of a conversation between donald trump and his former lawyer, michael cohen, in which they discuss a payment to former playboy model, karen mcdougal. the conversation is believed to have ta ken place just before the 2016 presidential election. 17 people, including nine members of one family, are now known to have died when their tourist boat capsized and sank during a sudden storm on a lake in the us state of missouri. another two members of the family were among the 1a people aboard the vessel who survived. the eu's chief brexit negotiator says the british govenrment‘s proposal have opened the way to a constructive discussion but it must be workable. michel barnier questioned whether the plans for a common rulebook for goods were practical. earlier, theresa may urged the eu to evolve its position on brexit. now on bbc news, our world — weapons of mass deception. since last year, the arab gulf has

been at war. it is a war of words and images. the weapons include hacking, adobe is, and accusations of fa ke hacking, adobe is, and accusations of fake news. —— lobbyist qatar is under attack by social media. its leader ridiculed, accused of terrorist attacks against america. president trump, after visiting saudi arabia, quickly joined president trump, after visiting saudi arabia, quicklyjoined in the attack. for its part, qatar denies any support for terrorism. you can spread false news very quickly but

the longer it goes on, where is the link between qatar and isis. telling the truth is for difficult than ever. translation: the arab audience is becoming more confused. they no longer know which tv news to believe. just after midnight, the attack begins. much of the population is asleep but the official qatar newsagency website is streaming around the clock, as usual. then something strange happens, at the bottom of the screen, the speech is quoted a p pa re ntly screen, the speech is quoted apparently by the india of qatar ——

lobbyist emir. he appears to be supporting iran, saying... the emir supposedly that flatly contradicted the us, it considers iran to be a sponsor the us, it considers iran to be a sponsor of terrorism. that was not all. according to the ticker, emir the also said... it was an extraordinary statement. qatari support for hamas would be a challenge to the us which lists it asa challenge to the us which lists it as a terrorist organisation. within minutes, pro— saudi media and the uae picked up on the controversial

reports and went on to cover it extensively. qatar was swift to deny the statements. six weeks later, the washington posts newspaper claimed the uae was responsible for hacking the newsagency website. the uae foreign minister rejected the accusation. we categorically said we had nothing to do with the whole episode and i think, you know, five — six month down the road the qatari have not shown is anything to prove it. president donald trump weighed in to an already tense situation. in a

series of tweets, he attacked qatar. referring to his recent trip to saudi arabia he said that, at least all the pomp and ceremony, the king had promised to tackle the funding of extremists. —— among. the finger was pointing squarely at qatar. trump's support for the saudi only made the crisis worse. qatar's neighbours then move to isolate it. air, land and sea routes were either closed or disrupted. economic impact ona closed or disrupted. economic impact on a small gulf state sandwiched between hostile neighbours was initially devastating. diplomatic and business ties were cut and qataris were told to leave saudi arabia, the uae and bahrain. while

president trump was tweeting, there was another computer hacker, this time the target was the uae. a group called global leaks time the target was the uae. a group called global lea ks released time the target was the uae. a group called global leaks released e—mails from the uae ambassador to washington. soon after, in august, 2017, an on line in this the kurt tippett magazine published a long article based on the e—mails. the hacking war has continued into 2018. e—mails and embarrassing to both qatar and the uae have been released in recent months. so how did relations in the gulf dropped to such a low point? the gulf crisis did not come out of the blue. qatar and its neighbours have been at odds for yea rs over and its neighbours have been at odds for years over a series of issues, amongst them, qatar's working

relationship with iran and its support for some groups active in the arab uprising, like the controversial muslim brotherhood in egypt. the qatari station, al jazeera, was a prominent broadcaster of the arab spring. its managing director leaves the coverage was the cause of the current coverage. al jazeera was on the street, listening to the people, reporting on these events as they were taking place and i think there were some regimes that found that to be threatening and disruptive and i think the forces of change, the popular demands were a threat to some regimes and i think it is maybe now payback time. now those tensions were being played out ina those tensions were being played out in a battle of words and pictures on the region's main satellite tv stations. the saudi funded station

claimed... the state owned tv channel hit back. as their governments traded accusations, where could arab viewers find the truth? there are two big satellite players, first al jazeera. it created a revolution in arab media when it launched in 1996. then the reason its rival, a rival since 2003. both stations have some of the biggest tv audiences are ci’oss of the biggest tv audiences are cross the region. aljazeera is owned by the qatari government, the other is saudi owned. a saudi the

condition to restoring relations was that the qatari would close down al jazeera, which they believe to be biased but just how jazeera, which they believe to be biased butjust how fair was the news coverage by both sides? and was a legitimate coverage or propaganda? we asked an expert in arab media to examine footage broadcast by both sides on the same day. translation: watching these clips, theissue translation: watching these clips, the issue of fake news raises its head and one of them, you see a crisis. in the video you see there are people queueing up to buy supplies, the other shows a

different situation. saying everything is normal, no problem. even the officials said the recent no problem. that supermarkets are functioning properly. so who do we believe? al arabya declined to speak to us. in a statement they said... since the establishment that has been a polarisation of audiences. al jazeera journalist said they have

never seen jazeera journalist said they have never seen any government interference at the channel. never seen any government interference at the channellj never seen any government interference at the channel. i can categorically say i have never received an editorial decree or guideline from the qatari government at any point, in writing, verbally, in any shape orform. we are at any point, in writing, verbally, in any shape or form. we are based here however we enjoyed an unprecedented amount of freedom when it comes to our reporting in the arab world. washington, dc, where the gulf rival or also fighting for supremacy. instead of tv, here they are using another weapon. lobbying and their target this time is of the us administration and congress. in march this year, the crown prince met donald trump at the white house. the president announced that the us

would be selling saudi arabia $12.5 billion of us military hardware. would be selling saudi arabia $12.5 billion of us military hardwarem is peanuts for you. a prominent saudi journalist fled his country in the thousand 17, following his criticisms of the country's rulers. according to him, the saudis are desperate to keep president trump on side. the saudi american public relations

committee is an organisation that pushesit committee is an organisation that pushes it saudi interests in the us. its activities include a website which publishes reports on alleged support for terrorist groups by qatar. we realise we needed to have a role on educating the american people about what is going on in the middle east so, when it comes to the qatar insider, yes it is a project to make the americans aware of the fa cts to make the americans aware of the facts a re to make the americans aware of the facts are nothing but the facts about the bad behaviour is of the qatari regime. —— behaviours. about the bad behaviour is of the qatari regime. -- behaviours. we visit a law firm, one of its government is the qatari government. a senior lob is says strict laws

my a senior lob is says strict laws my clients... there are lobbyists on every side and it is highly professional. beyond washington's registered lobbyists lies another world of influenced pedlars, many of them including some reputable think tanks, then of it from foreign money, some of it from governments. such sums are supposed to be made public but, in practice, they are often not disclose, to preserve reputations. think tanks take domestic corporate money and take foreign money and spend it on behalf of those individuals with minimal or no disclosure. probably every think tank in washington, dc has taken foreign money or want foreign money but has not had the good fortune to haveit but has not had the good fortune to have it yet. millions and millions of dollars. and they do not disclose

that. one of washington's biggest thing tanks, the hudson institute says it does not lobby or take foreign money from non— democratic foreign money from non— democratic foreign governments, and government is not allied to the us or any individuals acting on behalf of such governments but some think it had a particular agenda in one conference title, countering violent extremist — conference he attended. the qataris should fully implement the eu on countering terrorist financing... so do speakers, who go out there and praise the united arab emirates, praise and saudi arabia and point the finger at qatar. bbbc contacted the hudson institute, which says it does not comment on the quality and character of its own public events, adding that: memory sticks containing a film were

left on the seats of conference delegates. the film expresses many anti— qataris statements. at the beginning, qatar has been an outlier. qatar also has a long history of supporting people who want to kill americans. anywhere where sunni radical isla miz is operational and has a... the film was made by a company called policy impact communications. there a washington pr firm that specialises in government affairs. the chairman is william nixon, who is listed on the film's credits as executive producer. 0fficial is listed on the film's credits as executive producer. official records show that in late 2017, a uae company paid him to lobby the us congress on america's relations with

qatar. ina qatar. in a written statement to the bbc, mr nixon said: the hudson institute told us a member of the film's production team asked a hudson staff member if they could distribute the film, thinking nothing of it, he agreed. in retrospect, the institute said they prefer it hadn't happened. lobbying and controlling the output of television stations are just two fronts of the battle for influence. but a new and important struggle is also taking place online. in recent yea rs, also taking place online. in recent years, arab audiences have flooded onto social media to get their news.

every month, over 100 million users access facebook. in saudi arabia, three quarters of the population are using the messaging service, snapchat. but can they trust the information they are getting there? at the university of exeter, professor mark 0wen jones at the university of exeter, professor mark 0wenjones monitors social media across the gulf. twitter and facebook were seen as the zeitgeist of the arab uprisings and it was increasingly important to authoritarian regimes in the region to have a handle on how people use these platforms. these regimes now push their propaganda on twitter using electronic robots, or botts. the bots look like accounts belonging to real people but they're fake. they share or retweet messages, hundreds or sometimes thousands of times, to make them seem more popular than they really are. as an experiment, we asked professorjones to create a

bot which would look like a real person and approach other twitter users. ok, so i would like you to meet larla. the idea of this bot was to create a good bot, a bot that cause people out for using sectarian hate speech. what larla does is everytime someone on twitter tweets certain offensive terms, certain sectarian hate speech, larla will send a reply to them on twitter and say, hey, do you think this word you usedis say, hey, do you think this word you used is sectarian hate speech? our experiment is innocent enough but used maliciously, larla could be spreading propaganda and false information around twitter. the gulf crisis has revealed another way in which twitter can the minister elated. this time it involves hash tags. these are key words in a tweet

that allow people to search for a message on twitter. the more times these hash tags tweeted, the more popular that message appears to be. both sides in the gulf crisis have benefited from hash tags which look as though they've spread widely, but does that mean these messages are truly popular? 0r does that mean these messages are truly popular? or is itjust that they have been re—tweeted by bogus bots? ben nimmo is a seniorfellow at the atlantic council, an american think tank that focuses on international affairs. he's also an expert on bots. we asked him to scrutinise a list of pro and an qatar hash tags to decide which were genuinely popular and which were being pushed by bots. the first hash tag i looked that is one called kathrada is not alone, which is of

risley as very pro qatari hash tag. when i look for bot involvement, what we found is the first spike we saw was all retweets of an account. the spike in popularity was caused bya the spike in popularity was caused by a council with suspiciously similar names, retweeting the message the second it was posted. —— accou nts message the second it was posted. —— accounts with. when a number of botne accounts work together like this, it's called a botnet. this is a very simple botnet, none of these have a human being behind it, these have a human being behind it, these have all been preprogrammed to supply content. this is a botnet designed to drive a topic on that hash tag, so you're getting 100 tweets in the space of a couple of seconds. that's a high volume and what it's doing is make a hash tag look more visible and more popular. the progress ari box on the left ear are being artificially multiplied by the botnet. but on the right there

are anti— the botnet. but on the right there are anti- qatari bots at work. they've been pushing tweets and hash tags insulting kathrada and it's a mere. “— tags insulting kathrada and it's a mere. -- qatar and it's a mere. tags insulting kathrada and it's a mere. -- qatarand it's a mere. 0n the fifth ofjuly 2017, one particular account began sending anti— qatari messages and hash tags. they accused qatar of killing people in the libyan civil war. they blamed it for spreading extremism, for funding terrorism. these tweets, like those of the pro qatari bot, we re like those of the pro qatari bot, were shared thousands of times. every single one of those top five tweets was posted by the same account. counting the number of retweets it gained, adding them up, 20,000 retweets of those five posts.

that represents a quarter of all the traffic on that hash tag. nimmo's conclusion is that bots were used to make these tweets appear more popular. we don't know who's behind the bots, but the tweets they boosted came from one single account, owned by this man. sees a media adviser to the saudi royal court. with more than1 million followers online, he's also one of the country's biggest opinion formers. the bbc tried repeatedly to contact him to contact on this but without success. the people of the middle east are drowning in a sea of fa ke middle east are drowning in a sea of fake news. their media has gambled with any reputation it may ever have had for truth and fairness. not even the end of the gulf crisis will solve that. hello.

some areas were lucky enough to have some useful rain on friday. 0thers, though, just had the cloud, and hardly anything fell from it. and it is looking mainly dry for the weekend, as this nose of high pressure builds in behind that rain—bearing weather system clearing, away south—eastwards. for early risers for saturday morning, a lot of cloud around, rather misty and murky in places, and for england and wales at any stage in the day, anywhere, there's a chance of catching a hit—and—miss shower. though most will avoid them and stay dry with warm sunny spells developing. warm anywhere where you get to see sunshine. not a lot of cloud around for northern scotland and north—east scotland, and thickening further later in the day. this is a picture at 4pm in the afternoon, south to north across the uk, and at this stage parts of southern england and south wales most favoured for an isolated shower, though most stay dry. and again, warm, sunny spells

in england and wales, southern and eastern scotland. more cloud for northern ireland, western scotland, especially into the north—west, where the breeze is picking up, and a bit of patchy, light rain is starting to move in. but at the golf at carnoustie, as the open continues, a lot of cloud around particularly early in the day. i think some sunny spells will develop. it looks like it'll be a sunnier and warmer day on sunday, but at that stage it looks like the breeze will be perhaps more significant. now, as we go on through saturday evening and overnight, what showers have popped up in england and wales will die away. a few patches of mist and fog around, though most will be with clear spells. more cloud starting to filter into western scotland, and again there'll be a bit of patchy rain the further north you are, and a warmer night to come for scotland and northern ireland compared with friday night. and some spots into the high teens overnight, particularly in south—east england. into sunday then, and a weather system moving in will give some patchy rain towards parts

of northern and western scotland, perhaps later in the day into northern ireland, as the cloud feeds in from the north—west. breezier across northern scotland, compared with elsewhere. but, for much of south—east scotland and across england and wales, there will be more warm, sunny spells to come, and it's becoming very warm to hot once again, as those temperatures get close to 30 celsius across eastern and south—east england. now, early into next week, this weather system will bring some patchy rain through scotland and northern ireland. ahead of that, though, we draw up some even hotter air to england and wales, so the heatwave is absolutely back on. anywhere getting to see some sunshine next week will be very warm to hot, but again, it's got our weather system early on in the week affecting parts of scotland and northern england. highest temperatures in east and south—east england, in excess of 30 once again, and dry. this is bbc news. i'm nkem ifejika. our top stories: questions surface after reports that donald trump's former lawyer

secretly recorded him discussing payments to silence former playboy model karen mcdougal, just months before the us election. police confirm nine members of the same family were among those killed when a tourist duck boat sank during a storm in missouri. with just months left to finalize a brexit deal, the eu's chief negotiator says there is progress, but there's still work to be done. and europe's life—hunting mars rover needs a new name. could this be rover mcroverface?