hello i'm sumi somaskanda. we begin with that news coming in just in the past few hours that businessman mohamed al—fayed has died at the age of 94. the former harrods owner courted the establishment, befriended the royal family, and longed for british citizenship. his son dodi was killed alongside princess diana in paris in 1997. among other ventures, al fayed used to own the fulham footbal club, who confirmed his passing to the bbc. in a statement his successor said: on behalf of everyone at fulham football club, i send my sincere condolences to the family and friends of mohamed al—fayed upon the news of his passing at age 94. the story of fulham cannot be told without a chapter on the positive impact of mr al—fayed as chairman. his legacy will be remembered for our promotion to the premier league, a europa league final, and moments of magic by players and teams alike. everyone associated with fulham owes mohamed a debt of gratitude for what he did for our club. daniela relph looks back now at al fayed's life.

mohammed al—fayed, once the proud owner of harrods, the world's most famous department store who yearned to be part of the british establishment. born in egypt, he married the sister of billionaire arms dealer adnan khashoggi and built a business empire. he bought the ritz hotel in paris and defeated the monroe group in the battle to buy harrods. chief executive tiny rowland demanded an inquiry which found mohamed al—fayed had exaggerated his wealth and background. successive governments refused him british citizenship. do you think this is fair from the home secretary to behave the way with someone like me who have given employment to thousands of people, having four british kids? just it shows what type of people, you know,

infiltrate in the political life and give us such a deal. revenge was swift. two conservative ministers, neil hamilton and tim smith, left the government accused of taking cash to ask questions in the commons. anotherjonathan aiken, resigned after mohamed al—fayed revealed that he'd stayed free of charge at the ritz in paris at the same time aa saudi arms dealers. he went on to buy fulham football club and courted the royal family when his son dodi began a relationship with diana, princess of wales, it seemed mohammed al—fayed had finally won a place at the highest levels of british society. but when dodi and diana were killed in paris, he insisted they'd been murdered by mi6. the claims were investigated by the police and a coroner and found to be without substance. outside the court, he clung to conspiracy theories.

the evidence doesn't back you up, does it, mr al—fayed? the evidence. what evidence? i am not talking to you because you are a bloody idiot. you are part of the establishment and your journalists belong. you work for m... you work for mi6, you idiot. combative and increasingly embittered, mohamed al—fayed spent so many of his later years determined to destroy an establishment he'd once been so keen to join. earlier i spoke with royal historian gareth russell about mohamed el fayed's relationship with the royal family and his legacy. it's possible they met years before the met as a couple.

the idea that they had been almost soulmates that they were very, very much in love and that the relationship had been heading towards marriage. haw heading towards marriage. how do ou heading towards marriage. how do you think — heading towards marriage. how do you think mohamed al—fayed was seen in british society? great question. that is a great question. i think british society is not often very kind, society with a s. not often kind to people that it perceives as outsiders. certainly that they will have

seen anyone who is not british who was expiring to be friends with royal family and he had to deal with snobbery and that time. in the broadest sense of how he was seen by society i think in 1997 and the year after in 1998 the year following his son's death, there was a great deal of sympathy for him. that gradually waned across the media and wider society when his claims seemed to mutate and of all. in detail and sensationalism about this alleged assassination plot. and there did seem to be a growing sense of mohamed al—fayed that was less sympathetic as the years went on, he clung to this version of events of what had happened that night in paris when diana and dodi al—fayed died so i think the sympathy of 97 and 98 was sincere towards them for many members of the british public, but i don't think it was long lasting largest because of how his testimony and claims were perceived. interesting. given the fact that he was also a very successful businessman,

what do you think his legacy will be? multifaceted i suppose. i have also seen on social media tonight various people who once worked with the royal family who are speaking well of him and saying that they liked him very much that he was a larger—than—life character. however there are many who will regard him as they will regard many very prominent businessman with scepticism. i think that will endure. i think there are many discussions about how great wealth is acquired and obtained and i think ultimately he will be remembered if you are looking at a longer in historical perspective, he will be remembered more for his attempts to, as i say, mainstream or legitimise the idea that dodi al—fayed and diana were destined for the altar, planning to get married. i think a lot of people who were closer to diana do not believe that that was what was happening.

so i think you will be remembered as a multifaceted person as a separate i think the dominant thing that history will remember is the link that he had to the drama and tragedy surrounding princess of wales death in 1997. gareth russell thank you for your perspective on the passing of mohamed al—fayed. now to developments right here in washington, two key members of the far—right proud boys group have been sentenced to prison for their role in the storming of the us capitol building. the latest to be sentenced is ethan nordean, who led the group's march onjanuary 6. he received 18 years for seditious conspiracy. that matches the longest sentence related to the 2021 capitol insurrection. also sentenced today, dominic pezzola. you see him here onjanuary 6th smashing a window with a police shield before filming himself smoking a cigar inside the capitol building. he was given 10 years for assaulting police and obstructing an official proceeding.

earlier, i spoke with cbs news correspondent willie james inman at the us capitol about pezzola's sentencing. pezzola was at the forefront of this entire situation when the events surrounding january the 6th unfolded and the assault including the assault on the us capitol. as you mention, he potentially bashed the window and letting in the first batch of the rioters into the capitol complex. today he did have some of his family there to support him, pezzola essentially nearly in tears telling the judge that he had given up politics and after thejudge spoke he then raised his fist and said, "trump won!" he yelled that with his family still present so it is unclear if he gave up politics when you have that statement coming from pezzola but clearly he was one of the main characters when this riot and insurrection

unfolded at the capital. pezzola getting ten years behind bars for his involvement. let's talk about ethan nordean receiving 18 years in prison almost twice then pezzola received told us more on his role. i actually want to read some of what a judge has said, the us district courtjudge in this case timothy kelly he told nordean saying, i think it was a tragedy how you got to a to b and went on to say may your upbringing was battle with no criminal record but nordean clearly in this case did not have that nonexisting criminal record in this case. he was clearly involved in all of what went on in that day

with the proud boys to receive the hefty sentence of 18 years with stewart rhodes from the oath keepers also received 18 years with his involvement of everything that went on that day so quite a serious case like a lot of others involved with proud boys, seditious conspiracy charge essentially trying to overthrow the us government. that is why you was prosecutors gave such an impassioned argument to try and get the sentencing up there in terms of years, length of years, but 18 years is quite a lengthy sentence for the long sentence that both you and i mention. to follow up on that some critics have said that these are particularly harsh sentences for these men. what more can you tell us about that? they're lengthy sentences indeed, but prosecutors, the doj in this case, were asking for more time for some of these individuals involved. enrique tarrio whose case is coming up next week, prosecutors have asked for some 33 years. joseph biggs also asking for a 33 years, he got 17. so it is clear that prosecutors

believe that these are very serious crimes, they want more time, there is some criticism of course with these cases. some individuals here in the us thinking that this is politically motivated, this is a doj playing politics, but still it is important to point out that some of the judges were actually appointed by former president donald trump. in this case the judge that handed down the sentence today was appointed by former president trump. i just want to jump in their and ask you about the former president because he has of course loomed large over these trials. so how is he factored in? he certainly has and trump still has an effect over all of what happened here in washington, even though he is no longer here in washington. not as president or living here, but clearly these judges when they hand out the sentences, although they might not necessarily mention him by name they certainly know the gravity of what

is at stake here. that these individuals, proud boys to be specific were essentially trying to lead a revolution against the us government. he of course know that donald trump the former president has several cases up and down the east coast that he has to face of course, federal cases both here and in florida. and a state case going on in fulton county. all this will come to a head during the middle of the presidential election. so while the former president trump, his name may not be necessarily mention, but still the context of what went on that date is still crystal clear in terms of the actions of some of these individuals and the charges and sentences that they now face. thank you so much forjoining us. great to have you. to south african now, where relatives have begun identifying the bodies of those who died in the worst building fire the country has seen. 7a people, including 12 children, were killed in the blaze at an apartment block injohannesburg's former central business

district on thursday. there've been complaints of delays in the identification process, with some families waiting outside the mortuary for up to two hours. the bbc�*s shingai nyoka is injohannesburg and says it's a difficult situation at the scene. a day after the fire broke out emergency services are still at the scene conducting one final sweep in search of remains. and the families are also still here in search of answers. and some of that trauma is visible on their faces. some of them bear the physical scars of the events of yesterday broken bones, head injuries. over 70 people are now confirmed to have died, and the grim task of identifying them is underway. but many of the relatives here say that their relatives are still missing and they don't know whether they made it out alive. the south african government has pledged to assist the survivors, but it's a very difficult situation for many of them because they are undocumented migrants

and so it's unclear whether they will come forward to get that assistance. and so in the second day after the fire, a lot of people here are unsure about what happens next. the un has warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in niger, after the new militaryjunta suspended the activities of un agencies, in what it called military operation zones. the army took power in a coup in latejuly amidst islamist militant insurgencies. more than three million people already face food insecurity in niger, and prices have increased 20% since the coup. meanwhile, thejunta says it's �*dismayed' by remarks from france's president, emmanuel macron, calling them interference. he has continued to affirm paris's support for niger's deposed president, mohamed bazoum. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

let's look at some other stories making news. us officials say that ukrianian forces have made "notable progress" in their push against russian positions in the south of the country. white house national security spokesmanjohn kirby says those gains were made in the past 72 hours near zaporizhzhia. on friday, the russian defence ministry said it had made gains outside the city of kupiansk. neither claim has been verified. at least three swedish party leaders are boycotting this year's prize ceremonies after the nobel foundation invited the russian ambassador. they say the move is irresponsible because of russia's continuing war against ukraine. the invitation is a reversal from last year, when the private foundation declined to invite russia. a popularfemale bear has been shot dead on the outskirts of a town in central italy. a man has claimed he opened fire on the animal out of fear. the bear, named amarena, was filmed earlier this week roaming around a town in the abruzzo region with her two cubs. a local governor said no bear had ever threatened residents.

you're live with bbc news. tens of millions of people in hong kong and neighbouring southern china are sheltering indoors as typhoon saola passes over the south china sea. it's skirted southern hong kong but the city has been lashed by high winds that have toppled trees. these are pictures from the chinese city of shenzhen. further north, 800,000 people have been evacuated in china's guangdong province. its governor has called on the public to engage in a state of near—war against the storm. india is ramping up security, preparing to host world leaders at the g20 summit in new delhi next week. the country is rolling out anti—drone systems, and has put 130,000 security officers in place. though, there are reports china's president xi jinping will not attend. he had met with india's narendra modi at the brics summit last week, but tensions remain high between the two countries. on tuesday, india lodged a strong protest, after beijing published an official map which appeared

to lay claim to a large tract of land in the hamalayas over which india claims sovereignty. beijing responded by saying its neighbour should stay calm, and not �*over interpret�* the issue. well, for more on this, i spoke with democratic us congressman raja krishnamoorthi, who sits on the on the select committee on china. congressman, great to have you back on the show. thanks forjoining us today. is india over interpreting this map, as china has said? no. i think that this state, has been part of the indian union for a long time. and to see it show up as chinese territory within a map constructed by the ccp is obviously going to be very offensive. but it's not surprising because remember, the ccp has also devised a map that includes something called the nine dash line, which encompasses almost the entirety of the south china sea, which is an incredibly ludicrous claim.

and that that's obviously another problem with their map making in china. this comes at a time of tensions with china ahead of the g20 summit in india. and we've seen this reports now unconfirmed, of course, that presidency might not attend the summit in person. we know that there are tensions both with india and the us at the moment. what do you think the implications are if presidency is not there? well, it would be too bad if he's not there. i think that those are obviously good opportunities to continue to mend fences and have the types of dialogue that are really essential for avoiding conflict. but apparently, according to published reports, president xi does not want to give india a showcase for its economic success on the heels of its recent lunar landing, successful lunar landing. i think those are really petty concerns. so it's too bad.

i want to ask you also about the commerce secretary, gina raimondo, who was the fourth cabinet secretary in three months from the biden administration to visit china recently. all of these visits were aimed at, according to the biden administration, smoothing over tensions, putting guardrails on this relationship and also establishing lines of communication. at the same time, from these meetings, we didn't really see any breakthroughs. so what do you think was achieved? again, i think that this helps to heighten the level of communication between the two countries after a little bit of a period of deep freeze last year. and so i think that's good. obviously, actions speak louder than words, and so we want to see actions on the part of the ccp curbing their economic aggression. i think that along with their military aggression is at the heart of the tensions between the ccp and the united states, but really the ccp and many of its neighbours. and so as long as its aggression continues,

i respectfully submit it's not only going to aggravate tensions with others, it's going to be counterproductive as the ccp tries to reverse its economic slide within china. so i just want to put to you what china says here, which is that it's the us that is exercising economic aggression here by putting export controls on key minerals that are needed for china's economy to grow. what's your response to that? well, i respectfully disagree. whenjapan, the netherlands and the united states came together with regard to the october export controls, which basically prevents china from being able to use high end semiconductor chips to fuel artificial intelligence and other programmes that are fuelling their hypersonic missile programme or their nuclear weapons programme or the uyghur genocide.

i think that's a strong signal that not only the us but many countries have concerns about chinese behaviour. and the same can be said with regard to them throwing their elbows in the south china sea militarily, as well as against taiwan or india in the himalayas. what would it get to to get china to change its behaviour? well, i think that the chinese obviously chairman xi jinping, has to slowly avoid the provocative economic measures. just recently, they hacked into gina raimondo email account, along with tony blinken�*s official email account. their ccp affiliated actors are routinely committing cyber theft. these types of actions are strong irritants in my according to my constituents and most americans. and congressman, final question. what do you think that means for any efforts to create better relations with china diplomatically? i still have hope.

i think that over time, if we are strong with regard to protecting our values and our interests and we work multilaterally with whether it's the uk, whether it's our friends, neighbours and friends and partners and neighbours and allies in the indo—pacific region, i think that we can eventually win this competition with the ccp and get them to observe international rules of the road, so to speak, economically and militarily. thank you so much forjoining us. it's always great to have you on bbc news. thank you so much. one of the world's rarest turtles is settling into her new home after she was found, washed up and freezing cold, on a beach in north wales. tally — as she has become known — is thought to have been swept 4,000 miles across the atlantic by strong currents. that's about 6,400 kilometres. now she's back in warmer climes, as simonjones reports. back home in texas and straight back in the water. tally can truly be described as a well—travelled

turtle and an extremely lucky one, too. alive today, thanks to the kindness of strangers. this is her incredible story. it was two years ago that the turtle was found washed up in north wales, named tally after talacre beach, where she was spotted by a dog walker. my dog was making a bit of a fuss over what i thought was a pile of seaweed and then walked over and obviously saw that it was a turtle. initially thought that it was dead — unfortunately but still thought it's a bit weird for a turtle to be in wales on tahlequah beach. i don't see many turtles walking the dog usually. the experts at anglesey sea zoo were called in to try to nurse tally back to health, but there was no guarantee she would survive. she'd normally live in water temperatures of 24 degrees, so the eight degrees of the sea off wales meant her body had started shutting down. but day—by—day,

she grew stronger. she got her appetite back. eventually, it was determined she was well enough to go home. tally is a kemp's ridley turtle, a critically—endangered species mainly found in the gulf of mexico. but young turtles can sometimes be swept across the atlantic by the gulf stream. that's how tally ended up on the beach in talacre. but her 4,000—mile journey home all the way to texas was a military operation. the raf helped transfer tally from anglesey to heathrow for her onward flight. a rescue charity described the mission as the furthest and most complex they have ever been involved in, 22 hours of travel in total but months in the planning. she was accompanied on her journey by her rescuers. tally�*s immediate home is now houston zoo, but the plan later this month is to release her back into the sea in the gulf of mexico. it's hoped she will help ensure the survival of her species and she'll be fitted with a tracking device, meaning we may not have heard the last of tally�*s amazing travels. simon jones, bbc news. coming up in 30 minutes, the team here will have a back—to—school

education special, looking at the challenges facing kids as they head back to the classroom. we heard from teachers, experts, and the us education secretary. that's all from me at this hour. i'm sumi somaskda. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. the first week of september is looking a lot more summery than what we had throughout most ofjuly and indeed august. this weekend, high pressure is building in. it will turn drier and sunnier and warmer across the board. however, there will be a fly in the ointment that comes with this area of low pressure in its weather from which will push close to the northwest of scotland at times, certainly on sunday. but high pressure is building in — it's killing off the showers, the clouds. early on saturday we should see any rain fizzling out,

but there will be a legacy of clouds and mist and fog, particularly across central southern england, wales, northern ireland. here it's going to be mild, but again, the north—east corner of scotland will be quite chilly with temperatures in low single digits. so we start off plenty of sunshine in the north. further south, mist then fog through the morning into the afternoon, could see the odd isolated shower developing, but most places will stay dry and it'll feel a lot warmer for most — low to mid twenties across the board. as we head through saturday night again we'll see the mist and fog develop pretty much anywhere but especially across parts of england and wales. gradually, this weather front will start to push into the north—west of scotland to bring strong winds, outbreaks of rain. a much milder night to come across north—east scotland, 13 degrees for aberdeen.

and elsewhere, temperatures will be in double figures. sunday high pressure still with us, but this weather front will be influencing the weather across north—west scotland. so for the highlands and islands, it'll be quite cloudy, breezy with outbreaks of rain here. but southern and eastern scotland, northern ireland, england and wales, once any early mist and fog clears away, then it'll be a lovely, sunny, dry day. light winds for most quite gusty, though, for the north—west of scotland. temperature wise, for the highlands and islands, 15 to 17 degrees. but the rest of scotland, northern ireland, england and wales, it's the low to mid twenties. as we head into monday we hold on to this wetter, cloudier, breezier weather across north—west scotland. but the rest of scotland, northern england and wales again, once any morning mist and foreclosures away, it'll be dry, sunny and very warm with temperatures ranging from 22 to 26 celsius. much warmer there for eastern scotland, too. and we hold on to those temperatures mid to maybe high twenties for england and wales. could see close to 30 degrees in one or two spots, otherwise they'll be turning more unsettled by the end of the week.

this is bbc news. will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour straight after this programme. from tiny fairy penguins to taking the show on the road. one of the world's most spectacular ecosystems. and maybe the worst customer service experience you might ever endure, all in the name of fun.

what is this? i'm not playing charades right now. you use your big girl words. this week we're in australia. it's been a while now since australia officially reopened its borders to tourists and it's been so good to see so many people heading there. and today, we'll be looking back at some of my favorite travel show moments from the country i still call home. of course, australia is a vast country and we can't possibly attempt to cover the whole nation injust this one program. but hopefully we'll give you a flavour. one of my favorite

stories saw me back in my home state of victoria