you are watching beyond 100 days. case closed says the british prime minister, there will be no criminal enquiry into former defence secretary gavin williamson. ten downing st says the decision to give huawei access to the five—day network was not itself a secret but it was discussed in the national security council. mr williamson continues to protest his innocence. the foreign secretary says theresa may made the right decision but the league is so seriously police should be involved. escalating the battle between and republicans, speaker nancy pelosi accuses the us attorney general of breaking the law. the

attorney general of the united states is not telling the truth to the congress of the united states. that is a crime. also, three days into the opposition uprising in venezuela, calls for the national strike. president maduro insists the military are still beside him. and john f kennedy set an ambitious and urgent goal in 1961, get to the moon. we look back on what motivated jfk to win the space race. if the british defence secretary did not leak sensitive information from the national security council and he swears 0 n the national security council and he swears on his children's lives that he didn't, then hooded? that are growing calls today for a police investigation into her decision to grant the chinese firm huawei a role in‘s five g network found its way

onto the front pages of the newspapers. williamson claims he would be absolutely exonerated that there was a police enquiry but today there was a police enquiry but today the prime minister's deputy david liddington told the commons that having established the facts, no other credible explanation, the government would not be taking it any further. unauthorised disclosure of any information from government is serious and especially so from the national security council. the prime minister has said that she now considers this matter has been closed and the cabinet secretary does not consider it necessary to refer it to the police. the prime minister believes her former defence secretary leaked information from the national security council. he vehemently denies it. only one of these accounts is accurate. i don't think we have ever seen a leak from the national security council and thatis the national security council and that is why this is so serious.

however, the british foreign secretaryjeremy however, the british foreign secretary jeremy hunt, however, the british foreign secretaryjeremy hunt, who is in africa at the moment, has weighed into the row. given the gravity of the situation, he said, the police should be involved. that undermines the payments are's attempts to draw a line. the former chair of the joint intelligence committee joins us. joint intelligence committee joins us. do you think you should be a criminal enquiry? i find it quite difficult to form a view on the subject. my own belief is that the prime minister has drawn the line at the right place. she has dismissed somebody for a serious breach of the rules that govern the operation of the national security council. unauthorised disclosure of sensitive information. whether it is sensible to invoke the pretty heavy provisions of the official secrets act to bring a charge under that

act, and the question would be what she would be able to demonstrate by way of damage to the national interest because you do not have to do that, as rather questionable. the issue they were discussing was a policy issue and it was known this policy issue and it was known this policy would have to be discussed. what he did was to disclose the positioning of people inside the cabinet and the fact there was not full agreement. i think it would be quite hard actually to bring a case that would be effective. my own view is the prime minister was sensible to make clear to her colleagues that this was not a sensible thing to do if you want to hold high office. let suppose there was a police investigation and they go to the journalist in question at the daily telegraph and say he was able to clear the name of gavin williamson, to do that he would have to probably give his contacts away, and no journalist worth his salt would do

that. he would have to disclose the soui'ces that. he would have to disclose the sources and would be most reluctant to do it so it is my word against your word. to what extent do they need a more thorough examination of the mobile telephone, and presumably it isa the mobile telephone, and presumably it is a mobile telephone, to see what they could get off it, i don't know. i think the real problem as it would be hard to bring an effective case under the provisions of the law because the infraction, in terms of its impact on national security, is not all that great. what is serious is the fact you cannot trust somebody who does that to keep much more sensitive secrets and to maintain the discipline of the government. baroness, gavin williamson has said repeatedly and strenuously that he didn't do this. shouldn't there be an investigation if for no other reason, for the

public to see the evidence, because if he is not then presumably the lea ker if he is not then presumably the leaker is still out there which is a further threat to national security? they have been through all the other communications are not found anybody else who had a 12 minute conversation with the daily telegraph immediately after the meeting. secondly, i telegraph immediately after the meeting. secondly, lam not sure that bringing a charge that is not likely to succeed for the purpose of allowing somebody to argue the toss, and conceivably exonerate themselves, i don't think that is proper use of the law. track record actually plays into this. he does have a reputation for speaking out of turn. it adds up to a picture and in the end the prime minister says to herself, i cannot trust this man. she will be extremely reluctant to get rid of her defence secretary.

she felt that the balance of national advantage must lie in his departure. we are grateful for your thoughts this evening, thank you.|j was thoughts this evening, thank you.” was talking to you yesterday about the leaking culture on both sides of the leaking culture on both sides of the atlantic and i was reading an article about the very sensitive discussions going on with pentagon staff in washington about venezuela at the moment, so i pulled out an article and there were three journalists on the byline and a couple of lines and that i will show you. john bolton's staff clashed with others, repeatedly interrupted asking for military options. it is extraordinary detail from a high—level secretive meeting within the administration. itjust goes to show that this happens on both sides of the atlantic and i am not sure how you stop it or how you pin the

blame on one person within that meeting. i had a different interpretation, the fact there has been such an outcry in the uk about this leaking from the national security council suggests it doesn't happen very often from westminster but it happens a lot from here. we have learned a lot about the inner workings of the trump administration over the last two years because of lea ks over the last two years because of leaks from national security advisor meetings, even from the intelligence community, which has been leaking. intelligence community officials had lea ked intelligence community officials had leaked repeatedly. 0ne intelligence community officials had leaked repeatedly. one of the differences as we do seem to see it quite frequently, perhaps less frequently in the uk, but you're right clearly a concern on both sides of the atlantic. listen to democrats on capitol hill today and the american republic is at risk of becoming a kingdom with president trump becoming monarch. this stems from the us attorney general‘s

decision to appear before congress today. bill barr appeared to answer questions about his handling of the mueller report. he didn't show up and democrats decorated the empty chair with a chicken. not the most su btle chair with a chicken. not the most subtle rebuke. and then nancy pelosi raised the stakes saying bill barr had broken the law. it wasn't about technicalities or who wrote the letter how he characterised the letter. that is interesting but what is deadly serious about it as the attorney general of the united states of america was not telling the truth to the congress of the united states. that is a crime. the housejudiciary united states. that is a crime. the house judiciary chairman said united states. that is a crime. the housejudiciary chairman said he would make one further attempt to attempt to get him to testify and then he will hold him in contempt of congress. he says it is congress's

role to provide all the necessary checks and balances but donald trump is getting on the way. here is how the abbreviated session today ended, abruptly. we will make sure no president becomes a monarch. we need the information without delay... we will do so with trampling minority rights. there is not going to be a recognition of members who seek legitimate enquiry as to the procedures... so not much to hear today. professor, let me start with nancy pelosi saying that the us attorney general, the top law enforcement official in the country has lied to congress and therefore committed a crime. has bill barr done that? i don't think he has. quite frankly, the thing is being

cited as false statements strike me asa cited as false statements strike me as a matter of opinion. they are not really acts of perjury that i can see, this is posturing from both parties. both parties saying terrible things about each other. not the greatest moment for democracy in general, but what bill barr said yesterday is going to be tested with the testimony of robert miller, and many of the things that bill barr said happened occurred with witnesses, so he said that mueller said before witnesses that he was not constrained by doj policy not to reach a conclusion on obstruction. he said mueller told him that he did not think the letter was misleading. these are facts apparently stated in front of others and if mueller confirms those facts thena and if mueller confirms those facts then a lot of this is so much

political kabuki. let's get to whether this is political grandstanding by democrats or whether this is a serious threat to the us constitution, that congress has the right of oversight and should be able to call witnesses and subpoenaed documents and witnesses from the white house and the white house is trying to obstruct that. do they have a point? they do, and congress has the better argument. the president has basically announced a scorched earth policy with regard to subpoenas and congressional investigations. congress clearly has a right to information is one many of these fights congress will win. the president may simply be trying to delay this process into twenty20 when they run out of runway to get off the ground. as to the attorney general failing to appear, there is another issue. house democrats want to testify, they can get out of it,

but there wanting him questioned by staff attorneys and lots of people would object to that, so that seems to be the primary reason he is not appearing. he said, you should question me as members of congress as did the senate. the chairman wa nts to as did the senate. the chairman wants to question in 30 minute blocks and the point they would make as doctor christine forde was interviewed, so what is the difference. what are the steps then that the chair could take? what is open to him to force the attorney general to appear? open to him to force the attorney generalto appear? he open to him to force the attorney general to appear? he certainly can subpoena the attorney general. that is going to lead to a rather lengthy process, and a contempt case is normally submitted to the department ofjustice, and normally submitted to the department of justice, and they normally submitted to the department ofjustice, and they have a long—standing history of refusing to even bring these contempt issues to

a grandjury, so even bring these contempt issues to a grand jury, so the answer is likely nothing at all. this is usually something that can be resolved. the position of the attorney general as he is a cabinet office are appearing before congress and should be questioned by members of congress. that is the tradition and more importantly house democrats are wrong when they say, this is so complicated we need staff attorneys. there is nothing particularly complicated about the issues they are going to ask as the senate member showed yesterday. thank you very much. in venezuela, the opposition leader has gambled. he has us backing and thousands of supporters on the streets but it is looking like he does not have much military support. juan guaido has

ordered a series of rolling strikes building toa ordered a series of rolling strikes building to a greater strike at the end of the month. president maduro today addressed the country standing beside the defence minister. note to the traitors, no one can be afraid. it is time to defend the right to peace. yesterday i told the people the plan of the coup plotters. a civil war with machine guns against machine guns and tanks against tanks, that we kill ourselves amongst brothers. we are joined by francisco marquez who works for the us recognised venezuelan ambassador. where do we stand now in terms of what is happening in venezuela and whether the opposition can keep up pressure on president maduro?‘ month ago i was here and you asked me about military defections. we have had in the last 24 hours the

biggest military defections. christopher, the head of intelligence of the regime, switched sides and a supporting juan guaido. he is nowhere to be seen because the regime is after him. the ministry of defence and maduro negotiated with juan guaido. you can question the outcome and this is a very complicated situation, but even today, the ministry of defence said, people are trying to buy him off. admitting there were discussions and negotiations, because at the end of the day, juan guaido has been consistent in his policy. he has millions on the streets, he is trying to get food and medicine to improve the lives of venezuelans and he is calling on the security forces to support constitutional order. we only saw part of that process in the la st 24

only saw part of that process in the last 24 hours. you could say it looked too and a half days ago like there was the possibility the maduro regime would fall eminently it didn't and it is difficult to it looks like he has managed to secure his position and not enough of the but how do you keep the momentum going which is there was this big surge of activity today over the la st two surge of activity today over the last two days, millions of venezuelans have been on the street for today's narrow. we had two victims who were fatally shot and even today juan guaido victims who were fatally shot and even todayjuan guaido has called for massive strikes. the venezuelan people will continue to go on the streets because it is about survival andl streets because it is about survival and i wouldn't underestimate again, the top intelligence official of maduro is affected. maduro is

surrounded by people he doesn't trust. he is surrounded by top regime officials who actively want him out, and the momentum will be ke pt him out, and the momentum will be kept up as we have done in the last three months because we have the support notjust three months because we have the support not just of the three months because we have the support notjust of the us but of 50 other countries and millions of venezuelan people and we expect more defections. as we watch these pictures of the trips, it struck me today that they have to go home to theirfamilies, who today that they have to go home to their families, who probably today that they have to go home to theirfamilies, who probably can't put food on the table, and the longer that goes on it becomes much more difficult to stay loyal. i imaginejuan more difficult to stay loyal. i imagine juan guaido and more difficult to stay loyal. i imaginejuan guaido and his supporters are hoping that eventually begins to tell.” supporters are hoping that eventually begins to tell. i am just glad these talks are made public. obviously some people had been sceptical, but what this tells you as pressure has worked. the internal and international pressure has worked and will continue to work because maduro offers no future for the venezuelan people, which is why

we are confident that moving forward we are confident that moving forward we will achieve our objectives. and the objective is clear, restore constitutional order and implement free and fair elections. the militaries are loyal to president juan guaido. some are loyal to maduro, but what is clear is right now it is in the open. their active security forces with juan guaido and that wasn't through months ago. that is why we are confident and we look forward and again it is for the venezuelan people and it is what we are trying to do to change this country and we have the backing of millions of venezuelans in the full international community. thank you. the story will continue so please do come back again. it is the climate change report that will change your life. this one from the independent adviser to the british government is

different because it is so concrete and so prescriptive. the scale of transformation suggested by this report is enormous but then so potentially are the benefits, that is, if each and every one of his plays the role expected of us. i will be taking a look at some of the recommendations. the committee on climate change which advises the government says the uk should lead the globalfight government says the uk should lead the global fight against climate change by cutting greenhouse gases to nearly zero by 2050. so how are we going to get there? cars will need to be electric on the sale of petrol cars should be banned by 2030, ten years earlier than the government date of 2040. we will have to fly less and at home will be asked to turn down the central heating to 19 celsius and then our houses properly and you will have to convert our natural gas boilers to hydrogen boilers. the report also says we will need to eat less meat

and dairy and we need to get much better at sorting out waste at home to ensure no biodegradable material leftover foods ends up in the landfill. so that is what we have to do andi landfill. so that is what we have to do and i am joined by doctor jonathan marshall. the report says if other countries for the uk's example there is a 50—50 chance of keeping the global temperature increase below 1.5 celsius. which is the target we are all striving to achieve. but we know that china burns twice as much coal as the rest of the world put together and i was reading today, new chinese plan is under construction would add three times the total electricity generation of the uk. those are the plans just generation of the uk. those are the plansjust coming generation of the uk. those are the plans just coming online, generation of the uk. those are the plansjust coming online, so generation of the uk. those are the plans just coming online, so when generation of the uk. those are the plansjust coming online, so when i am standing in the supermarket wondering if i have a stake or not andi wondering if i have a stake or not and i think of that, why change my attitude to? a lot of them are more

social projects rather than energy projects and they are needed for jobs in rural areas, the same as coalmines. a lot of the plants are at being used a lot, they are only running for a few hours a day, and even when running people were complaining about air pollution and complaining about air pollution and complaining about air pollution and complaining about climate change themselves. also, china is one of themselves. also, china is one of the biggest investors in clean technology, investing more in solar panels than anyone else, and electric vehicles than anyone else. some of the largest cities in china have an 100% electric bus fleet. you have an 10096 electric bus fleet. you have heard the views of the politicians this week talking about climate change, ed miliband, the former labour leader, said we should be on former labour leader, said we should beona former labour leader, said we should be on a war footing, but when pressed about how quickly we stop flying or change boilers are moved to electric cars, the ambitions can sound wishy—washy. are you concerned that setting targets is one thing

but achieving them and putting money into it as another? that is why the target is so good because it gives time for a natural rollover. instead of setting immediate targets. if you just bought a petrol car you want to be expected to throw it away and buy an electric one. having a 2050 target like this gives you time for your car to target like this gives you time for yourcarto run target like this gives you time for your car to run its life and then your car to run its life and then you can buy a new one, which means less disruption up and down the country and a lot more public acceptance. broadly, have the advancesin acceptance. broadly, have the advances in technology we have made made it more possible for us to meet our target emissions? definitely. the cost of renewable energy in particular is falling dramatically. renewable energy now is the cheapest way of generating electricity, cheaper to build a wind farm than a gas or coal power station, and that

is where the money is going, building more and more of these power sources and putting more money into batteries for electric vehicles and technology to balance out electricity based on various renewables, so the progress means that the target now isn't as outlandish as it would have seemed five or ten years ago. thank you very much. if we are going to reduce emissions, then our daily diet is a good place to start. avoiding meat and daily products is one of the biggest ways to reduce the environmental impact and itjust so happens that the new york times has come up with a quiz to show us how our food choices matter, come up with a quiz to show us how ourfood choices matter, and choosing a meal most similar to how i ate yesterday, i went with fruit and yoghurt for breakfast, a glass of milk and a glass of wine through the day, and my meal choices had a

low climate impact. i started with bacon and eggs. there has got to be doom surely for pigs, and then i went for a mixed green salad with tuna for lunch. and then i also opted for chicken, rice and beans for dinner. it is the nearest thing to what i had, and my result was medium to low. team beyond 100 days, eating healthily unsustainable. so i am having a bigger impact but if i keep eating fry ups in the morning i might die earlier so not have as much of an impact as you. this is beyond 100 days from the bbc. and coming up on the bbc news channel on bbc world is, then as we were stoked tensions between the us and russia. we hear more about the us mission to

the united nations. and technology is transforming our lives so where will we be in the next 50 years? staggering predictions from a renowned futurist. all still to come. good evening. thursday has been a day characterised by sunny spells and scattered showers. showers as we went through the afternoon pretty widespread and as you can see quite intense as well, so a fair amount of showers and cloud across the country on the satellite and rain radar so one minute we have beautiful blue skies with sunshine coming through and feeling quite warm. the next threatening looking skies, some of the shower is really quite heavy. some showers start to fade through this evening and overnight replaced bya this evening and overnight replaced by a blanket of cloud moving out of scotland, a weak weather front through northern ireland, west england and down through the midlands and east anglia. that is a cold front, that will introduce a

change to the feel of weather into the weekend. so friday really is the transition day as this cold front stinks steadily south and west. isobars squeezed together and winds strengthen in the far north—west of scotla nd strengthen in the far north—west of scotland and coming down through the north, feeling disappointing for early may. showery outbreaks of rain pushing south and west, one or two showers with the wintry flavouring northern scotland but ahead of the cold front, the temperature into double figures, may be as high as 15. behind it a noticeable difference with the feel of the weather particularly on the exposed east coast. factor in the wind, feeling very cold indeed. cold wind pushes south for the start of the weekend, we are under the influence of northerly winds and could potentially see a wide spread light frost first thing on saturday morning. a bit of a shock to the

system. a bootable start with sunshine around and the wind drives and showers of the east coast, some pushing and land. further west we see the best of the shelter and the warmth but still not very warm for the time of year. highest value of 13 celsius, called on the east coast. but high pressure building from the west for the second part of the weekend, killing off the showers, so sunday and monday, lighter winds with a good deal of dry weather around but still, the temperature disappointing for the first week of may.

this is beyond 100 days. katty kay in washington. christian fraser is in london. the us house speaker has accused attorney—general william barr of lying to congress over the mueller report. coming up, a throwback to the cold war. america and russia and cuba, squaring up in latin america. why is moscow so interested in propping up this socialist leader, and how far is america prepared to go to get rid of him? bbc science presenterjames burke made eerily accurate predictions about the future of the internet —

back in 1985 — we'll hearfrom him today about where he thinks the world is heading. beyond the protests we see inside venezuela there is, of course, a broader proxy war going on here, between the us and russia. for now it is a cold war, reminiscent of the tensions that existed in cuba and latin america in the 1960's. russia has invested heavily in venezuela — and in exchange for the money it lent the government it has been handed vast swathes of the country's oil fields. an investment it is not about to give up lightly. this week the tensions have come to the fore. the white house says its not ruling out a military option, the russians say that would carry severe consequences. president trump spoke about the unrest a little earlier. the brutal repression of the venezuelan people must end, and it must end soon. people are starving.

they have no food, no water. and this was once one of the wealthiest countries in the world. so we wish them well. we will be there to help. for more i'm joined now by hagar chemali, a former spokesperson for the us mission to the united nations during 0bama administration. thank you for coming in. the president and his national security adviser have said all options are on the table. they are not ruling out a us military option. is the us military option really there?” don't think it is that viable. it is normal when you have a situation of crisis happening in the us hemisphere for the defence department to participate. when i was at the white house that was the normal course of planning, no matter what the crisis was, even if it wasn't in our hemisphere but i don't think they are thinking of air strikes, boots on the ground, operations inside venezuela, an invasion of caracas. i don't think that's possible. it is more about seeing how they can support the refugees that have gone into

colombia of which there are about 2 million, and on the other hand communicating that all options are on the table. that is a key piece of the message that the administration wa nts the message that the administration wants the regime to hear. the russians have said that there could be grave consequences if you ramp up operations, the russian foreign minister saying that this would have knock—on effects for the us — russia relations, looks like a cold war scenario. does it affect those relations? you macro the relations to begin with are not on a good footing. probably the worst it has been since the end of the cold war. but there is precedent for the us continuing its relationship with russia even when things were bad. when russia invaded premier and annexed it, the us — russia relationship continued where there we re relationship continued where there were areas of mutual interest. when there are goals that are shared, russia puts it aside and the reason is that they are not an ally of the

united states, it is a transactional relationship. it is adversarial, as well. but if there a goal that is shared they put their feelings aside. in venezuela, it only wraps things up further and makes things worse. communist cuba plays a big role in venezuela. i wonder whether donald trump is paying the price for rolling back the relations which president 0bama had started, with a thawing of that relationship. is he now paying the price?” thawing of that relationship. is he now paying the price? i was at the treasury when he withdrew sanctions against cuba, those that we could, you know, but congress had legislation for the entire embargo, and the goal of those sanctions and of removing them was to help bring democracy to cuba, by facilitating people to people relationships and certain tech companies going there and so on so the steps that present drop took to walk that back didn't make sense, given the go is. it is

an interesting point given venezuela because the administration has chosen to increase pressure on cuba, given due that was met military presence, its technical aid and intelligence that are present in venezuela helping nicolas maduro, so for example the administration has allowed now very recently the us to sue companies in cuba for operating on seized land. so for example that is going to hit european companies and canadian companies that are there. the whole thing doesn't add up there. the whole thing doesn't add up to there. the whole thing doesn't add uptoa there. the whole thing doesn't add up to a strategy because right now, we need those western companies to support us in the effort to oust nicolas maduro. the one country we are not talking about is china. not an natural ally of russia but in many spheres at the moment we see the americans pushing them closer to moscow. when i was at the us mission to the united nations i saw the relationship between russia and china grow closer. that wouldn't

surprise me entirely. i think there isa surprise me entirely. i think there is a natural, a little bit of a natural alliance among those who rule in an authoritarian way or as a dictator or whatever, whichever way it might be that isn't necessarily democratic. so there is that natural alliance in particular with sanctions and companies being isolated from the financial system, they tend to ally together and trade with each other, so that doesn't surprise me entirely, but china, the relationship therewith venezuela is going to be more about oil. thank you for coming in. thanks for having me. seems like there was a breakdown in american intelligence on tuesday or that they must read the signs coming out of venezuela. what happened on tuesday? were the venezuelan opposition really very

close over the saying they were closer than they actually were? lots of interesting things to say about the way that russia thinks of when his brother, and all of the problem spinning on from that. they have a rush favourable president in place. why would they want someone like that out of the way —— russian favourable. and it gives them a chance to play in a mirror back yard, which reflects america playing in russia's backyard here in eastern europe. a new report from the pentagon today shows that sexual assaults across the us military increased by a rate of nearly 38% in 2018. the report questioned men and women across all branches of the us armed services and found that more than 20,000 people said they'd experienced "unwanted sexual co nta ct" in 2018, a significant increase from nearly 15,000, when the military last conducted research two years ago. the pentagon says it's going to take steps to make reporting

easierfor service members. this comes after arizona senator martha mcsally — the first female us fighter pilot to fly in combat said she had been a victim of military sexual assault. idham am a military sexual assault survivor but unlike many, i didn't report. like so many women and men i didn't trust the system at the time. i blame myself. i was ashamed and confused. i thought i was strong, but with no powers. martha mcsally speaking back in march, saying that she was raped by an officer you was senior to herself, and most of the incidence of sexual assault on junior servicemembers come from someone who is senior to them and the staggering thing, this report

has 20,000 cases, but it also says only one in three are actually reported. that would put the number up reported. that would put the number up at 60,000 women who are suffering from sexual assault in the us military. extraordinary numbers. what do you put that down to? increased numbers of assaults or people feeling more confident and able to come forward given that people like martha mcsally have made it so public? that is part of the reason martha mcsally spoke out because she could now give voice and cover to others to speak out. this happened years ago and she has only made this public this year. if they are still saying that only one in three are reporting this year, may be that used to be one in six, one in ten and numbers are getting better in terms of reporting what it is still a vast number of women who have been suffering something and not being prepared to speak about it. some of the day's other news now. hundreds of thousands of people are being evacuated from the east coast of india as cyclone fani sweeps across the bay of bengal.

the category three storm is expected to make landfall within 24 hours, before moving towards bangladesh. wind speeds of more than 200 kilometres an hour are expected — there are also fears of flooding. the wikilea ks founder julian assange has begun his fight against extradition to the us over allegations he conspired to break into a classified pentagon computer. as protesters gathered outside the court earlier he appeared via video link from belmarsh prison for his first extradition hearing since being removed from the ecuadorian embassy in london where he had been taking refuge for nearly seven years. the canadian aerospace firm bombardier is putting its belfast operation up for sale as part of a reorganisation of the business. the company, which also has factories in morocco, is selling its entire aerostructures operation. bombardier employs around 3,600 people across several locations in northern ireland. another democrat enters the 2020 presidential race — colorado senator michael bennet is launching a long shot campaign

vying for a chance to take on donald trump. he says he will focus on the lack of economic mobility in the country and on restoring integrity to politics. you wonder if there are any democrats not running for president at the moment. michael bennett is unlikely to become the democratic nominee. he is unlikely, there is not much downside to running. you get your name in the press, you get, eve ryo ne get your name in the press, you get, everyone wants their face on the bus. you might even become the vice credential pic. and if you run again next time you've already had one go around the track. —— the vice presidential gig. from time to time, there are things on twitter which pique my interest. and the film we are about to show you is one such example.

it was recorded in 1985, over 30 years ago, by the science historian james burke. it's what we call in the trade, a piece to camera, for a science documentary that was aired that year on the bbc. james was talking about technology and the advent of the internet. how computer chips and the world wide web were about to transform our lives in ways that very few could envisage. but james had seen the future, and this snapshot of the future is quite extraordinary. a new system that come about conformity more rigid and totalitarian than ever before in history, could also blow everything wide open. because, with it, we could operate on the basis that values and standards and ethics and truth all depend on what your view of the world is. and that there may be as many views of that as there are people. and with this capable of keeping a tally on those millions of opinions voiced electronically, we

might be able to lift the limitations of conforming to any centralised representational form limitations of conforming to any centralised representationalform of government, originally invented because there was no way for everybody‘s voice to be heard. it might be able to give everybody unhindered, untested access to knowledge. it might end the regimentation of people living and working in vast, unmanageable cities. imagine them instead in an electronic community, where the himalayas and manhattan were only a split second the part. that extraordinary? james burke is with me. when you look back at that, are you amazed as the rest of us, at how closely you call the future? a bit, yes, but don't forget in 1985, we we re yes, but don't forget in 1985, we were intensely optimistic about the future. it was quite hot technology at that point. i am a bit surprised at that point. i am a bit surprised at the way in which some of it was wrong. the internet has come much

faster than i expected, is much more prevalent and widespread. but, and i didn't put a date on this so i'm off the hook, the future possibility that anyone would be educated by it and that there would be more direct democracy because of it has not yet happened and i think that's because these institutions that were created in the past for the technology of the past to solve the problems of the past to solve the problems of the past to solve the problems of the past according to the values of the past according to the values of the past according to the values of the past and we still live with those strapped around us, and they tend to hold back things like the two i've mentioned. looking at predictions for the future first, politics, technology has had a profound impact. politics is floundering, governments, representatives, are being formed by what we are seeing on the internet. it is all online. basically what is happening is the first part of what isaid happening is the first part of what i said about the internet, giving

people access to knowledge, it has in one way giving them a voice they didn't have before. parliamentary democracy was set up because we had no tell mik —— telecommunications backin no tell mik —— telecommunications back in the 19th century, and it worked well in that situation. now, people have the kind of ability to make them their voices heard, as we see in street protests for the first time, which express their view that the institution of direct parliamentary democracy no longer functions as fast as they expect. do we need the house of commons? in the macro we will see that it will be replaced in the next 40 years by a form of direct democracy. we have this stuff now called big data and predictive analytics that allow us to read on the internet about what people do, buy, go, ithink, enough to be able to say in this early stage what their preferences about life are, and those are a great deal larger than those offered by two or

three political parties, and i think that will be the driver of what causes the parliamentary system to disappear or change. james, that is pa rt disappear or change. james, that is part of the politics side of things. let's look at the production side of things. how do you see manufacturing and production changing? you are talking about education first of all, i believe, sorry, i havejumped the gun. one leads to the other. soon, in the next 20 years, we will see teaching mediated by the use of avatars on screen, which will not maybe be a screen, maybe something that appears in the air in front of you, and those will be so like human beings, the child will not recognise that it beings, the child will not recognise thatitis beings, the child will not recognise that it is not a human being, and the trick is that the avatar will teach the child what we believe the child needs to know in the way that that particular idiosyncratic child wa nts to that particular idiosyncratic child wants to learn, using all the tools that you can using television

techniques at the moment anyway, so each child would be taught personally in that way. to learn the fa cts personally in that way. to learn the facts that we think they should need which would leave the human teachers to do thejob which would leave the human teachers to do the job they are created, to teach the child to grow up to be an adult. i want to talk now about nano factories. your matter if you put two molecules of hydrogen together you get h two 0, which is water. if you get h two 0, which is water. if you can put atoms together like that, you can make things. and within 40 years, we will have things called nano fabricators to produce anything you want free using dirt airand waterso if anything you want free using dirt air and water so if you want a block of gold, a perfect copy of the mona lisa, food, clothing, whatever, you tell it and it makes it for you. you macro the idea is that each one of these things can make another one of itself, so enough for one for

everybody in the planet within two months. the advent of the nano fabricator would be the most important thing that has happened since we left the cave. it would make everything we discussed this evening irrelevant. that hasn't been said before. i'm thinking avatars, in the house of commons, products that order, is that the sort of world that you want to live in? sure, why not? a world in which everything happens as i wanted to? perfect! he was right under our noses, still working, extraordinary. he here doing stuff for the sky at night. still to come, 50 years since the first lunar landing but how did presidentjohn f kennedy help the us when the space race? a fresh inquest is to be held on the death of

nine—year—old ella kissi—debrah who died after suffering an asthma attack in 2016. new evidence proves her death was directly linked to illegal levels of air pollution near her south london home. she was breathing out so polluted that it broke legal limits. pollution was not put as her cause of death but her mother has always believed that it was linked. and now she's one step closer to finding out. today at the high courtjudge said, in the interests ofjustice, there should be a new inquest. we spoke to rosamond after the ruling.

it is incredibly important. i loved her so much, so, so much, and it is incredibly important. i loved herso much, so, so much, and i'm so proud of her, that she is doing this, for everybody else. even you and me because we all breathe the air. ella was rushed to hospital 30 times in the year before she died. new evidence key to that decision today showed a striking correlation between these visits and spikes in air pollution. yet i matter we have known that air pollution and asthma go together but what we have not had isa go together but what we have not had is a clear demonstration of individual human beings suffering as a direct of increased pollution. the government says it is taking concerted action to improve air quality. ella's family will have to wait one yearfor the quality. ella's family will have to wait one year for the inquest, but it could prove without doubt that illegal air pollution can kill.

at the beginning of his presidency, john f kennedy asked the country to commit to sending an american to the moon by the end of the 605. 50 years ago this summer that achievement was realised when neil armstrong, and buzz over and planted the stars and stripes flag on the lunar surface. in the 19605 when that ambitious goal was announced that us was under great pressure to catch up and overta ke great pressure to catch up and overtake the 5oviet union in the space race. jfk overtake the soviet union in the space race. jfk announced his plan before a specialjoint session of congress. i believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out over landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. the young president didn't live to see as promise fulfilled but his actions help send the us on course to win the space race. how important

was the moon landing for kennedy, not just was the moon landing for kennedy, notjust in terms of the sign spot in terms of the narrative of what it meant that the world about america's standing? in the macro it meant everything, the heart and soul of what he called the new frontier. the soviet union had put sputnik up in 1957, the first satellite. then on kennedy's watch in early 1961 it put yuri gagarin, the first human in space, the first soviet cosmonaut. so jack kennedy got pumped up to wanting to beat russia and in 1961 we put the astronaut alan shepard up and down, 15 minutes, and kennedy saw that, everybody on tv was watching alan shepard. he was like charles lindbergh as a figure and on may the 25th1961 kennedy went to a joint session of congress and made

the moon pledge, giving it a timeline, the end of the decade, and it will bring the astronaut presidentjump it will bring the astronaut president jump on the it will bring the astronaut presidentjump on the and television. you must have made a very good pitch to the american people to get that sum of money because it was a huge sum of money. he was a master salesman for space. from 1960 with richard nixon at one point, he said, if you are elected president i see a soviet flag planted on the moon, if i'm elected, could be an american flag. so he could be an american flag. so he could find money from his own democratic constituents on capitol hill but he said, you want the russians to beat us? so we had this kind of cold war sweet spot to push this through. and also radar was coming into the mainstream and texas

instruments created the microcomputer chip in 1958 for transistors, so that technology kind of happened on the same timejohn f kennedy was president. he built it up kennedy was president. he built it up as such an important symbol of american prowess in this tectonic battle between the us and the soviet union in the cold war. the cold war lasted as we know for decades longer. was he right? he was right in regard that that money we got a lot of spin technology, things like gps, mri in the medical world, anti—icing devices for cars and planes, so the spin off technology was amazing. and a lot of those billions of dollars went into the southern united states, places like houston, texas, and huntsville, alabama, hampton virginia, meaning that they had an infrastructure

component to it, building tech corridors around the united states, but once we went to the moon, the space race kind of became less interesting. nixon in fact as president cancelled the last couple of apollo missions. in 1975 we had a joint document space between the soviet union and united states and the space race was clearly over. thank you for coming in. thank you. that flag is still there. it has been bleached out by ultraviolet rays but the american flag still stands there. before we go, we can show you the video of the japanese prime minister shinzo abe installing his new door knocker which he brought home from canada. i have been watching this on loop. it is quite hypnotic! i am of the opinion that he needs another nail in the

bottom. it is only seven seconds long. totally mesmerising. we don't know why we love it, but we do. a random animal video for you for the weekend! have a good weekend, see you monday. characterised by sunny spells and scattered showers. the showers as we went through the afternoon pretty widespread and quite intense, as well. showers across the country on the satellite and rain radar, so one minute we had beautiful blue skies with sunshine coming the next minute, threatening looking skies with some of those showers quite heavy indeed. some of the showers will start to fade through this evening. overnight, they will be replaced by a blanket of cloud moving out of scotland, a week with a point through northern ireland, north—west england and down into the midlands and east anglia. that is a cold front which will introduce a change to the feel of the weather as

we move into the weekend. friday is a transition day, as this cold front sneaks its way south and west. the isobar squeezed together, wins will strengthen to clear the far north of scotla nd strengthen to clear the far north of scotland and coming all the way down from the north, which will make it feel disappointing for early may, i'm afraid. there will be some showery outbreaks of rain, cold front pushing its way south and west. some showers with a wintry flavour for west. some showers with a wintry flavourfor higher west. some showers with a wintry flavour for higher ground in scotland, and windy with it as well. but still ahead of that cold front, temperatures into double figures, may be as high as 15. behind it, and noticeable difference to the feel of the weather, particularly on exposed east coast, and factoring in the wind it will feel very cold indeed. the cold air pushes south at the start of the weekend across the country. under the influence of these northerly winds. we could see you quite a wide spread light frost first thing on saturday morning. that will be a shock to the system.

a beautiful start with some sunshine around, but there is wins will drive showers and of the east coast, some of them pushing on line, further west, we see the best of the shelter and the best of the warmth, but still not very warm for the time of year, highs of around 13, called on the east coast. high pressure will start to build from the west for the second half of the weekend. that will help kill off some of the showers. sunday and monday, slightly lighter winds, a good deal of dry weather around, but still those temperatures are going to be disappointing for the first week of may.

this bbc is news. the hardlines... eat less meat and take the ref flights and driving electric cars, things we are told to help an ambitious new target of cutting carbon emissions to zero at the 30 yea rs. carbon emissions to zero at the 30 years. the prime minister says that the case is closed, after defence secretary sacked over leaks of national security council, labour demand a police investigation. national security council, labour demand a police investigationm response to receiving the most brittle sacking i can think of, the memberfor staffordshire brittle sacking i can think of, the member for staffordshire has protested his innocence and therefore this matter cannot be as at the prime minister says a closed. concern for thejobs in belfast at the prime minister says a closed. concern for the jobs in belfast as they announced one of the biggest

employers, but by the air, is being