away from the embassy, to the centre—south of tel aviv. —— to the centre, south of tel aviv. and earlier in the week, as you were saying, there are activists within the eritrean community — they mostly reside in the south of tel aviv — who had warned against hosting this. they say that the authorities didn't heed their warnings. certainly, the israeli authorities — the police, the hospitals as well — seem to have been really caught by surprise with what happened here. there were attempts to break through police barricades. the israeli police then ended up using all of these different riot control methods, as they describe them, to try to push people back but you could see as well from some of the videos that have been shared on social media that there were actually also street fights going on — and notjust with the police, but also involving asylum seekers who are against the eritrean regime and those who are in favour of it, and that has been something that we've seen in the past — not on this scale — in the south of tel aviv. there has been previous violence between the two sides. 0slo new university college professor kjetil tronvoll is an eritrea expert. he explained to my colleague lukwesa burak why the migrants in israel had left eritrea. they have fled one of the most repressive and human rights abusing regimes in the world. president isaias afwerki has ruled eritrea with an iron fist since he came to power in 1991, and he's still there. so, today's clashes, then, you've got supporters and opposition — government supporters — coming together, clashing. how is this regarded, or will it be regarded, by eritrea? well, it is a clear signal because this event in tel aviv follows a similar scenario in germany earlier this summer, in stockholm and in canada and the us and even this evening in bergen, in norway, there have been demonstrations and clashes between eritrean immigrants to norway. so, it is a way for the new wave of eritrean refugees to raise a critique against the regime back home. and these �*cultural festivals,�* as they are called, is the new battleground to fight the regime back home. i mean, president afwerki has been in power since 1991, since independence. what impression — or how is he regarded by the international community? well, i think in most of the international community — at least the western world — looks upon him as the dictator he is. but the new geopolitical play in the horn of africa region makes him relevant in a different way today than it was a few years back. and you have sudan in civil war, you have chaos in ethiopia, and middle east and russia and china is also very actively involved in positioning themselves in the horn, and eritrea then becomes a useful pawn in many ways, so there is a bit of hesitation towards how the new international relations are reconfigured towards eritrea. large crowds have gathered in niger to protest the presence of french troops. demonstrators rallied near a french base in the capital niamey to back niger's army, which launched a coup injuly. thejunta has accused paris of flagrant interference by openly supporting niger's deposed president, mohamed bazoum. protesters held up banners saying, quote, "french army, i. "leave our country . france has deployed some 1500 soldiers in niger to help fight an islamist insurgency in the region. here's what one of the protestors had to say. translation: france will leave! this is our home! they are going to leave, whether they want to or not! if they won't leave, we're here. we're going to stay. even if it's 100 years, we're going to stay here. we are determined, and france will leave. the army in gabon, which orchestrated a coup on wednesday, says it's opening all the country's borders with immediate effect. the borders were closed when army officers deposed president ali bongo shortly after his declaration that he'd won a third term in an election widely seen as lacking transparency. the coup leader, general brice 0ligui nguema, has insisted the suspension of gabon�*s state institutions will be temporary and the country will be returned to democracy. the opposition has warned that the military shows no sign they plan to return power to a civilian government. the coups in niger and gabon, of course, came in quick succession, prompting many questions about what the two countries�* situations share in common. on friday, my colleague caitriona perry spoke with bisa williams, former us ambassador to niger, and eric benjaminson, former us ambassador to gabon. bisa, if i can start with you first, in the wake of the niger coup, ecowas had concern about the risk of contagion on the continent. as we�*ve just heard, french president emmanuel macron thinks they are very different situations. what�*s your view? i think both things are correct. i do think that the coup in niger is a very bad signal to militaries that are thinking that perhaps political leadership is no longer necessary and nobody�*s going to do anything about it. at the same time, i do think that what happened in gabon is not — did not happen 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 the root causes of these kind of decisions, that kind of outcome. eric benjaminson, do you agree with that? yeah, i do — and thank you for having me on, by the way. i do think that we have to look at these coups as separate. the underlying — if there was an underlying effect, i think i would say it was the free flow of information or few airflow of information to these countries, the use of smartphones and the internet. the citizens now have more ways to look at information. but as one of your earlier segments was talking about, we might also have had 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 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's really no way to know. now, gabon and niger are obviously both former french colonies. but since 1990, 78% of the 27 coups in sub—saharan africa have occurred in francophone countries. how might that legacy of colonialism influence the situation that we�*re seeing in the countries today, bisa? that�*s a pretty startling statistic and it�*s one that people needs 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 the kind 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�*s some kind of possibility for each generation to do better off than the previous one. eric, do you see postcolonialism as a factor? yeah, in a manner of speaking. i think you can draw some distances between francophone colonialism, british, etc. i think one of the — in addition to what bisa said, which i completely agree with, one of the other factors is the particular ties that are made between france, french business, french government and their former colonies. because it's a little different than the situation between, let's say, 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 there? i mean, bisa, you�*re very familiar with niger and the us has a significant military base in there. is the us suitably invested in stability and interested in democracy in the area? the us has traditionally been very, 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, let�*s 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 that 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 that we�*ve seen in west africa so far, even when the united states has said they are against the coups, that they stand with the governments — with the positions of ecowas, the united states hasn�*t been singled out as the villain. for example, as france was even though, ridiculously, in the niger case, because the french had nothing to do with the coup actually happening. but anyway, 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? obviously 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's 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 that 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 use specifically are less than what we have in niger. president trump created a position of a special envoy to the sahel region — a position that president biden has not yet filled. should he make that a priority, eric? i would leave that question a little bit to bisa. i didn't work on the sahel much. but i think that any involvement of the us in africa is a very strong thing and a very useful movement. 0k. bisa, just your quick response to that — 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, in fact, that special envoy is going to be able to influence policy — would be useful. 0k, we�*ll leave it there for the moment. thank you both forjoining us. after travelling to florida to survey damage from hurricane idalia, us presidentjoe biden is now back at his delaware beach home. mr biden also visited neighbourhoods impacted by the storm and met with floridians along the gulf coast part of the state. the president and first lady also took part in a briefing on recovery efforts, met with first responders, and took an aerial tour of storm—affected areas. well, search and rescue teams helped people whose homes were surrounded by water. and now the storm has passed and you�*re dealing with what�*s left in its wake. and we�*re not going anywhere, the federal government. we�*re here to help the state as long it takes. fema and the small business administration are here to help residents whose homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged. i also convened my entire cabinet as part of a whole—of—government response, and that response is to the increased number and intensity of extreme weather events, and be aware we will use all the resources of government to do it. former un ambassador, congressman and new mexico governor bill richardson has died. president biden called richardson a "patriot and true original" in a statement. richardson helped bargained for the release of hostages and detainees held by regimes in north korea, cuba, iraq, myanmar and sudan. most recently, he helped secure the release last year of marine veteran trevor reed from russia in a prisoner swap. representatives say he died in his sleep at his massachusetts home. richardson was 75 years old. ll cool], eltonjohn, and the beach boys�* brian wilson are among the fans of american singer—songwriter jimmy buffett paying tribute to the creator of margaritaville. he died friday, aged 76. a statement on his website says he died peacefully surrounded by friends, family and his dogs. his songs like margaritaville and cheese burger in paradise have been tropical rock genre anthems for decades. the cause of buffett�*s death is not clear, but he was hospitalised in recent months. in key west, florida — featured in several of buffett�*s song — fans have been laying flowers and other items at a makeshift memorial outside his recording studio and cafe. buffett had lived on the island for years, starting in the 1970s. jimmy, he always called key west home, no matter where elsie built a house or wherever he decided to reside for the moment. key west was always home. floodings are prompting dangerous conditions in the us desert state of nevada. in las vegas, government forecasters issued a flash food warning for areas around the city. local officials warned of rockslides and road washouts through the region. meanwhile, more than 70,000 people have been stranded at the famous burning man festival in the state. the event turned into a giant mudbath. early entry to the festival was delayed because of the remnants of hurricane hillary an hour after 2a hours of rain, it has been turned into a muddy morass, just as people were preparing to leave at the end of the burning man festival. it has left tens of thousands of people mired in mind and organisers are urging people to conserve water and fuel and food because they could be stuck here for several days. the entry and exit gates have been locked and are likely to remain that weight, we are told, until the weather conditions improve, and it could be several days, given the inclement weather forecast. the motto of burning man is radical self—reliance, and many people here are feeling this has been put to the test right now in conditions that very few people here can rememberfor quite some time. a shortwhile ago, i spoke withjosiah roe, who is attending the festival. josiah, thank you so much forjoining us. we can see that obviously you are currently at burning man. can you describe for us just what the conditions are like right now? well, there are warnings of gales in black rock city. 6—8 cyclonic later, but good. we actually play the shipping forecast every morning at camp. it is not accurate in any way shape orform. it it is not accurate in any way shape or form. it was it is not accurate in any way shape orform. it was recorded years ago! a lot of mud, but things are starting to dry out. it�*s an incredibly resourceful city. everyone has, for the most part, has tonnes of extra water and fuel and food, good to last for a week, if not more. and of course, everyone does a really good job of helping each other and taking care of each other in the camp. 0ur neighbouring camp came over with firewood. we hooked him up with some extra firewood we had. kind of looking after each other, making the best of it, it�*s definitely muddy and wet, we are hunkered down. we�*re definitely using it as an opportunity to hang out and spend more time with our new friends and old friends in the camp. definitely other camps i can see, they�*re downright partying and having a great time, playing music, doing karaoke, making the best of it. about half an inch of rain fell, i believe, on friday, which may not sound a lot, but this is the desert. uh—ha. how does that amount of rain affect black rock city? i mean, we can see puddles and mud behind you. well, even more so than just being desert, where the black rock desert is, it�*s a prehistoric lake bed, fed by the glaciers in the last ice age. so while you might think of it as a typical sandy desert, but it�*s an alkaline lake bed. so when it rains, it turns to... i wish i could show you my boots. there�*s four inches of mud, just from the walk from my van over here to do this interview. that�*s why the second there is rain, it shuts down everything, because otherwise it creates a giant mess and vehicles get stuck. the only vehicles that can move are emergency services vehicles. the city has an absolutely impressive ems network. 0n the other side of the structure, there are dozens and dozens of volunteer doctors and nurses who wanted to come out and have fun. they are the only ones allowed to move around right now. just waiting for it to dry out. is the man going to burn this year? i mean, it will, it�*s just a question of when, and then how are we going to get home? i don�*t know, i have messaged my co—workers and told them i don�*t know when i�*m going to return to the office, as we all had to do today. there are tens of thousands of people there. you said you don�*t know when you might be able to get home. is there any level of worry among people there in terms of, hey, we may not be able to go home when we thought we might be able to? no, not from anyone i�*ve talked to that isn�*t a drama queen and not what we would call a sparkle pony. some of the influencer—y types. but no, a bit more rain tonight that�*s supposed to come in. but we�*re out in the desert, the mountain isjust over that way, which creates their own weather, so we will see what happens. it�*ll take a day or two to dry out, just kind of waiting for the green light to start moving. the big variable this year will be the fact as it gets towards the final weekend, people start to leave around friday and saturday, and we haven�*t had that sort of natural, phased departure of folks, so it might end up being how will we get 70,000 folks and their vehicles out at the same time? but again, if there�*s a logistics team on the planet i trust to solve that problem, i�*d take them to do it, because it�*s what they�*ve spent their life working on, and they�*ve done a good job in the past, even in crazy conditions. you mentioned there�*s a lot of people there. this festival is known for these big installations that people bring in and build up all kinds of different parties there. can you just give us a sense of how the community is coming together and trying to get through this awful weather and the flooding that you�*ve been experiencing? we are having a great time. i woke up this morning, had what we call a strike plan. we went over to the camp and everyone just went to work when it wasn�*t raining. from where i can see, there�*s a bunch of people hanging upside down on an interesting structure. 0ver there there�*s a bar, and it looks like they�*re dancing and having a great time. it condenses the city, trying to hang out in your camp and your neighbourhoods a bit more because you cannot bike around, and you�*re certainly not walking very far because of the mud. in a lot of ways, it creates more intimacy, the community in your core camp, which is pretty lovely. it would be nice to see more of the bigger installations, but i�*ve been here since last wednesday, so i�*ve had time to check out a lot of them. one thing that�*s interesting is, there�*s definitely a group of folks that come in on the weekends, a bit more touristy, not that there�*s anything wrong with that. but they�*re not here this year because they couldn�*t get in. that�*s been different — to not see a lot of clean people. those of us who have been here for ten days are caked in dust and looking a little haggard. josiah roe, a 10—year burner, a theme camp organiser at burning man, thank you forjoining us and wishing you some better weather, as the conditions are not looking great behind you. we hope everything is fine. thank you forjoining us. it�*s fun. no problem, have a great one. i appreciate you. in china, typhoon saola made landfall twice saturday on the country�*s southern guangdong province. the storm weakened, but not before bringing gale force winds and downpours to coastal areas and prompting emergency rescue and evacuation preparations. the storm also pummeled hong kong, shenzen and macau. in taiwan, people are bracing for a different storm, typhoon haikui, sunday. 3,000 people were evacuated, and domestic flights have been canceled as torrential rain and strong winds are expected in the island�*s south and east. finally, to a sea otter fit for a talent show. 9—year—old juno, who lives in oregon zoo, is a big fan of basketball. her keepers taught her how to put a ball through a hoop to help keep herjoints moving as she gets older. juno�*s reviews are all conclusive — she�*s �*otterly�* impressive! stay with us here on bbc news. that�*s all from us here in washington, we leave you with these live pictures of london as we hand off to our colleagues there. stayed tuned right here on bbc news. hello. the weather is set to feel decidedly summer—like over the next few days but there is one small reminder that we are now into september. a bit of a more autumnal and murky start to sunday with mist and fog patches in places. a completely different type of weather in the far north of the uk. the stripe of cloud on the earlier satellite image is a frontal system which will continue to bring outbreaks of rain in the far north of scotland. it will be breezy here as well. further south, under the influence of high pressure with light winds, there are some mist and fog patches around across parts of england, wales, northern ireland, south—west scotland, tending to lift and clear through the morning. then we will see long spells of sunshine, although it may turn a little hazy at times with some high cloud in the sky. 0ur frontal system in the far north of scotland still bringing some outbreaks of rain and a brisk breeze. with some shelter from the breeze in north—east scotland, we could see highs of 25. parts of southern england, getting to around 26. on sunday night, one or two mist and fog patches again developing. this frontal system still plaguing the far north of scotland with cloud and some splashes of rain. it is certainly not going to be a cold start to monday morning. most places between 10—15. on monday, we do it all again, a frontal system still in the far north of scotland, particularly the northern isles, seeing cloud and rain with that. elsewhere, early mist will clear and we will see some long spells of sunshine. a bit more of a breeze in the far south—west but still, 25 celsius in plymouth, 27 in london, 26 in aberdeen. the warmth will be widespread and there is more where that came from. another very warm day on tuesday. just a small chance of a shower in western parts of the uk. this frontal system weakening in the north of scotland. temperatures again widely into the low to mid 20s, some places may be a touch higher than that. for the middle of the week, this area of high pressure is set to shift eastwards. low pressure swirling to the west of us. this weather set up will bring us a southerly flow of air and some very warm air indeed. in fact, it may feel hot in places on wednesday. temperatures in the south may be up to 29, possibly 30 degrees. only very slowly turning more unsettled at the end of the week. voice-over: this is bbc news. we�*ll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, hello, and welcome. i�*m kim chakanetsa. and today, i�*m in beirut, the capital of lebanon, to meet two athletes who help promote women�*s participation in sports. in 2012, ray bassil became the first arab woman to compete in trap shooting at the olympics. since then, she�*s taken part in two more olympic games and has won three world championships. and sarah eljizi is a basketball player who leads a series of sports programmes for right to play, an ngo promoting skills development and social cohesion among children living in refugee camps. welcome to you both. thank you. ray, why don�*t you start us off by explaining what tra pshooting is? —— what trap shooting is? trap shooting, actually, it�*s an olympic sport, and it�*s defined by shooting clay targets. it�*s basically — it�*s an outdoor shooting range where we have 15 machines. every machine sends a target, which is a random target with different angles, different degrees, whereby we have to call the target and we have to shoot it. so, it�*s a very common sport, especially in lebanon,