this is beyond 100 days, with me katty in washington. alternative realities, as america prepares for a major hurricane, the president insists the death toll input taricco last year was massively exaggerated. for people on the us is closed that argument is not much comfort, they still have to get through the next two days of a huge storm. the winds up, the waves are up and florence is now starting to batter the carolina coastline. yes, north carolina is already feeling the effects of hurricane florence. it's about 100 miles from here and now the threat includes tornadoes. an independent study says 3000 people died from hurricane maria last year. also on the programme. the prime suspects in the poisoning of a former spy in the uk, tell russia today they were just visiting salisbury as tourists.

to admire the historic cathedral spire. our friends had been suggesting for a long time we visit this wonderful town. salisbury, suggesting for a long time we visit this wonderfultown. salisbury, a wonderful time? there is the famous cathedral, in the whole world. has the rollback of tanking regulation in america exposed us all to more risk? 0fficial still warm this could be too hazardous. moe is too late. we will talk about the president's fruits.

0fficials still warn this storm could be very dangerous we'll talk about the president's tweets about hurricane maria in a moment but first we want to look at what's happening right now with this storm. the bbc‘s laura trevelyan is in wilmington for us. isa is a danger for people that they think it is a category two so we don't need to get out of the way? that is certainly the message that the governor of north carolina was having in mind when he said just because this is a category two hurricane doesn't mean you should not worry about it because the risk will come from the prolonged rainfall, and what could be catastrophic flooding that we are expecting. right now, as you were saying, what is happening is the tropical storm force winds from the hurricane are beginning to batter the outer banks of north carolina, just a little bit north of me. we are expecting the storm to get here and make landfall about 7am on friday, but from tonight we expect to have very strong winds, and

rainfall. we are in an evacuation zone and most people have gone i would say that some are trying to ride it out, but as the governor of north carolina said today, this is a storm that could kill, and we have just heard in the latest update from the hurricane advisory service that there is now also a threat of tornadoes, along with nothing else. storm surge, flooding, hurricane force winds, now of the isolated outbreak of tornadoes. so, laura, this storm is very big and it could just sit there over the carolina coastline over the next couple of days. when do we think people might be able to return to that area? here in wilmington, not before sunday, it wouldn't seem sensible to come back before sunday, all the people who are evacuating are telling me that, but then of course the storm will leave north carolina and most likely head toward south carolina and maybe even the impact will be felt in georgia. so although it is weakened, the storm, it has actually got wider

in size, and now currently the winds are wider than the carolina coastline, if you can imagine that. there is a tremendous impact that could be felt here. already some of the pictures we are seeing of the storm surge just from the tropical storm surge just from the tropical storm force winds that are there on the outer banks, already walls have been knocked down, so this could indeed be the monster that everyone has been warning about. thank you for joining has been warning about. thank you forjoining us. joining us now from baton rouge, louisiana, is lieutenant general russel honore, the commander ofjoint task force katrina. he's also the author of a new book, don't be stuck on stupid. in the 30 yea rs don't be stuck on stupid. in the 30 years since you were involved in hurricane katrina, what has changed? is it the forecasting, is it the preparedness, how have things improved in our management of these big storms? well, a lot has changed.

we've reorganised, gave them all money, gave them more people, so they could be better prepared to respond to the request of governors. most of the state headquarters got outfitted between katrina 9/11 with state—of—the—art systems, and we've reorganised the department of defence's response, which is the back—up twigg governors and the national guard, so they are prepared to go in and assist the governors with their national guard, and each state now has a designation of a dual hat commander, that can receive active—duty troops to work with the national guard to help save lives. so that was a significant shift from katrina, and femur double fema has

built some significant warehouses to address the condition, as well as posturing themselves with the defence coordinating officers that go in before the storm, and they come from the department of defence. they already there before the storm hit. we are seeing the pictures of you in louisiana during katrina, and your management of that. the white house says it is ready, it is prepared for hurricane florence. can it really be prepared for a storm of this magnitude? well, ifi may it really be prepared for a storm of this magnitude? well, if i may take a second to tell you that in a storm of category two or three, and definitely when you get to a three and a four, you can only be prepared in that you have gotten people evacuated. but the reason that these are disasters is that bad things happen. the power grid will go down, significant parts of the coast will

be flooded, most of the roads will be flooded, most of the roads will be closed or inundated with water, and the enormous amount of water thatis and the enormous amount of water that is predicted by the weather services that will fall there, measured in excess of one or two feet of water that could fall in that area, and when the water leaves the coast and goes into the mountains, it runs right back in toward the populations along the sea and all the river banks, so rovers will probably grow in size, for five times the size that it normally is, and many communities will be flooded. so, to use a term from yesterday, if this thing came in at a category four, it would be like a weapon of mass destruction. what it would do to the infrastructure, taking down roots of homes and taking down roots of homes and taking the power grid down. and as you know, if you lose power, that unto itself is a disaster. so that

is why they have spent so much time, the governors, talking to the people to evacuate, because when you lose power, and you're flooded, and this rain will go on for several days. i would be very surprised if anybody is able to return home prior to the middle of next week, if it is staying at a category two now, it is a higher category two, like a 111, a category three is like 114. and in a 111 mph storm, a category two, you have gusts of wind is up to 50 mph, that will take a roof off, and that is not accounted for in the predictions, so in a way the categories give us on the same page but that is very deceiving. sorry to interrupt, ijust but that is very deceiving. sorry to interrupt, i just wanted but that is very deceiving. sorry to interrupt, ijust wanted to ask but that is very deceiving. sorry to interrupt, i just wanted to ask you about katrina specifically. 1800 people died, and it was very damaging for president bush. the pictures that did for him were him flying over the top of louisiana,

the thing down at it from his plane. in mind of how politically damaging it was for george w bush, what do you make of the way the president has approached recent hurricanes, particularly puerto rico? well, i will break with my tradition when we have a hurricane watch to talk about a storm in the past, but i will answer your question, because we need to focus on the future storm. but that being said, that was called to president bush katrina moment, and in comparison to what lucy today, i think president trump unfortunately had his katrina moment, because we have used that as a time when leaders were not in synchronised with what was happening to the people, and president trump's katrina moment will be forever remembered with him throwing the paper towels and then going to puerto rico and telling the people that it cost them a lot of money,

and that he gives himself an a for how they responded. and that is not in good form, as you might say, and you never disparage the survivors of a natural disaster, or make it seem like it's their fault, which is bad protocol to do that. and i hope in the future with the storm that our president will learn from that. he has had his katrina moment, and let's tried to do florence better than we did hurricane maria.|j let's tried to do florence better than we did hurricane maria. i am sure everyone agrees with that sentiment. thank you forjoining us, general. so as america deals with this new hurricane, president trump has set off a firestorm of criticism with two tweets he sent out this morning, disputing the death toll from last yea r‘s hurricane maria in puerto rico. here they are. "3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit puerto rico.

when i left the island, after the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. as time went by it did not go up by much. then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000... and he continues, "...this was done by the democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when i was successfully raising billions of dollars to help rebuild puerto rico. if a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. bad politics. i love puerto rico!" former advisor to george w bush, ron christie, joins me now. ron, you were there of course during the management of katrina, and as general henri just said that was not a good time politically for president bush, but i don't remember president bush, but i don't remember president bush, but i don't remember president bush ever disputing the death toll from hurricane katrina. absolutely not. what is at issue is the government of puerto rico has put the official death toll at 64. after that came out they had a

commission with george washington university and said let's take a look for six months following the hurricane and family people died after that, it takes into account how money people committed suicide, a gentleman got run over by his own car, a numberof a gentleman got run over by his own car, a number of factors, so what the president is saying is this is politically motivated to make him look bad. what i can tell you from hurricane katrina, president bush recognised the loss of one life, one individual, was catastrophic, and as general country micro said, it comes across as being heavy hearted. general country micro said, it comes across as being heavy heartedlj don't across as being heavy hearted.” don't understand, he's only it, and he doesn't need to own it, the federal government was stretched to the limit, they had three that true disasters and 26 days, maria, harvey and irma. but what this president does as he gets in the way of the story all the time, you put himself in the centre of it and just seems to have no empathy for the people

who suffer. no question, he is the story. what we should be talking about is what laura trevelyan was mentioning, that people have evacuated. why? because they could lose their lives. this is a deadly storm. the president of the united states right now needs to have a term that says i am with you, we are with you, follow your local authorities but not inject himself and make himself the story. the fact that he has and that he is doing this, and that we are talking about it detracts really from the message of what a catastrophic storm this could be, as to why he can't take a step back and show empathy for his fellow american citizens that he was elected to lead entirely eludes me. thank you forjoining us. to reiterate what ron just said, it was the government of puerto rico that commission face, and they came up with this academic assessment of a number of deaths and it included

people who died after, just after 9-11 people who died after, just after 9—11 people who died as a consequence of working on the ruins of 9-11 consequence of working on the ruins of 9—11 were included in the final tally of those died, and that his helicopter this number 3000. the democrats have nothing to do with this study, it was not a democratic study, said the president inserting politics into this, it has to be said rain usually this morning, and as ron says, on an odd day, because we should be focusing on what is happening in hurricane florence. the spire of salisbury cathedral and england is undoubtedly beautiful and historic. it was built in the thirteenth century. lots of people like to visit it. but the idea that 2 russian agents simply happened to take a tourist trip to see the monument on the same weekend that a former russian spy was questioned is raising more than an eyebrow or two. the pair appeared on russian tv saying they are wrongly accused of the attack. they said the timing was a fantastical coincidence. the question is less does anyone believe them and more do they actually want anyone to believe them?

translation: our friends have been suggesting for some time that we visit this wonderful town. salisbury, a wonderful town? translation: yes. there is the famous salisbury cathedral, famous not only in europe but in the whole world. it's famous for its 123 metre spiral, its clock, one of the first ever created in the world that are still working. we'rejoined by newsnight‘s diplomatic editor mark urban. they are people who have a sports nutrition business and they travel to europe and giving fitness advice but they also into medieval church architecture. the alibi clearly is flimsy, maybe it is designed to be, maybe this is a nod and a wink to

those now? it is an interesting theory for stock quite early in this a former senior american intelligence officer said to me if they think they've got away with this, there may well be a leak in russian official media saying this is how we did it, because they will wa nt is how we did it, because they will want to boast, well, that is not how things turned out. obviously last week's levelling charges by the metropolitan police in london that the whole thing on a higher footing and demonstrated some proof. people have been asking for proof all these months. so this was a kind of twist on that, i think, what the former american intelligence officer was expecting. it was a way of kind of owning it but not owning it, denying it but at the same time showing people who are russian service colleagues tell us on russian social media most people are saying they look like spice to us. they look like spice to us. so i imagine if you are in the british government at the moment watching that tape, you have a kind of go for as you listen to what they are accounting, but i

guess the bigger question is if you are an enemy of the kremlin watching that interview on russia today. what is the message you take away from that? liem i think, it is an interesting question, katty, a loss of this comes back to commune, assuming, following the mainstream narrative that this was russia that attacked sergei skripal, what was the purpose? those who argue it was absolutely the gr you who did it believe the purpose is intimidation, showing people that even years after they think they may be saved, the long arm of russia can come and strike you. and that treachery will a lwa ys strike you. and that treachery will always me and be repaid. there is an internal political and text to that as well of course and you might argue that this whole thing, in terms of the international politics of it, it would have been wiser to keep these people hidden, and that this is largely important, in terms of how it will play out internally. hard to say. thank you for your thoughts, plenty more to come on that story no doubt.

all this week we've been looking at the fallout from the 2008 financial crash. to prevent a repeat of the crisis, congress passed a series of measures known as the dodd—frank, wall street reform act. it imposed much tighter restrictions on the banks and the financial markets. with a series of measures to protect consumers. but earlier this year some of that regulation was rolled back the trump administration. said let's start by looking what was in place and how it changed this year. previously, all banks worth more than 50 billion us dollars were required to undergo stress—tests to determine whether they could weather a similar financial storm... now, only banks worth 250 billion dollars are committed the test. which means small institutions like american express and barclays are exempt. in fact fewer than 15 us banks now have to take a stress test. dodd—frank also imposed strict guidelines on lenders — they had to ensure a borrower could actually pay back their loans. now, smaller banks can loan to people who have weaker credit ratings. one of the cornerstornes of the 2010 act was to stop big banks making risky investments with customers' money.

us regulators are now trying to water down those restrictions as well. republicans would say getting rid of some of that regulation was essential to breath new life into the economy. and who would dispute the economy is booming? but the congressional budget office this week reported that america spent nearly $900 billion more than it brought in during the first 11 months of the fiscal year — that's $220 billion more than the shortfall, this time last year. joining us now is a former economic advisor to president 0bama, who was there in 2008 as economy was falling apart. genes berling, thank you so much for joining us. first of all, take us back to wood 2008, you were in the middle of a tense political campaign as the story unfolded, you still had as the story unfolded, you still had a month or two to go before the election, what is your abiding memory of that week? well, you know,

i actually was with candidate obama at that point. we had done a meeting in florida, and it was, you know, it was a very tense time, and it was very tough to be in a campaign. and what i remember was that the secretary of treasury had called and asked him to hold his fire for a day or two, which was an extraordinary thing to ask a candidate to do, but i really respected the fact that then candidate obama realised the gravity of that situation, and was willing to give a chance for them to make their presentation, realising that as we knew, we were at the brink of something that was terrible and could get much worse. and when i came into government onjanuary 20, really in the transition before that, it was an enormously scary time. it is hard for people to remember. if you look at the fourth

quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2009, —— the first quarter of 2009, —— the first quarter of 2009, we were contracting at 6.8%. we were losing 800,000 jobs. now remember, in the united states if you are gaining 200,000 jobs and gdp is 2.5%, people think things are solid at least. here you are losing 800,000 jobs a month, and contracting at 78%. so it was a deeply crisis situation and you walked in everyday with just the pit in your stomach not knowing whether this could get worse, and even lead toa this could get worse, and even lead to a global depression. sol this could get worse, and even lead to a global depression. so i think for those of us who were there, it is always a little difficult, because you understand the anger people feel. it is totally fair and policy to second—guess, and yet when you were policy to second—guess, and yet when you were there with that degree of uncertainty, i think at that time had you told us that the us economy would collapse of recession that year, that in a few years the economy would be functioning,

creating lots of jobs, economy would be functioning, creating lots ofjobs, that we would be ona creating lots ofjobs, that we would be on a way to unemployment rates of 4x, be on a way to unemployment rates of 4%, that would have been very relieving to us at the time. and i think that is not something we will get a tonne of pats on the back four. but to actually lived through it and make those choices in a completely unknown, uncertain situation was very difficult. but one of the complaints here in britain as well as the united states post the crash was that small business and said we can't get liquidity, we can't get money from the banks, they don't want to take a risk on us. part of the problem people say with the republican side with the regulation as they put too much restriction in place. isn't donald trump right that you need to find a balance between that regulation, protecting against the risk, and giving the market enough freedom to operate?” risk, and giving the market enough freedom to operate? i don't think he is right in what they have done but i will say the following. i think that those of us who monitored what happened did find that there were

community banks who did a lot of lending to small business that were feeling that they had to find lawyers and spend money on account even though the rules did not apply to them, it was perhaps affecting them. what is unfortunate about what you just ran through is that there was probably a bipartisan coalition, a thing some people would have agreed that there were some areas affecting just community banks, where we could have taken back some regulation, giving them a little more uncertainty so it was not hurting the community banks, but what they do, and this happens all the time, you use the little guy at the time, you use the little guy at the community bank as a trojan horse. a community bank is usually considered a billion or under. this lifted the stress test for up to 250 billion, so they took a valid premise and used it as a trojan horse to pull back farm or in helping major financial institutions

avoid the stress test. genes berling, thank you forjoining us, a man who was in the room when all of that happened. as we told you earlier in the programme — the two men identified as suspects in the salisbury nerve agent attack have appeared on television, claiming they were merely tourists catching a glimpse of the city's architectural wonder — the salisbury cathedral. yes... it's an explanation that's being greeted with some scepticism. and twitter users haven't been short of comments. like this one... ‘a trio of russian tourists ask a ukraine tourguide where the best outdoor wifi hotspots are. or this post from the cathedral itself — boasting of the spire's impressive height... not to mention this — ‘we are not here to exterminate. we merely wish to visit the galactically renowned salisbury cathedral.‘ and why not? i like that the daleks

have the last word. what i particularly like is the came all the way from salisbury to russia but did not go the extra mile to stonehenge because it was muddy. no, but they did like the spire and they did like the clock, so i guess that something soars we should be happy about. this is beyond 100 days from the bbc. coming up for viewers on the bbc news channel and bbc world news — the man behind the report which led to the impeachment of bill clinton joins us to discuss the saga — some twenty years on. and is nasty politics here to stay? we'll be discussing what happens when public criticism turns personal — as one tory mp found out this week. good evening. all eyes on the

atlantic, with a very busy spell of weather in terms of hurricanes and tropical storms, and the main troublemaker over the next 24 hours is hurricane florence. although it has weakened, it is still a category two hurricane and will bring flash flooding with a storm surge, just in excess of 100 mph some way off the coast of the carolinas. we are keeping a very close eye on that. meanwhile closer to home, a bit of a mixed story first of which have had more clout and there is some showery rain across the northern half of the country. this is the satellite and the radar image, it shows clout and patchy showery rain across northern ireland, parts of scotland and northern england as well. as we look towards the evening hours, it remains mostly dry across the

southern half of the british isles. it would be quite as cold as it was last night, i have more of a breeze blowing, but some rules about getting down into single figures, particularly in the south. from the word go on friday morning across northern ireland, scotland and parts of northern england, and through the central swathe of the country we will continue to see clout and outbreaks of rain. to the south, parts of the midlands, east anglia and the south—east, you are likely to looking ahead towards the first part of the weekend, this area of high pressure building in from the south—west, keeping the weather mostly dry, the weather front approaching from the atlantic. much of saturday looks like a fine day. the cloud and the wind increasing from the west with some outbreaks of rain in northern ireland and the west of scotland, but ahead of that,

temperatures on the rise, 21 degrees or so temperatures on the rise, 21 degrees orso in the temperatures on the rise, 21 degrees or so in the south—east. for sunday, it looks like that showery rain works further southwards and is that across the uk. fairly breezy on sunday, more showery rain heading from the north—west but temperatures could reach 22 degrees. this is beyond 100 days. our top stories. bracing for impact — authorities warn florence could ‘kill a lot of people' as the hurricane is now approaching the carolina coastline. the prime suspects in the poisoning of a former spy in the uk, tell russia today they were just visiting salisbury as tourists. to admire the historic cathedral spire. coming up in the next half hour: what happens if the uk and the eu don't reach a deal before brexit? the british government has published today some guidance papers that can give us an idea. 20 years ago, ken starr presented his report, which later led to the impeachment of president bill clinton. we ask him — is history about to repeat itself? let us know your thoughts by using the hashtag #beyond100hundreddays.

right now, two parts of the world are dealing with the prospect of devastating storms which are headed their way. here in the us, the attention if focused on hurricane florence, which is starting be felt along the carolina coast. and in the phillipines, they are bracing for typhoon mangkhut, which is packing powerful and dangerous winds. a brief time ago, we were joined by darren bett, from the bbc weather team. darren, c is bearing down on the ca rolinas, darren, c is bearing down on the carolinas, what has been happening on the approach. two things. we first —— first, it is weakening and second,it first —— first, it is weakening and second, it is slowing down. we once had a clear distinct eye to the hurricane. it is now filled in with cloud and that is an indication the winds have dropped. so roundabout

category two and probably sustained winds near 100 mph. category two and probably sustained winds near100 mph. more significantly is the slowing down. and it is going to be the rainfall and the storm surge that impacts most of all the slowing down because both of them will last quite a lot longer. darren, we are a few hours away from the hurricane making la ndfall away from the hurricane making landfall in the carolinas, what happens when it does? well, it is only going to go briefly into land across north carolina. then it will slip down the coast into south carolina. and it is the fact it is slowing down that is the most dangerous part of this hurricane. we can go on about whether it is category two or category three, whichever it is, it is going to be very windy and there will be damage. but it is amount —— the amount of rain and the storm surge that is likely to have a big impact with something like 40 inches of rain along coastal areas in north

carolina. perhaps into south carolina. perhaps into south carolina as well. that is a metre of rain, and added to that to the north of the centre of the hurricane, that's going to be a huge storm surge with water piling in from the sea surge with water piling in from the sea that is going to inundate those coastal areas and adds to the flooding. it is going to be quite a while before anybody will be able to go back. people know i am equally concerned this week about what is going on in the pacific and this other tropical storm, i think it is a typhoon, actually, kalen 0ckerman, heading towards where, the north of the philippines? this is larger than florence and more powerful. category four equivalent to typhoon. it is heading the philippines. the first typhoon to hit the philippines this year, typhoon mangkhut. affecting northern parts of the philippines will stop not manila, that is not affected, it is too far south and

the other part of the country. this isa the other part of the country. this is a more sparsely populated part of the philippines, it is very mountainous and would take less than 12 hours to cross northern areas of the philippines. when it does so, it will weekend and am a lot of rain in the mountains so a lot of rain in the mountains so a lot of rain in the mountains so alongside quite likely and a storm surge again. the track takes it into the south china sea were eventually, it could end up across a more southern parts of china. it looks like it will steer to the south of hong kong and it will be weaker by this time, sunday local time. and then it could head across the border between northern parts of vietnam and china. thank you very much. but we should have asked darren is, what is the difference between a typhoon and a hurricane? maybe that viewers can a nswer hurricane? maybe that viewers can answer this. my director wants to know and i think the diagram is confusing, i think it is like pulling the plug hole and the bath

water goes the opposite way in australia. southern hemisphere goes different way. a typhoon is in the pacific and a hurricane is in the atlantic. although i had a hurricane recently. how can they be so ignorant? we will have him go over the basics again. something else now. we've covered a bunch of important anniversaries this week — 9/11, the 2008 crash and here's one more. 20 years ago, an american prosecutor sent a 453—page report to congress which became an instant must read and led to the impeachment of the then president bill clinton — only the second impeachment in us history. in graphic detail, ken starr described both president clinton's affair with monica lewinsky and how he lied about it. for republicans, the starr report was the evidence they needed to go after the democratic president. but democrats saw it as a partisan witch hunt. sound familiar? ken starr has written a book about his time

investigating mr clinton — it's called contempt. hejoins us now. it is great to see you. 20 years, why 20 years to get it out?” it is great to see you. 20 years, why 20 years to get it out? i was not writing it all that time, i must say. i was otherwise occupied and frankly, eager to write about a very unhappy experience for the entire nation certainly for all of us certainly for all of us certainly for all of us in it. but the time had come. hillary had lost the election. we were coming up on 20 yea rs. election. we were coming up on 20 years. my memory was in danger of fading andi years. my memory was in danger of fading and i wanted this to be a memoir, a very personal account of what happened to our nation 20 years ago. you say that you felt besieged while you with a special prosecutor which i'm sure bob mueller, the current special prosecutor, as well. did you feel that bill clinton was coming after you in the same way that donald trump is going after special prosecutor mueller? yes,

bill clinton was much more effective than the current president, i think. bill clinton was a person, is a person of great gifts and charisma, but he also knows how to get nasty work done. primarily through the work done. primarily through the work of others. but at critical times, he would make statements that we re times, he would make statements that were extremely injurious to the orderly conduct of the investigation. but happily, there was no twitter. donald trump is totally outspoken and i think if anything, it stirs up the bass and so forth. i don't think it is wise on the president's part, it is not appropriate and president's part. but what i have explained in this narrative with the echoes of the past coming back and being heard loud and clear the first tool of a criminal defence lawyer and his client is physician lee best

viciously attacked the prosecutor, try to take the prosecutor out. —— is viciously attacked the prosecutor. you have more insight into this than anybody else in the country, 20 years on having gone through something you call an unhappy experience for the whole nation with the midterms in 1998 bringing that out, americans not interested in a long drawn—out impeachment procedure. do you think the country is on the verge of going through a similar experience again? i think there is a danger of that. and one of the messages of my reflections in the book is, america, don't go there! i think there was a chance in 1998, early 1999, to have a resolution which everyone could have felt better about it. to censure the president for his conduct and i am not talking about the morality of the issue, that is utterly irrelevant, but rather, his conduct as a witness committing

perjury, obstructing justice, and you have the referral before you. it is part of history now. and i take some pride in the fact professionally, i take no personal pride, in the fact that all of those conclusions were never reported. they were essentially accepted. and it was part of the reasons 31 democrats in the house of representatives joined democrats in the house of representativesjoined in democrats in the house of representatives joined in saying this has to be said the united states senate. but happily, the american constitution requires a supermajority and two thirds majority in the senate and given what we know, there is no way that two thirds of the united states senate will vote to convict and remove donald trump from office. presumably, that must depend on what mr muellerfinds? if presumably, that must depend on what mr mueller finds? if bob presumably, that must depend on what mr muellerfinds? if bob mueller we re mr muellerfinds? if bob mueller were to come out, and who knows whether he has it, but with a very

strong conclusion that there was collusion with the russians, would you change mind, depending on what bob mueller has in his report, what he finds as a prosecutor? what i am doing is taking a snapshot of what we know now. you're absolutely we don't know what bob mueller knows and what bob mueller may find out but there are country indications of what we do know about president trump plasma personal involvement and that is the two indictments which are very powerful documents of the 11 russian, in one instance, the 11 russian individuals, the two organisations, millions of dollars being funnelled into the american election process to foment chaos or at least anger in the process. one paragraph in the indictment bob mueller, who i have great respect for, returned, shows that on the very same day in new york, russian

funds financed and anti—trump rally and a pro—trump rally. so this is really nasty stuff you are dealing with, the nastiness of the kremlin and putin, the folk. and so that is what i think bob mueller will be remembered for eventually. as much as the congress has done so far, he helped shedding light on this but there is nothing right now that points to donald trump. 0k, thank you very much forjoining us, ken starr. it is interesting to hear that. i was struck by what he said about the pressure he came under and it was just as intense for bill clinton as it is for bob mueller today from donald trump. i know ken starr because i watched the interviews today and he does think is sitting president can be indicted. rudy giuliani who is representing the president, he does not. which is why he is careful to say we don't know

what bob mueller has which nobody knows, it is one of the best kept secrets in this town. more now on the skripal case. the two men named as suspects in the salisbury nerve agent attack have denied all involvement. speaking on state—backed television, the pair said they'd taken a short break in the uk to visit the city's cathedral. the bbc‘s duncan kennedy has more. the two russians agreed they did travel to salisbury station on saturday march the 3rd, but they say bailey spent one hour 46 minutes in the city because it was snowing. the men say they then returned to london, but the police hearsay their first visit here to salisbury was in fa ct a first visit here to salisbury was in fact a reconnaissance mission. the next day, sunday the 4th of march, the two men returns to salisbury, arriving at 11:48am. no dispute again with the british version. but this is where timing

becomes crucial. from the station, they say they've visited the cathedral and the city centre, so what were they doing on the outskirts of salisbury at wilton road, close to the home of sergei skripal? they arrived at this petrol station on wilton road at 11:58 a:m., even though it is nowhere near the monuments they came to see. and crucially, say the police, it is only a short distance from this petrol station to the house of sergei skripal, just up there. in fa ct, sergei skripal, just up there. in fact, it tookjust sergei skripal, just up there. in fact, it took just two sergei skripal, just up there. in fact, it tookjust two minutes to walk from the petrol station here to sergei skripal‘s house. the russians say they were never here and they only came as tourists to see salisbury cathedral. and here, at the cathedral, there does not seem to be any cctv footage of them to back up their claims. and not only that, look again at the photographic evidence and the timings in august. remember that we saw they were at the petrol station at 11:58 a.m. ?

the next photograph in the city centre is at 13:05pm heading towards the train station to leave salisbury. a total ofjust one hour and seven minutes. yet in that one hour and seven minutes, apparently going by foot, the men got into the city centre and visited the cathedral and took a series of photographs. just over one hour inner—city they have flown all the way from moscow to see. i don't think any of their interviews, i watched it a couple of times, and! interviews, i watched it a couple of times, and i think if i was their defence lawyer, my advice would be, keep quiet and wait to the trial when you're all buy will be tested by our evidence. but with russian government denials of any involvement in the nerve agent attack, the chances of a trial in britain are minimal. as we said, the account is raising more than a couple of eyebrows. this is beyond 100 days. still to come — how are our holidays to italy going to change after britain leaves the eu?

we take a little trip to rome to find out. sadly, it will not be us! the de—facto leader of myanmar, aung san suu kyi, has defended the jailing of two reuters journalists who had been investigating atrocities in rakhine state. ms suu kyi insisted the men were jailed for breaking the law on state secrets. nick beake reports from yangon. the jailing of burmese rubber porters has been condemned across the world —— reporters. many believed they were just doing their job, investigating an alleged massacre by myanmar‘s military, but a court decided they had obtained secret documents which could have helped enemies of the state. and today's myanmar‘s leader back to the verdict, saying it was not an attack ona verdict, saying it was not an attack on a free press. they were notjailed because they we re they were notjailed because they were journalists, they were jailed because the court, centres has been

passed on them because the court has decided that they had broken the official secrets act. if we believe in the rule of law, they have every right to appeal the judgment. aung san suu kyi has been criticised for not speaking up for the journalists, it has also faced widespread international condemnation for not supporting the plight of the rohingya muslims, driven into neighbouring bangladesh last year. today, there was a grudging acceptance that her government could have done things differently but once again, she failed to condemn the burmese army, an army that un inspectors have accused of genocide. the situation could have been handled better, but we believe that for the sake of long—term stability and security, we have to be fair to all sides. rule of law must apply to everybody. around a million rohingya people remain in the refugee camps in bangladesh and that's little hope they will be able to return home soon. they will be able to return home

soon. back in myanmar, aung san suu kyi remains extremely popular among the mainly buddhist population. but her global standing seems to have hitan her global standing seems to have hit an all—time low. the uk government has published 22 new guidance papers outlining what might happen in the event of the eu and the uk not reaching an agreement on the final brexit deal. they paint a fairly pessimistic picture — with particular consequences for anyone who might want to travel to the eu. james reynolds has more. at the moment, getting into italy with a british passport is quite easy. all you have to do is make sure your passport has enough validity to cover your state and you are in. but if britain crashes out without a deal, you would have to

make sure your passport has at least six months validity. that is what it we would need in order to let you into the country. if you don't have it, they might save you have to go back. but for now, it is simple. into rome! hiring a car may be the easiest way to get into italy's capital, all you really need is your british driver's license which shows you are a member of the eu, that is accepted here, you get the car if you have money. but if britain leaves without a deal, there could be a big argument about the status of these british driving permits and you may try to present one on the day britain leaves only to find someone here in rome says no, we no longer accept these. you might be tempted to take a video to show off a bit, to make everyone at home extremelyjealous. and since 2017, british mobile phone users

have not had any roaming charges in the eu, making this a very cheap video to send. but if there is no deal, roaming costs or equivalent price rises could come in making this a much more expensive video to send. a potential consequence of an exit without a deal. our political correspondent, chris mason, is here to help us tip—toe our way through the latest brexit news. iam i am sorry, i am in the come of it! ijustam in i am sorry, i am in the come of it! ijust am in that camp. if i have a contract with vodafone or any other of the mobile phone operators, my contract is with them and they are saying you can have roaming free across europe. i go to america and use my driving licence in america. it is pretty petty for the european union to do this. yes, that is the argument is plenty of brexiteers

say. you get napac remain saying it is difficult getting a deal the eu because it is a rules —based organisation does she get remain people saying. but then in no deal, the rules —based organisation will stop abiding by the rule of law, the governing structure of the eu. so they say, look, the danger from their perspective is this is project fear again. talking down the advantages of brexit and talking up the negatives. for the government, the negatives. for the government, the british government is trying to manage this balancing act between being candid but not scaremongering. that is quite a fine line when frankly, they don't know what is going to happen. what quite a few people will say privately is if there is an ideal situation, there isa there is an ideal situation, there is a reasonable chance that will not happen at five to midnight at the end of next march, we will we are —— aware of it a few months before, and you can still have a series of macro deals and you would do macro deals

on things like the taking and landing off aeroplanes and driving licences, the day—to—day practicalities that people would really notice. so the hoped—for solution from the british government is if you have no deal and they still think that will not happen, you could still have a mini deal. let me be a little bit less cynical than my dear friend let me be a little bit less cynical than my dearfriend christian! one of the criticisms of the brexit referendum is the details were not got into and perhaps there were a lot of things that could have been worked out before people voted rather than being left afterwards. is the government not right to produce these papers on what might happen because they have to get into the detail of the possibility of a no deal now? the british government says they have to be pragmatic and thatis says they have to be pragmatic and that is one of the two potential outcomes, deal or no deal. 20 people on all sides of the debate were clamouring for months, two years in fa ct, clamouring for months, two years in fact, where are your published plans for no deal? there was the first slice of papers published a few

weeks ago and the second today and another slice in the next few weeks. some make the limit it is the british committee publishes these not just because of british committee publishes these notjust because of the potential of ano notjust because of the potential of a no deal outcome, but also because it tells the eu on the other side from the negotiating table that britain is serious about what would happen under no deal and is willing to entertain it and is prepared for it and ploughing money into it. and you are better off doing a deal with britain because that is in your interest as well as the uk's, so goes that side of the organ at. the government argues it is being pragmatic but when you look at the detail, there is a lot of code and maybe, a lot of projection because as we repeatedly say but it is worth repeating, it is an unprecedented situation. while we have got you here, can we talk about this video footage on social media? we can show you now. jacob rees—mogg, well, it

is not him being harassed in the street, it is his children. take a look. most people don't like your daddy, you know that? no, he probably has not told you about that. lots of people hate him. do you have a nani that looks after you? daddy doesn't pay her very much. daddy doesn't pay the minimum wage. that poor nani that looks after you and which are bottom, she doesn't get enough money every week but daddy doesn't care, he is to easy posing in his eton outfits. how much you pay her, how one fundamental question, how much do you pay your nanny. he is fair game, he puts himself in the public eye, his children do not. we are going into the conference season, a lot of people are saying, how has

politics slumps to this level?m lot of people are saying, how has politics slumps to this level? it is striking what you were seeing playing out involving the children ofjacob rees—mogg playing out involving the children of jacob rees—mogg was playing out involving the children ofjacob rees—mogg was some of the worst element you see on social media. it is hard to defend a social media. it is hard to defend a social media but involving a politician's children, there has been unanimous condemnation on all sides at westminster of that kind of behaviour. what was striking was mr rees—mogg stayed and he listened and did not disappear. the biggest critics of mr rees—mogg and that because he is outspoken, they will a lwa ys because he is outspoken, they will always acknowledge that he is incredibly polite, incredibly conscious of dealing with people fairly. now, he was quite magnanimous in his response publicly after what happened. but across the piece, at weston—super—mare people have condemned it and i do think it is an exception, but it is illustrative of the angry and noisy and vicious political climate we are

operating in —— across the piece, government has condemned it. there is never an government has condemned it. there is never an excuse government has condemned it. there is never an excuse for people's children to be brought into a situation like that, it is very damaging and they would be quite scared by what happened to them. i wish the police had intervened and moved the protest along and perhaps that would have been better. yes. olympic champion usain bolt has run through zero gravity as part of an advert he was filming in france. the stunt took place in an airbus a300 which is normally used for scientific purposes. look at that! that looks great fun! he was there to promote some champagne, a guest of richard branson and champagne, a guest of richard bra nson and people champagne, a guest of richard branson and people going into space, and they will be drinking that. bolt said the experience ‘mindblowing'. the experience, rather than the

champagne. hurricane and a typhoon the same thing, they just happen hurricane and a typhoon the same thing, theyjust happen in different areas of the world. so they spin the same way! you learn a thing. hurricane equals typhoon. lets learn more things next week! good evening, all ice on the atla ntic good evening, all ice on the atlantic with a busy spell of weather in terms of hurricanes and tropical storms and the main troublemaker over the next 24 hours is hurricane florence. it is still a category two hurricane and it will bring flash flooding with a storm surge, very heavy rainfall and winds in excess of 100 mph around the coast of the carolinas, so a very close side being kept on hurricane florence on the other side of the atlantic. closer to home, and mixed story. this was so, in devon earlier in the day. not the same everywhere, we will continue to see more cloud over the next few days across the

northern half of the country with showery rain. drier and bright and warm weather further south. this showery rain. drier and bright and warm weatherfurther south. this is the satellite and the radar showing cloud as patchy showery rain across northern ireland and parts of scotla nd northern ireland and parts of scotland and northern england. towards evening, overnight, mostly dry across the southern half of the british isles. it will not be quite as cold as it was last night because we have more of a breeze that should keep temperatures up, but some rural spots down into single figures, especially in the south. rain from the word go on friday morning across northern ireland, scotland and northern england. it is through the central suede of a country where we see cloud and outbreaks of rain. to the south, the midlands and east anglia and the south east, likely to be largely dry in the sunshine, up to 90 degrees. cool further north, 14 or 15 degrees with sunshine and scattered showers across parts of scotland. looking ahead to the first pa rt scotland. looking ahead to the first part of the weekend, an area of high

pressure is building in from the south—west keeping the weather mostly dry on saturday, but weather fronts approaching from the atlantic. saturday is a fine day with the best of the sunshine in southern and eastern parts of the country. the cloud and the wind increasing from the west with outbreaks of rain for northern ireland and western scotland by the end of the day but temperatures on the rise, 21 degrees and feeling pleasa nt towards the rise, 21 degrees and feeling pleasant towards the south east. sunday, showery rain working further south and east across the uk. still, the south and south east of england will be mostly dry but fairly breezy on sunday with showery rain from the north west and temperatures reaching 22 degrees. goodbye. this is bbc news. the headlines.

two russian men speak out on state tv and deny being involved in the salisbury chemical attack, they claim they were just tourists. our 0urfriends of been our friends of been suggesting that we would visit this wonderful town. salisbury? a wonderful town? yes. preparing for a no—deal brexit, the cabinet meets to discuss contingencies, in the event of no agreement between britain and the eu. a romanian tourist describes how he almostjumped in the thames after last year's westminster bridge attack, in his frantic search for his girlfriend also coming up, preparing for the worst on the east coast of america hurricane florence bears down on the us — bringing life—threatening waves and up to 40 inches of rainfall