welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: war games in korea but calm words in washington. the us says tighter sanctions and more diplomacy are the way forward. a special report from egypt, centre of the multi—billion dollar illegal trade in human organs. two weeks after the us dropped the mother of all bombs, we get rare access to the afghan cave complex to find fighting still going on. and the new cold war. we join the arctic brigade as it warns the west not to interfere in russia's backyard. hello, and welcome to bbc world news. amid the rhetoric about nuclear war, the military manoeuvres, the anti—missile systems moving into place, the question remains, how to persuade north korea to give up its weapons programmes?

after years of efforts by the us and un, the trump administration has now shed more light on how it hopes to do it. all 100 us senators were briefed on it on wednesday. it is almost the same policy as the past few years. more diplomatic pressure, tougher sanctions, more calls on china to help. jon sopel reports. this isn't for real but it looks terrifyingly like it. a live—fire exercise conducted by 2,000 us and south korean troops, just miles from the north korean border at a time of extraordinary tension. it's a show of force, a show of unity. a military exercise with an unmistakable message to the south's unpredictable northern neighbour — we want peace, but we're ready for all eventualities. in washington this morning, the head of us pacific command put it like this.

as president trump and secretary mattis have made clear, all options are on the table. we want to bring kim jong—un to his senses, not to his knees. and he said the us had no option but to take the north koreans at their word. i believe that we have to look at north korea as if kimjong—un will do what he says, and when he threatens the united states, that's one level, but when he threatens the united states with the capability of realising that threat, that's a different place. and from the capitol today, an exceptional and unprecedented event. the whole senate decamping to the white house, though some seemed a little lost on where to go, to be given a classified briefing on the north korean situation from the president and all his key national security staff. a fleet of tour buses taking republican and democrat senators on their day trip. i think the symbolism of going to the white house, where the commander—in—chief lives, to hearfrom the commander—in—chief and his team about what we need to do or be prepared to do

with north korea is an appropriate sense of how serious this is. and just after the briefing, there was this reaction. it was a sobering briefing in which it was clear how much thought and planning is going into preparing military options, if called for, and a diplomatic strategy that strikes me as clear—eyed and well—proportioned to the threat. 0vernight, the us moved in a missile defence system called thaad, which will be operational in the next few days. something that has not only caused unease in the north but in china too. for the military exercises, a grandstand was built so that south koreans could watch. this woman says that kim jong—un will see in these drills how strong we are, and he will never dare to attack us. but this man comments, "i'm certainly more worried than before. kim jong—un is not the type of person to be pushed around". and the north korean leader has also ordered military exercises. nervousness seems to be the one

thing that is shared on both sides of the border, and in the region as a whole. the bbc‘s steve evans is in the south korean capital, seoul. how is this looking from seoul and, as far as you can tell, from other nervous neighbours such as japan?” think nervous is the right word. japan, there are signs of more than nervousness, with people practising drills to evacuate towns, that kind of thing. i think nervousness is the right word. far short of panic. people see a situation and people certainly in the newspapers don't see that much change in the situation. there may even be a sense of relief, really, in that the talk of relief, really, in that the talk of war is starting to give way a

little bit maybe to the talk ofjaw. they are talking, the administration is talking about diplomatic means, that clearly means pressuring china to do more, just like mr trump's predecessors did. but also may be thinking about approaching the regime. unthinkable you might think. there are academics and politicians who think that is what you should do. in other words, you should say, he has got the bomb, the task is to control it and make sure that the technology doesn't go to other really bad people. that is a view here. now, that view has weight, because in less than two weeks time there is likely to be a government which is much more pro— communicating with the north. whether that runs counter to the trump policy, we simply don't know.

all right, steve, just briefly if you can, people looking on my be puzzled about why there has been some opposition to american deployment of the anti—missile system. i know the pentagon has talked about stationing systems on hawaii. the opposition to thaad, the system, is twofold. 0ne, local people think it will be a target in a warand people think it will be a target in a war and therefore they are more vulnerable. there are also people, a substantial number of people in south korea, who think out and out confrontation against the north is not the way. a kind of a korean nationalist feeling, not a right—wing nationalism, a left and right—wing nationalism, a left and right—wing nationalism, a left and right—wing nationalism which says there are kith and kin, it is one country, we are worried about the people, some of them are our families. we need to find ways of getting closer. and therefore the

american presence on this argument is detrimental to that getting closer. so, there is a view on the right and closer. so, there is a view on the rightand a closer. so, there is a view on the right and a view of the old government that we are shoulder to shoulder with the americans, the americans are oui’ shoulder with the americans, the americans are our only defence against being taken over by the north. and another view which is, well, we need to get along with them and we need to find some way if not of the unifying, then certainly not being perpetually like that. and those people are anti— thaad as well. steve, thank you very much. at least 10,000 human organs are sold illegally every year, according to the world health organization. billions of dollars are tied up in a trade driven partly by desperate refugees making money by selling their body parts. the middle east is considered the hub of the trade but egypt hosts the largest number of illegal operations. in the second of our series on organ trafficking, our correspondent nawal al—maghafi reports from cairo. cairo, one of the middle east's main business hubs, but now a darker trade is thriving.

the network is wide, from migrant smugglers to some of egypt's leading doctors. a crumbling health system and shortage of organs has meant that people wait for years, so turn to the black market where profits are huge. translation: if you've got money, anything is possible. this man matches up those wanting to buy with those desperate enough to want to sell their organs. conflict in the middle east has made hisjob easier. what he is doing is illegal, but but he now claims to feel remorse, so explains the trade to us. translation: people came to me wanting to sell their organ to pay to be smuggled abroad. money never lasts long, but the promise of a safe life and opportunities overseas are a pretty good incentive. 0rgan donation is complicated here, no money can change hands and you can only donate to someone from the same nationality,

but there are always ways to get around the law. translation: if someone's got dark skin, for example, they could pass as sudanese, the brokersjust make him a fake passport. you can buy the passports from the streets, it's really not a big deal. authorities claim they're trying to crackdown on this trade. last year, they conducted a raid of multiple clinics, resulting in the arrest of 45 people, among them doctors and nurses. millions of pounds were recovered, yet for many the profits outweigh the risks. we're on our way to meet a doctor who we've been told works as a surgeon within the organ trade. we're going in undercover and our story is that my father's in desperate need of a kidney transplant, but can't find a donor. medical costs for illegal transplants are around $3,000, but we've been told to say we'll pay whatever‘s necessary. this is illegal. dr ahmed mustafa works

for the police, he reassures us that he can help. people come from across the middle east to buy kidneys. this man was on the government waiting list for months until his health deteriorated to the point that the family decided to buy a kidney. i ask him, what if something happens to the donor, will i not be held responsible? during our investigation

we learnt of a man who died after selling his kidney. the risks are huge, but so is the desperation for a better life. and with no control in place, there'll be no stopping the organ trade. nearly two weeks after the us dropped its biggest non—atomic bomb in afghanistan, there is still heavy fighting between the afghan army and the extremist group that calls itself islamic state. so it's been hard to assess the real impact of the blast. moab, the so—called mother of all mombs, was dropped in a remote corner of eastern nangarhar province. bbc‘s afghan‘s auliya atrafi is one of the first reporters to get access to the area. 0n the road to achin district where the us

dropped its mother of all bombs. islamic state militants are active here but this missile caused little damage. and as we get closer, we begin to see the first signs of the massive explosion that rocked these mountains. afghan forces say the bomb killed around 100 militants from the so—called islamic state. the target was a network of caves, like these, used as a hideout. translation: these caves are left from the time of the soviet invasion and they were also used by the taliban. now is militants are using them too. the cave network has been destroyed and it's possible most of the dead are still under the rubble. what looks like from the situation that we see here is that the mother of all bombs might have destroyed the network of caves in this one location but we're told there are hundreds of other caves in the area still filled with is fighters, has one soldier here put it,

the more we kill, the more come from the other side of durand line from pakistan. along the valley, american warplanes are carrying out raids on targets. and here are more scars of a long battle. this is the market off shadel bazar. it used to be lively market but the ongoing fighting has forced many to flee. many residents say the us bombing raid isn't going to change much. translation: this was just a trick to show the world that their mission is going well. but the bomb did nothing. reporter: you think is would come back? yes, as soon as government troops

leave the locals won't be able to fight them. if the government makes permanent bases in the area and helps us then we will be ok. the fight is far from ending. and for these locals, the us's biggest bomb is not going to be the end of their troubles. auliya atrafi, bbc, injalalabad. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come: russia is building up its forces in the arctic. it's a warning to the west to back off from a strategic region full of precious resources. nothing, it seems, was too big to withstand the force of the tornado. the extent of the devastation will lead to renewed calls for government to build better government housing. internationally, there have already been protests. sweden says it received no

warning of the accident. indeed, the russians at first denied anything had gone wrong. only when radioactivity levels began to increase outside russia were they forced to admit the accident. for the mujahideen, the mood here is of great celebration. this is the end of a 12—year war for them. they've taken the capital, which they've been fighting forfor so long. it was 7am in the morning, the day when power began to pass from the minority to the majority, when africa, after 300 years, reclaimed its last white colony. this is bbc world news. our main headline: the trump administration has said it aims to force north korea into dismantling its nuclear and missile programmes through diplomatic pressure and economic sanctions. doctorjohn park is director

of the korea working group at the harvard kennedy school. doctor park, i know you advise officials at the departments of defence, state and the treasury, also on the national security council and congressional committees. the pictures and the words coming out of pyongyang and the pentagon and the white house have been pretty alarming but in practice, where do you think we are now? we are back where we began in terms of the point of the spear was the sanctions, and if you look at it, the sanctions are basically lately like antibiotics, whenever there's an issue on the international stage, especially in countries like north korea, there's increasing dosages of antibiotics and we have to think of the regime asa and we have to think of the regime as a superbug. it has a certain drug resista nce as a superbug. it has a certain drug resistance to these measures and they've been getting better, that's

they've been getting better, that's the other troubling fact in terms of the other troubling fact in terms of the developer and of their nuclear weapons programme. continuing that theme, how much danger of real conflict is there —— development. there's always the danger of miscalculation but one of the things we have to remind ourselves of, the long—range artillery the north koreans have trained on soul, these are pieces of artillery they have had for decades. that's their wall of reality. any discussions of military options, you hit that wall of reality. there's a state line in factor in all of this but with new teams in different countries right now, the idea of a learning curve is a crucial area we are watching carefully. if the west is going back to more sanctions, more diplomatic pressure, more calls on china to help, what chance of that making a difference? it hasn't made much difference? it hasn't made much difference so far, has it? that's a big question a lot of my colleagues andi big question a lot of my colleagues and i are debating right now, what

can china do? under one school of thought you could outside —— outsource the problem of north korea wholesale. it's all about breaking up wholesale. it's all about breaking up these procurement networks between companies inside china and north korea. that could slow down the development of wmds but in terms ofa the development of wmds but in terms of a solution, there's no easy way through. doctor park, thank you so much. my pleasure. at least 9,000 turkish police officers have been suspended, accused of links to the islamic preacher blamed for last yea r‘s coup attempt. more than 1,000, arrested in simultaneous raids on wednesday, are described by the authorities as secret imams operating inside the force. greg dawson reports. in single file, they waited for a swift court appearance. each escorted by a police officer. each a suspect in president erdogan‘s crackdown on those he believes plotted against him.

on wednesday, police launched simultaneous operations across the country. more than 1,000 detained were themselves police officers. many are accused of having links to this man, fethullah gulen, a former ally of president erdogan, who erdogan accuses of having plotted a coup against him. he denies accusations of being responsible. since the coup happened, 10,000 have been arrested, over 7,000 of which were themselves police officers. around 100,000 people have been forced to leave governmentjobs, including policing and teaching. the latest purge comes after president erdogan narrowly won a controversial referendum to increase his powers. he says it makes the country safe, but opponents say it is a dictatorship, firmly denied by the prime minister. translation: i cannot

agree with those claims because approximately 50 million voted. they went to the ballot boxes, and made a choice. 2a million said no, but more than 25 million people said yes. this crackdown has further soured relations with the eu allies of turkey. they were criticised by the german government and the eu parliament, who said there should be a suspension of talks that turkey should one dayjoin the european union. greg dawson, bbc news. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. venezuela says it's withdrawing from the organisation of american states, accusing it of interfering in its internal affairs. there were more demonstrations on wednesday for early elections, there is an acute economic crisis and at least 20 people have died in protests since march. the us treasury secretary has claimed the trump administration is to carry out the biggest tax reform in american history.

steve mnuchin said the president planned to slash corporation tax from 35% to 15%. small businesses would also be affected, part of a campaign pledge mr trump made last year. and he has signed an executive order to review decisions by previous presidents to designate large areas as national monuments. it could open up more federal land to development, including drilling and mining. mr trump said the people's ability to access and utilise land had to be protected. the kremlin has accused nato of a military build—up in the arctic close to russia's borders. russia has been increasing its military presence in the arctic. steve rosenberg is the first british journalist to get access to its arctic brigade close to the border with finland. on its northern frontier, russia is flexing its muscles. this is the arctic brigade in training in case there's

confrontation their neighbours. in the arctic now, there is a battle for supremacy that russia is determined to win. this base close to finland is normally off—limits to western media but we have been invited to meet russia's arctic army. it is the ultimate cold war. temperatures here can fall to —40 centigrade. today, the brigade is on exercises, repelling an enemy attack. recently, washington accused moscow of acting aggressively in the arctic to increases military presence, the response from russia was "what is the problem?" i think any country, no matter where it is, has its own interests. this is our land, russian land, and we will defend it.

this is the first time foreign journalists have been allowed to film, and by bringing us here, they are sending a clear message to the outside world, that russia is ready and determined to protect its national interests in the arctic. that's because there is money to be made here. the arctic waters are thought to contain one quarter of the planet's undiscovered oil and gas. with polar ice shrinking, there's now an opportunity to extract the energy. there are new shipping lanes too. russia is competing with other arctic powers for a slice of the profits. it's also building a string of bases. president putin visited one last month. russia's attempt to back up its economic claims with a show of strength. but it's a fashion show we're treated to back on base. to survive the arctic, you need the right clothes, and the right food. for the arctic brigade, that means russian sausages

and fresh fish. then it's back on patrol. russia says it doesn't seek conflict in the arctic, but there are competing interests in this region and russia is in no mood to back down. steve rosenberg, bbc news, at the alakorti base in the russian arctic. tributes have been flowing in from across hollywood for the 0scar—winning film—makerjonathan demme, who's died aged 73. he'd been suffering from cancer. he was probably best known for directing the silence of the lambs but also made the ground—breaking aids drama philadelphia and the talking heads documentary stop making sense. anthony hopkins, who also won an oscar in silence of the lambs, said jonathan demme had a great spirit and every day being with him was a high five. briefly that main news again. the

trump administration says it aims to force north korea into dismantling its nuclear and missile programmes through diplomatic pressure, tougher economic sanctions and it hopes more from china. much more on all the news any time on the bbc news website. thank you for watching. hello again. 0ur weather is set to turn a little bit milder over the next few days, quieting down in many respects. but before we get there, yesterday we had some really big thunderstorms hanging around. this one brought some hail in west hampsted. thanks to our weather watcher for sending that picture in. you can see the extent of the showers as they've worked in. the showers have tended to die away overnight. just one or two left over working towards parts of central, southern england. by and large, today we are looking at quite a cloudy weather picture for many of us.

and there will be some showers knocking around as well. ok, let's take a look at how the weather starts off in the morning. quite a lot of cloud around. some showers really from the word go across north—western areas. towards southern parts of england and wales, this is where the clearest weather will be. and certainly a cold start to the day. we're looking at some patches of frost around. probably the lowest temperatures at —3 or so. a cold and locally frosty start to the morning. it should be reasonably bright. brightness won't last, though. look at this. quite quickly, we'll see an area of cloud come down from the north. that will tend to trap cold air at the surface. it's one of those days where temperatures will be slow to rise. northern england, northern ireland, scotland, a cloudy start to the day. 0ccasional brighter spells. but already a few showers from the word go. quite breezy in northern scotland as well. through the rest of the day, the showers that are really associated with weak weather fronts will slide southwards. it will turn cloudier and cloudier as the day goes by. eventually we will start to see those showers working

in across east anglia and south—east england as well. late in the day, the far north of england will brighten up. temperatures generally about 11 degrees for many of us. now, looking at the weather picture through the night time, and those showers will continue to go southwards. quite a bit of cloud initially. then the showers fade away and skies clear in the second half of the night. and again that will allow things to get chilly. there will be some pockets of frost developing by the time we get to friday morning across parts of scotland and the far north of england in the countryside. here's friday's weather picture. generally quite a quiet weather day. again, we're looking at a few showers. most in eastern parts of scotland, eastern england. but for many of us, it's a dry and bright kind of day with cloud coming and going through the day. those temperatures will be rising a little bit. so, highs between 11 and 1a degrees. feeling a little bit more pleasant. and that trend i think goes on into the first part of the weekend. saturday, by and large a dry day with sunny spells. isolated showers possible in western areas.

but for most of us a quiet weather picture. temperatures continuing to rise. 12—15 degrees. not bad for the start of the weekend. and that's your weather. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines for you: after days of military manoeuvres, the trump administration now seems to be reverting to the policy of past presidents — tighter sanctions and diplomatic pressure, to end north korea's nuclear and missile programmes. it wants china to agree to do the same. a bbc investigation has revealed the scale of organ trafficking in egypt, with thousands of illegal operations each year. venezuela has announced it will withdraw from the organisation of american states, accusing the regional group of interfering in its internal affairs. there've been more demonstrations for early elections. at least 20 people have died in protests since march. tributes have been flowing for the 0scar—winning film—maker, jonathan demme, who's died aged 73. he was probably best known for directing the silence of the lambs but also made the ground—breaking aids drama philadelphia.

it's time now for click.