you're watching beyond 100 days, the us is close to making a decision on how to act against north korea. then along hearing at the senate, top intelligence chiefs are applying global threats to america. north korea and russia topped the list. the head of the fbi contradicts the white house's version of events surrounding rob porter, the white house aide accused of domestic violence. we will get the views of former caa chief leon panetta. the online fight against terrorism has a new weapon. it is software that immediately blocks jihadists videos from being uploaded. bagpipes, ta rta n from being uploaded. bagpipes, tartan and, yes, a pony that baits. the colourful backdrop for prince harry and meghan markle on their first official visit to scotland. clear welcome. i felt like cormack had

swallowed the us capitol today, the world would have lost the entire top rank of us intelligence services. it's ok, it didn't happen, instead the top six officials and the fbi, the top six officials and the fbi, the cia and nsa sat before senators for three hours and delivered a sobering assessment of threats facing the us which they say are urgent, serious and real. they want about north korea and china and asked the question went down this impressive line of america's top intelligence brass, every one of them agreed that russia has not stopped interfering in american democracy. which is pretty striking because these men report directly to president trump and he has yet to hold a cabinet level meeting on russian meddling. friendly, the united states is under attack. under attack by entities that are using cyber to penetrate virtually every

major action that takes place in the united states. persistence aren't disruptive cyber operations will continue against the united states and our european allies using elections as opportunities to undermine democracy, so this court and undermine our values. leon pa netta and undermine our values. leon panetta has helped many post, including director of the cia and white house director chief of staff under president clinton. the message from those intelligence chiefs in the senate today was clear. this has been perfect, if this still a threat and it will continue being a threat to american elections and yet the president has not yet held a cabinet level meeting on this issue. why the disconnect? everyone is asking that question, particularly after the testimony today which made clear that russia is continuing to do exactly the same thing they did in

2016 elections, which is to undermine a relic to election institutions and it's extremely important that the president must address this issue because, frankly, if he doesn't send a message to the russians that this is unacceptable, then in many ways it's an open invitation to the russians to come in and do exactly what they did in 2016. this is a critical national security issue that the president of the united states has two face. the message seems to beat in moscow, go ahead because nothing has been said by donald trump. vladimir putin understands that message. he is someone who, if he senses weakness on the part of an baseri, will take advantage of it. i think right now, he senses weakness, that is what got him into crime, into ukraine, into

syria, and to the 2016 election and 110w syria, and to the 2016 election and now this year because not facing any kind of deterrence or defence, it's almost an open invitation to to again coming and attack our institutions. the argument from the white house might be, you are all exaggerating this night, there is no evidence that russia actually changed the outcome are affected the outcome of the american election and being interviewed on the french election and marine le pen was not elected. the president of the united states needs to listen to those intelligence chiefs. they are the ones who testified today and they made very clear that the russians are going to attack our election institutions. that is a serious issue that the president of the united states has to address. let's turn to another serious issue they raised in the hearings, that north korea and it was interesting to hear director courts seeing that a decision is near on what to do about

north korea. what is that decision, do you think? i understand you not a of the cia and the longer secretary of the cia and the longer secretary of the cia and the longer secretary of the fence. i wish i knew. i think the question that has always confronted this president and other presidents is, do you continue a policy of deterrence and containment and hope that by increasing the pressure you can force north korea to the negotiating table, or do you resort to some kind of military pre—entry attack. the reason the military option has never been used is because the consequences of that are horrendous. it could take us into a nuclear war. for that reason, i would hope that the decision is how do we open the door to negotiations with north korea now that south korea has at least laid some of the groundwork for that kind

of negotiation. the decision making how we might learn that. i want to you something that the director of the caa said during that hearing. listen to this. her analysts remain concerned that kim jong un is not hearing the full story, that those around him are providing that i are providing him with the tenuous nature of his position internationally and domestically.“ this speculation from the director of the cia or do you think american intelligence is good on what north korean leader kim jong and has access to, information he's getting. what's happening them?|j access to, information he's getting. what's happening them? i would think that what mike pompei said today is based on intelligence we are receiving with regards to what kim jong un is thinking and what he's doing. human sources on what we have inside north korea? without going into the sources, i can't help but

leave that there is better intelligence by then try to understand what north korea is up to. you were chief of staff under president bill clinton, so i have to ask you about what is happening in the white house at the moment and the white house at the moment and the situation surrounding rob porter, the white house aide who stepped down after allegations of domestic violence. what have you made of this white house's handling of the story over the past seven days? i think the deputy press secretary, when he said the white house has made mistakes on the handling of this whole issue, was correct. we haven't seen him recently but i think he was right. this has been handled badly from the very beginning and as they try back and fill in all the questions that have been asked, they are getting themselves deeper and deeper in trouble. i think they ought to be

upfront, admit the mistakes that have been made and say it will not happen again. the current white house chief of staff, generaljohn kelly, who holds thejob house chief of staff, generaljohn kelly, who holds the job you use to hold, said in an interview with the wall streetjournal that he hold, said in an interview with the wall street journal that he did everything correctly. it's hard to believe they didn't make mistakes because they had information on rob porter, testified to by the fbi director today, that, in fact, that information was provided as early as november of last year and yet nobody acted on that information. somebody dropped the ball. i want to show you numbers that we have pooled on the amount of turnover in this administration of staff compared to previous administrations and you can see in there. 996 9% under president 0bama, 34% turnover in this administration in its first year. what does that suggest to you, they

are not competent, they haven't got good people, there is not good management, the people don't want to work there? i think it's trouble on all fronts because what it indicates to me is that initially when the administration came in, they had a very haphazard process in terms of how they hired people to work on the white house staff. that's reflected in the fact there are so many interim security clearances that have not been completed and the very fa ct have not been completed and the very fact that there has been that much churn tells me it's very difficult to attract good quality people to then staff and that is troubling. president clinton told you up during his administration basically to come in and bring a bit of adult supervision, and was also an administration that had a certain amount of chaos in the early years. if the trump administration were to call you up and ask what you have to do, we have to stabilise this and

it's turning into some sort of soap opera in terms of personnel. what would you tell them to do?” opera in terms of personnel. what would you tell them to do? i think john kelly has done a good job in trying to put some kind of structured into place, a chain of command, better discipline in terms of the way the staff operates, better control over policy but has difficulty is that he still dealing with a very unpredictable principle, the president of the united states. the president trump is willing to meet discipline, it makes it tough to call together the staff under of that everybody is going in the same direction. of course you are a democrat, is the call came, would you take it and give some advice? california for me is a very nice place to be right now. that is why you keep your watch on california time! thank you for coming into the studio. ryan christie, for an adviser to george dubya bush, we have talked of an that are not as

chaotic, you saw the numbers, clearly much less turnover in that administration knew worked on. less turnover in the clint clinton attrition but a huge turnover in this administration. is this what is going on, improper vetting and a lack of talent in the white house?” think it's likely the case here. i can certainly tell you when we came out and they want and the president bush administration, there was already a system in place of how do you set the staff at higher the staff, how do you recruit staff and a secretary said moments ago, there was very little organisation thought on how president trump would staff his administration and if you don't have the staff in place and they don't know who they are reporting to and what they should do, it often means chaos in suits. the administration seems to have cut out in the early days a lot of people it might have fired because they didn't wa nt might have fired because they didn't want people necessarily who were very tied to washington and on the

foreign policy side they did not want people who had in any way criticised donald trump when he was running as a candidate. that leaves you a pretty small vanish, doesn't it? issued us. from a who work in the white house, if you have insulted president trump said he is not a competent leader or hold his leadership and aggression, you are on the list. there are on the list. they're not that many people in washington, dc, republican or democrat, who have the experience working in the white house. it's very stressful, very hard work and you need people who know how it should be done and if you limit your white house staff and you limit your foreign policy staff, the state department and other posts, you are really putting the country at a disadvantage. what do they have to do now over the rob porter story so doesn't keep dominating on the news coverage? 's poor chief of staff will said you served with the closure for the president of the united states for the pleasure and it came been cut and when you make it came been cut and when you make it too. somehow this year need to rule, some people have to take

responsibility for this. they have to say, mr president, for the good of the country and your administration, i'm leaving. leon pa netta administration, i'm leaving. leon panetta says he is happy being 3000 miles away in california. if the call came to you, please serve in this administration and give us aduu this administration and give us adult supervision, would you take it? i love my home state of california and my wife who is out there in san francisco. let's put it this, i have been giving them cancel on the site and the notion of going inside those gates, muscles illustrious bakers, but i'm happy in california. how to curtail the power of extremist propaganda on the internet is something the uk government is asking itself? it's unveiling an online tool powered by artificial intelligence and it says it can accurately detect jihadists content and block it from being viewed. there are concerns that groups like islamic state could that these

methods in order to new audiences. 0ur media editor has the story. militaristic, cinematic and off the shop with high—level production values, these propaganda videos for islamic state this post her and hatred. they are easy to find on the internet right now. one is a jihadists new andy ellis is legitimate the deal. the creators claim the technology, which is obviously secret, can spot 94% of odis obviously secret, can spot 94% of 0dis contact online with an accuracy of 99.95%. the technology distinctions between news and extremism. examples of the one on the right with high probability to be vetted by a human. we are looking to try to remove this content from the public. if it requires somebody

to have ten passwords is propagated browser before they can get access to safe as a win. it means it can't just be shared between them are for. attention has focused on twitter, google and facebook but this technology will tell if platforms. islamic state reporters used over 400 unique platforms last year, 145 of them for the first time. like other forms of modern media, terrorist propaganda has now shifted online. what is so striking about this new tool is that it is funded by government rather than technology firms and it is covered by artificial intelligence. it is an admission that machines rather than manpower will be most effective and finding and removing extremist material online. 0ne finding and removing extremist material online. one from a jihadists who works in counter radicalisation says terrorists will a lwa ys radicalisation says terrorists will always find new methods to find new

audiences and the platforms have to be willing to take action. the big players in this area are taking a lot of action but the smaller companies, they are not necessarily prepared to play ball with government some test because they are suspicious or assembly is regarded as being part of . it's not clear how widely the technology will be taken by the government says its instinct is to collaborate with industry. we're not went to rule out taking legislative action if we have to do it but i remain convinced that the best way to ta ke remain convinced that the best way to take real action. to have the best outcomes is to have an industry led form like the one we have got. technology and government pressure

can reduce harm but it is a war without end. there is always a concern that the terrorists will manage to stay one step ahead with technology. i listen to the senate hearing this morning. they spoke about russia, china and north korea and there was little mention of the threat of so—called islamic state. it seems to be something people are not so focused on here. let us look at the economy. if you do not like risk you should not probably invest in the stock market right now. the dowjones last week had its two greatest losses in history but it bounced back and the markets have traded up in the last

couple of days. so is it going to last, this volatility? we can talk about this. should i put the $150 in the stock market? based on coffee break, you might need it. on the stock market, it's not rocket science in this regard, money has been almost three and when that's the case people buy stuff and as interest rates rise, they might by leicester and will have an effect on asset prices, including the stock market. a better rate of return with westwick comparatively than how the situation with a couple of years ago, so there will be some transference from bonds to stocks on the stock has had a wild run, they needed some adjustment. in that regard itself as long as it doesn't tank from here.

when money is free, people borrow money. i borrow money to buy my house and my car and whatever it is i want to buy but country borrows money is as well, the usa has borrowed a lot of money and in a borrowing frenzy at the moment, they are piling up debt. you are from the republican party, conventionally the party of fiscal discipline and responsibility. the republicans are still believed that deficits are a bad thing? i think they believe that, the question for republicans and democrats is that you have the will to act on it? we have a country where we are $20 trillion in debt officially but a few add all the things of books at $60 trillion. if it isa things of books at $60 trillion. if it is a bankview would be investigating at shutting it down. the day of reckoning is coming but u nfortu nately the day of reckoning is coming but unfortunately both republicans and democrats have their heads in the sand and frankly the public is giving it a shoulder shrug these days and the public isn't ready, sadly, for a discussion on how we

will fix this. as you mentioned interest rates could rise, which means my mortgage will get expensive in the country yet and that will get more expensive, is that the day of reckoning for america?” more expensive, is that the day of reckoning for america? i think it's good to be when you have so much of our budget focused on interest on debt and interest rates go up and that begins to boil over ability to keep our finances in some sort of reasonable or depth and could trigger all consequences. i'm disappointed in this congress, ball size for shrugging their shoulders for what is an obvious problem. a lot of exuberance has been about among investors thinking is a very good times and the like what the administration is doing, one thing they don't like the prospect of as a trade war. this morning, president trump talked about the prospect of ta riffs trump talked about the prospect of tariffs on quarters on steel and aluminium coming from asia and south korea in particular. what would the business community make of that?” think they would say trade wars are

not good as shown by herstory. even republicans don't like them! they would also say this, it's ok to try to get a better deal is and how much of what president trump is threatening is going to be implemented or symbolically implemented or symbolically implemented as opposed to holistic we re implemented as opposed to holistic were implemented. if just symbolically and doesn't trigger a trade war and we get a better deal. that's not a bad thing because the united states has been in some bad trade deals and improving them is a good strategic goal. thanks much for coming in. let's take a quick look at other news that's been going on around the world. the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu has confirmed that police are recommending his indictment in a corruption probe. he has been questioned several times since the start of 2017 and has spoken on israeli television denying any wrongdoing. the dutch foreign minister has resigned after admitting he lied about meeting vladimir putin in 2006. he has said

he has hurt vladimir putin planning aggressive russian expansion and admitted on monday that he'd head the account second—hand but maintained the content was true. here's what he told dutch members of parliament. translation: so as not to burden the position of the minister of foreign affairs, i see no other option than to offer my resignation today to his majesty the king. the leadership of south africa get an anc has called on the embattled presidentjacob zuma to resign for the sake of the country. he has so far refused to 90, country. he has so far refused to go, he is due to hold a news conference on wednesday. he had told his party he wanted to stay in power for another 3—6 months. it's, royals moment, prince harry meghan markle have made their first officialjoint meghan markle have made their first official joint visitors call and meghan markle have made their first officialjoint visitors call and as pa rt officialjoint visitors call and as part of a round of official engagements in the run—up to their wedding in may. this is the fourth appeal as the couple have made since their engagement was announced in november. edinburgh castle and

welcome to scotland on a date when the temperature was barely above zero. a day, then, for a good warm overcoat and there was meghan markle, wrapped up in the very thing. the coat, patterned in tartan green and blue. offering a welcome, the band of her majesty's royal marines scotland and the regimental mascot of the royal regiment of scotland, a shetland pony with sharp teeth. watch harry's left hand. 0h, nearly got him! harry moved on, ring finger intact and meghan amused. bang went the one o'clock gun, out came the thoughtfully—provided ear plugs and as harry and meghan gazed over the city, those who'd come to see them were positive. i got to meet meghan today and she is absolutely beautiful. i'm so excited for them to be here in edinburgh today. they're the future of the royal family, meghan and harry and william and kate, they're the future. this has been another important introduction on the meghan markle

familiarisation tour of the united kingdom. the union, of course, is a sensitive issue, you have the young lady who is going to bea you have the young lady who is going to be a princess who is half african american and that is extraordinary. it shows that the monarchy are coming up to date and recognise that a lot of young people like the monarchy. do you think they will be as much interest as we had with kate and william? absolutely, it will be and william? absolutely, it will be a lot of fun to watch. i do not trust you to make the tea! coming up for viewers on the bbc news channel. considering the successor to the queen as head of the commonwealth, the bbc learned it may not necessarily be the heir to the throne. and the changing face of clowning.

0ver over the last 24 hours we've seen heavy rain and significant snow in places. beautiful scenes here in the scottish highlands. in the next 24 hours we have more of those weather elements. another weather system showing its hand in the atlantic. that will start to slide in during the rest of this evening and tonight. ahead of that the wind picking up, gales in some western spot. and it could start to bring in some snow especially over higher ground in northern ireland. temperatures generally dipping down to freezing or below. so the frontal system pushing in in the first part of tomorrow. cold enough for some snow across northern areas initially

to quite low levels. those snow levels tend to become increasingly confined to higher ground but not before we've seen a covering of up to 12 centimetres across some high ground in the north—west of scotland. and further south we could see five, seven centimetres of snow. northern ireland by this stage brightening up and then cloud and patchy rain across parts of wales and the south—west of england. then we ta ke and the south—west of england. then we take this band of sleet and snow east through the day. behind that things begin to brighten up and we introduce something a little bit milder. moving out of wednesday the weather system moves off into the near continent but low pressure is still in charge and delivering some wintry showers. the further south

you come, fewer showers and more in the way of dry weather. in the sunshine in the south, ten or 11 degrees in london. still colder further north but into the weekend and beyond, things should turn mild forjust and beyond, things should turn mild for just about everyone. and beyond, things should turn mild forjust about everyone. some quieter weather on the way. this is beyond one hundred days, with me katty kay in washington — our top stories. in a long senate hearing, intelligence agencies say russia has never stopped trying to meddle in us politics — and is a threat to november's mid—term elections. the former cia chief gave us his reaction. the president needs to listen to his intelligence chiefs. they are the ones who testified today and they made clear that the russians are going to attack the election

institutions in this country. the british government unveils an online tool, powered by artificial intelligence, that it says can accurately detect jihadist content and stop it from being viewed. coming up in the next half hour. would the irish economy suffer if no brexit deal is reached? we hear the concerns for ireland's border communities. as support for the us president weakens among women — we check in with latinas for trump — are they standing by their man? let us know your thoughts by using the hashtag ‘beyond—0ne—hundred—days‘. the commonwealth is sometimes called a ‘post—colonial club.'. this hang over from the british empire includes among others, canada, malta, kenya and pakistan and it turns out they all have views on who should be their monarch. it's an organisation with 53 members states and membership is voluntary. it covers about 2—point—4 billion people — a third of the world's population.

it's responsible for the commonwealth games — the next one due to be held on the gold coast in australia in april. queen elizabeth is the head of the commonwealth — seen here last friday, accepting the gambia's application to become a member once again. but who will succeed her? the bbc has learned that the commonwealth has secretly begun considering who will be the next head of the organisation. the issue is hugely sensitive because the role is not hereditary — and will not pass automatically to the prince of wales, on the queen's death. in a moment, we'll get the thoughts of dr sue 0nslow — the deputy director of the institute of commonwealth studies — but first, let's hear from our diplomatic correspondent, james landale, in westminster. this seems almost treasonous to even discuss who should take over from the queen! absolutely right, it is hugely sensitive. and not a debate that people want to have publicly. since i wrote the story this morning

there have been a lot of people not answering their telephones and insisting this is not what is going on. what is happening, everyone knows that the queen is 91, and there is a big summit of commonwealth heads of government in the uk and a couple of months. they note that the issue will come up in the margins. so people are beginning to think about that because as you say it is not automatically the prince of wales who takes over. so the question is what should happen. if you talk to most people who have seen your leadership roles in the commonwealth they will say there is com monwealththeuflillfsatcthere is]; plausible alternative . the no plausible alternative to the prince of wales but should he automatically get it, should you set up automatically get it, should you set upa automatically get it, should you set up a - system automatically get it, should you set upa ‘system s: ' 2 no this he gets . be

he 5 head be h 15 head be h 15 i ead be think, of the 55 commonwealth 15 i think, of the 53 countries, so why can they notjust all do the same thing. he gets to be head of state in those countries but not automatically the head of the commonwealth of which those countries are a member. it is that complicated. so essentially what they have to do is to work out should we just make a one—off decision or should they set up a new procedure. the problem, the reason there is uncertainty is back at the moment it would just be a decision made by the people who happen to be heads of the commonwealth governments at the “if: about fig; they also need talk the ceremonial leadership. about the ceremonial leadership. thank you very much. let's get the thoughts of dr sue 0nslow — the deputy director of the institute of commonwealth studies. we know that the queen is popular as

head of the commonwealth. what do they make of prince charles, do we have any sense of that? the prince of wales has been stepping into the role representing his motherfor some years role representing his motherfor some yea rs now. role representing his motherfor some years now. of course he represented her of the commonwealth heads of government meeting in sri lankan in 2013 mark and by all accou nts lankan in 2013 mark and by all accounts he did an excellentjob in difficult circumstances. he also stepped in to her position hosting commonwealth events and more and more he has assumed a supportive role to her unique position as head of the commonwealth. but i agree that there is discussion privately about the possibility of the future head. these have been going on for some time, i can think of some discussion going on in the 1990s to

try to resolve this particular issue. so this is not a new issue for the commonwealth to consider but it is becoming shall we say more important given the advancing age of the queen. in a way if you think in the queen. in a way if you think in the sweep of history no one really can take the place of the queen in terms of the commonwealth because she has bridged those eras, she has come out of the camp colonial era and been there for so long, known so many head of state and she knew the world when it was a very different place and the commonwealth had so much more importance in the world. you are right because the commonwealth has evolved since 1949. and the queen, her position originally as a symbolic representation of the free association of the original eight member states. now to the 53 member associations. of course she stepped into the role that had been occupied

by her father because he had into the role that had been occupied by herfather because he had been originally king, emperor and then when india became independent and other sub asian countries acquired independence from the uk, by 1949 the monarch then formed this symbolic representation with continued free association. and yes there was this differentiation between the british monarch as head of state, its constitutional responsibilities for the other 15 commonwealth countries and the separate role as head of the modern commonwealth. although there appear to be points of connection and crossover fundamentally they‘ re different responsibilities. the queen has generally been unique, it is very much a people's association and by her own particular stamp, her authority and her own commitment and input and enjoyment of the commonwealth she has also evolved with it. these will be very big shoes to fill. thank you very much.

lovely pictures there of the queen in the earlier days of her reign. let's take a look at some of the other news making the headlines. the president of haiti has condemned the actions of staff from the british charity, 0xfam, after the charity admitted some of its employees used prostitutes in the country. presidentjovenel moise accused the staff in question of using an earthquake eight years ago to sexually exploit people in need. prostitution is illegal in the country. rescue teams in the pacific island state of tonga are assessing the extent of the damage after cyclone gita hit the capital, nuku'alofa. many buildings have been destroyed, including a catholic church

and the main parliament building. thousands of tongans are in evacuation centres. the north korean leader, kimjong—un, has praised south korea for its ‘very impressive' and ‘sincere' efforts in hosting his sister, during the opening of the winter 0lympics. he made the comments after a delegation from the north returned from a three—day visit to the host city of the winter 0lympics, pyeongchang. ireland's taoiseach leo varadkar has said he will work hard with the british government to avoid a ‘hard border‘ after brexit, but the uk‘s now commited to ending both the current single market and the customs union and so it‘s hard to see that‘s going to work? a new report shows ireland‘s economy could suffer a 7% hit as a result of a no—deal brexit. so what do the changes ahead mean for the people of ireland? one man staring the situation in the face, is fergus 0‘dowd, a fine gael politician representing the border consituency of louth. hejoins me from dublin. thank you forjoining me. what you

make of this new economic assessment report showing a 7% hit if there is no deal but pretty much a hit under any circumstances even if there are variations of staying in the customs union but not the customs union or vice versa. i looked at all the options between a so—called soft brexit, as much as we can between the uk and europe and ireland as we have now and the hard brexit where there is no deal. the worst scenario isa there is no deal. the worst scenario is a growth rate of 2.2% and that the economy would lose out something like 18 billion by 2030. a huge problem for everyone and particularly for ourselves. and the point is delighted that the taoiseach before christmas, leo varadkarand taoiseach before christmas, leo va radkar and theresa may taoiseach before christmas, leo varadkar and theresa may didn‘t reach consensus that the worst option of all is nothing if is arranged properly there would still

be as theresa may reiterated yesterday, a border without any friction between north and south which is hugely important. do you think that that is what is going to happen, that they really will be no infrastructure on the border between north and south that could limit the movement of people or goods? that is what we want, obviously what we really wa nt what we want, obviously what we really want is, we accept the uk is leaving europe but we want as close as possible relationship between britain and europe as they have now, as close as possible. it is best for them and best for us. why should britain suffer, why should the parts that voted mostly for brexit suffered the greatest lost and why should our country be plunged into difficulties as a result of this. let‘s work together. difficulties as a result of this. let's work together. it is what the british people voted for in the

referendum. if there is no infrastructure on the border i still do not understand how goods will be controlled going from europe to the rest of the uk. because if they can get across that border they can get into the rest of the uk. the problem is two thirds of our exports go through the uk, that is by container. but the problem is if you have a hard brexit or a brexit where you‘re not part of the customs union that means every lorry going north or south must have spent something like 400 uk sterling to be able to go through the bureaucracy even digitally. so it will be a huge expense. you have 30,000 people travelling north and south each day to work. 1.2 million vehicles every month passing north to south. if you have delays, customs, police stops, it is going to significantly and

adversely affect obviously transport, commerce, agriculture and ordinary people in the course of their daily lives. we do not want that to happen and it will not help anyone north or south if we go there. thank you very much. all the speculation seems to be this will be claimed as a technological solution but how long that will take to put in place if there is an open border between the republic and northern ireland. that is what people do not know. this is beyond one hundred days. still to come. why the future of clowns are under threat as they celebrate 250 years of slapstick comedy. the former football coach, barry bennell, has been found guilty of multiple sex offences, against young boys in the 1980s. bennell, who‘s 64, had denied 48 charges, including indecent assault and serious sexual assaults, but the jury convicted him on 36

counts, and has asked for more time to consider seven others. during the trial prosecutors described him as a ‘predatory paedophile‘, who molested young boys on an ‘industrial scale‘. danny savage reports from liverpool crown court. barry bennell, a football coach who abused many young boys in his charge. today, he was convicted of sexually assaulting boys aged between eight and 15. he was the gatekeeper to a dream world in football, but his victims had to silently suffer horrific abuse. his trial heard he was a child molester on an industrial scale. this afternoon, he was found guilty of assaulting ten of the 11 boys this trial centred on. the jury haven‘t yet reached a decision on a number of other charges and will continue their deliberations tomorrow. he abused the boys at his homes, one of which was in this derbyshire village. he had arcade games and exotic pets and always had a reason

for them to stay over. his victims were associated with crewe and manchester city, where he was involved in the junior setups. he was said to have been treated like god at manchester city‘s maine road ground. in court, it was said bennell had groomed the parents of the complainants so he could carry on the abuse. he offered no evidence in his defence, but his barrister accused some of the men, who were boys at the time, of inventing stories about him and jumping on the bandwagon. today, the 64—year—old, who has appeared throughout the case via video link, shook his head as the guilty verdicts were returned. some of his victims were in tears, hearing finally that the man who‘d abused them when they were little boys has been convicted. elections are underway for a new president

for the world‘s clowns — with a briton among the front runners. david sillito has more. this face is old—fashioned, in a way, now. hands up if you couldn't care less... over the years the clown numbers have dropped in shows. once upon a time, every circus had its own troupe. archive footage voiceover: as always, the clowns bring down the house. the facepaint, the big shoes, they were the heart of circus heritage, but the wigs and grease paint are in decline. maybe it‘s the clown horror films, but on this anniversary year there is a big issue for the man hoping to be world clown president. i didn‘t realise there

was democracy in clowning. there is quite a lot of democracy and quite a lot of politics as well. what are the issues at the moment? you‘ve already highlighted the main question we asked, are people scared of clowns? it is the big issue. even here in the heart of clowndom, more and more clowns are giving up on looking like clowns. if you had seen me back in 1973 when i first started coming here, then you would have seen a completely different face. you don‘t look like proper clowns. they huff. children, over the years have got a little bit wary of clowns. but there is a fightback against all this anti—clown prejudice. i am pc bibbledy bobby or bibbledy bob the clown, the regional director for the world clown association for europe and the whole of africa. i thank you.

yes, there really is a regional clown director. you press people, you like a negative story. positivity does not sell. so unfortunately we keep being busy, we keep getting work, and you are obsessed with the fact that we might not be getting work because of silly films. i stood corrected. it seems there is, still, a lot of clown love out there. but clown politics? i had a chat with elsie fanackerpants. .. it is only when it gets to meetings, it can get quite heated. there are clown meetings? there‘s a committee... she laughs. i couldn‘t take it seriously...! so elsie won‘t be running for world clown president. but someone has to. because when it comes to the future of clowning, there is a lot to think about. now every week we listen to

politicians give their assessment of thejobs being done so politicians give their assessment of the jobs being done so far by president trump. denise galvez is a founder member of latinas for trump and joins me now from miami. an issue i imagine you are looking at and some of your fellow supporters are looking at is the question of immigration. it has not been resolved between democrats and republicans perhaps no surprise. the president has suggested a pathway to citizenship for almost 2 million young people brought to the united states illegally by their parents. is that something you would support? absolutely, let‘s give him credit for bringing it to the forefront. we had the opportunity back in 1995 and he shares the same sentiment

president clinton shared back then and here we are arguing the details of whitley wood should be a com pletely of whitley wood should be a completely partisan immigration reform package will be all come to the table and finally agree. there are other members of his conservative base who hate the idea of people here illegally having any path to citizenship? that is catering to the extreme and i think the majority of us here are quite moderate on immigration. we agree with some sort of path whether it ta kes with some sort of path whether it takes five years, eight years, and what it looks like, what transition looks like is important to us. but that they should have a path to citizenship i think we all agree on. and so does his core. what would you like to hear more of and blasts off from the white house?” like to hear more of and blasts off from the white house? i would like to hear less about the memos, i

think that isjust to hear less about the memos, i think that is just distracting us from actual policy—making. i think to me it is tantamount to high school gossip. i think he just released today his infrastructure plans so i think we should start to pay attention to the details of that and how it will help with the economy which i think is so important. we‘re still feeling the results of the tax credits and the tax reforms. so we need to focus i think on that and less on all the bipartisan rhetoric. he has been in office for a year now and we have not spoken to you for a while, can you give him a grading?” not spoken to you for a while, can you give him a grading? i would give him a b+. 0nly because i wish he would let things sit more. i think he reacts too much to criticism from the media and when he has had really crucial wins he should‘ve let them

stand alone instead of getting into some argument about something on twitter or at the latest trump bashing that takes place all day long. you're focused on the mid-term elections in november and trying to get republicans in florida elected. 0ne get republicans in florida elected. one group suffering, that the president is seeing a lack of support amongst is women. so that it something that we are championing here locally and i‘m trying to use the voice of pettiness to support more women. right here locally we have an important election, district 27 and many women are in the race, i think we need to separate the true candidates from some of those just doing it as a career move. seafood is going to be best to represent

women in congress we are losing a strong woman in that district. so right now i wish we could focus more on the mid—term elections especially in florida and pay less attention to all the bipartisan rhetoric on tv and the media. thank you. and our political analyst ron christie is back with me now. the mid—term elections, we‘ve heard talk of a tsunami in favour of democrats, then the tax reform was passed and it seemed the republicans we re passed and it seemed the republicans were doing better. how do you see them shaking up now? one thing i've learnt in politics is to not pay too much attention to the opinion polls this early. i think the house of representatives could be in play, a

number of republicans from moderate districts are retiring, almost 40 not coming back so the question for me is can the democrats field candidates in these districts that candidates in these districts that can be competitive. and i think that they can. what is the key for the president and the republican party in these mid—term elections, is it expanding their appeal or making sure that base we keep hearing about actually turns out to vote? it is keeping that case and keeping them voting. it is a referendum essentially on the president. you will see a loss typically in the range of 25 seeds for the party in power. republicans control everything in washington so if you‘re donald trump or paul ryan mitch mcconnell you will say to people you need to stick with us. and of course it is only february but we also talk about the elections early because you need to start raising the money early. before we gojust to show

raising the money early. before we go just to show these pictures, watching the winter olympics sees many competitors reaching new heights. but swiss freestyle skier, fabian bosch, has taken that meaning to a whole different level. here he is clinging to an escalator in pyeongchang. the daring 20—year—old isn‘t due to compete until the weekend — i bet his team mates are just glad he landed with both feet firmly on the ground. there he goes, he makes it look so easy. there are many sports in the 0lympics i do not want to try and that is one of them. he is a daredevil! you and i have much more sense. his team-mates must be furious! favourite sport so far in the winter olympics? the women's snowboarding, awesome stuff. chloe kim was fantastic. 17 years old. but

i have to confess as a mother ijust get so sad every time one of them falls down, it heartbreaking. 0f course i am a big skier and christian is of course skiing this week and we are all worried about him. he is going to take a medal! coming up next on bbc world news — karin giannone is here with 0utside source and for viewers in the uk — we‘ll have the latest headlines from carrie gracie. for now — from me katty kay in washington — goodbye. over the last 24 hours we‘ve seen heavy rain and significant snow in places. beautiful scenes here in the scottish highlands. in the next 24 hours we have more of those weather elements. another weather system showing its hand in the atlantic. that will start to slide in during the rest of this evening and tonight. ahead of that the wind picking up,

gales in some western spots. and it could start to bring in some snow especially over higher ground in northern ireland. temperatures generally dipping down to freezing or below. so the frontal system pushing in in the first part of tomorrow. cold enough for some snow across northern areas initially to quite low levels. those snow levels tend to become increasingly confined to higher ground but not before we‘ve seen a covering of up to 12 centimetres across some high ground in the north—west of scotland. and further south we could see five, seven centimetres of snow. northern ireland by this stage brightening up and then cloud and patchy rain across parts of wales and the south—west of england. then we take this band of sleet

and snow east through the day. behind that things begin to brighten up and we introduce something a little bit milder. moving out of wednesday the weather system moves off into the near continent but low pressure is still in charge and delivering some wintry showers. the further south you come, fewer showers and more in the way of dry weather. in the sunshine in the south, ten or 11 degrees in london. still colder further north but into the weekend and beyond, things should turn mild for just about everyone. some quieter weather on the way. this is bbc news. i‘m carrie gracie. the headlines at 8.00pm:

the former football coach barry bennell has been found guilty of multiple sex offences against boys. is waiting over in south africa? president zuma will face the press tomorrow, as his party calls for him to quit for the sake of the country. the government has unveiled a tool it says can accurately detect jihadist content and block it from being viewed. a judge tells wikileaks founderjulian assange to have the courage to come to court — and upholds the arrest warrant against him.