>> this is "bbc newsnight." funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. and union bank.

>> union bank has put its financial strength to work for a wide range of companies. from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you? >> poverty for you and me but a money-making opportunity for some. what the democratic republic of congo could be forced to pay out. >> you ever think that they sought hundreds of millions of dollars from the condo? >> yes, i do. >> we are asked to decide who or what is to blame for climate change. >> i do not agree with the way he handled libya. >> another u.s. presidential hopeful all but throws away his chances. why is this republican making a

hash of it? the average worker and the african nation of the democratic republic of congo aron's something like $50 a month. -- earns something like $50 a month. a vulture fund is buying to extract millions of dollars from the fund. the funds buy up debt cheaply and then they sue for vast amounts. the law in the u.k. changed. the vultures cannot use british courts. they found a way to get around the ban. the report begins in the democratic republic of congo. "spearheading to the -- we are heading to the capital. the cholera epidemic is sweeping the country.

this is still a struggle for the people here. the nation is just now recovering from years of civil war. >> this is the caller action center. >> they have already treated 8000 color rotation's including -- 8000 cholera patients. what is needed here is clean water. the question is, why don't they have it? here is what has happened, a financial speculator has blocked the kong go from receiving $100 million owed to the nation. he said that that money is owed to him. in this village, the british government and unicef dug a well at a cost of less than $2,000. they were able to provide clean

water. the vulture plate $3 million for condo's debt and he wants 100 million of their money in return forward. -- the vulture paid $3 million for the debt and he wants 100 million. >> this could help the children. >> $100 million, 200,000 children. >> how does a new york vulture end up claiming $100 million on a $300 million debt? the story began 30 years ago when yugoslavia build powers for the line. they had not finished paying for them. condo and yugoslavia's slipped into civil war. 100,000 died.

yugoslavia went into separate countries and millions of died in the congo. somehow, the speculator got the right for this. the vulture paid $300 million but wanted more than 30 times that amount. we went to see how the vultures got their hands on this debt. two players are these men. first, an american and second, bosnia's former prime minister. these were made at a state owned company. the company would like the powerhouse of the economy and now police are investigating how the assets were stripped leaving the country in ruins and thousands of unemployed.

10 years ago, this company was being run by the prime minister but he had to quit after he was indicted for corruption. this team is the one that took down the prime minister. >> this cost him his job as prime minister. >> what happened? >> the government brought this department for $200,000 and he said he did not need it. >> how much did he pay? >> he paid $800. >> weight, the governor paid 240,000 and a week later, he picked it up for 800. is that corruption? >> well, they invited him. >> after the paperwork mysteriously disappeared. at the same time that he was buying state property, he was talking about the old debt with

the vulture. this is the man, familiar? he is the first vulture that we exposed back in 2007. the man who named himself after a james bond villain, gold finger. "newsnight" exposed how bold figure squeeze millions out of the company. in 2001, he signed a deal with the bosnian people to see if he could get a cut. the transaction was more than suspect. >> this is the office of the chief financial police. >> we obtained a police report never before made public that says that brought a rich secretly arranged to sell gold finger's friends the debt for $3

million and this was a crime. was this illegal for him to sell this to the vultures? >> of course, that is why we filled a criminal complaint. this is the abuse of power. we have identified the elements of the crime and who did it. >> why would he do this? >> we ask ourselves that. >> every crime has a motive. did you find any evidence of a motive? >> >> if something is worth a hundred thousand euros a new test that -- sell it for 10 or 15,000, you tell me what is happening now. >> if brankovic is convicted,

can he go to jail for this crime? >> the vultures swooped on congo in its darkest hour as it swept into the civil war. one week after they got their hands on the dead, the president was assassinated. millions died. there was no real government and no one to argue the case while the falter suit. they were easy prey for the vulture. gold figure out gave the debt to a friend of his and in return for gold finger's commission of over half a million dollars. then, the story switches from congo to the real heart of darkness, new york city.

fg attempted to grab the diplomatic buildings of the condo, but it is said no. as american court started to resist the vultures demand, they began to go after any company anywhere in the world that traded with congo. britain brought in a new law after we exposed the vultures but they found a loophole. >> they realize that this does not apply in jersey, places that are often seen as tax havens where lots of money is held and they realize that there is money that is held there by congo and they sued for hundreds of millions of dollars. congo has appealed in london. the law is the law, loopholes and all. there is one hope for congo

before the vultures can come in. >> the jersey government is considering the law. i am heading out there next week to talk to the government and meet with concerned citizens who are pushing for the law to be adopted. if this is passed in time before the final appeal, then the $100 million of the congo can be saved. >> of jersey does not act, instead of $100 million, the nation's money will end up here in brooklyn, n.y., the addressed of the vultures find - -fund. it seems to be a garage. this is the owner of the fund. do you think it is fair that your fund has sought $100 million from three congo. -- from the congo. >> that's not true.

>> we saw the police documents that said that the police company just paid $3 million for the dead. are you familiar with the fact that this has been called a crime by the police? >> i am collecting on a legitimate claim. >> in other words, the 100 million goes to you rather than unicef. >> this gorilla journalism does not work for me. >> back in the congo, children are waiting for their school to get clean water. but what is your favorite subjects? >> mathematics. >> thisthis is the future. unless the vultures snapped should weigh -- snatch is away/

>> the u.n. -- the weather phenomenon has been disputed by experts in recent years. people are trying to pin the blame on the fossil to corporations and these cases have reached the courts. >> this is one of the hottest topics in climate science, can humans be deemed to blame for extreme weather such as the heat wave and russia or the floods which had hit the u.k. in recent decades? whenever we hear news of people that have lost their lives or their homes, a flood, or a hurricane, this is the question that sooner or later everyone asks. was it climate change or not?

as london and asks in a mild autumn, this is said to be one of the warmest on record. this is unusual. to what extent can we pin this on human induced climate change? >> we have a record in the united kingdom and this goes back to the 17th century. we can see that there has been a general warming and we can relate that to the increase of something like a mild autumn. when we do that, we can see yes, it looks likely that there is an increased chance of having a very mild autumn. >> heat waves like russia's last year have increased since 1950. this is expected to occur once every 20 years instead of once a century. scientists are confident that this is made more likely by climate change.

extreme rainfall and floods like those in the u.k. in recent decades and droughts in the tropics and sub topics have become more common sense to 50's and 60's respectively. local conditions make it less clear-cut for scientist to link these two human activities. storms are the most difficult to attribute directly to people because they involve complicated wind patterns. is it time to call and the lawyers? some feel that there's the potential here for legal action against energy companies over damage caused by extreme weather. >> it has had a checkered history. my own opinion is that this is not a realistic prospect in the short-term future but if we get a failure to have international regulations and there is a continued large-scale emission by groups of companies in the

knowledge of the consequence, i think it is very possible in the medium or long term. >> the scientific debate over the fires show how opinions on the impact of human activities can differ. >> their record-breaking temperatures which you might need a national -- a natural variability. a second study concluded that there is an 80% chance that the heat wave would not have occurred without human induced climate change. >> because of our understanding and how the general climate system is changing, we can develop reliable results on how the risks have changed even before the signal has been made. >> some climate scientists are not happy with this approach. >> different climate models produce different results, secondly, it focuses on the

hazards such as the heat wave or the extreme rainfall rather than focusing on the damages for example, lives lost or the cost in pounds. >> these scientists asked why bother trying to do this. they're trying to make sure that people everywhere can adapt to survive in the extreme weather that is coming their way. >> with me now are two climate scientists. are you able to say with more clarity whether this is caused by climate change and would you allocate resources as a result of what you know? >> when we talk about extreme weather caused by climate change, we are not seeing

whether advance that could not have happened without whether change. a good analogy is given by the dice. if i rolled the dice and i get a five, then i rolled again. it never works. >> these are loaded dice. this is not working. >> it is now coming up 6 is -- sixes. what we are doing is quantifying how the weather is being biased toward a particular whether a event. what you saw was three or four sixes in that sequence. this is the way it works with the weather. it is not that easy but we have seen the weather diced loaded toward certain things happening. >> do you think that this is more accurate than the science?

>> we are starting to learn how to do this. it is not like we know how to do this for every whether a vent in the world. what we can say are the obvious. we can see how the odds have changed. that is what this new science is all about. >> that becomes crucial, doesn't it, as to how you allocate resources? if you see the science, certain extreme weather conditions, you have to act on that? >> you have to have an understanding how the system works and what the human influence is. when people say that this science can really help the allocation of adaptation resources around the world, that is when i get particularly worried.

he is suggesting that we have what we might call tough luck weather and humid weather, these are separate cateries. we need to adapt to the human weather but not that tough luck weather. it is hard to understand the adaptation. >> you are saying that the science is not correct? >> i think that it is premature to be trailing this as a way of informing adaptation decisions are around the world. what is needed is investment in adaptation to improve the adaptive capacity in those communities that are most at risk. whether they are human are not is not the issue. >> we are not there for every weather event. if you are living in african village and you are being affected by storms, it makes sense to invest in defenses against those storms.

no one is suggesting that whether or not those storms are increasing because of the human environment but it might be hiding material to he pays the bill. -- to who pays the bill. we have given resources to poor countries to help them deal with the unfortunate consequences. >> are you prepared to go to government on the strength of what you know at this point and say that they should be giving more money because of this? >> we are saying that some people deserve to know. we used to give money to help people affected by bad weather as a matter of conscience whereas it is our efforts making the weather worse. >> that has got to be right, hasn't it? if we are using the science, there is a political

responsibility that comes with that. >> he is a way of promoting this as a way of promoting evidence- based policy. we have evidence that we know that weather extremes cause the greatest damage and the greatest loss of life and damage to those people that have the least capacity to adapt to those risks. that is very clear and unequivocal evidence. >> herman cain was the latest republican candidate in the u.s. presidential election race to blow his chances when he struggled to answer a seemingly simple question. he is that the only one to make a mess of it. just days earlier, the texas governor could not remember which government agency he attended to abolish when he got into -- which government agency he intended to abolish when he got to the white house. my colleague spoke to a former

candidate and a political analyst. >> why did this happen? >> i think that there is an amount unpreparedness that has not happened. sometimes, we underestimate what will happen if we do have a gaffe. you repeat them over and over and over again. ehud kept repeating those things so they never really died. that is one of the things that we an estimate the power of that gaffe as the media plays it over and over again and we underestimate the responsibility to be prepared. >> calling it unpreparedness is really selling short. the reason that perry could not remember the third thing he wanted to illuminate it because he does not care. he memorized things that were told to him.

these should be so deep in your soul if you are running for president that you don't forget them. they're just throwing out red meat to a certain kind of supporters, they're not even thinking about what people care about. people care about corporate ownership of our elections. do we think that there's too much education going around, is that the problem? >> there is an element perhaps of some more statesmanlike republicans stayed out of the race this time. >> i don't think so. we see a field of people who are able to carry this banter and it too go against president obama. we have some good talent i just think that we have an over exposure problem with too many people being critical rather than actually saying to these. >> overexposure you mean when

people find out when you are wrong? >> no, this means that when you have too many debates, especially a good debate is not necessarily good television. what we have here in america is good television rather than good debating and we really need to let these folks talk about the issues that really matter. our homes, our jobs. the price of gasoline that goes and our car every day. those are the things that the american people want to hear about. >> i agree with you but every time these people speak is when these things come out like when michele bachmann said that the founding fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery even though they have slaves. she expects us to believe that washington looked out of his window every day and said, why

won't you leave? this is preposterous. >> i wonder whether he was really someone who can simulate being a normal human being or someone who is a normal human being. >> this is not natural at all and what we have here is the first fully realized reality show campaign for the president. this stage full of twits is amazing. even the stuff that are not gaffes like not believing in evolution. if i were up there with this many salesmen, i would not believe in evolution either. >> it is very easy for someone to stand on the outside of this process and make fun and mock and make a joke out of it. we are encouraging people to be

real. it is hard to be real when you are only given 30 seconds. i heard that one of the candidates only got 86 seconds of air time and the last debate. it is very difficult when you are trying to get a point across. >> that is all for this week. from all of us here, goodbye. >> funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. and union bank.

>> union bank has put its global expertise to work for a wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you? >> "bbc newsnight" was presented by kcet, los angeles.