this is outside source. us security chiefs are still deciding whether to strike syria in response to the alleged chemical weapons attack. after raising expectations of imminent action in recent days, president trump now strikes a more cautious note. we're looking, very, very, very closely at that whole situation and we'll see what happens, folks. we'll see what happens. the russian military says the syrian flag is now flying over douma, the town where that alleged chemical attack took place at the weekend, and the last rebel stronghold on the eastern edge of damascus. we have an amazing story from china, a baby boy is born to a surrogate mother four years after his parents died in a car crash. and the strange case of the missing athletes at the commonwealth games, competitors from rwanda and uganda are the latest to disappear from their accommodation.

the united states and its allies, britain and france, are still weighing up military options against syria. french president emmanuel macron now says his country has proof the assad regime used chemical weapons. translation: we have proof that about ten days ago some chemical weapons have been used, some chlorine at least. and we know that they've been used by the regime been used by the regime of bashar al—assad. in no case will we allow an escalation that could damage the stability of the region. but we cannot let unpunished a regime that believes it has the right to do anything, including violating international law. only on wednesday, donald trump told russia to "get ready" for a strike on syria. today he tweeted this. "never said when an attack on syria would take place.

could be very soon or not so soon at all! in any event, the united states, under my administration, has done a greatjob of ridding the region of isis. where is our "thank you america?" here he is speaking at the white house earlier today. we're looking, very, very, very closely at that whole situation and we'll see what happens, folks. we'll see what happens. it's too bad that the world puts us in a position like that. us defence secretary james mattis has been speaking to congress. he says america doesn't want to get involved in syria's civil war, except when chemical weapons are used. some things are simply inexcusable beyond the pale and in the worst interest of notjust the chemical weapons convention, but of civilization itself. and so the recognition of that, means that times are going to see contrary impulses. you saw president obama

try to deal with those chemical weapons when he was in, and enlisting the russians who now were complicit in syria retaining those weapons, assad retaining them. russia says the threats of strikes are a violation of the united nations charter. the kremlin also continues to deny chemical weapons were used in the attack. here's the russian foreign ministry spokeswoman. translation: nobody in these communities demanded the imminent investigation of the situation and raised no doubt about the footage. at the time showing children and adults are pouring water on themselves, and this weight allegedly demonstrating the use of the chemical weapons. this information was taken at face value. she is questioning the authenticity

of these pictures. you will have seen them before. they were broadcast all around were following the attack and release by syrian opposition activists. they are even more distressing pictures we are not showing you of bodies on the ground with what appears to be phone coming out of peoples mouths. in fact there is an update from the american network msnbc. us officials have obtained blood and you're in samples from victims of the alleged chemical attack in syria last weekend and the samples tested positive for chemicals, mainly for chlorine and some for a nerve agent. meanwhile, it appears douma has fallen to the assad regime. these are pictures of government forces flying the syrian flag in the town once again. it was the last rebel resistance of eastern ghouta, once a stronghold for opposition forces. the last fighters in douma agreed to surrender on sunday, a day after the suspected chemical weapons attack. back in the uk, this is the comings and goings

at downing street this afternoon, where ministers agreed they should continue to work with the us and france to deter the use of chemical weapons. and in new york. sweden has proposed another united nations resolution to send a un mission to syria to try to rid the country of chemical weapons "once and for all". the un also confirmed experts from the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons will arrive in douma in the next 2a hours to begin investigating. murad shishani is a senior reporter for bbc arabic. hejoined me earlier in the newsroom. douma we are talking on two levels. the first one is the location. the location is in access to the main highways, either to aleppo, as well as more importantly to assad regime's stronghold in the coastal areas of latakia, which is where the russian base

and the more significant presence of russian troops are there. but also on the other hand, these areas are the biggest town in eastern ghouta which witnessed a very fierce resistance i will say from the rebels. it was a very stronghold and they relied on a very sophisticated network of tunnels, as well as relying on locals in their fight against the assad regime. so therefore it is very important for assad to get rid of the largest town on the suburbs of damascus. that is strategically why it is a problem for us. now the campaign waged by the assad regime on eastern ghouta and duma was very intense. where do people think he may turn his attention now if military action does not stop him in some way? the thing is now, all eyes will be turned to idlib. but idlib will be a later stage, i would say. because idlib is a very sophisticated, all kinds

of militant groups are gathered there and they have a sophisticated network. turkey, up to iraq. so i think this is not only look. also to the south. it is also de—escalated there. one of the areas where americans, russians, saudi, iranians, and the regime agreed to keep this connection. but however we need to look at mr trump's threats now, to years of retaliation strikes. which means these proxy areas will be in the main microscope where everyone is looking at them. so therefore that might change all the scenes again. and you mentioned that threat of military action a couple of days ago we heard saudi arabia would be in favour ofjoining with say the us and france and britain and carrying out some kind of strikes. studies are making that clear. they are worried and concerned about what they call the iranian. and in a very rare occasion

they agreed with israel on this. they make it clear they will be part of it. that is why it is important, because proxy wars might be the main headline. which is ongoing in the middle east, but now in the new stage, that might be the main headline in the middle east of which is complicated the situation more and more. against the backdrop of escalating tensions over syria, this man, cia director mike pompeo faced a confirmation hearing to become the next us secretary of state. he confirmed around 200 russian mercenaries were killed in february during a clash with us—led forces in syria. take a listen. there is still more work to be done. there is more work to be done on other sanctions and provisions as well. i readily concede that. vladimir putin has not yet received the message sufficiently and we need to continue to work about that. but it hasn'tjust been sanctions. the largest expulsion, 60 folks was from this administration.

this administration announced a nuclear review that has put lotion on notice that we're going to recapitalize on deterrent force in syria. now a handful of weeks ago the russians met their match. a couple hundred russians were killed. i spoke to the bbc‘s barbara plett usher a short time ago, and asked her what mr pompeo was talking about. yes, that was very interesting little tidbit of information he offered there. he was talking about a clash that took place in february in eastern syria. where the us military said it killed around 100 pro—regime forces, because they had moved on a base where us allies were situated and where us advisers were actually working together with them. there had been a warning, the americans said, and the forces continue to advance and so they had attacked them with aircraft. now the time they didn't say what these pro—regime forces constituted, although there were reports almost immediately that russians were among them. but there were reports that there were a number of russian mercenaries who were killed in fact quite a lot. these things started to show up on social media. so it seems that mr pompeo is part

of his answer there, talking about how the us was getting tough with russia. did reveal that in fact quite a few russians were killed in that attack. barbara, taking a step back and looking at the syria situation more widely, where are we with the imminent or not so imminent military action? donald trump, sending out rather mixed messages? yes. he had telegraphed that something would be happening quite soon and he is not telegraphing that any more. he is now meeting with national security officials who have been telegraphing something quite different. they have been saying that they are examining the situation. they are gathering evidence, or they believe a chemical weapons attack to us, but they don't have the full evidence for it. so that is part of what they were looking at, they are also trying to put together a coalition and talking to allies as you know, and have reported the us as the french and britain and perhaps some arab nations and all of that takes time.

so it seems that mr trump got ahead of his national security planners, who are trying to work out how exactly it would respond. and it is possible given his tweet yesterday in which he mourned the russians that the missiles were coming, that he may have delayed it a bit further because the syrians have run for cover recently. they have been moving their assets into safe places, their hardware, their military planes and so on, into russian bases as well, where the americans would not want to strike. because they don't want to have a conflict with the russians. so that may also be a factor now in determining what sort of targets can be hit in the nearfuture. barbara in washington. let's turn to the salisbury spy poisoning attack. the international chemical weapons watchdog has released its verdict on the toxic agent used. it says the results of the analysis "confirm the findings of the united kingdom relating to the identity of the toxic chemical." the report doesn't specifically name the nerve agent.

the uk foreign office tweeted foreign secretary borisjohnson‘s response. "the international chemical weapons confirmed the findings of the uk.... that was a military grade agent, a novichok." novichok is a class of nerve agent developed by the soviet union in the 1970s and 1980s. the report doesn't say where the nerve agent was manufactured as this is beyond the remit of the inspectors. but it does note the toxic chemical was of high purity. in other words, only a state actor with the capability to make the nerve agent could have produced it. russia denies any involvement. here's damian grammaticas from outside the opcw headquarters in the hague. a couple of interesting things to pull out of this. these were independent and sectors, independent tests erie it out here. what we have learned is that they went to the uk, they took what samples from the victims. they took samples from the

locations. those they say also traces of these chemical weapons agents. and they matched exactly what the uk had already said, and the copies of samples that the uk gave, or parts of samples that the uk gave. so matched in many ways independently by the laboratories here. so they say in their private classified documents are the full chemical signatures, but they confirm it is what the uk said was used as a chemical agent. stay with us on outside source, still to come... uber under fire from the federal authorities in the us forfailing to report a data leak on 20 million users. accident and emergency waiting times for the last year in england are the worst since the target was introduced 14 years ago, according to new figures. the health watchdog says hospitals face a "mammoth task" coping with rising numbers of patients. our health editor hugh pym explained what the numbers mean for the nhs.

in march, 84 points 6% of patients across england were treated assessed oi’ across england were treated assessed or discharged within four hours. that is the lowest since that series began. what nhs leaders will say is that that is against the backdrop of more people coming in to hospitals. more emergency admissions. they are dealing with higher patient demand over the circumstances, they think their performance has held up. but their performance has held up. but the backdrop is extreme pressure, extremely difficult times to the nhs demands for more money. the prime minister has set a new plan will be put together for the long term. and a lot of eyes will be on that in the months ahead. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story is... a shift in tone over america's

approach to possible action in syria after an alleged chemical attack. after suggesting a strike could be imminent, president trump now says meetings are still going on. other stories from around the bbc right now. bbc chinese reports that president xi jinping has overseen the military‘s largest—ever naval display, saying the need for a strong maritime force has never been more urgent. 10,000 personnel and dozens of ships took part in the south china sea drill. europe's democracy watchdog says yesterday's election in azerbaijan, that returned president ilham aliyev to power, had serious irregularities. the osce says ballot boxes were stuffed, leading observers to fail over half the vote counts. bbc azeri has that story. a memorial sculpture in belgrade to the first man in space, yuri gagarin, has been removed after less than a week, following an outcry over the size of its head, which was deemed far too small. locals said that the tribute was an "insult" to the man who orbited the earth back in 1961.

federal authorities in the us have chastised uberforfailing to report a data leak. the federal trade commission said the ride—sharing company should have revealed a data breach earlier, as it exposed the names, phone numbers and email addresses of 20 million users. kim gittleson in new york. kim us authorities have already said in august that they are investigating uber‘s handling of user data. what's new about this announcement from the ftc? dealing with us regulators you probably want to know you are investigating a data breach, particularly if you're talking to them about a separate data breach. let me take you back in time and 2014 when huber was hacked and 100,000 drivers in formation was revealed including their bank accou nts revealed including their bank accounts and social security numbers. they've been talking about

the federal trade commission about this data leak 2016 when it all. for another security breach. at that time there were 25 million uber customers whose phone numbers and e—mail addresses were revealed. there are also 600,000 drivers who drivers licenses were also revealed in that breach. uber didn't immediately tell the ftc that it had found out about this, in fact it paid the hackers who had the data $100,000 at the same time that it was still talking to these federal regulators. but the ftc has said is that they should have said this was happening when they weren't negotiating a settlement, so now they have decided that the uber nista renegotiating settlement with the regarding how you stated, both for drivers and for customers. and the main thing that the ftc says is that if uber settles with us regulators it will be subject to fines in the future on if it is found to have violated the particular data rules that it agreed to with the ftc. we are hearing

about data breaches a lot recently. how big could the civil penalties be? they are not the exact same thing but it does a reference to facebook. similarto but it does a reference to facebook. similar to what facebook ad with the ftc, they had an agreement in 2011, but they were found to violate their particular data agreement and they will be fined tens of thousands of dollars for each separate violation, 110w dollars for each separate violation, now there are some former ftc commissioner to say that to mean facebook is subject to something like $1 billion worth of potential fines as a result of the cambridge analytica scandal. this particular agreement, the ftc says that if huber agrees to it, it can be subject to 41,000 —— 400 —— 40 huber agrees to it, it can be subject to 41,000 -- 400 -- 40 $1484 if it is found violating any of these agreements. if it violates multiple times, that can be a significant fine for uber going forward. indeed. thank you very much. trade tensions between the world's two biggest economies are again on the rise, china's commerce ministry said

the country will not hesitate to fight back if the us takes further protectionist measures. and the world trade organization has warned that global trade could be undermined if governments resort to restrictive policies. here's director general roberto azevedo speaking to the bbc. there are economic and systemic risks a. the economic risk is gdp growth is going to be compromised, trade expansion is going to be compromised, the global value chains will be compromised. two thirds of the trade that we see in the world todayis the trade that we see in the world today is somehow related to global value chains, so you can fragment and you can compromise production output, job creation, investments very quickly. that economic effect is something that we have to be mindful of. the other problem and risk we have is systemic. where we do not use the tools that we have

that allow for international cooperation, for example the tools that we have here. so far they have been using it. we are seeing engagement here in geneva, consultations are ongoing. very intensely and that is good. but the risks exist in those two areas. the owner of british airways, iag, is trying to get a foothold in the long—haul budget airline market. on wednesday it announced a no—frills "basic" fare on long haul flights to the us and dubai. but today, it's emerged the company is going one step further. iag confirmed it's bought a stake of almost 5% in the budget carrier norwegian, with the intention of possibly trying to buy the whole thing. one travel expert we spoke to earlier explained what a potential tie—up of the two would mean for passengers and fares. if you're travelling across the atla ntic if you're travelling across the atlantic for instance it would mean

fast expanding network, what perhaps not have such great fares. but overall global aviation is still so competitive. if norwegian and ba a arnault longer competing you can bet there are many other people who will come along and compete in their place. so maybe slightly higher fa res, place. so maybe slightly higher fares, maybe slightly less choice, but the first aviation is still a good place to be. more on the strange case of the missing athletes now. yesterday we told you about eight cameroonians who had disappeared from their accommodation at the commonwealth games in australia. they include weightlifter arcangeline sonkbou and the boxer simplice fotsala. well today the organizers of the games say five more athletes from african countries have gone missing. there are now looking for competitors from rwanda and uganda, while continuing the search for the eight cameroonians who they‘ re calling ‘deserters‘. this might sound like a familiar story because, back in 2012, we reported that seven cameroonian athletes had disappeared from the london olympics. well we can get more on this now from mimi fawaz,

the sports presenter for focus on africa. they're still missing. as we have said, the past few days on sunday three went missing. imondi two and tuesday another three went missing. the alarm bell was rung. the police we re the alarm bell was rung. the police were informed. they are not here. it is important to say that there is nothing legal just is important to say that there is nothing legaljust yet. they legally have visas until mid—may. we'll have to see if they will pop up at any time. my colleague and the bbc africa hub has been in touch with one of the boxers who is missing. he messaged yesterday to find out if he was ok. and he sent him a thumbs up, so was ok. and he sent him a thumbs up, so he is fine. he tried getting a bit more information of his whereabouts. no information yet. right, nothing forthcoming. as we just mentioned, this is not the first time something like this have happened at a major international sporting fixture. exactly. in london

2012 more cameroonian athletes went missing. sometimes these athletes go missing. sometimes these athletes go missing and then they pop up later on, seeking asylum, competing for another country. there were reports that some of the cameroonians, that is actually what happened. we saw as well the commonwealth games in 2006 as well, there were more athletes that missing. it is not a new story, we do hear these stories that tend to, but every now and then. we do hear these stories that tend to, but every now and thenlj we do hear these stories that tend to, but every now and then. i am wondering what it seems like two people back home. you got these athletes representing their national team, simply disappearing. what are people making of this?” team, simply disappearing. what are people making of this? i have been beating to some people back in cameroon and the reaction is mixed. some people say you know what, athletes don't get treated very well in the country. they don't have very good conditions, they don't get paid for months. so this is what happens when they are not being taken care of. others are saying they are unpatriotic and it is not good for the country. that is why it affects people actually getting visas once they apply to countries. we don't know the reasons why they are

seeking asylum. so in good faith for political situation as we do know in cameroon they are saying they are marginalised when you're looking at the rest of the front of him speaking cameras. we don't know yet. i guess we have to find out at some point. —— francophone speaking cameroonians. the son of a chinese couple, who died more than four years ago, has been born to a surrogate mother. shenjie and liu xi had been married for two years when they decided to try in vitro fertilization. five days before they were due to transplant one of the fertilized embryos, the couple died in a car accident. their parents fought a long legal battle to be allowed to use the embryos. they eventually won and this boy, named tiantian, was born in december. the story was first reported by the beijing news this week. now, this wasn't as straightforward as it sounds. surrogacy is illegal in china, so the future grandparents had to look beyond the country's borders. they settled on laos, where commercial surrogacy is legal. but they faced another challenge with citizenship. in order to become a chinese citizen, tiantian‘s surrogate mother had to travel back to china on a tourist visa to give birth there.

the bbc‘s katie silver has more details on the case, from singapore. surrogacy has always been bad in china and in 2015, 2016 when they lifted the one child policy there was talk of perhaps lightening this. maybe there were mothers that have missed the boat that wanted a second child. but it did not happen. so surrogacy as you child. but it did not happen. so surrogacy as you mentioned was illegal in china, it was also not illegal in china, it was also not illegal in china, it was also not illegal in india, cambodia, thailand and pieces that formerly had been quite common places for people to use his surrogates. of all places they went allows and they found a surrogate pair as well as a hospital that was willing to take them. the embryo was stored in a liquid nitrogen solution and a cap. there was no airline that was willing to ta ke was no airline that was willing to take them so they had to drive this incredibly long distance, all the way to laos. i looked up on google maps how long that might take, he cannot even talk you later. —— they cannot even talk you later. —— they cannot even talk you later. —— they cannot even calculated. that was the process they had to go through in order to have this child there. more from outside source in a few

minutes' time. see you then. hello, spring is the time of year across the united states where we start to get some very big temperatures. that is certainly what is on the way for the next few days. cold air to be northwest and warm air stripping and from the gulf of mexico. it is these massive temperature contrasts that feel some of the biggest forms of the planet, the weatherfor the united states is about to get very lively. through friday and indeed saturday, low pressure moves into the plains. we will start to see a band of heavy snow developing across south dakota and nebraska. further eastward into parts of wisconsin and the disorder. there could be some areas that pick up a foot of snow, over 30 cm and places. the winds gusting to 60 miles an hour, bringing blizzard conditions, but further south is a different story. a cold front here, and ahead of the cold front will start to see some severe thunderstorms break out. most likely across parts of texas, louisiana, arkansas, a risk of gusty winds, potentially damaging hail. maybe even a few fairly powerful

granados. that is all on the weather menu through friday. they look at the weather picture for saturday. bubba snow extends across the great la kes bubba snow extends across the great lakes into parts of the northeast united states with torrential rain continuing to affect southern states. maybe still to severe thunderstorms going around. a big shift in temperatures. warming up in new york for the next two days before he turns cooler with some thunderstorms as we get on into the weekend. and beyond. australia we are going to see the weather turning cooler over the next few days. a cold front pushes parts of south australia and victoria, bringing cloudier skies and a threat of some rain and some cooler air pushing in as well as the winds change to a cooler south—westerly direction. temperatures in melbourne dropping to about 18 degrees, but further east warm in sydney. the satellite picture across northern india, thunderstorms or does damaging winds that have affected, reports of damage to this complex. both severe

thunderstorms are pushing east words. parts of bangladesh and the northeast of india could see severe downpours. may be some odd tale here and gusty winds through friday. otherwise the weather calming down across the northwest of india. and europe, something of an east, west split to our weather. east is dominated by an area of high pressure, warming coming up from the south. temperatures in the likes of poland pushing into the mid—20s were further west the weather pattern still pretty unsettled, rain or some of those showers heavy and sundre for example across northern and central areas of france. however the weather is on a time and things are turning a bit milder. coverage is in paris reaching high of 18 degrees on friday. it will get warmer if it still through the weekend and into next week. indeed temperature still widely released below 20, that is including the uk and could push as high as the mid—20s in the warm response. more of that coming up in the next half hour. hello, i'm karin giannone. this is outside source, and these are the main stories. us security chiefs are still deciding whether to strike syria in response to the alleged

chemical weapons attack. after raising expectations of imminent action in recent days, president trump is now striking a more cautious note. we're looking very, very seriously, very closely at that whole situation, and we'll see what happens, folks. we'll see what happens. the russian military says the syrian flag is now flying over douma, the town where that alleged chemical attack took place at the weekend and the last rebel stronghold on the eastern edge of damascus. in china, a baby boy has been born to a surrogate mother four years after his parents died in a car crash. and we'll bring you news of a landmark expedition to the amazon rainforest, and show you some of the nine new species that have been discovered. welcome back to outside source.

amnesty international has released its annual report on the death penalty. the human rights organisation recorded at least 993 executions in 23 countries in 2017. that's down by 4% from 2016. but this figure excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out in china, which remains the world's top executioner. the true extent of the use of the death penalty there is unknown as this data is classified as a state secret. but excluding china, 84% of all reported executions took place in just four countries, iran, saudi arabia, iraq and pakistan, with iran topping the death penalty table with at least 507 people executed last year. here's bbc persian's kasra naji. this is the amnesty international‘s

report about the executions in 2017. it shows that iran tops the list among the countries with the highest number of recorded executions. we know that china, for example, executes thousands every year but they don't declare it, they don't record it, we don't know how many there are, but amongst those that have been recorded around the world, iran tops the list. 507 people were executed last year in a run. that's about 51% of all executions around the world. six of them women and about three of them were executed publicly. said that would involve a crane being brought into a town or a village, set up in a square and a crowd to watch. that's right, usually a large crowd comes to watch and yes, there is a crane and they hang people from the crane and a lot

of people take photos and videos in youtube is full of it. what sort of crimes carry the death penalty in iran? mostly drugs, drug related offences and also murder, but also robbery, rape and murder. those are the offences. last year, more than 200 people were executed for drugs related charges. about 200 roughly again for murder. and is there any element of political executions carried out? there are two according to amnesty international met two people who are executed who are thought to be parts of kurdish separatist groups in iran, in western iran, but they were involved also in arms insurrection, armed conflicts with iranian security

forces. there is a silver lining in all of this and that in november, iran passed new laws for the first time in nearly 40 years that raises the barfor time in nearly 40 years that raises the bar for executing drug—related offenders. that means that next year, probably, the figure will be a lot lower because it raises the bar already according to amnesty international, 15,000 people this law affects, and those 15,000 people we re law affects, and those 15,000 people were on death row and now they are not. kasra naji from bbc persian. to brazil, where nine new species have been discovered in the amazon rainforest. a leading team of scientists were granted rare access to brazil's highest mountain, the pico da neblina. it means the "peak of mist" which is appropriate because, as you can see, its peak

is hidden by high clouds. the scientists were delighted to be able to explore this area because it's been closed to the public since 2003. their aim was to find new plants and animals before they're destroyed by deforestation and climate change. here is the head of the expedition. this is the first expedition to an area that is absolutely unexplored in the amazon. this is one of the most important parts of the amazon to get genetic material. this is an explosive breeding flight. there are at least 18 species under this name. the amazon rainforest is home to 10% of the earth's known species. let's take a look of some of the new ones they found. bear in mind, the process of officially naming a species can take years so these

are just the nicknames! first, this frog they called "big—eyed red". the explorers discovered him at the summit of the pico da neblina. it took them seven hours to get up there! this one is "the brown giant", a lizard they found near their make—shift kitchen. and this is a new type of pygmy owl which had a unique song that had never been heard before. you can see much more about these new species and about the expedition on the bbc website. elainejung, who wrote this article, was invited to join the scientists on their trip, and she told me all about it. it was extremely difficult. for the scientists come they've been planning this sort of expedition for at least a year before that all the paperwork and all the approvals in place, so they had to gain access from indigenous authorities and from the army and to provide personnel

and logistical support because of the sheer remoteness of this region. getting there from london for myself and our cameraperson, it took five flights, to get from london to the top of the mountain. and evenjust from going from the army barracks close to the mountain, it was a ten minute helicopter ride by the army, but that took some planning as well. the army did i know we could get there in the first place. they hiked up there in the first place. they hiked up the mountain to sort of carve a trail to see what would happen if they could not fly there because conditions are always difficult there. it's constantly surrounded by heavy clouds, so we just weren't sure whether weather conditions would sort of permit us to fly there in the first place. likely eventually happen to. and it's amazing that some places on the earth are still so remote even in this day and age. alain, tell us about what you discovered as you went along and draxler there for the discovery of a particularly new species. that's right. -- you're

actually there. the peak, this is an untouched region for western scientists, westerners in general, really. when we were up there, most of the discoveries were made, they we re of the discoveries were made, they were frogs, five francs, two lizards, a pygmy owl and a plant. and these are just at least nine new species. they are still waiting to hear about all the others a collected along the way, and some of them can take years. for that one discovery, we were just under the tent and everyone was just setting up tent and everyone was just setting up and all of a sudden, some action was happening in the corner and the young biologist, tropical expert committees are everything to one side and just pounced on it and was like "i don't know what this frog is." like "i don't know what this frog is." their enthusiasm was really infectious. he said at least nine

new species discovered while you we re new species discovered while you were there. this was not for people who are squeamish, the things you went through. i thought being australian would prepare me for this... nothing prepares you. i even wore a mosquito had met to wear to sleep, and i thought i was never going to wear this at all. and i woke up and there was a crawling over myrfacer, se—i—were for crawling aver myrfacer, sea—i-wera for two weeks. and there was that for two weeks. and there was one bug, beautifulfluorescent, floral colours that really got close andi floral colours that really got close and i photographed him and it was just sitting on our cameraperson cosmic camera. i got up close and i was taking photos of it, eight brazilian journalist said, "that's a major carrier of a disease and you don't know that you're infected intel two years later, your heart just explodes." so some pretty

hard—core bugs just explodes." so some pretty ha rd—core bugs out just explodes." so some pretty hard—core bugs out there. just explodes." so some pretty hard-core bugs out there. lots of wasps. constantly chased by wasps walking to the amazon, particularly at night. that is elaine jung commit bbc producer who went on that expedition. much more on the website and what she did. the civil liberties committee of the european parliament has been debating a report recommending sanctions on hungary today. this is it and this is why. it says there's "a clear risk of a serious breach by hungary of the values on which the union is founded." hungary has just re—elected this man, right—wing prime minister viktor orban. mr orban's consistently vowed to fight eu plans to allocate refugees across the bloc and to continue a crackdown at home against civil society groups. unsurprisingly, that's put him on a collision course with the eu. judith sargentini is the dutch mep who wrote the report. she tweeted. .. article 7 is an eu infringement mechanism designed to be used

against member countries that have committed fundamental rights violations. there are two parts to it. the first allows the council to give a formal warning to the country accused. if that doesn't work, the council can then impose sanctions and suspend voting rights. adam fleming has more from brussels. a few months ago, a green mep from the netherlands was given the task of looking at all the evidence coming out of hungary and working out whether it amounted to a threat to the rule of law, to democracy in that country. today, judith sargentini has published her report. she details lots of concerns that she sees, ranging from changes, she details lots of concerns that she sees, ranging from changes to the constitution, to how thejudiciary is managed, to how the government appears to be channeling public money to newspapers that are supportive of the prime minister, viktor orban, to new rules for universities, new rules for foreign charities, particularly ones run by the philanthropist george soros. and she's concluded that yes, there is a threat to democracy

and the rule of law in hungary, which means the eu should trigger its little—used disciplinary process known as article 7. now that will finally be a decision for leaders to eu make at a summit, now that will finally be a decision for eu leaders to make at a summit, but before they even consider that, these findings have got to be voted on by the parliament's civil liberties committee, which will happen in a couple weeks' time. and then it's got to be voted on by the entire european parliament. and remember, there, it's dominated, the chamber, by meps from the same political family as viktor orban, who are pretty sympathetic towards the hungarian government. now the foreign ministry in budapest has released a statement saying today that the european parliament are the ones who are being undemocratic, because just a few days ago, the hungarian people, in huge numbers, voted to reelect the government with a huge majority. adam fleming in brussels. the director of the uk intelligence agency, gchq,

has revealed that britain has conducted a "major offensive cyber—campaign" against the islamic state group. speaking at a conference in manchester, jeremy fleming said the operation had disrupted the group's online activities and even destroyed equipment and networks. let's hear what he had to say. ican i can tell you that gchq, in partnership, has conducted a major offensive cyber campaign against ices. hinder their offensive cyber campaign against ices. hindertheirability offensive cyber campaign against ices. hinder their ability to cornet attacks and protected coalition forces on the battlefields. this is the first time the uk has systematically and persistently degraded in adversity‘s online effort is part of a wider military campaign. did it work? ithink effort is part of a wider military campaign. did it work? i think it did. in 2017, there are times when

daesh found it almost impossible to go on their normal channels online committee spread their rhetoric or to trust their publications. botswa na's presidency recently changed from this man, seretse khama ian khama, to this man, mokwetsi masisi. but the news of the smooth transfer of power barely registered, as it was all in keeping with the stable democratic reputation that the country here in west africa has. president masisi has criticised african leaders who stay on in power. here he is speaking to bbc africa's veronique edwards. i feel honoured, i feel privileged, and somewhat lucky. why lucky? lucky because in our system and in our party and country, this presidency we could have been had by a number of other people besides myself, but it happened to be me. and given our

constitutional provision, it was i who was vice president at the right time. it could've anybody else. it could've been many other people. there are very many competent people m, there are very many competent people in, the. are you saying you are not competent? no, no. i am saying there are many other competent people. what are the new priorities for the new government? to deal and tackle with the issue of unemployment. and unemployment is fundamentally a youth problem. the unemployment of the youth. given our population, the issues of youth development and employment. it's a major problem. what do you make of sit tight presidents around the continent? well, i don't have much respect for people who do so because of our

convention for democratic covenants, and these we enunciate through our fallen policy —— foreign policy. our foreign policy is really a reflection of our domestic policy. we allow for multi—democratic conduct. the same should apply in our view for everybody else, in terms of basic beliefs and behaviours. and so when countries pledge and claim to be democratic, we would want them to exactly be that. and if they make any upfront, we will of course express our disappointment in disagreement through various means. the president of botswana speaking about his new job. now to a story from the cold war era, a secret radio station that operated in the old soviet union with the sole purpose of jamming the broadcast

of western radio stations. starting from the 1950s, the ussr operated a network of such stations to stop what was considered anti—soviet propaganda. the bbc‘s rayhan demytrie in georgia went to meet some of those behind the secret broadcasts. listening to the radio is nina's favourite pastime. but for 50 years, she was part of an elite team of technicians tasked with keeping radio off the airwaves. for the fulfillment of socialist publications, she received this award. it makes her laugh today. former technicians like nina continue to live in the settlement that still goes by its old name, radio station #5. built in the 1950s, this secret base operated a field of radio masts which suppressed foreign broadcasts

with white noise. aza operated the transmitters. translation: it was like the noise of a radio river and it was impossible to listen to anything. it was called frequency noise. only stronger. the bbc and voice of america were the main targets of the soviet jammers. state media was heavily censored. foreign broadcasts were considered dangerous propaganda for soviet citizens. but people still found ways to listen. translation: when i started to understand the soviet union and its ideology, i went into the mountains. i lived in tajikistan, and there, i could listen to the broadcasts because those jamming stations could only work within a certain radius. soviet jamming ended

in the late 1980s. little remains at radio station #5 to show what went on here. this used to be a town hall, complete with its own cinema and shops. now everywhere you look, you see neglect. but people still live here. and when they're gone, the memories of radio station #5 will go with them. rayhan demytrie, bbc news, georgia. now, what comes to mind when you think of turkish cuisine? kebabs perhaps, or maybe baklava. it's a fusion of east meets west influenced by asian and european cooking. now one turkish couple is trying to raise the profile of their country's food, and they are thinking small literally, as the bbc‘s tim allman explains. there are portion sizes, and then there are portion sizes. this may look like a doll‘s house, but it is in fact a miniature, fully working kitchen. burcu and anil aydin have come up

with dozens of recipes that don't need many ingredients. translation: turkish cuisine is tremendous and spectacular, but at the same time, it's very difficult depending on the recipes. it is even more difficult to cook it in a miniature kitchen. it takes three times as long, but it wasn't very difficult for me since i had a lot of fun and i saw that the outcome is really nice. the couple have their own youtube channel, offering a variety of miniature meals with a turkish twist. you want a tiny steaks with some tiny chips? not a problem. but cooking to order and cooking to size can take time. but cooking to order and cooking to size did take time. translation: it takes exactly the same as i minimise the exact measures. the first recipe i tried was stuffed

vine leaves and baklava. i struggled a lot to cook stuffed vine leaves. it did not look the same and it didn't taste the same. i tried many times, and in the end, i got the exact same taste. precision planning leads to gourmet satisfaction, even if the meals aren't what you'd call filling. still, the clean—up shouldn't take that long. tim allman, bbc news. you probably won't have failed to notice that next month meghan markle marries prince harry. aside from her fashion sense, it is meghan's activism and humanitarian work which have led to her being compared to harry's mother, princess diana. about diana in the 90s, has written a new one: ‘meghan: a hollywood princess'. he spoke to my colleague victoria derbyshire about the difference between meghan and diana. just a very different kind she is coming to the royal family fully

formed with a successful career as an actress, worked as a blogger, it instagram user, social media and of course her humanitarian work with world vision canada and the united nations. she's the full package and if you think of it as a dowry, she's brought these millions of followers asa brought these millions of followers as a dowry. have you met her? did you meet her in the writing of this book? i've met her family and her friends. the first part of the year, i lived in pasadena, which was basically meghan markle centro. old boyfriend lived there, drama teachers come and friends and other people she knows. you mentioned the activism. there is evidence that she was a feminist as a child because she complained about a sexist tv ad, didn't she? tell us about that. at a pretty early age, she organised a demonstration. when she was ten. she

used to write different companies complaining about packaging, that sweet and so want to make cheese to bring all of these goodies to school, distribute them. and the most famous one was when procter & gamble had what she considered to be a sexist advert saying that women all over america are using this liquid to wash the pots and pans, she wrote to hillary clinton, various lawyers, and to the company themselves and they changed the advertising from being women to people all over america. i know is a great triumph personally, and also, put her on the road to a kind of activist career. and here is a clip, because it did make the news back then stop load i don't think it's right for people to grow up thinking these things that just right for people to grow up thinking these things thatjust mum does everything. if you'd see something you don't like on television or any other place, write letters and send them to the right people you can really make a difference for not

just yourself but lots of other people. quite friendly, think her royal crest is going to be make the change, because that's her motto throughout her life. as she grew up, become an adult, she's carried on with that campaign. for someone who isa with that campaign. for someone who is a feminist, someone determined to be an equal, to be her own person, why is she wearing into the royal family? it's a remarkable paradox, isn't it? he's only of interest to people watching because she's about to marry a male member of the royal family. and i think that obviously, she is clearly prepared to make the copper mines because very quickly come and is one of the interesting news about her, she's a very thoughtful, very considerate person but within a matter of 24 hours, she's agreed to go around the world ona she's agreed to go around the world on a safari with them, alone. and i think their romance just hit off straightaway. there was a real

genuine soul connection. andrew and their —— andrew morton there. just to remind you of our top story, president trump says a decision on it serie a will be made fairly soon. thanks for watching. —— a decision made on syria. hello. it has been a struggle to lift the gloom over the last few days. many of us stuck with grey skies, some mist and merck and drizzle. that's how it looked on her weather watch. the scottish highlands off plenty of sunshine, more and more of us getting to see blue skies and sunshine as we get deeper into this ten day forecast. some higher temperatures as well. friday starts off with low—pressure. just about in charge, bringing out bricks of showery rain —— outbreaks of. stubbornly cloudy. we will have

to wait into the afternoon to see any sunshine breaking through. the thickest of the club across eastern scotla nd thickest of the club across eastern scotland in eastern england. into the weekend, this temperatures slowly but surely will begin to rise. some sunny spells, some bright breezy conditions too. on saturday, not too many showers in the forecast and the one thing you'll notice is more in the way of sunshine. yes, there will still be fairly large areas of cloud floating around for many, a much broader date we've been used to it recently. —— a much brighter day than we been used recently. low—pressure tries to squash its way in from the atlantic as with get on into sunday. i will strengthen the wind must actually quite a windy day across parts of northern ireland. gusts up to 50 kph

throughout the day. still a fairly warm feeling day were you get some spells on sunshine. there will be a scattering of hefty showers as well, particularly as we get into sunday afternoon. the first area of low pressure gives away to the northwest and here's another one barreling his way in from the atlantic as we go on through monday. not going to make much progress towards our shores. most of us on monday enjoying another dry day, variable cloud, long spells of sunshine. still the chance of catching one or two isolated showers but the temperature still slowly but surely climbing, and that's a process that will only continue as we get deeper into the week. our low—pressure eye to the west, try to squash its way in. still driving the southerly wind across the country. it might be the low— pressure across the country. it might be the low—pressure get close enough to bring a bit of rain into northern ireland and westerns, and the further east, where you get the best of the sunshine, this temperatures could well hit 20 degrees, all while since we've seen temperatures like that. to the middle part of the week, still drawing some very warm airupfrom the

week, still drawing some very warm air up from the south. how warm it is going to get? for the south and southeast of the country, some places could well hit 24 degrees but this spring warmth will be widespread. even parts of northern ireland and scotland not too far away from 20 degrees. what happens next? what happens towards the end of next week? we essentially get stranded by high—pressure to the east trying to keep things dry instead of and the i was trying to feed frontal systems and from the atlantic. in the be? as how long can that from and stop us. it does look like things will stay largely dry and warm right through to the end of next week with some spells of sunshine. isolated showers but there is the potential that things could eventually turn just that bit more u nsettled, eventually turn just that bit more unsettled, but it does look like we are going to lift the gloom and we're going to the temperatures as well. tonight at ten — the white house says no decision has yet been made on syria — as donald trump appears to delay a response.

we're looking very, very seriously, very closely, at that whole situation and we'll see what happens, folks, we'll see what happens. here, an emergency meeting of cabinet agrees the use of chemical weapons must be challenged. we'll be looking at the options for the international community and their potential effect in syria. also tonight. an inquiry into the sexual abuse of young boys in rochdale says the local council failed to keep children safe for 25 years. the children of commonwealth migrants who settled legally in the uk decades ago — and whose right to stay is under threat. sir cliff richard at the high court — he claims the bbc breached his privacy and data protection over a police raid on his home.