urgently need help after friday's earthquake and tsunami. rescue teams are calling for heavy lifting equipment, and more qualified staff, to search for survivors. the death toll is more than 840, but could end up in the thousands. president trump has said he wants a comprehensive fbi investigation into his supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh, following multiple allegations of sexual assault. meanwhile, a former classmate of the judge says he's lied under oath about heavy drinking in his past. protesters have clashed with police in barcelona on the first anniversary of a controversial referendum on independence from spain. riot police broke up a protest of more than 180,000 people now on bbc news it's hardtalk with zeinab badawi. she talks to malaysia's prime minister mahathir mohamad. some people might find opinions

expressed toward the end of the interview offensive. welcome to hardtalk. with me, zeinab badawi. my my guest today is the oldest head of government in the world. malaysia's rime minister, mahathir mohamad, came back to office in may after us shock election victory peak after the win over his former winning coalition. the country has been mired in allegations of corruption swirling around the previous government, which have dented confidence at home and abroad. first time round, mahathir was prime minister for more than 20 consecutive years until 2003. can he leave his own chequered past behind and lead malaysia to a brighter future? prime minister mahathir mohamad,

welcome to hardtalk. thank you. extraordinary return to power in may for you, after 15 years of retirement, what made you want to return to government? people came to me frequently, groups of people, asking me to please do something about the government which they found not the kind of usual government. it is very oppressive, very corrupt. so you have got these big corruption case against the former prime minister, najib razak, in connection with 1mdb, the states

of and in connection with 1mdb, the states ofand one, in connection with 1mdb, the states of and one, 600 and $80 million missing. he says he was given that by the saudi royal family and that he has done nothing wrong. when there was a case against him when he was prime minister he was cleared of all charges. you seem to think he is already guilty. he said that he got it free from saudi, but nobody gives a amount of money to anybody in the history of the world. how do you know? i have never read of anybody getting that kind of money. have you ask the saudis whether they did or not? —— asked. ask the saudis whether they did or not? -- asked. the saudis gave him money when he moved, there are is a trail of documents let kind. the money was in the bank and then the bank sends the money over, how did they get the money in the first place was mac —— first place? they get the money in the first place was mac -- first place? rock is connected to hear that have been

raided and millions of dollars in cash were found, plus designer handbags belonging to his wife. you said it is obvious that he has stolen money. shouldn't you really leave all of this to the courts? in the first place, the americans, the department ofjustice made that statement at the money was stolen from 1mdb. they wouldn't admit that statement unless they had proof, real proof that it was stolen money. but it doesn't necessarily mean that the former prime minister, najib razak, stole kit. shouldn't you are to have the due process of law? enough for us to charge him and it is up to the court to decide whether oui’ is up to the court to decide whether our evidence is great or at his deny all is great. —— denial. our evidence is great or at his deny all is great. -- denial. he has denied that. 30—110 designer handbags, or your finance minister says realistically, the hopes of

recovering 30% of the money misappropriated, that is all you can hope for. you will not go far by trying to revive your economy with the proceeds of 400 designer handbags. we are not talking about the handbags are one. we are talking about lots of money, billions of dollars which has been stolen and is 110w dollars which has been stolen and is now nowhere to be found. when you we re now nowhere to be found. when you were prime minister you said, couple of years ago, there was corruption when i was prime minister, but not on the scale. so do you accept any of the blame yourself at the state of the blame yourself at the state of affairs at malaysia finds self in now, mired in corruption allegations? if i have to accept the blame, then all governments must accept the blame. with this corruption, it is found everywhere. there is no country that can boast that it has no corruption at. it —— at all. did you perhaps set in

motion something we thought to date? you were ahead of this ruling coalition, which has been in power for more than 60 years. najib razak was somebody you thought would be a good prime minister, so you are part of the system. those. the system might be the same, but it is different. that system has had former ministers before him, there is the accusation —— no accusation of corruption on that scale against all of those four. —— four prime minister ‘s. it was a system of abuse. he made the use of his authority to steal money. allegedly, asi authority to steal money. allegedly, as i keep on saying. najib razak says he is not guilty, entirely innocent. in the time that you were prime minister, a book about you by the wall streetjournal‘s barry rain, that about 100 billion ringgit, went missing under your watch. that is a lot of money. at

that time they didn't prove i took any money. we did lose money because some of our people got involved in trading in currency and they lost money. it wasn't me, i couldn't take the blame for somebody doing, being corrupt. so you haven't benefited yourself personally, living a lavish lifestyle or any of that? they have seen my house, they have seen my lifestyle and they know i don't live lavishly like the last minister. —— last prime minister. najib razak was someone you last prime minister. najib razak was someone you approved of, and his predecessors, like nyt britain, who was your predecessor. in 2008, you pushed him out as deputy because it is said, he was pointed to —— pointing to stay contracts that were

given to some of your cronies. that is what he said. don't want this man hanging about. we saw the case against him, he says. charges of sodomy. you really think he was guilty of sodomy? —— trumped up charges. the court said he was guilty and thinking to jail. it wasn't me. what he says about this accusation is his opinion. —— and sent him to jail. his explanation. whether it is trumped up or not is up whether it is trumped up or not is up to the court to decide, up to the prosecutors, and the defence... he suffered terribly. he spent six yea rs, suffered terribly. he spent six years, the best part of a decade, six years at first in solitary confinement, denied access to his children. he is a father of six. even when he was released in 2004, when you are no longer prime minister, you continued your tirade against him. you said, "imagine having a gay prime minister, nobody

would be safe". that is what you said. that is what i said at the time, but it was necessarily to work with him to oust najib razak as prime minister. so those of us decide to forget about the past is this is far more important. we focus on that issue and nothing else. so after he has been released after a royal pardon, he told the bbc in june that mahathir mohamad told him that he had made a mistake and that he wants the chance to make amends. that is what you told him. that is his opinion. that is what he said you told him. i didn't tell him that. you didn't? i didn't tell him. 0ther that. you didn't? i didn't tell him. other people put words in my mouth because they want me to apologise, but i have never made any formal apologies to him. you don't regret what happened to him?|j apologies to him. you don't regret what happened to him? i regret that he has to go to jail... what happened to him? i regret that he has to go to jail. .. not seeing his children? i can't take the blame

for his jailing because it was decided by the court. it was not done by me. but do you feel sorry for him that he went through what he did? i feel sorry for people who have done something and been sentenced to jail by the court. have done something and been sentenced to jail by the courtm is interesting, because this is his exact quote, he says, he has rushed —— reassured supporters of your transformations of a lot of people we re transformations of a lot of people were upset about what happened to him when you are promised, he says," mahathir mohamad has proven his tenacity, accepted past limitation, apologise and sacrificed on an edgy to raise the dignity of the people of country. you brought ibrahim's white as your deputy, it is it all not true that you didn't apologise or expressed regret? we discussed, after that we concentrated on arresting najib razak. he has also

raised the fact that you have brought back some of the old guard into your government and he has said, look, i am concerned about this and that you said to him, i need these people because i need them to carry out the reforms that we wa nt them to carry out the reforms that we want to. if he joins the government and becomes the prime minister, that would be it also. he was deputy prime minister with meat for a very long time. if i cannot bring back people who have certainty, then i will have to rely on people with no experience. these people whojoin me, they on people with no experience. these people who join me, they have the same opinion about najib razak‘s government. they want to join together, form a coalition and contest against najib razak. 0k. together, form a coalition and contest against najib razak. ok. you are bringing back these old faces, the home minister, your son is the chief minister of the state and the

head of the council of eminent persons, your adviser ‘s. these are some of the old faces from your old government. when you were in power until 2003, the criticisms are that launched vigorous attacks on the judiciary. you use the internal security acts to repress dissent and go against people who opposed you. should we be nervous? no. why shouldn't i say something against people who are against me, the opposition? as for my son, he was not allowed to go into politics until i resigned, until i was no longer the prime minister. then only he became the chief minister, not during my time. i don't allow any of my children to go into politics while i was still the prime minister. you make it seem as though, you were described as one of

asia's strongmen and your rule was sometimes repressive. and example, in the south china morning post, lynette on, paper —— a professor of political scientist. she said i drop in malaysia when mahathir mohamad was prime minister, when it posted strong economic growth, yet much of the prosperity came at the expense of curbed political expression and restricted civil liberties study over a long period, the law and judiciary, is of delivering justice, we used as the government as a weapon against political opponents and dissidents copy that is her opinion. has she done any study about how i have been accused of being a dictator? no. no dictators have ever resigned, i have resigned and now i have come back. have ever resigned, i have resigned and nowl have come back. after have ever resigned, i have resigned and now i have come back. after 20 yea rs and now i have come back. after 20 years in power. we need time to develop the country. she is talking

about using some of the laws of the state. i ask you now, will you revoke the defences act that has been used to repress freedom is? the same laws were in existence for i became prime minister. the second prime minister used the same laws to detain people, nothing was said about that. why is it that when i do it becomes so? i am asking you now because you sit in front of me on hardtalk, if i had a chance to talk to them i would ask them to two.|j will give you the background. will you revoke this act and pursued his offences act? it is still there. i see a security act which allows the minister of the government to detain people without trial was there when

i was there, it has now been repealed. we now have another law which is even worse to replace that law that was revoked. that was done by my predecessor. the concern is, as amnesty international said, that pakatan as amnesty international said, that pa katan hara pan as amnesty international said, that pakatan harapan came to office on a wave of goodwill, the hope that true progress on human rights was coming to the country. the danger now is that human rights will slowly recede asa that human rights will slowly recede as a priority the longer that you are in power. is it receding as a priority? you seem to back it away. they don't do any investigation. we have abolished it at a previous government has enacted a law which allows him to detain people even without declaring a state of emergency. these are the true facts.

before journalists... emergency. these are the true facts. before journalists. .. this is not journalists. amnesty international has recently issued a review of your government's first 100 days in office and in may, it reported, for example, that you are a defender of malaysia's retrograde affirmative—action which gives all sorts of benefits and advantages to the ethnic malay people in your country, it were about 32 million people, 60% are ethnic malay people. all sorts of advantages. housing, jobs, so on. why would you stop this affirmative—action? it why should i stop? -- why should i stop. we have two bring up the malaysians to be as wealthy or as well off as the others. that needs correction

because if you allow disparity to go by itself, it becomes bigger and bigger and then there will be tension in the country. there will be even fighting in the country. tension in the country. there will be even fighting in the countrym is creating tensions now with the other ethnicities in malaysia. look at the brain train of ethnic chinese and malay people. they have left about a third of malaysia's1 million strong deus bra, highly skilled migrants. they are voting with their feet. —— skilled migrants. they are voting with theirfeet. —— dyas bra. skilled migrants. they are voting with their feet. -- dyas bra. they are welcome to go. many of them are very loyal to malaysia. yesterday i had lunch with them and they are all waving malaysia and flags. even though they have been part of the diaspora. i expect your coalition has got, for example, the chinese democrat action party is part of

your coalition but you can categorically say that action in favour of the malays, as they needed, is not going to result in discrimination against malaysia's other communities. no, no discrimination. if you go to malaysia, the so—called victims of this policy are now the richest people in the world, in malaysia. you talk about the richest people in malaysia, talking about riches in malaysia, talking about riches in malaysia that the country is in a bad state. a very high level of debt. 44% of gdp. the huge funding gap and you can't do all the things you want to do. trying to route international investors and so on. 0ne eye—catching policy you have made is to cancel $23 billion of infrastructure product backed by china and singapore. this has caused some concern amongst international investors that you have done this. you have referred to what you call

as debt colonialism on the part of the chinese. you worried about the chinese being a colonial all it says ididn't chinese being a colonial all it says i didn't accuse the chinese. chinese being a colonial all it says i didn't accuse the chineselj i didn't accuse the chinese.” nearly said that are other forms of colonisation and one of those was neo— colonies and colonial. colonisation and one of those was neo- colonies and colonial. are you worried about the chinese when you say and other form worried about the chinese when you say and otherform of worried about the chinese when you say and other form of colonialism? they don't seem to be in any way angry with me. because of what i said regarding colonialism. do you see them as bringing about a new form of colonialism with their one belt 0ne road infrastructure products? no, that is ok. some

people sell big pieces of land to the chinese where they are going to build a city which is very luxurious. it is for their people to come and live there. 700,000 of them. that is not foreign direct investment. foreign direct investment. foreign direct investment is about bringing money, bringing technology, setting up pla nts bringing technology, setting up plants in malaysia and employing malaysians. that, we accept. so you don't want chinese people coming to settle in malaysia ? don't want chinese people coming to settle in malaysia? no country wants other people to come en masse to their country and settled there. you forget what is happening in europe now. they are telling all the syrians to go away because... donald trump has built a big wall against mexico. is it because you don't want ethnic chinese living in malaysia to upset the balance... even if it is sudanese, they are welcome. if you

come by the millions, sorry, no entry. you have also refer to the south china sea in your recent united nations speech and there is a bit of a dispute going on there between the neighbours are around the area. are you worried that china is flexing its muscles they're?” explained that china has every right to go wherever they want to go but please, don't prevent ships from passing through. that is all we want. can you see this escalating? funny, it will escalate if people begin to irritate and provoke china. would you be one of those who might provoke china? some would say... the united states? you can guess, i

don't have to mention the word. could there be a conflagration military between the us and china over the south china sea? there are battleships and warships in the south china sea. if people start stationing their warships of there, there will be tension and conflict and it may result in a war. 0k. there will be tension and conflict and it may result in a war. ok. in your un speech, you also talked about the worsening plight of the palestinians, as you described it. while many of you would agree on you with that particular statement, they wouldn't agree with your stance on atjews in the world. you have been described as a proud anti—semite. would you accept that? are our many races in this world. i say nasty things about them. they never accuse

me of being anti—bs and anti— that. the israelis are special. you can't even mention that the holocaust is and 6 million baht for million who we re and 6 million baht for million who were victims of the holocaust. —— but. that is anti—semitism. were victims of the holocaust. —— but. that is anti-semitism. let me tell you about what you said in a conference in 2010 according to reports in the british press. this is what you said about the jews. even after their massacre by the nazis, jews decay and a source of even greater problems to the world. in 1970 even greater problems to the world. in1970 in your even greater problems to the world. in 1970 in your book, the malay dilemma, you set thejews were not merely hooked nose but understand money. these things are not acceptable, are they, prime minister? lots of people say bad things about us that malay people are lazy. i didn't take it up about them —— against them. that is their opinion and i gave my opinion. to you stand by your opinions?m

opinion and i gave my opinion. to you stand by your opinions? if you are going to be truthful, the problem in the middle east began with the creation of the state of israel and that is the truth. why is it that you... why say hook nosed and good with money, that is not necessary , and good with money, that is not necessary, is it? iam and good with money, that is not necessary, is it? i am sure that many people will find that very offensive. a lot of people call the malay people that nosed. we do not object. fat—nosed. malay people that nosed. we do not object. fat-nosed. mahathir mohamad, with all respect, you have the energy to take malaysia forward and to ta ke energy to take malaysia forward and to take the country on a new path of prosperity. i will try. my to take the country on a new path of prosperity. iwill try. my last stint as prime minister did not result in people condemning me for not developing the country. they even called the country and asian tiger during my last rain. now i

have been asked to do something and i will try. when will you stop? two yea rs i will try. when will you stop? two years and handover to anwar ibrahim? if that is when people want me to stop but i made a promise and that is when i will. two years and then you will step down at 95. mahathir mohamad, thank you for coming on hardtalk, thank you. thank you. hello. after a rather chilly start to october, it will feel a bit warmer for many of us in the day ahead. there's an area of milder, warmer air that's been moving into the uk between these two weather fronts. but the weather fronts close by mean that there's a good deal of cloud

around to begin tuesday, and for some of us it'll be rather damp, particularly from northern ireland into parts of england and wales. this is how it looks for early risers. from north—east england into scotland, though, there'll be some sunshine around to start the day, but there'll be a few showers running through northern scotland on through the day. and even where you begin the cloud, northern ireland, across a large part of england and wales, for many of us it will turn brighter during the day. but we could still see patchy rain, southern parts of northern ireland, north wales, and for some into north—west england and the west midlands. here is the picture at 4:00pm in the afternoon, white arrows indicate average wind speeds here for the day. you can see the temperatures, a good few degrees higher than they were on monday for many. the stronger the wind, the further north we get, though. into some sunny spells north—east england and scotland, the black arrows indicate the wind gusts in excess of 40 miles an hour, and near 60 miles an hour in northern scotland and the northern isles, with those showers rattling on through. but for many of us, it'll be a dry afternoon, brightening up a little bit.

some clear skies developing on tuesday night, through particularly the eastern side of the uk. and this is where we'll see the lowest temperatures going into wednesday morning. further west, well, temperatures will be holding up, with an area of cloud producing a bit of patchy rain for northern ireland and into western scotland. let's take a look at wednesday's big picture. high pressure is close by, but running around the north of that, we've got low pressure north of the uk, and a trailing weather front giving some cloud and a bit of patchy rain, particularly into the western side of scotland. and some of that rain may start to turn heavier late in the day, into the north—west in particular. elsewhere, rather cloudy wednesday, some bright or sunny spells developing. probably the best of those will be in eastern england, and temperatures still into the high teens in the warm spots. now, thursday morning could well start with some fog affecting parts of southern england. it could be dense in places. a rather more active picture in northern ireland and scotland, as another weather front moves in, and some heavy rain beginning with the wind strengthening once again. just a quick tease as we look towards the weekend. could well have low pressure close by, a chance to see some heavy rain in some spots, and turning a bit cooler too. we'll keep you updated.

welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: the un says more than 190,000 people in indonesia who survived friday's earthquake and tsunami now need help urgently. as the rescue operation struggles, we report from palu, where food and fuel are in increasingly short supply. supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh is accused of lying under oath about heavy drinking. president trump now says he does want a comprehensive fbi investigation. unprecedented pollution on english beaches. the discovery of millions of plastic pellets highlights a global problem.