hello. you're watching "gmt" on "bbc world news." i'm tim wilcox. our top stories. hitting islamic state's financial empire. among the targets overnight, oil installations by the group that target tens of millions of dollars each week. >> i'm on the turkey-syria border. one of those air strikes hit an oil refinery just 80 or so kilometers from our position here, but just how successful will those air strikes be in disrupting islamic state's financial pipeline?

more than a million more people are put under quarantine in sierra leone as the number of dead in the ebola outbreak nears 3,000. we'll be speaking to an aid worker just back from the region. new figures reveal an alarming rise in mass shoot ngs the united states. we're in colorado asking why new strict gun laws aren't being enforced.we're in colorado askiw strict gun laws aren't being enforced. aaron is taking a look at some unwelcome curves in business. >> apple may have celebrated selling ten million new iphones last weekend, but now a problem. bend-gate. complaints from around the world that this is happening to the new iphone 6 plus. on top of that, apple's got some new software programs. so we're going to take a look at all of this with one of our tech gurus. hello. it is midday here in london.

7:00 a.m. in washington. 2:00 p.m. in syria, where overnight air strikes have struck at the heart of islamic state's financial empire. u.s., saudi, and emirates jets targeted oil refineries that generate tens of millions of dollars each week. used to fund islamic state operations. syrian opposition activists say 14 militants and five civilians were killed in the latest round of attacks. 12 small scale refineries were hit in areas of eastern syria in an assault on the group's financial estimates. the pentagon estimates they were producing oil worth up to $2 million a day and it's confirmed that war planes from three countries were involved in the attack. let's go to the turkey-syria border to clive mirey. i'm sorry. we seem to have a few problems with our communications there with clive on the border. we'll try and go back to him in

a moment. let's go to this report by our correspondent. >> reporter: at the united nations, a day focused on the threat of islamic state. iraq's prime minister made a direct appeal for help so the british prime minister david cameron is recalling parliament to ask for approval to participate in air strikes against the militants in iraq. in the general assembly hall, he was already rehearsing for the case he'll be making on friday in the house of commons. >> we must not be so frozen with fear that we don't do anything at all. isolation and withdrawing from a problem like isil will only make matters worse. we must not allow past mistakes to become an excuse for indifference or inaction. >> reporter: american jets have been targeting the islamic state in iraq since early august. the french are taking part and the dutch are sending f-16s.

but the u.s. has expanded its campaign to syria, hitting militants and oil refineries. europe is not following suit there just yet. president obama has slowly been building his coalition. he also chaired a rare u.n. security council session of heads of state to pass a resolution to stop the recruitment and funding of foreign fighters joining the islamic state. >> what brings us together today, what is new is the unprecedented flow of fighters in recent years to and from conflict zones. >> reporter: president obama worked hard here all day to emphasize unity. but there are divisions in this coalition, particularly when it comes to military action beyond iraq in syria. arab countries are already involved in strikes there with the americans, but many arab leaders want an end game that involves dealing with president assad.

let's get more on this with our diplomatic correspondent jonathan marcus, who joins us from the newsroom. the international coalition building, who else needs to come onboard, and what about the legal parameters of hitting syria as opposed to iraq, which is the british view? >> well, the legal arguments are different when it comes to iraq and syria. iraq is relatively simple. the iraqi government has requested assistance, and that is now being provided. with syria, there are some arguments you could make potentially that the threat to iraq is coming from syria. syria has no effective government, so you could argue that air strikes would be quite legal there. i think this is part of the american justification. equally, of course, the americans would argue that they are striking at groups in syria which they believe are a direct threat to them. >> when you look at the meeting yesterday chaired by president

obama, did the process move forward significantly, or are we just seeing an underlining of what had been agreed a few days ago? >> no, i think the process is moving forward slowly. it's building momentum gradually. i think it's very important this isn't just the military campaign, so you've seen steps taken at the united nations to emphasize that measures must be enacted to stop people going out and volunteering from around the world for islamic state. we've seen action in the battle for ideas, if you want to call it that, with this declaration from 100 muslim scholars, absolutely in their view refuting the ideology of islamic state, and we've also seen more recently military efforts to begin to choke off islamic state's funding. these attacks on a number of small oil refineries in a remote eastern part of syria. this is an important means for islamic state raising funds. remember, this is one of the richest of these kinds of groups

that we've ever seen because of its multiple sources of revenue. the americans have followed the trail of these oil and petrol smuggling operations from iraq and syria into southern turkey. the turks seem to be rather reticent about doing anything about it themselves, so the americans and some of their arab allies have now begun to strike actually at the small oil refineries themselves to put them out of action. >> is there a realization in the diplomatic circles you've been speaking to that there will need to be troops on the ground? of course the question is who will go in. but the timeframe here is really extremely long when you're considering training up. for example, free syrian army fighters. that could take months or years, couldn't it? >> there's no doubt, it will take months, several months. the americans and others have been very clear about that. obviously efforts to rebuild key parts of the iraqi army are

beginning to take some considerable time. i think there are no illusions about this. the term boots on the ground is in many way a misleading term. what they really mean by that when western governments say it is they don't mean major combat involvement on the ground by western forces. they're not going to come and do the iraqis fighting for them. that is going to be down to the iraqi military peshmerga fighters themselves. >> okay, jonathan marcus, thank you very much indeed. let's get more on this now, in particular those oil installations that have been struck overnight. how damaging will that be to islamic state? with me is tom keating, associate fellow at the royal united services institute specializing in finance and security. the pentagon says $2 million a day more or less being generated. how significant is that revenue in terms of funding the group?

>> i was very surprised to see that number, because the general consensus is that isis is earning 2 to $3 million a day from the oil across the area, and a small number of refineries have been hit. so i would be surprised if it really is a loss of $2 million a day. what is clear is oil is a major funding resource for them and the tactic is also clear, which is to destroy all those refineries, whether the oil is being smuggled through turkey, whether it's been traded through the assad regime in a marriage of convenience. >> is that the case? many people suggest that that is happening, that assad because of sanctions is having to buy oil from islamic state. >> if you look at the oil infrastructure of syria, it's very interesting. assad controls many of the major refineries, the islamic state and others control oil fields and therefore if they're going to make the money that they want to make from selling oil and getting the petrol and so on that the assad regime needs, they need to trade with each other. >> and islamic state has also reported to have been paid protection money for some of the

regime's oil pipelines as well. can you explain that in a bit more detail? an extraordinary relationship between enemies. >> it's highly complex and the international community's relationship on this topic is highly complex just as it is on the ground. so obviously oil infrastructure is fixed. and therefore if you want to take oil out of a country, you need to basically use that infrastructure. there are reports of new pipelines being built, very sort of makeshift pipelines being built. but basically, the major infrastructure needs to be used by whoever wants to take oil out of the country. therefore it's in your interest to make sure that infrastructure remains protected. >> so islamic state fighters are protecting oil pipelines going directly to president assad. >> clearly, because that's the way that oil moves around most efficiently. >> in terms of the other funding, they've taken out several banks in mosul. several billion dollars there as well. do we have any idea about where those cash reserves are being kept and what sort of salaries islaming state is paying its

fighters? >> it's important to bear in mind that islamic state is funding itself internally. there's a lot of talk about donations from overseas. maybe now that islamic state has become more popular, but as you say, banks have been raided. the infrastructure there is staying in place. so again, cash is being kept in banks and the like. what are they paying their fighters? i would say enough, because frankly, islamic state will continue to control the territory it controls as long as people want to support it and money will play a major role. >> some reports, about a thousand dollars a month to fighters, which is a significant sum. >> it is a significant sum. if you look in other conflicts, al shabab in syria, you hear $300 or $400 a month. as chuck hagel said, this is the best funded terrorist organization we've ever come across, so they can afford to pay top dollar. >> thank you very much indeed. >> thank you. >> you can get more on the website about islamic state. lots of analysis, including

extra background on the khorasan group, militants that the united states has also been targeting in the air strikes on syria. bbc.com/news. in other news now, the french government has confirmed that islamist militants have murdered a tourist they were holding in algeria. the group linked to islamic state released a video showing herve gourdel being beheaded after a deadline they set for france to hold air strikes in iraq to run out. francois hollande described the murder as a barbaric act. petro poroshenko has said his country will apply to join the european union in 2020. ukraine will set in place a number of political and economic forums to prepare for membership. they also ordered a temporary closure of the border with russia in order to halt the alleged smuggling of weapons into the east. stay with us here on "bbc

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to west africa now, where the ebola crisis appears to be escalating. authorities in sierra leone, one of the worst affected nations, have announced a further lockdown in the bid to battle the disease. with two districts already under quarantine, it means about a quarter of the population, that's 1.2 million people, are now unable to move freely. the world health organization has also just released new figures showing the ebola death toll has risen to 2,917. the w.h.o. says the situation is getting worse in sierra leone and liberia, but does appear to have stabilized in guinea.

this week, bbc world service radio launched a special daily program for people living in west africa. we'll be speaking to the presenter in a moment, but first, let's have a quick listen to that. >> hello, you're listening to the bbc world service, and this is news about ebola in west africa. over the next ten minutes, we'll have the latest developments on the ebola outbreak in sierra leone, guinea, and liberia. we'll hear firsthand about the challenges of trying to make people aware of the disease. >> she's in the studio alongside me now,a also alongside barry andrews. the projections get more alarming by the day. what were conditions like for you in freetown? >> the projections have got dramatically worse and the outside projection based on current trajectories is 1.4

million cases, in a worst case scenario, but the scene that we saw in freetown was very disturbing. the health workers, both local and expat, are having to work in quite frankly absolutely unacceptable conditions. the patients are having to endure tragedies on a daily basis, and it defies all human instinct for families that they have to not see their children again and bring them into hospitals and circumstances where, you know, all of your human instincts are to care for them, to do the things that we're trying to help people not to do. >> what is the difference between quarantine and lockdown, and is that the way forward, do you think? >> a quarantine is very draconian. the lockdown itself over the three days of last weekend was not as draconian as that. i would be of the view that the objectives against which the lockdown could be assessed were very modest. they were about sensitizing the population to the seriousness of

ebola, to the fact that it is dangerous. so some of those objectives were achieved but i don't believe that a quarantine is going to work. i believe it's very dangerous. it could lead to a large scale reaction among the public, because there is a disconnect between the authorities and the public and there's a potential for that to be fractured. >> kim, your program essential in getting information out to people. what are you hearing in terms of the cultural problems that are perpetuating the spread of this disease and how difficult is it to convince people that what they've done for centuries in terms of their traditions must be changed? >> well, i think if you take the example in guinea, where people have been eating bush meat for a very long time, and to suddenly come and disrupt their cultural practice, or bury your practices, which are very important to people south of guinea, people -- when someone dies, you can't touch the body for seven days and there's a

special designated person who has to deal with the body. so if health workers are coming in and covering the body in plastic, you can understand that there will be -- people will be unhappy about that because they will feel that it's disrupting the culture. >> one story i heard, apparently there's an islamic scholar who died. his body was washed and the water was used to wash the children because they were told that the knowledge of this wise man would be spread around them. are you addressing cases like that? >> i guess what we are trying to do in our program is bring the most up to date information, also bring some context to things. the example i can give is on tuesday we had the cdc giving these protections. this is the centers for disease control and prevention. saying up to 1.4 million people might contract the disease if it goes unchecked. you need to bring context to that, because if i heard these statistics, i would feel quite alarmed. so the program is trying to synthesize this information because there's a lot of information coming through and

gives some context. >> also the danger in terms of not only contracting ebola, but the danger physically in terms of threats for people working over there as well. >> we've seen a number of incidents over the last few days. there is the health risk of working as an aid worker, but also the security issues, and that is because of the interface between the description there of the cultural norms in west africa, confronted by what is the best advice for how to contain the translation of the illness. so the goal, for example, is training the police authorities in freetown. we're also training health workers to protect themselves. and also to treat patients and families with dignity and that's a critical part of it. but ultimately what these countries need is medical workers. they need funding. an emergency recruitment drive, we hope to be able to use in

order to scale up our response over the next few weeks. >> kim, how frightened are people? >> i think fear is a common theme. you're hearing from people both in the countries and you're hearing also other people who can't go back home, for example. in our show we heard from a liberian student whose family are in liberia and he's based in kenya studying there. he was just talking about how they could not attend his graduation because flights have been cancelled and he was telling us about the fear that his family felt there in liberia. >> thank you both very much for joining us on the program. now to another story in our series of reports from the bbc's traveling pop-up bureau, which is touring the united states, looking at some of america's underreported areas and bringing local stories to a global audience. today a study released by the fbi says the number of people killed or wounded in mass shootings in the u.s. has increased dramatically in recent years. the study was commissioned in

the wake of the mass shootings in the united states at the aurora cinema and sandy hook school in colorado. and the cinema shooting which took place in colorado, politicians have voted to been high-capacity magazines for guns. but two years on, the law isn't being enforced. >> people grew up with them. went with their father, their grandfather. those are good stories. i don't have a good story. my son went to the movies, like we always went on his birthday, and he didn't come out of the movie theater because of the availability of the weapons that are out here. >> reporter: tom's son alex was killed in this aurora cinema on july 20th, 2012. the shooter, james holmes, entered a screening of "bat man" with three weapons, including a 100-round magazine attached to a

semiautomatic rifle. 12 people were killed. 58 were wounded. >> you know, he was right where he was supposed to be, you know, on his birthday. every indication is, you know, he was having the time of his life. so you can't hide from this, and if you try to hide from it, it will find you. so what are we going to do? we're going to have to do something to make a change. >> reporter: the changes after mass shootings in aurora and sandy hook elementary school came last year. colorado politicians passed a law banning the future sale of ammunition magazines of more than 15 rounds. >> i just grew up this way. i can have horses. i can shoot. i can let the dogs run out in the backyard. it gives me the freedom i like. as a law-abiding citizen, i should be able to have as many rounds as it takes. this is what sits next to my bed

at night for self-defense. >> but out here, it doesn't seem like anyone is going to come over these hills and jump in your house for you to have to use this gun. >> probably not. if somebody did come out here to do me harm, i'm 30 minutes away from police response. >> criminals end up with weapons and so i think a member of the public should have at least the same ability to protect themselves. >> reporter: the county sheriffs of colorado tried and failed to overturn the law in court. they argued the law is impossible to enforce because so many magazines are already in circulation. worse, they can also be bought legally in neighboring states. >> my deputies can pull over an individual in a car with a box of 100 of those magazines in their back seat. but there's no way to prove that they had them before july 1st of 2013 or did they come up with them after.

the reality is we've got other things that we have to do. the chasing after law-abiding gun owners really wasn't a value. >> reporter: in the aftermath of aurora, gun control campaigners hoped colorado would lead the way. it's now clear the state's enduring love affair with guns is set to go on. david cameron will offer an apology in person to the queen after being caught on camera giving details of a private conversation. television microphones picked up mr. cameron saying the queen was purring down the line when he phoned her with the results of the scottish referendum. downing street said it has already contacted buckingham palace to offer mr. cameron's apologies and it's understood that mr. cameron will say sorry in person when he next meets the queen for one of his regular

audiences. you're watching "gmt" with me, tim wilcox. in the next half-hour, we'll be speaking live to the pentagon spokesman admiral john kirby about the air strikes against islamic state and the coalition's long-term strategy. stay with us. (vo) if you have type 2 diabetes, you may know what it's like to deal with high... and low blood sugar. januvia (sitagliptin) is a once-daily pill that, along with diet and exercise, helps lower blood sugar.

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welcome to "gmt" on "bbc world news." i'm tim wilcox. coming up in this half-hour, overnight strikes against islamic state, oil installations in syria. i'll be asking pentagon spokesman rear admiral john kirby what the coalition's long-term strategy is and for how long it can continue. and, not being john malkovich. the hollywood actor featured in a serious recreating of more than 40 iconic photographs and it's gone viral around the

world. also in the program, aaron is back looking at the world of gaming. >> absolutely, tim. we know there's a huge market, some $70 billion. this year, the number of gamers will be more than 1.2 billion people. the biggest gaming meeting in europe kicks off right here today in london, so we're going to speak to a gaming legend to find out what these billion or so people are looking for. hello, and welcome back to "gmt." let's go back to our main story. the latest round of air strikes in syria that have hit oil refineries used to finance islamic state operations. among the targets overnight were 12 refineries controlled by the group that generate tens of millions of dollars each week. war planes from the united states, saudi arabia, and the united arab emirates were involved in the attack.

let's go to the pentagon in washington, speak to the pentagon's press secretary, rear admiral john kirby. thank you very much indeed for joining us on "gmt." are these the 12 most significant oil installations run by islamic state? >> i don't know if i'd characterize them as the 12 most significant, but they certainly are significant to helping isil fund itself through these black market oil revenues. they have others, but these 12 are the 12 that we decided to strike yesterday. they are, as you said, in eastern syria and remote areas. we are still doing a battle damage assessment to see how well the strikes went, but all the aircraft performed as expected and landed safely after it was over. >> and how many militants were killed and indeed how many civilians? >> well, we don't know about how many militants might have been killed in those strikes. i want to stress the purpose of the strikes was not to kill militants necessarily so much as

it was to destroy their ability to use these refineries and the capabilities that go with them and to make money from them. we don't have any indications from these strikes of civilian casualties, but we take that very seriously and we'll investigate thoroughly. >> a sudden flurry of activity diplomatically. shouldn't you have done this two years ago? >> well, look, in the pentagon here, we don't do a lot of what we call monday morn quarterbacking here in america. we're focused on the task at hand, the mission we've been given and the mission we've been given is to put the pressure on isil, to go on the offense against them and that's what we're focused on. >> yeah, but had you done this before, we wouldn't be where we are in potency of this group. >> that's a hypothetical. i don't think anybody can try to predict what might have happened differently if we had done something differently. i mean, we're really just focused on the mission at hand, and what i can tell you is now, as we speak today, we know we're putting pressure on these guys.

we also know that they're still pretty potent and well organized and this is going to be a long struggle. >> you're putting pressure on the group, but you've even got the figures wrong in the last few weeks. >> in terms of numbers of fighters. you said from ten to roughly 30,000, is that what you mean? >> yeah. >> the intel community has been watching these guys for quite some time. we've been watching them for quite some time. we believe their recruiting has increased in the last couple of months, based on the gains -- >> forgive me. you've been watching for some time, and you got numbers wrong by a third. >> the intel community -- look, intelligence is never perfect. it's a layered process. it's not a science. and we're constantly watching -- >> we know that from the first. >> one of the things we've done in iraq is increase our isir in the country. that kind of stuff has helped us, plus, we've plugged in more

to local groups who have helped us learn more. we admit that this group moved fast and we needed to learn a little bit faster than we have, so we're gaining more knowledge about them every single day. >> it's a long, sustained campaign, you've made that clear in everything you've said publicly about these strikes. how long is it going to take to train the free syrian army to put boots on the ground? because you're not going to do this by air strikes alone, are you? >> absolutely not. in fact, you're not going to do this through military power alone. we've been very clear about that. military power, american or otherwise, is only going to take you so far against a group like this. first of all, i want to say that there is a moderate opposition inside syria, and that moderate opposition is being threatened by isil and they are fighting isil. yes, their focus is largely on the assad regime. there's no question about that. we just got authorization, as you know a week ago from congress, to begin a train and equip program for that moderate opposition, which we're going to get started very soon. >> how long is that going to take to enact? >> beginning to take us about three to five months to recruit

and to vet the trainees and get them into the pipeline, and the pipeline itself is going to take probably eight to 12 months. so it's going to be a little while before they're back into the field. >> this is a group, though, that your president refused to counter with non-lethal aid because he mistrusted them and what they could do in terms of the chaos on the ground. >> we have been supporting the moderate opposition, not the u.s. military, but the government of the united states has been supporting them for quite some time with different manners of aid. we know we've got to work on this train and equip program and we'll do that. >> what difference does the british likely decision to join in these air strikes and indeed with other military capacity? what difference is that going to make? >> look, we have no greater ally and no deeper friendship than the one that we enjoy with the united kingdom. and great britain has been with us in the last few months in iraq in various capacities. obviously it's up to the british government to decide and characterize how they will

support the coalition, but they have been already a huge supporter and we look forward to working with them as it goes forward. any capacity, any military capability that the british bring to the fore, bring to the fight is always welcome and always tangible. >> rear admiral, we must leave it there. thank you very much indeed for joining us on "gmt." >> thanks for having me. hundreds of syrian refugees who crossed into turkey to escape islamic state fighters are now trying to return home. our correspondent mark lowen is on the turkish border with syria. he sent this report. >> reporter: another crowd of people are cueing up, waiting to cross this border crossing and to go back into syria, hoping to return to their hometown of kobane. these are syrian kurds. some of the 140,000 who have fled syria into turkey in the last five or six days. and now some of them are trying to return home, some to fight

with the kurdish michigan on the other side. hoping to repel the islamic state militants. others simply to see family and friends that they've left behind in kobane. they're taking belongings with them, anything they can carry. people of every age now trying to go back. it is still a small number in comparison to the 140,000 or so who have flooded over this border from syria into turkey. the fact that they're going back. when you ask them whether they feel safe enough to return, they say they don't feel safe, that the islamic state fighters are still there, but such is their desperation to return that they're willing to take the risk. you can see a pretty chaotic situation as the turkish troops open a part of the border crossing. and people are crossing under that barbed wire fence. a surge now as they try to go back into syrian territory. remember, these are kurds who do not want to be here. kurds and turks fought a civil war for 30 years that killed

40,000 people. they're here out of necessity rather than desire. but now every day you're seeing more and more people trying to go back in syria. pretty chaotic. turkish troops on standby in case of mounting tension. alongside me, aaron, i'm looking forward to this business. >> look at what i've got. >> tell me more. >> ten million of the new iechbs were sold. apple has been rejoicing. some problems right now.iphones. apple has been rejoicing. some problems right now. huge commercial success that is threatening to turn into a public relations disaster. apple was business haling its best ever weekend of sales, until bend-gate. yes, a spate of complaints on social media that the new

flagship iphone 6-plus can be bent easily. well, when you put it in your back pocket. and it is a bit of a double whammy for apple because there's been an uproar over its new software update. dave lee, great to have you on the program. you've got the other one. the problem with the bend is this one. i would imagine they're doing all sorts of tests. >> the challenge is to make it the thinnest, the lightest, the best-looking. i guess the tradeoff is you've got a thin phone that can bend in your pocket. the problem affects this one worse than the smaller one. >> it's a bigger size in terms of the thickness. how widespread is this bend problem? >> there's lots of people on twitter saying they have the problem, lots of people

wondering whether they can take them back to the store and have their money back. it is a problem. i'm worried you're going to break that one in front of me. apple haven't said anything about that yet. we're still waiti ining for the response in terms of how they're going to deal with it. >> that's the thing. could make some money from that. or supply a case for it. >> yes, that's happened in the past. there's been an issue with antenna on certain iphones where if you're holding it in a certain way, the signal would drop out. their suggestion was hold it differently, or they provided a case that meant you didn't have to hold it in the same way. what they're going to do with this one, i'm not sure. >> i'm no bodybuilder, but that's quite tough. a double whammy we've been mentioning. the software. this new ios 8 software, what's happening there? >> the new software they launched at the same time as this to make the phones more up

to date, they've recently added a patch to that, an extra update to it. there's been some problems. it's caused phones from stop being able to make phone calls. a fairly standard for a phone. we called that smaller update until they fixed those. it's kind of embarrassing for apple. immediately hasn't worked for them. >> so these two problems combined, will they have much of a dent, much of an impact? >> any launch like this, particularly apple, any launch like this, people are looking for those things. a bit of controversial. the kind of egg in the face for apple. long-term, probably won't have much of an issue. a massive week of sales in the first few days. in real terms, financially probably won't be too bothered. embarrassing for the brand but no big problem at all. >> do you want to hang into this? it's got a bend. i don't want that lousy product. good stuff. thank you for joining me, dave lee, one of our tech gurus. let's stay with technology. the biggest gaming meeting in

europe kicks off right here, not in bbc, but in london. today, over the next few days, over 70,000 gamers will be visiting egx london to see the latest gaming titles showcased alongside gaming technology. take a look at this. the gaming sector now achieves over $70 billion in global revenues. that's actually bigger than the movie industry. the number of gamers is expected to surpass 1.2 billion people by the end of the year. where do they really love playing games? growth in game spending is highest in latin america and the asia pacific region. go figure. so what are the gamers most excited about this week? it might have been an '80s phenomena, but now elite is making a comeback. i spoke earlier to the founder and ceo of frontier developments and the maker of elite, that legendary game from the '80s and this is what he told me. listen to this. >> gatherings like egx are really important to the industry because people can come and meet

their friends there and make a real occasion of it. the wonderful thing with the games industry is it's forever changing. i've been in it for 30 years. every single year there's been something new. now is no different. we're moving to headset displays, back to pcs. all these changes are wonderful. we're seeing new kinds of games where we haven't seen those for quite a while coming back and taking over the dominance of games which actually to be honest were all quite similar to each other. i'm a big gamer, and i found games like call of duty and battlefield to actually have got into a bit of a rut. something like elite dangerous will change that a lot. it's great to see success here in the uk with things like eurogamer x player. developers can make money here, but it's like the music industry. some people make enough money to live off. some make a lot of money. it's quite a distribution. it depends whether you've got

something that's unique. something that captures people's imagination. if you can do that, you can do really well. sold to microsoft for $2.5 billion. that's a lot of money. >> he didn't do too bad as well. i asked him about that. china and spain are set to sign business deals worth $3.8 billion. going to sign that in beijing. the spanish prime minister is visiting the asian giant and drum up support for the country's economy. they'll sign a total of around 14 deals. bp will not be able to recoup any payments it made in compensation for the gulf of mexico oil spill. that's a ruling by the judge. the british oil giant argued that nearly 800 businesses had received excessive payments under a flawed funding formula. there you go. lots going on. you can get me @bbcaaron.

that's it with the business. what have you got there? >> a phone. it's straight. but i quite like it bent. just like an old fashioned phone. could be the new way forward. still to come, we'll be finding out what the world thinks of sir richard branson's offer to take as much holiday leave as they want. eenie. meenie. miney. go. more adventures await in the seven-passenger lexus gx. see your lexus dealer.

now, that's progressive. you're watching "gmt." i'm tim wilcox. our top stories this hour. the pentagon spokesman rear admiral john kirby has told this program it will take up to 12 months to vet, train, and put back in the field moderate syrian opposition fighters. he also said that islamic state is still potent and

well-organized. 1/3 of sierra leone's population is in quarantine as the government steps up the fight to contain the ebola outbreak. now, whether we like our jobs or not, it's probably safe to say that most of us would rather spend less time in this environment, and more time somewhere, well, a bit like this. if your boss happens to be richard branson, it could be time to pack your bags. not only does he have an island like that, and he's not afraid of making headlines, of course. he is offering his personal staff as much holiday as they want for as long as they want it. apparently there was no need to ask for approval nor say when they plan to return. the assumption being that the absence wouldn't damage the firm. i mean, it sounds like a dream job, doesn't it? is there any precedent to show that this does work?

>> it does sound really radical. i think there is certain beauty in the fact that virgin can announce something like this without any policy around it. but have no doubt how much work went in before to create the organization environment and the trusting culture where an employee can have this relationship, an employee doesn't take too much holiday to affect the work. >> but it's not going to work, is it, if everyone wants to take holiday at the same time. and presumably there will be some people who say look, i will take a month off and firms won't be allowed to let them go because they're essential for running the firm. >> it seems like virgin will be allowing them. one strategy, you can overstaff and always have people on hold, just to cover for the absentees. >> that's expensive. >> yes. i think this is why i think what virgin is doing, creating this mutual relationship, a win/win scenario, where they're indicating to their employees that they're investing trust in them and allowing them to control their working patterns. but i imagine they expect in

turn a certain level of respect. >> presumably, some of them will be spending on an island a bit like this. when it comes to other firms and the trust factor, netflix i think has done it. do we know how that model has worked there? >> another example of this would be a time-out, they would give you a four-week block of unpaid leave. but they would also say, this is to give something back to the employees, and they base it on the principles of trust, open communication, and the reciprocity between the employer and employee. >> but if you are working, say, in a factory and you've got a repetitive job, it couldn't applying could it? because you could be part of the whole -- the whole band of producing work.

>> i think what we're observing is work is becoming more competitive. >> for creatives, in other words. >> you're more likely to find peaks and troughs in demand. some you can deal with by having additional workers. and some with just having the conversation without any policy with your employee when they're needed and when not. >> okay. i can't see the bbc adopting it. but let's live and hope. thank you very much indeed. you might recognize one or two of the pictures behind me, but they are not quite as they seem. that's because they are recreations of iconic photographs, all futuull featur actor john malkovich. the bbc has been speaking to the photographer sandro miller. >> wait a minute. this is malkovich. this isn't warhol. the project malkovich malkovich malkovich, it's truly about me paying homage to those 30-plus

photographs that over my 40-year career has completely changed the way i look and think about photography. my mind began to think, what if i recreated those images with john malkovich? john is willing to experiment and has no fear, and when he would get in front of the camera, i would see john with the fullest of confidence transform himself into marilyn monroe. betty davis. the migrant worker. salvador dali. picasso. he researched the hair and makeup. i mean, we brought hair in from all over the country and had to have a seamstress build each piece of clothing. we took every shot. we needed to dissect that shot, take a look and really figure out where was that photographer at that time? what kind of light was he using? my goal was to stay as true to

what a photographer could use back then. most of the time, getting ready for each of these shots would be about a two-hour time for hair and makeup. and john would study these photographs that we'd put on the mirror and i could see john go there. he would go to that time and place and he would become that person. i think one that really amazes me is the diane arbis twins shot. just to see the difference in the mind of both of those twins. one accepting the photographer. and maybe enjoying the moment for a little bit, while the other one shows fear and hesitation. john nailed both of those expressions from those twins beautifully. in today's world with the internet, we are absolutely bombarded with imagery. everyone's become a photographer. instagram has gone actually crazy. it's tough to see all this work

come out and most of it with no thought behind it. i was hoping that maybe i might be able to recreate a little bit of awareness, again, of classic, moving iconic imagery. not just putting an image out to put an image out. but let's think about it. let's think about what we're capturing here. let's have an idea. >> the photographer sandro miller on john malkovich being lots of other people. you're watching "gmt." a reminder of our main stories. the latest round of air strikes that have hit oil refineries used to finance islamic state operations. here on "gmt," we spoke live to rear admiral john kirby at the pentagon about those air strikes against islamic state. here's some of what he had to say. >> i mean, we're really just focused on the mission at hand. and what i can tell you is now as we speak today, we know we're putting pressure on these guys. we also know that they're still pretty potent.

they're pretty capable. still well-resourced. still well-organized and this is going to be a long struggle. >> the pentagon spokesman, rear admiral john kirby. that's it from "gmt." for our team here in london, see you soon. (vo) you are a business pro. maestro of project management. baron of the build-out. you need a permit... to be this awesome. and you...rent from national.

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