the comments come as the us flew bombers and fighterjets over international waters east of north korea. iran says it has successfully tested a new ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 kilometres. the test comes days after president trump attacked iran's missile programme. mexico has been struck by another strong earthquake, the third in less than three weeks. the latest tremor measured 6.2 and was centred in the southern state of oaxaca. the final day of campaigning has taken place in germany before elections on sunday. chancellor angela merkel is the clear frontrunner. she's being challenged by martin schulz of the social democratic party. now on bbc news, it's time for witness. hello and welcome to a special edition of witness, with me,

rebecca jones. i'm here at the british library to guide you through five moments in chinese history that helped shape the country. we'll meet an archaeologist who's worked on the terracotta army site for decades. a man who took part in the student protests at tiananmen square, and a former red guard. but our first witness is sidney rittenberg. he visited china as a gi during world war ii and stayed on. he joined the communist party. and during china's civil war, he got to know the revolutionary leader, chairman mao. he was so idolised. and it was so impossible to criticise him. he finally convinced himself that china needed an emperor figure. i think mao before coming to power

and after coming to power were two quite different personalities. but he was enormously courteous. he was disarming. he could make you forget that you were in the presence of someone from history. he was a large man and he had great personal dignity and was very easy to talk to. yunnan was the nerve centre of the entire communist movement. it was so rare in those days to have an american that spoke chinese. i was fascinated by the work they were doing. and i decided to stay and act

as an english—language person for their radio programme. it was an atmosphere... of great determination. i would say even of great pride and joy to be there, to be part of that movement, which people felt was building a new china. there was one american movie every week. i used to go interpret. and mao's favourite films by far where laurel and hardy, but they loved that. he laughs when mao laughed, he laughed like a baby laughs. like every muscle in his face was laughing. from brow to chin. i would go to the party headquarters and play chinese gin rummy cards. they would all tease each other and cuff each other around and be very warm, but not with mao. he would sit there and nobody would tease him or cuff him around. i never felt that he was a friend. maybe i felt that because i could argue with him on occasion. chairman mao always

had a ruthless streak. i think chairman mao never intended that people should die in the great famine in the great leap forward. but he didn't really make it stop. i think the official estimates run around 13 million. it was a disaster., 30 million. i was suddenly arrested and held in solitary confinement for six years. in prison. the first year in total darkness. when i heard in the prison that

chairman mao had died, across this was the most terrible blow that the world revolution could suffer. but i didn't shed a single here. you know, i think chairman mao was an extremely difficult character to analyse. he could do and did do good things for china that nobody else could have done. he also did terrible things for china that nobody else could have done. sydney stayed in china until 1980 when he returned to the us. in the 1960s, chairman mao wanted to root out opposition to his leadership and read the country of any semblance of old chinese culture and history. at the forefront of the so—called cultural revolution where the ted mack red guards, fanatical supporters. this man was a member of the red guards. i was in middle school

when a cultural revolution started. the biggest nation on earth, china, is in turmoil. is china's ageing leader lost control? has he gone mad driven to megalomania by the hysterical adoration of the teenage red guard? of course ijoined, it is glorious to join. chairman mao had decided to mobilise young people as the driving force

of the vast campaign to cure lies the colonies. there was to be a revolution in people's thinking. inspired by mao, the red guards went wild in to keep the revolution alive. they worshipped him as a reader and followed his instruction without question. they consider along here and western—style clothes communist. after reports of ratings, beating up and even murder, the red guard seem to have gone too far. their leaders have told them to cool off. a man who has forged a new life

himself and his family in the us. for decades, communist china's relationship with the us was difficult, to put it mildly. but things started to change in 1972 with president rick certain extent‘s visit to meet chairman mao. the former diplomat winston lord was part of the delegation that travelled to china. today president nixon is visiting china. the great american statesman to have set foot on chinese soil since chairman mao came to power. many of us were a little those appointed in the arrival arrangements. this was a huge political event and we naively thought there would be big crowds. in fact, there were just a few people, but then we recognised again that this was in keeping with the realistic fact that we had been enemies for 22 years and you couldn't turn the page immediately. and so these two great countries, the most powerful knees and on earth, visit the most

populous nation on earth. i was special assistant to henry kissinger the national security adviser and i was in charge of orchestrating and putting together the briefing books for the president for his trip to china. my first impressions of beijing was that it was very bleak and depressing. it was early drought. everyone is dressed the same. very few cars, mostly bicycles. we arrived at the guesthouse and two hours the prize, the announced that chairman mao would like to see president nixon right away. this was mao acting like a traditional chinese emperor, not given you any warning when you were going to be summoned to his presence. i have worked for many presidents. including several close up. president nixon was by far the most well versed and strategic in international relations. he was extraordinary.

whatever his bars, one has to grant him back. as you person, you was quite shy. he was always somewhat ill at ease in engaging in banter or smalltalk. —— small talk. both sides had clear reasons for trying to reopen communications after 22 years of mutual enmity and indeed fighting each other in korea. when you meet someone of historic significance, you have to figure out whether you are impressed with the personality because you know he's important or whether you would be impressed if you didn't know who he was. kissinger and i agreed that even if we went to a cocktail party and mao was there and we didn't know him, he would have exuded some power and attraction. this was not to glorify him. he was a monster in many ways. the meeting itself puzzled us at first. it was only about one hour with translation. we immediately recognise the significance of this. the chairman was declaring visit a success from the very beginning. at the conclusion of the meeting, the chinese came in with photographs of all of us at the meeting.

nixon and kissinger looted each other and then told mao that mr lord is never at this meeting, please cut him out of all the photos, because i was sitting next to kissinger. it was already humiliating for the secretary of state not to be at the meeting while the national security adviser was. but to have in addition to that some idiot in his early 30s also sitting ina meeting... it's worth coming 16,000 miles tossed to stand here and see it. join me in raising your glasses to chairman mao and to the friendship

of the chinese and american people. we were in the middle are the geopolitical earthquake. it was a combination of nerves of steel working on this, but also the sense that we were frankly in the midst of making history. winston lord, remembering a key moment in us chinese relations. remember, you can watch witness every month on the bbc news channel, or you can catch up on all our films along with more than 1000 radio programmes in our online archives. just go to our website. now to one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. in the spring of 1974, local farmers in china accidentally uncovered the site of the vast terracotta army. our next witness is an archaeologist who has dedicated her career to the remarkable lives of these figures. it is a vast pottery army slowly

being unearthed from the tomb where it has lain for more than 2000 years. at one time... i've worked at the site for many years. she still works at the site of the terracotta army in xian. finally in 1919, chinese authorities crashed a popular movement in beijing. among those protesting was an 18—year—old student. tiananmen square is a square design to fit at least a couple of million people and that square was bumper—to—bumper full. you could feel at that time that something was going on. you could see millions of ordinary citizens of beijing blocking army lorries from coming in.

10,000 chinese troops have tried to seize control of the centre of peking tonight. but their attempt to sweep away the student demonstrators that have been camped in tiananmen square appeals to have failed. their demands for democracy, a free press and an end to. it was the last year of my high school studies. the first time we joined in, a classmate of mine and me and five others we said," forget it, we're going". that was onjune 4th. the central television started to broadcast this ominous message repeatedly for quite a few hours. "0h, citizens, please return to your homes, the army and the security forces are coming in to clear the city centre. if you disobey this order, you will be responsible for all the consequences".

most decided to stay where they were. and then things started to unravel. you just heard banging. you start to hear those sounds. and then you start to see people bleeding, being carried to various hospitals around you. people crying and shouting. i felt numb. it was beyond anybody‘s comprehension. you focus your mind, you are trying to get to a place of safety. maybe it's home, maybe somewhere else. for a moment, it could be just behind a dumpster, behind a rubbish bin or somewhere. you just wanted to go. i eventually got home. of course my mum was worried sick and she locked the doors and my brother and i were still

a big pumped and we said we should find a kitchen knife or something and go out and do something. she said "you guys, don't be stupid. you cannot affect any change at this time. nothing". 0n the main road east of the square at 1023 this morning, there was a sudden and deadly volley from the troops. i remember sitting on the sofa in the living room is hearing chaos going on around you. the second day, while you still hear sporadic firing and nobody dared to venture too far away, you sort of have poked your head out. first the alleyway and then on to the secondary roads and then trying to see what ever is going on. the first site was littered

slippers, burned—out army trucks and i even saw two armoured personnel carriers burnt out from the inside. tangled bicycles definitely driven over by heavy vehicles. i felt and utter sense of desperation and utter despair. i didn't feel there was a future. i felt ijust need to go. my father at that time was in canada. he was able to apply for a family reunion visa for my mother, my brother and i. i was one of the few fortunate ones. at that very moment. that's all from the special edition of witness here at the british library. don't forget that we will be back at the end of the month for another five extraordinary moments in history. for now, for me and the rest of the witness team, goodbye. hi there.

yesterday, we had two types of weather through the afternoon. for a number of places, northern ireland, scotland, northern england, it stayed rather cloudy. this was one scene in buttermere, in cumbria. other places had glorious sunshine. good parts of southern england, and the midlands, and into wales with the best of that. where the sunshine came out, it became warm, with temperatures up to 21 celsius. that is 70 in fahrenheit. notably, across scotland, around the moray firth, temperatures were about six degrees above average for this time of year. looking at the weather, as we start the day today, we have a band of rain pushing east. as it does so, it will bump into high—pressure across scandinavia and europe.

so it will be a slow—moving front. quite often, it will be weak as well. starting with a band of rain to start the day for western scotland. damp in northern ireland, and spits and spots of rain across west wales, devon, and cornwall, too. 12 to 15 degrees in towns and cities. sunny spells all day. high cloud in the sky will make it hazy at times. you can see the rain does not move far from where it starts. it gradually trickles into central areas of scotland, with cloud breaks for eastern scotland, sunny spells will come through from time to time. northern ireland perhaps brightening up in the afternoon. across wales and south—east england, it will often be cloudy with patches quite often be cloudy with patches of rain.

not rain all the time, but some on and off through the day. central and eastern england in the sunshine will be warmer. temperatures 22—23 celsius for a high. going through sunday evening, it looks like the rain will be pepping up. more persistent across scotland. we will see some fog patches form underneath underneath clearing skies in northern ireland, where things will turn out quite chilly. it could be a murky start there on monday. monday morning, that fog will clear away slowly in northern ireland. this band of rain will weaken across scotland, west england and wales. after a cloudy start across eastern england, the cloud break up with sunny spells throughout. temperatures for most of us between 16—19 degrees celsius with that sunshine coming through northern ireland. looking at the next few days, often the weather will be dry in the week ahead. warm as well with sunny spells. but a band of rain is coming through on thursday. and that's your weather. bye for now. this is bbc news. i'm duncan golestani.

our top stories: the war of words hots up, with north korea's foreign minister launching a blistering attack on president trump at the united nations. translation: he tried to insult the dignity of my country by referring to it as a rocket. by doing so, he omitted an irreversible mistake. —— committed. it comes as iran test—fires a new medium—range missile, days after a warning from the united states. rescuers in mexico are forced to suspend their search efforts temporarily after the country is hit by another earthquake. and the king versus the president — why one of basketball‘s biggest names has picked a fight with donald trump.