hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. we start in syria. more than 100 civilians reported to have died today as they did yesterday. as government forces attack the last rebel stronghold near damascus. in the north of the country forces have entered the kurdish stronghold of afrin — bringing the battle to the turkish border. oxfam reveals it's investigating 26 more cases of alleged sexual misconduct. the charity's boss admits thousands have stopped making donations because of the scandal. he had this to say. i am sorry. we are sorry for the damage that 0xfam has done both to the people of haiti but also to wider efforts of aid and development. and a developing story...

justin forsyth says there were claims of inappropriate behaviour was he was out the charity save the children. the syrian government continues to bombard the rebel enclave eastern ghouta near damascus. activists say more than 100 civilians were killed today. 127 civilians were killed yesterday. thousands have died since the siege began five years ago. eastern ghouta is particularly important because it's the last major rebel stronghold near damascus. those rebels hold most of it. they control another area to the

south of damascus. this area though is controlled by the islamic state group. all of eastern ghoota is surrounded by government forces — and they want it back. these pictures show how it's going about that. the un has issued this statement on the situation there. it says it is blank. in a footnote it says... we no longer have the words to describe children's suffering and our outrage. do those inflicting the suffering still have words to justify their barbaric acts? the answer to that question is... they do. the assad regime maintains its fighting islamist terrorism — and that it tries to avoid civilian casualties. its action tell a different story. let's hear from from someone inside ghouta. firas abdullah is from the ghouta media centre which is affiliated with the rebels. more than 77 civilians today were killed by the continuous bombardment. since yesterday until today.

we now have 149 civilians killed by the continuous bombardment. the jets are russian. they are a squadron of six jets, with four helicopters belonging to the assad regime army. the drones are capturing the perimeters and the civilian neighbourhood of eastern ghouta. we have over 200 mortars dropped on the civilian neighbourhood. in addition, more than 90 air strikes and about 50 explosive barrels on civilians neighbourhoods. barrels on civilian neighbourhoods. the people here are

mostly in shelters. others are in their homes. they come here crying, from their homes. it is so serious, war conditions here in eastern ghouta now. you heard firas there talk about russian bombers. russia and iran are backing the syrian government — as are hezbollah fighters from lebanon. let's hear more about what is happening in eastern ghouta. lina sinjab in beirut. what we're hearing from people now is that they are trying to hide in basements, whatever basements are available so that can take cover from the continuous shelling. we are hearing that today the government and the air force has

resumed the attack on eastern ghouta. people are pleading for help. the un made an announcement that this should stop immediately. the international committee for the red cross also called on this to stop immediately. to protect civillians. so far the last 2a hours have been the worst that eastern ghouta has faced in years. people are really struggling to seek safety basically. the attacks yesterday targeted for hospitals, targeted ——four hospitals, the main roads that would allow people to run away or ambulances to rescue. that is causing a higher number of injured and a higher number of people dead. unfortunately for syrians on the ground and for civilians trapped there, the government and russia have the upper hand. russia yesterday announced that we are probably seeing another scenario that we have seen in aleppo last year. people are worried that they are going to face the same destiny and be forced out of their town.

what we're seeing and yesterday is a big escalation from government forces and that is only telling us that this could be the last push towards the end of the situation in eastern ghouta. at what price and at what type of end will it be? it will be a horrific end for civilians there. let's stay in syria to update you on afrin in the north. this is an area controlled by kurds — and being attacked by turkey. yesterday we told you how pro—syrian government forces were promising to enter the area to help the kurds. since we last spoke that's now happened. these are pictures from earlier. syrian state media is calling them popular forces — though it's farfrom clear who these men are. we can be sure they were met with artillery fire from turkey.

this is a more detailed map of syria showing territory. the green area is controlled by the syrian government. the mauve is controlled by the kurdish forces. turkey considers all of these kurdish forces terrorists. that is why it has began an offensive to drive them out of afrin. it is very close to the border of syria. —— turkey. syria considers that to be an attack on its sovereignty — although it's worth saying there is a long list of countries 0nur erem from bbc turkish service with the latest. they are trying to control all of offering including the city centre. that is according to the president.

today they responded by artillery by an effort from the pro—government militias of syria. we don't know exactly who they are at the turkish state media calls them pro—regime terrorists while the syrian governments call them the popular forces. last week we heard that they are in negotiations with the why p&g and the syrian government —— ypg. turkey have said they will not stop u nless turkey have said they will not stop unless all of afrin is under syrian control. and they will get involved in any type of buffer zone that will be set between turkey and the white

pg -- ypg. is every possibility of a confrontation with the turkish government under syrian government? a p pa re ntly government under syrian government? apparently the ypg have told that these militias are coming to help them with their fight against turkey. but according to the turkish president, the syrian government and the army are coming to afrin and getting control of all of the city centre including its institutions. what is turkish public opinion on what is the turkish military is doing in afrin? according to polls, the turkish public is supporting the government here. they are supporting the operation. it depends on the poll but some of them are showing 70 and some of them are showing 80%. we also must keep in mind that it is very ha rd also must keep in mind that it is very hard for people to express

their discontent because lots of people, hundreds, even more than 500 of them were arrested because of tweets and social media posts. that have criticised this operation. 0xfa m 0xfam have been giving evidence in the british parliament. we will talk about that in a moment. but the scandal around 0xfam is jumping across to other charities. save the children is now in the news. it concerns its former chief executive, a man called justin forsyth who now has a role in the united nations. he has a role in the united nations. he has faced some complaints of inappropriate behaviour. let's get more of this from the newsroom. most people hearing this for the first time so please take from the beginning. this is justin forsyth, the former chief executive of save the former chief executive of save the children. he has been accused of sending inappropriate texts and

comments to young females of staff about what they were wearing and how they look. this led to complaints being made. he has apologised unreservedly. apparently those complaints were not formal and he has not been accused of sexual harassment. as you say, since leaving save the children, he has gone on to become a very senior executive at unicef which is the un's children organisation. brendan cox this weekend admitted that he had acted inappropriately sometimes at save the children. exactly. it is two people now and save the children. brendan cox said he made m ista kes children. brendan cox said he made mistakes at save the children and admitted inappropriate behaviour. but he has denied allegations of sexual assault. in the meantime he

has quit us majorities he set up in the aftermath of his wife's death. save the children are beginning a internal review. we will bring you more information as we know it. another gruelling day for 0xfam. it's admitted 7,000 people have cancelled regular donations since the haiti prostitution story broke 10 days ago. we heard this from its most senior figures who've been quizzed by members of parliament today. here they are arriving. and they can); he aéy'é'imszff” f ~ that's the chief executive mark goldring. the mps wanted to know more about how 0xfam responded back then when it found out what was going on. the charity sacked three employees and allowed four others to quit their roles. mr goldring was asked why didn't 0xfam report its findings and actions to the authorities.

this was the answer. 0xfam leaders made a report to the press. there was no existing press interest. it was not public. that's serious misconduct had happened. they did not describe that in explicit terms. at the time people thought that was being transparent. we now know that that was not enough. there's also the issue of why some men were allowed to resign rather than be sacked — enabling them to be hired again. here's winnie byanyima of 0xfam's international arm. the use of prostitutes in conditions of poverty and helplessness and conflict is abuse. it's exploitation. it is intolerable in our organisation. what happened to let the country director go away with some dignity was wrong. this is something that would not

happen today in 0xfam. bear in mind the sacked men not only found work with other charities — one was rehired by 0xfam. this what one mp made of that. these men were predators. i quite agree. i'm not excusing it. that is why we have now set up a global database of accredited referees of 0xfam. when was that started? when did you start that? we have just started it. you have just started it. only because you were found out. not because you actually wanted to do it or thought you needed to do it but because you were found out. we were also told that since the haiti story broke ten days ago, 26 more allegations of sexual misconduct had been come to light at 0xfam — some recent some historic. they are all being investigated.

meanwhile the bbc has been speaking to one woman who blew on problems within cahrities. she used to work for a charity called merlin. in liberia, back in 2004, she walked in on a senior manager with a local girl. after an investigation the man and other senior managers were dismissed. one of them was the man at the centre of the 0xfam scandal roland van hauwermeiren. amira malik miller was asked on the bbc‘s hardtalk programme if she was surprised that 0xfam tried to cover things up. it doesn't surprise me. it exposes a very strong weakness in the system and our hr practices, absolutely. i think roland van hauwermeiren is a particularly interesting case study. he has been able to manipulate the system for a very long time. he has chosen to move around from different countries. between organisations. he knows that it has not been tracked properly so he has manipulated that.

still to come on the programme, we find out about the soaring rate of measles in europe. we will speak to the who about what is causing that. jeremy corbyn has accused papers of lies and smears. these papers allege thatjeremy corbyn did meet someone from the czech embassy several times. that story has been picked up and pursuit in various forms by newspapers in recent days. jeremy corbyn has hit back in a post on social media. at what he calls press

barons, the right—wing press. he says... he goes on... this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story is from syria. more than 100 civilians are killed in eastern ghouta today as syria's government continues to bombard the rebel—held enclave. it is close to damascus. some headlines from bbc world service.

new zealand's military has been deployed to areas expected to be hit by the remnants of cyclone gita. it caused extensive damage in tonga, samoa and american samoa last week. at the olympics, russian curler alexander krushelnitsky has returned a second positive test for the banned substance, meldonium. he had won a bronze with his wife. he's one of 168 russian athletes allowed to compete after extensive vetting. evidently not extensive enough. the queen was alongside vogue's editor—in—chief dame anna wintour at a show during london fashion week earlier. the queen then awarded the inaugural queen elizabeth ii award for british design to richard quinn. you may not know this but there is a big outbreak of measles in europe. these three countries are the most affected but 12 others are caught up in this including greece, germany

and france. measles is extremely infectious causes blindness, brain damage and in extreme cases death. we know there were more than 20,000 cases reported last year. that is a 400% increase on 2016. we should say that 2016 had seen a record low. here are all the figures. you can see that 2016 unusually low with just 5000 cases. what is going on here? there are shortages of the vaccine in some countries. some people avoid vaccinations for their children. for instance, in the uk, confidence in the mm are jab collapsed in the late 905. that was by claims made by this man raising fears that the vaccine caused auti5m. there has also been rejection of vaccines in italy. this

leader of the... the far right leader of the... the far right leader marine le pen has also said that doctors are to blame for the ri5e that doctors are to blame for the rise of the case in measles. if we go back to 2004, donald trump 5aid that... autism, in big capital letters. so there is an issue around trust here. we have a doctor here from the who, the world health organisation, he is live from montenegrin. thank you for your time. what can you do to persuade people to vaccinate their children? we need to have the parents tru5t. trust in the vaccines and trust in the authority that deliver the vaccines. vaccines are safe and life—saving. that is the message that the government should give to

the parents. in terms of the situation we are seeing in europe, how much of it is to do with children not getting vaccinated and how much is it to do with other factors. a number of countries have a number of challenges and they are very different. in romania we have many children who are getting measles whereas in italy it is more the adult population, the average age of those getting measles i5 around 27 years. this is a reflection of the programme is not reaching the5e reflection of the programme is not reaching these individuals. the adults may not have benefited from vaccination programmes when they we re vaccination programmes when they were introduced at the time. in a country like romania where most of the cases are children, this is a reflection of the challenges they are facing in recent years. we have

i55ue5, are facing in recent years. we have issues, as you mentioned, with vaccine supply but it is more a combination of vaccine hesitancy, an i55ue combination of vaccine hesitancy, an issue of complacency where parent5 have not seen the disease and they do not think the disease is around. measles i5 do not think the disease is around. measles is a very contagious disease and it can easily enter into a population that is vulnerable, causing big outbreaks. some people are looking at 2016 when the cases we re very are looking at 2016 when the cases were very low. they are thinking what went right to there? what went wrong in 2017 i5 what went right to there? what went wrong in 2017 is more relevant. it i5a wrong in 2017 is more relevant. it is a growing number of susceptible individuals. if you do not have a high vaccination coverage, for measles vaccines you need to have a

very high coverage of 95% with two doses of the vaccine, then you get a population of susceptible individuals. that could be simmering behind the disease. when measles virus was introduced then it can 5pread virus was introduced then it can spread like wildfire. we appreciate your time. thank you very much indeed. he is lie5 your time. thank you very much indeed. he is lies in montenegrin. an official with the world health organisation. walmart has just seen close to 10% wiped off its value to do with its profits hardening. what has gone wrong? while profits are down? profits are down for various reasons. walmart says it misjudged the christmas period is a focusing too much on toys and christmas gifts and ran out of some of its stables. the figure that investors are

watching very closely i5 the figure that investors are watching very closely is not the profit but the growth in online sales. the reason for this is that walmart i5 sales. the reason for this is that walmart is in a bruising battle with amazon. it its complete with amazon online if it will survive as a retailer. —— competes. early on in the year, their online sales drops to around 23% in the last quarter. that has worried inve5tor5 because they seem to be falling behind amazon and that is why their shares have taken a beating on wall street today. none of this is new. we could have been talking about the threat from amazon ten years ago. presumably walmart has a plan? yes. it's plan has been to buy up as many online retailers a5 it's plan has been to buy up as many online retailers as it can. it broughtjet5 .com online retailers as it can. it brought jets .com in online retailers as it can. it broughtjet5 .com in the usjust over one year ago. it put a lot of marketing into those sites. now what

it has realised and what the ceo mentioned this morning was that in order to compete with amazon, amazon has this brand recognised everywhere, if you think you want something, the name amazon points into your head, they need to redirect people into walmart .com and take them to the big brands and the brand that people associate with bricks and mortar stores, they need people to associate that with the online brand. so they are taking their resources away from the subsidiaries and investing it in walmart. but investors are worried they might not built to do that fast enough. in the next half of the outside source will be hearing from david davis, he will say that it is not like mad max here in the uk. hi there. we will start off with the

weather in the middle east. this area of low pressure across the middle east brought widespread heavy rains. the storm clouds are now across afghanistan. it takes the rain and snow with it. to the south of that weather system, the wind has picked up and as we went into tuesday we had some dense areas of dust affecting some of the coastal areas, for example qatar had poor visibility for a time. it will take some time flat dust to settle out of the atmosphere. across the united states there is a weather front which will be much stationary bringing huge amounts of rain across texas, arkansas and louisiana. some parts of these states could see as much as a hundred millimetres of

rain. soa much as a hundred millimetres of rain. so a risk of some flooding. bitterly cold air behind that front and it bumps into the warm air we have across florida. temperatures will reach 29 degrees or so in miami. very warm as well in new york. highs of 21 are incredible. but eventually that cold air will be swinging its way eastward. this was the remains of tropical cyclone bringing heavy rains across australia. more recently we are looking at the leftovers of this cyclone which has been slamming into new zealand and particularly hitting the south island hard. the mountains of new zealand have a ready picked up of new zealand have a ready picked up over 250 millimetres of rain and the rain will continue as we move into wednesday but it will slowly picked out on thursday. with all of that rainfall falling we are likely to see some flooding. wind gusts well in excess of 70 miles an hour causing damage. power has been

brought down and a number of people don't have power new zealand at the moment. thursday it will finally clear up as strong winds and heavy rain eased out of the way. at the same time there will be some torrential and even severe thundery downpours affecting queensland. risks of flash flooding as we go into thursday. temperatures picking up into thursday. temperatures picking up in the australian interior. across europe, we have a weather fronts moving eastwards across england. now on wednesday it is moving back westwards. a lot of cloud for england and wales. probably brighter in england later on. more sunshine in france and germany. cold easterly winds as well. that is a sign of things to come. next we will be bitterly cold. —— next week. here are some of the main stories.

more than 100 civilians died today in eastern ghouta. the government of syria wants this area back. 0xfa m syria wants this area back. 0xfam has revealed that is investigating 26 more cases of alleged sexual misconduct. thousands of people have stopped making donations because of the scandal. as you are watching, if you have questions, you can reach me on twitter. the palestinian leader mahmoud abbas spoke at the un's

security council today. he wants an international conference on middle east peace in 2018. here's some of the speech. translation: so the outcomes of this conference should be as follows. acceptance of the state of palestine as a full member of the united nations. this is what we deserve. don't you think we deserve to be a full member? why not? we call on the security council to achieve this. an israeli journalist reported "abbas leaves unsc right after he finishes his speech and didn't stay to listen to the israeli ambassador who was next." the israeli ambassador opened his speech by saying, "once again abbas is running away instead of listening to what we have to say." this a clip from that same statement from the ambassador. mr abbas and spoke of your

commitment to peace. this is what you often do when speaking internationally. but when you address your people in arabic you convey a very different message. a few weeks ago when abbas spoke to the plo central committee, he called the national movement of thejewish people, and i quote, a colonialist project. that has no connection tojudaism. whether or not that peace conference happens later this year, listening to those clips, it will have its work cut out, you would think. absolutely. it was a depressing morning to watch. the sides were just as far apart as ever.

as abbas left to rapturous applause, he was immediately sealed by the israeli ambassador for not staying to listen to the others. —— immediately assailed by the israeli ambassador. what made those comments all that more meaningful was sat behind him was the husband of —— was the son—in—law of the president. let us bring up one of the clips from earlier. the palestinian leadership was not

happy with the decision to move our embassy to jerusalem. you happy with the decision to move our embassy tojerusalem. you do not have too like it or even accept it but that decision will not changed. what is the american plan? they have recognised jerusalem. they have staunch and stark language for the palestinians. what is their plan going forward? they do not have a plan and that is what the palestinians were complaining about. they are saying they wanted multilateral mechanism, this peace conference by the middle of the year, that frankly want to take place. they were basically saying that america's traditional role as the honest broker between israel and palestine has come to an end. they do still see an american robert part ofa do still see an american robert part of a larger multilateral framework. that is what they were calling for today.

and the money that the americans give to the palestinians, that has become an increasingly practical matter in the last couple of months, has that come up? one of the things that abbas complained about was not only recognition of jerusalem complained about was not only recognition ofjerusalem as the israeli capital told that also much all of american funding from the un agency that protects and routes after palestinian refugees. that this friday said today they are looking for another mechanism, not the traditional mechanism, a negotiating table that involves many more countries, but that proposal is not likely to get off the ground. the uk brexit secretary secretary david davis has this message for people worried about what will happen to the uk after brexit. he was speaking in vienna. i know for one reason or another people have sought to question our

real intentions. they think brexit could lead to an anglo—saxon race to the bottom, with britain plunged into a mad max style world borrowed from dystopian fiction. these fears about a race to the bottom are based on nothing. not our history, not our intentions, not our national interest. it's the mad max analogy that is getting the response. today with david davies this was

about reassurance. it seems a far cry from some of the arguments made by people in the conservative party and in the cabinet over the years and in the cabinet over the years and decades when they have made the case for leaving the eu saying we have got to breakaway, all this red tape is no good, it is stifling british competitiveness. it was not quite what david davies was saying today, pleasing some rules, saying that britain had helped shoot them. the message from him and the message from theresa may at the weekend was about continued cooperation. —— button had helped shape them. you are getting the impression things will not change too much. david davies was saying this is about trust, we will have to trust each other‘s different rules and regulation, the question is will that be enough for people in brussels to accept and more crucially whether cabinet ministers will go along with it. adam fleming has been saying that

you'd leaders will be suggesting negotiating trade deals with the uk as they normally would with other countries. they were in brussels for a regular meeting and i asked them about the sort of thing david davies was talking about and they were broadly welcoming that they make two points. this is what the eu does with all its international partners anyway, seeing if you follow the rules of the eu you will get good access to the eu you will get good access to the eu you will get good access to the eu market stop if you try to undercut the eu rules or do something less safely than the eu wa nt something less safely than the eu want you to do it you will get less access to the eu market. the second is that the eu does not operate on speeches and warm words and edges on politicians, they want things that are written down, very detailed, and legally enforceable. that means expanding this speech with detailed proposals about how this would work in practice. things like, what authority would you have that check

that check that both sides were playing by the same rules and standards? how would you settle disputes between both sides? what punishments and saxon would be available if the uk was not sticking to the rules. easier said than done. —— punishment and sanctions. and this is good together as what is called a level playing field, lpf, we will be hearing more about this in coming months. if you want and this information on brexit head to the bbc website. and a lot of information on the other stories covered. this picture is from hungary in 2015 — there was a stream of migrants

who entered the country marching into the eu. it led to hungary putting up fences along its borders. victor orban was prime mininster then — he still is now — and just last week he delivered his state of the union address with highlighting a critical division between the countries in the east of the eu, and those in the west. hungary sits at the eastern edge — one of the countries thatjoined the eu in 2004. but it's mr orban who's taken a tough line on migration. jenny hill sent this report from hungary's border. divisive, defiant, hungary is standing its ground. a borderfence, no migrant quotas, a different vision for europe.

translation: it is thanks to our political leaders that hungary and its people have a profile in europe. people recognise us and they look at us and they say, "hungary, you're ok." but victor orban unsettles his eu peers. don't expect him to stand down over asylum policy. the crisis may be over, but he and his fidesz party are seeking re—election. this wave of refugees and immigrants to hungary and to europe came as a heavenly gift to mr orban and to many other politicians in the region. they could exaggerate the potential threats and risks and then appear as saviours. watch out for the dress rehearsal, local elections in this town. the fidesz candidate expected to win. please, a little time for bbc? how do you justify to voters here...

even so, he was not keen to speak to us. i want to ask you about the eu. your party is in trouble with the eu. what do you say to those voters here who depend on that money so much? sorry, i have to go, bye. corruption allegations, xenophobia, victor orban‘s dream of what he calls "an illiberal democracy." translation: the only thing they do right is keep migrants out. apart from that they don't do any good. they might say the economy is thriving, but we don't feel it. the only people who do well are those close to fidesz. translation: the courts, the police, the administration, they are all under his influence, and people are scared. i do not know what will happen to me for speaking out, but i am not afraid. but out here in the countryside,

there is concern. farms like this depend on funding from the eu. translation: the european union should not be small—minded just because it has a quarrel with the hungarian government. it would the irresponsible to punish a country and its people. the end result is the eu falls apart. for many, of course, this is all about security. but the fence has come to define hungary and its decision to put national interest first. here on the outer edge of the eu, it is a symbol of defiance. after all, this country knows what it means to be left outside. jenny hill, bbc news, on hungary's serbian border. turning our attention back to syria now and russia's involvement. observers have long believed that

dozens, perhaps hundreds of russians have died fighting in the conflict. the kremlin has previously said the number is five — including a pilot who ejected over rebel airspace recently and killed himself with a grenade. today russia admitted "dozens" of russians were injured or killed in what's thought to have been us air strikes in deir al—zour province in eastern syria earlier this month. the difference isn't just in numbers — russia makes a distinction between military casualties and civilians. the bulk of russian casualties in syria are mercenaries — some working for private companies. eugene alikov was one. last september he died here near homs killed by a bullet. the bbc‘s russian service has been investigating what happened to him.

they've interviewed his mother. a little earlier i went and spoke to oleg antonenko from the russian service who told me about it. it isa it is a very interesting story. my collea g u es it is a very interesting story. my colleagues got in touch with his mother and she gave us a lot of documents and the death certificate. we compared the death certificate and another death certificate which was given to a news agency during the investigation and we came to the conclusion that more than 50 russians might be called in

september 2017. this mother is arguing her son deserves military honours. the russian ministry is saying, no, he went as an individual decision, not sent by his country. the russian authority is straightforward about this account. they are saying they have militarily and servicemen there and they know where they are fighting, who they died, but fools mercenaries, it was their decision —— but the mercenaries, it was their decision. ukraine, it is said those were not our men. they have tried to put a divide between the state and the fighters on the globe. that sounds like something similar could be happening in syria. yes, they are

saying it is not a moscow initiative in ukraine, it's as volunteers. alikov was fighting for pro—russian separatists in ukraine also. he returned to russia. he got medical treatment. he went to syria. he was probably not sent. he was part of a private military company. many experts looking at the story see that behind this group is the man who is subject of recent us sanctions. it is not proven, it is speculation. he is the private chef of the russian president. he had a

lot of attractive contracts. it is quite a fascinating story. it has different sort of connections. on one side we are hearing of mercenaries fighting in syria, on the other side, this factory trying to influence american actions, this person who is the chef of vladimir putin, he is wanted by american prosecutors. it is incredible, to be honest with you. it is only the beginning of the story that we are looking at. a bangkok court has awarded a japanese man paternity rights to 13 children he fathered through surrogate mothers. he is 28 and is

not married, he is the son of a chairman of a well—known and listed company injapan. chairman of a well—known and listed company in japan. this chairman of a well—known and listed company injapan. this is not the first time he has been in the news. when he was identified three and a half years ago as the father of at least a dozen surrogates children and there was a great deal of concern expressed in thailand and other countries about what his motives were. the police here launched an investigation into possible human trafficking by him. he disappeared back to japan and very little was known about him. he is apparently the son of a japanese tech billionaire but he has remained hidden from view. this photo was released by police in 2014. it shows nine babies found in the flat of a man after a police raid. it has been confirmed he was

the father of 13 surrogates babies. today the court said he had taken good care of the infants before officials took them into their care. this is a statement from the court. this is a picture of the man's lawyer giving the statement. the japan times has courted the lawyer as saying this. i think there will still be a fair amount of unease about what this man's motors are and what kind of environment you can provide for so many children. he says he wants more, more or less the same age, but they do not have a mother, they will be looked after by nannies.

and washington, dc, and other person has been charged as part of the murder investigation into those alleged links between donald trump's election campaign and russia. this is alex van der zwaan, a london—based lawyer, the 19th person to be charged. the document is online if you want to read it. it connects the charges to false statements. it isa statements. it is a short statement from the independent counsel ‘s it is a short statement from the independent counsel '5 office but it says that alex van der zwaan lied to the fbi, lied to the independent counsel's office about contacts he had with a deputy campaign manager during that brief period of time in the middle of 2016. dietz stuck around and worked in the white house as well. the indictment said there

was an unnamed person, there is speculation about who that might be. alex van der zwaan is expected to plead guilty. he had a court appearance at half past two that i have not heard if he has pled guilty or not. what this means is that the independent counsel's office is building a case from the ground up. this will guarantee cooperation and puts more pressure on paul manafort who is charged with multiple counts of money laundering, pressure to face a long trial and a prison sentence, or come up face a long trial and a prison sentence, or come up with his own plea agreement. any claim is serious and americans will want robert mueller to pick up any claim that he sees that the central claim is where russia and the tramp campaign working together

—— trompe campaign? these charges do not bring us closer to understanding bat. this does not deal with the campaign at all. these charges against rick gates and paul manafort goes back to lobbying that they did for ukraine well before paul manafort became involved in the donald trump campaign. this plea deal was part of that investigation. the question is, as this robert mueller putting pressure on these people in order to get them to talk about other things more central to his investigation, so that paul manafort could talk about his time as campaign manager in the donald trump campaign? or is this something that robert mueller encountered along the way, evidence of wrongdoing, he is going to prosecute it, that is within this mandate as set forth by the justice

department. we will have two weeks and see if this is one thread going nowhere or this becomes an integral pa rt nowhere or this becomes an integral part of this investigation. and whatever comes next in washington, anthony will guide us through it. as the big stories come in from the u s, go to the news that. that is all for now. our lead story is that the government of syria continues to bombard a rebel enclave near damascus called eastern ghouta. observers say 100 people died today and 100 people died yesterday. there is a lot of talk about

impending cold weather but in the short term it is not going to be that calls. over the next few days a lot of bright weather, if not sunny weather. temperatures will not be desperately low but there will be some frosty weather in the morning. in the last few days we howard weather systems coming of the atla ntic weather systems coming of the atlantic but now there are big changes in the area. the winds are switching their election and during the course of wednesday it will come from the east or the north—east but still some clouds left over across england during the course of the day but not particularly frosty across england that is because of the clergy. in scotland and northern ireland where we have feelings guys, temperatures could get down to minus five celsius first thing on wednesday. —— where we have clearing skies. chance of light drizzle, showers and one or two places. some

of us will have a sunny day. central and southern thing that should have plenty of sunshine around as well. those temperatures will be about seven celsius. this is the forecast into thursday. not an awful lot changes. this high pressure is sitting on top of us. that is pushing colder air in our direction but not much is still going on in the atmosphere. this is what it looks like posting. you can see the shape their high pressures. still blowing that cold here, a lot of the cold air, out of the continent. firstly, a bright or sunny day. sta rts firstly, a bright or sunny day. starts off frosty in one or two areas. temperatures are now starting to drop. by the time we get to friday, three or 4 degrees across eastern areas, best of the sunshine

out west. you can see how these winds are surging across the continent. thursday, friday, saturday, sunday, temperatures will more or less level off. at around five or six celsius. the weather is looking bright or even sunny with a touch of frost in the morning. the real changes start to happen later in the weekend and into next week. an enormous area of high pressure builds all the way from russia, across scandinavia, into western parts of europe. the cold air is surging all the way from siberia, through moscow, into central and eastern europe, not quite reaching us at this stage. at this stage the cold air is across eastern and central europe with severe frost. is that cold here heading our way? i'll be in for a big freeze and will build the store? various possibilities. it could be the case

that cold here goes through central parts of europe and ends up in france, it could be that it goes right over us and spills out into the atlantic. it could be something in between. or the entire europe could be in doubt in that cold air. we do not yet know. but there is most certainly a cold snap on the way. there is uncertainty with how severe this cold snap will be. despite the evidence, the syrian regime denies targeting civilians in its unrelenting airstrikes. as the bombing campaign intensifies, our middle east editorjeremy bowen will examine whether this a turning point in the seven—year conflict. also tonight: 0xfam bosses come to parliament to face questions about their handling of the crisis involving allegations of sexual misconduct. please allow me to begin by saying how sorry i am