the vice presidential candidate, is due to formally accept her nomination forjoe biden's ticket. former president barack obama, and former first lady hilary clinton will top the list of speakers on the third night of the largely virtual event. a 16—year—old boy from sudan who disappeared at sea while apparently trying to reach the uk in a makeshift boat has been found dead on a french beach. it's believed the teenager is the first migrant to lose their life in the english channel this year. opposition supporters remain on the streets of belarus, as eu leaders agreed to impose sanctions on those involved in repression and election fraud in belarus. they described violence against demonstrators as "shocking and unacceptable", and also accused president lukashenko of rigging the poll to claim a landslide victory.

now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk with me, zeinab badawi. it's exactly a year since a historic power—sharing agreement was signed between the civilians and military in sudan after the fall of president bashir. my guest in this exclusive interview is the civilian prime minister, abdalla hamdok. the world celebrated with the sudanese people after the successful revolution, but has that euphoria now given way to harsh realities and unfulfilled expectations? prime minister abdalla hamdok in khartoum, welcome to hardtalk.

the euphoria at the removal of president omar al—bashir, how far is that really now a long—distant memory? thank you very much, zeinab, for having me on hardtalk. today marks the first anniversary of the signing of the constitutional document that paved the way for the establishment and the formation of the transitional government. and i think we have all the reason and the cause to celebrate the victory of the great sudanese revolution. it came about because of the judicious and hard work of the young people, women, and through that process, we toppled one of the most brutal dictatorships, and that is why we think... we mark it, we are celebrating it. also, this revolution has one

distinguishing factor. it has been very peaceful, providing many lessons for the world at large. things in sudan will never be the same again, and i think we are definitely moving in the right direction. all right, but there were a lot of negotiations to achieve that historic power—sharing agreement between the civilians and the military. what are your relations like with the military? a bit uneasy, or comfortable? zeinab, as you know, transitions are always messy. they are non—linear, they never travel in the same way, and this transition is probably one of the most challenging and complex transitions in our history. we had 2—3 transitions before, but this is the most complex one. we are working on what we call the sudanese model, which is a partnership

between the civilians and the military, and i think it is working well. we are very realistic about it. there are some challenges and problems and all that, but by and large, we are making headways and we are working within that confinement, and within that partnership, in an excellent fashion, addressing all the challenges that are facing us together. but obviously, not everybody is happy. in march, you survived an assassination attempt when the convoy you were travelling in was nearly blown up. how shaken were you by that, and do you know who was responsible? zeinab, this revolution was... ..or came about because of the huge sacrifice of our young people, of the entire nation. we lost so many lives. we have martyrs in this process, so my life is not much expensive to the cause of the nation.

i took that as part of the contribution we are making to our nation. yes, we started the process long back of addressing and then having an investigation on that assassination attempt. it is, of course, we know so well, coming from the operatives of the former dictatorship. we have arrested some people, and the investigation is continuing. we are getting some support and help from outside. covid also delayed this process a little bit, but we are working on that, and i think this will never derail us from continuing and working forward in the interest of our people. you have, as part of your reforms, removed a series of controversial laws that had been introduced by the former islamist regime of omar al—bashir — public order laws relating to women's freedoms, to apostasy, and so on. a sudanese legal expert, wail ali saeed, says, "sudan still has more work to abolish bashir—era

restrictions on personal freedoms and adopt international treaties and standards on the respect for human and civil rights." you've got a lot more to do, haven't you, to try to undo what the regime did? absolutely. this is 30 years of legacy. you cannot undo it overnight. we believe strongly we are moving in the right direction. we started by repealing those repressive laws. we went even further to repeal all the laws that restrict religious freedom, human rights, and all this. we think we are moving in the right direction, but the road is a long road, and we are determined to get there. but you've got to strike the right balance, haven't you, prime minister? there are a lot of conservative elements in sudan, many who supported the islamism of omar al—bashir, and the national congress party, bashir‘s former ruling party, says that there is now a battle between the secularists

and islam in sudan, and it's urging their supporters to go out on the streets. you've got a big problem on your hands. not really. actually, we believe the real struggle that our people are facing is the struggle for creating a better sudan, sudan that respects its people, its human rights, sudan that is working on building a better economy, a better place to live in. i don't think our burden today is about religion. the sudanese people has always been religious. they have always respected their religion and all that, but the real struggle for the people is on the economic front, on bringing peace to our people, and all that. there are so many elements of the former regime that want to push us in that direction, but our people understand this very well, and i know it so well, and nobody can push us in that direction. but really, i put it

to you again, one famous cleric in sudan, abdelhay yousef, says, "bringing down this government, which has legalised apostasy and other wrongdoing, is a duty for any muslim." you're now allowing the sale of alcohol again in the sudan. that's upsetting a lot of people. you've got to tread very carefully. zeinab, these are the distraction issues. we were not bothered with abdelhay and his likes. these are a small minority. you can see the number of demonstrations that take hold during the last few weeks, and so the sudanese people have come of age. they know so well what are their real battles and what are their real problems and challenges. so this is not taking us any way in that direction. all right, well, look, as we said, a year after the revolution, but life is still tough for the sudanese. the biggest headache you've got is the economy. consumer prices — inflation is about 136%. your external debt is about $60 billion. 60 million sudanese are living in poverty.

food insecurity. 40% of youth are unemployed. what are you doing to try to solve all this? when you came into office, you said, "i think with the right vision, with the right policies, we will be able to address the economic crisis." how much progress have you made? you see, zeinab, we have inherited a very serious 30 years of bad legacy. as you rightly put it, collapsing economy... on all fronts, all the statistics you've made, poverty, tax issues, institutions almost collapsing, banking sector, and all that. but this year provided us an opportunity for reflection, and we have put in place policies and programmes that will help us address all these ills. we are certainly moving in the right direction. we negotiated with the imf

a very ambitious programme that will pave the way for addressing the structural imbalances of the economy, reforming the banking sector, certainly reforming the tax, addressing all the imbalances, whether it is budget deficit or trade, or balance of payment and all that. we are moving in this respect in the right direction. we know things are yet for our people to improve, yet our people to reap the benefit of this great revolution, but i confidently believe we are moving in the right direction. but one big mystery which everybody is wondering about is, how can you try to implement these economic reforms when you change yourcaptain midship? the finance minister, ibrahim el—badawi, was among 7—8 key cabinet ministers who was removed from office in july. why did you do that?

you know, the reshuffle we did injuly, it was motivated by three factors. number one — this is a government that listened to the people, to the public. you had a huge demonstration on 30 june, marking the first anniversary of that demonstration last year, and they demanded change on a number of fronts. the second reason is about teamwork. we would like to have ministers that will be working in a perfect teamwork within the cabinet, with the political front, and all that. but most importantly, it is also dictated by performance. the minister of finance and others, these are people implementing a programme, not a personal agenda, so the programme of the government remained the same, which was articulated following the great slogan of the revolution —

freedom, justice and peace. ok, we've only got interim replacements at the moment, particularly in the finance ministry. we've got a senior finance ministry official in charge. when are you going to nominate new ministers? you know, the challenge and probably also the beauty of this arrangement of the transitional government, the prime minister is not on his own entirely free to appoint the ministers. we have, according to the constitutional document, embarked on a consultation process with the forces of freedom and change, which is the leader of this change... all right. you refer to the ffc, which is the forces from freedom and change, which is the umbrella coalition group of the civilian forces who were behind the revolution to remove omar al—bashir. all right, but one financial impediment which has hampered sudan's economic recovery

and reconstruction is the fact that it still remains on the list of us — the us list of states that sponsor terrorism. the us secretary of state, mike pompeo, said late injuly he wants to remove sudan from this list. he says, "it's a historic opportunity in its civilian transition, and that this is something that may happen in the very, very near term." how soon? do you know? we had hoped that this would have been lifted long back. you know, it is one of the major impediments and hurdles and challenges to us, to sudan being... ..or facing the state—sponsored terrorism list. we have been working with the us government for a while now. we think we are getting closer to a conclusion on this. delisting sudan is a game—changer. if we get out of that list, this will open the country for investment,

will reintegrate sudan in the international financial institutions. you know, today, we are almost cut off from the financial institutions. we have very limited correspondence banks. we are certainly punished because of this. we could not benefit from any assistance that has been given as grants to fight covid—i9, which we are suffering from, like the rest of the world, so it compounded our problems, which is already in a bad state. we hope that with our friends in the us government, various departments, and certainly, i very much appreciate the statement by secretary pompeo on reaching a conclusion on this file sooner rather than later. as you mention, sudan actually is one of the countries in africa which has been worst affected by covid—i9. around 13—14, 000 cases and about 800 deaths. so as you say, quite rightly, that has been a huge problem,

and exacerbated your economic situation. but apart from the economy, you've also got to meet the challenge of justice in sudan, and i'll tell you what the human rights watch east africa director jehanne henry said injune. she said, "one year on, victims of the bloody crackdowns have heard many promises, but are yet to see any form of accountability. failure to deliver risks betraying protesters‘ sacrifices and demands. " we saw close on 100 people losing their lives initially in the revolution, another 120 injune when protesters took to the streets, and they need justice and accountability for those who committed these killings. certainly we regret all the loss of life. we are working very hard in addressing this. but also when we came, we made a very serious undertaking and commitment that we would like to work towards establishing a judiciary system that is credible, independent of any

political interference, and that will take a while. we started this process, as you know so well, the way... we went a long way in addressing this by trying some of the perpetrators, the teacher, the martyr who was killed in the east of sudan, but also we tried the former president himself and he's behind bars. we are working on this but, again, covid—i9 derailed us for a while. but there are more than 11 court cases in the pipeline... all right. and we are very certain and determined that they will be tried and the perpetrators will be brought to justice. we have established, as you know, an investigation committee, headed by one of our very respectful lawyers, they are doing their work, they continue to report to us on their progress. 0k. but, again, we do not want to be seen and definitely

not want to interfere in the work of an independent investigation committee. we hope they will finish their investigation soon and that will pave the way for any trials and bringing those who committed these crimes to justice. all right. and can you state categorically, because, as you know, there are allegations that forces linked to the military council, which is part of the transitional government apparatus, could've been responsible at least for some of the killings that took place on 3june? you'll pursue the perpetrators regardless of where they are, even if they are within your structures of power today. i do not want to pass any judgment on the issue of the independent investigation, but certainly we are saying it categorically that anybody who is found to be implicated on those crimes will be brought tojustice. there's no person above this.

all right. also related to the issue of justice is obviously the conflict in regions of sudan like darfur, and there are still outstanding claims ofjustice that must be addressed, but there's also great concern about a resurgence of violence. and i tell you what the un office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs has said. "the escalation of violence in different parts of the darfur region is leading to increased displacement, compromising the agricultural season, causing the loss of lives and livelihoods and driving growing humanitarian needs. " what is your government doing to try to ensure that violence doesn't return in a major way to conflict—ridden areas of sudan, like darfur? certainly again, we regret any loss of life during this period. but the reason that we have this resurgence in the conflict, the ethnic conflict in darfur and a few other places in the country, like in port sudan, kassala and kadugli, these are,

by and large, the legacy of the former regime, which has incited ethnic groups against each other. these groups have been living together in harmony for centuries, but the former regime citing them for survival and therefore genocide is a case in point. since we came, we started addressing this issue and certainly we're making very serious progress. we've linked to the idp, the internally displaced persons, and we've started a peace process in juba with the forces of the armed struggle. all right. we think this violence can be addressed within the broader context of the peace process that is, this time, is built on addressing the root causes of the conflict, looking at issues of economic and social development, marginalisation, addressing

issues of legal compensation, claims and all that. 0k. addressing transitionaljustice and we're working on all this. because you absolutely have to, you refer to the peace process in juba, the capital of neighbouring south sudan, because political marginalisation, i'lljust tell you what one sudanese journalist, zeinab mohammed salih, writes about how such groups such as the people of darfur have faced discrimination and marginalisation and are often described in derogatory terms. just in a word, you absolutely say that they will be included in the power apparatus of sudan, the marginalisation of these groups will end. absolutely, i can categorically say that. all right. and onejust very quick answer on this. people have focused a lot on the trial of omar al—bashir, as you say, he's behind bars — could he be sent to the icc, the international criminal court, where he's been indicted on alleged war crimes relating to da rfur? absolutely he could. but as you know, the icc

is a court of last resort. if we could not try him in the country, then we are very happy and certain for him to face trial anywhere in the world. but certainly we are talking, we are in good contact with the icc, and there is good cooperation between us. and i think once we have a certain... ourjudiciary system is in place and it is credible, and i think we're confident that we can try all of them. failing this process... all right. ..we have no issues in sending all of... ok, sorry to interrupt you, though, cos we're running short of time, and i have a couple more things i need to ask you. you have said that sudan, under this new transitional government, can reassert itself and be an effective player regionally. one big problem in the region at the moment has been created by the grand ethiopian renaissance dam, which is using

waters from the blue nile on which both sudan and egypt depend for their agriculture. there has even been, according to the international crisis group, it says that, "countries could be drawn into conflict over the dam." just state for us quite clearly what khartoum's position is. certainly our position is very clear, we know that this ethiopian renaissance dam brings so many benefits to us, to ethiopia, and all that, and have supported it from the beginning. but we have major concerns linked to the issue of the safety of our dams and our people. we have over 20 million people living on the blue nile basin. but, more importantly, we have a small dam just close to the borders of ethiopia, which is... the gerd is ten times bigger than this dam. so the operation of this dam and its safety is linked to us

getting information on a daily basis, so the filling and the operation of the dam make it very important that we reach a trilateral agreement between ethiopia, egypt, and sudan to regulate the first filling of the dam and to also make sure that the operation is done within the confines of the international law... 0k. could there be a conflict? very quickly, could there be a conflict over this? are you worried? our position is very clear. we do not believe and think there is any way out of this but to negotiate. so we think there is definitely room for negotiation, for reaching a settlement and an agreement, particularly now that we appreciate the leadership of the african union, under the leadership of president ramaphosa of south africa, and we are happy to see this motto of african solutions to african problems guide us in this process. all right, very quickly

and finally — despite all the problems we've been discussing, can the people of sudan and the world be optimistic about sudan's future? briefly. i am a very optimistic person. i think, yes, we can be optimistic. i think sudan will bring hope in this region, which is riddled with conflicts and tension, and all that. in sudan's case, it's providing an opportunity for a success story in the making. and if we're getting it here right, it has far—reaching implications, repercussions, and multiplying effect in the entire region. so we would like to see, relying on the support our people, our friends and partners supporting this and rewarding this great success revolution of the sudan and moving with us working — moving forward. prime minister abdalla hamdok in khartoum, thank you very much indeed for coming on hardtalk.

thank you. southern parts of ireland are feeling the full force of storm ellen. here in the uk, also very blustery. the winds will increase in many parts of the uk over the next couple of days or so. it's likely to be very unsettled with this storm closely spinning by. now the worst of the weather has gone over southern parts of ireland, where the destructive winds in places have been. we're just to the east of the storm, so winds will be pretty strong around the coast of cornwall, western

fringes of wales, but it will be particularly windy in northern ireland, too. now having said that, the weather actually doesn't look too bad at all for most of us on thursday. there will be some rain in the morning across parts of scotland, but once that clears through, apart from a few showers across western areas, blustery ones the weather is looking mostly sunny. so it'll be a weird day where we have quite strong winds, but also with that, some strong sunshine and decent temperatures. in fact, look at the values in east anglia, up to 26 celsius, 22 in newcastle, and into the 20s where we have these blustery conditions out towards the west, as well. now through the course of thursday evening, the rain becomes more widespread across western fringes of the uk, and the winds will strengthen once again. a bit of a lull with that warmth and sunshine in the afternoon. because by the time we get to friday, what is left of storm ellen will be barreling across the uk — and that means, more generally

speaking, it'll be a windy day right across the uk. now gusts of wind inland friday into saturday could exceed 50 mph — and this time of year, that's not good and could prove very troublesome during the summer where the trees are in full leaf, a 50 mph wind could bring down a weaker tree. so be prepared for some disruption as we go through the course of friday and into the weekend. now saturday will still be blustery because what's left of the storm is still with us. frequent showers out towards the northwest of the uk. take a look at these winds 40—50 mph, that is unusually windy for august. to the south of us, it won't be quite so windy but breezy enough, with temperatures getting up to the low 20s. sunday will be a calmer day.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. welcome to our special coverage of the democratic party convention. at the democratic party convention, it's kamala harris‘ turn — the vice presidential candidate will formally accept her nomination forjoe biden‘s ticket, as she tries to convince americans that she's the woman for the job. as kamala harris takes centre stage, we visit the beaches of the indian city of chennai where the democrats pick for vp says her political views were shaped. the state of wisconsin is playing host to the democratic convention — that's no accident as the party hopes to reenergise its voters. he believes that hillary clinton failed to win wisconsin

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