0llie, thank you so much forjoining us, especially under these circumstances. now, i understand you've been able to flee these fires. just bring us up to date in terms of what took place, what happened and how you're coping — where are you now? yeah, so i am now in a small village called fort simpson, which is about 630 kilometres west of yellowknife. it probably sounds like a huge distance — it really isn't in northwest territories terms. this place is twice the size of france, it's got 16,000 people in it, so vast scales that we're talking about. this is essentially three communities to the left of yellowknife. and you can just hear a float plane into the distance, by the way. this is the mackenzie river behind me. yellowknife under a full evacuation order, as you probably heard, yesterday. we came out here a day before because, to be frank, the writing has been on the wall for days that that wildfire was going to pose a grave threat. what were you seeing that led you to think, "hey, i better get out of here even a day before "the official evacuation order takes place? " well, i'm the editor of cabin radio, a website covering the northwest territories — and i'll shout over the flood plane in the background here — we did an interview with a gentleman named john vallant who spent seven years studying wildfires and john vaillant described to me how authorities in fort mcmurray in 2016 underestimated the strength of 21st century wildfire. he said he saw a lot of echoes in yellowknife — and i have to be frank with you, it's one of those things as a journalist, i got five minutes into that interview and thought to myself, "what am "i still doing here?" just walk us through the situation in the area in general because, of course, yellowknife is not the only area evacuated — several other communities have had to flee. there are any different blazes there. give us a picture of what is taking place in the northwest territories. ok, so there's a huge lake called great slave lake. yellowknife is on the top of it. then, at the other side of that lake — it's a very large lake — you have two communities called fort smith and hay river. together, they have got about 7000 people in them. on saturday and sunday last weekend, they were both told to evacuate. thousands of people fleeing down the highway to alberta where they still are. we have no timeline for when people might be able to get back to those communities. there hasn't even been any communications in those communities — there's no internet, no landline, no cell phones — there hasn't been for days and days now. and we've just heard in the last couple of hours that the community of kakisa — it's a tiny community, it's only 36 people — but they have been told they've got to flee as well. evacuation order getting them west to this community, actually, fort simpson, which will be an evacuation centre for them. so, we've got seven or eight different communities under evacuation orders right now. wow. more than half the territories�* population is out of their homes. and what's fuelling these blazes? well, that's a good question. climate change is fuelling them. it is the boreal forest in canada. it's an extremely flammable, combustible landscape in the first place. part of that is natural — forest fires are not an artificial phenomenon. sure, they could be human caused, but the vast majority are not — they are caused by things like lightning. they happen all the time, they have done since time immemorial. the boreal forest catches fire — it's what it does. but with the climate changing the way that it is, the landscape back here is drier than it ever has been in the past, it stays dryer out for longer, the relative humidity goes down and you create conditions where even if there is a little bit of rain, like there is right now here in fort simpson on me, that doesn't buy you much time. it doesn't do too much. cooler temperatures do not help that much. it's the sheer amount of dryness that we have — and there has been an unusually hot summer here as well, which is why these fires are as devastating as they are. we heard there's more than a thousand fires currently burning in canada. what's the sense that you get in terms of authorities and firefighters — are they able to control and contain these blazes and make sure that they can protect people and communities? frankly, the answer to that is no, otherwise we wouldn't have 20,000 people all trying to drive down one highway out of yellowknife right now. clearly, fires like this cannot always be controlled. what can be controlled is the human response to that and when you take the decision to leave and how you take the decision to leave. and over the last few years, there are more and more voices suggesting that the traditional ways of combating fires — or, more accurately, the traditional way of communities responding to fires — might need to change and that we need to adjust our understanding of how we move people around and how we get them out and how we defend communities to the new reality that is fires behaving more extremely than they ever have before, covering more distance, burning more intensely, and threatening communities in a way that previously just was not expected. and briefly, 0llie, is there anything specifically that people want the government to do or change in order to prevent or better manage wildfires in the future? i think there's a whole bunch of things that it's probably a list too long to get into but it's more important to say that the average human being doesn't have a whole lot of understanding of this. i don't think you can point to 20,000 people in yellowknife and say, "oh, we wanted wildlife management "techniques to change". i think it's more that there could've been a recognition earlier in proceedings that this fire and other fires nearby could pose more of a threat. now, that conversation has happened before, i'm sure it will happen again — it's far too soon to get into that kind of analysis right now. we're still in the event. a situation still evolving. 0llie williams, the co—founder and news editor of cabin radio, an independent news station there in the northwest territories, thank you so much forjoining us. thank you. in hawaii, where maui has been dealing with the aftermath of devastating wildfires, the island's emergency management chief resigned on thursday, citing health concerns. herman andaya had come underfierce criticism for his handling of the disaster amid questions over why maui's emergency sirens were not used at the height of the crisis. maui's county mayor vowed to look for a replacement as quickly as possible. meanwhile, the search for victims continues. at least 111 are now confirmed dead. crews are searching some 2,000 burnt businesses and homes but the job is not yet even 50—percent complete. while the exact cause of the wildfires is being investigated, mounting evidence shows downed power lines could have played a role. here's the bbc�*sjohn sudworth. maui's fight continues. this pilot hovering above a swimming pool now being used to douse the flames further down the hill. these homes, some distance from the destroyed coastal town of lahaina, are in the centre of the island where, last week, just before the fires, the cameras at this bird sanctuary captured a bright flash. staff believe it is a tree falling on a power line. shortly afterwards, flames can be seen in the forest. ross hart saw something similar before his home burned down. we could hear some trees falling here and there in the distance. and one big one fell here on the bridge and it knocked over the power lines. and then, you saw the house — you could see it burn? i saw it begin to burn and they wouldn't let me stay to watch it. they were dragging me out because the embers were starting to come over my truck and stuff. questions are now being asked about whether lives might have been saved. should maui's power grid have been turned off? could more have been done to sound the alarm? for many of those who escaped from lahaina, alongside the trauma, there is now a deep sense of anger. i hate it. i want these people to explain to me why we didn't get an alarm when they have the most sophisticated alarm system in the world. 80 — and they practice it every month and what in the world are they waiting for, you know? the authorities have launched an investigation, although the priority for now is responding to the disaster. but the wildfire risk, despite the devastation in lahaina, is farfrom over. this helicopter taking multiple trips, carrying water off to fight the wildfires still smouldering right across this area. but some of those who have lost homes here point to something they say should already have been focusing the minds of the authorities. like, as if it isn't obvious, notjust from what's happened here but all over the world. it's — what could be more obvious that we are having disaster after disaster that's all as a result of climate change? with more bodies yet to be recovered, this is already america's most lethal wildfire in more than a century. few doubt that lessons need to be learned. john sudworth, bbc news, maui. lawyers for donald trump have asked for an april 2026 trial date for the federal charges that the former president faces over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. that would come well after the upcoming 2024 us election, in which mr trump could be the republican candidate for president. special counseljack smith has asked for the trial to start in january of next year, just weeks before the first votes are cast in the republican primaries. a spokesperson for smith declined to comment on the request for the later date. plus, law enforcement officials in georgia are investigating threats made to members of the grand jury which voted to indict former us president donald trump on charges related to election interference. the fulton county sheriff's office released a statement saying they are aware the names and addresses of grand jury members were shared online. more than 100 people have been arrested in pakistan after mobs burned churches and vandalised christian homes. the violence in the city ofjaranwala, in punjab, was triggered by claims that two christian men had torn pages from a copy of the quran. they've now been been arrested. 0ur pakistan correspondent caroline davies has more. narrow streets with destruction at every turn. you can see there the enormous damage that has been done here. this is jaranwala's christian quarter. yesterday, angry protesters stormed these homes, including sonam's. "we lost everything," she tells me. inside, blackened, overturned, smashed. she describes how her bed was thrown from the window and on her roof, how she heard an announcement from the mosque calling for people to come out to protest. translation: people came to our houses with their sticks. _ we were scared and we ran. we had small kids. if they had gotten hurt, what would we have done? the protest was called after two christians were alleged to have ripped pages from the quran, writing obscenities on them. thousands gathered. it turned violent. churches around the city burnt, homes ransacked. when we first got here, people were in a real state of shock but now, it's quite clear that that is turning to anger. minorities, including christians, are protected by law in pakistan, but many we spoke to felt that not enough was done to stop this. translation: when protesters| came here, they chanted slogans and i saw the police leaving from the other side. then, the protesters destroyed it all. the police argue they stopped the situation deteriorating. if we had better charged or started fighting, it could have subsided but it would have swept all over the country and the most important thing — if we had killed any of the protesters, that would have created a ripple effect. the police have said they believe the violence was planned and arrested some individuals from two hardline religious parties. in stjohn�*s church, tears for what is lost and for how quickly their fragile peace was fractured. caroline davies, bbc news, jaranwala. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. some other news 110w. property giant evergrande has filed for bankruptcy protection in the us, in china deepens. as the real estate crisis in china deepens. it will allow the heavily—indebted company to protect its assets in the us as it works on a multibillion—dollar deal with creditors. evergrande defaulted on its huge debts in 2021, which sent shockwaves through global financial markets. a brazilian hacker has told a congressional inquiry that he was hired by brazil's former president, jair bolsonaro, to try to prove that electronic ballots were vulnerable to fraud, ahead of last year's election. walter delgatti told the inquiry he was paid $8,000 by someone close to mr bolsonaro. he said he wasn't able to hack the ballots. british talk—show legend michael parkinson has died at the age of 88. over a seven decade career, he interviewed the biggest names in the world, including muhammad ali, sir eltonjohn and damejudy dench — among countless others. you're live with bbc news. the west african regional bloc, ecowas, says it's still prepared to use force to restore democracy in niger. the group met in ghana for a two—day gathering to coordinate a possible military intervention. it follows last month's military coup which deposed elected president, mohamed bazoum. the group added that they still want to give diplomacy a chance and that niger has time to pull back from the brink. meanwhile, the new us ambassador to niger will touch down in the country in the coming days. the state department says kathleen fitzgibbon�*s arrival does not mean the us recognises the military—led government. earlier, i spoke with bisa williams, the former us ambassador to niger, for more on all of this. bisa williams, thank you indeed forjoining us this evening. ecowas has activated a standby force ready to invade niger should the military faction continue to hold onto its power and should ecowas deem that that is needed. do you support that use of force? i personally think that that is the most important instrument that ecowas can use as a last resort. they're using the justification for that is the potential for contagion in the region and that is why they have this force on standby. they have used that is the justification as well for closing the borders, shutting off the electricity. are you concerned about that? i think that, rather than say it's the worry about contagion, they also thought it was within the charter that ecowas states had decided to support democratisation in the region, so the imposition of sanctions and the other instruments in their toolbox that they had to use were sort of messages to send to militaries or other people that would try to overthrow democratically elected governments. there isn't another way for these states to try to show a collective point of view. and so i think you have to acknowledge that and i think all the states have acknowledge that. the have used these kinds of things in other instances. niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. the impact of closing the borders and of nigeria, for example, cutting off its electricity sharing with niger is hard for a westerner to imagine, an american particularly, to imagine, i think the impact has been very heavy, but it is also supposed to be telling a message to the junta that they need to engage in serious discussions in order to get the country out of this serious crisis. do you think we are at the point of last resort now? that's not for me to determine, but i thought last message out of ecowas was that they want to talk seriously with the junta. i understand that the united states still has left the door open to discussion, to use its good offices to further dialogue, so i think it is up to the junta to demonstrate it wants to talk seriously. i'm not sure what kind of countdown the military leaders of the ecowas states use, that's just not my forte. 0k. mohamed bazoum came to power just over two years ago in the first democratic transfer of power since independence in 1960. what you think this situation means for the democracy in niger? i think it's an enormous setback. it is a tragic, lamentable, and just horrible setback for the country. i do think that if a coup succeeds, if the military overthrow of a productive democratically elected government succeeds in niger then i think it is a very, very dangerous signal, ominous signal for the rest of the region. president biden, the biden administration has not called it a coup, do you consider it to be a coup? i think it's a coup. but i'm not in government. i understand why the us government has hesitated. there are things that have to kick in if the united states government determines legally that this is a coup and i think they are holding off because they are trying not to have those severe measures immediately come into effect. so that's why they opened their door. it's very unusual for them to say we will use our good offices in this instance, we are willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with those who want to have a dialogue. i think united states government trying to do everything it can to signal that it's very serious about trying to get out of the situation peacefully and not impose the kinds of measures that our congress requires. is one of those signals the new us ambassador to niger, kathleen fitzgibbon there, this week, obviously a post that you held yourself in the past. is that an important thing for the us government to do at this point? it is important for kathleen fitzgibbon, who was a career diplomat, to be posted to niger at this time. but it is not, i don't think, linked, i'm pretty sure it's not linked to the idea that the united states is sending signals. in fact, kathleen was nominated over a year ago, our own domestic situation held up, i think, her being confirmed. she was finally confirmed i think latejuly, 27july or so and so now they are sending her to post. but this is a crisis period in niger and our embassy needs professional, experienced leadership and kathleen represents that. and i think that's also important for the government to understand, for the nigeriens to see that we are going to make sure that our mission has the right kinds of people in it. if they are going to have a discussion and then you need somebody with experience to help be that conduit. one of the first things they do is present their credentials to the president, the president in this case is obviously under house arrest and the most recent us delegation there was denied access to him, what is the sort ofjob that lies ahead, what does that look like for kathleen fitzgibbon? i think the first thing ambassador fitzgibbon will have to do is really meet with our embassy. we have americans that are in niger, we have our own local staff. and i think the first thing is the people that are directly working for you. she will have to make sure that our staff understands what the us government position is, what she's going to doing there as a leader, and how much we know that this situation is very straining on all of the families, not just the american families, but particularly the nigerien families with whom we have worked over decades. i think that is her number one. the second will be to make sure american citizens in the country also know the embassy has an ambassador there. i think those kind of symbols in that order are important. as far as the communication with the people who have seized power and her communication with the people who have seized power, i imagine she will continue to be the state department's conduit. she will be able to speak with president bazoum, hopefully, and if the government that has imposed itself wants to deal seriously with united states government, kathleen is going to be the person they really reach out to. so i think she has her work cut out for her. 0k, we will leave it there for the moment. bisa williams thank you forjoining us. you're welcome, thank you. 0pposition leaderss in the uk and human rights groups have criticized britain's invitation to saudi arabia's crown prince mohammed bin salman. they point to his country's troubling human rights record, and accusations that the crown prince had a role in the killing ofjournalist, jamal khashoggi. the prince denies any involvement int he killing. 0ur political correspondent, helen catt, has more. well, rishi sunak and mohammed bin salman spoke on the phone this afternoon, and some of the content of their conversation i think offers a bit of an answer to that. so they spoke about developing "a trade and investment relationship," particularly in what they described as "new cutting—edge industries". now saudi arabia is spending very big at the moment, trying to diversify its economy away from oil. it's also been investing very heavily in sport in recent years — the uk wants more trade. it's also one of the government's trade priorities to do a deal with a group of countries in the gulf, of which saudi arabia is a member — although we're told the department for business and trade didn't have any hand and wasn't involved in this invitation. now a former minister who i spoke to earlier, who does have concerns about saudi human rights records, said the reality was it was a major player in the region, the government had to engage, and that this gave an opportunity to the uk to raise some of those issues. labour too has said there needed to be dialogue, but said rishi sunak would have to raise human rights issues on any visit. this will be controversial, there are those who do not see it this way. the liberal democrats have said it amounts to rolling out the red carpet for mohammed bin salman and sending a message, they say, that he can continue to act with impunity. and before we go, britney spears is splitting from her husband ofjust14 months. a divorce petition filed late on wednesday cites irreconcilable differences between the pop star and actor, sam asghari. the couple got engaged in september 2021, and were married in a star—studded ceremony last year. in a statement, asghari said the pair had chosen to end theirjourney together and that he wishes britney the best always. thats all from us here in washington. we leave you with these live pictures of london as we hand off to our colleagues there. i'm caitriona perry. thanks for watching bbc news. hello. we're going to have all sorts of weather on friday — from morning thunderstorms across the south of the country, to sunshine in the lake district and scotland. so a real mixed bag on the way. so let's have a look at the big picture. here's the satellite picture — jet stream pushing along this developing area of weather. multiple areas of low pressure and multiple weather fronts heading our way. and yes, there'll be some storms, too. so let's have a look at the early morning forecast — showers already breaking out across some southwestern parts of the country, possibly some rumbles of thunder, too. but further north and east, i think bright spells, if not cloudy skies across some of these north sea coasts. quite muggy in the morning. but let's have a look at the thunderstorms, then. so sweeping in from the southwest — this is around about 7am — the position of these storms very tricky to pinpoint, but we will see some downpours in places. frequent lightning, gusty winds, as well. some rain moving through northern ireland in the morning, too, then eventually, these thunderstorms will move into the midlands, move a little bit further northwards, and most of them should fade — so we're not anticipating any storms further north. now further north, it'll be a little bit cooler — around 17 in aberdeen, 19 in glasgow, further south across the country, around about 21—23 celsius. then friday night, the next era of rain sweeps across the country — this is a developing area of low pressure — with the risk of gales around some western and south—western coasts. so very blustery weather for a time in the morning, especially out towards the south—west. the rain will move north, and then later in the day on saturday, it's actually better — it's quite a breezy day, but plenty of bright, if not sunny weather, and just a scattering of showers. and the temperatures will rise a little bit, as well. now looking ahead to sunday, an area of high pressure is expected to build in from the south, extending all the way from these south—western portions. and i think a pretty decent day on the way, just a scattering of showers, really pleasant temperatures — 25 in london, about 20 expected in glasgow, and about 21 in belfast. and the outlook is looking warm for many of us, not necessarily sunny all the time — i think the low 20s further north, and comfortably into the mid—20s across some southern areas. that's it for me, bye—bye. voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. afterfour decades in power in cambodia, hun sen is handing over to his eldest son. dad will remain leader of the ruling people's party so significant change seems unlikely for either family or country. given years of economic growth and a key strategic position in south—east asia, maybe the status quo is acceptable to most cambodians. well, it's hard to know, given the repression of political dissent. my guest is the veteran exiled opposition leader sam rainsy. has hun sen outwitted his enemies? sam rainsy, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. it's a great pleasure to have you in the studio. i wonder if right now, you are feeling very depressed. in thejuly election in cambodia for the national assembly, the ruling people's party won 120 of the 125 seats. was that really the final nail in the coffin of your opposition movement? no. we continue the fight. it's an uphill battle but i think in the end, democracy will prevail. what makes you think that, given the track record