Others wounded in a kabul suicide bombing. The Islamic State says it carried out the attack. Our reporter has been at the scene. This is the building where the explosion happened, and you can see the building has been almost completely destroyed. Sharanjit an easing of diplomatic tensions between turkey and the United States as both countries say they will restart Visa Services. Also on the program, the email scandal rocking the miss america contest. We hear from a former winner on where the organization is heading. Sharanjit hello, and welcome to bbc world news. We start with liberia, where it was announced a short time ago that former International Football star george weah has won the president ial election. His supporters celebrated as the Electoral Commission announced that with almost all the ballots counted, mr. Weah had won more than 60 of the vote. He made his name playing for ac milan. He was the first and only player from africa to win the coveted ballon dor award. Over the last three years, he has been a senator in liberia. When he becomes president next month, it will be liberias first democratic transition in more than 70 years. We go to the liberian capital, monrovia, for details and reaction after the declaration of the election results. Reporter it has been wild celebrations literally two minutes after the Electoral Commission chairman announced the result. Hundreds of people thronged in front of the election building, and from then on, central monrovia, across the city, we could hear the reverberating sound of jubilation, the honking of car horns. It has been 12 years of waiting for george weah and his supporters, the celebration will go on till tomorrow morning. Sharanjit this is liberias first democratic transition in more than 70 years. Tell us how groundbreaking is that in itself. Reporter this is very groundbreaking. Liberia is the oldest independent republic in africa. This is the First Time Since 1944 that there will be a democratic handover of power. Even the last one has been questioned because it was not universal suffrage. Technically speaking, in the real sense of universal suffrage, first time in this country. That is a watershed. Just 12 years ago they voted for the first female president on the continent of africa, and now the first exfootballer as head of state. It is something liberians are very much proud of. Sharanjit are there any concerns at all about the transition from being a footballer, wellknown one, to leadership . 2005, justell, in two years after he retired from football, he wanted to run for president. The question was asked that as a footballer, did he have the wherewithal. Then he won the fourth ballot but lost to the harvardtrained ellen johnsonsirleaf. Then he went back to school and it aback later and gave second shot and lost. He believed that those times he tried and failed, he learned of the rules and became a senator for the last three years. He and his supporters believe he has made the transition and will make a good leader, particularly argue, he is able to do that. Sharanjit his running mate is the former wife of the warlord and expresident charles taylor, who is spending time in the u. K. For war crimes. How will the International Community see him . Reporter there was a lot of talk during october that the exwife of convicted war criminal was his running mate, and there was a telephone call apparently through from mr. Taylors jail in england, but he denies there was a deliberate call to him. Mrs. Taylor has argued she is her own woman, and supporters say she is an intellectual, she this brilliant, intelligent, and will be able to do her job as Vice President not because she is the exwife of the head of state currently serving a jail term in the u. K. Sharanjit a suicide bombing in the afghan capital, kabul, has claimed the lives of at least 40 people and injured more than 80 others. The Islamic State group says it carried out the attack on a shia cultural organization. Our correspondent in kabul sent this report from the scene. Reporter these are some of the leftover of the participants who were participating in this seminar today. Shoes, female shoes, kids shoes, old peoples shoes, briefcases of journalists who were here to report on this seminar in kabul. This is the building where the explosion happened. You can see that the building has been almost completely destroyed, and this building was hosts a Cultural Center in the west of kabul as well as a press organization and newspaper. The suicide bomber apparently had entered through that way inside this hall, where the seminar was happening, and the hall was full of people, students, female students, male students from different universities in kabul. It is clear that what the suicide bombing has done here, for what eyewitnesses are saying, 2 suicide bombers had been involved, although officials are only confirming one suicide bomber. Eyewitnesses are talking about 2 possible suicide bombers. They say one of them exploded himself just there, and you can see the destruction from there, and the other one just behind r, andiller, cash pilla the destruction is clear from there. Sharanjit lets take a look at the other stories making the news. Officials in alabama have formally certified Democrat Doug Jones as the winner of the u. S. Senate race after a judge denied a legal challenge by his republican opponent, roy moore, Whose Campaign had been plagued by allegations of sexual misconduct. He lost narrowly and claimed of voter fraud with his lawyer citing the higherthanexpected turnout. Apple has published a letter to customers apologizing for what it called a misunderstanding around older iphones being slowed down. The Company Recently admitted it was deliberately slowing down older iphones in order to compensate for degrading batteries. Italys lower house of parliament has approved legislation to outlaw the muslim tradition of instant divorce. The Supreme Court has banned the right of men to divorce their wives by sirleaf speaking the word three times that means divorce in arabic. Turkey and the u. S. Are to resume issuing visas to each others citizens. They had been suspended in a bitter row, and turkey arrested a local embassy employee in october. But in a statement earlier, the Turkish Embassy in washington and the u. S. Embassy in ankara said the issue had been resolved. Earlier, a reporter from the bbcs Turkish Service explained the background to the problem between the u. S. And turkey. Reporter back in october, the turkish government detained by a u. S. Embassy employee, and this led to a bit of a row with the u. S. Embassy, because the u. S. Embassy is a diplomatic compound. But the turkish government had detained this employee because in the aftermath of the coup attempt last year, there had been a series of raids in and series of operations against people that turkey considers to be terrorists, because turkey believes that the coup attempt was launched by what they call a terrorist organization manned sorry, led by Fethullah Gulen in the u. S. The u. S. , of course, is not extraditing him. It is asking for more evidence. There has been this backandforth of discomfort between 2 nato allies. When the detention happened, the u. S. Embassy stop issuing visas to turkish citizens and the Turkish Embassy intern stopped in turn stopped issuing visas to u. S. Citizens. Up to that point, the disagreement between the two countries only affected each other diplomatically, but that was the first time it had a Practical Impact on regular citizens. Sharanjit as you said, the relationship hasnt always been good, so what does this particular story say about the relationship Going Forward . Reporter the embassy in washington is denying they get any assurances to american officials in return for the Visa Services to resume, but the u. S. Embassy in ankara said that they received assurances from turkey. We dont know what happened behind closed doors, although it is conceivable that some compensation must have taken place for the resolution to come about. Turkey and the u. S. Are nato allies, have been close allies for a long time, but they have had disagreements when it comes to syria turkeys on the side of the u. S. , yet talks to russia, and turkey is against donald trump recognizing jerusalem as israels capital. But turkey has a trump tower in istanbul. It has been a complicated relationship between what should be 2 close allies. Sharanjit what happens next . Reporter from this point on, the Visa Services will resume and the regular lives of people who want to travel to each of each others countries will be fine. Discussed whens comes to israel, especially, or the syria issue, the u. S. Will need turkey to be on board as a partner in the region. Turkey will in turn want to have a better relationship with the american officials. Sharanjit more than 2000 cases of diphtheria have been reported among Rohingya Refugees who fled bangladesh from myanmar. The World Health Organization said at least 20 people have died from the highly contagious disease. The u. K. Is sending an Emergency Team to help fight it. Reporter leaving manchester airport, heading to a refugee camp where those who survived and escaped persecution now face another threat, diphtheria. The makeshift home to more than 600,000 rohingya muslims, this is the refugee camp. Those living here left myanmar and a situation described by the u. N. As a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. It is claimed more than 6000 people have been killed, figure denied by the government in myanmar. Among the 40plus doctors, nurses, and firefighters being sent by britains emergency medical team, a childrens nurse. I know from my experience as a pediatric nurse and as a mum that families will be feeling desperate. I know there are loads of children involved. 75 of the people have been infected with diphtheria around the age of 15. We need to act fast. Reporter when the british team arrives, the medics will be working in tough conditions. Diphtheria has been spreading rapidly. Up to 160 new cases of the disease are reported every day. It is going to be tough. There are 40 of us in this first deployment. We will be working with other organizations, so it wont be just the 40 of us trying to provide the response, but the u. K. Response is one of the fastest, because of the critical nature and the speed with which diphtheria goes from persontoperson, because it needs to do something very, very quickly. Reporter the situation facing the rohingya people has been described as the worlds fastestgrowing refugee crisis. With equipment and expertise, the british medics hope they will make a difference and save lives. Bbc news, manchester. Sharanjit stay with us on bbc world news. Still to come, the future of the miss america contest. Senior leaders have stepped down after leaked emails reveal what they really think of contestants. The most ambitious financial and political change ever attempted has got underway with the introduction of the euro. Tomorrow in holland we are going to use money we take up in belgium today, and in france use and again it will be the same money. George harrison, the former beatle, is recovering in hospital after being stabbed at his home. A 33yearold man from liverpool is being interviewed by police on suspicion of attempted murder. I think it was good. Just good . No, fantastic. Thats better. Sharanjit you are watching bbc world news. The latest headlines former footballer george weah has won liberias election, easily defeating his main rival, Vice President joseph boakai. A bomb attack in the afghan capital, kabul, leaves 41 people dead and more than 80 others wounded. The Islamic State says it was behind it. The u. N. Childrens fund has said the scale of attacks on children in the worlds conflict zones reached shocking levels in 2017. In a new report, it said children are being targeted and exposed to attacks of brutal violence in their homes, schools, and playgrounds. The deputy executive director of unicef in new york told us why children are often targeted. Well, children have always been victims of conflict, but what we have at the moment is a huge amount of very complex emergencies from the rohingya to yemen to south sudan, syria, iraq. Within these conflicts, we are getting increasing reports from unicef staff on the ground on how children are being specifically targeted. They are becoming human bombs in Northern Nigeria. I was up in Northern Nigeria recently, and 130 children have been used as bombs by boko haram. They are used as human shields. We also know from syria there are reports on how children are being deliberately targeted by snipers, even in the school playgrounds. We have this terrible situation going on in syria now, the this siege this this siege to ea with besieged a r 130plus children, a few evacuated, but still many children not evacuated, and 30 minutes away from the hospital. What we are particularly worried about is how children have been brutalized by war on a huge scale. Sharanjit now, england will go in today for hopeful of securing victory for the first time in the ashes series, due in no small part to a fantastic performance from Alastair Cook yesterday. Our reporter Patrick Geary is in melbourne for us. The pendulum swinging very much in englands favor today. Patrick certainly is. You can tell how australia is going by the amount of coverage they are giving it in the newspapers. On day one when they were going well, it was right on the front page, and then moved up here and started to get into the match, and now it is all the way to the back page to find out about 244, monumental inning in a career of monumental innings. He called this the most emotional. He admitted his place on the team was in some jeopardy. In the course of scoring his 244, he spent 10. 5 hours in the melbourne heat and moved to 6 on the alltime list. He is in england, he is in a strong position. They have a good firstinning lead. They may bat on a little while this morning. They have one firstinnings with left,day left, wicket and the rest of the day will be spent with englands bowlers trying to bowl australia out. It is not deteriorating much, and australia will be determined to make up for the mistakes they made in the third inning. England will feel that there has been a change in the wins somewhat. The ashes are gone, but momentum has changed. There will be a rallying cry from the Alastair Cook inning, and they should be able to get a firsttest victory in his ashes series. Sharanjit all right, one to watch. Patrick geary in melbourne, thank you. The iconic miss america beauty pageant is in turmoil over an email scandal that forced its most senior Board Members to step down. The Huffington Post has published emails which allegedly show pageant officials making vulgar comments on contestants weight, sex lives, intellect, and even wishing one was dead. Executive director sam haskell has resigned, as well as president josh randle and other Board Members. An online petition with tens of thousands of signatures is gaining traction, calling for everyone on the board to be sacked. , miss america 2013, was one of the women targeted in the emails. She is leading the charge for everyone on the board to stand down. I spoke to her earlier. If you look at this, the people who have demonstrated categorically that they do not understand how to lead an organization like the miss america organization, being complicit when these things are happening, for them to handpick more people, essentially they are choosing new leaders and i dont trust their judgment. I do not trust that they will put the best interest of the women of miss america at the forefront of what they are doing. Sharanjit what do you think needs to be done . I think the right solution, and many of the other miss americas up to about 45 now have signed on for an interim chairman of the board, Gretchen Carlson. Many might recognize her about from being a Television News anchor, but she has a book out right now called be fierce. People are looking to her for leadership and to lead this organization with womens empowerment. We are looking to Gretchen Carlson to be the interim chairman of the board and bring on other miss americas onto the board of directors and start putting together a new leadership. In that we want the people there , to step away. Sharanjit in the Current Movement with the me too movement and a lot of accusations against very highprofile men in hollywood and elsewhere, do you think this is helping your cause . How do you feel about this . Absolutely, and the thing i think is a little bit different about this is that in those scenarios, we have not seen too many men stand up for women. It is women coming forward and other women contributing to the conversation. What is different about this scenario here is that the person who stood up for us was a man. Brent adams was an employee of sam haskell and he realized something was wrong. It took him a while to figure out how to come forward with the information, and he tried to do it behind the scenes initially and was not successful because they refused to walk away from the program, those people in the emails were talking negatively about miss americas. He is the one who came forward with this and made this the conversation so he deserves a little credit here in this scenario for being a man standing up for women and say this is an right, this type of conversation isnt right, and i wont stand for it. Sharanjit that was 2013 miss America Mallory hagan. Every second, the world drinks 35,000 cups of coffee. It is Little Wonder that it is a 200 billion industry. Well, now new figures show how more and more of that money is finding its way back to farmers. Reporter there has never been more choice. We are all drinking more coffee and we are prepared to pay more for it. But in return, we want to know more where it is from, this coup. How it got to our this coffee shop in part of east london is typical. They roast their own beans, which are carefully selected for the benefits they bring farmers. For example, we have ugandan coffee. We managed to find a farm that is producing really good coffee. And then we talk to our customers about the impact that makes in the area, because there was a lot of warfare in uganda. Reporter telling the story of how those beans made their way from the forms to the cup is the central part of the branding and marketing effort involved in making coffee about the wider experience as well as the drinking. It means more profits throughout the supply chain, with new figures from the u. N. Intellectual Property Organization shows. For a pound of coffee beans to be sold in the super market, the roaster can get over four dollars. But the export price is 1. 45. The farmer gets most of that. However, if the same beans end up in a large western coffee chain, the roaster can get 8. 50. But the farmers in the Community Also do better, getting 2. 89. When the socially aware customer identity, the for roaster gets 17. 45 a month but the export price rises to 5. 14. That third wave is the clear incentive for farmers to invest in turning their beans into coffee with superior standards when it comes to sustainability and fair trade. A farmer can be roughly 3. 5 times better off by taking advantage of the third wave and selling into the third wave context. That obviously is a huge difference, and it brings with it many benefits for the former. Farmer. Obviously, a higher standard of income. Reporter also looking to cash cash cash in are the 2 companies that sell more coffee than anyone else. They have been spending billions on smaller rivals like californias bluebottle coffee. The trend started in the u. S. , west coast, and has been expanding to other parts of the world, and large roasting Companies Want to start enjoying some of the profitability. We are starting to see a lot of acquisition of these Large Companies buying the small independent coffee shops. Reporter an increasing amount of the coffee we are drinking is the expensive type that millennials like to post on social media, and that is stimulated profit throughout the industry. Sharanjit American Airlines has apologized to 2 professional basketball players who were kicked off a flight after being wrongly accused of theft. Marquis teague and Trahson Burrell boarded a plane on christmas eve, but before takeoff, Flight Attendant said the men and taken blankets off the cabin. It later emerged they had been given the blankets by passengers. Neither of the players have commented. But the teams assistant coach tweeted that he believes the incident was driven by race, saying that the Flight Attendant had seen 2 young black athletes with blankets from firstclass. The first comment was did you steal them . An American Airlines Spokesman Says the carrier is reviewing the incident. How about this for the alternative Christmas Tree . It is at a depth of 5 meters in the chilly waters of a lake in macedonia. The decoration of the underwater tree has become somewhat of a tradition with divers dressed as santa claus and it has become quite a tourist attraction. This years decoration was to raise money for children with rare diseases. One thing the tree had to do without was the lights. A reminder of our top story, former International Football star george weah has won liberias president ial runoff. He won more than 60 of the vote in what will be the countrys first democratic transition since 1944. With the bbc news app, our vertical videos are designed to work around your lifestyle, so you can swipe your way through the news of the day and stay up to date with the latest headlines you can trust. Download now from selected app stores. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, and kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs. Bbc world news was presented by kcet, los angeles. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc sreenivasan good evening, im hari sreenivasan. Judy woodruff is away. On the newshour tonight, isis suicide attackers strike, killing dozens at a Shiite Center in afghanistans capital kabul. Then, Medicaid Expansion has come to maine thanks to voters, but maines governor remains opposed. You have to pay for the law. Its going to cost money and i intend to implement it and the legislature has required to fund it. If they do not fund it, it will not be implemented. Sreenivasan and, the trump agenda assessing the administrations foreign policy. All that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Majorunding for the pbs newshour has been provided by
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