisting

that the country complies with a list of 13 demands

tabled last month. Instead, diplomats from

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt have asked Qatar

to implement six broad principles Qatar, which has faced six weeks

of disruptions under the boycott, A zoo here in the UK is taking

part in a radical plan, to save the northern white

rhino from extinction. There are just three

left in the world, but at Longleat Safari Park,

the rhino's closest relatives, Our science correspondent

Rebecca Morelle has Meet Ebun - a seven-year-old

southern white rhino who could

save a species from extinction. The one and a half tonne

animal is sedated. A little agitated at first,

but soon she is sound asleep. She is ready to take

part in Scientists are harvesting her eggs

to be fertilised in a lab. The team here are keeping an

incredibly close eye on this rhino. It is essential she stays

under heavy sedation. Over the last week or so she's been

given hormone treatment, but what's been done today requires

millimetric precision. Egg collection is really only

a technique that has been This is conservation science

at its most extreme. Here's the animal Ebun could save,

her closest living relative, Once widespread across central

Africa, today there are just

three left on the planet. Back at Longleat in

a makeshift laboratory, the researchers check for eggs.

They find one. They will take this southern white

rhino egg and mix it with sperm from one of the last northern white

rhinos, creating a hybrid. Scientists say it is better

than losing the species altogether. The last three can die at any time,

they are not as old but anything can happen to them and then

all the genetics would be lost. If we have at least 50% of this

species preserved in a hybrid embryo, we would preserve at least

half of this for future generations. With her job done, Ebun

is soon back on her feet. The safari park is proud

of the role she will play. With the northern white rhino

being so jeopardised in numbers, these techniques is a huge advance

the science and It's a real honour

to be able to help. The eggs are now being rushed back

to a laboratory in Italy. There is a 20-hour window to prepare

them for fertilisation. They could be implanted back

into Ebun, but with her northern cousins so close to extinction,

it's a race against time. This week marks six months

since President Trump took office - and there's no doubt social media

has helped drive his agenda. We've come to expect a daily diet

of tweets from the president, I've been taking a closer look

what his Twitter presence tells us. Twitter is a wonderful thing for me

because I get the word out. He's been dubbed

the Twitter President. We know Donald Trump loves to spell

things out in 140 characters, but what do his online musings tell

us about the first Well, he's sent more than 940 tweets

since he first took office. he usually sends those

messages between 6-8am. He's sent an average of nearly

six tweets every day. To put it into context,

that's 85 times the number of news But to Donald Trump,

that is modern-day presidential. So what does President Trump

tweet about the most? The highest number of tweets

are about the economy. But President Trump's attacks

on the media are not far behind. This video is his most

shared tweet so far. President Trump has sent more

than 70 tweets about Fox News, usually to publicise his upcoming

appearances or to praise It is a modern-day

form of communication. Especially when you have tens

of millions of people, like I have. President Trump's tweets often

send mixed messages that The president's tweets

His comments and his tweets speak for themselves.

For example, after saying he had a great meeting with Angela Merkel,

he took to Twitter to criticise Germany's Nato contributions.

And take a look at his messaging on China.

of working with the country, to give up on the idea

only to tweet about an excellent meeting with China days later.

with the Russians, setting up a cyber security unit

but it didn't take long for him to retract that idea.

Should I keep the Twitter going or not?

Many of his supporters think he should, for sure.

When he tweets, we get it direct from him, we know what it is.

There are of course many people who wish he'd just put the phone

down and stop tweeting, including some in his own party.

But he's got more than 33 million followers on the social network

and he doesn't look like he's going to stop any time soon.

Don't forget you can get in touch with me and most

of the team on Twitter - I'm @BBCRajiniV.

Thank you for watching and please stay with us on BBC World News.

It has been another day of torrential thundery downpours

affecting North Wales with some heavy thunderstorms in north-west

England. We have had humid conditions for the past few days.

The air coming in of