it "a so u; r "a it'fisnwgzg ‘a ‘u: harry clarke stated through his lawyer, today, that nothing said in mitigation was intended to diminish the losses suffered by 70 people as a result of that accident. they said it was a gross error ofjudgement to drive his car in nine months late, knowing he was unfit to drive. now on bbc news it's time for newsnight with kirsty wark. the return to mosul. we are with the bbcjournalist as he visits his shattered home city for the first time since is swept in. but the fight with is continues in western mosul, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are caught between the murderous terrorists and coalition air strikes. i will ask an iraqi brigadier if many more civilian casualties in mosul are inevitable. also tonight... the talks which are about to start will be difficult, complex

and sometimes even confrontational. 0n the day that donald tusk laid out the eu's negotiating guidelines, we look at the the road ahead for brexit. and will we all by cyborgs any century soon? the answer is yes, if the tranhumanists have their way. good evening. is — or daesh‘s — tentacles have spread across the globe, but tonight we focus our attention on where it all began. iraq's second city, mosul, has, for the past three years, been under the vicious heel of is, who visited unimaginable horror on many of the city's inhabitants. it was in mosul where the is leader, abu bakr al—bagdadi,

declared an islamic caliphate, but now the iraqi army, aided by coalition forces, have liberated much of the city and backed is fighters into neighbourhoods in west mosul‘s old city, along with around 300,000 inhabitants. there is little doubt is will eventually be routed in mosul, but the human cost of the liberation is high, with accusations that coalition strikes involving uk and usjets called in by the iraqis have been careless of civilian life. in a moment we have a film from inside mosul. but first, this primer from john sweeney. to defeat this man, al—baghdadi, are the iraqi army and the americans — and british backing them — killing too many innocent civilians in west mosul? last summer, isis was in full control of mosul. in october, the iraqi army,

mostly shia, launched its offensive, trying to win back the country's second city, mostly sunni. this battle is being fought along the fault line of iraq's sectarian divide. east mosul fell relatively swiftly but isis fighters, who have nowhere to go, were reportedly using human shields and have been shooting civilians in the back as they flee the fighting. they are an enemy without pity. but west mosul is believed to be home to 300,000 people. you cannot bomb or shell a packed city centre without slaughtering innocents. in the last six weeks, 700 civilians have been killed and the pentagon says that within the last week it has dropped 1100 explosives on the city. the americans and the british are confident the rules of engagement have not been changed, but as casualties mount, is the human cost of this liberation becoming too high? bbc journalist basheer al zaidi

grew up in east mosul — the part of the city that has been liberated from is control. he returned recently to meet his old friends and see how they had survived under is rule. this is his film from his shattered home city. it's been over ten years since my last visit. i grew up on these streets with my 11 brothers and sisters. it's a weird feeling, to come back here, after all these years. my hometown is now effectively split into two. i'm in the east, which was recaptured a few months ago, butjust across the river, in the west, fighting continues. it's quite different, quite difficult, to be honest.

like... that was our house. this is my primary school. most of the buildings in the centre of the city are damaged. it's clear that anybody who still lives here doesn't feel safe enough to come out. this is me, on the left, with my oldest friend, karim. growing up, we were inseparable, but staying in touch whilst he lived under is was near impossible. i am here to pay him a surprise visit. for the first time, i meet his kids, and it soon becomes clear his family

didn't escape the violence. my best friend tells me he initially welcomed the idea of overthrowing the government. it's a real shock, but his support was short lived. karim's attitude towards is is echoed across the city. gunfire.

there was deep anger aimed at the government before is arrived. protesters came out on the streets, and the army and the police force were accused of widespread corruption, sectarianism and abuse. sirens. the sunni city had come to hate the practices of a shia dominated army. by the time is entered mosul the anger had reached its peak. today, the big challenge is to restore security without reigniting sectarian tensions. we have joined these agents from the iraqi national security service. they are about to raid addresses all across mosul. their aim is to move out is sleeper cells that have launched attacks

across the city. three suspects are rounded up at this address, including a teenager. a warning shot. it seems in this area everyone is treated with suspicion. today, the agents arrested six men, but in total they've detained over a thousand in the east alone. it's difficult for me to see

the people of mosul become used to violence on their doorsteps. today the army is all too aware of its past reputation. i am taking a tour of the city with a field marshal. he says the operation in mosul has already restored confidence in the army. a lot is riding on this new—found goodwill towards the army and police, but i wonder

how long it will last. many people across the city are too scared to talk openly about their experiences and views. 0ne family who want to speak out are friends from my time at university. 0mar and his mother have invited me for breakfast. 0mar might be concerned about the future, but there is one thing that brings him hope. we are on our way to pick up his two daughters from school. like so many parents, he refused to allow is to educate his children. so this is the girls‘ first week back at school, and they are pretty excited about it. this is overwhelming, this is really overwhelming, to see kids smiling.

it's a special moment for their kids because normal life is maybe back again for them, kind of a quietness. it is something new for them, a new start. my friends 0mar and karim might be certain about what's ahead, but seeing these young girls back in school, i know there is at least some hope for the future. basheer al zaidi reporting — and you can see a longer version of that film on our world on the bbc news channel at 9.30pm tomorrow night. now, one of the biggest problems for iraqi commanders calling in coalition air strikes in western mosul — where the fighting is still raging — is described as "the most significant urban combat to take place since world war ii" is that is fighters are threaded in among hundreds of thousands of civilians. last week, one strike is thought to have destroyed a building, killing as many as 150 residents.

the us military has launched an inquiry into what happened. earlier this evening i spoke to brigadier tahseen ibrahim in baghdad, spokesman for the iraqi military. the crisis in mosul right now it is severe, isis, they use civilians in the front of the fighters, the problem is, those fighters and terrorists do not care about any human material, they used to civilians in front of them, sometimes they put those civilians inside the houses and put one or two snipers on the roof as they start shooting our troops and we saw them, we have drones watching everything, they also saw them. there was a particular incident last week where

there was a series of coalition air strikes in a particular neighbourhood and it is estimated that in that air strike, coincidental but that air strike, more than 100 people died. what is your response? there is a formal investigation. first of all, the coalition forces said that we were responsible for that and we hit that target, they did hit that target according to our request, the coalition forces took the request from the iraqi troops and after that, they shot any target. the problem is, when the coalition forces set out in front, they said, we hit that neighbourhood and there is a target for isis in that

neighbourhood and we hit that but they never said, we hit that house, they said we hit —— they never said we hit or killed those civilians because they said we hate maybe one or two houses around that, they started to open a big investigation from their side. also, the mod and the prime minister and also my ministry, immediately opened a big investigation to give the result about that. our responsibility is to take care of the civilians, everything is maybe during three days, and we clear that in front of the media. this neighbourhood was very tight with narrow streets, we know that civilians are there in their houses. it is perfectly possible that the air strike hit civilians? if you see and checked that neighbourhood, you would see how it is destroyed, the houses.

you would think one or two bombs destroyed maybe ten or 15 houses. amnesty international says the iraqi army are telling people not to leave their houses in western mosul. is that true? all the houses on the right side, it's old and small. there are more people in those houses. for that, any air strike or any missiles or sometimes any car bombs, they take more damage, that neighbourhood. for that we also changed our rules of engagement for the humanitarian. now your local commanders on the ground, they can call in a coalition air strike,

and it comes very quickly. is it possible your commanders don't always know how many civilians are in the houses around about? that depends about our information, the intelligence of our information. we never shoot any houses. without any information coming from our guys. some guys they work between the isis fighters. and the mainly sunni population is concerned about the level of care that an army led by shia is going to give them. it's important for the kind of piece that the city has, the way you win mosul. isis defeat. we don't need any terrorists inside mosul. and by the way, the people who live in mosul, they were responsible, it's their responsibility to take care about their cities. no militia, no any shia inside the city of mosul. they take care of city of mosul

police, iraqi police, iraqi army and, by the way, iraqi army when deliberate mosul, will leave outside mosul. brigadier tahseen ibrahim, thank you forjoining us. it feels as if we have come through the opening thundering salvos of brexit and we are now, really and truly, heading for the exit. but what does the route to that exit actually look like? today donald tusk issued guidelines at the eu summit in malta, and there was an early change in the mood music, indications that after all, if sufficient progress is made towards the divorce, uk trade talks could start. here's our policy editor chris cook. both sides have started laying out their stalls. today, donald tusk, the eu council president, set out the eu 27's draft guidance on what happens now. the talks which are about to start will be difficult, complex

and sometimes even confrontational. there is no way around it. the eu 27 does not and will not pursue a punitive approach. brexit in itself is already punitive enough. the most significant part of donald tusk‘s statement today was about sequencing of the forthcoming talks. specifically, he said we'd have to make significant headway on our divorce arrangements from the eu, before we are allowed to start talking about our future trading relationship with it. and that really matters, because the order in which we talk about these things is likely to change the outcome. this means, first of all, we could get an arrangements on rights for eu citizens in the uk, for example, very fast. —— arrangement.

they're also be principles around what will happen to eu 27 companies dealing with the uk, and the fate of the irish border. it also means discussion of any exit bills will move up the ticket. an eminent brussels think tank thinks the bill could be as low as low as £27 billion, or as much as £65 billion. as soon as the uk leaves, let's say it's the 1st of april 2019, legally the uk is not bound to pay anything. up until then it is legally bound, and i am expecting the uk is going to honour this, but there have been things that have been preagreed upon, and the uk has agreed upon, for a number of bills that will come after that. the question is, how far can these bills extend? so payment is a political question about our willingness to pay brussels for goodwill from the member states. the sequencing means it will be an early hurdle for us to clear. sequencing, though, also affects the balance of power. the sequencing decision matters because if britain could just do it

all in its own way, it would put all the issues on the table and start linking them and doing deals across europe, which match specific interests with different european states interests‘, and try and minimise the divorce bill as a result. but britain hasn't got the luxury of doing that. it's launched the article 50 process, the european union now gets to determine, as it did this morning, that it wants real progress on the divorce agreement first. it's important to stress that the negotiation will quickly turn to very big questions, like what kind of country would we want britain to be. we'll probably end up keeping some eu regulation at the very least. the thing to remember is in the modern and trading world, rules and regulations matter far more than tariffs. so at the moment, we have the same rules and regulations as every other eu member state. so that means when we do trade,

we don't have to check at the border, we canjust assume that our standards are the same. however, after we leave, we're going to have a choice to make. do we continue to converge with european standards now i'm going forwards, as to facilitate trade between both us and the eu, or do we diverged, in the knowledge that divergences will lead to more checks at ports, increase compliance issues and problems for exporters? there are some very thorny issues that, until now, have received relatively little attention. like the specification that we need to agree with spain on gibraltar. a really major problem, though, is time. i think in two years britain can expect to have a clear withdrawal agreement. it's probably going to have to be generous in that agreement, in order to have willing european partners putting in place transition arrangements, and talking about a subsequent trade deal. i think the final arrangement, it took switzerland 1a years to do its arrangements with the european union. none of this is simple. there is strong political pressure to pay nothing and accept few eu

rules, so trust no one who says they can tell you how this ends up even when. now, people have been trying to battle the human condition for thousands of years. since 1200bc when legend has it that the sumarian king, gilgamesh, travelled to the edge of the world in search of immortality. it's the stuff of literature, sci fi movies, and scientific research but might it become a reality? could we really use technology to control the future evolution of our species? the use of technology to prolong and enhance life has a name. it's called transhumanism and i'll be talking to the human author of a book on the "transhumanism movement" in a moment. gentlemen, we can rebuild him, we have the technology. we have the capability to make the world's first bionic man. writers and cinematographers have been obsessed with creating life, transcending death, and now, more than ever, merging man with machine. it's alive!

in his book, mark 0'connell examines transhumanism. he examines a future where we no longer agree to live under the fear of ageing, infirmity and death. where technological enhancements augment our powers of perception and cognition. where we don't accept the limitations of evolution, and choose our bodily form and function, and where we are no longer limited to the confines of our carbon—based biology. what was once the stuff of sci—fi and legend, is becoming more believable with every technological advance. in times of three—parent babies, bionic arms and facial transplants, is it really sensible to rule out a future where our minds are uploaded to a cloud and we finally conquered death? —— conquer. mark 0'connell has travelled widely to meet aspiring transhumanists for his new book on the subject and hejoins me now.

it has been an eternal obsession, why is that? it goes back to, as you say, at least as far as gilgamesh. i think transhumanism comes from the same place as many religions, this dissatisfaction we are in these fleshy human body —— bodies and we die. we say, why is that? it's difficult to accept the fact we die. we've always been uncomfortable with it, understandably. do you think in the next century or two it will be enough to be human, or will humans be second—class citizens? this is one of the ideas of the transhumanist movement, the idea we have to merge with technology or become obsolete. i think part of the thinking of the movement comes from, i think, and over—identification with machines. this sort of idea that we are already machines and we have to become more sophisticated machines.

now it's been taken one stage further, because in a way fiction and sci—fi lead to a lot of scientific research. there are now organisations trying to cheat mortality, were you surprised to the extent of that? yes, i knew this stuff was there and then i investigated it. i kept seeing peter teal‘s money, again and again, he's involved ina lot of this stuff. and so is elon musk, again, with this announcement during the week. what kind of experimentation did you come across? i spent some time with a guy called randall cohen. his entire life's work has been trying to figure out how to upload minds to machines. we're talking about sort of mapping the neurons, mapping the brain to such a degree of detail and granularity that it can be transferred to another substrate. the idea is this body, although this is how we live under what we live in right now,

our minds can theoretically at least be transferred to a different substrate and we could live as robots or disembodied beings. calling our minds down from the clouds. is that what whole brain emulation? yes. that sounds like what you are writing about in your book, this idea that we can... how would our brains continue to develop and grow? they would just be uploaded every so often? the idea is we would merge with artificial intelligence. reach another evolutionary leap by merging with super intelligent ai. the other one i thought, another one that is quite advanced is bio hacking. i didn't realise to the extent people did their own bio hacking. this is an element of the tra nshumanist movement, practical transhumanists. they're doing this stuff already. designing technologies for implanting under the skin. i spent a while pittsburgh,

pennsylvania, with some guys from a place called grindhouse wetwear, who call themselves cyborgs and build large implants and put them in themselves. these implants that go in... they can trigger an extreme movement or do something? the capabilities right now are fairly primitive, in that they would allow them to do things like sense magnetic north or open a door of a laboratory. it's stuff you could quite easily do with technology, that you wouldn't have to have surgery for, but it's a gesture towards the post—human future, the cyborg future. at the moment it's a rich man's game and you wonder if it does develop, if there are progressions that do mean that people can live in different ways and live longer, then it's going to be a societal imbalance in favour of the people

who can afford to do it. this is one of the major dimensions of my book. i see transhumanism as a very extreme intensification of tendencies that are already there in capitalism, in terms of things like wealth and equality. if you look at the research into life extension technologies come at the people who are going to benefit from it are clearly the super—rich. so you're looking at some pretty radical socioeconomic implications. you are also looking at the idea we won't die when we are meant to die. there are people that think they could live for thousands of years. we will have an overpopulation of the planet, more than the moment. not if we are all uploaded to the cloud. we won't all be physically present. in the future, is it something you'd be interested in, uploaded to the cloud? not right now, maybe at 85! thank you very much indeed. that is about all we have time for this evening. but before we go, commercial space companies have long wanted to make space travel cheap enough for anyone

with a few tens of millions