hello, and welcome to "gmt" on "bbc world news." our top stories. hong kong's rulers offer to talk to pro-democracy demonstrators, but the standoff on the streets goes on. amid continued street scuffles, protesters accuse the chief minister of playing for time, while hong kongers count the cost of continued tension. and i'm babita sharma live in hong kong. demonstrators are still on the street. as yet, still no dialogue between the government and the

protesters. remember, always wash your hands before you eat. >> texas sounds the alarm over the spread of ebola, as a victim of the virus receives treatment in dallas. aaron's here with all the business, including a look at the impact of that ebola virus on african tourism. >> yeah, absolutely. needless to say, it's been hit extremely hard. but here is the problem for the continent. because even thousands of miles away from that outbreak in west africa, countries like south africa are now reporting a drop in foreign visitors. so we've got a special report from freetown in sierra leone. a very warm welcome to "gmt." it's midday here in london, 7:00 a.m. in washington, and 7:00 p.m. in hong kong, where the pro-democracy street protests

seem to be at a crossroads. do they take seriously the authority's offer of talks, or do they continue to put bodies on the streets and demand the resignation of the chief minister? well, right now, as you can see from these live pictures, there are still crowds on the street. hong kong remains tense. there have been scuffles on those streets in the last few hours, but the numbers manning the barricades have gone down. now we can cross to hong kong, my colleague babita sharma is there. following all the latest developments. over to you, babita. >> reporter: a week has passed and yet again the demonstrators are still occupying one of the main routes behind me here in the heart of hong kong's financial district. but the question now is whether or not the umbrella revolution, as it's now known, is losing its steam, because we are nowhere near the numbers that we saw at

the start of the week. we're also getting reports of shuffles breaking out. i think we can bring you pictures coming from the mongkok district, about 20 minutes away from where we are by the mtr, the tram network here. and we understand that the scuffles broke out between anti-occupy demonstrators and pro-democracy campaigners. we're not quite clear on the numbers involved, but we are getting unconfirmed reports that it could be around 100. as yet, our understanding is that the authorities have not been involved in trying to separate the two sides there, but those minor scuffles breaking out in the last hour or so. but back here in the financial district, as you can see, numbers like we were just saying, thin on the ground. a few hundred still occupying the offices just outside -- sorry, not occupying. i should be clear about that. they've gathered outside of the offices of the chief executive

c.y. leung, who has become the focus of the demonstrators' attention. they called for him to resign. he overnight said he would engage in conversation with the demonstrators, but as yet, so far today, there has been no sign of any political dialogue between the two sides. of course, the demonstrators continue to be back out on the streets. one of them joins me now, a 19-year-old. you've been here for a number of days. you've also been collecting customized handmade signs that have been given to you, showing support. what have they been saying? >> they have many of comments, especially about world democracy in hong kong. they have to fight. it's not a real democracy. >> reporter: there was enough there to talk between the two sides.

we understand that no conversation has taken place. are you concerned that talks will even happen? >> yes. yesterday, they made a response to us, but we still are very angry about it. they have not really responded to our concerned. it has only led us to be tired and waiting us to go and give up. but all of our hong kong students will not give up until a real democracy. >> reporter: how long are you going to stay out here? >> three days already. >> reporter: and how many more days? >> i don't know. we will sit until the government has a reasonable response to us. >> reporter: what is a reasonable response?

what are you hoping to achieve here? >> all hong kong people have a chance to choose our leader of hong kong. it's not chosen by china governme government. because the lead er is leading us. >> reporter: helen, do you really think anything is going to change here? >> final results will reveal. but until now, i can see the hong kong has some change already. people -- awareness about democracy. and our citizens are all peaceful. >> reporter: thank you very much, helen. thank you for joining us. one of the many demonstrators that are continuing their protests, asking, of course,

china to listen to those calls for democracy. it's interesting to take a look now at how mainland china are covering the events that are unfolding here. the main newspaper of china's ruling communist party has said democracy protests here in hong kong are doomed to fail. and the people's daily said there is no room to compromise on plans to change the way the territory elects its next leader in 2017. with more on this, here's the bbc's celia hatton from beijing. >> reporter: china's leadership has actually made very few direct comments about the hong kong protests since they began. china's president mentioned hong kong in a speech, but only to say that china would safeguard the territory's stability and prosperity. instead, if we want to know beijing's stance on the protests, we have to look to china's state media, and in particular, "the people's daily." this is a state newspaper that's thought to be the mouthpiece of the communist party. and in today's editorial, the

language was particularly fiery, saying the protests were doomed to fail, there was no room for compromise, and that beijing would not change its stance on its decision to hand-pick candidates who would run for office for hong kong's top job in 2017. said that decision was unchallengeable. so if the bosses in beijing won't budge and the protests simply die off, it's safe to say the communist leaders come out the clear winners. they've managed to effectively censor news of the protests in china's mainland and stop the spread of the protests across china. just yesterday, our bbc team in beijing was blocked from attending an artist gathering that was meant to show support for the hong kong protests. we know that at least five of the organizers of that event were detained, and so far, several of those people have yet to be in contact with their worried friends and family. and who knows how many other people in china who wanted to

show support for the hong kong protests have also quietly been taken away by the mainland authorities. >> reporter: celia hatton there in beijing on how mainland china report on the events here. a lot of the images coming out of hong kong in the last week have gone viral. instagram, facebook, twitter very much being played out on social media here. the protesters continue. they say they're going to carry on into the weekend. as we were saying, the numbers are a lot less here. in the heart of the financial district, when hong kong went back to work today after a two-day public holiday. interesting to see how that is going to impact on the financial district and business ahead as they begin the coming week. >> all right, babita, thank you so much for joining us from hong kong. we will keep watching that, of course. and if you want to keep up to speed with every development on this hong kong story, just go to our website, because there you'll find the latest news from all of our correspondents on the ground, including analysis from

our china editor, carrie gracie, so do please go to bbc.com/news. you'll find it all there. now, in other news, the australian government has given the go-ahead for air strikes against islamic state targets in iraq. prime minister tony abbott said the militants have declared war on the world and must be stopped. the decision to join the military action comes amid growing concern in the country about the number of australians involved with islamic state. the british prime minister has pledged support for afghanistan's newly sworn in president. david cameron was the first international leader to meet ashraf ghani following his inauguration on monday. mr. cameron stressed they must continue the fight against islamic extremism in other parts of the world. officials in japan say 16 people are still unaccounted for on the japanese volcano that erupted last weekend. 47 people are known to have died on mount ontake, most after

being hit by rocks thrown out of the crater. heavy rain has postponed the recovery operation. now, an american cameraman working in liberia has tested positive for ebola and is being flown back to the u.s. for treatment. he was a freelancer working for the nbc news broadcaster. meanwhile, public health officials in texas are tracking 100 people believed to have had contact with thomas duncan, the first man diagnosed with ebola on american soil. from texas, here is our report. >> reporter: west africa felt a long way from texas until ebola came here to a suburb of dallas. thomas duncan was visiting from liberia when he took ill. four days after he arrived. he was staying here with his family, where cleaners are now taking every precaution. mr. duncan is now in an isolation ward. when he first took ill, a doctor sent him home, despite his

travel history. his nephew said he raised the alarm with the cdc, the centers for disease control and prevention. >> i was concerned for his life, and he wasn't getting appropriate care, and i feared that other people might, you know, also get infected. >> reporter: four members of mr. duncan's family have been confined to their homes under armed guard to be monitored after they refused to stay in their house. >> last night, we placed orders on a family. we did that after balancing many things. we do not intend to have to do that again. but there's nothing more important than keeping you safe. >> reporter: school children were among the 100 people who had contact with mr. duncan while he was contagious. they're now being monitored. although told the risk is low, some parents pulled their children out of school. >> i came to get him to take him

home just for precaution. >> i was just wondering why she came. and when she told me, i got, like, really scared. so i'm kind of happy i'm going home. >> reporter: dallas is holding the state of texas annual fair right now, where tens of thousands of people gather every day. precautions are being suggested. >> remember, always wash your hands before you eat. >> reporter: people here are very aware of the virus. >> i don't know what you can do about it, but yeah, it worries me a lot. >> what do you think? >> just have to be careful, and like they said, wash your hands, and, you know, just be aware. >> i'm concerned, but i'm not worried about it. >> reporter: why not? >> because it's contained, and people -- the cdc are on top of it. >> reporter: the sense here is that people have faith in their health care system. the authorities who are trying to prevent the ebola virus from

spreading more widely. there's concern, but there certainly isn't panic. and having ebola in a city gives just a hint of how terrifying this virus can be. bbc news in dallas, texas. do stay with us on "bbc world news," because still to come, we revere history's poetries past, the sonnets of shakespeare and all that but today we'll look forward to a new award-winning poet from a new generation of talent.

a just-released video shows the purported leader of the nigerian jihadist group boko haram dismissing the nigerian military's allegation that he is dead. the group still has the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted last april. boko haram is now holding towns and villages instead of carrying out hit-and-run attacks. thousands of people have been

forced to flee to camps with little prospect of returning home as the war rages on. our nigeria correspondent will ross now reports from a camp for displaced people in yola in the country's northeast. >> reporter: they've been forced to seek refuge in this camp in yola after boko haram fighters attacked their homes, tearing families apart. more than half of those here are children, scarred by what they've witnessed. yois came here alone with no relatives when the jihadists recently took over her town, the 19-year-old student was forced to watch the killings. >> translator: when they attacked, they shot my father dead and they rounded some of us up trying to take us away. then right in front of me, they burnt my mother alive. >> reporter: a tearful 14-year-old was separated from her mother as people fled when boko haram attacked. she doesn't know if her mother

survived. >> translator: a woman told me she met my mother when they were hiding in the fields. and my mother offered her some food, but i don't know where she is now. i have no way of reaching my mother. she doesn't have a phone. >> reporter: for several years, people have been running away from boko haram attacks and then heading home when they feel it's safe. but these days, the jihadists have changed their tactics, and they're now actually holding territory, which means none of these people could go home until the nigerian military takes back their villages and towns. this is what people have been fleeing, using looted military hardware. here you can see nigerian soldiers fleeing into the hills. some have complained of not having enough fire power and being outgunned by the jihadists. another just released video shows the purported leader of boko haram dismissing the military's allegations that he's

dead. he says there's now strict islamic law in the territory. the video shows a man being stoned to death for adultery. back at the camp in yola, more people turn up every day having spent weeks fleeing the violence. they come with just a handful of possessions. nigeria's finance minister said the government was making sure that soldiers got better weapons. there have been reports of recent military success. >> the army is working. they need to push further. and the equipment to help them is on its way. >> the equipment is coming? >> yes. some of it has come. that's what has helped them to make their advances. so we need to also stand behind our army, because they are protecting us. >> reporter: some very basic classes have started here. it's better than nothing and more resources and teachers have been promised. at least they're now safe. but as the war rages on, the impact on these children will be felt for years. will ross, bbc news, yola,

northeast nigeria. now, i'm going to give you some news that won't make you snooze. a battle of wits pitching word against word. the venue was london, if you hadn't yet heard. the youngest of poets came from near and far. new zealand, the u.s., singapore, and qatar. they all produced verse with verve and style, but only one could emerge at the top of the pile. it's now time to welcome one of the best in show. she joins me here in the "gmt" studio. sorry about that. that was obviously complete rubbish. but i'm delighted to say that we have here with us in the studio a truly wonderful young poet. a welcome to you from all of us. and lucy wood who was the organizer of this amazing talent competition for young poets from around the world. becca, you have brought in, i believe, just a little piece, a flavor of your winning poems. so why don't we kick off by having you tell us how exciting

it was to be in the competition, and then perhaps read us late bit of your winning poem. >> it was incredibly exciting to be one of the top 15 poets. one of the biggest poetry competitions in the world, certainly for poets my age. >> tell us how old you are. >> i am 16 years old. >> and how long have you been writing poetry? >> maybe three years now. >> and this is serious stuff for you. it's not just like mine, but you spend a lot of time thinking about what you're writing. >> i do. >> introduce your own poem. give us a title and give us a little flavor of it. >> being asked what kind of doctor i will be when i gre up. we do not understand the science of general anesthetics, how it pulls people under. the trick, my mother says, her voice floating over a radio discussion on botched executions, is giving someone enough drugs to kill them, but not letting them die. >> it's a very powerful sort of images you put forward, because i read the whole poem. i mean, it speaks to me of a

relationship with your mother. i'm assuming she is in the medical profession, is she? >> she is. she's a surgeon. >> and it also has some quite deep connections. you ruminating on death, mortality, all sorts of things. just tell me what motivated that poem. >> to me, it was sort of about this balancing act of the way we perceive things and the way they are in reality about how sometimes the things we see as in medicine, life-saving surgery, are actually kind of a bit more morbid than they at first seem. >> it's very personal, because it obviously is a lot about your relationship with your mother, too. do you find it easier to express feeling in poetry maybe than other forms of writing or music or anything else? >> i think poetry, it's definitely a lot easier to convey emotion in your audience. i don't think it's necessarily

easier to express it, but it's much easier to i feel like get your audience to really feel the depth of emotion that you want them to feel. >> it's very interesting. lucy, i want to bring you in here. you organized this talent competition for poets all over the world. maybe i'm wrong. i have my own kids. i can't say they exhibit a huge amount of interest in poetry. they're interested in music and rap, which i guess is a form of poetry. tell me what you see amongst kids around the world today? is poetry still thriving? >> i think absolutely. the sheer numbers entered this year, 13,600 poems entered by 7,600 young poets, age 11 to 17. that's significantly bigger than any competition, even for older writers, older poets. so it really does show that there's this ground swell of interest in it. i think it's very easy to sort of dismiss poetry as somehow old fashioned or not relevant.

but i think it's precisely in these itemized times when people are leaving through text speak and not really being able to connect to how they feel or connect with an audience via emoticons, that poetry is really relevant. and i read every one of the 13,600 poems that were entered, and there were an awful lot talking about the alienating quality of social media and how they feel that they cannot be themselves, or that everything has to be instagramed into perfection rather than wanting to have some honesty. >> let me turn that back to becca. i imagine you probably use twitter and facebook. do you feel that is in a way hampering your ability to write seriously, or even to create the sorts of poems that you obviously love doing? >> i think it's a double-edged sword. it definitely makes it -- you always have to be connected and there's not a lot of time to sort of think, which i think is really important when you have poetry. but it also makes it a lot easier to share poetry. there are so many resources online for poets to connect with

each other. >> you could argue twitter, because it's so dense, is actually encouraging people to think about every single word they use and be incredibly economical and efficient in the way they put things down. >> absolutely. the twitter poetry competition, essentially it's like the form of the haiku, the best words in the best order as robert frost said. so condensing it into a lovely moment. so it requires a discipline certainly, twitter, to be as funny or as brilliant as you can in 140 characters. >> we're almost out of time, but becca, are you going to continue to write poetry? is this something you want to do in your adult life, through your life? >> definitely. i keep writing poetry probably for as long as i live. >> do you think you make a living out of it? >> let's hope so. that's the dream. it's hard, but yeah. >> becca and lucy, it's been a real pleasure to have you in the "gmt" studio. i wish you all the luck in the world with continuing the poetry. >> thank you. >> thanks for joining us, and thank you, too. that's pretty much all we have

time for from "gmt" for now. but if you can stay with us, later we're going look at brazilians going to the polls this weekend in a presidential election. so do stay here with us on "gmt" on "bbc world news." [ female announcer ] we love our smartphones. and now telcos using hp big data solutions are feeling the love, too. by offering things like on-the-spot data upgrades -- an idea that reduced overcharge complaints by 98%. no matter how fast your business needs to adapt, if hp big data solutions can keep wireless customers smiling, imagine what they can do for yours. make it matter.

you drop 40 grand on a new do set of wheels, then... wham! a minivan t-bones you. guess what: your insurance company will only give you 37-thousand to replace it. "depreciation" they claim. "how can my car depreciate before it's first oil change?" you ask. maybe the better question is, why do you have that insurance company? with liberty mutual new car replacement, we'll replace the full value of your car. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance.

the last four hours have seen... one child fail to get to the air sickness bag in time. another left his shoes on the plane... his shoes! and a third simply doesn't want to be here. ♪ until now... until right booking now. ♪ planet earth's number one accomodation site booking.com booking.yeah! ♪ ♪ ♪

woooooah. ♪ [ male announcer ] you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. zillow. hello, and welcome to "gmt" on "bbc world news." in this half-hour, brazil's president dilma rousseff asks voters to ignore market jitters and give her a second term. brazilians go to the polls on sunday with their economy faltering. will they vote for change or stick with the status quo? the united nations warns of a staggering increase in the number of refugees risking their lives to reach europe by sea. we'll be talking to the head of the u.n. refugee agency. and also in the program, aaron's

back with the business and he's going to be talking about an ingredient that is actually quite close to my heart. >> those lime green flowers put the tang into our beer. we're talking about hops. for years, the british hops industry was in a spiral of decline, but not now. there is a huge surge in demand, from where? surprisingly, it's from our friends across the pond. a very warm welcome back to "gmt." on sunday, brazil holds its seventh presidential election since the end of military rule. president dilma rousseff is seeking her second term, but as our brazil correspondent reports, a number of issues from the cost of living to the spread of corruption make the outcome anything but a foregone

conclusion. >> reporter: from a distance, it all looks quite healthy and wealthy. for a decade, brazil's economy grew at unprecedented rates. the promise of vast oil deposits deep offshore should have also placed what is already the world's seventh largest economy in a hugely advantageous position. but brazil's image and its economy have taken a battering. even as the oil contracts were being auctioned off, there were accusations of corruption and mismanagement. the government was taken aback by the scale of protests as people demanded better services and a bigger slice of the economic cake. >> the kind of motors of growth of the last 15 years have run out, essentially. and you're left with an economy which is -- where the state controls too much or it is overregulated, which is protected, which has poor infrastructure, very high taxes,

and there's not enough investment. >> reporter: president dilma rousseff has also been accused of spending far too much on big global events like the world cup and olympic games. but the president, standing for re-election has hit back, saying billions more are being spent on far-reaching social programs, focusing on nutrition, health, and education. elevating millions out of poverty and reaching every corner of the country. >> people are afraid of changing, and, you know, dilma's campaign is somehow threatened that if the opposition are able to win, and those kind of social protections will be under threat. >> reporter: one of the biggest issues in this election is public safety and security, particularly here in rio. the government, for example, has just signed an order, allowing the army to extend its

occupation. brazil remains one of the world's most violent societies. crime levels are rising. corruption and gang violence are singled out by dilma rousseff's opponents as signs of government weakness. marina silva's rise in the polls has forced the government on the defensive over many issues, but this is still dilma's election to lose. >> so, voting day is very close now, and we can go live to brazil and join julia canero. you've been following this campaign very closely. i know you were at the debate between the candidates last night. tell me how you see it right now. what are the polls saying and what's your gut telling you about where this race is? >> reporter: well, steven, the debate yesterday was quite exciting. the polls are saying that everything is still very undecided. it seems that current president

dilma rousseff still has very strong chances in the second round, but it should go to the second round, and who the second opponent -- her opponent going to the second round is still very unclear. so yesterday in the debate, we had this dispute between who would perform better if marina silva, the candidate of the socialist party who rose after the death of former candidate decampos and had a very promising beginning as candidate, but now has seen her levels of popularity drop a little bit, and second ranking candidate who had fallen after marina entered the race, but now has recovered and is closing in on marina. so yesterday in this debate, i asked -- he did quite well. marina silva seemed to be quite tired. it's been a very long campaign and she seemed to be a little bit less inspired. and i think theo outcome of thi

is it's still very unpredictable, because the two of them seemed to have very concrete chances of making it to the second round. >> it seems, as many most elections, the economy is front and center of the debate. would it be too simplistic to say that a lot of brazilian business appears to want change, appears to be fed up with dilma rousseff, but a lot of brazil's poor and perhaps middle class feel that maybe they should stick with what they know. is that too simplistic or is that the way it looks to you? >> that is a way of simplifying it, but that does reflect reality. people in the industrial sector and the markets aren't very keen on the idea that dilma rousseff should stay, and when we look at the -- at how the vote the divided in terms of income, it's still the poorer population that are electing president rousseff, but she's still facing lots of

challenges. last night in this debate that happened late at night after the soap opera, it started after 11:00 p.m., she was under fire because of corruption allegations. this ongoing scandal involving brazil's state oil giant, state controlled, there are ongoing allegations involving funds being diverted from contracts with companies diverted to politicians at the workers party and of parties of the ruling coalition. so dilma rousseff is having to face these allegations and to try to unglue the image of the workers party from the image of a corrupt party that has to do with other allegations that happened in these past years as well. >> all right, well, julia, i know you're going to be busy this weekend following the vote and the result as it comes in. thank you for joining us on "gmt." it's time for business now, and aaron has joined me. aaron, you're going to start by

looking at the terrible impact of ebola, not just on west africa, but the continent as a whole when it comes to tourism. >> that's the problem africa as a continent is facing. certainly the fear of ebola has hit -- i mean, no doubt, hit african tourism very hard in the last couple of months. as steven mentions, even thousands of miles away from that outbreak in west africa, tour operators as far south as south africa are reporting cancellations by foreign visitors. but, of course, if visitor numbers are being affected there, it is much, much worse for those hotels and tourism companies at the epicenter of this crisis. from freetown in sierra leone, the bbc's umaru fofana sent us this report. >> reporter: empty beaches and empty hotel rooms. a few years ago, there was hope that sierra leone could build a strong and viable tourist industry. but the outbreak of the deadly ebola virus has stopped all of that. freetown's resorts and hotels

remain all but desserted. the flights that would have brought the visitors in have simply been stopped. >> we have shut down some floors because we are not occupying them. we have shut down the meeting rooms. we have shut down some lights in some corridors, in some guest areas. >> reporter: and it's not just the lack of tourists now. it's how long the ebola outbreak will keep them away. despite last week's three-day lockdown being hailed as a success. >> we had to lay off our staff because we cannot maintain them anymore. we cannot maintain the running costs of the business. >> reporter: sierra leone risks a slowdown by next year, but health experts say the outlook is not good. >> we are now in the third explosive phase of growth of the epidemic. this is exponential increase

with hundreds going into thousands of cases per week, and if we don't stop the epidemic very soon, this is going to turn from a disaster into a catastrophe. >> reporter: that potential catastrophe would not just be in human terms. it has the potential to destabilize the whole west african region. umaru fofana, bbc news, freetown. >> let's switch gears. here's a story that may make you a little thirsty, because here in britain, we are nearing the end of the season for picking hops. those lime green flowers which put the tang into a pint of beer. for years, the uk hop industry has been in a spiral of decline. in fact, many feared it would die out completely. but not now. recently there's been a surge in the demand for british hops from, surprisingly, our american

friends. jeremy howell starts his report from the hop-growing county of worcestershire in the english midlands. >> reporter: the hop harvest is coming to an end. the vines are being cut, and this huge machine separates out the hop flowers. every year, this farm produces enough hops for 46 million pints of english real ale, but it's only one of 50 left in england. a century ago, no fewer than 70,000 acres of britain were taken up by hop vines like this one. but now that number has fallen to only 2,500 acres, and british hops make up only 1.5% of the global market, which is dominated by germany and the usa. it did seem as though british hop farming was interminal to climb.

>> the two main reasons is the market desire for lagger, which means less hops. and the second reason is that since we joined the eu, we didn't really go about the export piece as an industry in the way that we should have done. >> reporter: but surprisingly, over the past four years, british hops sales have almost doubled to over 600 tons a year. and half the crop is now being exported to the united states, where the small independent brewers who make craft ales, are using british hops to create new lines of beer with a mellower taste. >> that's british hops come into their own. british hops have a beautiful, delicate complexity that are very good at producing lovely, drinkable session beers that the drinker can have two or three glasses of and enjoy with pleasure. >> reporter: kroft ales are a small, but fast-growing sector of the american beer market. british hop farmers hope that it will continue to expand and that

the brewers' current love of british hops will be more than a passing fad. jeremy howell, bbc news, worcestershire. >> there you go. fascinating stuff. also in business this friday, you may remember these scenes over the summer. angry taxi drivers blocking the streets of major cities, including right here in london, paris, we saw it in boston, and madrid. they were protesting against the arrival of uber, which promises to arrange you a taxi ride or ride share within five minutes. the taxi drivers say it's putting them out of business. despite all that controversy, uber's popularity has snowballed around the world. in fact, it's actually now operating in 200 cities. our technology correspondent took a ride with the ceo and the co-founder of the company to find out where he's headed next. >> reporter: this has been growing at an extraordinary rate. just give us a picture of what's happened to this business over

the last four years. >> yeah, look. we started the business june of 2010. first city, san francisco. we were only in san francisco until the middle of 2011. the last three years, we've rolled out in 200 cities and 46 countries. and, you know, we're in places like ho chi minh, stockholm, dubai, a lot of places around the middle. >> reporter: everywhere you go, you're making enemies. why do you think that is? >> that's actually -- that's not exactly true. what we've seen is opposition specifically from the taxi industry, taxi companies. quite often, it's not the drivers that are the most rankled or upset. it's the taxi industry or incumbents that have the biggest issue with having competition. in some cities, the drivers are part of the industry, but in most cities around the world, that's just not the case. >> aren't you seen as an

aggressive american company really trying to go around the world and lay down the law and it's not surprising, is it, that local firms, local taxi drivers resent you? >> yeah, that's not the case. that's just simply not the case. i think there's a number of -- there's a bunch -- we have a record in a bounch ciunch of ci about how we work with regulators, we work with cities to make things work, but at the end of the day, this is about getting transportation to be significantly cheaper, significantly more reliable, significantly safer, and there are a lot of incumbents putting a lot of pressure on regulators and city officials to outlaw competition and that's the kind of stuff that we see. that's the kind of stuff we get a little more serious about. and it's the stuff that i think becomes a little bit more newsworthy. >> okay, interesting stuff. lots going on. follow me on twitter. tweet me, i'll tweet you back. you can get me @bbcaaron.

that is it now for the business. now we can bring you some breaking news here on "gmt." it comes from hong kong, and it is the news that leaders of the pro-democracy protests in hong kong have vowed to call off talks with the government in hong kong unless what they call organized attacks on pro-democracy supporters stop. this follows violent clashes that we've seen in the city, scuffles that we've seen over the last few hours. the three main protest groups in hong kong in a statement say if the government does not immediately prevent the organized attacks on supporters of the occupy movement, the students will call off dialogue on political reform with the government. so that has come in in the last few minutes. we will keep an eye on it. but it does suggest this idea that there is going to be a dialogue between the chief ministers in hong kong and the

pro-democracy protest movement. it does suggest that dialogue is already in grave jeopardy. now, stay with us on "bbc world news," because still to come, the international situation for refugees is never good, but new instability across the middle east has created a truly frightening reality. we look at the staggering numbers with the head of the u.n. refugee agency. be nice if there was an easier, less-expensive option than a traditional lawyer? at legalzoom you get personalized services for your family and your business that's 100% guaranteed. so go to legalzoom.com today for personalized, affordable legal protection. go on a first date. my passion is puppetry. here? i think we're done here. hate drama? go to cars.com research, price, find. only cars.com helps you get the right car without all the drama.

ina bite size new ways. to enjoy the full size sensation of peppermint and rich dark chocolate. new, york minis, get the sensation.

welcome back to "gmt." the top story this hour, pro-democracy campaigners in hong kong say they will call off talks if attacks continue against protesters on the streets. scuffles have broken out in one

of hong kong's main shopping districts after supporters of chinese rule tried to end the streak occupation. turkey's prime minister has said his country will do whatever it can to prevent the syrian border town of kobane falling into the hands of islamic state militants. the mainly kurdish population there is still under siege. two weeks after i.s. militants began their assault. now, in a moment, i'll be talking to the head of the u.n. refugee agency about the scale of the humanitarian crisis caused by the turmoil in syria and iraq. but first, christian frazier joins me to take a look back over the past week of fighting in the region. >> thank you very much. what i want to show you is how widespread the bombing has been this past week and what difference it's making, if any, on the ground. so let's put up this map. it shows you in orange the areas of control that islamic state have. you can see it spans the two countries. it's roughly an area of 34,000 square kilometers.

that's an area broadly the size of the netherlands. let me put up the figures for you. remember, they're changing all the time. 243 strikes in iraq so far since the beginning of august. 69 strikes in syria over the past ten days. and from an raf perspective, 23 tornado missions so far, that's armed and unarmed. i think we can show you, in fact, some film. this is one of the first strikes in northern iraq. this was on tuesday. in all, there have been four strikes like this. most targeted at vehicles. this is a civilian pickup truck in which i.s. fighters have mounted a heavy gam. we'll show you the areas that have been targeted. we've picked out three of the main areas, mosul, mosul dam area, erbil, baghdad. the bigger the circles, the heavier the bombing. but is it having an effect? in the north, there is evidence

that the kurdish peshmergas have taken some ground, but in the south it's much more intense. fighting in this town here, on the euphrates, this is hit. but from an iraqi perspective, this town here, 25 miles from the capital, around 30 kilometers, a real test of the resolve of these iraqi soldiers. switching to syria, the main areas, raqqa, the headquarters of islamic state. there has been some bombing of the oil refineries in the north as well, but also here in kobane. this is the border city close to turkey. 160,000 people have now fled across the border. islamic state still advancing on the city from three sides. and for all the pressure it's under, it still seemingly has the fire power and the command structure to make gains. >> what is very, very clear indeed is that these air strikes which have gone on for two months have not blunted the united states's momentum. they are still able to act gain territory in both iraq and in

syria, and that's going to continue to be the case until those local forces, the iraqi army, but also the syrian opposition become much stronger than they are today. >> and to complicate the picture, there is evidence that i.s. fighters have changed strategy. they're dispersing into smaller groups. they're melting into sunni communities and traveling in cars and pickup trucks used by the general population. and the limited number of air strikes that we've seen this past week would tend to suggest that targeting from the air is getting much harder. >> christian, fascinating stuff. thank you very much for that analysis. the scale of the violence and instability across the middle east continues, and indeed, continues to generate an overwhelming humanitarian crisis. it's reckoned nine million syrians have been displaced, more than 2.5 million are refugees in neighboring countries, and many of them are desperate to find sanctuary in europe. well, we can talk about refugees

now with the u.n. high commission of four refugees antonio gutierrez, who joins me from geneva. welcome to "gmt." we, of course, now watching coalition boembers in syria and iraq. your focus is on the humanitarian catastrophe that continues to unfold in the middle east. do you any the international community is fully aware of the scale of this humanitarian catastrophe? >> i think it is aware of the scale. all records have been broke -- all tragedy records have been broken. what we are witnessing is the largest displacement in the world of the last decades in syria. now compounded by iraq. as you have mentioned, 9 million syrians have been displaced. just after the recent attacks, 1.8 million iraqis displaced inside iraq, more than another thousand iraqis already,

refugees outside. what is also true is the focus of the global media, the focus of the political debate is centered on the political dimension and much less to the attention of suffering people. but the people are suffering horrendously, and it is not only suffering, what is more dramatic when you talk with the refugees and displaced people is they see no light at the end of the tunnel. they see no solution. they are losing hope. >> very briefly, can we tie what is happening in syria and the middle east directly to the staggering increase in the numbers of refugees trying to enter europe via the mediterranean sea passage? is there a direct connection? >> there is a connection. the number of syrians has been growing. which is absolutely normal. because as you can imagine, if you are in turkey, more than one million syrians are in lebanon. they don't find jobs.

they have no way to survive. and so it's perfectly natural that they try to manage their lives coming to a con innocetin where they hope they will be able to establish their lives. >> forgive me, we have to end there. thanks for being on "gmt." tomcat presents dead mouse theatre. hey, ulfrik! hey, agnar! what's up with you? funny you ask. i'm actually here to pillage your town. [ villagers screaming ] but we went to summer camp together. summer camp is over. ♪ [ male announcer ] tomcat. [ cat meows ] [ male announcer ] engineered to kill. [ male announcer ] tomcat. listen up, thunder dragons, it's time to get a hotel. hey, razor. check this out. we can save big with priceline express deals. hey you know what man, these guys aint no dragons. they're cool. these deals are legit. yeah, we're cool. she's cool. we're cool.

priceline express deals really are legit. thousands of people book them everyday. now it's your turn. to download the priceline app text the word deals to 68277 and start saving today. look - saving you money makes us happy.

58 seconds on the clock, what am i thinking about? foreign markets. asian debt that recognizes the shift in the global economy. you know, the kind that capitalizes on diversity across the credit spectrum and gets exposure to frontier and emerging markets. if you convert 4-quarter p/e of the s&p 500, its yield is doing a lot better... if you've had to become your own investment expert, maybe it's time for bny mellon, a different kind of wealth manager ...and black swans are unpredictable. what if we finally had that would be amazing. hey, what if we took down this wall? what if this was my art studio? what if we were pre-approved? shut up! from finding to financing, how'd you do that? zillow.

agh! [ grunting ] agh! aggh! [ big ben strikes ] [ pulsing ]