january 6th unfolded and the assault, including the assault on the us capitol. and as you mentioned, he essentially bashed that window, letting in the first batch of these rioters into the capitol complex and today, while 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 the judge spoke, the judge left the room, he then raised his fist and said, "trump won!" he yelled that in the courtroom there with his family members still present, so it's unclear if he's really given up politics when you have that kind of statement coming from pezzola but clearly, he was one of the main characters when this riot and this insurrection unfolded there at the capitol and pezzola getting ten years behind bars for his involvement. and willie, let's talk about ethan nordean receiving 18 years in prison — that's almost twice what pezzola received. tell us more about his role. yeah, and i actually want to read some of what a judge has said — the us district courtjudge in this case, timothy kelly — he told nordean during his sentencing, he said, "i think it's a tragedy how you got "from to a to b". he then went on to say "maybe your upbringing was better, "with no criminal record" but nordean clearly, in this case, did not have that non—existing criminal record in this case. he was clearly involved in all of what went on that day with the proud boys, receiving this very hefty sentence of 18 years — is tied with stewart rhodes from the oath keepers. he also received 18 years with his involvement on everything that went on that day. so, quite a serious case in this case, like a lot of others involved with proud boys, this is seditious conspiracy charge, essentially trying to overthrow the us government. that's why prosecutors gave such an impassioned argument to try and get the sentencing up there in terms of years, in terms of length of years, but 18 years is quite a lengthy sentence and tied for the longest sentence, as both you and i mentioned. yeah, willie, just 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? yeah, i mean, they're lengthy sentences, indeed, but prosecutors — the 00], in this case — has been 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, they've also asked for 33 years. he got 17 years. so, it's clear that prosecutors believe that these are very serious crimes. they want more time. you do have some criticism, of course, with these cases — some individuals here in the us thinking that this is politically motivated, that this is a do] and a court system being — playing politics. but still, it's 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. so, i think it's important to point that out when these sentences are handed down. i just want to jump in there and ask you about the former president because he has, of course, loomed large over these trials, hasn't he? so, how has he factored in? yeah, 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 the president of the united states, not living in washington, but clearly, these judges, when they hand out these sentences, although they might not necessarily mention trump by name, they certainly know the gravity of what's at stake here, that these individuals — the proud boys, to be specific — were essentially trying to lead a revolution against the us government. we, 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. you have a state case that's going on in fulton county. all of this will come to a head during the middle of the presidential election. so, while former president trump, his name might not be necessarily mentioned but still, the context of what went on on that day is still crystal clear in terms of the actions of some of these individuals and the charges and the sentences that they now face. sumi. williejames inman, thank you so much forjoining us. great to have you. typhoon saola has made landfall in southern china, having given hong kong a glancing blow. although it has reduced in strength, saola is bringing fierce winds and heavy rain to guangdong province, where tens of millions of people are sheltering indoors. 800,000 have been evacuated from the more vulnerable areas there, which is home to several megacities. the system is likely to bring storm conditions for much of the weekend. to south africa 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 have been complaints of delays in the identification process, with some families waiting outside the mortuary for up to two hours. the un has warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in niger, after the new militaryjunta suspended the activities of un agencies. the army took power in a july coup amid islamist militant insurgencies. more than 3 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". on friday mr macron said paris doesn't recognise the coup leaders. in gabon, the military leader who led the coup there says the country's state institutions will be made more democratic. general brice 0ligui nguema says the institution will be "reorganised and improved", and that their suspension on wednesday, when president ali bongo was overthrown, was temporary. earlier, gabon�*s opposition coalition accused the military of showing no indication they plan to hand back power to a civilian government. ali bongo, whose family has held power for over half a century, now remains under house arrest. the situation has drawn regional and international condemnation. these are two of the latest in a wave of coups in west and central africa in recent years. the region has now seen eight military takeovers since 2020. a short time ago i spoke with bisa williams, former us ambassador to niger, and eric benjaminson, former us ambassador to gabon, for a roundtable discussion about these issues. let's dive in deeper on these coups, joining me live is bisa williams, former us ambassador to niger, and eric benjaminson, former us ambassador to gabon. ——bisa williams, the wake of the niger coup, ecowas warned about their concern about the risk of contagion on the continent. french president emmanuel macron thinks they are very different situations. what's your view? i think both things are correct. i do think the coup in niger is a very bad signal to militaries that are thinking that perhaps political leadership is no longer necessary and nobody is going to do anything about it and at the same time i do think what happened in gabon did not happened for the same kinds of reasons that you had a coup in niger. so the fact that you have military taking these steps, i think everybody needs to pay attention to, but i also think it's really important to understand what are the root causes of these decisions, of that kind of an outcome. eric benjaminson, do you agree with that? yes, i do. thank you for me having on, bu the way. i think we need to look at these coups are separate. if there was an underlying fact i think i would say it is the free flow of information or the free—er flow of information to these countries, the use of smart phones and the internet. i think citizens of these countries now have more ways to look at it. but as one of your earlier segments was talking about, we might have also had a new in the us, so i'd be ——a coup in the us, so i'd be hesitant to lump all these things together. what we used to say about gabon is it's really hard to know what's actually going on, and i think you could make a case that this coup might have been driven by other family members than simply by politics. but that's just a supposition, there is really no way to know. now, gabon and niger are both former french colonies, since 1990, 78% of the 27 coups in sub—saharan africa have occurred in francophone countries. how might the legacy of colonialism influence the situation we're seeing in the countries today? that's a pretty startling statistic, and it's one that people need to pay attention to. however, there was colonialism all over the continent and, again, if you go to root causes, maybe this has something to do with what kinds of opportunities came up, how much education people have in the various countries in africa, what their access is to good health, good employment, the ability to take care of theirfamilies, and how much they see there is some kind of possibility for each generation to do better than the previous one. eric, do you see post—colonialism as a factor? yes, in a manner of speaking, i think you can draw some differences between francophone colonialism and british, etc. in addition to was bisa said, which i completely agree with, one of the other factors is the particular ties that are made between france, france business, french government, and their former colonies, i think is a little different than the situation between britain and its former colonies, and that brings elites together and brings business together in a way that might be resented by poorer citizens of these countries. so should the us be doing more in the region? you are very familiar with niger in particular, it hosts a significant us military base. niger in particular hosts a significant us military base. is the us suitably invested in stability and democracy in the area, bisa? the us has traditionally been very strong in promoting democracy, promoting human rights, promoting transparency, and i think the latest summit by president biden just last december that brought together african leaders was even a stronger indication of us involvement on that level. it is true that the united states was building — more and more it seemed to be — a larger security partnership in niger and actually in west africa, shall we say. but that was not supposed to be at the expense of its policy to really support civil society, support the rule of law. i personally think there's more the united states can be doing, should be doing. i think that it is time for us to be even more aggressive in more infrastructure support, more educational support, but i do have to say the united states has consistently supported rule of law, supported human rights, supported democracy and if you notice in almost all of the coups we have seen in west africa so far, even when the united states has said they are against the coups, that they stand with the positions of ecowas, the united states hasn't been singled out as the villain. for example, as france was, even ridiculously in the niger case, because the french had nothing to do with the coup actually happening. but at any rate, the united states seems to be balancing pretty well its relationship with civil society and its relationship with administrations. eric, would you go along with that? you were stationed in gabon, a little different to niger? i go along with the general points. i do think the us is sincerely interested in maintaining democratisation and human rights and the health of civil society. at the same time the situation in gabon is quite a bit different. there is almost no military relationship between gabon and the us, there's no troops on the ground. there's a very small business relationship between gabon and the us, so you can't really say that the us is being motivated by economic or political military circumstances. i think that while we do generally agree that there should have been a democratisation change, we also recognise — and by saying this i don't mean that we support a coup in any way — but i think we all recognise there were some irregularities in the recent election and perhaps in past elections and i also think that we do ask ourselves in countries like gabon, what more could we be doing? i think it's important we continue to work with the united nations, the african union, the regional organisations that are part of the african union and i think that's where we exert the influence we have, but in gabon i would say that our levers that we can you specifically are less than what we have in niger. president trump created a position of special envoy to the sahel region — a position that president biden has not filled. should he make that a priority? eric? i would actually leave that question a little bit to bisa. i didn't work on the sahel much. but i think that any more deep involvement on the part of the us in africa is a very strong thing and a very useful movement. bisa? would you like to see a special envoy to the sahel region? i think the sahel is very important and i think a special envoy, if that special envoy is going to be able to influence policy, would be useful. 0k. we'll leave it there for the moment. bisa williams and eric benjaminson, thank you both forjoining us. russian justice officials have designated 2021 nobel peace prize laureate and journalist dmitry muratov as a "foreign agent." muratov still lives in russia and edited the independent novaya gazeta newspaper before its journalists fled last year to latvia. it's a move that could open up muratov to police searches and other punitive measures. the kremlin has used similar measures to stifle critics. meanwhile, ukraine hasjoined several swedish lawmakers in condemning the nobel foundation's decision to invite the russian and belarusian ambassadors to this year's ceremony in stockholm. they say the move is irresponsible because of russia's war on ukraine. nobel officials say invitations were extended to all countries with diplomatic missions in sweden and norway. india's supreme court is considering petitions challenging prime minister narendra modi's decision to strip indian—administered kashmir of its semi—autonomy. new delhi took direct control in 2019 and now, the security forces are being accused of a campaign of arrests and intimidation of journalists. india and pakistan both claim the kashmir region and each control part of it. the area under indian control has seen insurgencies by several militant groups and the security forces are accused of cracking down on those reporting events. the bbc has spoken to several journalists with stories of serious abuse. 0ur south asia correspondent yogita limaye, has more from the city of srinagar. —— 0ur south asia correspondent yogita limaye has more from the city of srinagar. this is the kashmir india's government wants the world to see — beautiful, serene, full of tourists. away from sight is the more grim picture — a painful, long—running conflict. more recently, a clampdown on democratic rights. and journalists say those reporting on the realities of the situation are now being silenced. asif sultan, a kashmiri reporter, pictured here at one of his court hearings. he's been injailforfive years, charged under terror laws. his father, muhammad, says asif was targeted for this article he wrote about an anti—india militant. translation: everyone knows he's innocent. - he's a professional reporter and was jailed for his writing about the militancy. they wanted to make an example out of him, so other journalists don't dare to cover topics the government doesn't approve of. at the time of his arrest, asif�*s daughter was just six months old. ariba might have been reunited with her father when he was given bail last year but on the day of his release, new charges were brought. asif was kept in jail. it's part of a troubling pattern. journalist sajjad gul, jailed for criminal conspiracy. well—known magazine editor fahad shah, arrested on terrorism charges. whenever they are granted bail, new cases are filed to keep them in custody. most recently, irfan mehraj, who's worked with international outlets, jailed for alleged links to terror funding. this complex, which now houses an office of the kashmir police. until last year, this is where kashmir�*s press club used to be — the main body in the region which used to stand up for the rights ofjournalists. last year, it was shut down by the government and in its absence, journalists say they have nowhere to turn to if they feel threatened. and it isn'tjustjailing. we've heard of other forms of intimidation. dozens ofjournalists in this region are on no—fly lists, prevented from leaving the country. dozens ofjournalists have not had their passports renewed. we've spoken to 20 journalists on the ground, each of whom have told us that they've been called by the police and questioned about stories that they've done or social media posts that they've put out. this reporter told us about one such experience. he doesn't want to be identified, fearing reprisal. i started getting calls from the police over a story i had written. they kept asking why i had done it. then, i was questioned in person. they told me they know everything about me and my family, which felt very scary. i kept thinking, "would i be arrested or harmed physically?" and what impact has that had on yourjournalism? instead of thinking about whether i have enough facts in a report, i worry more about whether it will land me in trouble. we are all self—censoring. there is an attempt to silence the press in kashmir once and for all. most journalists told us they fear reprisal by the state. but in a conflict between indian forces and underground militant outfits, some say there are other dangers, too. i spoke to a journalist who received threats from an insurgent group. translation: working | as a journalist in kashmir is like walking on a razor�*s edge. there are threats from all sides. i'm constantly afraid of a bullet coming at me and that no—one will ever find out who fired that. the impact onjournalism is evident when you look at the papers on any given day. the front pages are pretty much full of statements from either the national government or the regional administration. there are lots of soft stories but there's barely any journalism in here holding the government to account. we asked the police and the regional administration to respond to the allegations made byjournalists who spoke to us. they haven't replied. in press statements, the administrative head of the region has insisted that there's absolute press freedom in kashmir. what we found belies the claims. 0n the ground in kashmir, press freedom has all but been eroded. yogita limaye, bbc news, srinagar. 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 —— 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 lonrho group in the battle to buy harrods. lonrho's 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. another, jonathan aiken, resigned after mohamed al—fayed revealed that he'd stayed free of charge at the ritz in paris at the same time as 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 mi... you work for m16, 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. daniela relph reporting there. now, we've also learned that marilyn lovell, whose husband james commanded the troubled apollo 13 mission, has died at age 93. her steely stoicism during the tense moments of apollo 13 was emblematic of the tribulations of astronauts' wives. an explosion on board the spacecraft in april 1970 scrambled nasa into a plan to save the three astronauts before they safely returned to earth days later. her death last weekend was announced by a illinois funeral home. that's all from us here in washington. i'm caitriona perry. thanks for watching. we leave you with these live pictures of london as we hand off to our colleagues there. 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's 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 and this weather front which will push close to the north—west of scotland at times, certainly on sunday. but high pressure's 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 and fog through the morning, which will tend to lift and burn. into the afternoon, could see the odd isolated shower developing but most places will stay dry and it'll feel a lot warmerfor most — low to mid 20s 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 stronger 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—17 degrees, but the rest of scotland, northern ireland, england and wales, it's the low to mid 20s. as we head into monday, we hold on to this wetter, cloudier, breezier weather across north—west scotland but the rest of scotland, northern ireland, england and wales again, once any morning mist and fog clears away, it'll be dry, sunny and very warm with temperatures ranging from 22—26 celsius. much warmer there for eastern scotland, too. and we hold on to those temperatures — mid to maybe high 20s for england and wales. could see close to 30 degrees in one or two spots. 0therwise, they'll be turning more unsettled by the end of the week. this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour straight after this programme. a myanmar militaryjet circles a primary school. after seizing power in a coup, they are trying to crush an uprising, demanding democracy. when they think it's safe, they run. but the plane circles back. explosion and gunfire across myanmar, the military is carrying out air strikes. on the ground, they are struggling to crush the resistance, so they've taken this fight against their own people to the air. the military is increasingly isolated by western sanctions, but it's russia that's providing them with deadly air power.