some say it's a paradox of our overstimulated lives, that while we might seek silence, it's howling emptiness is a challenge. the idea of a whole hour of meditation is absolutely terrifying, and quite boring. i've tried it. negative thoughts come into your mind, that's what we're scared of. i think a little bit of training, i'm going to give myself one minute, it happens when a well— known figure dies, we have a minute's silence, and that sort of thing, so it's still there in the culture, isn't it? i suppose, start small and build up to bigger hits of silence, and lose the fear. as we fade thankfully into the ether once again, let's hear it for silence. applause. the american border with mexico has

become, in the trump era, a political line in the sand. a new book called the line becomes a river, by francisco cantu, takes you there, into dangerous and unforgiving territory, where the author, a proud third generation mexican immigrant, worked for the us border patrol in pursuit of gunrunners, smugglers, and of course the people who were simply trying to get across. a personal story and a lyrical account of the ball and which, for him, will always be heavy with ambiguity. —— the borderlands. what you are saying in this look, i

think, is that orders, particularly this one, i never as simple as they seem. “— this one, i never as simple as they seem. —— borders. this one, i never as simple as they seem. -- borders. no, i mean, honestly... i think the core arguments of this book is that we are constantly being asked to see, india knighted states and elsewhere, i think, the border as this simple black and white issue. —— in the united states. but it is deeply complicated. your road in the ocean in that complication is fascinating. you are third—generation mexican—american. —— your own immersion. your grandfather was the first go to the us and you then served in the border patrol, so you are enforcing the laws of your country, or trying to make sure people didn't cross illegally. but in your heart you understood that this border had been porous for a very long time. ivan ljubicic open about? my grandfather came to the

united states fleeing violence during the mexican revolution, which is really what is causing a lot of people to come to the united states today. they are fleeing violence in their home countries. in a lot of ways, my grandfather's family came to the united states as refugees, really. people who are fleeing the walls of central america. —— wars. they are refugees as well. yes, the border has been porous, and there is this idea now which i think sounds very appealing to people who are not from the border all who have no real understanding of the physical landscape of the border, that you can build a wall and stop that. —— oi’ can build a wall and stop that. —— or who have. but of course it is really a ridiculous notion. it is a sort of mediaeval concept. let's go back to the book itself. what you do is, you describe first of all be

territory. it is —— its physical presence, and its compelling presence, and its compelling presence, because it is a strange place. it is so rugged and so dangerous. it is like nowhere else. i grew dangerous. it is like nowhere else. igrew up dangerous. it is like nowhere else. i grew up as the son of a park ranger. my mother worked for the united states park service. so as a boy, i was always out in the desert. actually, my very first memory is —— memory is our of the west texas landscape very close to the border. —— memories. it is harsh and inhospitable but also very beautiful, a landscape as old as time. it is attractive, but as you say, very dangerous. a lot of the people who for one reason or another have come over, not talking about gun smuggling or drug smuggling, but people who just tried to get to the united states, the journeys people who just tried to get to the united states, thejourneys they undertook were extremely harsh. united states, thejourneys they undertook were extremely harshlj feel that in the united states and

abroad, people have little conception of how vast a journey this is. most people, we sort of imagined there is a line in the sand and you step on to the other side of it and you are in the united states. —— imagine. that is not actually how this works at all. since the 1990s india knighted states we have actually been building walls. —— in the us. we have been hiring more border patrol agents, and forcing the border in the cities. that has forced the crossings further and further out into the most remote, dangerous, rugged parts of the desert. you have this situation now where people will be walking out for as much as a0 miles, 60 miles, to circumvent these roads and checkpoints and patrols. and many people lose their lives. hundreds of people lose their lives. hundreds of people die every year. what are you

feel, to come to this contemporary point for a moment, what do you feel about those undocumented people in the united states, who come in illegally, who have no documentation, but who perhaps have been there for one or two generations, their kids have been to school, they have been paying taxes. what do you think should be done, if anything? you know, i don't have a policy solution. that is why i have chosen to be a writer and not a politician. but, you know, whati can say is that i think the way we talk about migrants in the united states and probably globally is very problematic. and i think the language we use to talk about migrants dehumanises them. we quite often migrants dehumanises them. we quite ofte n rea d migrants dehumanises them. we quite often read headlines about a wave of migration or a tired of newcomers. —— tide. 0ran migration or a tired of newcomers. —— tide. or an uptick, as though these people ‘s lives is something

that can be plotted on a graph. when you look at the individual, you realise the individual has three us citizen shall run, has been living here for 30 years, left the country because their mother died. —— us citizen children. so i think we are a moral —— owe a moral, we have a moral obligation to people who have long been part of our society. the book ends, the last third of the book, really, is about what happens to you. it is an incident you went through after you had left the border patrol, enforcing the law, to do something else. you were drawn back by a personal involvement, by a story. tell us briefly what happened. so, after i left story. tell us briefly what happened. so, afteri left the border patrol, i tried to distance myself from that work in every way imaginable. i was working at a coffee shop. i was going to school, to college. i became friends with a man gradually, who worked at the

coffee shop, and he was from mexico. he had lived in the united states for 30 years. he had three united states citizen children. he disappeared from work one day. you know, two years after we became friends. and i started to ask what had happened to him, and it turned out he had left because a family member had died in mexico. and we thought he would be back in a couple of weeks. and when he didn't come back, that is when we found out that he was actually undocumented. that he was actually undocumented. that he had been arrested at the border. and because of my work, i was familiar with the system that he was stepping into, and so i began to sort of help is family figure out where he would be. so even having worked on the border, you hadn't seen it from that point of view? you we re seen it from that point of view? you were doing your duty, you are doing the best you could, in a humane way,

to enforce the law. now you began to see it in a completely different ught? see it in a completely different light? yes, and i thinki see it in a completely different light? yes, and i think i was seeing how inhumane the system is, really, from the other side. in america there is this sort of vast deportation industrial complex. which i was only a small part of. you know, private prisons, detention centres, courtrooms, all of that, that was really foreign to me. what i also saw was how the border would be thrust into people's lives, like the lives of jose, be thrust into people's lives, like the lives ofjose, this man, and his children, who had never crossed the border in their lives, but the border in their lives, but the border was thrust into their lives. 0ne fact that i have learned since i have been in england is that the distance from lands end tojohn 0'groats is actually half the distance of the us — mexico border. —— land's distance of the us — mexico border. —— lands end. so the argument to build a wall, it would be like

saying, build a wall twice from land's saying, build a wall twice from lands end to john saying, build a wall twice from lands end tojohn 0'groats. saying, build a wall twice from land's end to john o'groats. we will leave that one to hang in the air. francisco cantu, author of the line becomes a river, thank you very much. thank you for having me. hello once again. it has been a busy speu hello once again. it has been a busy spell of weather across the british isles and today was no exception. another day of mixed fortunes. here in the heart of london, beautifully ca ptu red in the heart of london, beautifully captured as ever by tim ——. four celsius, the warmest day of the year so far. it wasn't like that every word. you probably have a wet day. that frontal system which gave all be cloud and rain is quite important. to the west the is cooler, to the east air is milder. london certainly got into that milder air. that front overnight will take its heaviest rain towards

areas of the great glen, up towards the northern isles, and you can almostjoin the dots back towards the south—west. rain is already gathering. we are very much underneath the influence of the jetstrea m. underneath the influence of the jetstream. you can see that low pressure in that big kink towards the continent. this is where you wa nt to the continent. this is where you want to be if you want warmth and sunshine. these temperatures in the heart of germany are some 10 degrees above what we would normally expect at this time of year. all that is very exotic. come closer to home and you might have a wet start to the day, because the rain that i showed you to the south—west will gradually ease ever further north. indeed, you to the south—west will gradually ease everfurther north. indeed, it will go towards the north—west as we get through the day. not actually making it north of the central belt is during the course of the day. here, with a bit of sunshine, it will be about 13 degrees. some of this rain will be quite heavy, spilling across the irish sea into northern ireland. further south it could take quite a long time to get out of wales. the southern counties

again with a bit of brightness. some in east anglia and the south—east could well be pushing towards about i7 could well be pushing towards about 17 degrees yet again. that rain lingers with intent across the heart of scotland. across saturday evening, and down into the southern ponds. sunday, we still have that frontal system all over the top of us. quite a bit of dry weather at this stage. much of the activity gone from the front but there will still be enough in it to produce rain across east anglia and parts of the south—east, and a dotting of showers elsewhere. at the weekend, asi showers elsewhere. at the weekend, as i hope you get a sense, is by no means a write—off. here is the jetstrea m means a write—off. here is the jetstream again. a great big kink, there is london lurking in the bend of that river, if you like. slot some low of that river, if you like. slot some low pressure of that river, if you like. slot some low pressure into that and that is how we start the new week, with more cloud and a bit more rain. kohli this is bbc world news. our top stories: us shares take a dive after president trump threatens new tariffs on china.

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