these days i like to give the little prince as a gift to young people. it is a book that contains truths that became universal, russia's arctic north and far east like it is only with the heart that are being ravaged by huge wildfires one can see clearly. what is essential is with up to 4 million hectares ablaze invisible to the eye . in vast areas engulfed by smoke. the little prince is still one eyes are common at this time of year of the best—selling children's stories worldwide. but record—breaking summer now for a hope of a chair for an affliction that affects us all. temperatures and strong winds have made this year particularly bad —— fires are common. the new director britain's common cold unit is a for national security, john remarkable institution. radcliffe, has withdrawn from considerationjust five radcliffe, has withdrawn from consideration just five days after set up after world war ii he was nominated for the role. critics say he lacked the expertise to investigate the illness and it became perhaps the only place in the world where thousands to ta ke of volunteers went on holiday knowing there was a strong chance critics say he lacked the expertise to take on the role. crowds in they would get ill. puerto rico are celebrating the formal resignation of the island's governor, ricardo rossello, he agreed to stand down as governor in the face of mass protests over bulga the unique aspect of the common cold text messages he showed with his unit was the volunteer set up. advisers. he will be replaced by they would come to catch a cold. it is a crazy thing pedro pierluisi. those are the really put people dead. headlines. let's have you back on the bed. this is the virus then. we will put this into your nose.

the governor of the bank of england, mark carney, has warned many businesses could weekly find they it gave us the ability to study a virus in its natural host. are not viable if the uk leave the and this was still eu without a deal at the end of a very rare thing. the common cold unit was set up october. he also told the bbc that by the medical research counsel after the second world war food and fuel prices could rise and to try to discover the cause of the common cold because incomes could also be hit. andy the number of working hours verity reports. of people lost to taking time off, it was for the productivity it isn't your usual halloween of the nation as a whole. nightmare, but the fear is that come october 31 a no—deal brexit could lead to a slowdown in imports entering the country. this time it could also hit firms hard, making the common cold unit was set many of them unprofitable. mark up for people to come there and they were a paid pocket carney says he is not playing up the money and real fair and they lived scare. with no-deal brexit doctor at salisbury for about ten days. the economy is instantaneous and that instantly you have the supply not just that instantly you have the supply notjust disruptions, i'm not talking about just the notjust disruptions, i'm not talking aboutjust the issues at the ports, which are real, but you have these bright young people were starting a holiday at a government expense, businesses that no longer are for it enables scientists to find out more about the common cold. economic —— shock. businesses that no longer are economic -- shock. a shift to the world trade organisation regime

means higher tariffs added to imported or exported goods. but what they would come and be mark carney is saying is that they could also be inflationary in other divided up into sets, ways. mark carney has highlighted those who are infected and those which got placebos. two things that could happen in a it was a big deal because no—deal brexit, one is that the the chances of getting a cold were pretty slim. pound gets weaker, so you're bound they had different motivations, by these you fewer dollars or euros some came for a rest or a holiday and some students came for studying to buy imported goods with, so those prices go up. —— pound. the other and we have a large body of housewives who came for a rest. thing is that the supply of goods from a broad slows down and that too could push up prices. it may take a while to get to borisjohnson‘s people did meet and there were lovely stories of romances. vision of a sunlit uplands after people could talk to each other no—deal brexit, mr carney says, but had to stay ten yards apart. because the week about expected on the markets could hit purses and ten yards was the magic distance over which the common cold virus couldn't jump. wallets at petrol stations, vocals, and grocery stores. most businesses 18,000 volunteers are now believed are now as prepared as they can be. to have spent time in isolation mr carney‘s view isn't the only one. at the unit, but a cold i think it is important to note there are different types of no cure remains elusive. deal. mark carney seems we talk about the worst possible type which about the time ijoined the unit i think isn't going to happen they discovered how to grow

because some businesses have done the virus in cell culture and then some preparations. think it would be if rather than throw us scary the science took off. soundbites now and then mark carney and his team at the bank provided a it turns out there's not one common cold virus, full set of forecasts of what they but hundreds of them, actually think will happen. there is and that makes vaccines no sign yet that the bank of england is ready to do that. no need to very difficult. really scare people. it's not halloween yet. andy verity, bbc and that is why we started out news. it is 2:33 in the morning. in seeing why some people are resistant and developing new tests this episode of witness history we for new viruses because it is about developing drugs hear from this episode of witness history we that could cure them or prevent them hearfrom a this episode of witness history we hear from a survivor of the khmer even if we cannot get vaccines. ruhs, the man who tried to find a myths were tested as well, cure for the common cold. this programme contains scenes of some for instance if you went out in the cold, particularly the rain viewers may find it distressing. —— and cold, and predispose you to catching colds, that some viewers. there was no evidence at all that any of these things affected an instance of the cold. in the end the common cold unit was closed for economic reasons. hello and welcome to witness history i think it was a big loss, here at the royal academy in london. scientifically. with me tanya beckett. today we present five extraordinary such facilities are very valuable moments in history as told to us and there are very few of them.

by the people who were there. a cure for the common cold, people are looking still. coming up, we meet the scientist to try to find the cure commercially it's still a very attractive proposition. nobody has yet managed to find one. for the common cold. the diver who discovered the lost but, we can always be optimistic. plane belonging to the author of the little prince and the african man who ran away as a boy to live professor nigel two, eminent in the arctic. virologist. —— dymock. that first, it's a0 years since the end of the brutal regime of the khmer rogue and cambodia. remember, you can watch witness around 2 million people are thought to have been killed every month on the bbc, and catch up under extremist rule. online with thousands of programmes this man survived for years in our archive. and what became known as the killing fields. just search online for bbc witness history. next the remarkable story of the boy who ran away from his village in togo to live in the arctic. he spoke to witness history a warning, this piece contains about his odyssey. i started a journey of discovery. some distressing images. only to find that i the cambodian people are the victims was being discovered. of a hideous experiment in communism that failed. the khmer rogue guerrillas tramped

i was one of them. in the spring of 1975. i became a kind the african eskimo. the man who emerged as the leader of the new cambodia was pol pot. it was a living hell. you cannot imagine. in togo, west africa. for the communist regime time began i was an ordinary african boy. when they took over, for them, 1975 became year zero, grotesque social engineering with class slaughter and mass uprooting of the population. they were extreme communist, year but one day i was on top zero means we start from scratch. of the tree, no electricity, no books, no education, nothing. and suddenly there was a snake... anyone educated had to be executed. i fell. and i was badly injured. doctors, teachers, and if you wear glasses, i lost many of my relatives and theyjust execute them, took them away and never saw them again. after my convalescence i went to the missionary bookshop. and i saw a book, eskimoes from greenland to alaska.

literally millions of people were marched out to the countryside to begin building the new society. and i learned that it is so cold in greenland that there are no snakes. "oh, where is that paradise?" i was obsessed with the eskimos. at the time — i think i must have been 17. people said, "you i remember that morning are completely mad." i ran away from togo. we were in the kitchen, having breakfast. i was 16 and a half. i heard a knock at the door and i saw two sergeants to both pointed their guns at me and shouted it took me eight years at me to get out of my house right to get to greenland. i was the first black now or i will shoot you. man they had ever seen. everyone packed on the road, as soon as they saw me, all talking stopped. on the bicycle or motorbike and the children were so afraid. and everyone seemed to panic. if you stopped or were not moving you wear shot. and all young soldiers, 12, 14, 15. some started weeping. but i was always welcomed by the eskimo hosts, who became my friends. i went to the north. that is very beautiful. the young guerillas, they were being pushed by the communist regime, khmer rogue, they look at you like you are the enemy, and i saw the eskimos living

they hated you so much. according to their traditions. i had to learn everything from them. i had to learn their language. one of my cousins was taken right in front of me and the pol pot army, please release my son, we also eat seals and the skin of the white whale which i did not he isjust a student. appreciate at all. if you ask again or cry, i will shoot you as the same time at the beginning, i was afraid of your son, they took him away and we have never seen him again. i heard the screaming, begging, for my stomach but slowly, crying, children crying, it's a horrible atmosphere. slowly i became accustomed to the climate. i was happy. on the road, on the pavement, you because i really can see the bloodstains on it. they send me to work in the rice conquered my freedom. paddy and basically you got to work all day. my food allowance would be i really wanted to live a small bowl of rice, for one day. forever in greenland. it seemed to me that we just but my countrymen have were not treated like human beings. never seen it before, and when they execute people we never saw where they took them they have never seen

until the waterflood came out the polar night before, and you could see the body there. never seen the polar lights before, i seen many things and i said to myself, and i got used to them. "after the slavery and colonisation, by the end of khmer rogue's year why can't i write for my people to see the eskimos through our eyes?" so i decided to go back. zero, nearly half of cambodia's people were dead — professional it took me five years. people, systematically murdered. but my deepest wish would be to end my life and greenland. you cannot imagine, a human being, how could anyone at age 12 or 13 can it is my country. shoot you because they had been brainwashed, this could have happen to anybody. yes. it could happen any minute the extraordinary tete—michel if you are not aware that. kpomassie. and finally, tunisia became one of the first muslim countries to introduce far—reaching sokphal din, who regularly speaks to children in schools about the dangers equal rights for women. of political extremism. in 1957, the president said women next, injuly 19114, the author should be able to vote, go to school, divorce

of the world famous children's story and marry on their own terms. the little prince disappeared in his he allowed abortion, access to contraception and he banned polygamy. plane over the south of france. he solved the mystery he was part of the of the missing plane. tunisia women's union. translation: after so many years searching across the mediterranean it is here that we saw the wreckage the women who ten years ago had no of the plane belonging to the author of the little prince. rights and were contracted to marriage by their parents and covered their faces when they left the house, these tunisians are not doing at all badly. this is, one imagines, this place had become inhabited by the little prince, as emancipated as any girl can get. from eating out lies here under the swinging tunisian dollybirds the sea and marseilles. represent one of the most remarkable social transformations of present times. it's his refuge. the equal rights law was the biggest gain for tunisian women. the president said he was notjust a liberator of tunisia but tunisian women as well. for 30 years he fought

for his country, battling for independence from france and was jailed and exiled over exile. antoine de saint—exupery or saint x, he is universally revered and france —— for his trouble. not just of the author of the little prince but as a pioneering air man and romantic free spirit. since independence, he has there was also at the been his nation's leader. mystery of his death. i knew him against the struggle translation: i became interested in the disappearance of him against colonialism. because i read his books when i was young and his thinking came to influence me in the equal rights law throughout my life. he banned polygamy. and france we tend to say that you need to read it in two different he gave women social and economic rights and introduced the law stages of your life. it was not until i was 40 that on the 13th of august, 1956. i came to understand it and all its subtleties. women were allowed to vote and also to become politicians. onjuly the 31st at 7:45pm, i am one of the founders saint—exupery took off for a high altitude reconnaissance mission. of the tunisian women's union and he relied on us. taking off from corsica towards the second world war, 100 miles from tunis, a teacher hammers home the facts of female life to 30 teenagers. he disappeared, no one knew there are 13 such schools whether he was shot down or simply staffed by the union,

crashed and no one knew where. a powerful embodiment of opinion in the land. the teacher leaves them no doubts about their rights. translation: we think he was spotted she tells them that they by a german gunner who saw a twin are not slaves any more, engine plane flying towards marseilles. they are like european women he was 44 years old and one and have equal rights with men. of the oldest pilots in the war this you must understand. this law protected girls. at the time. fathers were no longer able when i used to dive in that area i would find bits of planes to force girls to marry but i always thought they were from a german plane. against their will and the president in 1998, a fisherman found a piece encouraged us to make sure families of plain in his next along were not stopping girls from with a little bracelet. getting an education. and to our surprise on that bracelet was lit in the name saint—exupery. i need those bits of wreckage so i decided to investigate. the main part of the wreckage they are taught about contraception, was at a depth of 87 metres, abortion and laws giving them equal rights. it was about two km from the coast. after three months here they return to their villages to spread the word, because it is here in we did not find any visible human remains. the countryside that the modern but while i was at the back of the wreckage i caught sight remained for centuries of a wild cough and i tried to grab the stronghold of tunisian men.

it and put it around my neck we spoke to men more than we did like a scarf. to women because we faced opposition from them. we spent a lot of time meeting men and explaining the law to them. family traditions used to oppress girls. but now they're free the image that came into my mind to choose who to love. was that of the little prince tunisian women were given another on his planet with his big scarf floating in the wind. safeguard against families on that day under the water i was convinced i found 00:12:20,941 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 the right plane. when they became the first women in any muslim country able to have abortions. the law at present states that any tunisian woman with four children can have an abortion without her husband's consent, and the operation is paid for by the government. the president told us to make women feel like they have a role to play, that they have the right to live and dignity and trust themselves and their soul. he said he gave women these rights not as a gift,

but because he saw women's power to lead post—independence society. she continues to write and campaign on women's issues and tunisia. that is all from witness history this month, we will be back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history. from now, from me and the rest of the team, goodbye. friday saw a respite from the rain for many parts, although the severe flood warning remains in force at whaley bridge dam. and we do have more rain in the forecast later in the weekend, and into the new week. however the day should start for many dry, bright, a little bit of mist and fog inland

now the nights are getting longer, and it could be murky for a time near the east coast before the sunshine gets to work and melts that cloud away. but notice as we go through the day there is a chance of some showers for northern ireland, primarily, but there could be the odd heavy, thundery one across the hills of scotland, and perhaps the odd shower across northern england, north wales, but largely dry and fine in the south and east, it is worth stressing that many places will stay dry with spells of strong sunshine through the day today.

so there is reallyjust an outside risk of an interruption from a shower to edgbaston — nevertheless, that risk is real. for most of the time it should be dry and fine. but as time goes by through the coming evening, this low pressure advances on further east, there is an increasing risk we will start to pick up thicker cloud, drizzly rain and then, by the time we are heading towards morning, some heavy rain coming into northern ireland. ahead of that we are pulling in a southerly wind, so that will increase the temperature and humidity, so it will be warmer, if anything, through the coming night, temperatures 15 degrees in the central belt of scotland. with that extra humidity comes the risk of some more significant rain on sunday. bands of slow—moving, heavy and thundery showers are forecast for scotland, for northern ireland for a time, northern england, north wales, really anywhere from the midlands and lincolnshire northwards, but again, southern and eastern areas, largely fine and warm, warmer still, 26—27 on sunday. but given the risk of further heavy downpours in those areas already affected by flooding, the met office have issued that warning ahead of time. and actually it looks more unsettled then again in the next week, almost as if the weather is repeating its pattern, low pressure comes in and become slow—moving, and throws further spells of rain at us. we start that way on monday,

that clears up the way, some respite, heavy showers follow back into northern ireland, it will feel fresher on monday with that humid air clearing for a while, picking up more of a south—westerly wind for the start of the new week.

welcome to bbc news. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: vast swathes of arctic siberia are ablaze after intense summer