Some of the most privileged members of Saudi Society have been held in the Ritz Cartlon Hotel in riyadh and interrogated on the orders of the crown prince. Muhammed bin salman has presented the arrests as a crackdown against corruption, though it would also seem to consolidate his position as the most powerful man in the kingdom. Among those held is the countrys richest investor, billionaire prince alwaleed bin talal, and his most potent remaining rival to the crown princes power, prince mutaib bin abdullah, son of the late king. Very few have been allowed into the hotel, turned prison, but our international correspondent, lyse doucet, was given rare access. We drive in under police escort, just past midnight. No one enters here now without official permission, the worlds most talked about hotel. Riyadhs most palatial, most prestigious, now a gilded prison. Im taken in by saudi officials and told, dont film faces and dont record conversations. Here in the early hours of the morning, theres still people in the lobby drinking coffee, as you would find in any of the 5 star hotels here in the capital. Most of the people who have now been forced to stay here are keeping to themselves. Trying to limit any further damage to their reputation. Their mobile phones have been taken away from them, but there is a hotline that is available to them. They can call their lawyers, family members, even leading members of the companies theyre still trying to keep running. The worlds most pampered prisoners have every comfort except freedom. The state is picking up this bill. As far as detention centres go, this one is beyond compare. Luxury swimming pool, restaurants, a gym. Everything is glittering. Theres even a bowling alley, but most prisoners just stay in their rooms. Im taken to meet one suspect, he doesnt give me his name. He says he spends his time with his lawyer, focusing on his case. Im told not to ask about it. But i get a briefing. Senior officials conducting this crackdown say its not a formal investigation just yet. They called it a friendly process, but its clearly fraught. Were being told that when people were brought here, around midnight on november 4th, they were understandably angry. Some of them thought this would just be a show and it wouldnt last. And then when they realised they were here to stay, they were furious. Almost everyone here, 95 i was told, are willing to make a deal, to give back what are said to be substantial sums of money in order to get out here. The crown prince, 32 years old, is taking on fellow princes, senior ministers, some of the biggest billionaires, tackling corruption, concentrating power. Weeks on, many are still asking questions about why this purge happened here and now. Outside this gilded prison, it certainly has gone down well. Many saudis welcome an end to the rampant corruption in the kingdom. There are risks, too. The ambitious crown prince risks creating enemies and uncertainty, which could endanger the very stability and reforms he knows his kingdom so badly needs. The crown prince hopes everyone will be checking out by the end of this year. The longer this ordeal drags on, the more questions will be asked, here and abroad, about whats going on inside. Lyse doucet, bbc news, at the ritz carlton, riyadh. Its a big gamble. In terms of how hes perceived at home and by the kingdoms key eyes . hes perceived at home and by the kingdoms key eyes . I spoke to many saudis who welcomed a crackdown on corruption. One man who is a wealthy Real Estate Developer said its like as if you lost your watch and you found it. You are happy because the watch has been given back to you. He said, this money belongs be to us. Several people said to me that the bribery they had seen before in judicial and Financial Institutions has stopped. That everyone is scared to do anything unless they end up in the hotel. There are questions to be asked why are are some people in the purge and not others. What is in the purge and not others. What is in the files . They have gathered the files, evidence, for the last two yea rs. Files, evidence, for the last two years. Is it about corruption or about power . The crown prince supporters you ask if its a power grab. They say he already has the power. He doesnt need to consolidate. He wouldnt have done it if he didnt feel he had the power. There are starting to emerge reports of torture. Stories of people being hung upside down. What do you make of the reports . Impossible to confirm. When we went into the hotel there were reports of people falling ill. I asked about that. There was a person from the Human Rights Society there, there we re Human Rights Society there, there were no complaints. Whether he is telling the full story or not its ha rd to telling the full story or not its hard to say. They said that people had diabetes. There were heart conditions. People are old. There is obviously an enormous amount of stress. There were medical teams on stand by. Heart doctors had been moved. In they are clearly suffering. Whether or not the so called interrogations have to go to the extent of what the mail said, that people are being hung upside down, torture is what they described it. There certainly is pressure. Its the pressure of the documents. I was told the files are like this. They have gone through all the bank statements, all the financial records. In fact, seven people have walked free because they looked at the files and said, that hes a not my money. That went to someone else. They challenged the evidence. They are no longer held in the prison. They have an ability with their lawyers to work through the files. Most of them it seems are being told, they are saying now, they realise there is no way out of the hotel until they prove their innocence, go to trial. 4 will go to trial, apparently. Or pay up the money. When it comes to people being detained longer than they would like, one of them we believe, alleged. Is the Prime Minister of lebanon. Talk to me about this. Lebanon. Talk to me about this. Lebanon said he was being held against his wishes. Emmanuel macron flies in unannounced on thursday. He goes to paris, back to lebanon, suddenly im not retiring. Has macron gone to the crown prince and said you have overreached. We are the former colonial power you need to think again. I was there in november when it happened. When he announced he was stepping down. I was with government ministers, senior officials, they said it didnt sound like his language. He play may have considered he wasntens will his position wasnt working in the unity government or could take on hezbollah. The saudis, for months in advance, were worried that he could not control hezbollah and this unity government. The idea was, you take him out of the government, therefore you can say its been captured by the lebanese state has been captured by hezbollah. It justifies pressure state has been captured by hezbollah. Itjustifies pressure on lebanon, diplomatic, trade, financial pressures. It was talked at the time of a qatar style blockade the pressures of saudi and emirates have put on the gulf state of qatar. They are talking differently. Whether it was through president macron or the lebanese who said if you weaken lebanon, lebanon be will collapse. This is not the way to go about taking on the most powerful political and military player in lebanon. He is more popular than ever. Saudi officials were saying, he has gone back, more popular, and will be in a better position to take on hezbollah. The Second Chapter and lets see how it unfold. Always delicate in lek none. Extraordinary access to the hotel. Lovely to talk to you. Thank you for coming in. Thank you. The navy in argentina has confirmed that a sound consistent with an explosion was detected in an area where a submarine went missing eight days ago. The International Rescue operation is ongoing in the south atlantic close to where the submarine disappeared. There are 44 crew on board. This womans husband is on the sanjuan. A clue to what might have happened. Rescuers say an unusual sound, heard when the submarine sent its last signal, suggests there may have been a catastrophic problem on board. Translation we received information that it was an abnormal, singular, short, violent and nonnuclear event consistent with an explosion. The Argentine Navy had said earlier the mission to find the sub had reached a critical phase. There was concern the crew could be using up the last of its oxygen supply. So far, theres been no sign of the missing vessel. The Reuters News Agency says a Us Navy Plane detected an object near the area where the sub sent that signal, but it couldnt be identified. For a week now, relatives of the 44 crew members have been coming to the naval base to pray for the safe return of their loved ones, but with todays news, many have become angry, accusing the navy of lying and raising false hopes. Translation i feel cheated. They say its translation i feel cheated. They say its 3,000 meters below sea. So, no, they dont tell you anything. Thats why i say they are swines. For me, they are wicked and have manipulated us. They knew about it and they are wicked. With each day that passes now, rescuing anyone alive seems more and more unlikely. Riley karlsson, bbc news. Desperate for the families. The last time a submarine was rescued or people on board were rescued on a sunken vessel was years ago. In other news zimbabwes incoming president , emmerson mnangagwa, is urging citizens to remain patient and peaceful and not to take part in any vengeful retribution against robert mugabe. Robert mugabes replacement will be officially sworn into office on friday. Bangladesh has signed a deal with myanmar to return hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled a violent army crackdown. They can start returning home within two months, but Amnesty International says the plans are premature when hundreds of rohingya are still fleeing persecution every day. Us republicanjoe barton has apologized for an explicit nude photo of him which has been circulated widely on social media, but he isnt resigning. The 68 year old texan politican says. Collusion, the new book written by the guardian journalist luke harding, has the feel of a John Le Carre spy novel. Except in this case, the characters in the book are all real, members past and present of the Trump Campaign. The stories of kremlin espionage, money laundering, computer hacking are all currently being investigated by special Council Robert mueller, and in some cases charges have already been made. Earlier this week, katty and i caught up with luke harding in berlin, i started by asking him about one of his prime sources, the former mi6 agent Christopher Steele, who compiled the intelligence dossier that sparked the russian invesigation. Luke harding, your book starts with a meeting you had in december 2016 with the former mi6 agent Christopher Steele, whose dossier of course began this russia investigation. Why do you think the intelligence agencies put such trust in him at the beginning . Well, i mean, Christopher Steele is a professional guy. He spent 22 years working for british intelligence. He served in moscow undercover at the British Embassy there, then he went into private business. I think he has a pretty good track record. Intelligence sources ive spoken to describe him as solid, as reliable. What you have to understand is that the sources he used for this dossier over trump and russia were the same sources that had proven themselves in other areas. In other words, they were people who had a kind of track record which was credible and which kind of help up. Luke, there are tonnes of dodgy characters, emails, money involved, beauty pagents, much of which has been reported before. If you had to point to the single most suspect thing that you uncovered that would put the Trump Campaign under the spotlight, what would it be . I mean, the thing is about this story is that it goes back a long way. The single most important episode is summer 1987, when donald trump, for the first time, goes to moscow at the invitation of the soviet government. Ostensibly to discuss building a hotel in moscow, but what we know is that the trip was basically arranged by the soviet ambassador and he was brought over by a travel agency, a state travel agency. Now, defectors ive spoken to said this was the kjb. I can say without exaggeration that the kjb more or less brought donald trump to moscow as what you wide was a kind of classic cultivation exercise. Now im not saying that donald trump was somehow a kjb spy back in the 1980s, but i think what we can say for certainty is that there were repeated attempts, both in the soviet period, and in the russian period, to cultivate donald trump to get close to him and his associates and to try and exploit him for ways which would help moscow and moscows purposes. You also point us luke towards the oligarchs, these very power men in russia, billionaires. Theres probably around 100 of them or so. What your really saying is there is no separation between them and the kremlin because they owe their allegiance to Vladimir Putin . Being a billionaire brings privileges, but it also brings certain obligations. Threading through this story we see oligarchs doing things perhaps at the behest of the kremlin and the russian state. We see one oligarch buy Donald Trumps mansion in florida. Donald trump bought it 40 million in 2004 and this oligarch buys it a few years later for 95 million, which is kind of very curious. We also see oligarchs kind of interacting with people in the Trump Campaign team, especially paul manford. Luke an alternative theory to all of this was the Trump Campaign was the most Chaotic Campaign ive ever covered in the american president ial elections. People were freelancing. Carter paige may or may not have been meeting russian spies in moscows. Its plausible that donald trump knew nothing about that from the top down. You havent actually uncovered evidence that they promised to offer sanction relief if the russians gave them dirt on Hillary Clinton . There was a longstanding transactional relationship going back five or six yea rs relationship going back five or six years between trump and powerful russian state interests. There was a flow in both directions. There was information going from america to russia about russian oligarchs living in the united states. There was politically helpful material flowing back to trump. We have to look at what happened in the us election. What happened was that Us Intelligence stole tens of thousands of Democratic Party emails and dumped them out to help trump and to seriously damage Hillary Clinton. Now, what we now know, thanks to the indictments by the special prosecutor looking at all of this, the Trump Campaign were told this as early as april 2016, well before Hillary Clinton had any idea her servers had been hacked. If you look at the story there is a degree of Co Ordination between the two camps to maximise damage to hillary. Its a fascinating read. Luke harding, thank you very much for being with us. This year the European Capital of culture is the english city of hull. Recognition that brings with it tourism, funding and the arts. But liverpool will be the last. The Eu Commission has confirmed the uk will no longer be considered after brexit, disappointing these five cities that have already bid to hold the title in 2023. Now you might think that is not entirely surprising given that britain is leaving the eu. But, outside countries have hosted the capital, including iceland and norway, though they are in the eea, the European Economic area. Earlier i spoke to the lord mayor of belfast, nuala mcallister, whos involved in the Belfast Derry 2023 bid. So its absolutely bitterly disappointing from hearing this from the European Commission over the past 2a hours. Its disappointing from our perspective, belfast in partnership with derry because Northern Ireland has unique circumstances. The European Commission itself said this. Doors are being closed on us. With regards to what we are being told, very little in fact. We need a little bit more Political Leadership from dcms over this issue. Instead, we are in crisis mode in regards to civil servants. We have not heard from the secretary of state herself. We need a little bit more clarification. Secretary of state herself. We need a little bit more clarificationm may be that the secretary of state had asewerances from the European Union. It seems to have been an unexpected move by the commission . Yeah unexpected obviously we would not have been going ahead. We seeked assurances many times, they assured us, yes, we are still elible. Upon today when we have been discussing with them what happens next, what happens now . There is no answer. The taxpayers in belfast have paid into this . We have actually received quite a lot of confidence and input from the public in belfast and derry specifically who are actually very excited about this. At a time when we really need to strengthen our cultural links with europe, we are now faced with doors being closed on us. Its a time when we need to show we can remain part of europe and we can still feel european. Some people watching might say its hardly surprising given we are leaving the European Union we cant have the European Union we cant have the European Capital of country. There are other countries outside the European Union that have been considered . Exactly there are three countries that i can think of off the top my head. Turkey. Iceland and norway. The brexit negotiations are not finalised. We do feel this has been used as leverage from the European Commission. Do you think the eu is punishing the uk . What the eu are doing, rightly so, is during negotiations they are trying to find leverage. Also what we need to do in the uk and also what we think we need to do within Northern Ireland. Asi need to do within Northern Ireland. As i said, we are in a unique situation were we share that border with the republic of ireland, who will remain within the eu. What would happen if you dego it . Have you estimated what sort of money would come into the city . If we look at liverpool, who were the last uk city who did host the European Capital of culture, they saw over £750 million. We are talking about over the next few years they saw £4 billion of infrastructure in culture, arts and tourism. That would be a huge potential and opportunity for any one of the five uk cities who could potentially win this bid had the door not been closed. Nuala mcallister. They certainly had a good chance as it was 25 years on from the good friday agreement 2023. Theres some good news for coffee drinkers. A review published in the british medicaljournal suggest drinking three or four cups a day may lower the risk of liver disease, some cancers and the likelihood of developing heart problems. However, Public Health experts say there is still uncertainty about the impact of drinking more than that. Sima kotecha reports. An espresso, a cappuccino or just instant. More than 50 million cups of coffee are drunk every day here in the uk and today theres another debate about whether its good or bad for you. Its after a review has suggested drinking moderate amounts of coffee is more likely to benefit health than cause it harm. I think i enjoy the smell of it mostly, which makes me sort of feel especially when youre in a country like italy or something, waking up in the morning smelling coffee, itjust makes me, i dont know, i really love it. I think its probably a placebo effect. You feel sort of energised by having drunk it. It gives me a bit of a kick is the main thing and, from different blends, you can slightly taste different things. Sometimes theyre chocolatey, sometimes theyre fruity. The university of southampton went through 200 studies looking at how coffee affects the body and concluded three or four cups of it a day could lead to a lower risk of developing health problems. However, it also said too much of it while pregnant can be dangerous. In some cases, a small amount of coffee can cause anxiety, and there are studies that suggest children, adolescents and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of caffeine. It gives me kind of. It brings my anxiety levels up a bit. My gears are always grinding and i think sometimes i can have a caffeine overload, so i try to stay away from it as much as when i was younger when i worked in construction. I was drinking it, you know, nonstop all the time. Critics say the finding of this particular review could be skewed because those evaluated may have been healthy before starting to drink coffee. I tend to ignore this kind of advice because from one day to the next it tends to differ, so i wouldnt be surprised if in a week or two we got some other report saying that coffee is bad for you after all. But i guess everything in moderation. Researchers are now calling for rigorous Clinical Trials to explore the drinks true effects. And a last bit of advice from them opt for milk with your coffee rather than cream. Sima kotecha, bbc news, birmingham. Thats good, mines a latte. Weve all been there. A phone call youd rather not be on, suddenly theres a bit of inteference, you lose the signal. Line goes dead. Oh dear, what a shame. Who knows, maybe you even faked it. Well, if you did, then rest assured youre not alone. The delaware senator tom carper reveals that chief white house adviser gary cohn did just that while talking recently to donald trump. Apparently, it was so that cohn and carper could continue a productive conversation they were having about taxes without the president getting in the way. The white house has denied carpers version of events. The senator is sticking to it. Now katty is not with us today, it is of course thanksgiving, but if you were with us yesterday youll know that she had signed up for the annual turkey trot. And, im pleased to report, shes made it to the other end in good time, with a photo to prove it. Apparently, this is the 2km mark. Theres katty, second from right, with her lovely family. And, no, that is not rocky balboa their in the middle, in the hat. You might recognise that character, the bbcs very ownjon sopel. He made it to the finish line before her. She will be back on monday, as will i. Thank you for watching, see you next week. A short time ago there was still six flood warnings on rivers across Northern England. Its been a much dryer day for those areas of the north west of england affected by the rain yesterday. We have had sunshine around. As you can see, water on the roads and in some of the fields as well. Few showers at the moment, but not many through the night in cumbria and lancashire. More showers likely across northern and western scotland and Northern Ireland. Rain further south, come being in across southern england, working eastwards. It could affect south wales for a while. Keeping temperatures up. North it will be colder with clearer skies. A touch of frost in many rural areas. There may be icy roads around were we are keep the showers going into the morning. Again, northern scotland, western scotland, snow in those. Across the north of Northern Ireland. A few showers wandering in off the irish sea into the north west of england. For many parts of england and wales tomorrow will start dry and bright. More cloud still left over across the south. In the south east one or two mist and fog patches after the overnight rain cleared away. The showers could push further inland. Few showers around for england and wales. Most of the showers across the western half of scotland, the north of Northern Ireland. As you can see, there will be a fair bit of sunshine outside of those showers. It will feel cold, not so much because it will be windy, the wind will be fairly light, its cold air. Temperatures will be lower than today. Cold this weekend. It will feel colder because the wind will pick up, again. Frost overnight, spells of sunshine around. Also some wintry showers. Those most likely across northern and western parts of the uk. Further south and east you 90, the uk. Further south and east you go, a good chance you will stay dry and quite sunny, but the winds will be freshening all the while. It will feel quite cold. These are the temperatures, again. Four degrees in glasgow. Seven celsius in london. It stays cold overnight because we have this area of High Pressure killing offa this area of High Pressure killing off a lot of the showers. At the same time, later on, a weather system is approaching from the atlantic. That will impact the north west of the uk as cloud amounts increase. It should be largely dry here. Not as many showers on sunday. Most of them in the east this time. Hello. Im martine croxall. The headlines the Prime Minister says the budget puts britain on the right path despite a leading policy group saying the countrys economic prospects make for grim reading. The chancellor did a very good job yesterday, what the chancellor was doing was setting out how we will ensure we have and economy fit for the future. An underwater explosion is detected near the area where an argentine submarine disappeared in the south atlantic with 44 crew on board. An Army Sergeant is to face a retrial on charges of attempting to murder his wife by tampering with her parachute, after the jury failed to reach verdicts. More than 70 people have been rescued after heavy rain caused flooding in parts of Northern England and wales. A 96 year old d day veteran has been left with life threatening injuries after being attacked with a claw hammer at his home in taunton. Coming up a bitter blow to britain after brussels ruled it cant now host the 2023 European Capital of culture. Well be speaking to one of ourjudges to find out why