she is trapped in bangkok and that the thai authorities intend to repatriate her. rahaf al-qunan says she believes her family will kill her for renouncing islam. human rights watch has called on thailand to allow her to continue her journey to australia. as the partial shutdown of the us government enters its third week, president trump says he is now planning a steel barrier rather than a concrete border wall. democrats have refused to fund the project. and this story is trending on bbc.com: hollywood is getting ready for the first major award ceremony of the year, the golden globes. it recognises achievement in both television and film. crazy rich asians has been nominated for two awards. that's all. stay with bbc world news. now on bbc news, it is time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur.

over the years, i've come face—to—face with many remarkable individuals. but my guest today, dr william frankland, is unique, both in terms of his jeopardy and his extraordinary experiences. he is a world—renowned expert on allergies. he is also one of the last remaining british survivors of the japanese prisoner of war camps in world war ii. his is a death—defying, life—affirming story. at the age of 106, what keeps him going? dr bill frankland, welcome to hardtalk.

let me ask you first, what took you into the world of medicine? because you said something very interesting. you said that one reason you chose to bea you said that one reason you chose to be a doctor, even though your pa rents to be a doctor, even though your pa re nts ha d to be a doctor, even though your parents had no tradition in medicine, was because you've always taken a great interest in people. yes. is that still true today? that's very true. i was... when i would see ill patients, to me, that was a patient with an illness, which had to be helped in some way. but whether. .. like my had to be helped in some way. but whether... like my most grateful patient, i said whether... like my most grateful patient, isaid it whether... like my most grateful patient, i said it doesn't matter whether you're a head is a slate, i

treat you as a patient, and i hope you follow my advice. so you chose your career, he went to oxford, you trained as a doctor, and then, still in your20s, trained as a doctor, and then, still in your 20s, the second world war broke out, and on the eve of the war, before the war had actually been declared, i believe you made the decision to sign up. it seems you were eager to go to war. why are? no, i thought it you were eager to go to war. why are? no, ithought it was you were eager to go to war. why are? no, i thought it was my place, and infact are? no, i thought it was my place, and in fact i am very pro— british, and in fact i am very pro— british, and so on. so i thought i might be called up, and i was going to be called up, and i was going to be called up. i had been in emergency andi called up. i had been in emergency and i had done what was called cmp, civil military practitioner, i had donejobs at tidworth civil military practitioner, i had done jobs at tidworth for a month, this was to earn money, as well as everything else. but i thought there is going to be a war, so i made arrangements on one september 1939. i went into the army. that's... and

war was declared on three september, and it wasn't until november that i, and it wasn't until november that i, and infact and it wasn't until november that i, and in fact the surgeon was an australian, we came up to the british medical association in london and said, what can we do? we wa nt to london and said, what can we do? we want to get into the army in uniform. we don't want to be a civilian all the time. and he just said, say that your gp, fill out the form, and you'll get into the army quickly. and this is what we did. it's an extraordinary story, and of course, by 1941 you'd been shipped out in the medical corps to singapore, to work as a young doctor, helping the people of what was then, of course, a british colony. but a british colony which was threatened by the japanese, and toward the end of 1941, the japanese took singapore. it was an

extraordinarily difficult and bloody time. how lucky do you believe you we re time. how lucky do you believe you were to survive? well, i was very lucky to survive. of course, when we arrived, and our journey lucky to survive. of course, when we arrived, and ourjourney took actually two powers... two months to get to singapore from liverpool, three days after we'd been there, a man came from... a british officer came from headquarters and said, now you two officers must stop working, and there are two hospitals that you should go to —— start working full stops the officer put his hand in his pocket, took out a coin, spun it and said frankland, call it, and it was heads, so i went where i wanted to go. well, the other doctor went to... as an anaesthetist to a military hospital, and when the japanese came over, they murdered,

is the word is, the patients when they reach the hospitals, the patients in the operating theatre, and then all the other people. but the coin toss saved your life, because the other officer, who lost the coin toss and went to the alexandra hospital, he was killed. he was killed. he had an awful death, because putting a bayonet through the chest, they did it all through the chest, they did it all through his abdomen. even though he was a doctor in a doctor's uniform. it was absolutely no difference at all, and they murdered some other and nurses, and so on. and patients as well. and patients as well. i suppose that tells us about the brutality of the japanese invasion of singapore. and you then were exposed to the brutality of a japanese prisoner of war camps. you we re japanese prisoner of war camps. you were held in two, changi and then

the island of singapore that was known as hell's island. and that sounds like a truly unbearable existence. you were there for more than two years. how did you get through it? ijust don't know. they we re through it? ijust don't know. they were all these other people there, andi were all these other people there, and i was just one of them. were all these other people there, and i wasjust one of them. i compared it, when they came back from the railway, the death railway, where there was a 40% mortality. that is where the prisoners were forced by the japanese to build this railway through the jungle. yes, so... railway through the jungle. yes, so...i railway through the jungle. yes, so... iwas railway through the jungle. yes, so... i was actually detailed to go on that, but for some reason, seven days before, they went up the country to go on the railway, they removed my name and said, no, i was a more suitable doctor, to go to this island, hell‘ island.

a more suitable doctor, to go to this island, hell' island. hell island. i mean, to be frank, you we re island. i mean, to be frank, you were ina island. i mean, to be frank, you were in a sense lucky in that you we re were in a sense lucky in that you were a doctor. you had medical skills, and the japanese recognise that. and as i understand it, amid all the suffering in the camp, with the starvation rations, the malnutrition, the terrible fevers, dengue fever, beriberi, as well as malaria. you are virtually starved, but you are still doing the doctoring, both of inmates, the prisoners of war, but sometimes of the japanese as well. japanese every now and again would bring something... would we treat them? depending on what it was. they knew theirjapanese doctor was useless, and they... well, let's see the prisoner of war doctors. so they would come to me. but how did you feel about that? these were prison guards and prison camp officers who

we re guards and prison camp officers who were abusing, brutalising, you and your fellow inmates, and yet here they were sometimes asking for your help. yes. the answer was, what have they got, and could we take at least half of it, or more? so it might be a medicine that we wanted. so occasionally we were treated. so i guess your focus occasionally we were treated. so i guess your focus just had to be on survival, pure and simple. yes, at all times. did you... now that you look back on it, and of course it is many, look back on it, and of course it is any look back on it, and of course it is many, many years ago, do you believe you can close to death in that camp? not in... well, i will say there we re not in... well, i will say there were three times a list that i thought i was going to die. but there was only once in that camp. i think it's... it has been described... their policy was that if our men misbehaved, and they were

a lwa ys if our men misbehaved, and they were always stealing food, then they would have... big bash. but in the evening parade, we as officers were lined up, and we were also bashed, because we hadn't looked after the men well enough to tell them that they shouldn't steal food. you mean, when you say bashed, you mean physically beaten? physically. and how on the island, when i was bashed, i was knocked unconscious by this, andi bashed, i was knocked unconscious by this, and i can't remember anything about this, and how long i was on the ground, but i do remember, when i'd recovered, halfway back to the mess where we were going, i met the officer captain matthews, who was in charge, andi officer captain matthews, who was in charge, and i said that's the best bashing i ever had, because i never felt a thing, but i knew i had been

bashed, because i just felt a thing, but i knew i had been bashed, because ijust spat felt a thing, but i knew i had been bashed, because i just spat at imola, or whatever it was. and he said, you were very, very lucky to be alive. we thought we'd lost you, doctor —— a molar. and i said why? and he said when you got up, you staggered with your hands, and they we re staggered with your hands, and they were first like that, towards the japanese officer who had the shoe, and of course that would certainly be... and there was a japanese private just by be... and there was a japanese privatejust by him, be... and there was a japanese private just by him, and be... and there was a japanese privatejust by him, and he be... and there was a japanese private just by him, and he was just going to put his bayonet through my chest, and for some reason, and i don't know why, the officer stopped him doing it. and that's why they thought it was the end of me. it might have been, if i had bashed the officer, of course, it certainly would have been the end. doubtless. i was lucky that one of my... i think of a guardian angel that looks after me, and that was one of the occasions when that hen came up and he didn't put a bayonet through my chest. well, thanks to that guardian

angel, or something, you chest. well, thanks to that guardian angel, orsomething, you did survive. so many men did not, but you made it through that hellish experience. and ijust wonder now, and in all of the years since, did it damage you, that terrible experience? well, i would say a very definite no, but in fact, when i got back to england, finally, i decided that i would never talk about anything that had happened to me. i wa nt to anything that had happened to me. i want to start a new life, and not backwards. and this... so my wife and children knew nothing about my experience as a prisoner of war, at all. you mean nothing at all, you didn't tell them... i didn't all. you mean nothing at all, you didn't tell them. .. i didn't talk about it. it was something i wanted to forget and i wanted to look in the future, and not in the past. i think the main difference is, a lot of these people who were worried

very much by what had happened, they were. . . very much by what had happened, they were... and it still happens to this day, of course, they were very worried, and they got depressed. and i've never... luckily, got depressed. so there was something in me that decides not depression. and i think that's made a terrific difference. i mean, can you honestly say, after all of that experience, that you had no heat, you had no anger in your heart for the people who did all of this to you and your friends, and conrad ‘s? who did all of this to you and your friends, and conrad 's? well, i've actually used it. this word hate that you use, and i say i go right back to the time i was aged about nine, andi back to the time i was aged about nine, and i had a severe disagreement with my twin brother. i can remove what it was about. and my father found me. what can remove what it was about. and my fatherfound me. what was i doing, treading on his stroppy is, because

we each had a little bit of the garden that was ours. and he said, what are you doing? and i said i'm trying to destroy these strawberries, because i hate my brother. and my father said, you must never, ever use that word again. and so when people afterwards said you must hate the japanese, and uttered publicly, isaid, no, my father told me never to use that word, and the reason given, of course, we are told as christians that it was loved and not hate, and that's what i've always said. so it was... and if you hate someone, it does you harm, it doesn't do them any harm at all. let's move on from the war and those unimaginable experiences. you said you were not depressed, you did not

have psychiatric problems, he went back to medicine very quickly, you quickly rose up the ladder through your research and medical expertise. and you decided to specialise in allergies. why will you so attractive is to, fascinated by allergies? well, when we got back from the war, a st mary is a surgeon, from the war, a st mary is a surgeon, he was in europe and so on, he had promised that doctors who have been prisoners of war could go back to their teaching hospital, mine was in mary's in paddington. there were various days when i was free, doing nothing. isaw on there were various days when i was free, doing nothing. i saw on the door of what was called the inoculation department at that time a notice, they wanted a doctor two mornings in the allergy clinic, two mornings in the allergy clinic, two mornings a week in one afternoon.

and i was free so is it all right, andi and i was free so is it all right, and i went into that that makes a lizard. and after six weeks working in the allergies department at the to make chief, as it could be full—time? the reason i went in was by chance. i want to quickly talk to you about the thing, most people will be the greatest benefit they have got from your research, deep into allergies, you became increasingly convinced that it would be very useful, given the amount of asthma, comedy out of allergic reactions people were getting to the air they were breathing and the pollen in the air, you decided it was very important to measure, properly measure the amount of pollen in the air, which, ultimately, gave rise to the daily pollen count, which we now see in most countries of the world as an

official measure. how proud do you feel about the spread of the pollen count? rather sadly, i don't feel... people say you are responsible for the newspapers and radio and television, saying what the daily pollen county is, and you sorted it, andi pollen county is, and you sorted it, and i don't think this was necessary. having done pollen counts daily and because people are very vague about, if you ask their history, when your symptoms start, "in the spring". spring in america is different from spring in england. soi is different from spring in england. so i wanted to track time. and they measure it wrong quite often. we saw a lot of people getting tree pollen sensitive and so on. and other things. your work, collection of specific pollen counts and asthma

and various conditions, it has been very important. do you suffer from hay fever yourself? yes, i do. do you think that is a reason you were so you think that is a reason you were so interested in it? it is not a reason at all. although i had for 90 yea rs reason at all. although i had for 90 years and have grown out of it without treatment. no, here is a complaint that we could give a good result of the got the history right. one of the things i used to do on a saturday, find out when people came back and had a bad history, why do they have a bad history, it was fascinating to go back and find the reason. what is also fascinating is the degree to which the studies suggest that allergies of all types, but particularly airborne problems connected to both pollen, but to pollution, and then one can look at food allergies, it seems more people now suffering from various food allergies from notts to gluten to allergies from notts to gluten to

all sorts of things, it is tempting almost to believe that more and more nipple are becoming allergic to the zist nipple are becoming allergic to the 21st century environment around them. —— nuts. why do you think more and more people appear to be suffering from allergies? well, in all countries it looks as though this is happening for various reasons. one of the reasons is so—called hygiene hypothesis. if babies are born in very clean places and so on, well, we have to think of and so on, well, we have to think of a cow. and so on, well, we have to think of a cow. a cow must feed its calf to give it all the antibodies. if a babyis give it all the antibodies. if a baby is living in a very clean place it doesn't get, from an immunological point of view, it is not getting protection. it brings me toa not getting protection. it brings me to a very interesting element of your research over the years. you

we re your research over the years. you were a doctor who always seemed to believe in the notion of desensitisation, that is exposing people to a little bit, a little, little bit of what was causing them problems in the hope that it would allow the body to build up its own natural resistances. i believe i'm right in saying that one point in your career you expose yourself to tropical insects and the kinds of bytes they had in the hope that you could use yourself as a test case of how the body would react. yes. the reason i did this, i'm an allergic person, but it a mosquito bites me ora person, but it a mosquito bites me or a bug of any sort of bites me, i have found this interesting, to city nature and you find your buttocks are itching and so on, and so i wa nted are itching and so on, and so i wanted to know what is the natural history of these insect bites. at the time i had never been to south america. and i therefore got an

insect that is quite common in north or south america, some of the southern states of the usa, and i had never met before. i got it from the school of tropical medicine in london. and every monday morning, i kept it in a test tube, i let it have a feed from me, it is a very slow feeder. and so i could follow the whole process of this insect in me, what happens, and the first time it had its mill from me all these insects, just before they take their blood from you, they put in a tiny bit of their own saliva, this is what causes a struggle —— meal. anyway, the first bite that it had from me, no response at all. and thatis from me, no response at all. and that is what one would expect, because i had never met it at all. second bite, yes, a delayed response. and that got more and

more, larger and larger every week, until my arm was, on the fifth bite, swollen for three days from the bite. and by the eighth by the question was, i was hoping i might be desensitised and nothing would happen, but to be absolutely certain i went into the hospital to see what happens. it produced, ireland are taking the cotton ball out, it randomly test tube and began its mill, and five or six minutes, the nurse who was my blood pressure said the machine is broken —— and i remember. ifelt the machine is broken —— and i remember. i felt my pulse. the machine is broken —— and i remember. ifelt my pulse. i hadn't got a pulse. and then i realised my face welling up and my body was welling up and i couldn't speak. you we re welling up and i couldn't speak. you were in full—scale prophylactics shock. so basically you nearly killed yourself? yes. the nurse ran out. —— prophylaxis.

killed yourself? yes. the nurse ran out. -- prophylaxis. the nurse ran out. -- prophylaxis. the nurse ran out and said i will give you one cc. i will give you 0.3, that is what you want. just before she gave it to mei you want. just before she gave it to me i had what the textbooks call a feeling of impending doom. in other words, you think you are going to die. i thought i was going to die. she gave me this injection. and then about one minute and a half i decided i am not going to die. thank goodness. that story of how you as a research doctor almost killed yourself will stay with me for a long time. but before we finish i wa nt to long time. but before we finish i want to ask you this — you are extraordinary, because he use it with me, you are the oldest guest i have ever interviewed on hardtalk, at 106, have ever interviewed on hardtalk, at106, and have ever interviewed on hardtalk, at 106, and yet physically and mentally you are in it great shape.

people around the world will want to know how you have stayed so fit, mentally and physically, for so long. ijust say it is luck. i have been so needs so many times and because i've missed these occasions, i'm very, very lucky. the other thing is, itry i'm very, very lucky. the other thing is, i try and i'm very, very lucky. the other thing is, itry and keep i'm very, very lucky. the other thing is, i try and keep my brain going. in fact, thing is, i try and keep my brain going. infact, i thing is, i try and keep my brain going. in fact, i wrote four academic papers between 100 and 105. two of them entirely myself and others were multiple authors. but this, when i am 107 i have two more papers i'm going to write. i have nearly finished one of them. papers i'm going to write. i have nearly finished one of themlj papers i'm going to write. i have nearly finished one of them. i don't get the impression that you have lost your love of life. no. at

present i don't want to die. i want is two articles to come out. i would be proud of those. dr frankland, it has been a real privilege to talk to you. 84 being on hardtalk. well, thank you to —— thank you for being on hardtalk. hello there. it is fair to say that the weather has been very dull over the past few days. but all that is about to change. we have more energy coming in from the atlantic, a deep area of low pressure rushing to the north of scotland, that is beginning to pick up the winds for northern areas. still to the south, high pressure, breaks in the cloud means a chilly start. maybe some fleeting sunshine. rain is moving southwards across scotland, northern ireland ireland, into north—west

england and north wales. behind it sunshine for northern ireland in the afternoon, scotland, where from the north and north—west where it is wet again, and the winds continue to howl. widely 11—12 degrees. that is not the story. it will be a windy day. windier than we have seen for quite some time. gales across scotland, gusts of 70 mph or more in northern scotland, that could lead to travel disruption. the real strength of the wind comes around the back of active area of low pressure, it stays very windy during the evening, the first part of the night, and then the low rushes away toward southern scandinavia and takes away the worst of the winds with it as well. the wind direction changes for tuesday, we get more of a north—westerly wind. that means it will be colder. there is more sunshine on the way. most places on tuesday will be dry with sunny spells. we will see showers coming in to north—eastern scotland, running down these north sea coasts into east anglia, where the winds could be touching gale force for a while. lighter winds for the west.

temperatures back into single figures for most areas. it gets chilly overnight where we have the clearer skies in this central slice of the uk. a touch of frost early wednesday. more cloud keeps the temperatures up for is in parts of england. it will feel cold in the wind, one of two showers on wednesday. out to the west a gradual encroachment of air from the atlantic. that means cloudier skies. thickening cloud to bring rain and drizzle into northern ireland, later into western scotland. ahead of it temperatures 4—5 degrees. probably the coldest of the week. maybe a frosty start to the midlands, to the south—west of england, some sunshine for a while. you can see how the cloud is just spilling in on that north—westerly breeze. we're bringing in some milder air. temperatures of 9—10 degrees in scotland and northern ireland. we are back to high pressure again later on in the week and with that sort of position we're pulling in air from the atlantic. it means a lot of cloud but temperatures will be a little bit higher as well. it will be breezy as well.

to sum of the week, a windy start, cold air putting in midweek with more sunshine, then it clouds over later, breezy, but also milder. welcome to newsday on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. the headlines: the hollywood award season is underway, with the glitz and glamour of the golden globes in los angeles. all eyes are on a star is born and vice, which dominate the nominations. as the government shutdown in the us continues into its third week, —— a young saudi woman fleeing to australia is stranded at bangkok airport, where she says her passport has been seized. she tells the bbc she can't go back home. i'm kasia madera in london. also in the programme: as the government shutdown in the us continues into its third week, president trump says he has little expectation of a breakthrough in the latest talks. amid a continuing tit—for—tat on tariffs, china and the us prepare to hold trade talks in beijing this week.