welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is 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?

hello. 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 a 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. —— at large, despite the resounding military defeat the 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 abu musab al—zarqawi, the founder of al-qaeda in iraq, which is isis‘ predecessor organisation, posed also similar to the way a 0sama bin laden used to be from the caves of waziristan — 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. but 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. so 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.

michael weiss there. for the first time in more than 200 years, a japanese emperor is about to resign. on tuesday afternoon, emperor akihito will formally give up his throne. the build—up to that moment is well underway. a short while ago, the emperor visited sacred areas of the imperial palace as part of a series of rituals linked to his abdication. 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. 0ur correspondent laura bicker is in tokyo. this is really an extraordinary thing. extraordinary day but sorry about the weather here in tokyo. yes, this has taken 200 years since an emperor at last abdicated, it has taken a special act of government to ensure that he could do so. in just a few hours time, he will make his last speech to the nation as emperor is the ceremony is carried out. they will carry in two boxes into this

sacred room, a sacred sword and a sacred room, a sacred sword and a sacred deal and we have to take their word for it that that is what is in those boxes because these imperial sword and imperial jewel has been handed down apparently from the sun goddess herself so no—one has even seen them, even the emperor, so they will be handed to the emperor, he will say a few words and officially abdicate. he stays in place until midnight here injapan and then his son will become emperor naruhito so comes the whole ceremony, i think there are people evenin ceremony, i think there are people even in the rain hoping to get a last glimpse of the emperor because he has really one the hearts of the japanese people during his reign. he has really one the hearts of the japanese people during his reignm it possible to form a kind of general opinion of what they think of the crown prince was about to become emperor? yes, i think they are hopeful about the new era because it is gone from father to

son here and they feel that he will carry on his father's legacy. this was a different kind of emperor than we have seen injapan, and japanese people have appreciated emperor akihito's approach. remember during, and just after the 2011 earthquake and just after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami where 16,000 and just after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami where16,000 people were killed, he sat with them. and he was grieving with those who lost everything. it is something they have never seen an everything. it is something they have never seen an emperor everything. it is something they have never seen an emperor do before. he has addressed the people in times of disaster, he has felt like one of them, he married a commoner and here is his son, a bit more international, he studied at 0xford, has married a woman who is a harvard scholar and an oxford scholar, i think they are seen as a family of the people and there is hope that his son will carry on this legacy. japan is facing a number of challenges. they have a real demographic challenge, they have the challenge with the rise of china, the threat from north korea, a real kind of issue whether or not the us

isa kind of issue whether or not the us is a real ally that is someone they can rely on so when it comes to the emperor, even though they only hold a ceremonial role, there is a feeling that it is something they can turn to in a crisis and at this time, they are hoping that this emperor, the new emperor, will reach out internationally and give japan a status in the international community. just briefly laura, i know japanese employers don't look kindly on people taking much or indeed any holiday at all but even the golden week holiday has been extended? ten days holiday. ten days holiday. i remember when i worked in japan, the idea of a ten day holiday was an incredible luxury the people here are enjoying their time. i hear there are certain champagne has been sold out in certain places and even ceremonial toilet paper for this occasion. people are enjoying the time off but i have heard crumbles, certainly from some japanese people, that ten days off mr mike is really

a thing? but i think when it comes to people gathered here, they have come in their hundreds to catch a glimpse of the imperial palace and obviously to celebrate the ushering in of obviously to celebrate the ushering inofa obviously to celebrate the ushering in of a new era. laura, thank you very much for that. 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 investigate 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. earlier, i spoke with the hill's political reporter jacqueline thomsen, who said mr rosenstein's resignation didn't come as a shock to many within washington circles. it is routine. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein noted in his letter of resignation that the median amount of time that someone in his role stayed on was about 16 months. he has been announcing for some time he would step down because he has been there for two years, so today's announcement wasn't much of a shock. some of the things he has done and said, it is kind of miraculous he's lasted this long, isn't it? i think a lot of people are saying that. he had a lot of responsibility and frankly, he was far more high profile than a lot of other 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 there were so many attacks on him — not only by the president but by republicans in congress — he had a much more higher national profile. he must have quite a story to tell, if he ever tells it. do you think he will? 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, he's been critical of the media, he's been hitting back when he feels someone has said something unfairabout him. so maybe once he has left the justice department, he will start talking a little bit more. what are you expecting now from thejustice department and his successor? jeffrey rosen is his successor. or 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 is a justice department outsider. the president and his republican allies in congress have been really critical of the justice department. they tend to think of it as anti—trump and having a bias against him. so it was important to bring in an outsider who they feel will be more representative of him and their goals. so, 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 department, especially considering his latest pick attorney general william barr is being criticised by some democrats for almost defending the president more than thejustice department itself. 38 people are known to have died after cyclone kenneth hit northern mozambique on thursday. analysts are wanting the latest tropical storm could dump twice as much rain as cyclone idai which killed 1000

people. it is estimated the affected region will need more than $2 billion to recover. lebo diseko is in the capital. she has more now on aid efforts to help the tens of thousands affected. 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. so 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. 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 world 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. the latest talks between sudan's opposition alliance and the country's ruling military council have ended without a deal being reached. protesters across the country are demanding that the army hands president 0mar al—bashir was removed in coup. and on monday, thousands of women marched to the military headquarters, calling for their voices to be heard in the talks. the bbc‘s catherine byaruhanga reports from khartoum. this is the sound of determined protesters, unmoved by days of talk between the military and leaders of opposition parties. they have already led a month—long protest. the determination to govern themselves is stronger than ever.

this is the presidential palace where former president 0mar al—bashir governed sudan. the future of this country is now negotiator here between soldiers and others. reaching an agreement is proving difficult. the military want a controlling share of a future government council but this is just symbolic, according to them stop translation: how do we convince a country we can change to a civilian country? we have declared all executive authority should be civilian. opposition negotiators are challenging the military‘s request but there are concerns of a lack experience. we have the shift of being in control of the ones who might have the... the power to

achieve things, we're not that as many generations. women have been at the forefront of bringing change to sudan. 0n the forefront of bringing change to sudan. on monday they held that own demonstrations. 0nly sudan. on monday they held that own demonstrations. only two women are taking part in the talks. you cannot negotiate with the military people but because we suffer we need change so but because we suffer we need change soi but because we suffer we need change so i believe and i hope that tomorrow everything will change. both sides they will need to make compromises in order for a both sides they will need to make compromises in orderfor a new government to be formed but whole scale rapid change could be difficult to come by. catherine byaruhanga, 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. well, a little earlier i wasjoined by the film critic, wilson morales, who was a friend ofjohn singleton. i asked him how he would remember the ground breaking director. i will always remember him as a raw, honest filmmaker. he wanted to tell stories about the african—american experience. he started off with boyz n the hood, then he did poeticjustice with tupac and janet jackson. higher learning. a number of films. he also did 2 fast 2 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. butjohn shot from 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. regina king. michael apple court. 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, 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 onjohn singleton who had a story about compton, la and he shocked 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 black director to get a nomination, you know, you look at the 91 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 oscars, 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. the faroe islands are little more than a pin—prick 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. called voluntourism. 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, have paved their own way, 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. it feels good, it feels 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 faroe islands. this is a rugged, often awe—inspiring landscape, it's no surprise that people want to come and see it for themselves. last year, more than 100,000 made the trip, twice the local population. plenty 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. bed and board is provided, then they head 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. georgina smyth has more. an unlikely wild encounter with a dark twist. a friendly encounter or something more sinister? obligatory away wearing a strange harness. it could be fed by hand and would swim alongside moving vessels. curious to know what the way it was strapped into, a local pulled on a survival

suit. translation: there were clips on the way. we tried to reach them and open them. my colleague and i tried to do this for quite some time. the harness had a camera and inside the strap was equipment of saint petersburg. marine experts believe the whale probably escaped from the russian navy which has a long history of using marine mammals for warfare and spine. dolphins are trained at various facilities across russia to analyse and protect seabed and reportedly kill foreign divers. a russian military spokesperson played down the concerns on this underwater agent but did not played down the concerns on this underwater age one it did not played down the concerns on this underwater age one of did not played down the concerns on this underwater age one of theirs. georgina smyth, bbc news. there is more on all the news on our

website. thank you very much for watching. 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 wind 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 recover just 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. 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. 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 election. now on bbc news, it's hardtalk.