welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: islamic state releases a new video. if authentic it'll be the first time its leader, abu bakr al—baghdadi, has been seen in years. emperor akihito is to formally give up his throne. the first japanese emperor to step down in more than 200 years. the deputy attorney general who appointed robert mueller to investigate links between russia and donald trump's presidential campaign — resigns. and, underwater, and maybe undercover? is this beluga whale found off the coast of norway a russian spy?

the leader of the extremist group that calls itself islamic state has reappeared in a propaganda video, posted online by is. if verified, it will be the first sighting of abu bakr al—baghdadi since he appeared in the iraqi city of mosul in 2014 to announce the so—called caliphate. recent reports suggested he'd been badly wounded or killed. ramzan karmali reports. he's not been seen in public for five years but this video of the leader of the islamic state group showed abu bakr al—baghdadi in defiant mood. in the propaganda video posted on the group's al furqan media network, he vowed to seek

revenge for is‘s loss of territory. when al—baghdadi last appeared on film, is held a huge area of 88,000 square kilometres — roughly a third of iraq and syria. but by 2016, they were in retreat. two years ago, the city where the caliphate‘s creation had been declared, mosul had been lost and by the end of march the group lost its last town — baghouz in iraq. the motives behind the release of this video seem clear. it was a way of showing that the leader of is is still at large, despite the resounding military defeat group has suffered in the middle east. and the fact there is a $25 million bounty on his head. al—baghdadi also claimed that the easter sunday sri lanka attacks were carried out as revenge for the fall of baghouz. during the 18 minute video, al—baghdadi acknowledged the huge loss of land but warned there would be more to come from is and his group are ready to fight what he calls a battle of attrition. ramzan karmali, bbc news.

earlier i spoke to michael weiss in los angeles, journalist at the daily beast and co—author of isis: inside the army of terror. i asked him what he thought of the video. well, apart from the obvious that it is proof of life, that baghdadi is unfortunately still among us, i think the optics or the staging of this video are quite interesting. the last time we saw him was injuly 2014 at the al—zangi mosque in mosul where he inaugurated the so—called caliphate, dressed all in black, giving a sermon, preaching from the same mosque that salah ad—din had once preached from before going off to fight in the crusades. it was his grand unveiling as the caliph of isis. here we see a figure reduced to being the commander of an insurgency, posed in very much the same fashion as we have previously seen the founder of al qaeda in iraq, isis‘ predecessor organisation.

posed also similar to the way a 0sama bin laden used to be. next to an assault rifle, in military fatigues or wearing some sort of military get up. and looking a bit worse for wear, despite the highlights in his beard, i guess they still have henna post mosul and raqqa. it's also sending a message to the isis loyalists and the isis fellow travellers. he is very much still in charge. the guardian newspaper reported two months ago there was an aborted coup attempt against baghdadi in eastern syria i think in february this year, and the coup plotters had charged him with being overweening in his handling of isis governance. in other words, even some members of isis saw him as too repressive and authoritarian for their tastes. here's baghdadi essentially declaring to the world he's still very much the boss

of this organisation. and, as you see, taking credit for terrorist attacks including sri lanka, which isis has already put out in their propaganda and videos, that these were soldiers of the organisation. it is interesting on a number of levels. i don't know that it says much about his whereabouts or the state of his health in the past four years. your reporter mentioned there had been all sorts of allegations that he had been killed but there is still an allegation he was wounded quite badly in an air strike. it was a us warplane and it didn't intend to target him. but accidentally blew him up. he survived but was very badly injured in that airstrike again, according to the guardian newspaper, he lost the loss of his arm for quite a while. that was four years ago, you can recuperate from life—threatening injuries in that space of time. again, it's showing you a somewhat bowed figure.

he wasn't dancing the jig in that video, he wasn't moving a lot. he was sat and holding fort to his minions. again, it goes back to the origins of the organisation as a terrorist insurgency. the number one takeaway i had from it was this is no longer a state possessing enterprise and in a way, we should be even more worried now than we were in the past because as their dystopian project in the desert has come to dust, what does this mean? it means they are now going to put all their emphasis and all their resources into waging foreign terrorist attacks. notjust in asia—pacific, notjust in europe but they will consider any attacks in syria or iraq to be part of this new venture. in a way, it might make it much more lethal and lasting terror threat to the west and to the world than it was when they were lording over a territory the size of britain. and having to do everything that comes with the project of

administration and governance. for the first time in more than 200 years, a japanese emperor is about to resign. on tuesday afternoon emperor akihito will enter a ceremonial room in the imperial palace and formally give up his throne. under japan's constitution emperor akihito is not allowed to retire, so the government had to pass a special one—off law to allow him to do so. as part of the celebrations for the imperial succession, japan's golden week holidays, usually a week—long, have been extended to ten days. mariko 0i been gauging the mood in tokyo. here on the streets of tokyo, there a sense of celebration, anticipation, and even a tinge of sadness, as the country enters a new imperial era. emperor akihito is a well respected and popular figure, so many are sad to see him step down, but most understand and sympathise with the 85—year—old's desire to abdicate. translation: he's our country's symbol, and i've always had the impression that he's kind

and gentle, so i feel sad. translation: i support the current emperor's decision to abdicate, given his age. translation: on wednesday, there'll be a new emperor. how do you feel? translation: i look forward to having the new emperor. when his son, crown prince naruhito, takes to the chrysanthemum throne, japan quite literally enters a new era. that is because the country uses an emperor's reign to mark time. so, when naruhito becomes the new emperor, the era of heisei ends, and japan enters the era of reiwa. translated, it means "beautiful harmony." a lot of thought went into choosing that name, and it's supposed to represent the mood of the country. and since it was announced, a month ago, the name has been everywhere. even some cafes are getting in on the act.

translation: when the new era's name was announced, all of japan was in the mood to celebrate, and many creators expressed that through their art. as a latte artist, i wanted to celebrate very well, by making this. before we go let's leave you with these pictures from tokyo — crowds are gathering outside the imperial palace ahead of the ceremony as emperor akihito abdicates in favour of his elder son, crown prince naruhito. we will take you there again as soon as we can. it is some of the rules of live pictures, they appear and then they disappear. let's get some of the day's other news the head of boeing has been trying to defend the safety of the 737 max, saying he is sorry for the loss of life and saying the company has a duty to eliminate risk. dennis muilenburg was appearing in front of shareholders, just after it was revealed the us

aviation regulator has received four phone calls from current and former boeing employees about the safety of the aircraft. indonesia's president has announced plans to relocate the capital city. jakarta is on the crowded main island ofjava and is plagued by flooding and subsidence. the new site apparently has yet to be chosen. the deputy attorney general of the us is resigning from his post. rod rosenstein is the republican prosecutor who appointed robert mueller as special counsel in 2017 to invesigate links between the russian government and president trump's campaign. in his resignation letter he says he has served without fear or favour and that truth, as he puts it, is not determined by opinion polls. let's get more from jacqueline thomsen — a political reporter with the hill, in washington. good to talk to you. this is being presented as routine. his successor a p pa re ntly presented as routine. his successor apparently is a ready been announced. that routine? is routine.

deputy attorney general rod rosenstein noted in his letter of resignation that the immediate amount of time that someone in his role was about 16 months. he has been announcing for some time he would step down because he has been there for two years was as announcement wasn't much of a shock. some of the things he has done and said, it is rumour iraq you'll he has lasted this long, isn't it?l lot of people are saying that. he had a lot of responsibility and frankly he was far more high—profile than a lot of people that have in that position. normally you and i would not be talking about the deputy attorney general stepping down but because he was overseeing the mueller probe and they were so many attacks on him, not only by the president but by republicans in congress, he had a much more high profile national profile. he must have such a story to tell, if he ever tells it. he seems like more of

a secretive kind of guy. at the same time, over the past few weeks, he has been much more talkative and critical of the media. he has been hitting back when he feels someone has said something unfair about him. maybe once he has left thejustice department, he will start talking a little bit more. what are you expecting now from the justice department and his successor? jeffrey rosen is his successor. 0r at least he will be if the senate confirms him over the next couple of weeks. they will try to hold that vote this week but it doesn't seem like it will be entirely likely. he isa like it will be entirely likely. he is a justice department outsider. the president and his republican allies in congress have been really critical of the justice department and they seem to look at it as anti— make trump and having a bias against him. it was important to bring in an outsider who they feel will be more representative of him and their goals. by having this sort of person and the president can feel like he

can have what he wants to have at the top of the justice can have what he wants to have at the top of thejustice department especially since william barr is being criticised by some democrats is almost defending the president more than thejustice department itself. thank you for talking to us. stay with us on bbc news — still to come: meet the voluntourists — the holiday—makers trying to make good problems caused by other holiday—makers. nothing, it seems, was too big to withstand the force of the tornado. the extent of the devastation will lead to renewed calls for government help to build better housing. internationally, there have already been protests. sweden says it received no warning of the accident. indeed, the russians at first denied

anything had gone wrong. only when radioactivity levels began to increase outside russia were they forced to admit the accident. for the mujahideen, the mood here is of great celebration. this is the end of a 12—year war for them. they've taken the capital, which they've been fighting for for so long. it was 7 o'clock in the morning, the day when power began to pass from the minority to the majority, when africa, after 300 years, reclaimed its last white colony. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: islamic state releases a new video. if authentic, it'll be the first time its leader, abu bakr al—baghdadi, has been seen in years. emperor akihito is to formally give up his throne, the first japanese

emperor to step down in more than 200 years. 38 people are now known to have died since cyclone kenneth hit northern mozambique on thursday. weather experts are warning the latest tropical storm could dump twice as much rain as cyclone idai, which last month killed around 1,000 people in mozambique, malawi and zimbabwe. it's estimated the affected region will need over $2 billion to recover. the bbc‘s lebo diseko is in the capital, maputo, and has more now on aid efforts to help the tens of thousands of people affected by cyclone kenneth. it does seem that weather conditions have eased off slightly in the north of the country this morning and that allowed aid agencies a window of opportunity to start distributing aid. the world food programme started handing out some supplies and they also sent a plane out to the island of ibo which had been completely cut off yesterday. however, the situation is in flux, it's fast—changing, they wanted to send in a second plane and that

wasn't able to be sent. that was filled with rice, food, that sort of thing, for people. the message from authorities in pemba yesterday was that this is worse we had expected and we need help. there were concerns raised about things like cholera. rain is expected for a number of days here. yesterday, pemba had two metres of rain. the issue is going to be how quickly they can get those supplies in. planes were cancelled yesterday, roads very, very difficult to reach. that's going to be the critical thing. how quickly are aid agencies going to be able to get in the supplies they needed to reach the affected people. lebo diseko reporting from maputo. united states has a new warning regarding huawei, claiming itand

unacceptable risk. the decision by the british prime ministers to involve the firm was leaked last week. our security correspondent reports. it is the promise of a new, high—tech future. 5g data networks will connect almost every device and aspect of our lives, from our cars to our homes. but should this future be made in china, and by this company, huawei? washington has been arguing that the risk of china spying on or switching off 5g through the company is too great, and today, a top us diplomat told me there would be consequences to using huawei. if countries put unsecured, untrusted vendors into their 5g networks, in any place, we're letting countries know that we're going to have to consider the risk that that produces to our information—sharing arrangements with them. it was here last week that the uk's national security council met

to decide what to do about 5g. details of those discussions promptly leaked, leading to an ongoing inquiry. but it reportedly decided that the risks of using huawei could be managed. that is a view washington won't be happy about. the chancellor has been in china in the last few days to encourage trade, and deciding whether to give huawei a role involves balancing the economic benefits with the national security risks, as well as the potential of falling out with washington or beijing. i think the british government is extremely worried. because on the one hand, they are looking forward to forging ever—closer economic ties with china in a post—brexit scenario. whereas on the other hand, under america's pressure, the uk have to work out what are the security risks involved by using a 5g system from huawei? uk security officials believe they can keep huawei's technology out of the most sensitive, core parts of the 5g network, managing the risk.

but that was a view rejected today by washington. we don't believe that any part of a 5g network should have untrustworthy vendors. what people referred to as the non—core, or the edge, over time will be a critical part of the network. the us says using huawei would be like handing beijing a loaded gun, and the bbc has been told that the major telecom companies who plan to use huawei equipment have been asked to attend a meeting at the us embassy in london tomorrow, as washington's pressure continues. gordon corera, bbc news. the 0scar—nominated director john singleton has died aged 51. his family asked doctors to turn off the life support machine he had been dependent on since suffering a stroke earlier this month. his debut film boyz n the hood led to him being the youngest person to be nominated for an academy award. we can spek to wilson morales who's

a film critic and editor of blackfilm.com and was a personal friend of the latejohn singleton. i'm so sorry for your loss. tell him how you will remember him?|j i'm so sorry for your loss. tell him how you will remember him? i will a lwa ys how you will remember him? i will always remember him as a raw, honest filmmaker. he started off with boyz n the hood, then he did poetic justice with tupac and janet jackson. he also did two fast —— two fast two furious, and snowfall. in the conversations i have had with him in the past, always appreciated how he was always honest and raw. sometimes you meet people in the business and they can be reserved, especially when you know you are the

press, they're on their best behaviour. butjohn shot at the hip. he didn't care because he thought he was talking to someone who could understand what he was trying to say. there's so much love out there for his movies on social media, particularly higher learning. higher learning was an interesting film, it showed racism from different angles. ice cube, you never know what is going to be considered a classic. looking back, people appreciate it more, especially since he died at a young age. and there is a story too, that he was offered something like $100,000 from the studio to walk from boyz n the hood because they wondered what they thought would be a more experienced director, but he said no, no, this was the movie he

was born to make and it did so well? any filmmaker who is not known, when they have a project that they wrote, they have a project that they wrote, the studio can believe in a project but not in a filmmaker. it's always their intent to say hey, we can do this, but hopefully we can do it with a bigger name and sell it to a mass audience. but they took a chance on john singleton mass audience. but they took a chance onjohn singleton who had a story about compton, la and he shot the world, especially when you see the world, especially when you see the accolades it got and the nominations he received, being the youngest ever to receive a nomination. the first luck director to get a nomination, you know, you look at the 92 years that we have had 0scars, we've only had six black directors nominated in 91 years and he was the first. and people were telling stories about him at the 0scars, saying he was very supportive. you could go back and

look at footage and you would see john singleton standing up. because you know it is rare to see an african american win in certain categories, he would say i'm here for you, it's not my project, but i'm here to support you. thank you so much for talking to us at this time. thanks a lot. the faroe islands are little more than a pinprick in the north atlantic, but they are also one of europe's hidden gems. thousands of people make the trip each year and although the visitors bring money, they can also cause environmental damage. so now officials have come up with a possible solution called voluntourism. the bbc‘s tim allman explains. hello. it's nice to meet you too. thank you. the warmest of welcomes at vega airport. arriving from all over the world, each wanting to do their bit. all of these volunteers,

sorry, voluntourists, their bit. all of these volunteers, sorry, volu ntourists, have their bit. all of these volunteers, sorry, voluntourists, have paved their own way, hiking out —— marking a hiking trail so people don't cause any damage. if it requires a thief to catch a thief, perhaps it requires a tourist to clean up a tourist‘s mess. translation: it feels good, it feels like you are helping the country. you're notjust like you are helping the country. you're not just looking at the nice things, you're actually helping out stop far north fly 18 small islands called the farrow islands. this is a rugged, often awe—inspiring landscape, it's no surprise that people want to come and see it for themselves. —— fa roe people want to come and see it for themselves. —— faroe islands. last year, more than 100,000 made the trip are twice the local population. 20 of potential problems, but with enough volu ntourists there 20 of potential problems, but with enough voluntourists there are plenty of potential solutions. translation: i was really surprised,

i must say. but somehow it reflects a trend today that people increasingly want to leave a good mark. each voluntourists stays usually for two days, bed and board is provided, then they had home. satisfied that in some small way they have made a difference. tim allman, bbc news. the strange discovery of a whale wearing a harness off norway's far north east coast has rasied suspicions of russia's military using the mammals as part of a special ops force. the beluga whale was found wearing a strap that could hold a camera near the small fishing village of inga. the fishing truces that the whales sought their attention and seem to be used to humans —— fishing crew.

there's plenty more on our website, and you can reach me on the team on twitter. thank you for watching. —— 01’ twitter. thank you for watching. —— or the team. hello there. over the next few days the warmest weather is likely to be across more eastern parts of the uk, where we see the best of the sunshine. there was more cloud around yesterday, though, across the south—east of england and east anglia. it was fairly thin, that has certainly broken up and we've got some clearer skies right now. but further west, though, we're going to find this weather front sneaking in, it's going to bring some patchy rain and drizzle but it's moving very slowly eastwards into that area of high pressure. so for many parts it's still dry by the morning. temperatures in the clearer skies dipping away to 3—5 degrees. let's head into the morning, then. we pick up the story across scotland. some sunshine for northern and perhaps eastern scotland. a bit of patchy rain coming into the far west of scotland. still, this rain continuing on and off in northern ireland as it

has done through the night. for england and wales, though, we are yet to see any rain crossing the irish sea, so it should be a dry start. some sunshine, some mist and fog patches across eastern england, those shouldn't last too long and we should see decent spells of sunshine. more sunshine towards the south—east than we had on monday. you can see how slowly this rain pushes over the irish sea into some western coasts, further into scotland, perhaps, but ahead of it, with some sunshine, 18 degrees likely for the moray firth and in the south—east, perhaps into east anglia, the east midlands, 18 or 19 degrees here. as we move into the evening and overnight, again this patchy rain is pushing its way further into wales, to the south—west of england, across north—west england and further into scotland as well. so more cloud pushing into more of the country means it shouldn't be quite as chilly, temperatures typically 7—9 degrees. there'll still be some sunshine around on wednesday, particularly in the morning across lincolnshire, east anglia and south—east of england — but also for northern ireland for a while. this zone of cloud elsewhere,

though, producing showers really at this stage and they could be rather hit—and—miss. but with more cloud in general, even for eastern areas, it won't be quite as warm as tuesday. as we look at thursday, we've still got this fairly cloudy picture. there'll be some showers developing, those could be heavy, potentially thundery as well. more significant, though, perhaps that weather front there. it's producing a bit of patchy rain that's moving southwards. but it's what's happening after that to the north that is more crucial because if you follow the wind arrows, we're getting our air coming all the way from the arctic. that of course is colder air, it'll bring a few wintry showers in scotland by friday. some stronger winds across northern and eastern scotland, and down those north sea coasts. otherwise, the winds will not be too strong. but they will turn colder everywhere, i think, by the end of the week before temperatures recoverjust a little bit as we head into the weekend.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the united states has reiterated its determination to defeat the extremist group the so—called islamic state after is released a video that appears to show its leader abu bakr al—baghdadi for the first time in five years. it's not clear if it's authentic. recent reports had suggested he'd been badly wounded or killed. for the first time in more than 200 years, a japanese emperor is about to resign. within hours, emperor akihito will end his 30—year reign, abdicating in favour of his elder son. he's been seriously ill. the ceremony will be televised from the imperial palace in tokyo. rod rosenstein, deputy attorney general of the us, has submitted his resignation. he will leave the department ofjustice in two weeks. he was the republican prosecutor who appointed robert mueller as special counsel to investigate russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections.