should not be as happy either, down into scotland in northern england but otherwise mainly fine with some sunshine and temperatures in the low or mid 20s and for some of us it looks like a mainly fine day on friday just the odd looks like a mainly fine day on fridayjust the odd shower and a similar day on saturday. you're watching beyond one hundred days. the us federal reserve is expected to cut interest rates in the next few minutes. it will be the first rate cut in over a decade. does the us economy need the boost or has the fed caved to political pressure from donald trump? usually central banks cut rates to boost economic performance but the american economy doesn't need a boost, it's booming anyway. so why now? the fight for the soul of the democratic party. at their second debate, the centrist wing pushes back against more liberal candidates. also on the programme... borisjohnson completes his whistle stop tour of the uk, in northern ireland. the prime minister says he is still looking for a brexit deal, as he urges all sides to get behind devolved government. the ethiopians planted 350 million new saplings on monday. the uk has planted just

15 million in eight years. in fact we plant less now than we did in the 80s. hello and welcome. i'm katty kay in washington and christian fraser is in london. in the last few minutes the federal reserve has done something it has not done in more than a decade — cut interest rates. it's only a quarter of a point but why‘s it cutting rates at all? normally a central bank would only lower interest rates when an economy is faltering, not something you could say about the us economy right now. fed officials describe it as an "insurance cut", to keep the us economy on track. but the critics suggest the normally independent central bank is caving in to political pressure from the white house. the president has been very critical of the fed chairjerome powell, and has been demanding this cut since the fed put up the rates last december.

i'd like to see a large cut and i'd like to see immediately the quantitative tightening stopped. we expect the chair of the federal reserve to speak in the next 30 minutes or so. 0ur correspondent michelle fleury is at the federal reserve in washington. what is the political reasoning the federal reserve is making for cutting rates? if you look at the domestic situation, it is puzzling because the economy is growing. the a nswer because the economy is growing. the answer is looking further afield. internationally, the federal reserve is concerned about a weakening global picture, worried about the implications of trade disputes, how thatis implications of trade disputes, how that is impacting american businesses. if you look at growth figures released last week you may recall we started to see a pull—back in the amount to american companies we re in the amount to american companies were willing to invest. they are nervous about what are the

implications of this trade dispute. and the third thing is inflation remains low so the fed said they had room to make this move. if you think back to 2018, we saw four increases. i wonder whether a quarter of a point will satisfy the present. 0r is this part of the trend of more interest rate cuts by the end of the year? i think we know the answer. if you look at donald trump's comments this week and what he tweeted ahead of the decision on monday, he already made it clear he thought it would be too little. he drew a comparison with monetary policy in countries like china and also the eurozone. he made it clear he wants to see more action. 0ne eurozone. he made it clear he wants to see more action. one area he might feel gratified is notjust the headline interest rate cuts we have been talking about but there is also

an asset portfolio. this has been running down. it built up during the last recession and now the federal reserve is saying that rather than let it slowly run down it is going to end the process a little sooner. what this means in simple terms is that they do not want to send conflicting messages between what interest rates are doing and what was happening with this asset portfolio. the us federal reserve has cut interest rates. but even if it is not politically motivated there is a risk that it looks that way from a body that is meant to be politically independent. the second democratic debate for the us presidency revealed real splits in the party on health care, immigration, trade and even north korea. the fault line between centrists and progressives was stark. with one group saying we can't be too radical if we want to win the white house and the other saying this is a moment we have to be bold.

it is one thing to win the nomination among democrats, quite another to win swing voters across the country and take the white house. and that is all democrats care about. which is why millions of americans tuned in to watch last nights three hour debate in detroit. and that philosophical divide in the party was there from the start. we can go down the road senator sanders and senator warren want to take us, which is with bad policies like medicare for all, free everything, and impossible promises that will turn off independent voters and get trump re—elected. you know, i don't understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the united states just to talk about what we really can't do and shouldn't fight for. whether to impose a national public health system was not the only split. there are also differences on immigration — specifically whether to de—criminalise the act of crossing the us border without a visa. the problem is that right now the criminalisation statute

is what gives donald trump the ability to take children away from their parents. but you are playing into donald trump's hands. a sane immigration system needs a sane leader, and we can do that without decriminalising, providing health care for everyone. when i am president, illegally crossing the border will still be illegal. ahead of this evening's second round of debates, the bbc‘s barbara plett usher is in detroit for us. let's look back at last night's debate. this was supposed to be the night that bernie sanders and elizabeth warren, the two senators, went toe to toe for their progressive ticket. it didn't pan out that way. no, in fact they joined forces to defend their left—wing policies. there was no explosion or any indication of a

political rivalry between them. they stood together against the onslaught of centrists and moderate candidates. senator warren had a good night, a lively defence of the goal bold approach. sanders had a better performance than the last debate although a third of it was on health care, his favourite topic. the moderate candidates had a tougher night. steve bullock, governor of montana, did well. they we re governor of montana, did well. they were set up as files to press these two on their left—wing policies but they came back strong and forcefully. these are the kinds of divisions at the core of what the democrats are about, they are identity and how they are going to approach the presidential election, and you will see them continue to play out over debates in future and it will probably be the frontrunner

joe biden who takes on the centrist mantle. the next debate starts in about six hours. what do you expect? joe biden will be front and centre because he is the frontrunner and he had a bit of a stumble on the previous debate so now he has to show he can correct his course. we know he will probably come under attack from a number of the candidates for his past record. they have indicated as such. especially the two african—american senators, pamela harris who had a swipe at him last time, and cory booker who will probably take a swipe at him on crime. we can expect that to play out centrally. in fact both of them will be on either side ofjoe biden. he is proud of his record and said he is going to defend it. you might see more personal exchanges and

attacks than last night, which were more ideological. and joining me now in the studio is president 0bama's former national spokesman, ben labolt. i think the last time we spoke was on election night. i think it has taken you a couple of years to recover from the 2016 election as a democrat. if the debate is to be either radical and progressive or centrist to win over centrist voters who went for donald trump last time, do we know from polling, do you have a sense of which of those arguments is more likely to get donald trump out of the white house?” is more likely to get donald trump out of the white house? i think it might bea out of the white house? i think it might be a false choice. we need a candidate with the charisma and vision to excite young voters and democratic voters who are sporadic and don't always go to the polls. the re—creation of the 0bama coalition. i don't think we should discount the voters who moved from

alabama to trump, and we could win them back because he hasn't followed through on his promises to help the working class. ten candidates last night entertained tonight, which satisfies that mandate? night entertained tonight, which satisfies that mandate ?|j night entertained tonight, which satisfies that mandate? i think tonight will be a very important debate and i think senator harris is one who has tried to claim that mantle, running on our message of pragmatism saying that the left of the party has great ideas in terms ofa the party has great ideas in terms of a path to renewable energy, public health care option, but she hasn't gone so far as to alienate what i think will be many of these suburban voters that will be decisive in november. she has been careful in terms of the position she committed to. primary voters and the general election voters look very different in terms of who makes the final decision. i want to ask you about something you just wrote in

the atlantic magazine. it says, i helped 0bama win in 2012 and now donald trump is using the same playbook. he is out in front in terms of advertising, spending, rallies, digitally, and the democrats are getting left behind. but can they do that when they don't have a single candidate?” but can they do that when they don't have a single candidate? i don't blame the primary candidates for this. they need to win the nomination. but we have other organisations that could be defining donald trump today in the same way his re—election campaign is trying to do to democrats. we have super packs. donald trump is talking to swing voters in battle ground states and we have to do the same thing. we keep saying joe biden has to do something but he is 20 points ahead of elizabeth warren but then i was looking back on history in the democratic party at front runners. of all the democratic hopefuls over

the past 50 years, only three eventual nominees were leading in the polls at this time a year ahead of the convention and they are walter mondale, al gore and hillary clinton, three candidates who did not go on to win the white house. joe biden can't just not go on to win the white house. joe biden can'tjust sit on this like an edge and hope it is going to hatch. when joe lieberman had the most national name id heading into the primaries but he got chipped away through the process, that could happen to joe biden. joe away through the process, that could happen tojoe biden. joe biden is strong among african—american voters, particularly older, and i think you will see senators harris and booker in particular try to win them back tonight. vice president biden had a very weak first debate performance that didn't inspire confidence that he could to take on

trump so he has to have a comeback performance tonight. we have said democrats see him as the most likely of these candidates to beat donald trump and that is what is all—important to trump and that is what is all—importa nt to democrats trump and that is what is all—important to democrats but i was surprised last night they didn't mention donald trump once. i imagine that tonightjoe biden is going to go there. i think that was a mistake democrats had last night. we have some ideological scores to settle on the direction of the party but no aspect of the democratic agenda will be accomplished with donald trump in office and i think we have to determine who can take him on. i think it would be smart not only for joe biden but all of the candidates tonight to show they can be that candidate. thank you. i was watching your tweets last night. i know you were listening. it went on for three hours. we saw the

pictures of the theatre, but a p pa re ntly pictures of the theatre, but apparently it gets quite warm in there and they said last night it was a test of stamina, which will be important when we are watching joe biden. there are a tonne of people on the stage, it means a tonne of stage lights as well, and campaigns are incredibly conscious that the choreography of these debates matters a lot. you only have to go to 1960 and look at nixon and jfk, and in theirfirst to 1960 and look at nixon and jfk, and in their first presidential debate, richard nixon was sweating on stage, and you know what his campaign did? for the second debate they turned the air conditioning ups to make sure the candidates did not look old and frail compared to his opposition. i would look old and frail compared to his opposition. iwould not look old and frail compared to his opposition. i would not be surprised ifjoe biden's team is looking closely at air—conditioning and such

to make sure he looks like he the stamina. borisjohnson was in northern ireland today, on his third and final stop, on his tour of the united kingdom. the prime minister met with leaders from each of the five main parties in belfast, encouraging them to step up their efforts to restore devolved government at stormont. northern ireland has been effectively run by civil servants since the power—sharing dup/sinn fein coalition collapsed two and a half years ago. and on his arrival in belfast mr johnson repeated his promise to take the uk out of the eu on october 31st come what may. here's the dup‘s arlene foster and sinn fein's mary lou macdonald speaking separately after their meetings with mrjohnson. what we want to see is a sensible way forward that recognises that the whole of the uk are leaving the european union, the republic of ireland are staying in the single market, and therefore we have to find a way of dealing with that. we can do that, i believe firmly we can do that, but there has to be a willingness on both sides to be able to achieve that.

he tells us that he will act with absolute impartiality. we have told him that nobody believes that. nobody believes that because there are no grounds to believe that there is any kind of impartiality, much less strict impartiality. brexit and the trump election are inextricably linked — those are the words of steve bannon, the man who worked in the white house as donald trump's chief strategist. last month video footage showed mr bannon discussing his ties with boris johnson — something the british prime minister dismisses. either way, steve bannon was certainly connected in the white house and, since he left in 2017, there have been reports that he's been trying to build a network of nationalists across europe. 0ur north america editorjon sopel has been to speak with steve bannon, at the us—mexico border where's he has been busy pushing for a border wall. when theresa may and the team came over earlier in the administration,

they looked at brexit as an obstacle to be overcome, not an opportunity to be grabbed. you could tell, i think, right away. if you look at 16, brexit and the trump election are inextricably linked. here we are, what, two and a half, three years later on brexit and you are still not out. now you have a hard deadline on october 31. the british people have not seen, i don't think, even the beginning of the turmoil. i think the beginning of the turmoil is about to start. with a hard brexit? i have said from the beginning, a no deal hard out is the way to go. you are about to go in now to what we call in football the red zone, you are about to go into what is really going to be tough, choppy, and true leadership is going to come to the forefront. i think everybody in the united kingdom, all the voters, even people that were remain people, are saying that that october 31 is a hard date, and we will have to see what happens. i can tell you if you are not out, i think it really, fundamentally

changes british politics. let's talk about the wall, because here we are with this bit of privately built wall. donald trump came to power on the back of that powerful slogan, "build a wall." he has now been in office two and a half years and is responsible for next to nothing being built. because he has been fighting for this from day one but, remember, it is the permanent political class he has been fighting, it is the courts he has been fighting, obviously the progressive democrats are very, the open borders types, really understand that this is going to be central to the 2020 election, so they have fought him every step of the way. the other charge that is made against the president is that the way he does this is racist. i think that is the mainstream media just blowing it up. if you come down here, talk to the local people, it is the crime that has been brought here, 0k? it is the competition forjobs that has been brought here. it is actually anti—racist. what present trump is trying to do is protect african—american and hispanic workers and people in these cities.

hang on, so when the president then talks to four american congresswomen who have got backgrounds from abroad and says, "you should go back to your own country," is that racist? i think what he said was, "you should go back..." look, here is the thing, he was making a point, it was not racist. he was making a point, particularly like with congressman 0mar, which what she says is what she says... go back home? and we should beat her at the polls. what somebody should do is run against her and beat her. i actually think she helps us because she is so anti—american but look... the president... the president of the united states has his own house style. i just want to bring you back to 2020 and steve bannon's role in 2020. are you going to be back in 2020? i am back now. listen, i have got much more opportunity outside, that's why i left the white house. do you think you might get brought back inside? i would never accept and never go back. everything that i do, that i work on, is in support of president trump's re—election.

still very vocal. how influential? a matter for debate. let's speak now to our ireland correspondent emma vardy who's at stormont. there are some people who might be concerned by that. there are many people who fear a no—deal brexit. particularly because of what it may do to trade. trading talks between north and south in the island of ireland are interlinked. changing that very close relationship as big implications for business. it is forecast that the republic of ireland could suffer more than 50,000 job losses overnight and that is because putting a trade border in

place means tariffs, checks. a lot of the fears are really grounded in what it will mean for business, jobs and for trade. of course northern ireland's dup are backing prime minister borisjohnson's ireland's dup are backing prime minister boris johnson's plans ireland's dup are backing prime minister borisjohnson's plans to ditch the backstop and the sea keep no deal on the table because if you don't play hard ball with no deal on the table because if you don't play hardball with the eu then what is the point in negotiating. in the new borisjohnson error, nervous times ahead because he is now wrapping up the plans to raise a made and taking brexit in a new direction. —— the plans to raise a —— theresa may made. direction. —— the plans to raise a -- theresa may made. are these sort

of divisions you are talking about and the fears of a no deal, do they play into the hands of some of those real ira members who are looking backwards rather than forwards?” think that dissidents in a range of organisations, not just the think that dissidents in a range of organisations, notjust the new ira we have been hearing about recently, ican we have been hearing about recently, i can see brexit as a time to be exploited because suddenly anything to do with northern ireland and the border is getting a lot of media coverage but i think their actions are certainly not linked directly to it because, you know, the arguments of the dissidents go back much more historically than brexit, but it has been exploited. there are a lot of arguments from people who say you cannot link brexit with the troubles because northern ireland has moved on so because northern ireland has moved on so much. yes, there are pockets of the hardcore dissident republicanism linked to violence but northern ireland as a place has come so northern ireland as a place has come so far that there would be no

immediate overnight return to the trouble is, there just immediate overnight return to the trouble is, therejust isn't immediate overnight return to the trouble is, there just isn't the appetite for it. the old ira members, if you like, are now decades older and long beyond that sort of violent struggle of the past. but people here are deeply scarred by the troubles. it is an emotive border. sometimes the arguments are notjust about trade but they go very deep year and play to people's memories of a time of conflict which has now passed. how much appetite is therefore a referendum on unity? sinn fein today saying after prime minister johnson's visit if there is a no—deal brexit they are calling for an instant referendum on unity. how much support? throughout the brexit process it has brought to the arguments about a border poll, irish unity, back to the fore. conversely, sinn fein are very strongly opposed

to brexit, northern ireland as a whole voted to remain in the eu, but to the prospect of a no—deal brexit growing actually strengthens the possibility of a border poll and increases the likelihood in many people's opinion of the prospect of irish unity, something that perhaps before the brexit referendum seemed a distant possibility. conversely, sinn fein are arguing for the softest possible brexit, they would prefer not to have it at all. but to have the hardest form of it, in one way, actually doesn't move them closer to their ultimate goal in their ideology which is to create their ideology which is to create the set of circumstances needed for a border poll. it would have to be called by the secretary of state, and would be opposed very strongly by the democratic unionists here. interesting to watch those polls and

see how those go on whether there is some support for some kind of unity referendum. it takes around 20 hours to fly from the uk to brisbane, australia. a fair bit longer on a bike. in fact who would be mad enough to even try it? the answer — gap year student ben hollis, aged just 19. he left his home in leicester last august and ben has just arrived in brisbane after travelling 18,000 kilometres, that's just over 11,000 miles on two wheels. this along thatjourney he has crossed 30 different countries and has survived on a budget of £7.50 a day. that makes last summer's 100 miles, your 100 miles looks a little short by comparison. but quite a heroic effort last year, still talking about it here! this is beyond 100 days from the bbc. coming up for viewers on the bbc news channel and bbc world news... north korea test fired another two missiles. we will speak to a former

cia operative about donald trump's approach to dealing with kim jong un. and a warning from climate change experts that the uk needs to plant more trees. the weather has been making the headlines over the last 2a hours not least because of the flooding affecting parts of yorkshire. you can see on yesterday's radar picture. some spots seeing 100 millimetres of rain in a few hours, more than we would expect in the whole month of july. more than we would expect in the whole month ofjuly. similar areas will be affected through the rest of this afternoon. there is the potential for more disruption and perhaps more localised flooding. also some severe thunderstorms likely in central and western parts of scotland. these will be slow—moving because the winds will

be very light. northern ireland and into wales in the south of england it is drier than yesterday. temperatures 19—21. this evening and tonight, low pressure bringing all this turbulent weather starts to move into the north sea. more dry weather through the night, clear spells, patches of cloud, and a little cooler than last night. here is the low pressure tomorrow morning, out into the north sea. also not many white lines, isobars on this chart, so the winds will be pretty light, certainly lighter than yesterday. there will be some showers but not as many over the last couple of days and they probably will not be as heavy either. you can see some in scotland, down across northern england, may be the odd one in the south—west moving towards central and southern england. a bit more

sunshine, temperatures a little higher. 0n sunshine, temperatures a little higher. on friday, one or two showers perhaps across parts of scotland, the east of england, the chance of showers in the south—west, parts of central and southern england. in the sunshine, slightly higher temperatures. into the weekend, very weak ridge of pressure trying to keep things settled. it probably won't be enough to cool off all of the showers, there could be the odd one on saturday. by sunday a frontal system approaches from the west and we will see some rain at times.

this is beyond one hundred days, with me, katty kay in washington, christian fraser is in london. our top stories... the us federal reserve cuts interest rates, by bya by a quarter of a percent, the first time its done so in more than a decade. democratic presidential contenders go head to head in a tv debate over how to beat donald trump in the 2020 election. coming up in the next half hour... the nordic country where more than half the population have had their genomes tested. is this the future of medicine? plus, the austrian town of 800 people that gets a million tourists a year. we'll look at why hallstatt is proving to be so popular.

north korea has conducted its second weapon's test in less than a week, firing two short—range ballistic missiles off its east coast. the tests come as negotiations have stalled. secretary of state mike pompeo says no new high—level talks are currently scheduled between us and north korean officials. kimjong—un appears to want to keep his relationship with president trump, but he also wants to push the us to relax the sanctions that are squeezing his country's economy. last night those missile tests came up at the democratic debate as a question on how to handle the north korean leader. ido i do not think president of the united states meet with dictators, we saw what just united states meet with dictators, we saw whatjust happened with donald trump, he goes to the dmz with the leader of north korea, gives him a huge photo op, gives him global credibility because the most powerful person in the world is sitting there and meeting with him and weeks later he is lobbing more

missiles. your response? i think we agree but you have to leave open the possibility of meeting with anyone at any place. that is what the democratic candidates had to say. i'm joined now by former cia officer phil mudd, and author of a new book black site: the cia in the post—9/11 world. let's start with north korea because it is back in the news. are the democratic candidates right that tim ryanis democratic candidates right that tim ryan is saying that donald trump and a sense precipitated this new round of missile attacks by closing up to a dictator? i am not sure there is an argument there. i think the question would be once you meet and suggest he will go down a path the north koreans are rightly going to say what will we get out of this and americans seem to be an american fashion and give us what you want —— what we want and north koreans are unsurprisingly saying when do we get sanctions relief? this is a message

to donald trump from the north koreans saying this is a two—way street until you start doing, giving something, we will go back. is there a risk of becoming a big message? absolutely, they know how to play the americans and there is a risk if there is not sanction relief that we may start seeing testing again. the director of national intelligence says thatjon with the texas republican, listen to what donald trump said yesterday about why that appointment as necessary. we need someone appointment as necessary. we need someone strong who can rein it in as i think you have all learned the intelligence agencies have run amok. they have run amok. there it is again the divide between the commander—in—chief in his intelligence agents. there is a minor bit of humour here and realise that every single one of those people heading the agency is is a

donald trump nominee but let me give you a translation, the subject areas where intelligence has an opinion, north korea, iran, russia, e—mail them and even the middle east, the intelligence community, saying things different than the president wa nts things different than the president wants them to say. this is about the president saying i do not care about the facts are, i want someone in the intelligence community to see how i wa nt intelligence community to see how i want them to speak and i think it is dangerous. it is interesting, your walk stomach writing about black sites which did not come up, there was a brief question about afghanistan but the issue of terrorism does not come up in 2019 and a us presidential debate but still discussed a lot and terrorism threats in the uk, and other countries in europe but not here in america? we have luxuries here in terms of distance, dead pacific and

atla ntic terms of distance, dead pacific and atlantic and in the ways we hope here, i think it is great that we have that melting pot where immigrants come to our country, but leaders in the uk and in the united states, leaders have the ability to drive the debate and it is about things like the president assad problem with immigrants and he does not talk about it and i'll —— at all. he talked about the post 9/11 world and the cia and dealing with the second wave feared so where will we be in america, is a threat less thanit we be in america, is a threat less than it was in that post 9/11 days where are we sitting with you and the cia today, we would see week to week threats and people being taken out would it surprise us?” week threats and people being taken out would it surprise us? i think it would still surprise you looking over the shoulder as the place i sad

but when you look at the contrast quickly we did not know a lot about the adversary and 2001, 2002 or 2003, and we did not know how al-qaeda was organised. we did not have an infrastructure to go after them and taken out. now we have a lot about the adversaries and how to fight them and there is a global coalition including europeans you are very good at this after 17 years of practise i think we will face a threat again where isis reemerges again but we are in a place that is fundamentally different than we were 17 years ago. thank you very much for coming and. a second death linked to the ebola virus has been confirmed in the city of goma in the democratic republic of congo. the latest outbreak of ebola is the second largest in the disease's history, and has so far led to more than 1,600 deaths in the drc since august 2018. so far the disease had been contained to the country's more remote areas, in the north kivu and ituri provinces. the latest victim came

from the north—eastern province of ituri, but fell ill on the outskirts of goma onjuly 13th, where he died on wednesday. the densely—populated provincial capital lies just across a porous border from the rwandan city of gisenyi. the announcement of a second death left goma residents careful and frustrated. translation i am very scared of the bullet it is a dangerous disease, debbie, they are asking people to wash their hands. instead of touching them you can bless them without putting your hands on their head and we followed this rule, inc. and mike comes from health authorities. we are really piled in together and no room to move, you arrive tired out so yes there is contact, there is no way to avoid this contact.

as you know that is a poor and u nsta ble as you know that is a poor and unstable areas are trained to contain the outbreak is proving particularly difficult. around 100 homeless people had to flee the camps when a fresh file —— brush fire tore through a park in california. the los angeles fire department responded to the blaze — close to north hollywood — which burned through about 10 acres of land. officials are working to relocate those affected. there are fresh talks between british airways and pilots in an attempt to avoid a strike action over a pay dispute. members of the pilot's union, balpa, are expected to strike in august — one of the busiest holiday periods. the court of appeal refused to grant an injunction — brought by ba managers — to block the industrial action. a wildlife photographer says his picture of a humpback whale "swallowing" a sea lion is the first time the incident has ever been caught on camera. the moment was captured in monterey bay, california. chase dekker says he took the photo when the humpback was feeding on a school of anchovies when it ended up with something much

larger in its mouth. amazing. that is exactly what i do when i have been anchovy on my pizza, which is what he is doing with the sea lion. no idea what that was going. you've heard of the green new deal — now there's the green real deal. in a subtle rebuke to more progressive democrats, president 0bama's former energy secretary is proposing a climate change platform that works with big business not against it. the notion is that to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions you need to build broad coalitions, including with corporate america. the plan has been drawn up by former energy secretary ernest moniz and i was speaking to him earlier. you are working on something called the green real deal and we heard a lot about the green new deal and is your title a criticism? it is building on the foundation of the green new deal which has a

commitment to low carbon and we take those as founding principles of green real deal but we are trying to move to an implementable programme as opposed to a statement of principles. you worked in government say you understand the politics that has often been the politics that prevented climate proposals from being enacted. how do you differentiate different areas at the country and what could work politically in one area but not in another area? the political coalition building is absolutely central and that is where putting forward what it might sound like great which is where you are listening to conservative... if we do not get that coalition built... climate change proposals and america

diallo... alice climate change proposals and america alice and apart of a group and the vatican signed by oil and gas ceos and leaders of major financial institutions and they are the state m e nts institutions and they are the statements where the need for carbon pricing and for corporate disclosures on carbon performance so i think the directions are right however i have to say generally speaking we are not moving in anything like the pace required so i think the talk is much improved but walking the talk now becomes the major issue. on the statement of regional, which is part of the coalition building as you suggest, we have been walking the talk in the sense of doing green real deal analysis before putting out the formal framework, we have analysis before putting out the formalframework, we have been doing the study on like california, you got to my home state of massachusetts and you do not find those advantages and we have to find other ways of getting to low carbon.

similarly wind is a rather poor resource in california but great in the middle of the country and we have to figure out how to move that wind to major loading centres etc, so they are different physical and political situations and for example in california, going back to california one of the negatives in my view for reaching that 2030 goal ofa my view for reaching that 2030 goal of a 40% reduction is nuclear is off the table. if you had a couple of power plants and california that would a you in reaching that goal. thank you for coming and. sang with green issues... there was a huge response yesterday to the story of a record breaking day of tree planting in ethiopia. and it has spurred a lot of debate on social media as to whether other countries should be following suit. the ethiopians planted a mammoth 350 million new seedlings. they shut down some public offices to allow civil

servants to take part. across africa countries are banding together to build a ‘great green wall‘ of trees — spanning 8,000km across the width of the continent. india is also making progress, pledging to increase the size of their forests by a massive 95 million hectares by 2030 as part of the paris climate agreement. with me in the studio is sarah lom, head of the uk based charity the tree council. there are calls after this big event yesterday for us to get back here to planting trees. 30,000 hectares of trees we need to print every year in the last time we did that was in 1989 and what is going on?” the last time we did that was in 1989 and what is going on? i think it is fantastic that there is the increased interest at the moment and tree planting with the treat council and a 25 year environmental plan and the committee report and the government saying we will commit to net zero but everybody liking ethiopian needs to get involved now

and tree planting. that is what i was tweeting last night, maybe we have a green finger day and we print out a tree and get a day off work and we plant some trees, without work or will be need planning permission? you need a lot of planning involved in the need to get eve ryo ne planning involved in the need to get everyone involved but actually it is quite easy. the key thing is to get the right tree in the right place and other key thing is to look after the trees. you have to water it. and to remember that trees do regenerate themselves so just letting them do their own thing can also be extremely effective. i can see more trees joining extremely effective. i can see more treesjoining the pond extremely effective. i can see more trees joining the pond and the back garden in london fairly soon. there are3 garden in london fairly soon. there are 3 trillion trees on earth and it is higher than the numbers that nasa originally thought but my understanding is the magic number for reducing climate change is 1

trillion more trees. how are we going to politically get enough land to do that? farmers would object saying that this is my farmland and people in cities and you will not be able to uproot cities, is it politically possible to plan a trillion trees? i believe it is possible with the goodwill of everybody, especially working with the farmers and developers and putting a tree and a school playground or in people's garden and pa rt playground or in people's garden and part of that target also is to plant 200,000 kilometres of hedgerows which sounds like a big number and five times the circumference of the earth but if you go back a few decades that is what we had as our hedgerows he felt maybe if we let our hedgerows, farmers them being very tight about if we let them get untidy and let them grow it would help as well as creating wonderful

wildlife corridor is around the uk. all sorts of financial incentives from government at the moment and what plans to plant them but does it matter where we plant trees and most of our pollution is in the cities should we be planting in and around we are living? i think it is important to have been three years and if you want to have a very big and if you want to have a very big and targeted carbon sequence of the big forest will do it but what trees do apart from gathering carbon and give us shade and fled in mediation, it makes people feel better and it is important to have been in the cities and it can be hard because services under the road and no one knows and there are ways of doing it and everyone has got to make trees pa rt and everyone has got to make trees part of their everyday life. there is no copyright on green finger day so if you want to take that and run

with it and want me to come and present with it, i am always available. iam i am having a little bit of an electric car moment because we just planted six trees and our small back garden in washington. this is beyond 100 days. still to come... what secrets do your genes hold? people in iceland are aware. we'll hear why more than half the country has had their genetic make—up sequenced and analysed. more heavy rain is causing disruption across swathes of northern england, with flooding tonight in cheshire and south manchester. yesterday a month's worth of rain fell in just four hours in parts of north yorkshire. bridges collapsed and roads were washed away. judith moritz reports. pulled out of the flood, this toddler was carried out of raging water. his family were in the car

when rescuers reached them. they came round the fields and waded through to the back of our car and rescued us and a few others from the boot of the car. from the boot of the car? the boot, yeah, i guess we were on a slope, it seemed like the water was lowest and slowest that way. this was a deluge, a flash flood which submerged cars, washed roads away and destroyed bridges. hailstones hammered down on this housing estate in leyburn. you could not believe what you were filming? no. absolutely not. alison was in disbelief as she videoed the storm on her phone. today she was left to clear up and reflect on the speed with which the flood took hold. there was a carpet of hailstones across everywhere, it was like winter, like it had snowed. the next thing i heard was gurgling up my plughole in the bathroom. i have never heard that before. and the rain started and i went downstairs to make a cup of tea

and realised the water was coming through the door. down the road the fire station was underwater. whilst the firefighters were working hard to help those affected, their own cars were flooded and written off. tonight the region is dealing with the aftermath and hoping there is no more to come, but the environment agency said heavy downpours and flash flooding were the result of climate change and more intense weather events are likely in future. judith moritz, bbc news, north yorkshire. how do you feel about having your genes being mapped for medical purposes? plenty of countries experimenting at the moment. but iceland has gone further than most — more than half of the population have had their genomes analysed. compare that to the number here in the us, where something like 6% of people have had it done.

the aim of such widescale testing is to learn more about the common diseases within a population. once you know a persons genetic makeup you can tailor a health plan and medicines to suit their particular quicks. kari stefansson is the chief executive and founder of the firm decode genetics, which has been collecting and studying icelandic genomes for more than two decades. he joins us now from reykavik. the great thing about this story and suddenly you have a very big test case year and half the country and iceland are having their genes mapped. with you hope to get from it? first of all we have been mapping genomes and iceland to discover new knowledge about human disease and part of the goal is to use that knowledge to make better medicines with these diseases and

use the information to put together what you call position medicine programmes today to make sure when you are prescribing a medicine it is not just matching the you are prescribing a medicine it is notjust matching the disease but also the genetic makeup of the patient. with many of these diseases there is more than one way which the disease can be brought about. are people reluctant at all to have their genes tested? we live in an area where people are concerned about privacy? now, people are pleased and helping to discover new knowledge about the disease and that applies not just to knowledge about the disease and that applies notjust to people and iceland but elsewhere and when you think about it, the rest of the world at least, there are programmes

in place to work on genetic discovery, to try to implement the delivery of health care. and i think that great britain probably is leading the way with very big programmes. it is not a great line and we will leave it there but a fascinating topic and a fascinating issue going on there and iceland. i am not sure how i feel about it. i have been to the health to have my whole body not to and i have loads of tests i have to do and i think if i also knew what was in my genes... and i might not be very happy about iti and i might not be very happy about it i might get worried. or maybe you would be less often at the hospital because the doctors would have a genome sequence for you and they would tailor things to bring into things for you and you can make medical intervention were efficiency do not have to spend so much i would

lead a healthier life and not lead a midlife crisis. you may not have heard of a little town in the austrian alps called hallstatt. but it has become a major tourism hotspot, in somewhat bizarre fashion. hallstatt is a world heritage site. only 800 people live there but it gets a million tourists every year. it's now so famous that in china, they've built a replica of the town. bethany bell reports on how hallstatt is coping with all the attention. hallstatt is something of an outline dream, the hills are alive with the sound of tourists. 0ver dream, the hills are alive with the sound of tourists. over the last ten yea rs sound of tourists. over the last ten years there has been a huge increase in the number of visitors here. at two 8000 forests, ten times the population here arrived every day.

many come from china. know when and hallstatt is really sure why this place became such a magnet for tourists, ten years ago it was much quieter here but now it has even been cloned. and china they built a replica of the village complete with church and the town square. the theme is partly due to social media, particularly in asia. we come and from some apps and china and recommend the place so we came here. icame to recommend the place so we came here. i came to hallstatt for taking a picture and to upload on the internet and my profile and send to my family. tourism has been great for hallstatt‘s economy. my family. tourism has been great for hallstatt's economy. the advantages are that we have become financially independent, we cannot

balance our budget but now that has changed and we can develop around projects and offer a lot to our population. but not everyone here is happy with the developments. some locals say there are simply too many tourists. we have a lot of short—term visitors to swamp the place and leave after two or three hours and that is not so good for the people who live here. there are plans to reduce the number of tour buses coming to hallstatt but it seems that last tour is here to stay. bethany bell, bbc news, hallstatt. how do you cope with something like that? you have to start finding places to go and hide away when no one else is going. they will all be coming to georgetown, one said it gets around china that you have six new trees, they will all pile and.

0rjust new trees, they will all pile and. or just recreate my new trees, they will all pile and. 0rjust recreate my garden and china. and my pond.” 0rjust recreate my garden and china. and my pond. i will give you an update on the here and one of these days. early days of august should see showers becoming fewer and lighter and we had quite a few downpours and thunderstorms and lightning particularly across more western parts of scotland and there has been at the thunderstorms pushing into northern england and this is the main focus of the rain showers today. not the same intensity we had yesterday but nevertheless more wet weather around. close to that area of low pressure bringing wet weather over the past couple of days and sitting over northern england for a while, starting to push its way east and takea while, starting to push its way east and take a way a lot of the showers and take a way a lot of the showers and becoming some dry and breaks in the cloud. temperatures 11—14d and

maybe some showers continuing with that crowd across parts of scotland. the main focus of the showers is now out into the north sea for thursday so more places will be dry but still the potential of some heavy downpours and may be a rumble of thunder as well most places will start dry on thursday a bit for a while around the coast around the edge of low pressure but the wind should be lighter. heavy showers developing and scotland and perhaps north of england in the afternoon and southern counties of northern england as well. some dry sunshine around and temperatures may be a bit higher than they were today. as we look towards cricket, the first day of the first test match and the ashes and just the chance of one or two showers on the law i think it will be dry. some temperatures into the low 20s. friday it looks sort of similar with showers developing again and mainly going to be

affecting northern england and southern most parts of england and showers should be lighter by friday and they are typically into the low or may 22. and the weekend another area of low pressure on the scene. this one looks like it will stay out on the atlantic and the weather fronts are coming in from the west and there might be one or two showers on saturday and most places might be dry with some sunshine. quite dry for the second half of the weekend and further north and west for a chance of some patchy rain.

also this is bbc news, i'm geeta guru murthy. the headlines at eight. a damning report into the abuse of hundreds of children in care in nottingham, sexually abused by the people who were supposed to be looking after them. one woman who was in care at 11 says she still suffers nightmares. you learnt very quickly that you were basically just their entertainment. we were there for their entertainment, whatever they wanted to do. we'll be speaking to the lawyer representing some of those abuse victims. the other main stories on bbc news at eight o'clock. bridges collapse and hundreds of homes are flooded in north yorkshire as almost a month's rain falls in four hours. meanwhile parts of greater manchester and cheshire are underwater after 2a hours of torrential rain with more to come. sweeping into stormont the prime minister arrives