an offensive inside russia's western kursk region. it comes as russia carries out overnight missile and drone attacks in six regions of ukraine, killing at least two people in kyiv. the first of three funerals for the young girls killed at a taylor swift dance class in southport last month will take place this afternoon. alice dasilva aguiar will be laid to rest at st patrick's catholic church in the town. the killing sparked disorder across the uk. now on bbc news, americast. hello, anthony. hey, marianna. how are you doing? i've been awake for probably a little bit too long. i began the day in boston, and i'm now in london. back in london. and i have a pressing question for you. yes. who is fred trump iii and why is he called fred trump iii? well, funny you should ask that. i actuallyjust finished speaking

with fred trump iii. and the thing to know about fred trump iii is that, as his name suggests, his father was fred trumer, his grandfather was frederick christ trump sr. that makes him donald trump's nephew. and he has some interesting tidbits and stories to share about growing up in the trump family. very useful genealogy. and i think that probably preps us a little bit for the interview. welcome to americast. americast. americast from bbc news. hello, it's marianna, aka miss information, back in the worldwide headquarters of americast in london. and it's anthony here in the american headquarters of americast at the bbc bureau in washington, dc. it feels very appropriate, anthony, that the rivalry has returned,

now that we're in our various worldwide headquarters. and the reason that the rivalry feels relevant is because this episode is going to be a lot about a chat you've had with donald trump's nephew. and there's a fair bit of rivalry, disagreement — i don't quite know how you'd characterise it — that seems to exist between him and his uncle and within theirfamily to some degree. there certainly has been acrimony within the family, and some tragedy within the family as well — which fred gets into. he has just written a new book. the title of the book is all in the family: the trumps and how we got this way. this is a book where frederick trump, fred trump, explains his view of the family situation and some personal insights about donald trump and his history with donald trump. he has a son. fred trump has a son, william, who is disabled. he talks about that as well. and then he also talks about lawsuits and various fights he had with donald trump over the years. i always find when there's a big book — one like this that kind

of comes out and is about someone very famous and making various points, particularly about donald trump — that it hits the headlines. what's the kind of stuff that, if you haven't read the book, you might have come across on your social media feeds or, you know, a news site that you're interested in? yeah, it has hit the headlines. and fred trump has done a number of interviews already with major media outlets. and some of the stories that he recounts about donald trump when he was ten years old — when fred trump was ten years old — using a racial epithet, the n word, multiple times. he also talks about how donald trump, once, in discussing his disabled son william, said, "i don't know why you don'tjust let him die and move to florida." i mean, all of this kind of monstrous things he talks about donald trump having said and done.

and i will point out that donald trump's campaign and members of donald trump's own family have said that these are total fabrications. there's no truth behind it. and that fred trump iii is only saying these things in order to make money off his book. so we'll get frederick trump's response to that as well. yeah, it feels quite appropriate for me to mention — just as you said, anthony — that donald trump's communications director has specifically said that the allegations are fake news of the highest order. and perhaps on that note, let's hear a little bit of your chat. 0k. well, let's talk about this book. first of all, the title is all in the family: the trumps and how we got this way. that kind of begs the question, how did donald trump get this way, and what is this way in your view? as is mentioned in all in the family, my grandfather, donald's father, was a very driven businessman — not much love to go around. and donald, more than anybody in the family...

he had four siblings, including my father, fred — his older brother. donald was without question the one that took after my grandfather — very driven, only wanted to succeed and would do whatever he needed to succeed. now, one of the criticisms i've heard of this book is that it is coming out — what, we're about 87 days from the general election? the timing of this seems to be, in the trump campaign's view, very political. why did you write this book now and not in 2015 or 2016, or any time during the trump presidency? well, let me start with the reasons behind the book. and it was to honour my father, freddie, who was a very caring and charismatic guy — and my young son, william, who has complex disabilities, who is the most courageous and inspirational person i know.

and who has opened the door for me to advocate on behalf of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. two things have changed that made me come out and do the book now. and again, we have been thinking about this for years. number one, we wanted to wait until william was settled in a group home setting away from our house. and the reason for that was security. we have had — lisa, my wife and i — have had dead animals thrown on our lawn. we've had reporters come to our house uninvited, and we've had cars stay in our driveway — without, again, invitation. so we wanted william to be in a safe space. the second was — and the political side of this, if you will — the insurrection really made me realise that i did need to speak out politically and tell the story of donald. this is written by a person, me, who knew donald during his formative years, who... i was the first person that donald put a golf club in. i've known him through his school years, through his business career, and in the white house, where i visited him

at least a dozen times. so i know donald unlike anybody else. 0k, well, let's talk about growing up around donald trump. what was it like? what did you see from him in those early years? and is he the same person now that he was then? you know, some people don't understand this, but donald was always, you know, fun to be around when i was a kid, for the most part. you know, we would joke and he'd take me out to a movie or, you know, again, to hit golf balls and such. but you could tell that, in that family, he was the one who was most looking forward to breaking out and and being a superstar, if you will. unlike my dad, who was a very caring, as i mentioned, sort of the black sheep of the family. and they had a very bad relationship together, which is too bad. and you've talked about in the past your father struggling with addictions.

and that is one of the reasons why, according to people around donald trump, that donald trump doesn't drink at all. did that have an influence on donald trump? and what was it like for you growing up in that environment? a couple of things to look at. my family was very embarrassed by my father's alcoholism. it wasn't really a situation where they were looking to help him. it was, "you're an alcoholic. you're below us," if you will. and that led to my sister, mary, and i being treated as second class citizens in the family. donald, yes. he worried about the gene of alcoholism in the family. but what he said to me one time was, "i don't drink, because if i did, i would want to be the best drinker there was." so that gives you a little bit of an attitude check on donald's

mentality towards being the best, or at least making people think he's the best. now, you mentioned your son, william — and donald trump says has has given a considerable amount of money to support your son and take care of your son. in fact, eric trump, donald trump's son, said that you were being ungrateful by writing this book and recounting these stories. are you worried, one, that this is going to hurt your son, that this is now going to mean that donald trump will cut you off from any further support? and two, that it is being ungrateful? right, let's put this into context. in 2000, after william, my son, was born, he had a seizure disorder. he was having hundreds of seizures a day. hundreds. he was in mount sinai hospital in manhattan for three weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit.

not once did any of my aunts or uncles call to see how he was or to visit him, even though they lived very close by. soon after william was done with seven weeks of hospitalisations in two different other neonatal intensive care units, i received a letterfrom donald's attorney basically saying that me and mary were cut out of my grandfather's will. you have to understand, back then — and i ask your viewers to understand this — donald was in very desperate financial straits. it was humiliating to him. in fact, it was so bad that banks had to put him on an allowance. what's troubling even now is that, after my father passed away, donald was named my trustee. he was my trustee, which i always took to mean he was there to protect me, my interests and my family. he did the exact opposite

by hatching that scheme to cut me out of my grandparents�* and my grandfather's will. so, if i had gotten my rightful inheritance, i would have used that money to do whatever i wanted to to make sure william's future would be taken care of. instead, i had to go to my aunts and uncles and ask for monies that i thought were mine — and i knew were mine. so that money isn't going to come any more, though, iwould imagine? right? so how are you going to manage at this point? we'll manage. we'll find a way. you mentioned at the very beginning that part of this was about your father, fred, and representing his legacy. i mean, is this almost a proxy fight that you're fighting against donald trump because of your father, and you're trying to make some sort of a lasting mark in his name? i want to try to set the record straight. my father was a good guy.

he never wanted any limelight. he was the champion of the underdog. all he wanted to do was be an airline pilot. and he became an airline pilot. and that didn't sit well with my grandfather or donald. in fact, donald called him a glorified bus driver. so my father has been exploited throughout the years as just being the alcoholic in the family. no—one really mentions the goodness in my father. and if you don't mind, anthony, if i could tell one quick story about dad? mm—hmm. sure. he was in hospital, and this was getting towards the end of his life, and you could tell. and i was going... i was a freshman in college, and i was going on an overseas middle semester trip. and i visited him in jamaica hospital and he said, "here's a cheque. get it cashed at the bank and go get

a polaroid instamatic camera." isaid, "great, wow, i could use that on that trip." i come back and i show him the camera and he goes, "walk down the hall. there's a young woman with terminal cancer. she wanted a camera like this, so go give it to her." that is what my father was all about. and nobody talks about things like that in the family. all right, let's dig down into some of the specific incidents that have gotten a lot of publicity from your book. and one was that, when you were ten years old, you heard donald trump say a racial slur several times. he was angry about his car. i guess the first question i have on that is, do you think donald trump is a racist? if he used racist language, does that make him...? have you seen from your childhood that he had, you know, racial, racist views? let me answer it this way, if you don't mind. i was there that day and he was really angry. and there were two slash marks on the top of his eldorado convertible. and he had a roll of black electrical

tape in his hand to patch it up. and he used the n word twice. and that was disturbing enough to a ten—year—old to hear who had never used that word, and whose parents — my mum and dad — never used that word. but equally disturbing was the fact that donald did not know who did it. he just assumed it was someone who was black. so, is donald a racist? ijust think he espouses racial tendencies or espouses views that racists would have. i don't know if that makes him a racist. i have not heard him use that word since. he does, you know, surround himself sometimes with those racist people, and i don't know why he does it other than for his political advantage. now, there was another episode in this book where you talk about donald trump and you were discussing your son, william, with him. and he said that you ought tojust let william die. he doesn't recognise you any more. you should go to florida. how did that strike you? what would have prompted donald trump to say something like that?

a couple of years earlier than that story was when lisa... well, lisa was not there, but i took a group of advocates down to the oval office to meet with donald and the secretary of health and human services. and we had a very productive meeting talking about the issues we thought were important for the complex disability community. the meeting dispersed, and i was called back in a minute later and i was greeted by donald with the familiar, "hey, pal, how's it going?" and he took a minute and said, you know, "those people, the expenses, those people should just die." so it wasn't the first time i heard it. and if it wasn't bad enough to hear him say that about a group of people that he doesn't know, he said it about his grand nephew. a person that he had never met

and never asked to meet. and my thoughts were, how could anybody do this? and my response to him was, "no, donald, he does recognise me." and donald hates to lose, but to me he's the big loser in not having gotten to know my son william, who just exudes joy. in fact, his favourite song is my great music hero peter gabriel's road tojoy. so that's what william brings out in people. the trump campaign and their communications director, steven cheung, has denied these allegations in a statement. the statement i'll read to you: "this is completely fabricated and total fake news of the highest order. it is appalling a lie so blatantly disgusting can be printed in media. anyone who knows president trump knows he would never use such language." this is a reference to the racial slur. "and false stories like this have been thoroughly debunked. this is nothing more than a cheap

shot to sell copies of a book that belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section." and we discussed this a little bit before, but will you make money off this book and have these allegations been debunked? well, first of all, it's a nonfiction book. second of all, steven, as far as i can recall, was not there in 1972 to hear donald utter those words. and my guess is steven hasn't read the book to find out the real truth behind these stories. now, you mentioned january 6th was one of the reasons why you decided to write this book at this time. were you surprised by donald trump's decision to run for president again after that, and his success? i mean, he is now the republican nominee. it's been a journey for him over the past year and a half. were you surprised by it? no, not at all. not at all. and if you remember the day after he was inaugurated in 2017, he announced his candidacy for the next election. he... it didn't surprise me a bit.

and we'll see what happens with the election this year. if he loses, he ain't going to go down easy. you'll see the same old play. and he'll run again in 2028 if he doesn't get back into the oval office this time. which is why, i think you know, iam notjust voting for kamala harris, but i am endorsing her wholeheartedly and will campaign on her behalf. she's the only one right now that is standing between this country and something very dark and dystopian. and that's not hyperbole. she will... she will lead the charge to save the freedoms that we apparently, or at least in the country i know, cherishes. now, you've known donald trump your entire life. you've watched him and his political career. a lot was made ofjoe biden's age and his declining competency

in the view of his critics in the past few months. has donald trump changed in your view? having watched him growing up, watched him in 2015 and 2016 when his campaigning, in 2020 was when he was campaigning? is he still the same person now that he was then? i've always marvelled at his energy. and he was in — like me — the rough and tumble real estate industry in new york for decades. i knew his hours. i knew how hard he worked. being in the white house is something completely different, and i think he underestimated what it would take to be president. to answer your question — sure, i've seen him slow down. i see him look older. who wouldn't? ok, this is not a personal thing. who wouldn't?

what do you think another trump presidency would look like? you got a pretty close first hand view of it the first time around, those four years. you mentioned how you had been in the oval office on multiple times. do you think it's going to be more of the same? do you think it's going to be different? oh, i think it'll be different for several reasons. i think his base now is even more amped up than it was. they're almost leading the charge for him to go hard crazy. he's also surrounding himself with, as i call them, the merry band of miscreants — advisors who are fully on board with him. and he is surrounding himself with people who will make sure that that comes into play, which is why we need to fight back and make sure that doesn't happen. now, it seems like a lifetime ago, but it was only about three and a half weeks that donald trump was nearly assassinated in pennsylvania. what was your reaction when you heard that? how did you hear about it? what emotions were going through your head as you found out? my older son texted me. i was horrified. i was glad he was safe. my second thought was, there is absolutely no place

for violence in our politics — in any country. i did, several hours later... i wanted to wait a while. not that things settled down right away, but ijust wanted to wait. and i reached out to his assistant, who i've known for a number of years, and just wanted to pass along the good wishes of lisa and me and the kids. and i said, "please pass along the message." and she said, "will do." and that's how i got to him. i'm thinking about that chekhov line about how every family is unhappy in different ways. and in a way, i mean, your book does paint a picture of an unhappy, unhealthy family. is this a sad story? you know, how is it for you sharing these kind of details publicly about the trouble within your own family? yeah, it's somewhat cathartic, if you will, but i'll go back to how embarrassed my family was about my father's alcoholism and how — ahem, excuse me — mary and i were treated

as second—class citizens. i look at it this way. the positive part is my family, my wife and my three kids, are terrific. they are low—key, hardworking people. so when the trump family is mentioned, it doesn't include us — and that's just fine by me. we have our great friends, we keep quiet. we just go about our business and enjoy each other. to me, that's the real positive part of this story. so do you think there's any way to repair your relationship with donald trump, or has that bridge been thoroughly burned at this point with the book and this tour and the public comments? if he was elected, i would go to the inauguration — maybe not as his guest, but it would be hypocritical of me not to, because my main goal right now is to advocate on people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. so i'll go into the lion's den if i have to. it's a bipartisan issue that has

to be forwarded in this country. so, fred trump iii, donald trump's nephew, i really appreciate you coming on and talking. thank you. good luck in the days ahead. anthony, also, i have a bit of a surprise for you. because i remember that you managed to get me some m&ms from the air force one. and so i thought while i was on my american travels — so i was out and about in colorado and then also in baltimore for this new why do you hate me usa series i'm doing, investigating the social media backdrop to the election — and that meant i found myself at one point actually going and looking at an election centre and like some of the machines and all this sorts of stuff, and they obviously had a fair bit of memorabilia. but what i've got you is a pin badge, and it's got a sort of kind of canyon—y, mountain—y—type look. and it says jefferson county coordinated election november the 2nd, 2021. so they had pin badges for every single vote they've had, whether it's like a presidential

election, other votes, other local votes. and there were all kinds of different styles, and i thought i'd get you one that was niche, because i feel like you would appreciate that. like, i wasn'tjust going to get you a basic, you know, presidential election one. i think that doesn't test your political knowledge enough. so i've got your very niche... it sounds very niche. it's quite niche. i'll send you a picture of it. but november 2nd is my birthday, so this is actually a very appropriate pin. yeah. you know, every so often my, my birthday falls on election day. one of the downfalls of being a politicaljournalist with a birthday in november is that usually my birthday gets bigfooted by, by presidential campaigns, but very rarely does it actually fall on my actual birthday. so that's such good luck. that's such good luck that i got you that. 0k, great. 0k.

brilliant. it's an even better pin than i anticipated. almost as good as the m&ms. not quite. well, that's all we have time for today. all of our episodes are available on bbc sound, so go and listen. see you all later. americast. americast from bbc news. hello there! saturday saw a good deal of cloud across england and wales, but for the next couple of days temperatures are going to spike. it's going to get hotter, it's going to get more humid, not everywhere, because there will be some heavy rain and some thunderstorms as well. but the reason we're getting this sudden rise in temperature is because of a change in the jet stream position. it's been quite straight over the past few days, but it is now buckling and we're going to be on the warmer side of the jet, drawing the heat up all the way from france and spain, and with a southerly breeze picking up, temperatures will be rising on sunday. more sunshine around, fewer showers in northern scotland, some patchy cloud further south early mistiness along the south

coast, but it's going to be a warmer day everywhere. the highest temperatures will be in england and wales widely the mid 20s, could get close to 30 degrees, though as early as sunday afternoon in the south east of england, and the heat continues to build. humidity too overnight ahead of this weatherfront, which brings the threat of a few thunderstorms into western areas on sunday night. but it's going to be a really uncomfortable night for sleeping. these are the minimum temperatures on sunday night. you've got the high humidity across central and eastern areas of england as well. could be a few storms overnight. we're looking at some wetter weather and some thunder and lightning on monday to move eastwards. now, it looks like it's mainly affecting the northern half of the uk. there'll be some cloud and maybe some showers in wales, the southwest, but towards the southeast it's still dry and sunny and the heat and humidity is going to be

at its worst, really, across the midlands, across lincolnshire, east anglia, in the south east, 3a degrees is likely so the hottest day of the year. that heat may get pushed away overnight. there are more weather fronts coming into the picture on tuesday. these will bring some cloud and some rain away from northern ireland, pushing into scotland, heading into western parts of england and wales but towards the south east midlands, but towards the southeast midlands, east anglia. it's going to be dry, there'll be sunshine, it's still very warm, just not as hot or as humid as monday is going to be. but we start to see some weather fronts coming in from the atlantic. then the first one then just sort of grinds to a halt really on tuesday and into wednesday. little wave on it. so it's not really moving very far. this is where we've got the zone of cloud and some rain for a while, and first thing on wednesday. it does become drier here though, and it's still quite warm temperatures in the mid 20s. but another band of rain comes into scotland and northern ireland, dropping the temperatures here very much wetter towards the northwest. that weather front then weakens

as it pushes across. there's another kink, another weather system arriving from the atlantic on thursday. some early sunshine, particularly in the east, does tend to cloud over. we get rain coming into northern ireland, into western scotland, and this rain pushes into england and wales as well. so if anything, the weather on thursday going downhill a bit and those temperatures are going downhill as well, maybe a little below average. so quite a change from what we're seeing in the next day or two. and that's because the jet stream is straightening a little bit as well. it's running over the uk, keeping things a little more unsettled, keeping the warmer air well to the south of us, and cooler air more across northern areas where we'll have stronger winds. a bit of rain from time to time. can't rule out some rain in the outlook across the southern half of the uk, but pressure here will be a little bit higher, and temperatures here won't be quite as low as in the north.

such live from paris. such this is bbc news. the final day of the paris olympics is under way — and it was gold for the netherlands�* sifan hassan in the women's marathon. there are 12 more gold medals up for grabs ahead of the closing ceremony. as the city of lights prepares to hand over to the city of angels, the stade de france will host the closing ceremony which is set to feature performances from billie eilish and snoop dogg.

we'll have all the latest across the day. i'm nicky schiller in london, the other main news this hour... russia carries out overnight attacks inside ukraine, killing two people in kyiv — as ukraine's president zelensky confirms his military is on the offensive inside russia. the funeral takes place today of nine year—old alice da silva aguiar one of the three young girls killed in the southport knife attack that sparked violent protests in the uk. us vice—president, kamala harris, adds her voice to international condemnation of the loss of civilian life in saturday's deadly israeli air strike on a school compound in gaza. a very warm welcome to paris. it's the final day of the olympics — can you believe it.