welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: facebook‘s problems get worse. politicians in europe and the us demand answers about alleged misuse of personal data. an incendiary device in the texan city of austin, but police say it's not related to a spate of bombings. a bbc investigation finds rohingya girls who fled violence in myanmar now trafficked into prostitution in bangladesh. and six months after hurricane maria, we find life is definitely not back to normal in puerto rico.

by the british firm, cambridge analytica. our business editor simonjack reports. in the information age, personal data is the new currency and we spend it liberally on social media platforms. how old we are, whether we are in a relationship, what are our political leanings, this can all be gathered and used. cambridge analytica is a company which does exactly that and it is at the centre of a political storm that has rocked one of the biggest companies in the world. it started with an app designed by a british academic which invited facebook users to do a personality test. 270,000 people downloaded the app, it collected personal information on them, theirfriends, theirfriends‘ friends and so on until it had information on 50 million facebook users.

that data was passed to cambridge analytica, who allegedly used it to influence the presidential election in the us, using highly targeted messages, a charge denied by the company. the uk's data watchdog said she had concerns about the company for some time. these allegations are very serious, they came to the attention of our office some months ago. and on the 7th of march, i issued a demand for information to cambridge. they did not comply with that, so now i am moving ahead to seek a warrant so that i can search premises and data. the company worked on donald trump's election campaign and secret filming by channel 4 news shows cambridge analytica's boss boasting about the role they played in his victory. the company denies any wrongdoing.

it says mr nix's comments did not represent the values of the firm and it has now suspended him pending their own investigation. whether this tiny consultancy was really involved in influencing the us presidential election, there is an old adage, in digital marketing, which says if the services you are getting are free, then you are the product. served up to advertisers who are convinced that highly targeted messages constructed around detailed personal information really works. facebook is also right under the microscope. it too denies any wrongdoing. the us federal trade commission has launched a probe into the company and has the power to levy colossal fines. the company has seen $50 billion wiped off its value in the last two days. so, could this scandal mark a moment of reckoning for the way we share and companies use our personal data? i think for the first time, things that people suspected have surfaced thanks

to the testimony of whistle—blowers. now we are finally seeing that the leaders of these companies are being called to testify in front of parliaments. they are being held to account in the media, analysts in the financial industry are dumping their stock as a vote of no—confidence. this is a real moment where it is going to incentivise change. the facts of our lives are valuable. facebook founder mark zuckerberg has built a fortune out of them. politicians on both sides of the atlantic want him personally to explain how they are used. our technology reporter dave lee in san francisco has more on the lack of response from facebook. we have not yet heard from the founder and chief executive of facebook, mark zuckerberg. we haven't heard from his deputy, sheryl sandberg. neither has made any official statement publicly about this. we have had potted conversations and statements from facebook‘s pr team but very, very defensive at the moment. there was a meeting on tuesday

morning here, where one of the lead lawyers for facebook addressed facebook employees. there was a suggestion that mr zuckerberg and ms sandberg might be at that but they weren't and we asked facebook why they weren't at that meeting, the company said they were too busy dealing with this problem to attend, but there is, of course, mounting pressure from various parts of this story, whether it is internally at facebook from its emplyees to talk about this or investors in facebook who, of course, are worried about the sharp drop in the company's value since this story broke and, indeed, from politicians. we know that the company is subject of several investigations at the moment. it's been called to talk in front of several committees, notjust in the us but around the world. so it's coming to the point now, where every minute that goes by, where the chief executive does not say something is making this an evermore damaging problem for facebook. this strikes me as a point where facebook grows up from being this benign, happy—clappy, lovey—dovey social media giant to a big business and a big player around the world?

yes, although i think the sentiment here is very much that facebook should have grown up by now and the fact that it is facing some of these enormous problems is because it simply did not do that and i think that will fall squarely at the feet of mark zuckerberg. i think speaking more widely, having spoken to several people involved with different companies in silicon valley, i think what we are starting to see is a change in how companies are regulated. because until now, of course, these companies have grown so quickly and become so powerful that they have almost been entirely self—regulating and self—policing in how they innovate and what they do. the era of that, this hyper—growth and huge valuations for technology companies, i think we might be seeing that era come to something of an end because of the fallout from what has happened at facebook. and that will affect notjust facebook but other companies and similar spacces —

google, twitter. facebook shareprice has affected other companies already and i think we are going to see that trend certainly continue as the enquiry into what went on at facebook goes on. there's been a sixth explosion in the us state of texas, where the authorities believe a serial bomber is at large. police say a man in his 30s has suffered a potentially serious injury they set early investigations show no link with previous exposures. a short time ago, the assistant chief of police confirmed this incident was not relating to the recent package bombs in the area that killed two people. tonight at approximately 7pm the austin police department received a call that came through travis county, a call upgraded to a bomb hotshot call that occurred at the

goodwill in the 9800 block of brodie lane. 0fficers responded to the cian and upon the initial investigation, officers determined that a goodwill employee had found a box that someone employee had found a box that someone had dropped out that contained some items that that employee didn't think the goodwill wa nted employee didn't think the goodwill wanted to have. he passed that box off to another employee who was told to dispose of the box. that employee took the box around the corner and upon looking inside of it, it had two small devices that were artillery simulators, that looks like some type of military ordnance or some type of memento. after our investigation on the scene, we did determine that this was not an explosive device. this incident is not related to any of the other incidents that we have had here in boston. we got the latest and

join our correspondent, gary 0'donoghue, who is in austin. at this stage there is no reason to believe this is connected to this wave of bombings in austin and surrounding areas the sheer randomness of the attacks spread around the city of austin, sometimes apparently targeting specific individuals that in some cases, as it happened on sunday, where a tripwire was strung across the pavement from the fence across to the curb with a bat back triggered by two men pushing a bicycle along. there could have been a racial motive behind this because it to people who have died of both black african—america ns but since then others have been victims and this randomness, police have no idea whether this is ideology, hate crime or what the actual motivation for this is. there is $115,000 on offer

to any information to bring the bomber tojustice but at this stage we are not getting any indication that police have any firm lead. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news: president trump has lost a bid to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought by an ex—playboy model and ‘apprentice' contestant summer zervos. she says mr trump groped her after she appeared on his former reality tv show. rejecting mr trump's claim that he was immune from being sued, a new yorkjudge said he had "absolutely no authority" to dismiss litigation just because he occupied the white house. climate scientists say more of a vast antarctic glacier is floating than had previously been thought, raising fears that it may melt faster than expected and contribute to big sea level rises. the totten glacier is the size of france. researchers with the australian antarctic division say that as more is floating, this allows warm, salty sea water to flow beneath it, speeding up its disintegration.

35 people have died in a rocket attack on the syrian capital damascus. state television is saying the rocket was fired from the besieged rebel—area of eastern ghouta. it comes as the organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons says its investigating more allegations of chlorine gas being used in the conflict. andrew plant reports. the aftermath of a rocket attack on a suburb of syria's capital city. a popular shopping area previously untouched by the war. translation: this attack was in retaliation to the army advance and protection. the children are gone, the kids are gone. it's unforgivable. in the local hospital, the scale is clear. it was the day before mother's day here. this woman's daughter had gone

to buy her a present and never came back. translation: the toll had risen to 35 directly after the cowardly attack. in addition to those 35, we had some critically injured people too. this is where the rocket came down, east of damascus. fired, say reports, from the rebel enclave of eastern ghouta. for the past month, the area has faced a blistering bombardment from syrian state forces, attempting to drive out rebel groups. moo civilians have died. the humanitarian crisis with aid agencies struggling to reach those in need. meanwhile at the un in new york the organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons says its had allegations of those weapons being used in the eastern ghouta and says their fact—finding mission unit is now investigating. there are several allegations of use of

chlorine which the fsm is looking at. some of them are attributed to the syrian government, others to the armed opposition groups. the organisation has already investigated more than 70 cases of toxic gas in syria since 2014. the syrian regime says it's recaptured most of eastern ghouta, calling it the last pocket of resistance in a long and bloody war. tuesday's rocket attack, one of the deadliest to hit damascus since the fighting began. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: a victim of asia's demand for rhino horn — the white rhino takes another step towards extinction. today, we have closed the book on apartheid and that chapter. more than 3,000 subway passengers were affected. nausea, bleeding, headaches and a dimming of vision,

all of this caused by an apparently organised attack. the trophy itself was on the pedestal in the middle of the cabinet here. now, this was an international trophy and we understand now that the search for it has become an international search. above all, this was a triumph for the christian democrats of the west, offering reunification as quickly as possible, and that's what the voters wanted. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: politicians in europe and the us are calling executives at facebook to answer questions about allegations that data

was misused to influence elections. another explosion has been reported in the city of austin in the american state of texas, but police say it's not related to five others this month. a bbc investigation has revealed that girls from myanmar‘s rohingya muslim minority who fled the country in the past six months are being trafficked into prostitution in bangledesh. some of them are as young as 13. the undercover team filmed traffickers openly offering the girls for sex in cox's bazar, the town nearest to the refugee camps, where hundreds of thousands of rohingya muslims now live. the bbc‘s mishal husain has the story. a small city on the bay of bengal, where the main business was tourism, is now the hub for aid agencies working in the nearby refugee camps. but alongside the shop fronts, the beachside bars and the hotels

of cox's bazar there's an open secret. after hearing repeated stories about children trafficked into prostitution, we went in search of the evidence. 0ne14—year—old rohingya girl we met in the camps, and whose identity we've protected, told me what happened to her as she crossed from myanmar into bangladesh. translation: women came with a van, they asked me if i'd go with them. not long after that, in a building in cox's bazar, they brought two boys to me. they showed me a knife and punched me in my tummy and beat me because i wasn't cooperating. then the boys raped me. i wasn't willing to have sex, but they kept going. we heard other accounts from girls of a similar age.

a 13—year—old told me she was lured out of the camp by a woman from within the rohingya community offering her work. with the desperate conditions the refugees are living in, her family agreed to let her go. translation: she came to my home. we know her. she said, "you're not being fed properly, come with me to cox's bazar, i will give you a job." when we got there, she put me in a hotel in the morning. by the afternoon, a boy was put in my room. he beat me and raped me. i asked the woman, "why i should do this?" she told me, "if you don't do this, i will kill you." after only 48 hours on the ground, our team had identified a number of people offering children for sex. this was one of them, not only boasting about his own collection

of women and children, but of a network of traffickers, all of whom had more than ten girls under their control. we had to be careful not to create a demand and asked for girls who were immediately available. we were offered these three and told they were all rohingyas, aged between 13 and 17. we went to the police and told them what we had found. they agreed to conduct an operation that same evening. 0ur undercover investigator posed as a client who wanted to have sex with children and arranged with the trafficker for the delivery of two young girls to a hotel. bring the girls down here... as we waited, the trafficker sent a scout. eight o'clock, red hoodie. he asked our investigator to go with him, but we needed the trafficker to come to us. he's away with the girls.

he appeared to change his mind. we're but when the girls arrived, it was a driver who was with them and who collected the money. how's it going? 14,15,16 and two for you. ask him, if tonight's good, can they get more? we handed over around £140. as soon as the deal was done, the police moved in. come on, girls. hey, come here. the girls were two of those we'd seen in the photograph. as they were taken aside and into safety, they told us they were 15 and 21 and that theirfamilies depended on the money they made from sex work. what the two girls told me here tonight reveals so much about how they and others like them get trapped in the sex industry in cox's bazar.

they've never been to school and have no idea how they would support themselves without this work. and with the arrival of so many refugees in the nearby camps, there are even more vulnerable young people for the traffickers to prey upon. childcare professionals and trafficking experts helped us to arrange care for the girls afterwards. the younger one went into the care of social services, but the 21—year—old refused. we handed over all the information we had to the police. but the trafficker is still at large, part of an established network that puts children into sex work here and, as our investigation found, also sends them further afield, to india and nepal.

now the presence of a large refugee population, including many unaccompanied children, is providing easy pickings for the traffickers and another danger for the rohingya people. mishal husain, bbc news, bangladesh. six months ago, hurricane maria struck the us territory of puerto rico and the island is still suffering from the consequences. the storm's path of destruction was devastating, and hundreds of thousands of people still don't have power or help with rebuilding their homes. the us government has been criticised for a lack of urgency. the bbc‘s aleem maqbool returned to puerto rico to see how life has changed. there are sights in puerto rico that make it look like the hurricane struck just yesterday. everyone has a tale of trauma still fresh in the mind. "we grabbed what we could and ran out," she says. "but everywhere was blocked. we managed to get up there and we heard the noise. the house just came away and colla psed." the problem is, in six months, little has moved on for her. she and herfamily run pipes from a nearby spring to get water

to the abandoned building where they've been living. and there is still no power. so what help have they had from the american agencies? "we applied to help but we were told we weren't entitled to any," she says, "we put in an appeal, but we are still waiting for an answer." puerto ricans are american citizens. they can go backwards and forwards to the us mainland as they please and, crucially, they are entitled to the same disaster response from washington as any other americans. you'll find very few here who believe that is what they got. the family of rauljimenez think he could still be alive if there had been a more urgent response. after the storm, the clinic where he got dialysis was without electricity. it meant patients would have to miss treatments or wait hours hoping to be seen. he was in the wheelchair, quiet. he died. died in the line

waiting for treatment? died in the line. any true count of the number who were killed by the hurricane will include people like raul. but, until now, the official figure doesn't. the government wants to show some kind of numbers. but it is not the reality. they want us to believe that all is ok. under pressure, the government has ordered a recount of those killed by hurricane maria. some estimate the new number could be nearly 20 times the original figure and, all the while, for so many, the suffering continues. salli ball, bbc news, in puerto rico. the northern white rhino is a species on the brink of extinction following the death of a 45—year—old male in kenya, the last of his kind in the world. his name was sudan, and he was put down on monday after his health problems worsened significantly.

his daughter and grand—daughter are the only female northern white rhinos left as our correspondent, alistair leithead, in kenya explains. and then there were two, the last remaining northern white rhinos on earth, now that the last male, sudan, has died of old age. a subspecies of rhino ever closer to extension. one is najin, 27—years—old, sudan's daughter. the other is fatu, his teenage granddaughter. the last of what was once a great species that roamed central africa. this was sudan, and for the last few years scientists and conservationists have been trying to get him to mate. they even put the 45—year—old on tinder as part of a publicity campaign. there was no other animal quite like him. it highlights first and foremost, you know, the fact that human greed and sometimes human activities that are not controlled can drive species to extinction. the last wild northern white rhinos were seen here in garamba national park in the northern democratic republic of congo, but that

was many years ago. they became extinct in the wild in 2008. well, fatu and najin are now the last two remaining northern white rhinos, and, obviously, they're both females. they're here under armed guard 24 hours a day, such is the continuing threat to these animals from poachers. they are now incredibly rare. there are only 30,000 rhinos left on the planet and sudan was unusual for his kind in that he died of old age. now it's up to the scientists and a never—before—tried fertility treatment in a last—gasp effort to save these animals from extinction. alastair leithead, bbc news, in northern kenya. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i'm @nkem ifejika. goodbye. hello again.

tuesday brought us some beautiful, sunny weather across northern ireland and scotland. that's where the best of the sunshine was, and what a beautiful end to the day it was as well. this was the scene in 0ban, argyll and bute, looking out over the scottish islands as the sun set in the west. some changes, though, working in for wednesday. got some thicker cloud working into the north—west of the country. so, for scotland and northern ireland, a cloudier start to the day. some rain on the charts edging into western scotland as well. so for some, it will be a damper start as well. whereas further south, for england and wales, clearer skies overnight. well, that means, for early—risers, we've got something like this. a widespread frost developing, even in the towns and cities. head into the countryside and a really a cold start to the day. temperatures could be down as low as —6 in the coldest spots wales. a cold start then, yes, but beautiful sunny skies in england and wales for most of the morning. into the afternoon, cloud thickening from the north and west. sunshine will make the sun hazy elsewhere, but probably the thicker cloud won't reach the south—east

until the evening time. further north a different story. cloudy with outbreaks of rain working into western scotland fairly quickly in the day. any rain not lasting long in northern ireland. but could be slow to clear in western scotland. eastern scotland will be prone to seeing occasional bright spells through the afternoon. and here, temperatures will lift into double figures, probably one of the warmest spots in the uk. even further south, those temperatures going up. and, crucially, we will have lost the bitter wind. looking at the weather picture for thursday, a decent start to the day for many of us, with some bright and sunny spells. we've got a weather front coming in from the atlantic bringing heavy rain to western areas later in the afternoon. also some pretty strong winds edging into wales and south—west england, where we could get gales developing around the coast later in the day. looking towards the end of the week, an area of cloud and rain pushing across the uk. and then another area of low pressure set to swing in off the atlantic and moving towards the south—west of the uk. some uncertainty about exactly how far north the band of rain gets. we may see a stronger area of low pressure develop,

and if that happens, the rain might not get quite as far northwards. so, that is a possibility for friday. 9—11 for most of us. but the position of that rain is really important for the weather we'll have across scotland and northern ireland on saturday. at the moment, we're forecasting rain. but if the low pressure area is a bit more developed, it could be clear and a decent day on saturday with bright or sunny spells. as i say, quite a bit of uncertainty at the moment, but we will keep you posted. politicians in the united states and europe are summoning executive from facebook to answer questions about whether personal data was used to manipulate recent elections. facebook says it was deceived by a british company cambridge analytica who worked the president of among others. emergency services in texas say "an incendiary device" that went off in the city of austin was not related to a series of explosions this month.

however, the fbi has confirmed that two packages found at separate fedex delivery offices in the area on tuesday are connected to the earlier attacks. a bbc investigation has found that girls from myanmar‘s rohingya muslim minority — who fled violence in their home country — are being trafficked into prostitution in bangladesh. hundreds of thousands of rohingya now live in huge refugee camps where they are vulnerable to sexual exploitation. where they are vulnerable more —— where they are vulnerable gore men fl % fig the law, after equal pay became theiamle be the yearee. ea. a. after equal pay became theiamle be 2 year that = £911.19)“ change. we are “tr ”7 ”7” do 5 as e “tr ”7 ”7” j: do 5 as e — “tr ”7 ”7” mf—

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