. >> niger is another very dry country. it's also rated rock bottom on the un's human development index. niger's population has an average age of just 15. less than a fifth of the people there can read and write. but in the koure reserve near the capital, giraffes - of all things - are o offering hoe to the locals. >> dandala is a typical village in the koure region. most of the children don't go to school -- they have to work in the fields. life is hard, and whatever the soil yields has to be shared with the livestock. all they have is some corn, legumes and grain. seyni seydou (haussa) -- dorfchef dandala: we have less rain nowadays. it's too dry now, and it's become much harder for us in the villages. harvests have declined. we just don't have enough anymore. >> at night they have unwelcome visitors - giraffes. they're also suffering from the lack of food. so they come into the villages and steal the crops. the villagers have been forced to do more to protect their harvest. seyni seydou now stores his beans in his yard,

with many taking a route from benin city through niger and then to libya before crossing the mediterraneannin, where many of these young people start their journey. this ancient city was once famed for producing bronze sculptures. but today benin is turning to another export, people. it's nigeria's main trafficking hub, where people start their dangerous journey to europe. this man was among them. after reaching libya, europe wasjust this man was among them. after reaching libya, europe was just a boat ride away. ijust had the belief that i would get there. that was my belief. he travelled with his sister, august in. forced onto separate boats, a boat ran into trouble. kelvin was rescued by it augustina drowned after her boat capsized. she left behind a young daughter. she was a student. she worked in the supermarket and the hospital. the salary she was receiving their mother still refuses to accept that augustina is dead. for people heading out the journey normally starts here, at a local bus stop. and if everything goes smoothly they can be in europe in just two weeks. most leave here be

thatold enough to remember saddam hussein was allegedly purchasing uranium from niger or something like that? talk about economic destruction. was very disastrous to the u.s. economy. and the american people. and i am talking about me and you and everybody. this has to stop. this makes sense. who are you going to put into syria?n mary poppins? this is insane. who do you get who is better than president assad? -- : philip hammond john hannah, go ahead. why would president assad use weapons of chemical origin at this time? he wants guess is that to demoralizes population so that people will eventually give up or leave the country as they have been doing. and there are a lot of people that president assad, through this mass slaughter, is systematically trying to change the demographics in syria because he is a ruler of a minority regime in syria that is opposed by 50% or 60% of his population. host: the other question is, why now? it seems like from the outside he was gaining the advantage. why would he do now -- why would he do that now? guest: you can oppose the iraq war and you can oppo

a number of them, including niger and burkina faso, have banned the export of donkey hides. maseko, bbc news, johannesburg. now in snooker — ding junhui's quest to become the first asian world snooker champion is one step closer. he beat five time champion ronnie 0'sullivan in the quarterfinals. he now leads against reigning champion mark selby in the world championship semi finals by five frames to three. the contest resumes on friday morning here in the uk. a little earlier i spoke to my bbc sports colleague marc edwards — about snooker‘s rising star. the story of his rise apparently beginning with a rather fortuitous toilet break aged eight. ding's father, keen snooker player himself, popping to the loo during a game at the local snooker hall. xiao ding, or little ding, as he's known affectionately by the chinese press, deciding to take over the cue and before the elder ding returned he had won the match. shortly after that his parents selling up their grocery business and house, moving from jiangsu to dongguan city in guangdong province, where ding, who stopped his forma

a number of them, including niger and about their donkeys. export of donkey hides. it's hoped others will join in to end the illegal trade. nomsa maseko, bbc news, johannesburg. to snooker and ding junhui's quest to become the first asian world snooker champion is one step closer. he beat five time champion ronnie o'sullivan in the quarterfinals. he now leads against reigning champion mark selby in the world championship semi—finals by 5—3. the contest resumes on friday morning here in the uk. a short time ago i spoke my bbc sports colleague marc edwards about snooker‘s rising star. beginning with a rather fortuitous toilet break aged eight, his father, 18 snooker player himself, he decided to take over the snooker cue and before the elder returned he had w011. and before the elder returned he had won. his parents sold up his grocery business and house, moving to guangdong province where king, who stopped his formal education at the age of 11, he practised for eight hours a day at a training hall. at 15 he started winning national and regiona

[applause] our next honoree is major aichatou ousmane issaka aichatou issaka ousmane from niger. soldier, mother, and united nations peacekeeper. she exemplifies what it means for a woman to serve on the front lines of conflict. she has not only helped people deal with the trauma caused by conflict and the threat of violent extremism, including boko haram, she also understands the deep need for social services to pave the way to recovery for families affected by war and conflict. she is being honored for her steadfast devotion to healing those wounded by conflict and terrorism, for demanding social services for those left to suffer the consequences of war in order to prevent further violent extremism. ousmane? [applause] mr. shannon: our next honoree is veronica simogun from papua new guinea. an advocate for women and girls papua new guinea, she lives and works in a country where 2/3 of women and girls have been physically and sexually abused due to their gender. despite facing death threats for her work with survivors, veronica has devoted herself to helping others and building

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in libya, niger, furthermore trafficking and smuggling from militias in libya which are driving the conflict there. and i just want to know if you have any input for us, either one, about what we should do to address this larger humanitarian crisis? obviously, i imagine, quelling the conflict that's allowing this to proliferate, but if this was a critical objective for the united states, what should we be doing? >> well, first, i'm sorry to say that human trafficking, piracy and slavery has been art and parcel of libya's history even he you had a strong authoritarian government in gadhafi is such as it was, because it's not something that they have really paid the kind of attention that the international community would like for them to pay. so, again, this is one of the areas that when you have a political dialogue and you have a government that engages across the country and makes the distribution of wealth part and parcel of working against those kinds of things, replacing those activities -- smuggling, which has long been the bread and butter for many libyans particularly in the south, b

niger, if you can respond to this. secretary of treasury mnuchin seems to indicate the august deadline has to be pushed back. is it? >> so, i haven't talked to secretary mnuchin about the specific month of timing. and look, it has been a generation since we fixed this broken tax code. we probably ought not to be focused on the month but the year that it happens which is this year. neil: all right, i should add, niner, yesterday at this time this asteroid wasn't even a threat. after that interview it moved perilously close to earth and now whizzing by our planet by a million miles. again i don't think it is coincidental but your thoughts? >> i don't think so either. we're hoping we miss it by just this much. but look, i think, you know, these guys wanted to go for the big home run of reforming obamacare. obviously that did not work, but if you can't get the metaphorical home run, you should at least get a couple of doubles, a couple of singles. the trump administration, the republicans in congress, need some victories b